BCVP Founders First

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Carolina Theatre • 309 W Morgan St • Durham, NC

Brian Shield SVP and CTO, Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Management
Brian Shield is the SVP/CTO for the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Management since 2013, where he leads the technology team on all phases of their IT strategy, including creating a compelling digital fan experience, emerging technology, supporting corporate and ballpark infrastructure, systems and data architecture, cyber security, app dev, and corporate systems.  Prior to joining the Red Sox, he served as the EVP/CIO of The Weather Channel in Atlanta for 13 years where he led technology for weather.com, mobile apps, data and analytics, television broadcast, and partnerships.  Previously, Shield served as SVP/CIO of FTD, Inc. in Chicago.  Preceding his tenure at FTD, he was the CTO at Scudder Investments, in Boston and New York.

DeLisa Alexander Former Chief People Officer, Red Hat
DeLisa Alexander served as the executive vice president and chief people officer of Red Hat, leading the organization responsible for global human resources including Red Hat University, from 2011 to 2021. The organization’s mission is to be a strategic partner to the business in acquiring, developing, and retaining talent and to enhance the Red Hat culture and talent brand. During Alexander’s tenure, Red Hat grew from 1,100 to 8,000+ associates and was recognized as one of the best places to work in multiple publications around the globe. The founder of the Women’s Leadership Community at Red Hat, Alexander received a 2015 Stevie Silver Women in Business award in recognition of her leadership in advancing opportunities for women in technology. She serves on the executive committee for the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED); the board of directors for Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and Innovate Raleigh; and the board of advisors for the Bull City Ventures, NC State University Poole College of Management and SoarTriangle. Alexander joined Red Hat in 2001 and served in the office of general counsel until mid 2006, most recently as assistant general counsel and assistant secretary. She received her JD degree from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.

Joanna Arras Partner, Baird Capital
Joanna Arras joined Baird Capital in 2014 and is currently a board member of ChurnZero, Circonus, FullContact and SourceDay and was previously a board member of Appcast, Startwire and Autobooks. She has also previously served as a board observer of HouseCall Pro, Hireology, NowSecure, Datica and Sittercity. Before joining Baird Capital, Joanna worked as an Associate in Baird's Investment Banking and Business Development departments, focusing on strategic investments and initiatives. Additionally, she previously served as an Equity Research Analyst at Baird, specializing in semiconductor companies. Joanna earned a B.S. in management and international business from Indiana University and holds an MBA from The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School with majors in finance and entrepreneurship.

L.J. Brock Chief People Officer, Coinbase
L.J. Brock is the chief people officer at Coinbase, where he oversees the company’s employee experience with a focus on hiring, total rewards, learning and development, diversity and inclusion and workplace operations. Brock has more than 20 years' experience leading People teams at the intersection of technology and finance. Prior to Coinbase, Brock served as senior managing director and chief people officer at Citadel LLC, one of the world’s largest hedge funds with more than $30 billion in assets under management. He also spent more than 8 years at Red Hat, a global open-source software company, as vice president of global talent group and people infrastructure. Brock graduated from University at Albany, SUNY, with a degree in business administration. He also holds an MBA from Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business.

Haley Bryant Principal, Hustle Fund
Haley is a pre-seed investor at Hustle Fund. After graduating from the University of Virginia, Haley led teams at Apple retail. Apple’s small business program led her to startup customer success leadership roles at I Done This (acquired), Brazen, and b2b SaaS content marketing agency Animalz where she became COO and started angel investing in founders from and/or supporting underserved communities. Haley broke into VC by growing Hustle Fund’s Angel Squad community, on a mission to democratize access to wealth creation through startups for the next 10,000 angel investors.

David Greenberg General Partner, JMI Equity 
David has 17 years of experience helping to build leading software companies. David joined JMI in 2006 and is one of the eight investing General Partners at the firm. He is currently a director of Bloomerang, Businessolver, Employee Navigator, RainFocus, ServiceTrade, Unanet, and Vantaca. In addition to supporting JMI’s current portfolio companies and firm management, he also helps to identify and assess potential investment opportunities in high-growth software companies. Prior to joining JMI in 2006, David was an associate at Cascadia Capital and an analyst at Houlihan Lokey. David graduated from Goizueta Business School at Emory University with a BBA in Finance and Accounting.

Mindy Isenstein Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Mindy joined Andreessen Horowitz in September 2023. As a partner on the a16z Perennial team she leads their venture capital investing.

Before joining Andreessen Horowitz, Mindy was a principal at TrueBridge Capital Partners, a venture capital fund-of-funds and direct investor. She spent nearly seven years at TrueBridge and focused on all aspects of the investment process, as well as their marketing and communications strategy.

Before joining TrueBridge, Mindy was a vice president at Goldman Sachs in its equities and global investment research divisions covering the IT software and hardware industries. Mindy is also an entrepreneur, having founded two businesses.

She graduated with a BS in Systems and Information Engineering with a concentration in Management Information Systems from the University of Virginia.

Allen Mask Investment Partner, WestCap
Allen is an investment Partner at WestCap, a global Growth Equity firm, where he also serves as Managing Partner for CōLab, WestCap's internal creative studio. Before WestCap, Allen held several executive positions across Wall Street and Silicon Valley, including Sonos, where he was Chief of Staff to the CEO and Vice President of multiple divisions in Marketing, Partnerships and Research and Development. Before Sonos, Allen led Product Marketing at Airbnb and was a General Manager for the Magical Trips initiative (the effort that produced Airbnb Experiences). Allen started his career in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs and is also a Google alumnus, having worked in a variety of sales, product and business development roles across Search, YouTube and Android.

Ryan Moore Founding Partner, Accomplice
Ryan Moore is a founding partner at Accomplice, a tech VC firm in Boston founded in January of 2015.  Prior to founding Accomplice, he was a partner at Atlas Venture.  He graduated from Princeton University with an AB in Economics, where he was in the Army ROTC and was an All-Ivy linebacker.  Currently, Ryan sits on a number of privately held companies' boards and DraftKings (DKNG).  For the last three years consecutively, Ryan has been listed in the top third of the Business Insiders' "The Seed 100: The Best Early-Stage Investors." In 2023, Ryan made the Forbes: Midas Seed List.

Shiv Narayanan Founder & CEO, How To SaaS
Shiv is the Founder and CEO of How To SaaS, a Marketing Strategy Consulting firm that works with leading Private Equity Investors, CEOs and Revenue Leaders. As an advisor, consultant, and fractional CMO, Shiv has helped client B2B companies create hundreds of millions of dollars in enterprise value with Marketing and Demand Generation. Shiv is also the bestselling author of the book Post-Acquisition Marketing: How to Create Enterprise Value in the First 100 Days -- a framework all software investors and executives can use to grow their companies faster. Prior to How To SaaS, Shiv was the CMO of Wild Apricot, which was acquired by Rubicon Technology Partners in 2017 and flipped to Pamlico Capital in 2018.