Speakers

Ambika Singh founded Armoire in 2016 to revolutionize how women approach their wardrobes through clothing rental subscriptions. She was previously the second employee at Rover.com and a product manager at Microsoft. Named to Puget Sound Business Journal's 40 Under 40, she holds degrees from Dartmouth and MIT Sloan.

Chet Kittleson is the co-founder and CEO of Tin Can, a Seattle-based startup building screen-free phones for kids. Previously, he led teams at early-stage startups in real estate and consumer tech. He also taught at General Assembly. Backed by Pioneer Square Labs, Tin Can was recognized as a GeekWire Uncommon Thinker and named one of Fast Company’s most innovative companies of 2026.

David Shim is the co-founder and CEO of Read AI, one of the fastest-growing AI productivity tools with millions of users worldwide. He previously founded Placed, which was acquired by Snap in 2017, and served as CEO of Foursquare. David is a UW alum.

Emily Choi-Greene is the CEO and co-founder of Clearly AI (YC S24), which automates security and privacy reviews for enterprises. Previously, she led data security and privacy at Moveworks and spent five years at Amazon leading Alexa AI Security. Emily graduated in Computer Science from Dartmouth College.

Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and author best known for pioneering the Lean Startup methodology, which has transformed how startups are built and scaled globally. He is the author of the bestselling book 'The Lean Startup' and co-founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE). Eric's work focuses on helping entrepreneurs create sustainable businesses through continuous innovation and validated learning.

Ian Swanson is VP of Product at Palo Alto Networks, where he leads Prisma AIRS following the acquisition of Protect AI, the AI security company he co-founded in 2022. Previously, he founded DataScience.com (acquired by Oracle), led AI/ML at AWS, and was CEO of Sometrics (acquired by American Express). UC Santa Barbara alum.

Ian Wong is the co-founder and CEO of Summation, an AI-powered decision platform for enterprise leaders, backed by $35M from Benchmark and Kleiner Perkins. He previously co-founded Opendoor (NASDAQ: OPEN), serving as CTO through its IPO, and was Square's first data scientist. Ian holds degrees from Stanford University.

Maria Colacurcio is the CEO of Syndio, the leading pay transparency and workplace equity platform used by Fortune 500 companies including Salesforce, Walmart, and Microsoft. She previously co-founded Smartsheet (NYSE-listed in 2018) and held leadership roles at Starbucks and Microsoft. Named to Goldman Sachs' 100 Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs list. She attended Whitworth University.

Marius Ciocirlan is co-founder and CEO of MarkOS, building AI-powered brand management tools. He previously led Techstars Seattle as Managing Director and co-founded ShareGrid, a peer-to-peer equipment rental marketplace for filmmakers that was acquired by Backstage. Former Senior Product Designer at Groupon. Arizona State University graduate.

Nikesh Parekh is a Seattle serial entrepreneur and founder of Provn - the AI Talent Draft. He co-founded Suplari, an AI platform for procurement & finance teams acquired by Microsoft in 2021. Previously CEO of ActiveRain (acq by Market Leader), EVP of Market Leader (acq by Trulia) and VP of New Ventures at Trulia (acquired by Zillow for $2.5B). Harvard graduate.

Patrick Thompson is co-founder and CEO of Clarify, an AI-native CRM taking on Salesforce. A three-time founder, he previously co-founded Iteratively, a customer data platform acquired by Amplitude in 2021, where he became Director of Product. Earlier, he led design for Jira at Atlassian. University of San Diego alum.

Rand Fishkin is cofounder and CEO of SparkToro, makers of fine audience research software, pun-filled Google Alerts alternative Alertmouse, and indie game developer Snackbar Studio. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his writing, videos, speaking, and his book, Lost and Founder. When Rand’s not working, he’s usually traveling with or cooking a fancy meal for the love of his life, bestselling author Geraldine DeRuiter.

Terry Myerson is CEO and co-founder of Truveta, which uses EHR data and analytics to improve patient care and train medical AI, trusted by 50+ healthcare and life science customers. A 21-year Microsoft veteran, he led Windows, Xbox, and Office 365 development as Executive Vice President before founding Truveta. Terry is a graduate of Duke University.

Varun Puri is the CEO and co-founder of Yoodli, an AI-powered communication coaching platform used by companies like Databricks, Snowflake, and RingCentral. Previously, he was a product manager at Google X and ran special projects for Sergey Brin. Varun is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and Claremont McKenna College graduate.