Speakers

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  Sam Katz

  Sam Katz is a Philadelphian who has experienced a career in public and project finance, venture capital, civic affairs, development, politics and filmmaking. In 1999, Sam lost the closest Mayoral election in the city’s history in an overwhelmingly Democratic city. Following that defeat, Sam was selected as the CEO of Greater Philadelphia First a business civic group focused on regional issues. In 2003, he again ran for Mayor in a campaign that will long be remembered for the FBI's "bug", installed in the Mayor's office, and that swamped the campaign. Sam created a venture capital business which invested in Philadelphia area technology companies. Most recently, Sam is producing a series on the history of Philadelphia called, “Philadelphia: The Great Experiment”.

  @samkatz60
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  Will Crowder

  William Crowder is Managing Director at DreamIt Ventures where he works closely with DreamIt’s NYC and Philadelphia cycles, overseeing the DreamIt Access track. He is responsible for the operation of DreamIt Access; a partnership between DreamIt Ventures and Comcast to increase the number of minority-led startups. Outside of DreamIt, William leads the investing activities of the Comcast Ventures Opportunity Fund, a $20M seed stage venture fund; and is the Founder and Managing Director of Growth Strategy Advisors, a boutique strategic advisory and business development company that launched in 2008.

  @williamcrowder
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  Mike Krupit

  Mike is the founder and operator of Trajectify, coaching entrepreneurs of startups and small businesses to cross the chasm – getting them beyond traction to help scale and grow. He is also the co-founder of IntroNet, an application that makes it easy for people to make and track introductions to others in their professional and personal networks. Mike has a passion for growing companies - a veteran of seven previous startups and a mentor and advisor to many more.

  Notably, Mike held senior management positions for online pioneer CDNOW. Appointed CEO when the company was sold to media giant, Bertelsmann AG, he transitioned and stabilized the business in a new environment and challenging economy. Under Mike's guidance, CDNOW became one of the most advanced companies doing business on the Internet, with industry-leading levels of customer satisfaction and operational effectiveness.

  @mkrupit
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  Karina Sotnik

  Karina Sotnik is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, adviser and an educator. She spent over a decade in Silicon Valley in senior positions helping companies grow globally. She also launched three ventures of her own. In the last five years her concentration has been on growing WorldUpStart, a consulting practice focused on providing mentorship, consulting and advice to academic incubators, including UPstart at University of Pennsylvania, Accelerlife (Scandinavia) and ITMO QD (Russia). In addition, Karina recently conceived and launched AppITUP, an accelerator program for Mobile Apps at the University of Pennsylvania.

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  Juliana Reyes

  I'm Technical.ly Philly's lead reporter.

  @juliana_f_reyes