Meet Venture Atlanta

Joey Womack’s goal is to positively impact 1 billion people by the year 2039. Part super-connector, part startup coach, he is the Founder/CEO of Goodie Nation, a national support nonprofit that is closing the relationship gap for tech-focused social entrepreneurs and diverse founders, and the Founder/CEO of Amplify 4 Good, a mission-driven agency that uses rapid problem-solving to help large companies, nonprofits, and government agencies create social impact. Since starting this journey in 2014, he’s on pace to reach this goal by working with the likes of CARE USA, Google, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, Google For Startups, United Negro College Fund, Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, Village Capital, and the White House HBCU Initiative. Joey is also the Co-Founder of the Atlanta Black Tech initiative where he serves as the Lead for the Startups and K-12 divisions.

Evident as a Hive Global Leader, Inaugural White House Demo Day Invitee, and Outstanding Atlanta Alumnus, he has received the Technology Association of Georgia’s (TAG) Diversity in Tech Game Changer Award for Community Engagement and Equity Champion Award by Startup Atlanta, named one of the Top 10 social entrepreneurs in Atlanta by Hypepotamus, featured in McDonald’s Black Your Story campaign, recognized by PepsiCo as a Champion For Change and Atlanta Magazine as part of the Atlanta 500, and listed by Huffington Post as one of the Top 20 Innovators in the Atlanta Tech Startup Scene. Currently, he serves on the boards for Startup Atlanta, Venture Atlanta, and the Georgia Social Impact Collaborative as well as advisory boards SXSW and SOCAP’s Spectrum Conference.

A “Rebel with a Cause” at the leading edge of change, Joey was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug in 2002 when he launched digitalguestlist.com as a graduate student at Florida A&M University. He grew the site to 80,000 users, and advertised thousands of events for Fortune 500 companies, agencies, and high-profile promoters during special events like NBA All-Star Weekend, Super Bowl Weekend, and Essence Music Festival. He also used forward-thinking digital marketing strategies to execute events in the Southeast for well known brands such as Crown Royal & Warner Bros.

Joey received his MBA from Florida A&M University in the Spring of 2003, where he was also initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Inc. He has been named one of the Top 40 Under 40 Alumni and received an Outstanding Alumni during FAMU’s Quasquicentennial (125th) Anniversary Celebration.

Allyson Eman has more than 30 years of marketing, communications, sales leadership, and business development experience. In 2007, Allyson took on the role of Executive Director for the newly created Venture Atlanta annual conference. Allyson has worked with key business leaders across the country and founding organizations Metro Atlanta Chamber, Atlanta CEO Council, and Technology Association of Georgia to build Venture Atlanta.

In 2020, Eman was promoted to CEO. The conference is now in its to seventeenth year and has become the largest venture capital conference in the Southeast with over 1,500 attendees including venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and senior business executives. Venture Atlanta’s primary mission is to connect companies with capital and it has helped emerging technology companies raise over $7.7B to facilitate growth.

Prior to joining Venture Atlanta, Allyson was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for SouthStar Funding, a wholesale mortgage lender headquartered in Atlanta. During her nine-year tenure with the firm, she helped the company grow from eight employees to 800 with 30 nationwide offices. SouthStar Funding grew to be one of the most reputable, respected, and trusted wholesale mortgage lenders in the country under Allyson’s leadership. Prior to joining SouthStar, Allyson worked for SouthTrust Bank as a branch marketing manager overseeing the marketing platform for 100 branches across Georgia.

Allyson received a BS from the University of Florida and resides in Marietta with her husband and two children.

Jackie is a partner with Chicago Ventures.

Prior to joining Chicago Ventures, Jackie was a principal at Hyde Park Venture Partners, working with portfolio companies such as RoadSync, Podchaser, Fixer, FactoryFix, and PartySlate. Before that, she worked at Silver Spring Networks (now Itron), an IoT company for critical infrastructure, driving development and pilot projects for emerging smart city technology. She began her career as a consultant at Accenture in the Business & Technology practice, focused on ERP (enterprise resource planning) software and SaaS enablement projects.

She is also a member of the Board of Directors for Starting Block Madison and Chicago:Blend and a Venture Partner at Republic.

Jackie holds a B.S. with honors in General Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Mike Dowdle is an entrepreneur and investor with over 25 years of experience in startup, venture-backed, and publicly traded companies. He is the founding partner of Circadian Ventures, an early-stage fund formed in 2020 with 13 investments across a variety of tech and tech enabled businesses.

Through his company, Circadian Group, Mike has managed a syndicate of investors making investments in 12 early-stage technology companies since 2016.

Previously, Mike co-founded CPO Commerce, a leading online retailer of tools, equipment, and home goods that was acquired in 2014 by United Stationers (now Staples). He additionally founded an interactive agency that was acquired in 1997 by iXL Enterprises where he was on the executive team taking the company public in 1999. Mike was the co-founder of iXL Ventures, a corporate venture group.

He earned his BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and recently completed serving as Board Chairman at Catholic Charities Atlanta.

Mr. Estevez is a Venture Partner with Accel Partners, a global leader in venture capital with past investments in top companies such as Atlassian, Dropbox, Facebook, Jet.com, Lynda.com, Qualtrics, Slack, Squarespace and Spotify. As Venture Partner, Mr. Estevez helps existing portfolio companies based outside of Silicon Valley with their growth opportunities and scale challenges. Mr. Estevez is also a personal investor in leading U.S. software companies based outside of Silicon Valley, including BetterCloud, FullStory, Pindrop and UIPath. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board for Venture Atlanta, one of the top venture tech conferences in the country.

Prior to Accel, Mr. Estevez worked in San Francisco as CFO of Atlassian (Nasdaq: TEAM), a global leader in team collaboration software. During these three years, Mr. Estevez helped triple bookings to a $300 million runrate, and he helped grow shareholder value from $400 million to $3.3 billion via minority investment with T. Rowe Price.

Prior to Atlassian, Mr. Estevez served as CFO of Silicon Valley-based BigFix from 2007 to 2010. During this time, Mr. Estevez helped triple revenues for the company, resulting in the successful sale of BigFix to IBM (NYSE: IBM) in what became the largest private software M&A transaction of 2010. This event also represented a 5x increase in shareholder value during his three year tenure.

Before BigFix, Mr. Estevez led South Carolina-based Datastream (Nasdaq: DSTM) as a public company officer for 9 years, transitioning from CFO to President during this tenure. Datastream sold to Infor at a valuation nearly 3x its IPO price.

Mr. Estevez began his career in the investment banking group of Raymond James in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. At Raymond James, Mr. Estevez helped East Coast technology companies like Datastream manage through their respective IPO and M&A processes.

Mr. Estevez earned an MBA with distinction from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree with honors from Harvard College where he lettered all four years in soccer.

Mr. Estevez relocated in October 2014 from the Bay Area to Greenville, South Carolina, his wife’s hometown and his new springboard for investment and advisory opportunities outside of Silicon Valley.

Mr. Estevez is a Venture Partner with Accel Partners, a global leader in venture capital with past investments in top companies such as Atlassian, Dropbox, Facebook, Jet.com, Lynda.com, Qualtrics, Slack, Squarespace and Spotify. As Venture Partner, Mr. Estevez helps existing portfolio companies based outside of Silicon Valley with their growth opportunities and scale challenges. Mr. Estevez is also a personal investor in leading U.S. software companies based outside of Silicon Valley, including BetterCloud, FullStory, Pindrop and UIPath. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board for Venture Atlanta, one of the top venture tech conferences in the country.

Prior to Accel, Mr. Estevez worked in San Francisco as CFO of Atlassian (Nasdaq: TEAM), a global leader in team collaboration software. During these three years, Mr. Estevez helped triple bookings to a $300 million runrate, and he helped grow shareholder value from $400 million to $3.3 billion via minority investment with T. Rowe Price.

Prior to Atlassian, Mr. Estevez served as CFO of Silicon Valley-based BigFix from 2007 to 2010. During this time, Mr. Estevez helped triple revenues for the company, resulting in the successful sale of BigFix to IBM (NYSE: IBM) in what became the largest private software M&A transaction of 2010. This event also represented a 5x increase in shareholder value during his three year tenure.

Before BigFix, Mr. Estevez led South Carolina-based Datastream (Nasdaq: DSTM) as a public company officer for 9 years, transitioning from CFO to President during this tenure. Datastream sold to Infor at a valuation nearly 3x its IPO price.

Mr. Estevez began his career in the investment banking group of Raymond James in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. At Raymond James, Mr. Estevez helped East Coast technology companies like Datastream manage through their respective IPO and M&A processes.

Mr. Estevez earned an MBA with distinction from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree with honors from Harvard College where he lettered all four years in soccer.

Mr. Estevez relocated in October 2014 from the Bay Area to Greenville, South Carolina, his wife’s hometown and his new springboard for investment and advisory opportunities outside of Silicon Valley.

Elizabeth Stephens joined NMP as a Vice President in January 2020. She supports the firm’s investments in information technology and healthcare companies. Elizabeth currently serves as a board observer for Ekos and Whitebox.

Prior to joining NMP, Elizabeth served as a Consultant and Case Team Leader at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, primarily working on business transformations within the technology and telecommunications industries. Elizabeth also previously worked as an Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Transfer Pricing group, primarily serving clients in the healthcare industry.

Elizabeth received a BS in Engineering and Economics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the Darden School of Management at the University of Virginia.

Mark Flickinger joined BIP Ventures in 2015. In his role as General Partner and Chief Operating Officer, Mark oversees fundraising, investor relations, marketing/branding, talent acquisition, and acceleration.

Before joining the firm, Mark held leadership roles for 4th Strand, a product performance consulting firm (acquired by Intertek in 2012). He oversaw project management, product development, HR/recruiting, operations, and sales. Mark's experience also includes Medarex, a biotech startup developing therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases, as well as the oral care division of consumer products company Church & Dwight.

Mark earned an MBA in General Management and Entrepreneurship from The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School and a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University. He was a member of the US National Rowing Team from 2001-2008.

Mark serves on the board for Venture Atlanta, AchieveIt, and VoApps. He is an avid father, cyclist, runner, and skier, both downhill and water.

Rich is a Partner at Knoll Ventures, an Atlanta-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in pre-Series A technology businesses focused on B2B markets. He has been active in the southeastern technology ecosystem for more than 10 years and is currently involved with investments in Belongly, Brightwell, ConverseNow, Daupler, Fetch Trucks, Freede, Lendflow, Repvue, and VoApps, amongst others. In addition, Rich serves in leadership and mentorship positions with multiple local technology organizations.

Dr. Loretta Daniels, director of the Technology Association of Georgia’s Bridge Builders program and CEO and Managing Partner at Kendall and Kendrick Consulting Group, is an expert in organizational Leadership, DEI, conflict management, and communication. In addition, she specializes in cultural competency. As an executive leader in the corporate arena, she has served in executive leadership roles such as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Executive Director of Sales Operations, and General Manager. In addition, she has written corporate training manuals Leading by Example and Fast Track to Excellence. As the former Executive Director of Corporate Relations of Kennesaw State University (KSU), she worked with medium and large organizations to define and deliver leadership growth certificate programs aligned with the company's vision and objectives. Dr. Daniels has recently created TAG Bridge Builders, a social justice and equity initiative to promote Georgia's Black tech professionals advance from mid-level positions to senior-level leadership roles, providing access to funding and customer acquisition for Black tech entrepreneurs.

Dr. Daniels partnered with C-level Leadership and HR to determine leadership development goals,identify training gaps, enable cultural workplace initiatives, and implement gender pay equality and equitable hiring practices. In addition, she served as the University Office of Diversity and Inclusion Co-Chair and Presidential Commission on Gender & Work-Life Issues. Also, she advised executive teams, including the President and Chief Diversity Officer, consulted as a subject matter expert on DEI challenges and solutions, and supported DEI's continuous improvement efforts.

As an adjunct leadership instructor at KSU since 2002, Dr. Daniels delivered in-class and online lectures encouraging students to think strategically by applying fundamentals to real-world problems. Courses taught included Corporate Communication and Conflict Resolution, Human Communications, Public Speaking, Writing for Public Communication, and Foundations of Leadership. Additionally, she has designed a Coursera Specialty Certificate program, Advanced Leadership Skills for the 21st Century Specialization Certificate, which will be offered in Spring 2023.

Dr. Daniels received a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Organizational Leadership from Johnson
University, a Master of Science (MS) in Conflict Management, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Communication from Bradley University, and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Mass Communication/Media Studies from KSU. She is a Certified Diversity Professional and the author of two books, For Women Only, Women Mean Business (J & W Publishers, 1992), and Unlock Your Success, a Comprehensive Guide for Starting a Successful Business (J & W Publishers, 2006). Dr. Daniels' upcoming book, Leadership, and Diversity - A Practice-Based Systemic Approach to Cultural Competency, published by SAGE Publications, will be available in January 2024. This textbook will offer a new and comprehensive approach to organizational Leadership to address the paradigm shift in our global business community.

As chief economic development officer at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, David leads the team focused on the retention, recruitment, and expansion of existing and start-up companies within key clusters, e.g., Mobility, IoT, Cybersecurity, Fin Tech, Digital Media, Supply Chain, Bioscience, and Health IT.

Before joining the Chamber, Hartnett served as the president and CEO of Maco Pharma® (formerly United Pharma) a privately held US medical device/pharmaceutical company based in Duluth, Georgia, headquartered in Lille France. Before Maco Pharma, Hartnett was president and CEO of SteriFx® Corporation, a specialty chemical start-up, contracted by U.S. Department of Defense (DARPA). Prior to SteriFx, he was the executive vice president of the North American headquarters of Given Imaging, Inc. an Israeli start-up with corporate headquarters in Yokneam, Israel. Under his leadership, the company commercialized the “PillCam” video capsule, a disposable capsule that captures video after it is ingested by the patient. Hartnett helped to raise close to $30 million in a private placement for corporate infrastructure development and product commercialization before the company going public in 2001 (GIVN-NASDAQ). Hartnett served as vice president of marketing at ERBE Electro-surgery, the largest manufacturer of electrosurgical systems in the world, where he was responsible for commercial marketing throughout North America.

He has also served in a variety of other senior sales and marketing roles for the following companies: Karl Storz Lithotripsy, Genzyme (formerly Deknatel), STERIS (formerly AMSCO) and the XEROX Corporation.

He holds a B.A. in Communication from San Diego State University with a master’s equivalent in marketing through post-graduate studies.

He currently serves on the following boards:

-Chairman, of the Board, Atlanta Science Festival™
-Board of Trustees, Georgia Global Health Alliance
-Vice Chairman, Innovation Crescent Regional Partnership
-President Emeritus, Southeastern Medical Device Association
-Director/Co-Founder, Venture Atlanta Coalition
-Director, Georgia Bio statewide trade association
-Director/Co-Founder, Health IT Leadership Summit
-Director/Co-Founder, Institute for Healthcare Information Technology
-Quick Start, statewide advanced training program, Board of Advisor
-President’s Community Board (CAB), Kennesaw State University

Hartnett is married with four sons, was raised on Coronado Island, California and is an active member of the Atlanta business community.

Vanessa Larco joined NEA as a Partner in 2016 and focuses on Enterprise SaaS and Consumer Services investing. She is passionate about technology, services and products that enable people to be more productive and efficient at work and at home. Vanessa has led investments in EvidentID, Cleo, Greenlight Card, Feather, and Lily AI. She is also a board observer at Robinhood and OmniSci.

Prior to joining NEA, she was the Director of Product Management at Box (NYSE: BOX) where she worked on building the next generation of productivity apps across web and mobile. Her passion for design and analytics stems from her experience in the gaming industry, which includes leading the Speech Recognition Experience team at Xbox Kinect v1, and building a top grossing gaming studio at Disney Social.

Vanessa holds a BS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Scott Lopano is a Principal at Tech Square Ventures where he is responsible for sourcing new companies, deal execution, and supporting the portfolio’s growth. Since joining TSV in 2017, Scott has led the execution of 50+ new investments across both funds focused on early-stage enterprise (B2B) and marketplace technology companies.

Previously, Scott worked at UBS Investment Bank in New York where he advised clients on capital structure and funding strategy, raising more than $26B in debt and preferred stock capital for clients over his tenure.

Scott graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business with a concentration in Finance. He was a 4-year starter for the Penn Quaker Football Team during 3 Ivy League Championships. He currently holds the record for most punts and most punt yardage in the school’s history and maintains strong ties to Penn. Scott was a top 5 NFL prospect punter and was invited to Rookie Mini Camp with the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Morgan Phillips is a Director of Strategy & Investments at Cox Enterprises. She leads Cox's venture partnerships, which includes two Techstars accelerators along with several other local partnerships (e.g., Engage, Startup Runway and Endeavor). She also leads investments in local funds and early stage investments.
 
Prior to Cox, Morgan worked at Carters Inc. in their Strategy and M&A group, leading inorganic growth and strategic planning. She was also previously a strategy consultant at EY, focusing on consumer brands.
 
Morgan graduated from the University of Georgia with a BBA in Finance. She was born and raised in Atlanta and currently lives in Alpharetta with her husband and one-year-old son.

Palaniswamy “Raj” Rajan is currently the Managing Partner of CTW Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital fund which invests in and assists seed and early-stage entrepreneurs in all industries in Atlanta and the South Eastern United States who are engaged in disruptive innovations and technologies. CTW focuses solely on companies which are started by expert technical founders with strong domain expertise. CTW partners with technical entrepreneurs and companies in markets with large opportunities and no identifiable competitors. CTW typically supplies the first capital, often at the concept phase. CTW works as active partners with our entrepreneurs, helping with all aspects of strategy, market definition and execution.

He is also Chairman & CEO of Softwear Automation, Inc, an Atlanta, Ga. based company with the sole focus of developing innovative robots (sewbots®) for the apparel manufacturing and sewn products industries by harnessing its experience and expertise in machine vision, robotics, and computing. The Sewbots® automate the transfer and sewing of fabric, eliminating the need for trained seamstresses. SoftWear technology allows for redesign of the apparel manufacturing supply chain and enables sewing to be performed locally resulting in a disruptive transformation of the industry.

He is also the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Virima Technologies, Inc, a leading Data Center & IT Operations software developer. He brings more than 19 years’ experience in the technology industry and combines a deep understanding of current technologies with the ability to articulate the application of these technologies in various business contexts and models.

He is also an investor and past Chairman (2009 to 2017) of Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd (A World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2015 Company). The company’s patented solvents extract CO2 and other unwanted gases from flue gas streams, replacing conventional amines CCS’s technology dramatically reduces the cost of capturing CO2, making it economic for industrial and power plants to re-use waste CO2 to produce economically viable products.

Mr. Rajan is an active investor and has invested in over 38 companies since 1998. He serves/ed on the Board of Directors of some of his portfolio companies and as well on the advisory boards of several early stage technology firms in the USA and India.

A leader in the business community is also involved in several professional and community related organization. Mr. Rajan was instrumental in establishing the Atlanta CEO Council, a non-profit networking group of more than 1000 CEOs, CxOs, and investors in the Southeast. Mr. Rajan serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta CEO council from 1999 to present. In 2002, Mr. Rajan launched the Atlanta CEO Council Venture Forum that is now known as Venture Atlanta Conference which has helped Atlanta entrepreneurs raise over $2 Billion in venture capital with exits of over $14 Billon since its inception.

Mr. Rajan also co-founded and served on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) from 1998 to 2015, a global mentoring organization for entrepreneurs. Mr. Rajan also served as TiE Atlanta President in 2012-2013. Mr. Rajan served on the Board of Councilors for The Carter Center (President Jimmy Carter’s non-profit initiative), a leadership advisory group that serves to promote understanding of and support for The Carter Center and its activities among private-sector opinion leaders in Georgia.

Mr. Rajan was also honored as Georgia Trend’s “40 Under 40” Rising Stars in 2000.

Kim Seals is an investor in early-stage technology, health care, energy, fintech, and consumer products companies. Since 2013, The JumpFund has invested in more than 30 woman-led, Southeast based companies across our two venture capital funds.

Kim began her investing career as a member of Golden Seeds, an investment firm and angel investor network, with over 300 members, dedicated to sourcing and funding high-potential women-led businesses. Over the last 17 years, Golden Seeds has invested more than $160M in 220+ companies. Kim co-founded the Atlanta chapter of Golden Seeds.

In addition to her work as an investor, Kim has more than 25 years of global experience in human resource consulting, corporate and leadership roles. Her expertise includes leading M&A transactions, service delivery transformation, talent, compensation, benefits and recruiting program design, as well as technology development, selection, and implementations. Kim is a Managing Partner at Sapient Insights Group, a research and advisory HR firm, and previously held leadership and consulting roles at Mercer and PwC.

Kim received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Louisiana State University.

Elizabeth Snively is the Senior Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Metro Atlanta Chamber where she leads initiatives focused on growing, promoting, and connecting the region’s innovation ecosystem.

A product of metro Atlanta, Elizabeth’s unique career has spanned many Atlanta-based institutions. Starting at Chick-fil-A’s corporate headquarters in Hapeville, Georgia, she oversaw the development of “Hatch,” an 80,000 SF experience innovation center and ultimately led the organization’s first innovation-focused department.

After nearly ten years in the quick service innovation world, she transitioned to Savannah College of Art and Design as Director of the Collaborative Learning Center. At SCAD-Atlanta, she forged collaborative industry projects with renowned partners like Adult Swim, Delta Air Lines, and The Home Depot that created authentic learning experiences for students and valuable solutions for business leaders.

Most recently, Elizabeth spent five years at Porsche Consulting as a Senior Expert of Growth Strategy and Transformation, where she led the development of the firm’s second North American office in Palo Alto, California, and global corporate innovation practice area.

Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (B.F.A.) from Savannah College of Art and Design and a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Georgia Institute of Technology’s Sheller College of Business. She and her husband live in Decatur, Georgia with their two cats, Pepper and Chai, and spends most weekends trying to keep her vegetable garden alive.

AJ Fang is currently a Partner of Assurant Ventures where he leads investments in Proptech, Auto Tech, and Insurtech.  Prior to joining Assurant, AJ was a Senior Vice President at Silicon Valley Bank where he worked with national venture capital firms and focused on providing strategic advisory and venture financings to technology startups. Earlier in his career, he was an investment banker for over 9 years with Mooreland Partners (acquired by Stifel Financial Corp.), a cross-border technology M&A firm.  AJ earned his BBA in Finance and Accounting from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Emery is passionate about finding, funding and furthering early growth-stage software companies delivering products that improve business and professional outcomes. Post-investment, he specifically concentrates on accelerating growth and widening "moat" by applying i) strategic frameworks, ii) financial and capital planning, iii) and organizational health best practices. His primary areas of focus include enterprise software and healthcare IT. Emery has held various fractional roles with rapidly scaling software businesses including head of strategic initiatives, among others. He also loves to write about his experiences, authoring numerous startup blog series including the Vocap Org Health Guidebook.
 
Prior to joining Vocap, Emery spent several years with VRA Partners, an investment banking firm focused on providing mergers and acquisitions advisory to entrepreneurial middle-market companies. While at VRA, Emery helped numerous clients in the technology sector raise capital, acquire new businesses, and achieve successful exits.
 
Emery graduated with concentrations in Finance and International Business from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He currently resides in Atlanta with his wife and two young sons and enjoys getting outdoors and finding the latest fitness gadget.

Ryan Whittemore is the Chief Investment Officer for Florida Funders, a hybrid Venture Capital Fund and 1400 member accredited investor syndicate focused on early stage seed to Series A stage tech. Ryan’s team reviews 1,000+ deals per year across 3 managed funds which has resulted in 36 portfolio companies in the primary fund. Ryan leverages a diverse background including venture, private equity, legal, corporate operations, capital market portfolio management and research analysis to identify the best tech investment opportunities for Florida Funders.

Prior to joining Florida Funders, Ryan was corporate counsel to a private equity group handling responsibilities including all legal work, as well as all financial modeling & analysis of existing & new investments, operational oversight of certain assets, and leading M&A transactions completing 12 deals in 4 years. Ryan has prior experience in investment banking at Raymond James, leading an equity hedge fund, and seven years as a portfolio manager and analyst for a large trust company.

Ryan is a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in Finance as well as an MBA, and a Juris Doctor from Stetson College of Law, and is a licensed attorney in Florida. Ryan outkicked his coverage with his amazing wife Ashley, and loves spending his time with his little girl Finley. When not changing diapers, Ryan is an avid fisherman and spearfisherman, paddleboarder and golfer. Ryan also has given his time as a past board member of the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, and co-founded the 1Voice Foundation for Childrens Cancer.

Peter is a Senior Vice President of Business Development at Fulcrum Equity Partners, an Atlanta-based growth equity fund that invests in B2B software and healthcare services companies. He joined the team in 2017 and is responsible for sourcing and evaluating new investments and acquisition opportunities. Having worked at both large and small startups, he understands the challenges entrepreneurs face especially in fast-growing companies. He is always willing to meet with entrepreneurs and support them by offering his time, energy and connections. You can find him mentoring founders, supporting conference boards, and reviewing pitches in entrepreneurial hubs across the US.

Prior to joining Fulcrum, Peter was a member of the senior leadership team at General Assembly, a global education institution which was acquired by The Adecco Group in 2018. He launched the Atlanta campus in 2014 and as the General Manager oversaw the P&L and all aspects of the organization’s growth.

Before General Assembly, Peter worked for other fast-growing startups. He was the Director of Account Management & Client Services at BrightWhistle which was acquired by Influence Health and is now a part of HealthGrades. Additionally, he was a member of the original founding team at Tasting Table, a media startup in New York City, leading their efforts in sales and business development. He began his career in revenue cycle management for hospitals and health systems as an Associate at Triage Consulting Group, now CloudMed.

Peter graduated with a degree in Economics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

M. Cole is a serial entrepreneur, small business champion and venture catalyst based in Atlanta, GA. He's recognized as a thought leader in corporate innovation, startup culture, and the collaborative economy, and has built a career around bringing innovative ideas to life.

M. Cole co-founded Covello, an innovation firm that helps enterprises, brands, and high-growth companies ideate and build products. Through Covello, he built technology platforms for companies like AT&T, which were valued at over $30 million, and provided services for other conglomerates, such as Intel, Harman International, American Cancer Society, and Chick-fil-A, as well as high-growth startups like Snap Inc. (Snapchat).


After serving as an early Venture Partner at NextGen Ventures, where he was instrumental in contributing to the firm's success, M. Cole went on to found RIISE Ventures. This firm is focused on reimagining innovation in sports, gaming, and entertainment, and has allowed M. Cole to advise partners, clients, and brands on how to stimulate ideas, attract and retain talent, and invest capital into companies and communities they believe in.

M. Cole's experience extends beyond his work with these ventures. He's also a seasoned ecosystem builder, with a track record of identifying forward-thinking trends, insights, and companies across the global innovation ecosystem. He has established and integrated strategic partnerships for regional and global innovation hubs, accelerators, and incubators, including Comcast/NBCUniversal's The FARM, Delta Air Lines' The Hangar and most recently with VSP Global Innovation Center to help reimagine how healthcare and vision care is delivered to the world.