Mentor Circles: Get Face to Face With Leaders and Find Inspiration

Tech Cocktail Celebrate Conference is only days away. Have you registered yet? Act fast before you’re left out of one of the most intimate and inspiring startup and tech conferences this year. Set right in the heart of Downtown Las Vegas and the Downtown Project – where startups are building and growing every day – we have assembled community leaders and tech entrepreneurs from around the country to collaborate and learn together on October 6-7.

Just for attendees, we have opened up registration for Mentor Circle sessions. These are roundtable-style discussions led by one or two mentors that promise lively and informative conversation on the topics most important to you. Here’s a helpful guide to just a few of the session offerings. If you’re ready to sign up for your appointment, keep in mind that you must be a registered attendee and that we ask that you book no more than 2 appointments. (Note: If you do, you may have you sessions cancelled without warning!)

Mentor Spotlight

It’s lonely at the top! Get leadership and inspiration on the CEO role from:

Joel Trammell is the founder and CEO of Khorus, Chairman Emeritus of the Austin Technology Council and author of “The CEO Tightrope”. Khorus helps CEOs to prepare for the unique task of running their business with specific business management systems.

Matt Galligan is the cofounder & CEO of Circa, and having founded several other startups, he serves as a mentor at Techstars, CodeForAmerica, FounderFuel, and BoomStartup. Matt has made several creative, successful moves in the development of Circa.

John Richards is a lean startup and entrepreneurship professor at BYU, in addition to having cofounded BoomStartup, serving on UtahAngels, and serving as Head of Operations for Google Fiber in Provo, UT.

Are you charged with stimulating your community or municipality’s startup scene? You may want to schedule yourself with these mentors:

Rebecca Lovell is the startup liaison for the City of Seattle, specializing in connecting companies to the talent pipeline. She is also a karaoke junkie, a Techstars and SURF mentor, and works to connect underrepresented groups to the startup community.

John Curtis is proclaimed to be one of Utah’s most tech-savvy mayors, working to connect people with government and help lead other local governments to do the same.

Gabe Karp is a talented juggler, and based in Detroit, is hard at work to bring venture capital to startups and small business in the hard-hit Midwestern town as a Partner at Detroit Venture Partners. Gabe has significant experience in startup and small busines growth, having brought ePrize (now HelloWorld) to 500 employees.

Thinking about getting into the tech startup scene, but need a little inspiration or understanding of how to find developers? Check the schedule for:

Mike McGee comes from a High School where the mascot is a Pretzel, but he is best known for cofounding Starter League, which came from the interest in creating a startup but not having technical skills.

Hemant Garg is an Engineer, UX designer, Product shaper and Entrepreneur with focus on mobile apps at Relcy, Inc.He has been featured as, and given awards for, his talent as one of the top Android developers.

George Moncrief is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for VegasTechFund, and brings a wealth of experience in running development teams and startups. He’s also an avid snowboarder and could probably school you in skateboard kickflips.

Rob Mallery was born in a log cabin in Montana and just started using Twitter, but don’t let that fool you. He is the VP of Talent at Originate, a unique software venture firm. He works to attach all of the puzzle pieces required to build the team of a successful startup.

Curious about all this Downtown Las Vegas happiness, how it works, what its challenges are, and how you can introduce it to your company or community culture? You need to schedule yourself with:

Jenn Lim, an early advisor to Zappos since its startup days, is the CEO of Delivering Happiness, is also the creator of the Zappos Culture Book and is a pioneer in the movement to create happier companies, communities, and cities around the world.

Dylan Jorgensen cofounded Ticketcake, was one of the first to move his business to Downtown Las Vegas as part of VegasTechFund, and cofounded the Downtown Podcast to inspire, connect, and inform. Engineering purpose and happiness and accelerating luck is the topic of one of his TEDx talks.

Sarah Evans is a digital correspondent, entrepreneur, and founder of Sarah’s Faves and Sevans Strategy. She can be found promoting major brands like Cox, PayPal, and the Shorty Awards, and is a huge cheerleader in leading entrepreneurs to find their passion creatively. But more than this, she holds a record as a past jump rope champion at summer basketball camp.

Are you ready to apply to a startup accelerator? Want some inside tips, or simply want to learn more about other ways to find help and funding for your startup? Definitely get in on the sessions with:

Gabriella Draney is the Cofounder and CEO of Tech WildCatters from Dallas, early stage tech seed fund and accelerator, specializing in b2b startups. She has been involved with startups all of her adult life, and lived in Mexico as a child with her missionary father.

Michael Hughes is not only a triplet, but he also serves as the Director of Business Development at OneVest, an equity crowdfunding platform that connects entrepreneurs with a pool of accredited investors. OneVest came out of the merger of CoFounders Lab and RockThePost.

Donna Harris is the cofounder of 1776 in Washington, DC. She has been a leading force in creating and incubating startup communities across America, encouraging access to investments, mentors, talent, and other essential ecosystem traits.

Jim Deters is the cofounder of startup space Galvanize in Denver, which has expanded to multiple locations to empower entrepreneurs with access education, innovation, mentors, and funding.

Are you building things? Looking for funding for your high-tech startup or guidance on hardware startups? Do not miss your chance to be face to face with:

Brady Forrest runs Highway1, PCH’s Hardware Incubator, and previously created Ignite. Based in Silicon Valley with connections in China, Highway 1 is looking for the next hardware startup.

Sheikh Shuvo is the Senior Regional Manager for UpGlobal, the catalyst behind Startup Weekend. Sheikh specializes in empowering communities around the globe to develop and identify community partners and leaders.

All of the mentor circle session registrations
can be found in one place,

so find the one (or two) to inspire you the most
and register quickly!

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Written by:
Previously the Managing Editor at Tech.Co, Ann Diab has a background of launching and nurturing of startups and tech companies. Empowering and educating entrepreneurs and startups to better productivity and culture is her passion. Growth Manager at WorkingOn to enable folks all over the world to enjoy work and improve communication. Follow me on Twitter.
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