Presenters

Carrie Aguilar

At Innov8 Growth Partners we provide Founders and Businesses the sales foundation, strategy, and training they need to successfully reach their next milestone. We work with High-Growth Startups in 3 different capacities: Seed/Pre-Seed, Series A/B, Series B/C. We help you understand what you need to get to the next revenue milestone, learn more about your business, and implement the best way to get there.

Sarah Barrick

Sarah Marilyn Barrick is an experienced serial entrepreneur turned investor and growth marketer, responsible for deal sourcing and initial startup diligence for the BBE Fund.

As a seasoned marketing professional with a unique background in neuroscience, she previously drove over $100M in revenue through organic viral marketing and specializes in creating and executing innovative growth strategies that drive sustainable, viral growth.

Her superpower lies in leveraging scientific insights and creative marketing techniques to help early-stage startups and entrepreneurs build strong, engaged communities around their brands.

Destiny Burns

Destiny Burns is a native Clevelander. Born and raised in Euclid, she recently moved back home after more than 30 years to be near family and to live her dream of opening an urban winery in her hometown. She is a retired U.S. Navy officer who served for 20 years on active duty. Destiny then spent more than 13 years as a business development executive in the defense industry. She is a former volunteer firefighter/EMT and has great love and respect for first responders and for all those who serve our country and communities in uniform. Destiny is the founder of CLE Urban Winery, a fun, inviting, upscale boutique winery experience in the historic, urban setting of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The CLE Urban Winery produces, serves and sells a wide variety of wine, all branded to honor and celebrate the city of Cleveland. CLE Urban Winery is a Federally Bonded Winery and sells their own hand-crafted wine exclusively. The company’s wine production facility, a signature Tasting Bar and primary retail outlet are located in the Cedar-Lee District in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Tina Chamoun

Tina Chamoun is a Lebanese-American businesswoman, attorney, marketing director, content creator, and mother of 3.

She currently lives in Ohio with her husband Fares and children, where she owns and operates her food manufacturing business Terranean Herbs & Spices. She had a vision for a company that would make authentic, high-quality, affordable, and conveniently packaged Lebanese za’atar and authentic pita chip products easily accessible to the American consumer, and started her online store in December of 2019, entering a pandemic year.

Since opening her online store, she’s launched her products in over 300 retail locations in 27 states and is a Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s partner.

Tina is certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council and uses her business as a means to create work and opportunities for Lebanon and for her growing all women, immigrant team in Cleveland, Ohio. Since true za’atar can only be cultivated in the Levantine regions, she is able to provide business for Lebanon by importing her za’atar there, and provide work opportunities for the women she works with in Cleveland where she makes her products.

Tina’s business is a Best of Cleveland awardee and Tina is a Smart Business Magazine Progressive Entrepreneur Honoree.

She was selected by the Arab American Foundation as a 2021 40 under 40 Arab American Awardee for her volunteer work, community service, and contributions to Arab-Americans and Lebanese heritage through her YourLebanon.com platform and community of 125k+ followers, where she celebrates and promotes Lebanon, Lebanese culture and cuisine, and for which she was recognized as one of the leading Lebanese Food Bloggers.

She is a member of the AHA Go Red Executive Leadership team, and very involved in the Middle Eastern and Lebanese community through various leadership roles.

Shanna Greathouse

Shanna is the Founder and CEO of Pigybak, an innovative SaaS startup revolutionizing the home services marketplace. With an MBA and a background in consulting, program management, and analytics, she brings extensive expertise to her leadership. An advocate for entrepreneurship in Cleveland, Shanna is dedicated to fostering local innovation and community growth.

Camille Heard

Camille Heard serves JumpStart’s entrepreneur clients by guiding them through market validation, customer discovery, creating a scalable business model, and navigating Northeast Ohio’s entrepreneurial resources.

Camille also services The Urban League, The President’s Council, The Hispanic Business Center, and ECDI in efforts to support founders of color and build up Cleveland’s Black and Hispanic startup community.

Camille is passionate about entrepreneurship and is a start-up founder herself. She has led her own company FELOH through idea, market validation, and product development, and is currently working with her growing team to scale the company. Prior to following her entrepreneurial calling, Camille worked alongside healthcare lobbyists to advocate for legislative and regulatory initiatives for underserved communities.

Camille holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania where she studied medical anthropology and a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she studied health policy and management.

Colleen Kelly

Colleen is a dynamic professional who brings operations expertise and a track record of delivering exceptional results across various industries including private equity, technology, and franchising. Her main role will include supporting Bill in managing IFV’s portfolio companies including monitoring key metrics and providing operational assistance. In addition, she will handle much of the communications with LP’s and portfolio companies.

Alison King

Ali leads the Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program, which matches local tech startups with experienced entrepreneurs and subject matter experts in Northeast Ohio to grow faster and scale smarter.

Most recently, Ali served as Director, Partnerships and Career Strategy at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was on faculty for its Center for Innovative Musicianship. Previously, she was Director, Marketing and Business Development at the Curtis Institute of Music, UX researcher at Comcast NBCUniversal, and founder of Philadelphia-based stationery company Groundswell Greetings. An advocate for Northeast Ohio’s creative economy, Ali provides consulting services to local artists, small businesses, and startups to strengthen their brand strategy and digital marketing efforts.

Ali holds a BA in anthropology from Haverford College and an MBA from Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

Teresa Lindsey

Teresa Lindsey is the CEO of Channel Products, a privately held, global manufacturer of electronic systems and technologies across many industries.

Under her decade of leadership, the Company has experienced global expansion and several years of record-breaking revenue and profit.  She lives by the mantra of leading people while managing process.

True to her passion for seeing women develop and thrive, Teresa is in the process of launching Everyboob™, an app based, one-stop solution for nursing moms including community, tracking, resources, support, and product – celebrating hero moms and healthy babies.

An accomplished business executive, she serves on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Board, the Visiting Committee of Cleveland State University’s Monte Ahuja College of Business and the Advisory Board for the Weston Ideation Lab. She, herself, holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and a Master of Organizational Leadership degree.

In addition to her career, Mrs. Lindsey mentors a number of young women and has earned a following as a keynote and panel speaker on issues of leadership, personal development, and business culture.

She resides in Cleveland, OH with her husband, with whom she shares a blended family of five children and three grandchildren.

Carrie Murphy

I’m a talent-driven entrepreneur and executive recruiter with over 15 years of experience in building and scaling teams across startups, high-growth companies, and non-profits. Currently, as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Encore Venture Labs, I’m working on tackling the talent challenges with respect to reindustrialization and developing a talent business to support frontier technology sectors like advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and water tech.

Previously, I was CEO of Venture For America, leading programs that empower emerging entrepreneurs in mid-sized U.S. cities. My career has spanned executive search roles at Daversa Partners and talent leadership at Vertical Knowledge, building teams that drive growth and foster people-first cultures. A Cleveland native, I’m passionate about advancing Midwest innovation and economic opportunity.

Vicky Pasche

Vicky is the Co-Founder of Dapper Boi, Inc. Within five years of starting her online body-inclusive clothing brand, it is now a seven-figure company on a mission to revolutionize the genderless fashion movement. Vicky 
has always had a passion for compassion and believes that we do not fit 
in today’s binary norms in the retail world. By creating a body-positive, accepting community, 
we can all build confidence within ourselves and within each other to create a world we can all “fit” into.

Dr. Wendy Slone

Dr. Wendy Slone is the CEO/Founder of bTECH. Dr. Slone has experience in nanotechnology and in developing biopolymers for biomedical applications in treatment of chronic non-healing wounds.

Dr. Slone is a serial entrepreneur, having successfully operated a data analytic business for more than 15-years in addition to her current company bTECH. Aside from her role at bTECH, Dr. Slone has developed a series of mini seminars to support entrepreneurs ability to hone core competencies for successful business development called “Beyond the business model canvas and financial modeling: The unspoken pitfalls of entrepreneurship.” Additionally, Dr. Slone regularly contributes to the entrepreneurship ecosystem as a mentor for early-stage startups, female founders looking for business development, and alternative funding sources.

Kate Volzer

Kate Volzer is the co-founder and CEO of Wisr (www.getwisr. com) which is a venture-backed software startup in the higher education technology space. As a former first-generation college student, Kate is extremely passionate about improving educational outcomes for college students across the country. Kate is active in the Cleveland entrepreneurial scene Chairing of the Jumpstart Leader’s Council and serving on the DigitalC Fund Advisory Board. When Kate’s not helping others with their startups, she’s probably doing yoga, spending time on Lake Erie, playing with her dog, or enjoying a good conversation over a glass of wine. Kate was a member of the varsity volleyball team at the University of Chicago where she received her BA and MBA. She was born and raised in Hartville, OH but now resides in Rocky River