Featured Venture Capital Experts

Iris Duan is a dynamic venture partner and operational leader specializing in early-stage investments, decentralized technologies, and sustainable innovation across international markets. As a Venture Partner at a $50M+ AUM VC firm, she successfully chaired weekly investment committees, managed cross-border deals, and fully returned Fund 1 with a 2.4x MOIC. Her investment focus includes renewable energy, cloud computing, medtech, and Machine Learning. Concurrently, as COO and Co-founder of Immutable Labs, Iris drove the creation of an operating model generating $25M in revenue, leading the integration of advanced packaged technology across edge computing, FLLMs, secured oracles, and explainable AI, delivering significant compute and cash reductions. Fluent in English and Mandarin, Iris leverages a global perspective from her experience in Zurich, Beijing, and Milan, blending deep financial acumen (BBA in Finance, Minor in Economics from Emory University) with practical, high-growth startup leadership. Her expertise lies in translating complex client needs into tangible business requirements, orchestrating R&D, and building robust client bases that support hybrid cloud and idle computing solutions. Iris is a two-time TEDx speaker and a passionate advocate for social enterprise, having led non-profit consulting teams focused on strategic PR and market research for diverse international clients.

mom.pre-seed VC in b2b SaaS, digital consumer health, fintech and web3 at Hustle Fund.I customer & community centric founders who look like anyone & come from anywhere. Distance traveled > pedigree. cowork with me on flow.club invest with me through Angel Squad ride with me at SoulCycle

Championing visionary founders who dare to blaze a new path. Looking for funding? Fill out our pitch us form: https://tally.so/r/mYRD2B

I'm a Midwestern venture capitalist on a mission to empower founders with resources to maximize their growth, while generating lucrative returns for investors. My passion for learning and entrepreneurship has driven me to fuel impact for founders by connecting them to the resources, capital and advice that they need to succeed. Authenticity is at the root of my work, as I strive to develop meaningful relationships with entrepreneurs, peers and investors. With an outside-the-box approach to investing, I can speak to the future of venture capital, growing successful startups and fostering a stronger and more diverse investment culture in the Midwest.

Founder of Vungle (sold for $780M to Blackstone). Partner at Blue Field Capital and run my family office via Zain Ventures. Contributor to various publications on topics such as AI & Tech. I also do my philanthropic activities through the Zain Jaffer Foundation which produces documentaries and funds a variety of causes throughout the world.

If you’re here, you’re probably curious about who I am and what we do at spectup. Let me fill you in. I started my career with a banking apprenticeship, thinking I’d spend my life crunching numbers. But then I discovered startups—and everything changed. At N26, the fintech unicorn, I got my first taste of the fast-paced world of innovation. I fell in love with the chaos, creativity, and energy. After that, I joined Civey, where I dove into digital market research, business models, and marketing strategies. Then came Deutsche Bahn, where I worked on international expansion, competitor analysis, and market strategies. I learned how to make sense of complex industries (global transport markets, anyone?) and drive growth. At diffferent (yes, that’s how it’s spelled), I helped brands like Audi and Zalando identify growth opportunities and design innovative business strategies. And at Deloitte’s Innovation & Ventures team, I worked on building future-proof businesses with cutting-edge tech. One highlight? Leading 30+ projects at the BMW Startup Garage, helping startups find their place in the world of mobility. That’s where I saw the real power of connecting startups with the right partners. Now, I’m building spectup. We work with growth-stage companies and select early-stage startups, helping them raise capital, connect with the right investors, and position themselves for long-term success. We also work with investors—PEs, VCs, angels, and family offices—helping them find promising, vetted companies to invest in without spending countless hours on due diligence. Why? Because startups fail too often, and investors waste too much time looking for the right opportunities. We’re here to bridge that gap. Whether you’re a founder looking for investors or an investor seeking quality opportunities, spectup is about making those connections—and making them work.

More than a decade of experience in consulting, venture capital, and startups.

If you are looking for any investment partners, development, sales, team building or coaching you can message me on LInkedIn or email- sarahmarienaska@gmail. SMHAVICE INVESTMENTS CORP SMH CAPITAL GROUP LLC EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP * TeamTraining & Delegation * Cross Functional Collaboration * Strategic Partnership Relations * Policies & Procedures * Communication & Organization CABIN SPECIALIST Corporate / Private Jet Aviation * Executive Service * Sales -Static Display & Demo * Crew Brief & Safety * Electronic Systems Oriented FITNESS MANAGER * Personalized Fitness Programs * Individual & GroupTraining * Sales & Marketing Strategies * Brand Development ACHIEVEMENTS- Executive - Sustained 10% annual net gain for ten years by consistently maintaining budget expenditures to 90% of guidelines. Fitness - Retained 96% client return by creating safe diet and nutrition plans and effective exercise programs for wide variety of clients. Private Aviation- Promoted to leadership / management position in first year with company.

Blake Morgan serves as Managing Partner of Mineral Vault following a career at Google, and, more recently, 10 years experience in mineral interest acquisition and management at Allegiance Oil & Gas and Anthem Oil & Gas. Mr. Morgan is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, where he received an academic scholarship to obtain his degrees in Business Honors & Finance. He is a native of Midland, Texas.

Expertise in Consumer Finance, Marketing, Real Estate, and E-commerce. Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills, which develops productive working relationships with individuals at all levels. Dedicated and motivated manager, who easily manages individuals and teams to produce optimum results. Strategic and analytical with experience developing and executing marketing plans, and managing digital and social media production. Creative writer with expertise in developing copy material, press materials, scripts, and content. Strong financial skills in managing P& L. Specialties: real estate, contract negotiation, banking and finance,marketing, merchandising, e-commerce,mortgage sales, recruiting, copy-writing,

Founder of Vungle (sold for $780M to Blackstone). Partner at Blue Field Capital and run my family office via Zain Ventures. Contributor to various publications on topics such as AI & Tech. I also do my philanthropic activities through the Zain Jaffer Foundation which produces documentaries and funds a variety of causes throughout the world.

Julian Weisser is the founder of Solo Founders, a program backing the world best solo builders; in 2025 he launched the Solo Founders Program in San Francisco—an incredibly competitive cohort (<1% acceptance) for six founders that’s already produced millions in funding and 35k GitHub stars. Julian previously co-founded ODF (On Deck Founder Fellowship) and now serves as ODF’s CEO, where alumni have launched 1,000+ startups and raised $2B+ from top investors. As an angel, Julian has invested in 400+ companies, with early bets including Loyal, Levels, Atmos, AstroForge, Secureframe, and Motion.

After transferring my loved Veertly to Swisscom, it's time to keep building new projects! I am building new projects every month, so follow me on Twitter to keep up to date with my new ventures. https://twitter.com/joaoaguiam

Founder and CEO of Very Good Ventures, a global digital product design and development partner focused on multi-device experiences that drive exponential value for enterprise brands. Very Good Ventures provides full-service app design and development as well as services that help companies adapt to high leverage emerging technologies. VGV is not only the world’s most experienced Flutter development team, but also melds world class design, product, strategy, QA, AI and full stack engineering expertise. Clients include Google, Toyota, Universal, Hamilton, Trackhouse Racing (NASCAR), Betterment, American Airlines, JSX, and more.