New York is home to numerous successful companies and promising startups, so it’s only natural that it also serves as a hub of entrepreneurial expertise.
Since launching in 2010, the New York Founder Institute has helped launch more than 100 up-and-coming startups, including EnerKnol, Kindara, and Pathgather, among many others. However, none of these companies would be where they are today without the help of experienced mentors to guide them through the challenges of launching and running a tech startup.
And so, without further ado, we present the highest-rated Mentors of the New York Founder Institute’s impressive history.
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Paul Polizzotto: (President and Founder, CBS EcoMedia) Prior to launching EcoMedia, Paul was the Founder and CEO of Property Prep, an industrial environmental cleaning company. He also served as the Founder and President of Adopt-A-Waterway, a public-private partnership program that promotes environmental awareness and technologies that mitigate storm drain and urban run-off pollution. |
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Jorge Torres: (Managing Director, VenSeed) Jorge is a professional early-stage investor who has helped launch two new investment firms since entering the venture capital industry. He currently invests in young companies across a range of consumer products categories such as Casper, Ringly, Tracksmith, and Pasta Chips. As a co-founder of VenSeed, he is building a platform to invest in the best new venture capital partnerships being formed in Silicon Valley, New York, and beyond. |
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Michael Chad Hoeppner: (CEO, GK Training & Communications) Michael Hoeppner is the CEO and president of GK Training and Communications, a firm dedciated to giving individuals, companies, and organizations the skills necessary to reach their highest goals in work and life. He leads a team of coaches who help professionals achieve profound, lasting transformations through superb coaching and dedicated long-term follow-up support. |
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Eoin Townsend: (Chief Product Officer, Collective) Senior product, services and business operations executive. Over 20 years experience with international companies in the high-tech sector (Direct Marketing, Internet, CRM and Telecommunications). He specializes in project and consulting management, including concurrent projects for various client groups, resource management, budget administration, and more. |
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Andrew Weinreich: (CEO, MeetMoi) Andrew is the Founder and Chairman of location-based mobile dating company MeetMoi. He's also the Founder and Chairman of the location-based services company, Xtify. He has previously founded sixdegrees, the original social networking site of 3.5 million members, which was sold in December 2000, and Joltage, the first company to provide operational support system to wireless networks. |
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Erick Schonfeld: (Former Editor, TechCrunch) Erick has been covering startups and technology news for 14 years. At Business 2.0 he wrote feature stories and ran their main blog, Next Net, which has nearly 50,000 RSS subscribers. He also does a lot of video work and hosts regular panels of industry luminaries called Disruptor Round Tables. Prior to Business 2.0, Erick was an editor-at-large for eCompany and a contributing editor for Fortune. |
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Gabe Zichermann: (Author, Speaker, Advisor, Gamification Co) Gabe is an author, highly rated public speaker, and entrepreneur. He is the chair of the Gamification Summit and editor of the industry’s leading publication, The Gamification Blog. His most recent book, “Game-Based Marketing” (Wiley, 2010) has achieved critical and industry acclaim for its detailed look at innovators who blend the power of games with brand strategy. |
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Charlie Kim: (Founder & CEO, Next Jump) Charlie founded Next Jump in 1994 in his college dorm room while going through school on financial aid. Next Jump grew through the first dot-com bubble to 150 employees, and survived the dot-com bust atering shrinking down to 4 employees in January 2002. The company became profitable that same year, continued investing aggressively. |
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Darren Herman: (Chief Digital Media Officer, kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners) Darren Herman is a globally recognized digital media pioneer specializing in advertising, media, and technology. Over the past 10 years, Herman has started five companies, sold two, and raised more than $40M in venture capital. His companies achieved numerous awards including Avenue-A | Razorfish’s critically acclaimed "Breakout Company of the Year" and AlwaysOn’s "Top 100 Private Company." |
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Meghan Messenger: (Co-Founder, Next Jump) Meghan Messenger serves as Co-Founder & Chief of Staff at Next Jump, Inc. (NxJ). Meghan started as a local sales intern for Next Jump in 1998 and helped grow the business though the first dot-com bubble to over 150 employees. A few years later, Next Jump survived the dot-com bust however shrunk down to just 4 employees in January of 2002. |
