I am a writer and a creative director who has lived and worked in various places (Santa Fe, San Francisco, New York) before starting a Detroit agency that is a marketing, design and strategy shop. We have worked with brands as varied as Amazon, Spotify, and Google. We also have a practice focused on cultural institutions that has done award winning work for Toledo Museum of Art, Studio Museum of Harlem, and Belle Isle. My writing has been published in the New York Times, Salon, and The Paris Review.

Umama’s superpower is bringing people together, online and off. The root of her name, “Ummah,” means community. That’s why community is at the root of everything she builds. As the Co-Founder of Play, a platform for learning new skills IRL, she creates workshops, events, and courses for ambitious people. From vibe coding, content creation, dance to style therapy, Play takes the friction out of following through by making learning social. Recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader and TEDx Speaker, Umama has made significant impacts in marketing, technology, and community building. As a highly sought-after social media and community influencer with 100k+ followers, she understands how to build brand loyalty, traction, and impact. Major clients like Nike, Adidas, ElevenLabs, Bumble, and Mercedes Benz Stadium trust her for her industry knowledge.

Jackson Georges Jr. is the Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at BAG Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in enterprise AI infrastructure, physical AI, and deep workflow automation. Built on the principle that operator-led networks accelerate startup growth, BAG Ventures bridges founders with a powerful ecosystem of over 150 LPs—more than half of whom serve as senior executives at Fortune 500 companies. Prior to BAG Ventures, Jackson served as a Partner at CapitalG, Alphabet’s $7B growth-stage fund. There, he advised portfolio CEOs on operational scaling and enterprise go-to-market strategies, leveraging his network to connect startups with F500 IT decision-makers and driving millions in incremental pipeline revenue. Jackson’s venture expertise is grounded in deep operating experience across technology and highly regulated sectors. At Google, his roles spanned People Operations as well as managing ad sales growth and strategy for major travel brands. Earlier in his career, he drove major IT and software management projects within the Office of the CIO at GE Healthcare. Active in the emerging tech ecosystem, Jackson also serves as a mentor for Key Studio, an AI incubator created in partnership with Google’s AI Futures Fund. Jackson was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, NY, and currently resides in Miami, Florida.

Toph is the CEO of Elevate Ventures, one of the most active Seed and Early-Stage investors in the Great Lakes Region and the United States, the Chief Visionary for Rally, where cross sector innovation convenes, and the host of the Innovate or Evaporate podcast. He is an innovator, entrepreneur, business creator, community builder, job maker and wealth creator throughout his endeavors over the last 30 years, having co-founded eight businesses in seven different sectors with multiple exits to Fortune 500 companies. He has led companies across multiple sectors including artificial intelligence, SaaS, hardtech, broadband, entertainment, investment banking and real estate. He collaborated to develop the US patent for Web Domain Ranking w/ Temporal Effects and coauthored the book Pillar-Based Marketing, a category best seller. He is an IBJ Forty Under 40, Indiana’s Dynamic Leader of the Year in 2024 and named as one of Indiana’s 250 most influential leaders.

Cheryl Kellond is a 3x founder, 3x Ironman, 4x mom, and active angel investor with more than 50 companies in her personal portfolio. She’s an internet OG known for straight talk and sharp insight on where early-stage investing is headed — and her current bet is that the best returns this cycle will come from outside Silicon Valley, funded by local investors and a whole new generation of angels. That’s what her current company, Play Money, is built for: turning regional expertise into a capital advantage. Play Money works with local angel groups and early-stage VCs to amplify the best regional startups, mint net new local investors, and stack national capital on top. Local capital compounds into a fluid fund for the region instead of scattering deal by deal. The platform has brought over a quarter million dollars of national angel dollars into Birmingham, Alabama. They recently launched their first regional hub in the DC area (letsplaymoney.com/dmv). Over the first three deals, national investors matched every dollar local investors put in. Cheryl’s perspective is unique because she is an operator and founder even before she is an Angel. Over her career, Cheryl has shipped more than $750M in Version 1 products at startups and marquee brands. She’s raised nearly $20M from tier-one VCs and was a pioneer raising on both Kickstarter and AngelList. She grew her last startup from scratch to $10M in annual revenue and an exit in just four years. Along the way, she’s worked 1:1 with over 400 early-stage entrepreneurs. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Inc., and Fast Company. She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BA from the University of Chicago. She likes her whiskey neat and has been a Colorado Buffaloes superfan since Coach Prime came to town.

Desiree Vargas Wrigley is the Founding GP of Velocity Catalyst Funds, where she invests in the founders and emerging managers building the next generation of homegrown multi-billion dollar companies in Chicago & IL’s most critical sectors. She has spent the last 17 years building in and for Chicago as a founder, innovation leader, and angel investor, her superpower being connecting diverse data points to uncover new opportunities and anticipate emerging trends. She recently wrapped up her tenure as Chief Innovation Officer at P33 and Executive Director of TechRise by P33, where she helped overlooked founders raise $200M and launched the TechChicago Capital Summit, The CommonAPP, and SpeedRound programs. Desiree is also the co-founder of Josephine Collective, Chicago’s most active angel group, an LP in an emerging FinTech fund and sat on the steering committee for All Raise Chicago. Previously, Desiree founded Pearachute, a children’s activity marketplace, and GiveForward, the world’s first peer-to-peer crowdfunding platform that transacted nearly $200M prior to being acquired by GoFundMe. A Yale graduate, Desiree also worked at the Kauffman Foundation as a specialist in entrepreneurship, at Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors, and at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management teaching New Venture Discovery. Desiree has been named Inc’s 30 Under 30, Crain’s 40 Under 40, one of Parents Magazine’s Most Inspiring Moms, one of Forbes Women to Watch, and has appeared on Shark Tank, closing one of the largest deals on the show to date.

Dan Watts became CEO of US Signal in March 2023, bringing extensive experience in M&A, integration, and scaling businesses through market strategy, product innovation, and operational excellence. Under his leadership, US Signal has achieved transformative growth, positioning the company at the forefront of edge, cloud, and AI-ready solutions. In 2025, Dan led the successful integration of OneNeck IT Solutions with US Signal, expanding the company’s footprint and strengthening its position in key U.S. markets. Recognizing the future of enterprise IT, he championed the development of OpenCloud—built on open-source technology to deliver flexible, scalable, and AI-ready cloud solutions that integrate seamlessly with US Signal’s custom data centers and edge network. His leadership has also driven unprecedented network expansion, including over 1,000 miles of ultra-dense fiber across key U.S. corridors, delivering low-latency, high-performance connectivity. Before joining US Signal, Dan served as Chief Operating Officer at Segra, one of the nation’s largest independent fiber companies, and as President of TSAChoice, Inc., a business technology integrator. He also held leadership roles at Windstream and PAETEC. Dan graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Liberty University and holds an MBA from the Haslam School of Business at the University of Tennessee. He is a veteran of the United States Army.

Ryan Anderson serves as Vice President of Global Research and Planning at MillerKnoll. His team leads MillerKnoll’s customer and industry research, shares insights publicly across the world, and provides workplace and design strategy to MillerKnoll customers. With over thirty years of industry experience, Ryan’s work has centered on how the places we inhabit can be better designed to support healthy, inclusive, and productive communities. Ryan hosts MillerKnoll’s About Place podcast on the future of the workplace and regularly speaks at public events about MillerKnoll’s historical and current research. Ryan is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, and has been featured in a wide variety of additional publications such as The Wall Street Journal, NPR, the BBC, Fortune, Bloomberg, and beyond.

Dawn Batts leads private market investing at Union Heritage, where she is responsible for early-stage investment strategy, capital allocation, and portfolio construction. Her role centers on how capital is deployed and governed, with an emphasis on disciplined decision-making, long-term value creation, and alignment between investors and founders. Dawn’s investment approach is shaped by a foundation in finance, operations, and entrepreneurship. She brings a practitioner’s perspective to venture investing, grounded in financial rigor, operating realities, and an understanding of how early-stage companies are built, financed, and scaled. This lens informs how she evaluates opportunities, structures investments, and partners with founders and co-investors. Dawn is actively engaged in strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems and expanding participation in early-stage capital. Her ecosystem work focuses on building and scaling angel investor communities regionally and nationally, increasing access to early-stage investment opportunities, and helping design capital pathways that address structural gaps in local markets. In her current and previous roles, she has contributed to developing collaborative investment models that align public, philanthropic, and private capital to support early-stage founders. Dawn serves as Vice Chair of the Angel Capital Association and is a gubernatorial appointee to the Michigan Early-Stage Venture Investment Corporation Board. She is also a co-founder of Milestone Growth Capital Institute, an organization dedicated to strengthening early-stage capital pathways, and serves on Living Cities’ Inclusive Capital Council. Dawn holds a B.A. in Accounting from Michigan State University, an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, and a PhD in Business and Cultural Anthropology from Wayne State University.

Chelsea Toler is a Partner in the newly formed WIN Fund. Passion for supporting impact movements and accelerating impact journeys through community building and education has been the driving force behind her career. Chelsea has always been excited about lifelong learning and helping the learner’s journey to ensure they have access to the mentorship, capital, technology, and tools they need to succeed. Chelsea serves as the President of her family’s foundation, focused on supporting sustainable philanthropy, next gen education, and intergenerational impact collaborations worldwide. Their newest initiative is focused on launching Logic Centers for Peace, Purpose, and Prosperity alongside some of the world’s leading philanthropic families. Chelsea also serves as the Co-Founder of Logictry, focused on elevating experts and human reasoning in the era of AI. Chelsea grew up in Austin, TX, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Texas. She received her PhD in Professional Adult and Community Education with a research focus on next gen women inheritors. Chelsea has helped move $100+ million towards impact initiatives in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and served as the first fundraising team member for I Live Here I Give Here, where she helped raise $20+ million in 24 hours for 750 nonprofit organizations as part of the Amplify Austin Day campaign.

Hilary Doe is a public servant, entrepreneur and thought leader who has spent her career on citizen engagement and bold action toward the biggest challenges of our time.

Appointed by Governor Whitmer in 2023, Hilary served as Michigan's, and the nation's, first Chief Growth Officer, leading the most ambitious population growth effort in state history. Before public service, she was President of NationBuilder and held leadership roles at national think tanks. Her work has been covered by Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, the Washington Post and Bloomberg.

Today she is President & CEO of Move Detroit. She is a University of Michigan graduate, an avid Pistons fan and a proud Detroiter.

Chris Thomas is a co-founder and partner of Assembly Ventures, with offices in Detroit, Berlin and Silicon Valley, building the next generation of mobility and industrial companies. Announced investments include Apptronik, CesiumAstro, Dephy, Metropolis, NAVIT, Two Boxes and Sortera.

Before Assembly, Chris co-founded Fontinalis Partners, the first mobility-focused venture firm, with Bill Ford Jr., as well as the Detroit Mobility Lab and Michigan Mobility Institute. He served in the U.S. Army in the U.S. and Iraq and worked at UBS in its Technology and Energy groups. He is a co-owner of Buddy's Pizza and one of the region's loudest voices for reindustrialization. Chris holds degrees from Michigan State University and the Yale School of Management.

Candice Matthews Brackeen is CEO of Lightship Foundation and General Partner at Lightship Capital, a venture firm backing underestimated founders and diverse teams, with a focus on companies outside traditional tech hubs.

A multi-time founder herself, Candice is also behind Black Tech Week, which supports Black entrepreneurs and technologists through networking, mentorship and access to capital.

John Hill is VP of Story at Whop, which he joined in 2024 to help make sustainable income available to everyone through the internet.

Before Whop, John was a Higher Education Evangelist, Network Catalyst and VP of Network at LinkedIn, an Evangelist at Techstars, and from 2022 to 2025 an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Michigan State University's Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. He likes unusual job titles, believes "changing the world" can be more than hyperbole, and is MSU by passion.

Jeffrey Stern is a founding Principal at The O.H.I.O. Fund. Before joining the fund, he co-founded and led product strategy at Axuall, a Cleveland-based healthcare technology company that has raised over $40 million to streamline credentialing across the healthcare industry.

Jeffrey hosts Lay of The Land, the top business podcast in Ohio, with 260+ interviews with Ohio founders, CEOs and entrepreneurs. The show was named Best Podcast of the Year (2025) by Cleveland Scene and received the Community Impact Award from the Greater Cleveland Partnership. He is a founding advisor to The Ohio Angel Collective and a board advisor for Signal Cleveland and Friends of Breakthrough.

Originally from Manhattan, Jeffrey chose to make Cleveland home. He holds dual degrees in Information Science and Economics from Cornell University.

Bobby Hopewell brings 35 years of healthcare, leadership and public service experience. He was the longest-serving Mayor of the City of Kalamazoo (2007 to 2019) and is a General Partner at Kalamazoo Forward Ventures, which invests in underrepresented founders, unique startups and driven innovators.

A paramedic by training, Bobby has led three Michigan emergency medical services agencies and served as an administrator for two Michigan health systems. Governor Whitmer appointed him to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Executive Committee, and he is a co-founder and Lifetime Emeritus member of the Kalamazoo Foundation for Excellence.

Eddie Everette is a Chicago-based creative producer known for his expertise in event curation and programming. He has contributed to projects at Today at Apple, the WNDR Museum and Havas.

Today Eddie produces events across Chicago and works with the Obama Foundation to promote community engagement and inspiration.

Abby Gates is the Founder and CEO of Sproutwise, a Michigan-based People & Talent consulting firm helping founders and growing companies build stronger, more sustainable organizations.

With more than 20 years leading People and HR functions at startups and high-growth companies, Abby has been part of four successful exits, including acquisitions and an IPO. Since launching Sproutwise in 2023, she and her team have partnered with more than 40 companies to move beyond founder-dependent operations.

Abby is an elected Village Trustee in Franklin, Michigan, a mentor and advisor in the startup ecosystem, and a Digital Reference 2025 and 2026 CHRO to Watch.

Adrian Fortino is a General Partner at Mercury Fund, where he leads the Industrial Transformation & Frontier Tech investment practice. He is most passionate about helping founders in overlooked industries and regions build massive, impactful companies.

Before venture, Adrian spent several years as an operator in Michigan and the Bay Area, co-founding three venture-backed startups, and before that was a powertrain development engineer at Ricardo Inc. He sits on the boards of Michigan Founders Fund, the Michigan Venture Capital Association and the Great Lakes Venture Summit, and has taught a venture capital class at the University of Michigan College of Engineering for the last 10 years. He holds a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Engineering and an MBA from the Ross School of Business.

Andy Keil is the co-founder and CEO of Dreambase, an AI-native analytics platform built for teams running on Supabase. Dreambase is backed by Felicis and Supabase's own CTO and COO and recently crossed 1,000 workspaces.

Andy grew up on the Nebraska–Iowa line, co-founded the Chicago music site Pop 'stache, which ran for over a decade, and spent ten years in product, including as Head of Product at QuotaPath. Today he runs Dreambase from Austin with a remote, AI-native team and hosts Supabase meetups. Off the clock, you'll find him on the pickleball court or designing his own board games.