#299 - Ben Sharf, Platter - Build a Better Brand with the Ultimate Shopify Accelerator

Scout Brisson is the CEO of De Soi, a non-alcoholic sparkling aperitif brand co-founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan. With a technical education from MIT, Scout also brings prior experience from working in consumer packaged goods, starting her own functional food and beverage brand, and working in venture and consulting at McKinsey.

Sydney Sykes is an investor, entrepreneur and nonprofit leader who is passionate about the direct consumer space, ecommerce, and venture capital. After graduating university with a psych major, Sydney was drawn to the world of startups and venture capital and joined NEA as an early consumer investor. During her time at Dollskill, Sydney grew and strategized the company's native brands while also angel investing and doing scout investing for Lightspeed. Sydney later joined Lightspeed as a Partner to focus on commerce, future shopping and ecommerce enablement for early stage companies. She is now committed to making an impact in the venture capital space by increasing diversity and furthering innovation in the industry.

Lio Pinchevski is the founder and CEO of Finaloop, the company providing real-time bookkeeping services specifically tailored to DTC and ecommerce brands. Formerly he was a CPA & parter at PwC, as well as a founder of a 7-figure e-commerce brand. Frustrated with traditional bookkeeping systems that couldn't keep pace with e-commerce, Lio built the platform for e-commerce which provides necessary integrations, and eliminates the need for a bookkeeper.

Izzy Gewirtzman is the founder of Shiplion - a consultancy that helps brands optimize and save on shipping costs. After realizing that contracts between businesses and carriers could be optimized to reduce costs and improve service, he started helping companies doing larger volume re-coup costs and optimize COGs by renegotiating their contracts with carriers like FedEx and UPS.

Athan Didaskalou is founder of July, the fast growing travel & luggage brand. He's a product guy by default, and decided to launch July 2019 with business partner, Richard We. They have been pushing to create innovative travel accessories and products that stand out from the competition.

Justin Seidenfeld is an experienced consumer goods expert with over ten years of experience in product design, development, and supply chain management. He is the founder of Doris Dev, a product design, development and supply chain management company, and the creator of Canopy, a humidifier with technology that offers health benefits for skin. Most recently, he incubated a managed service software company, Factored Quality, which provides quality control and supply chain management services through a single point platform with managed services.

Marshall Nyman is an expert in affiliate marketing, having worked in the industry for over a decade. After working in-house for brands on email marketing and affiliate marketing, he started Nymo & co - a DTC agency helping brands grow through affiliate.

Stephanie Kimel & Celia Lewis- Product Innovation: Personal Storage x Home Decor

Johnathan Solorzano is the founder of Solo Media Group, a digital agency specializing in Shopify development. After working as a whitelabel agency developer on some of the biggest shopify brands like Oatly, he started to work directly with brands within Shopify ecosystem.

Jennifer Meyer is a powerhouse in the world of PR, having worked in the industry for over a decade. She served as the Director of PR for Club Monaco, VP of PR & Marketing of Alice + Olivia, and had experience operating on the agency side as well.

Nathan Resnick is the Founder of Sourcify, a company that he founded in 2016 to help the best brands source, develop, and manufacture products with network of thousands of factories abroad.

Jenn Jennings is a California native and creative director of Nosh Media. She has an extensive background in healthcare and began producing wedding videos on the side. During the pandemic, she left healthcare to focus on creating content for CPG brands, including food, beverage, and beauty. She now leverages trend and other apps to create UGC content for brands, loving the opportunity to nerd out on the intricacies of video production.

Ryan Springer is a founding partner of MidnightVP, an early stage VC investing in world class DTC & CPG brands. Portolio investments include Jinx, Disco, Barcode, Jolie, Beli, and Boisson to name a few.

Julia Perez is CMO of OWYN, a plant-based nutrition company that specializes in top-eight allergy-free ready-to-drink protein shakes available online and at major retailers including Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Publix, Kroger and more. Julia got her start as a Red Bull girl in college, before working at a boutique digital agency and joining Core Water as their first digital hire. After a successful exit from Core Water, she consulted for other food and beverage brands before eventually joining OWYN. Julia is an expert in field marketing, promotional marketing, working with influencers, and creating brand alignment between CPG products & consumers.

Pontus Karlsson is the co-founder and CEO of Off Script, an ecommerce platform that helps creators, communities and curators to build their own curated marketplaces. After securing venture funding and with a few hundred brands already signed up, Off Script's platform allows for creators and curators to sell from multiple brands in just a few minutes. Pontus has a deep understanding of commerce, marketplaces, creators, and is passionate about working closely with users to develop the product and create a platform to support the future of digital commerce.

Stefany Nieto is the Founder & COO of Gwella, a company focused on mushroom based products and content. Mojo by Gwella is the functional mushroom gummy, while Gwella serves as a content resource and guide to the world of psychedelics.

Zawwar Khan is the founder of Rel Brands, where he helps creators and youtubers from 2-20 Million subscribers ideate, manufacture, and scale CPG brands. Previously, Zawwar co-led and launched new consumer products for billion dollar brands like Doritos, Cheetos, and Olay, featuring product launches taking place on the Grammys and Super Bowl stages with talents like Lil Nas X, Post Malone, Matthew McConaughey, and Mila Kunis.

Anders Bill & Andy Cloyd are the founders of Superfiliate, the platform that powers personalized storefronts for social commerce. Previously Anders founded Darkroom, a digital storefront for fine art, and Andy as a Parter at Revolution, the VC firm founded by Steve Case.

Megan O'Brien is the founder of Arch Insights, where she helps startups & SMBs take actionable consumer insights to market. She focuses on everything from concept testing and package design testing to brand health tracking and more. Prior to founding Arch, she worked as Flamingo's Business Ops & Strategy Lead (Harry’s Inc.). Megan also consulted for Bain & Company and graduated from Harvard Business School.

Adam Xavier is the President of XG Formulations, a manufacturing and development company that produces consumer goods in the beauty industry and the company behind Actsyl – women’s hair growth products. Prior to his current role, Adam was the Co-Founder and CEO of Hilton Lifestyle Group, where he developed and brought Paris Hilton’s first-ever skincare line, ProD.N.A., to market in the US and abroad. Adam has over 18 years experience in product development, manufacturing, and distribution within the consumer goods and cosmetics.

Jack Benzaquen is the Founder & CEO of Duradry, a company that provides solutions for excessive sweating. Prior to launching Duradry, Jack had more than 18 years of experience as an operator, angel, and advisor in DTC & CPG.

Victoria Eisner is the co-founder of Glamsquad, the beauty services marketplace started in New York City in 2013 which offers in-home hair, makeup, and nail services in several locations in the United States, and has since grown to include products, and new service verticals. The service started as a marketplace connecting beauty professionals with customers looking for at home blow-outs and other services.

Roy Rubin was the Co-founder and CEO of Magento. Launched in 2008, the open source Magento eCommerce platform has been embraced by developers and 250,000 merchants, transacting $100B+ annually. Magento was acquired by eBay, Inc. and later by Adobe Inc. He currently is a partner at R-Squared Ventures, a seed fund with over three dozen top entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs and investors as LPs - in Silicon Valley and Israel. Mainly focused on Fintech, Enterprise/SMB SaaS, Marketplaces and Digital Commerce.

Dae Lim is the Founder & Creative Director of Sundae School, the Korean inspired streetwear brand that produces apparel, accessories, and cannabis products. Prior to launching Sundae School, Dae served as the Head of Growth at VFILES, after serving as an Analyst at McKinsey.

Ben Tregoe is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bainbridge Growth - the financial modeling platform for e-commerce brands. He previously worked at Nanigans as a SVP Revenue, Business Development and Corporate Development. Ben Tregoe attended the University of Pennsylvania.