Event detailsPublished
Mar12
Wednesday, March 12
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM America/Chicago(9:00 PM - 11:00 PM UTC)
SpeakeasySpeakeasy, Congress Avenue, Austin, TX, USA
TicketsFree
VisibilityPublic
SpeakeasySpeakeasy, Congress Avenue, Austin, TX, USA
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Afternoon
General Public
Networking / Social
Attendees (178)
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Shonnery Pettit is the President of the Board of Directors for the Center for Child Protection.
Shonnery has her MBA, is a Texas Business Hall of Fame Scholar, an investor, & a Founding Board member of the Round Top Film Festival.
Round Top Film Festival embodies the spirit of creativity, education, & community enrichment. Our passionate, women-led team is dedicated to bringing the excitement of the film industry through film screenings, workshops, and events, aiming to educate & inspire the next generation of filmmakers, while celebrating diverse avenues within the art of filmmaking and the beauty of Round Top, Texas.
Shonnery’s service to the Center has been unprecedented in the amount of time & energy she has devoted to leading various committees that support the Center's mission. Shonnery is first & foremost purpose driven. Every decision she makes is based on the question: "What is in the best interest of the children we serve?"
Her work as a Fundraiser expert has led to unique selling & marketing strategies which resulted in record-breaking accomplishments. Further, as part of the strategic planning committee, she helped develop a comprehensive strategic plan for the Center. She is a collaborative leader who looks for the best ideas & finds ways to implement them.
Shonnery is also a passionate public speaker & has helped numerous organizations communicate their goals. She was a 2015 Celebrity Dancer for Dancing with the Stars Austin, has lead panel discussions, and is even doing a commencement speech to high school graduates.
Other Accomplishments: Founder of a nonprofit organization in Dallas serving children living in a homeless shelter. Previous Texas Advocacy Project Board Member. Supports the Boys & Girls Club, St. David's "Toast of the Town", United Way, CureDuchenne, & is a Mack Jack & McConaughey sponsor & fashion show host.
She’s been married to Tom Pettit for 26 years & has two grown sons. Blake works for Accenture & Brett is graduating Vanderbilt University in May.
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→ Co-founder of River — in-person community events platform
→ Won 1st place & Best use of OpenAI at Miami Hack Week with a conversational AI Slackbot
Really into AI/LLMs. Have built a handful of RAG systems deployed to production.
📍 Based in Portsmouth, NH (previously Miami, NYC, San Francisco, and Boston).
For fun: road cycling and Latin dancing.
Lifetime entrepreneur on projects that make people's lives a little bit easier.
Founder of Panga. An AI Assistant to help people with cognitive issues get through their day. We're working on a hard problem with people that have Post Concussion Syndrome (PCS), ADHD, Early Alzheimer's and Stroke. Our tool helps the person stay on top of their prescribed recovery therapy.
Previously the founder of Social Detection (Acquired). The first real-time Anti-Fraud Platform: finding, filtering and organizing complex data. Uniquely "built by investigators for investigators", Social Detection utilizes a proprietary algorithm to search for and retrieve information that is difficult to find about people and businesses. Social Detection, Inc also offers a Concierge Report Service for clients that need assistance from a third party to conduct their research regarding insurance claims, reputation defense, business due diligence and various other Internet Based Research.
Creator of the “Gotcha! Deep Internet Search”. A unique search algorithm utilized to find data about a person on public internet sites including social network profiles, criminal records, civil records, property records, motor vehicles, new articles and much more. The all-encompassing profile is a cost effective tool that reduces claims exposure and claims costs.
Nationally recognized Featured Speaker on insurance investigations including Ethics, Surveillance, Social Media Investigations, Interrogating, Witness Locating and much more.
James Massaquoi is an Sr. Associate at Glasswing Ventures, working on the investment team. Before joining Glasswing, James spent three years at Osage Venture Partners, focusing on early-stage B2B technology investments across sectors such as vertical SaaS, cybersecurity, and supply chain. James also sourced and worked on Seed and Series A investments in multiple companies, including SoWork, FOUNT, Returnalyze, Incentivio, CIPIO, Trinsic, Verge, and Arcanna.AI.
Before his time in venture capital, James worked at Amazon as an Account Manager in the Mass Beauty Division, managing $300M in accounts with brands including L’Oreal, E.L.F, and Lego.
James started his career in entrepreneurship when he co-founded 360VR Technology, a software startup that utilized 3-D modeling technology to assist with building management, security, and emergency response. He co-led the venture through grant fundraising of over $300K and led sales to close multiple large enterprise clients.
James graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.A. in English. Outside of Glasswing, he is a Board Director and Treasurer for the Seybert Foundation and a University Innovation Fellow at the Stanford Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. The Philadelphia Business Journal named him one of the city’s 25 under 25.
I work in the tech as a project manager for a living but my passion has always been in building thriving communities that foster collaboration, help identify synergies, and bring people with diverse perspectives together. My experiences at TEDxMinneapolis, at Minnesota Orchestra, at the University of Minnesota, and at the UN are a few examples that I would like to highlight in support of this application.
At TEDxMinneapolis, for example, I volunteered as a registration coordinator. This role involved managing all aspects of managing registrations and registrant experience such as outreach, evaluation, communications, engagement, experience management etc. TEDxMinneapolis hosted events for up to 2000 people across different parts of the Twin-cities area that helped me build connections across different host venues to coordinate these events and make them successful. I’m open to sharing more about other such experiences over a call/email.
I strongly believe that I’m well equipped and capable of engaging, managing, and hosting the all-in meetups for the Twin-cities community and look forward to hearing from you.
Paloma Lecheta: Brazilian entrepreneur serving as the COO of JUPTER and the LatAm Director for the Founder Institute. Her work is critical in expanding and managing accelerator programs across Latin American countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Uruguay. Recognized as one of the select members of the Young Leaders of America Initiative (YLAI), her leadership and innovation are well-respected in her field.In 2017, Paloma secured a prestigious win at the NASA Space Apps Challenge in Curitiba with the Juno Radio project. This innovative concept later earned a place in the top 5 projects globally in the Best Mission Concept category. Beyond these achievements, Paloma co-founded Peace Labs, a social enterprise, and she actively contributed to organizations like OpenBrazil and CodeForCuritiba.
Recently, Paloma has launched a new innovation hub concept named Founder Haus.
Hello, I'm Youhong Luo, an entrepreneur based in Tokyo. Originally from Aichi Prefecture, I graduated from the Faculty of Science at the University of Tokyo and pursued a master's degree in astrobiology at the same institution. In February 2017, I founded Tokyo Inc., now known as GRAND Inc., focusing on elevator advertising media. To date, we've raised a total of 4.3 billion yen in funding and successfully achieved an M&A with Mitsubishi Estate. Our services include the installation of over 1,500 digital signage units, primarily in office buildings in central Tokyo, capturing a 92% market share. I have been recognized in Toyo Keizai's "Amazing Ventures 100 2023" and Forbes' "30 Under 30 Asia 2022". In my free time, I enjoy visiting local hot springs and engaging in in-depth discussions on global conflicts, politics, history, and technology.
tech x entrepreneurship
getriver.io |🤖 img-cut.aishoot.co | ⚡₿ sats.rs | saucelabs.com
Hey! Co-Founder of River here
My name is Bernard but everyone calls me Berni 😀
I am a technologist with multiple years of hands-on experience in running highly scalable distributed systems under rigoristic reliability requirements (creating tech itself, architecture and managing teams).
Last startup I was a part of grew from ~15 people to $100MM ARR.
I love working at intersection of technology and entrepreneurship. My goal is to deliver value while innovating both on tech and business side of things.
I'd love to meet you and learn about you and your journey!
Let's talk! 🙌
If cauliflower can become pizza, you can do anything! I turned my love for travel into a business, running a digital (dare I say, AI-powered) concierge company for hotels (Tongo). When I’m not helping hotels boost revenue and guest experience, I’m usually at one of several gyms—lifting, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, or rolling in BJJ. Retired MMA fighter, 3rd-degree Hawaiian Kempo black belt under the legend John Hackleman, and still ready to throw down… in business, of course. Work hard, train hard, travel often, and don't let anyone take your lunch money!
Nick Gray is an entrepreneur and best-selling author living in Austin, Texas. He started and sold two successful companies: Flight Display Systems and Museum Hack. Nick is the author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, a step-by-step handbook that teaches you how to build big relationships by hosting small gatherings. Over 75,000 people have watched his TEDx talk about why he hates most museums. He’s been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine called him a host of “culturally significant parties.”
Jason Philip Sparks, M.Ed., is an experience product leader with a special interest in startups and emerging technologies. Exploring AI-enabled solutions for problems in hiring, talent development, and workforce planning. Everyone should be able to carry their entire work and education record in their pocket in a way that is quantifiable, verifiable, can be curated and shared to open up opportunities.
I was an Automotive Engineering Executive that lived and worked in 7 countries developing and launching vehicles for Global markets. I retired from the industry after 38 years and moved to Austin where I have stayed active in tech transportation. I have since been a VP of Engineering for a SF start up and most recently a consultant for the transportation and energy industries.
I’m a proponent of believing that we can stop cyber security attacks
I run securityinstitute.com where we discussed such things
Imagine you’re on the boat as a marine headed for the beach at Normandy on D-Day and the guy beside you says that we can never win. That’s the same as saying that we can never stop cyber security breaches.