Mackenzie is the Global Startup Evangelist at AWS. His days are spent traveling the globe to meet startups, share their stories, and connect engineering teams together. Every day there are a large number of startups launching on AWS across every imaginable industry. It’s Mackenzie’s mission to find stories of startups that are helping to improve the world and share these stories with a wide audience.
Prior to joining AWS, Mackenzie was the Head of Technical Operations at Betterment, the world’s largest independent robo-advisor based in NYC which manages over $8B in assets. Mackenzie was a founding engineer and Head of Technical Operations at Oscar Health, an insurance startup also based in NYC, helping to grow the company to over 400+ employees and a $2.7B valuation. Before Oscar, Mackenzie was one the original engineers at Tumblr where he helped scale the infrastructure to 20B page views a month eventually selling to Yahoo! for $1.1B. He’s worked in a diversified set of industries including global media (MTV/Viacom), global Shipping (DHL), and more. He also holds numerous advisory roles at companies providing technical and business guidance around the world.
Mackenzie is the Global Startup Evangelist at AWS. His days are spent traveling the globe to meet startups, share their stories, and connect engineering teams together. Every day there are a large number of startups launching on AWS across every imaginable industry. It’s Mackenzie’s mission to find stories of startups that are helping to improve the world and share these stories with a wide audience.
Assembling your board is a critical step along the startup journey. From problem solving and finances, to networking and hiring, a well-thought-out board can boost your experience and credibility – and more importantly, give you access to information that you otherwise would not have.
As they play a significant role in the success of your startup, how do you build a board and manage it effectively so it becomes an incredible source of value-add?
Join our panel of startup board members as they share lessons learned from their board seats – the good and the bad. They’ll discuss the key considerations founders should make prior to fundraising and how, if built correctly, your board can be just as much a factor in your startup’s long-term success as your co-founders and your early employees.
What you’ll learn:
- Board of Directors vs. Advisory Board vs. Observers
- Benefits & goals – including when to start a board and who to ask
- Equity compensation for board members
How to address the composition of your board in a term sheet
- Ways to structure your board along with, governance, meetings, voting
Networking and drinks to follow.
At DCM, David focuses on opportunities in the consumer internet, mobile applications, and Software-as-a-Service space. Having advised venture capital and hedge fund clients in the past as a consultant, David looks forward to utilizing his experiences and knowledge in order to find great companies with powerful stories.
David is actively involved with portfolio companies such as Brigit, Coffee Meets Bagel, LARQ, Life360, Lime, Plenty, SoFi, Stockwell, Stride Health, UJET, and X.ai. David was named to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital. Most recently, David worked as a management consultant at Accenture in New York City where he focused on strategy engagements for Venture Capital, Healthcare, Financial Services, and Technology clients. Prior to that, David spent time working at Streeteasy (Acquired by Zillow) and Citibank.
Alison Ryu is a Managing Director at Able Partners, an investment fund focused on supporting early stage consumer brands in positive living. In her role, Alison invests in the next generation of brands in positive living with the goal of making health and wellness more accessible to all. She is passionate about working with the 50+ early stage entrepreneurs across Able's current portfolio which includes The Wing, Daily Harvest, Goop, Primary, Maven, Alma and Chief.
Prior to Able Partners, Alison was a Managing Director at CircleUp Growth Partners where she sat on the board of nutpods, The Coconut Cult, Pop & Bottle, Kosas Cosmetics and Mented Cosmetics. Prior to CircleUp, Alison was a Vice President at TSG Consumer, where she invested in consumer and retail brands. She also spent a year on the executive team of Backcountry.com, one of the TSG Consumer portfolio companies, where she led brand marketing and product development. Before TSG, Alison worked in investment banking at JPMorgan in the Consumer & Retail Group.
Nicki brings with her 5 years of experience working in the software industry, first as a self-taught full stack developer, and then as a vc-funded entrepreneur working on an HRTech startup for developers. Nicki is passionate about helping startups and developers succeed on AWS, building fun things in her spare time and live coding on Twitch.
Ryan is an early member of the Atrium legal team and has worked to develop a client-first mentality at Atrium. Ryan works quickly and accurately to close deals as fast as possible, while also endeavoring to negotiate founder-friendly terms. Ryan also assists startups in their pitch and narrative practice before and during their Silicon Valley investor roadshow. Prior to Atrium, Ryan practiced at Cooley LLP and Morrison Foerster LLP.
