Alex Wang

Alex is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Riviera Capital. Prior to co-founding Riviera Capital, Alex was the CEO of Medi-Tech/Phycom Group, a leading healthcare revenue cycle management company and named one of the fastest growing companies by the OC Business Journal in 2013. In that role, Alex grew the company’s size and revenue by 4x before completing its sale to an affiliate of Prudential Capital.

Alex began his career in Search Funds in 2003, when he embarked on a self-funded search where he successfully acquired Resource Directory Group (“RDG”), one of California’s leading healthcare publishing companies. Under his leadership, RDG doubled in size before being acquired by James Publishing and returning 9x his original investment. Alex was also the co-founder and CFO of motoreyes, a venture capital funded automotive software company that was acquired by OnStation Corp. (Cobalt Group) in 2000. Alex served as VP of Corporate Development at OnStation, an enterprise software company backed by investors including Goldman Sachs, Lightspeed Venture and NEA. At OnStation, Alex headed the Client Services group that managed clients including AAA, Mitchell 1, and NAPA.

Alex began his career in the investment banking and private equity industries. Alex has helped advise and invest in various high-tech start-up ventures through his work experience at Intel Capital, AIG Investment Corp., and JP Morgan Chase.

Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business Administration from Boston University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA where he was a Venture Development Program Fellow.

Alex currently serves on the Board of Directors for EverOps, ILS, LexShares, MGT Insurance, Semify, and Prove Partners. Alex also volunteers as a SCORE/SBA mentor helping to advise entrepreneurs in the Southern California area.

Chris Jenkins

Chris is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Riviera Capital. Prior to co-founding Riviera Capital, Chris was the Chairman of a southern California based healthcare company, Canaan Health Care. In that role, the business grew from inception to profitability to become one of the leaders in the space and still achieving double digit growth.

Previously, Chris was President/CEO of Group A Autosports, one of the leading automotive aftermarket companies focused on the import car sector. Under his leadership, Group A more than doubled in revenue. Prior to Group A, Chris was part of Time Warner’s / AOL’s restructuring team and was an instrumental member of the Member Services business unit. Under Chris’ leadership, more than $1B of value was created for the enterprise while concurrently serving more than 30MM consumers. Chris was also the co-founder and CEO of motoreyes, a venture capital funded automotive software company that was acquired by OnStation Corp. in 2000. Chris served as VP of Client Services at OnStation, an enterprise software company backed by investors including Goldman Sachs, Lightspeed Venture and NEA.

Chris began his career in the automotive and management consulting industries. Chris was a software engineer at Ford Motor Company and part of the team that developed hybrid electronics (printed circuit boards) and the first anti-lock brake system for Ford. Afterwards, Chris joined Price Waterhouse as a Principal and was part of High Tech Supply Chain practice, helping companies such as IBM, AST, HP, Dell, and others deploy new business units and distribution models.

Chris holds a BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. Chris is also Chairman of the Canaan Cares Foundation and actively involved in research and philanthropic endeavors focused on degenerative neurological disorders.

Simeon Nestorov

Simeon Nestorov is a General Partner at Riviera Capital. He has over 25 years of investment experience in private credit, investment banking, and private equity.

Prior to joining Riviera Capital, Simeon was Managing Partner at Berkeley Square Inc. and Intermediate Growth Capital Funds, a private equity and direct credit family of funds focused on structured credit and special situations. Through these vehicles, he completed transactions and exits in excess of $2 billion on behalf of institutional credit investors and growth companies.

Previously, Simeon oversaw more than $10 billion of credit assets under management, spanning leveraged loans, growth capital, shareholder loans, trade finance, real estate, and project finance. Earlier in his career, he was a member of the UBS Leveraged Finance team in New York and a founding member of Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Finance and Technology team in Los Angeles, where he helped originate and underwrite more than $50 billion of leveraged and corporate credit exposure.

Simeon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College, where he graduated magna cum laude, and an MBA with High Distinction from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he was named an Edward Tuck Scholar. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Graham Topol

Graham is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of MGT Insurance, a technology-forward commercial property and casualty insurance carrier. Prior to MGT Insurance, Graham worked at FTV Capital, a $6.2bn fund, focusing on high growth technology companies in insurtech, financial services, and payments. Graham also helped build Newfront Insurance, a technology enabled insurance brokerage that is valued at over $2bn. He brings his financial acumen, pattern recognition, and best practices from investing in different companies and operating at Newfront Insurance.

Prior to FTV Capital and Newfront Insurance, Graham worked at Morgan Stanley as a Principal M&A analyst and on the staff of the COO doing FIG and M&A transactions.

Graham earned an AB in economics cum laude from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford GSB

Michael Topol

Michael is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of MGT insurance, a technology-forward commercial property and casualty insurance carrier. Prior to MGT Insurance, Michael helped build Collective Health, a $1.5bn+ insurance technology business backed by Google Ventures, NEA, Founders Fund, SunLife Financial, and SoftBank. Michael helped build the product development organization, operations organization, the sales team, the business operations team, and built and led the finance team. He helped them scale from 30 to 500+ employees and raise $200mm+ in capital.

Prior to Collective Health, Michael worked at Morgan Stanley in Global Power & Utilities (“GPUG”) Investment Banking focusing on M&A, debt, and equity transactions.

Michael earned a BA in economics & mathematics from Columbia, a JD from Columbia Law (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar), and an MBA from Stanford GSB.

Audrey Kohout

Audrey is Co-CEO at Luggage Forward Holdings, LLC, owner of Luggage Forward & LugLess. Prior to Luggage Forward, Audrey held corporate strategy and technology positions at Target, supporting new retail partnerships, marketing, supply chain, and technology innovations.

Audrey holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BA in Economics and in Applied Mathematics & Statistics from Macalester College.

Jessica Palfrey

Jessica is Co-CEO/COO at Luggage Forward Holdings, LLC, owner of Luggage Forward & LugLess. Prior to Luggage Forward, Jessica was a private equity investor at Cortec Group.

Jessica began her career as an investment banking analyst at BlackArch Partners. She holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BA in economics from Davidson College.

Tim Meng

Tim is a passionate technologist and experienced strategist; he is the CEO of One Source Communications and has been an advisor for several Fortune 50 companies.

Prior to joining One Source, Tim was a practice area expert on Telecom, Media, and Technology at The Boston Consulting Group. He holds a BASc in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Ania Aliev

Ania is Founder & Managing Principal at Caspian Capital Group. Ania is an entrepreneur herself who has always had a love for small business. She received her undergraduate education at Trinity College and afterwards began her career as an Institutional Equity Sales Associate on Wall St. After three years on Wall St., Ania left to pursue her MBA at the Tuck School of Business. While there, Ania founded and launched her own small business, which she then exited ahead of graduation to pursue her next entrepreneurial challenge – acquiring and running a small to medium sized business. Outside of work, you can find Ania on the tennis court and with her friends and family. Ania lives in the Boston area with her husband, Brendan, and her dog, Zorro.

Ugo Udeogu

Ugo is Founder & Managing Partner of MSix Capital Group. Ugo began his post undergraduate career at Eli Lilly where he was recruited as a software engineer, and transitioned into product ownership. After a year in the role of Salesforce Product Owner, Ugo was promoted to Application Development Manager under Eli Lilly’s Enterprise Automation platform. In this role, he built a deep understanding of Eli Lilly’s operations and sourced automation projects and initiatives by identifying inefficiencies throughout various Orgs of the company ranging from Lilly Research Labs to Human Resources. In the early half of 2020, Ugo and his college football teammate founded a company that trades African creative products.

Ugo holds a dual-degree MBA/MA from the Wharton School and Lauder Institute. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and led a team that built an electronic medical record
system for a clinic in the Dominican Republic during his undergraduate studies at Butler University in Indianapolis. While at Butler, Ugo excelled on the football field and in academia simultaneously. He earned an Academic Scholarship. He was also a Pioneer league Academic All-American for 3 years and was on the Dean’s List for those 3 years as well. After his final season, Ugo was invited to tryout for the Indianapolis Colts before an injury ended his football journey.

Patrick Briggs

Patrick Briggs is the CEO of Semify, a white-label digital marketing service provider. Prior to joining Broadtree, Patrick was an entrepreneurial leader for startups and technology companies in Silicon Valley and New York City. Over the last fourteen years, Patrick has driven nine-figure revenue growth by leading marketing, sales, product positioning, cost optimizations, and strategic development in consumer-packaged goods businesses, customization and promotional printing businesses, business-to-business technology and software businesses, and business-to-business and business-to-consumer insurance products.

Patrick holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a BA in English with a minor in Anthropology from Miami University (Ohio), and the Boy Scouts of America rank of Eagle Scout.

Michael Abdella

Michael Abdella is the founder and managing partner of Mauve Capital Partners. Michael brings over 10 years of sales, marketing, operations, and entrepreneurial experience to the management team. Prior to Mauve, Michael held leadership positions in sales and marketing for Huntington Insurance’s commercial business, where he helped develop and implement a new sales-and-marketing alignment strategy for a greater thought leadership presence.

Prior to Huntington Insurance, Michael also managed channel marketing and sales for Paycor. Additionally, Michael worked for many years in sales and sales training for ADP. During this time, Michael and his team earned numerous sales growth and leadership awards.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
M.B.A.; Entrepreneurship

WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
B.A.; Sales & Business Marketing, Management

Michael Stone

Michael serves as the Chief Executive Officer of PROVE where he is responsible for the overall direction, strategy, and financial management of PROVE. In addition, Michael is a member of PROVE’s Board of Directors where he plays an active role in shaping the strategic direction of the business.

Prior to his roles at PROVE, Michael was previously the CFO of Currency Capital, a fintech company specializing in small-ticket commercial equipment leasing. Michael initially advised Currency as its investment banker and was later recruited to join the executive management team as the CFO. Michael led Currency through an aggressive growth phase to $200M+ in annual originations and an eventual exit to Lovell Minnick Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm where he and Ben met.

Prior to Currency Capital, Michael spent his career as an investment banker and private equity investor at several prominent West Coast firms, successfully completing mergers & acquisitions and capital raise transactions. Michael received his BS in Finance, Cum Laude, from the University of Southern California.

Alex Glasner

Alex is the son and grandson of small business owners. Prior to founding Coniston Peak, he worked for over eight years advising companies in finance and strategy. He has helped the world’s largest and smallest companies develop and implement strategic initiatives and advised owners looking to exit their company. In his spare time, he is a very keen cyclist.

He holds a BA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Rina Vernovskaya

Rina is the CEO of 280 Group. She began her career at McKinsey & Company as an analyst on the credit portfolio team, offering trading recommendations to hedge against credit and interest rate exposure. She then joined MetLife’s Global Leadership Development Program, focusing on employee recognition programs and removing roadblocks to support intrapreneurship in the Latin America Office of Innovation. At 280 Group, Rina is focused on bringing transformative change to organizations by empowering product managers and product marketers with the knowledge and tools to build products that matter. Her job running the company at the 280 Group is made easy with an amazing team aligned on continuous learning and development and determined to go above and beyond to always delight their clients.

Rina received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Economics and European Studies from Amherst College, and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Gaurav Singh

Gaurav Singh is the founder and Managing Partner of Guddi Growth. Before embarking on his journey as an entrepreneur, he served in a handful of operation roles across functions such as sales, marketing, product management, engineering and research. In his last employment, he served as a Director of Product and Customer Success at Untether AI, a Toronto based series B startup building AI accelerator hardware. His remarkable accomplishments include being recognized as one of The Peak’s Emerging Leaders in Canada for 2023 and earning the prestigious “Rising Star – Under 30” accolade at the TU Automotive Awards in 2020.

Gaurav received his MBA from Harvard Business School, his MS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.Tech degree in Instrumentation and Control Engineering from NIT Trichy, India.

Prior to his MBA, Gaurav amassed nearly five years of invaluable experience within the autonomous vehicle industry. He embarked on his journey as a machine learning researcher, later transitioning to the business strategy group, both at Ford. As a seasoned professional, Gaurav has also shared his expertise as an invited keynote speaker at international AI and autonomous vehicle summits.

Curt Black

Curt is Founder & Managing Principal at Snipe Island Capital. Curt brings 10 years of experience in revenue growth to Snipe Island Capital with expertise across sales and business development, digital and traditional marketing, channel sales and partnerships, and general management.

Curt started his career at Google where he learned to think big, work hard, and, do the small things well. He spent 8 years there leading sales, marketing, and partnerships teams for some of the largest industries. Curt then joined Aktify, a SaaS startup, as Chief Revenue Officer, at which his teams grew annual recurring revenue through focusing on a more precise ideal customer profile, and on increasing revenue retention from Aktify’s best customers. Curt managed teams across business development, sales, marketing, channel partnerships, and revenue operations.

Curt holds degrees in International Relations and Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Kyle Pezzi

Kyle is Managing Partner of Kingtree & Warwick Capital. Kyle brings finance and operating expertise from his experience operating and advising companies ranging in size from small start-ups to some of the largest global multinational and fortune 500 companies.

Kyle began his career in M&A at Bank of America before joining a leading New York based hedge fund and later Lazard Asset Management, where he helped lead investment efforts in large healthcare companies.

Kyle found his passion for entrepreneurship as the owner of two Florida-based full-service car washes and remains an active multifamily real estate investor in Lexington, Kentucky. Kyle also has a personal interest in the Kentucky bourbon industry and owns 50 barrels (53 gallons each) of bourbon aging in Midway, KY in partnership with his father.

Kyle graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2017 and was raised outside of Lexington, KY. He comes from a longstanding family of doctors and lives in Brooklyn with his girlfriend Ashley and their dog Honey.

Kyle is a cancer survivor and remains involved with cancer charities including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Camp Horsin’ Around and Dance Blue.

Aaron Gabbart

For the last six years, Aaron led the search fund investing efforts of Peterson Partners, a private equity firm based in Salt Lake City. Prior to Peterson Partners, he served as the CEO of BenefitGuard, a Peterson portfolio company that grew from startup to $200MM AUM under his leadership and sold to NASDAQ:HQY in 2017 (CEO 2009-2013; Chairman 2013-2017). Before joining BenefitGuard, Aaron was a Financial Economist at the U.S. Treasury in Washington D.C during the Obama administration.

Aaron is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the Marriott School of Management. He has served on several search fund Board of Directors, as well as the board of the BYU Men’s Soccer Program. Aaron loves to ski, play tennis, and has played soccer in the US, Holland, Italy, Mexico, and Costa Rica in matches against a few legendary players such as Jurgen Klinsmann, Tim Howard, and Cobi Jones. He is (or more accurately…was) a fluent Portuguese speaker after serving two years as a volunteer missionary for his church in Brazil.

Taylor Davidson

Taylor began his career in the beer business working for Anheuser-Busch Inbev, selling kegs and cases door- to-door to retailers, grocery stores, mass merchandisers, and liquor stores. After earning his stripes, he ran a beer and beverage sales distribution business with ~$20 million in annual revenue and ~$4 million in EBITDA in north Los Angeles, leading a team of sales representatives, merchandisers, and truck drivers. He was promoted to the corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions group at AB Inbev headquarters, where he helped acquire and integrate a $50 million in revenue distributorship in Lima, Ohio.

After business school, he worked in the search fund investing group at Peterson Partners under Joel Peterson, where he helped entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to transition ownership of their businesses, and cemented his goal to become a business owner himself.

Taylor earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017, a JD from Stanford Law School in 2017, and a BA from Harvard University in 2011.

Grant Schafle

Prior to co-founding Forge Equity Partners, Grant worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and in search investing as a Principal at Anacapa Partners, a private equity firm dedicated to the search fund space. At Anacapa, Grant focused on supporting entrepreneurs in identifying, evaluating and financing small business acquisitions. He also supported small business owners as they transitioned into retirement, providing an avenue for owners to protect their business legacies, implement their desired succession plans, partner with and mentor young talent, and participate in the economic rewards of continuing to grow their businesses. Grant brings finance, strategy, and operational experience to Forge.

Grant earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Yale University in 2011, graduating cum laude.

Griffin Horter

Griffin, Founder and Managing Partner of Kaho Partners, is currently the Founder of Addtronics, Board Member of Premier Outdoor Living, Co-Chairman of Kenny’s Great Pies, and Co-Chairman of North American Manufacturing.

Previously, Griffin was a private equity investor at Inverness Graham Investments and an investment banker at Wells Fargo Securities.

He has a B.A. from the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and a second major in Economics.

Griffin currently lives in New York City with his mini golden-doodle, Winnie.

Max Katzenstein

Max, Founder and Managing Partner of Kaho Partners, is currently the Founder of Addtronics, Chairman of Premier Outdoor Living, Co-Chairman of Kenny’s Great Pies, and Co-Chairman of North American Manufacturing.

Previously, Max was a hedge fund investor at Kingdon Capital Management and an investment banker at Lazard.

Max has a B.S. from the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, and a second major in Political Theory.

Max currently lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife Alex, daughter Grey, and their vizsla Graham.

Mike McGlade

Mike is the Managing Director of Redline Automotive. Mike is a lifelong entrepreneur with extensive experience in the areas of FinTech, InsureTech, HR-Tech, SaaS, telecom and digital media. He has led strategy, business development, sales, marketing, recruiting and business operations for multiple companies from early stage startups to midmarket enterprises. His core skill set is centered on evaluating corporate strategy and messaging while putting systems in place to scale highly effective teams. Mike has helped companies as an in-house operator, an external consultant and as a long term advisor.

Previously, Mike was the founder of GreenShield, an automatic employee savings program that helps employees save money, invest wisely and reach their financial goals. GreenShield was a venture backed startup that would automatically save a few dollars each week for employees and give employers the ability to offer matching contributions to increase the speed at which employees can reach their pre-retirement goals. Earlier, Mike was the Chief Revenue Officer for FastPay, a venture funded digital media FinTech company. FastPay helps digital entrepreneurs manage payment cycles and boost revenues through access to non-dilutive working capital. Prior to FastPay, Mike built the sales & marketing team for BetterWorks – growing the company from 10 employees to over 70 and a nearly $100mm valuation in under a year. Earlier in his career, Mike was CEO of Zoosa (a social enterprise start-up which highlighted socially responsible actions) and he spent 7 years in a sales executive role at Tellabs (a telecommunications equipment manufacturer).

Mike graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Yannis Slibi

Yannis is the Founder and CEO of Advanced Aesthetics Partners.

Yannis was born to a family of entrepreneurs and has spent the past 7 years of his professional career working with small and large businesses. Most recently he was a Project Manager at McKinsey, where he spent 5 years focusing extensively on healthcare and more specifically on topics around pricing, M&A
integrations and overall transformations.

Prior to McKinsey, Yannis worked at his family’s business a multi location car park company for 2 years, covering different positions from driver to the General Manager. He has also led a non profit clinic and has spent a summer investing in medium sized companies. Finally, as a teenager Yannis used to
spent his evenings working at his mother’s dental practice.

Yannis holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Civil Engineering degree from Imperial College. He lives with his fiancé in London, where you can find him on a football pitch trying to perfect his finishing skills. He also loves learning new things and is currently trying to become fluent in Spanish.

Eddy Zakes

Eddy Zakes is the founder and CEO of Crosswalk Capital and a committed, experienced entrepreneur. With executive experience in a variety of geographies and industries, Eddy has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to build and lead teams and create sustained value. Most recently, Eddy served as the Director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center at IESE Business School (ranked #1 business school in the world for Executive Education by the Financial Times for five consecutive years), where he led a team providing coaching, support, and mentorship to the school’s 50,000+ alumni in 140+ countries.

Additionally, Eddy earned his MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and he has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as an Expert on Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Due to the impact his leadership abilities have generated, Eddy was recognized as a regional 40-under-40 business leader in 2015.

Stephen Koza

Stephen is the CEO of EverOps. Prior to EverOps, Stephen built new businesses inside two successful Silicon Valley technology companies: Samsara, a recent-IPO industrial software startup; and Meraki, a $3B division of Cisco. There he grew a business from inception to $400M in annual sales. He’s also an active advisor to early-stage startups.

Stephen has worked internationally and led teams responsible for delivering over $1B in revenue. He is passionate about bringing his experience to thriving SMBs and investing his energy with passionate teams. Stephen lives in San Rafael, CA with his wife and 1-year old son.

Sumit Garg

Sumit is a technology investor/executive with 20 years of experience in the industry. He is passionate about helping high potential software companies achieve market growth, build operational scale and gather world class teams. He is currently the Board Chairman at Netreo, and Board Member at Appsian and Escape Technologies. Sumit’s recent background includes President at Cleo Communications where he co-led a rapid transformation and 5x growth of the business in 5 years.

His prior background includes executive leadership roles at SumTotal Systems; strategic finance including investment banking at GCA Savvian, and venture capital at Visa Ventures; and technical roles including Product Management and Software Engineering at Alvarion, Aperto Networks and Hughes Software Systems.

Sumit holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Technology in computer science & engineering from IIT-BHU.

Orlan Davies

Orlan is a Managing Partner at Athenaeum Partners, a growth oriented investment fund formed to acquire and operate a single privately-held healthcare services, B2B services, or software business.

Prior to founding Athenaeum, Orlan ran a consulting practice helping companies raise capital, conduct FP&A and implement business intelligence systems. Previously, Orlan led the finance, HR, and accounting teams at United Scope, the world’s largest ecommerce supplier of microscopes. Prior to that, Orlan was an investment professional at ClearLight Partners, a middle market private equity firm. At ClearLight he served on the board/governance teams of United Tactical Systems, Katzkin, and Evriholder. Orlan started his career at Intrepid Investment Bankers, a middle market investment bank.

Orlan graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a dual BA in Economics and Computer Science.

John Rochefort

John is a Managing Partner at Athenaeum Partners, a growth oriented investment fund formed to acquire and operate a single privately-held healthcare services, B2B services, or software business.

Prior to founding Athenaeum, John was an Investment Professional at Spanos Barber & Jesse, a private investment firm that manages approximately $300 million of committed capital focused on lower middle-market consumer, business services, and healthcare services companies. John joined SBJ in 2016 and supported all aspects of diligence, deal execution, and portfolio management. At SBJ, he served on the investment teams responsible for overseeing Under Canvas, Troy Lee Designs, and Resolvion. Prior to joining SBJ, John started his career at Intrepid Investment Bankers, a middle market investment bank.

John graduated with a BA from Pitzer College, a member of the Claremont Colleges, where he studied Economics and was a Robert Day Scholar.