Venture with Grace

Arjun Pillai, CEO and Co-Founder of DocketAI, an SF-based AI startup transforming revenue enablement. He previously served as Chief Data Officer at ZoomInfo after it acquired his second company, Insent.ai, and is widely recognized as a thought leader in data strategy and revenue operations. With clients like ZoomInfo, DocketAI has raised $20.3M to pioneer the world’s first AI Sales Engineer, helpi...

Maryam Banikarim served as the CMO at major brands including Nextdoor, Hyatt Hotels, Gannett, NBCUniversal (SVP), and Univision. Known for her mission-driven approach and cultural fluency, she has consistently transformed legacy companies by revitalizing their brands and deepening community engagement. Beyond the corporate world, Maryam is the co-founder of NYCNext and The Longest Table, grassroot...

Brendan Baker is a Partner at Rackhouse VC. ~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye...

Simon Kim is a principal at SK Telecom Americas, where he focuses on strategic investments and partnerships across AI, data center infrastructure, and next-gen connectivity. SK Telecom Americas' portfolios includes high-growth startups like Anthropic, Perplexity AI, Lambda Labs, TwelveLabs, Together AI, Inworld AI, and GGWP. Prior to this, Simon managed direct and LP investments at SK Group, b...

Aparna Chennapragada is the Chief Product Officer at Microsoft AI for Work, where she leads the development of AI-powered productivity experiences across Microsoft 365, including Copilot and Designer. With over 25 years of experience in tech, Aparna previously served as CPO at Robinhood and spent more than a decade at Google, where she led groundbreaking efforts in visual and voice computing—inclu...

Adil Ajmal is the Chief Technology Officer at Fandom, the world’s largest fan platform in entertainment and gaming. With over two decades of leadership across high-growth startups and tech giants, he has led engineering, product, and data teams through multiple successful exits. Before Fandom, he served as CTO of LendingHome (now Kiavi), where he scaled its fintech infrastructure to support billio...

Alan Du is a Partner at PayPal Ventures, where he leads investments in AI‑driven fintech, enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, and e‑commerce infrastructure. Prior to that, he was a key investor at Revolution, a Washington‑based growth equity firm focused on scaling enterprise software and technology‑enabled services. With a global operating and investing mindset honed across markets, Du combines deep...

Maria Zhang is the CEO and Co-Founder of Palona AI, a startup building emotionally intelligent AI agents to help consumer brands scale personalized customer experiences. She previously served as VP of Engineering at Google and Instagram, and led applied AI initiatives at Meta. Earlier in her career, she was CTO of Tinder, VP of Engineering at LinkedIn, and VP at Yahoo following the acquisition of...

Max Marchione is the co-founder of Superpower, a digital health startup pioneering a proactive, personalized approach to longevity and preventive care. Backed by leading investors including Forerunner Ventures, Day One, and Susa, along with high-profile supporters like Vanessa Hudgens, Steve Aoki, and Logan Paul, Superpower raised $30M within two years of launch. The platform combines biomarker te...

Dylan Itzikowitz is a Principal at South Park Commons (SPC) in New York City, where he focuses on early-stage investments across sectors such as cloud, fintech, biotech, and consumer products (CPG). He previously spent three years as a Principal at Expa in NYC, backing startups like KnockApp and Northflank and cultivating the local startup community through meet-ups and events reaching thousands o...

Evan Stites-Clayton is a General Partner at HF0, a venture fund and residency program built for repeat technical founders launching AI-native startups. He was previously the co-founder and CTO of Teespring, where he helped scale the platform to over $1B in sales, empowering millions of creators and raising $65M from top-tier firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Khosla Ventures. Recognized on Forbes...

Rashida Hodge is Corporate Vice President of Azure Data & AI Customer Success at Microsoft, leading global efforts to scale AI-driven enterprise transformation and customer value. A 20-year veteran of IBM, she served as Global VP in Watson AI, launching commercial partnerships with firms like Salesforce and Workday. Today she brings that expertise to the board room as a director at Sonatype an...

Conrad Shang is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ensemble VC. ~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capit...

Bala Sathiamurthy is the former Chief Information Security Officer at Atlassian, where he led global cybersecurity strategy and built scalable security infrastructure for products like Jira and Confluence. Previously, he served as CISO and VP of Engineering at NerdWallet, overseeing security, infrastructure, and data engineering functions. With over 25 years of experience, Bala has held senior rol...

Brent Bellm is the former CEO and Board Chairman of BigCommerce, where he led the company from mid-market roots to a Nasdaq-listed leader in open SaaS and composable commerce. From 2015 to 2024, he scaled ARR from $45M to $346M, delivered 17 straight quarters of revenue beats, and helped land global enterprise customers like Nestlé, Sony, and NVIDIA. Before BigCommerce, he led HomeAway through its...

Mark Jacobstein is General Partner at Near Horizon, a hands‑on venture studio in Palo Alto that co-founds and builds AI and health-tech startups from day zero. Drawing from over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience founding and scaling companies like Small World Sports (the first online fantasy platform), Digital Chocolate, iSkoot, Guardant Health (led efforts raising over $500 million pre-IPO),...

Laura Hamilton is an Investor at Notable Capital (formerly GGV Capital).~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private c...

Henry Schuck is the founder and CEO of ZoomInfo, (NASDAQ:GTM) a Go-To-Market Intelligence Solution for more than 35,000 companies worldwide. The ZoomInfo platform empowers business-to-business sales, marketing, and recruiting professionals to hit their number by pairing best-in-class technology with unrivaled data coverage, accuracy, and depth of company and contact information. With integrations...

Aaron Perman is a Partner at S3 Ventures. ~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to...

Ben Kus is the Chief Technology Officer at Box, where he oversees the company’s technology vision and leads global engineering and product teams. He joined Box in 2015 through its acquisition of Subspace, a startup he co-founded focused on enterprise security. Prior to that, he held leadership roles at IBM and BigFix, where he specialized in mobile and endpoint security. At Box, Ben has played a p...

Brad Harrison is the Founder and Managing Partner of Scout Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in advanced technologies across cybersecurity, aerospace, automation, and AI. A West Point graduate and former U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, Brad brings deep leadership and operational experience to venture. Prior to founding Scout, he launched multiple startups and held senior roles at...

Sharla Grass is a Partner at Serena Ventures, where she focuses on early-stage investments across sectors including health sports wellness, enterprise, fintech, ecomm, social and more. Prior to joining Serena Ventures, she was a Principal at Greycroft, where she played a key role in investments in companies such as Boulder Care, Knox, and ScriptDrop. Sharla began her career in strategy consulting...

Zach Finkelstein is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Class 5 Global, an early-stage venture fund launched in 2018 that invests in high-growth startups across emerging markets, including MENA, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. He began his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before moving into investment banking at Citi. He later transitioned to venture capital, co-founding Lumia...

Steve Harrick is a General Partner at IVP, a premier later-stage venture capital firm focused on high-growth technology investments. With over 25 years of experience in venture capital, he has been instrumental in funding and scaling innovative companies across enterprise infrastructure, security, communications, and consumer technology sectors. His notable investments include AppDynamics (acquire...

Venkata Naga Sai Kumar Bysani (168k+ followers on LinkedIn) is the founder of The Data Hustle.~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed spec...