Prior to joining the team, Heston worked as the managing partner to First Round Capital’s Dorm Room fund, a student-run venture firm that invests in student-run companies. Heston completed his first round of venture capital training at First Round Capital, where he worked primarily on sourcing new opportunities to expand the community as well as the triage, evaluation,and qualification of inbound deal flow.

Heston is originally from the suburbs of Philadelphia and attended the University of Pennsylvania where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Science, Technology, and Society with a concentration on Information Technologies and Organizations.

Alex Friedman is the co-founder and President of Ruckus, an Agency that grows Clients through Branding, Platform Design, and Campaigns. Since inception, Ruckus has continued to grow more than 100% year over year, earning a most recent "18th Fastest Growing Agency in America Award" from the Agency Post 100 and a Fastest Growing Private Company by Inc 5000. The Agency boasts a well known client roster, as well as more than a dozen startups that have achieved at least $1MM after launching through Ruckus in the last 4 years alone. Alex has developed the technology design practice to include multi-platform expertise, from iOS and Android, to complex SaaS platform, commerce, and social technologies. Alex's is also a regular contributor to Forbes, American Express Open Forum, Techlii, and many others. Ruckus' work has garnered national attention from the Wall Street Journal, the Huffington Post, CNN, NBC, ABC, and many more. He is also the Managing Partner of Brewers Hill Development Group, a real estate venture in Allentown, PA.

Carly-Ann Fergus is the Program Director of tech accelerator XRC Labs, which focuses on innovation in the retail and consumer goods sector. Prior to joining XRC she spearheaded the launch of emerging New York-based brand Romeo Hunte NY and served as the Director of Operations. With a multifaceted career journey in the fashion industry, her work experience spans from a range of established companies such as Tommy Hilfiger and Saks Fifth Avenue to startup brands such as Nahm. She received her MA in Fashion Studies, with a focus on Strategic Design and Management at Parsons where she developed a body of research focused on the rise of New York City as a leading global fashion capital and the issues that stem from the lack of access to resources for its rising community of emerging talent.

Carly-Ann is a proud member of the Fashion Group International, a 2016 Honorary Parsons Alumni Committee member, and Co- founder of the award winning Fashion & Diversity series at the New School.

Sabeen Firozali is a Vice President at Comerica’s Technology and Life Sciences Division in New York where she focuses on providing venture debt to startups ranging from Series Seed to pre-IPO stage. Sabeen’s experience as an investor spans across many industries and includes multiple instruments, such as secured and unsecured bonds, syndicated and privately placed bank loans, subordinated mezzanine instruments and equity. Prior to joining Comerica, Sabeen worked as a venture debt investor at ORIX Ventures in Seattle.

Sabeen holds a bachelor of science in computer science and economics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Tom Balderston is a partner of Brand Investment at Bullish Inc. Mr. Balderston has had responsibility for the company’s Venture investments and fund operations since 2013. Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Tom earned his BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Michael Page is a global, executive recruitment firm with 164 offices in 35 countries. Mike heads up the technology sales recruitment division within Michael Page, New York. He specializes in placing sales professionals with tech startups here in New York City, and manages a team that does the same.

Jay heads up deal sourcing at SeedInvest, a leading investment platform which connects 13,000+ institutional and accredited investors with $495MM+ in collective investor interest to highly-vetted startup investment opportunities. Prior to SeedInvest, Jay was an Investment Associate at Cambridge Associates (CA), where he specialized in private equity and venture capital. Before CA, he led business development at SoluSoft, where he focused on product management and marketing for business process management solutions. He also founded a music and event management company, JT Entertainers, which specialized in private and corporate events globally. He studied Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Marketing at Babson College and Managerial Economics and Strategy at the London School of Economics. During his time at Babson, he was also an Entrepreneurship Mentor on campus. In his spare time, Jay enjoys training karate, mixing music, traveling the world, and exploring new cuisines.

Angelia manages the Internet of Things program for Techstars (IoT). Techstars IoT is a brand new program in partnership with PwC, GE, Bosch, SAP and Verizon. The program incubates startups that are positioned to rewire the infrastructure of the future with specific emphasis on software and artificial intelligence, connected enterprise, smart cities and energy, health and wearables, logistics and automotive, VR, AR, drones and robotics, and the connected home. Prior to Techstars, Angelia was the director of XRC Labs, where she set up and ran the accelerator for Parsons School of Design New York and Kurt Salmon. Angelia was in consulting and Corporate America prior to joining the accelerator world.

Matthew Moisan is an attorney, an entrepreneur, and an innovator. Matthew strives to add value to his clients’ beyond providing boilerplate legal services. He and his firm, Moisan Legal, PC, represent the digital age entrepreneur.

Prior to joining the STAR, Garrett was the founder and principal of Fortius Consulting LLC, bringing with him a diversity of experience in entrepreneurship and early stage startups. Throughout his career Garrett has assisted entrepreneurs in building their businesses and raising capital along with identifying compelling investment opportunities for angel investors.

He believes elite athletes have the work ethic, network and influence to achieve remarkable accomplishments in their post-athletic careers. Garrett, a six-time US National Rowing Team member, World Champion and Olympian (2004), holds an MBA from George Washington University and an undergraduate degree from San Diego State University.

Melissa Withers is Managing Director of Betaspring, an investment and support platform for growth companies. Since 2009, Betaspring has invested in 90+ companies. Their portfolio has raised $65MM in follow-on funding and produced four exits. In 2015, Betaspring launched RevUp, a non-equity, revenue-based investment fund for fast growing companies. Prior to Betaspring, Melissa's career began at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, with a unique role developing communications for the Human Genome Project. She was also co-founder of the Business Innovation Factory, a leader in the design and testing of new business models, and has held positions in the public sector at both the state and municipal level. She has a graduate degree from Northeastern University, where she studied science and technical communications. 

Clemens has experience in the startup and venture capital environment across Europe (Rocket Internet) as well as Latin America (Project-A Ventures). Prior to joining Harmony, he was a consultant at McKinsey, advising clients in technology, healthcare, and finance. He earned a BS in Management and MBA from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany. Clemens enjoys soccer, skiing, and scuba diving.

Amy Kadomatsu is co-founder and president of ROKO Labs, a mobile platform company that helps app creators build better apps by adding deep-linking, Refer-A-Friend, promo code tracking, and push notification to their apps in less than a day. Prior to ROKO Labs, Amy was a Managing Director at McGraw-Hill Financial, a Fortune 500 company. A serial entrepreneur, Amy has created and launched multiple start-ups including TheMarkets.com, which was sold to S&P Capital IQ in 2010 for $300M. Passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship, Amy is an active seed investor with HBS NY Angels, a mentor at Entrepreneurs Roundtable and advisor to start-ups. She also serves as Board Chair for MOUSE, a national nonprofit that empowers students to become leaders, inventors, and creators in the technology ecosystem. Amy is a graduate of Harvard University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Before joining Facilitated Growth in 2013, as a series 7 and 63 registered representative, Pete was involved in investments spanning both the public and private markets. At National Securities, he maintained client relationships, managed client accounts, and oversaw a team of people. As Director of Investment Strategy at FG, he is currently using his assets to assist entrepreneurs in navigating through the early stages of the business process, with a focus on investor sentiment. His ability to read and assess situations is considered by the partners when making a proprietary investment.

Mireya serves large diversified financial services organizations in the areas of marketing, operations and compliance, with a focus on risk management enterprise-wide and across the entire customer lifecycle. She is an innovation and brand technologist who has helped large banking organizations, nonprofits and start-ups define their strategic goals and optimize their infrastructure and operational processes for relevancy. She is also an angel investor affiliated with 37 Angels, a community of women angel investors focused on early-stage investment education.

Tarik is the Founder & CEO of Transcendent Holdings, an early stage technology investment company based in New York City. He is also a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, a VC firm investing in high-growth technology companies. Prior to Transcendent Holdings, Tarik gained investment experience at Atika Capital Management; ACM employs a long/short equity strategy where he covered technology/media/telecom sectors. Tarik also co-founded Chipp’d, a platform for attaching digital content to physical objects. He received his bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in International Studies with a minor in Business Administration.

Lesley Stroll is Executive Director of the Angel Investor Forum and is responsible for sourcing deals. As a Vice Chair of the Wharton Alumni Angel Network, she identifies and mentors early stage companies with high growth potential. Her degree in Entrepreneurial Management and a successful career in financial services in business development and in marketing gives Lesley a thorough understanding of the challenges faced by today’s entrepreneurs.