CEO, ViSalus

I do entrepreneurship, then talk/write about it. I’ve led a startup to over a billion dollars in sales. I’ve scaled businesses and expanded internationally. I’ve written a #1 New York Times bestselling book. Today, I invest and advise tech startups through my VC fund, but the success I have now is just a part of my story. My entrepreneurial journey started on the streets. I was poor, caught up in a gang and headed down a destructive path; but it all changed when I realized that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I turned my life around, applied my street smarts to business and became a multi-millionaire, serial entrepreneur. My book Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain chronicles my journey and the principles I learned along the way. At 21 I founded my first company, 24/7 Tech. Since then, I have founded and sold numerous businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars and serve as an investor and advisor to multiple tech companies and startups. In September 2014 I led the go private transaction buying back my company, ViSalus, in a 143M transaction, which has recently expanded into 9 countries. The economic struggle over the past few years has made top innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs hesitant to develop their businesses, but I’m a firm believer in calculated risk taking, which is why I started my VC fund. My (20M) VC fund called Hashtagone invests in companies in emerging cities, and I’ve recently invested in Elite Daily, Fragmob, and Mytime. I’ve also acquired two companies at ViSalus and am aggressively expanding our M&A strategy. I was named E&Y Entrepreneur of the year in 2012 in consumer products for the midwest area.

CEO, Renaissance Venture Capital Fund

Chris Rizik is the Chief Executive Officer of the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, a venture capital fund of funds formed by a consortium of several of Michigan’s largest organizations that works to invest in and strategically connect venture capital funds and start-up companies with major corporations. Chris is also the founder and publisher of SoulTracks.com, America’s most popular soul music online magazine.

Chris was also a co-founder and partner in two of Michigan’s biggest venture capital investors, nanotechnology holding company Ardesta, LLC, and tech fund Avalon Technology Ventures, and received of four consecutive “Deal of the Year” awards by the Michigan Venture Capital Association. Prior to joining Avalon, Chris was a senior partner with Dickinson Wright PLLC, one of the Midwest’s oldest law firms. He also passed the Certified Public Accounting examination and worked at PriceWaterhouse Coopers.

Chris currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee and is the Finance Subcommittee Chair of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. He chairs the Executive Committee of TechTown (the Detroit high tech accelerator) and the Investment Committee of the First Step Fund and is past Chairman of the State of Michigan’s advanced energy accelerator, NextEnergy. Chris also serves on the Steering Committee of the New Economy Initiative, the Advisory Board of the Detroit Medical Center, the National Advisory Board of the University of Michigan Office of Technology Transfer and the board of U of D Jesuit High School and several venture capital funds. In 2010, Chris was named by Crain's Detroit Business magazine as one of its ""Newsmakers of the Year"" for his leadership role in the advancement of venture capital and entrepreneurship in Michigan."

CEO, Atomic Object

Managing Director, Techstars Mobility

Ted Serbinski is an entrepreneur and early stage investor leading the startup renaissance in Detroit. He is the Managing Director of Techstars Mobility, driven by Detroit. Previously he was a Partner and founding team member of Detroit Venture Partners. Ted has co-led investments in 24 companies over the past 3 years, with 13 of those headquartered in Detroit. Before moving to Detroit from San Francisco, Ted was a co-founder and CTO of ParentsClick. With the 4th largest social network and the largest blog network for moms online, Lifetime Television acquired ParentsClick in 2008. Ted graduated from Cornell in 2004, with a B.S. in Computer Engineering. Ted resides in Metro Detroit with his beautiful wife and son.

Jacob is a Partner at Detroit Venture Partners, a seed and early stage venture capital firm in Downtown Detroit, formed by partners Dan Gilbert, Brian Hermelin and Josh Linkner. Jacob joined DVP at the fund’s inception in November 2010. He currently sits on the boards of several DVP portfolio companies.

Jacob has significant entrepreneurial experience, most notably as co-founder and CEO of Ugrub.com (formerly eatblue.com at University of Michigan). Prior to joining DVP, Jacob led technology investments for the Wolverine Venture Fund in Ann Arbor. He is a proud Wolverine, holding an MBA, Law degree, and Bachelors degree, all from from the University of Michigan.

CEO of Duo Security. Duo Security is the easiest two-factor authentication service to deploy, manage, and use. Duo’s service can be set up in as little as 15 minutes to protect an organization at any scale. Over 5,000 organizations in over 80 countries rely upon Duo to prevent account takeover and data theft, including some of the most security-conscious organizations on the planet along with 3 of the top 5 social networks. Learn more and try it for free at www.duosecurity.com.

As Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Michelle K. Lee provides leadership and oversight to one of the largest intellectual property offices in the world.

Ms. Lee serves as a principal advisor to the President, through the Secretary of Commerce, on both domestic and international intellectual property matters, and provides leadership and oversight of the day-to-day management of the policy, budget, and operations for an agency of over 12,000 employees. She also promotes innovation domestically and drives international harmonization efforts, in support of the administration's top economic priorities to increase economic growth.

Prior to her role as Director, Ms. Lee was Deputy Director, and also served as the first Director of the Silicon Valley United States Patent and Trademark Office where she was responsible for establishing and leading the Silicon Valley office as well as advising the USPTO on a variety of policy matters.

Before becoming the Director of the Silicon Valley office, Ms. Lee served by appointment of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce on the USPTO's Patent Public Advisory Committee, which advises the USPTO on patent policies, goals, performance, and operations. The San Francisco Business Times and San Jose Business Journal recognized Ms. Lee as Best Bay Area IP Lawyer in 2012 and one of the top 100 most influential women in the Silicon Valley in 2013. Ms. Lee has spent most of her professional career advising some of the country's most innovative companies on technical, legal, and business matters.

Prior to joining the USPTO, Ms. Lee served as Deputy General Counsel for Google and was the company's first Head of Patents and Patent Strategy. She also served as a partner at the Silicon Valley-based law firm of Fenwick and West, where she specialized in advising a wide range of high-technology clients from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies on patent law, intellectual property, litigation, and corporate matters. Prior to her career as a legal advisor to technology companies, Ms. Lee worked in the federal judiciary, serving as a law clerk for the Honorable Vaughn R. Walker on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California where she worked on the precedent-setting Apple v. Microsoft copyright infringement case. As a law clerk for the Honorable Paul R. Michel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Ms. Lee worked on many patent and trademark appeals.

Before building her legal career, Ms. Lee worked as a computer scientist at Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories, as well as at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She holds a B.S. and an M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from M.I.T., as well as a J.D. from Stanford Law School.