Tom Berger

A seasoned senior operating manager with 22 years of big company experience and 23 years of start-up company experience in telecommunications and high tech including working within the venture capital community for 6 years.  CEO of seven start-ups with exits >$260M.  For the past 7 years, acted as an independent coach/consultant to startup and private companies, mostly on a pro bono, “give back” basis.  Tom has a free website CxO-Atlas.com that contains almost 600 articles on starting and running a business

Joe Briner

Managing Director, Vertical Capital Advisors

Joe Briner is the Managing Director of Vertical Capital Advisors, LLC, his Alpharetta-based, boutique investment bank. (The bank doesn’t invest in tech startups). Joe is available to assist our startups in refining their presentations/pitches to investors, their pitch decks and materials, and in telling a compelling story. He’s heard hundreds of pitches and seen hundreds of presentations, and he knows what’s needed to make a compelling presentation to investors and to tell an effective story.

Jacqui Chew

Founder & CEO of iFusion I TEDxAtlanta Licensee I Executive Speaker Coach 

Jacqui is a growth strategist, TEDx speaker & executive speaker coach who empowers mission-driven founders & leaders to tell high-impact stories and investor-driven narratives that drive results. Jacqui is founder of iFusion, prior CMO-in-Residence at ATDC, the organizer of TEDxAtlanta, and has held marketing leadership roles at PeopleSoft (acquired by Oracle), Stonesoft  (acquired by McAfee/Intel) & Silverpop  (raised \$30M, acquired by IBM).

Jacqui has been named one of the **25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia** by the Georgia Asian Times.

Jacqui gives back as a mentor at Techstars by Cox Enterprises,  Techstars Emory Founder Catalyst, Engage Ventures, and Georgia Tech’s Create-X.

Scott Danner

CCO, Diliko

Prior experience includes lengthy executive tenure at AT&T and two decades of senior level sales experience. 

Johnny Daswani

Johnny Daswani is a seasoned Financial Executive with over 26 years of experience in the financial industry. Initially, Johnny worked in the hedge fund sector, where he focused on investing in public and private companies, deploying over $1 billion in capital.

In the next phase of his career, Johnny served as Head of Equity Research at an institutional research firm, catering to large institutional clients, including mutual funds, hedge funds, and endowment funds.

In 2018, Johnny founded Alpha Street, a fee-only advisory firm, with a mission to give back to the community. In 2020, he merged his firm with a prominent investment firm based in Tampa.

Since the sale of his business, Johnny has been working as a Senior Financial Advisor, collaborating with high-net-worth families, corporations, and endowments.

In addition to his Wall Street experience, Johnny has engaged with several private equity and venture capital firms and has served as a mentor for organizations such as VMT, Leading Cities, and FIU.

Abhi Golhar

Private equity investor, entrepreneur, 3x nationally syndicated radio show host

As a Tech Alpharetta Mentor, Abhi is here to help you get closer access to institutional capital and advanced growth strategies once reserved for big corporations, giving you the power to scale, grow, and thrive.

Abhi is a private equity investor, 5x startup founder, and principal of Meridian 84, Abhi has spent his career empowering entrepreneurs like you. He’s built, operated, and scaled businesses, including NPHub, which serves 2,000+ nurse practitioner students annually, generating $8M+ in revenue from which he successfully exited in 2023.

Abhi’s expertise in private credit, M&A, and financing connects you to the resources you need to scale. Featured in Forbes, Inc., and Huffington Post, Abhi brings actionable insights, real-world experience, and a proven track record to entrepreneurs ready to leverage smart capital to win.

Randy Hasslinger

Randy’s career evolved from leadership roles in product and process development with Fortune 500 companies, to one that has focused and leverages direct engagement with customers for impactful business development. Experience and success across several medical device and biotechnology markets speaks to fundamental acuity for product concepts, their applications, and regularly exceeding B2B customer expectations.

Ehrar Jameel

Data & AI Executive | Top 100 AI Leader | Board Advisor

Award-winning Data and AI executive with 20+ years of experience transforming global enterprises through modern data platforms, AI strategy, and product innovation. Recognized among the Top 100 Data & AI Leaders, Ehrar has designed and launched multiple analytics and AI products now used across Fortune 500 organizations.

He serves on the CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board and the Gartner/Evanta C-Suite Governing Body, bringing a rare blend of strategic vision, deep technical expertise, and commercialization experience that bridges innovation with business impact.

David Jones

Co-Founder & Board of Directors, Flexential & Operating Director for the IDEA fund VC firm

David co-founded Peak 10 to be the leader in hybrid data center operations, hosting and managed services east of the Mississippi. David chose to serve on the board of directors to provide guidance as the new company continues the growth of its strategic and tactical journey. Flexential, a national, hybrid colocation, hosting, network and managed service data center company resulted from the late 2017 combination of two market leading data center companies, ViaWest headquartered in Denver, and Peak 10, headquartered in Charlotte. This combination created the largest national hybrid, facilities-based, hosting services company in the United States. He has 40 years of combined local, long-distance telecommunications and IT executive leadership experience in sales, marketing and operations, working for GTE (Verizon), Telecom* USA, MCI and ITC Holding Company. David holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Virginia and completed the Executive Development Business Program at George Washington University. He is an operating director for the IDEA Fund, a venture capital firm in Durham, NC and is chairman of Innovate Charlotte, a public-private fund fueling entrepreneurial growth in the Charlotte Region.

Bob Koviak

Microsoft Biz Apps, Microsoft

Bob Koviak is an early innovator and expert in all aspects of SaaS &
Cloud Software. He is a career Technology Sales Professional, who has spent 20+ years blending psychology within sales to drive
value/outcome-based companies. Bob has worked with, taught and led successful sales teams in multiple enterprise, as well as smaller, tech companies, and has a passion for paying it forward and helping others develop successful sales strategies. Bob and his family are Milton residents.

Nitin Mahindrakar

Nitin has 20+ years of experience helping different organizations launch new products and build highly effective strategies supporting expansion in existing and new markets that have resulted in new and incremental revenues of over $40M. Having launched more than 10 products across different geographies and taking them from ideation to revenue generation, his experience and expertise spans across multiple disciplines.

Nitin has a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Pune University in India, and has completed his executive MBA from Harvard Business School. He was also part of the Technology Entrepreneurship program provided by Stanford University.

He is actively involved in Technology Association of Georgia and has served as Board Chair and Board Member of Product Management Society. He also serves as Advisory board on a non-profit organization called AccessLife America (accesslifeamreica.org).

Jane McCracken

Chief Growth Officer, Corps Team

Jane McCracken has had an extensive career as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She founded and served in the C-suite for companies in healthcare, software and e-commerce raising $100+ million in funding and achieved exits in each via IPO or trade sale.

Jane also raised two venture capital funds and established a 50-person business angel network, all focused on investments in early-stage technology companies.

She currently serves as the Chief Growth Officer at Corps Team, a nationwide search and staffing firm that works with startups to the Fortune 500 finding talent for a variety of roles.

Most recently, Jane was the Assistant Director and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the ATDC, the state of Georgia’s technology business incubator.  She remains active in the Atlanta startup ecosystem and mentors companies at Tech Stars, ATDC, and Atlanta Tech Village.

Neha Negandhi 

Neha Negandhi is a Public Speaking Coach specializing in brand storytelling. She has built Storytellers Table, a dynamic community where entrepreneurs and business leaders harness AI to power their brand stories and command the public stage. 

 A TEDx Speaker with over 10 years of stage experience, she brings the precision of a trained journalist and former WMLB Atlanta radio host to master the art of storytelling in communication. 

Her marketing and media expertise spans Fortune 100 companies including T-Mobile, Starbucks and Turner Broadcasting. For more, check out NehaNegandhi.com

Dale Sizemore

Dale Sizemore is a FINRA licensed investment banker, based in Atlanta, Georgia.  Affiliated with Finalis Securities LLC (Member SIPC/FINRA), Dale arranges debt and equity financing for a wide range of companies worldwide seeking $10M or more in funding.

Dale is a serial entrepreneur and startup mentor who was also Director of Operations for Tech Alpharetta for 3 ½ years. He has been a judge at Innostars 2017 Pitch Contest Finals in Kunming, China, where he was described as a World Opinion Leader by Innostars and inducted into International Tech Transfer Network. He holds SIE, Series 63 and Series 82 licenses to conduct private placements.