Gail Becker

Founder, Caulipower

Gail Becker is best known as an entrepreneur, philanthropist and the Founder of CAULIPOWER,  the most disruptive company in the better-for-you frozen food space. The company experienced hyper-growth, reaching more than $100m in revenue in five short years. She has received recognition for her achievements in business from publications such as Forbes, Fast Company and Inc. Gail is a frequent media guest, sought out for her opinions on female leadership, healthy food trends and building great brands.

Her career path reflects her passions spanning journalism, government service and brand building. She has held senior positions in a myriad of industries and organizations including Edelman, Warner Bros. and the US Department of Health & Human Services.

Gail achieved all of this as the mother of two fantastic boys. When they were diagnosed with celiac disease at an early age, Gail was disappointed that the gluten-free options in grocery stores were limited, unhealthy and, frankly, didn’t taste great.

Frustrated by the lack of action by the “big food” companies, Gail decided to solve the problem herself. She left corporate America behind with no regrets and launched CAULIPOWER in 2017 with a mission to reinvent America’s favorite comfort foods to be tasty, convenient and nutritious.

Gail’s idea was initially rejected by manufacturers and the investor community, but she ignored them all and, in the process, proved them wrong.

CAULIPOWER is recognized as the true disruptor of what was one of grocery’s most stagnant categories, including being named as one of the Top 10 World’s Most Innovative Food Companies in 2022. Within its’ first two years, CAULIPOWER became a top 10 frozen pizza brand and captured more than 2% of the $5 billion US pizza market. 

CAULIPOWER did not stop at pizza; the brand has entered six new frozen food categories including, but not limited to: chicken tenders, pasta and breakfast scrambles.  Today CAULIPOWER is the #1 Cauliflower Crust Pizza, #1 Gluten-Free Pizza and is available in more than 25,000 stores and 5,000 restaurants nationwide. 

Gail has been widely recognized for her contributions to business and entrepreneurship including 50 over 50 (Forbes); Woman Business Owner of the Year (National Association of Women Business Owners); Trailblazer Working Mother of the Year (She Runs It); Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young); Person of the Year (NOSH Best of Awards); Entrepreneur of the Year (Stevie Awards) Executive of the Year (Best in Biz). CAULIPOWER was also named one of the 100 Best Led Companies in America (Inc.) under her leadership. 

On October 13th, 2021, CAULIPOWER perhaps hit the height of popular culture when the company (and Gail) were featured in a question on the television show Jeopardy!

Helkin Berg

Co-Founder, hey freya

A 3x tech startup CEO, Helkin has decades of global experience building consumer products and software. She has proven incredibly successful at turning around distressed startups as takeover CEO and launched hey freya to ensure that women-led and diverse teams make their presence known with large, successful ventures. Living firsthand the reality that women receive under 3% off all venture capital funding, Helkin is acutely aware that highly talented individuals with incredible leadership potential are often overlooked or excluded. Instead of being discouraged by this experience, she has taken this harsh reality in a 100% positive direction to create change not only for her peers but also for all of the underrepresented founders to join her, especially her young daughter who is the namesake of hey freya. She takes servant leadership and a “give first” mentality very seriously and despite devoting incredible amounts of time to the company and three young children, she mentors other underrepresented founders frequently and gives back to her community. 

A former collegiate athlete, Helkin was conditioned early on to ignore otherwise normalized bodily signals of stress (pain, discomfort and exhaustion) and recognizes firsthand how difficult self-care can be to prioritize.

A mom to multiples, Helkin is a strong advocate for this particularly burned out population as well as c-section moms whose recovery is feigned to be no different than vaginal deliveries and acknowledges that she is still on her road to recovery, even years after last giving birth. 

You can find her on the ski slopes or on the water sailing in her free time.

Currently based in Portland, Maine.

Eleanor Brown

Co-Founder, DiversiBoard 

Eleanor Brown is a Co-Founder of DiversiBoard, a Techstars/JP Morgan/Google Tech Equity Collective company that uses AI to enable African and Caribbean technical talent to find jobs, professional mentorship, and universities overseas. She is also a Professor of Law at Fordham University and an affiliated faculty member at Penn State. She was previously a chair of the Jamaica Trade Board. Brown was appointed by the Prime Minister of Jamaica to the CARICOM Commission. She has served on the boards of several publicly traded Caribbean companies and was the youngest director of two subsidiaries of the Bank of Nova Scotia (Jamaica). Brown, a Rhodes Scholar, earned her J.D. in from the Yale Law School and was a Reginald Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School. She is the mother of three children.

Komel Caruso

Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer, HerMD

Komel is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of HerMD. In her role, Komel oversees the HerMD brand as well as patient experience. She also is responsible for the strategy and execution of business development, sales, marketing and PR. 

“HerMD is changing women’s lives by giving  them a safe space to talk about all of their healthcare concerns. For far too long, we have been dismissed and have felt shame and stigma. We are empowering patients to take control of their sexual health and wellness.”

Prior to joining HerMD, Komel held several marketing and leadership roles within the education and ed tech space. She was the Senior Director of Sales and Marketing at Applerouth Tutoring services where she oversaw marketing, business development and the opening of new markets. 

Prior to that she held the role of Chief Revenue Officer for Story2 where she was responsible for marketing, sales, and strategic partnerships. Komel spent over a decade at Kaplan Test Prep in various marketing, sales, business development, and customer experience leadership roles.

Komel also sits on the board of Under the Sisterhood. Under the Sisterhood is a social impact company that celebrates all women's voices and perspectives. 

“I'm a changemaker and mission-driven leader who is passionate about truly changing women’s healthcare - to ensure that we are heard and that we receive the care we so truly deserve. I work each day to achieve that goal - to change the status quo - because, as we all know - the status quo never changed anything.

About HerMD

HerMD is revolutionizing the future of women’s healthcare. Physician-founded, patient-forward, and mission-driven, the HerMD team is hyper-focused on the underserved specialties of menopause and sexual health. HerMD centers provide a safe, welcoming space for patients to discuss all their health care needs - shame and stigma-free. They offer in-person and virtual care for sexual health, menopause, gynecology, medical aesthetics, and more. With an expert team of board-certified OBGYNs, healthcare providers, aestheticians, and a wide network of referral partners, their team is bringing you the care you deserve, nationwide. 

Follow @hermdhealth on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and TikTok.

Ellen Da Silva

Founder, CEO, Summer Health

Ellen DaSilva is the Founder and CEO of Summer Health. Summer Health is a message-based pediatric care service to handle all of your child's primary and urgent care needs 24/7 nationwide. Come join us today at www.summerhealth.com.

She was previously the Head of Business Development at hims&hers, focusing on strategic partnerships and growing the business. She is also an active angel investor as a Sequoia Scout in Seed and Series A consumer tech companies.

Ellen obtained her MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. During her time at HBS, she was a Partner at Rough Draft Ventures, the pre-seed fund of General Catalyst. Prior to business school, she managed a unit of the Business Operations team at Twitter. Previously, she worked at Barclays Capital.

She co-authored the book Pitching & Closing: Everything You Need To Know About Business Development, Partnerships, and Making Deals that Matter, a guidebook to business development and revenue-generating partnerships at tech startups.

LeAnn Darland

Co-Founder, TALEA Beer

LeAnn Darland’s love for beer and dream of owning a brewery was first ignited while stationed in San Diego, serving in the US Navy as a Signals Intelligence Officer. Living in these popular craft beer destinations, LeAnn was inspired by the casual, communal vibe of local taprooms. After five years of naval service, LeAnn used her Masters in Finance and MBA to pursue a career in corporate finance at Google.

 

She began homebrewing and cold-emailing breweries to see if she could work for free and learn about the business in exchange. Unfortunately, no breweries responded, but during this time, LeAnn was serendipitously introduced to the founder of Hopsy, who was in the beginning stages of fundraising for the craft beer delivery company. LeAnn joined the Hopsy team full time as the Head of Finance and later interviewed and convinced Tara Hankinson, her future TALEA co-founder, to join. Once colleagues, the two found that they had a mutual dream of opening a brewery of their own and serving easy-to-love beers. Within three months of meeting, TALEA Beer Co. was born.

Deb Dutta

Founder and CEO, Criya

Deb is the founder & CEO of Criya - an AI tech startup backed by the prestigious Y Combinator and top tier VCs.

Deb, is a female immigrant founder with 13+ years of experience as a successful Product Executive at PayPal, Microsoft, Hitachi. Deb holds a Masters degree from Carnegie Mellon in computer science and brings a wealth of knowledge and insights about entrepreneurship and raising capital as a solo female founder. Her work has been recognized and featured on prestigious platforms such as Forbes, TechCrunch, New York Times, and Y Combinator.  Additionally, she actively contribute to Forbes and leads the Women in Product chapter, where she mentors aspiring professionals through their Product careers. Aside from that, Deb actively mentors women to develop their skills in product management, entrepreneurship and fundraising.

As the Founder & CEO of Criya, a Y Combinator backed AI startup that helps business leaders and solopreneurs such as coaches, consultants,and community builders to create their own AI Twins - a bespoke masterpiece of their knowledge, so millions of people can have access to their genius 24x7.  Deb’s vision has always been to build technology with a vision where leading experts can scale their impact limitlessly.

Deb lives in San Francisco with her husband and 3 rescued pets. In her spare time, Deb loves to sing and make music, take up DIY and home decorating projects. 

Rashmi Gill

Rashmi Gill Photography

London born ex-lawyer, now running a photography business in NYC.

I am a portrait photographer and specialize in personal branding and headshots.

I curate individual shoots for each and every client as each client and brand is different and unique in some way.

Dara Hart

Sage + Sound Teacher

Dara is an artist and athlete who has served as a trainer, facilitator and teacher to industry leaders, entrepreneurs and creatives. She holds experience across physical, meditative and artistic modalities, including personal training, boxing, yoga, music, reiki and yoga therapies. She founded her own digital studio, offering clients one-on-one and group sessions across fitness, meditation and healing arts. Dara continues to facilitate experiences and share celebrated offerings to a global audience of diverse communities. 

Lorna Kapusta

Head of Women and Engagement, Fidelity Investments

Lorna Kapusta is driven to help women become more actively involved and confident in their finances at every stage of life – a mission that became deeply personal after conquering her own financial stressors, getting more engaged and finding confidence in her family’s financial goals and picture overall.

 

In her role as Head of Women and Engagement at Fidelity Investments, one of the industry’s largest and most diversified financial services companies, Lorna is responsible for a firm-wide initiative committed to helping women become more engaged in their finances and ultimately, more confident investors.

 

She leads a cross-company team focused on creating educational events and resources that help women get more hands on with their money and address financial planning and investing topics most important right now. Lorna is passionate about helping women have that “a-ha moment” that brings to life how building a strong financial foundation and getting more invested can help their savings work harder to reach their goals.

Lorna and her husband, Matt, live in the suburbs of Boston, juggling a busy household with their three children (Jacob, Aiden and Sage), three dogs (Jazzy, Rocco and Chewy) and a cat (Vadah).

You can follow along with Lorna on LinkedIn and in Fidelity’s Women Talk Money community.  

Tanya Klich

Senior Editor of Money & Career, Marie Claire

Tanya Benedicto Klich is Senior Editor of Money & Career at Marie Claire, where she also oversees profiles of female founders, funders, executives, innovators and more. Tanya joined Marie Claire from Forbes, where she covered the business of beauty and style for the ForbesLife section. She also reported on the arts, auctions, luxury real estate, autos and more. She also worked as a former television reporter for NY1 News, where she was assigned to all things Queens, New York. She got her start in business news as a greenroom greeter and production assistant at Fox Business. Tanya is also a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she specialized in business & economic journalism, and is an adjunct professor at the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two little sons. Follow her on Twitter: @TanyaKlich

Jessica Korthuis

Co-founder & CEO, Her Brand & Co

Jessica Korthuis is the Co-founder & CEO of Her Brand & Co., a modern marketing educational company for female founders. Jessica is a 40 Under 40 Honoree, a “Women Who Mean Business” Honoree, a “Women to Watch in 2019 and Beyond” award recipient, and was recently awarded the Womenpreneur Education Business Innovator of the Year by the Influential Businesswoman Awards.

Jessica is an alumni of The Wharton School’s Executive Education Program on Accelerating Entrepreneurship, and she is a formal advisor to several female-founded companies who are using their brands to do good in the world. Jessica is a prominent speaker on marketing and entrepreneurship, and has been featured by Entrepreneur Women, Thrive Global, The Lean Startup Co., IFundWomen, The Female Founder Collective, The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), and many others. She is a proud mompreneur with a passion for writing and is a fierce advocate for women driving wealth creation, and she is most happy spending time with her husband and daughters.

Christine Lagorio

Editor At Large, Inc Magazine

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin is a reporter and nonfiction author based in New York. She’s editor at large of Inc. magazine, where she writes features. She created and hosted the What I Know podcast, a long-form interview show featuring remarkable stories of founding and growing companies.

Her reporting about business, education, innovation, and culture, has appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, New York, Vanity Fair, and other publications. Prior to joining Inc., she was a writer for CBS News. She began her career interning for The Village Voice’s legendary investigative reporter Wayne Barrett.

Her book about Reddit and Internet culture, We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet’s Culture Laboratory, was published in 2018 by Hachette Books. (Order it here!)

Her expertise on online platforms, social-media moderation, regulation of Silicon Valley, and many other topics has been featured on NPR’s 1A, Marketplace, MSNBC, and many publications. For speaking engagements or press interviews, send inquiries here.

Lagorio-Chafkin grew up on a sheep farm and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in New York City with her three kids, two cats, and one husband.

Ronda Lee

Senior Reporter, Yahoo Finance

RONDA L. LEE is an attorney, writer, storyteller, executive speechwriter, on-air host, reporter and journalist with exceptionally broad experience in law, business, education, and government. Her business and management audit experience give her a vital edge in cutting to the core of policy and legal tangles.

She is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance reporting and writing news-driven articles, trend pieces on housing, taxes, insurance, and student loans with feature pieces on gender equity, the racial wealth gap, and building generational wealth for first generation wealth creators.

She previously worked at HuffPost and Business Insider.

Sehreen Noor

Co-founder & President, Sleuth

Sehreen Noor Ali is the co-founder of Sleuth, a VC-backed AI startup transforming kid’s health by giving parents instant and personalized insight for all of their “is this normal?” concerns. Inspired by her struggle getting answers for her daughter's health, Sleuth’s vision is to displace Dr. Google and decrease the rate of delayed diagnoses which affects 50% of all kids. Sehreen is a proud former public servant and advocate for equity. She founded EdTechWomen, for which she received a Change Maker of the Year Award, and is a graduate of Brown, where she serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, and Harvard. She lives in NYC and is the mother of two girls. She loves connecting with other parents on IG @sehreennoorali and @hellosleuth.

Lorine Pendleton

Partner, Portfolia Rising America Fund

Lorine Pendleton is a seasoned VC, advisor and attorney with extensive experience in the legal, technology and entertainment industries. She was named by Mergers & Acquisitions as the 2021 Top 25 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A, by Worth as one of the “16 Financial Powerhouses,” Marie Claire as one of the “Most 50 Connected Women in America – Star Dealmaker,” Brown Brothers Harriman’s Women & Wealth as “21 Women to Watch in 2021, Business Insider as one of the “22 Female Angel Investors Every Startup Founder Should Know,” Crunchbase as “39 Black Women Investors Inspiring a New Generation of Investors,” Medium as one of the “200 Women of Color to Follow on Twitter,” and Black Enterprise as one of the “20 Angel Investors You Should Know.” 

Lorine launched our investing career a decade ago. Initially as an angel investor and now VC. Lorine is the Founder and Managing Partner of a new fund launching in February 2023. She is the Lead Investment Partner at Portfolia’s Rising America Fund I & II, which invests in companies with founders of color, women, LGBTQI+ or companies with products or services addressing those markets. Her fund has made 25+ investments to date including notable investments such as Maven Health ($1.3B valued women’s health company), Madison Reed (revolutionizing hair color), Canela Media (Latinx streaming service) and MoCaFi (digital bank for the under- and unbanked). Her Fund I has an unrealized net IRR of 52% which puts it in the highest echelon of all venture capital funds vintage year 2020. She is an angel investor in Oura Ring (sleep and fitness tracker), Hire an Esquire (on demand legal tech) and Traklight (legal tech business risk evaluator). She is a former Board Member of the Angel Capital Association and a former Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Brown University’s Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship. She was recently appointed to serve on the President’s Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship at Brown University. She is a Special Committee Member of the University of Buffalo Foundation Endowment Investment Committee. Additionally, she is a Board Member at StartOut, a non-profit champion for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and researcher of the economic impact of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.

She is a graduate of Brown University (BA – Economics) and New York Law School (JD).

Nithya Thadani

CEO, RAIN

Nithya Thadani is the CEO of RAIN, a leading voice technology firm that builds conversational AI experiences and software to address major workplace inefficiencies

Under Nithya Thadani’s leadership, RAIN has built voice products for dozens of F500 companies including Starbucks, Amazon, Marriott and Blackrock. In addition, as a leading strategic partner to the Veterans Affairs, RAIN is delivering voice-first patient services in pursuit of more accessible remote patient care.

Nithya brings over a decade of experience in product innovation, investment banking and private equity. She was named as one of Voicebot.ai’s Top Visionaries in Voice 2020 and Adweek’s 10 Young Influentials in Tech. She is a Women in Voice NY founding member and ambassador. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Human Rights First, an organization combating global human rights violations, where she is supporting the Technology Innovation Lab.

Nithya holds a BS from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Simmone Taitt

Founder and CEO, Poppy Seed Health

Simmone Taitt (she/her) bio: Simmone Taitt is the CEO and Founder of Poppy Seed Health, a telehealth app transforming the way we care for pregnant and postpartum people with 24/7 text access to doulas, midwives and nurses. On a mission to democratize accessibility, emotional support and well-being for all birthing people, Taitt comes to this work through the highly personal experience of navigating her own pregnancy loss in an inequitable medical system. Prior to Poppy Seed Health, Taitt spent thirteen years working on go-to-market strategies with early-stage startups Gilt Groupe, SpaFinder, and KidPass. She is a deep believer that technology can and should leverage its power to connect us all with radical empathy. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, CBS Mornings with Gayle King, Vogue and many more.

Amy Shoenthal

Contributor, Forbes

Amy Shoenthal is a journalist, marketing consultant and the author of The Setback Cycle, a book about how today’s prominent founders and leaders overcome obstacles to find success. As a contributor to Forbes Women and Harvard Business Review, she shines the spotlight on leaders who have been historically underestimated yet are doing the work to solve society’s biggest problems. Amy also boasts a two-decade marketing career, working with some of the world's largest brands, from Procter & Gamble to Google. She now works with founders, corporations, nonprofits and small businesses to shape their brand narratives and captivate audiences through strategic storytelling.

Jannine Versi

Co-Founder and COO, Elektra Health

Jannine Versi has spent her career in healthcare, tech, and government, including roles at Google, in the Obama Administration, and White House. She was on the founding team of Cityblock Health and was an early hire at Valera Health. She's an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School, and was a Fulbright Scholar and a Blavatnik Fellow at HBS. In her spare time, she can be found researching new restaurants to try in the neighborhood or picnicking in the park with her husband and twins.