In-Person Dinner & Panel: Venture Capital Investing Across Sectors

Mr. Asher Troppe serves as a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Tress Capital, LLC. Previously, Mr. Troppe was a Founder and Managing Director at Capital Objectives Alpha Balance, LP from January, 2010 to August, 2014. He also served as a Founder and Managing Director at Capital Objective, LLC from February, 2001 to August, 2014.

Mitchell Kleinhandler is a Partner at Differential Ventures.

Mitchell is also a Board Partner and former Venture Partner at Scout Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm. He is an investor, adviser, and consultant to startups and has extensive expertise in the financing, development, and management of early stage and growth companies across diverse industry verticals.

Prior to venture capital Mitchell was a serial entrepreneur with a record of success as a founding partner and senior level executive of numerous startup and growth businesses in both the United States and Europe.

Mitchell's expertise also extends to acquisitions, financing, management, marketing, consolidation, restructuring, integration, reorganization, and the sale of existing operating businesses. His primary focus remains in subscription-based recurring revenue business models, building off of an expertise in the telecom, media, and digital sectors.

Oliver B. Libby is co-founding Managing Partner of Hatzimemos / Libby Holdings (H/L Ventures) and of CityRock Venture Partners. Based in New York City and founded in 2009, the H/L Ventures family of companies represents a new kind of venture firm. H/L Ventures is dedicated to building high-growth businesses that add value to society by protecting and promoting people and the planet, with a strong preference for diverse founding teams. H/L Ventures’ proprietary Daily Active Engagement model blends the best of venture studio and investment firm on one platform to help grow companies from early stage to exit in a holistic approach to company building.

Mr. Libby also chairs the Board of The Resolution Project, Inc., a non-profit organization based in New York City which he co-founded in 2007. Through its Social Venture Challenges, held at leading youth conferences around the world, Resolution identifies undergraduate students who wish to launch new social ventures. The resulting Resolution Fellowships provide dynamic, hands-on mentorship and grants to implement their social ventures— a full ecosystem of support that empowers the recipients to become socially-responsible leaders. To date, hundreds of Resolution Fellows are working on diverse ventures in high-impact fields and have benefitted about 3 million people to-date in more than 80 countries on all six inhabited continents, including all across the United States.

Mr. Libby began his career in the U.S. Government and later at a global managing consulting firm. Mr. Libby is a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Steering Committee Member of the Milken Young Leaders Council, a Leadership Council Member of Tech:NYC, a Fast Company Impact Council Member, a Concordia Summit Advisor, a member of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth Advisory Council, a founding GLG Social Impact Fellow, and a NationSwell Councilmember. Mr. Libby was previously also a Foundation Trustee and Chair of the Admissions Committee of the Harvard Club of New York City, as well as a member of the Advisory Council of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Mr. Libby has been invited to speak at Harvard, the United Nations, and numerous business conferences. He has published work focusing on the nexus between the future of work, job creation, innovation, social entrepreneurship, and leadership. His work has been covered in publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Venture Capital Journal, Crains NY Businesss, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Reuters, and television appearances including CNBC. Mr. Libby graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College.

Daniel is a leading authority on growth companies and venture capital law — and has worked on pioneering online capital-raising methods since the Internet’s beginning. He is immersed in the national and international ecosystem of emerging companies and investors focused on start-ups. He has also been a member of NYU Law School’s faculty since 2003, where he teaches venture capital law. Earlier, he co-founded and served as managing director of an early stage venture capital firm based in New York City.

Daniel is Chair of Mintz's Technology Practice Group and Co-chair of the firm’s Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice Group. In addition to his active legal practice, he is an adjunct professor of law at the NYU Law School. Daniel is also Editor of MintzEdge, an online resource for entrepreneurs that includes useful tools and information for starting and growing a company.

Before joining Mintz, Daniel was head of venture capital funds and a managing director of SoundView Technology Group, Inc. (formerly Wit Capital), a technology-focused investment bank. Prior to joining SoundView, he was head of the corporate and new media and e-law practice groups at one of the leading New York firms representing early stage and technology companies.

Daniel has more than 35 years of corporate transactional experience, both as a lawyer and as a businessman, and has been an advisor to many emerging and developmental stage companies. He is a board member of several technology companies and was a co-founder and Managing Director of Dawntreader Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm.

Additionally, Daniel is an author of a leading treatise on venture capital called Venture Capital: Forms and Analysis (Law Journal Press, 2007).

Kimberly W. Klayman has broad experience representing privately held emerging companies, as well as venture capital, private equity funds, family offices and corporate venture groups that invest in high growth companies. She works with companies through the entire corporate life cycle, including pre-formation and general corporate counseling, venture capital financings, and mergers and acquisitions. Kimberly also counsels investors and platform companies in strategic acquisitions of high growth companies.

Noam Hirschberger serves in the Forensic, Litigation and Valuation Group with 15 years of experience developing advanced financial models, including discounted cash flow, comparable security and Black-Scholes analyses, used for valuation of businesses, intangible assets and derivatives.

Noam has an extensive background serving the cannabis industry, with experience working with dispensaries, lifestyle branding companies, cultivators, and biotechnology companies. Additionally, he serves a wide range of investment companies such as private equity groups, hedge funds, BDC’s and other investment companies.

Noam has reviewed and performed numerous valuations of investments for compliance with ASC 820. He has also presented lectures and webinars on best practices for performing valuations pursuant to GAAP.

Fabián is a Venture Associate at Mana Ventures, focused on sourcing, evaluating, and investing in early-stage companies. He is also a Venture Associate at Republic's investor ecosystem program and an angel investor.

While doing his MBA at NYU Stern, Fabián worked as a Summer Associate at Humana's VC team and was a Venture Fellow in AlleyCorp's $100M healthcare fund, focusing on launching a LatAm digital health startup. Earlier in his career, he was a startup/VC attorney at law firms Gunderson Dettmer and Strategic Law Partners (SLP), having represented startups and VC firms such as HELIX (Google X) and Science Inc (Dollar Shave Club). While at SLP, he helped run the firm's affiliated VC investment arm and began angel investing.

Fabián holds a BA from UC Berkeley, a JD from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Abby is a Ukrainian- Chinese (Ukrainian Jewish mother and Chinese father). She is the founder and partner of CatamountED Capital, a Venture Capital firm with $100mm assets under management. The NYC-based firm was purposely built to partner with companies across the education spectrum encompassing PreK-12, higher education, future of work (career mobility/professional learning), and “EdTech+” (intersection of EdTech and other major industries such as FinTech and healthcare). CatamountED Capital is backed by Sovereign Wealth Funds and Foundations from the U.S., and Asia.

Abby is also a founder and CEO of CatamountED, an online education platform for K12 and college students that is backed by NVIDIA.

Prior to starting CatamountED and CatamountED Capital, Abby worked at Cornell endowment fund, where she focused on TMT, consumer and Fintech investments. Previously, Abby worked at a family office with $8B AUM, specializing in cross-border investments. Abby holds an MBA from Cornell University, a M.S. and B.S. in Engineering and Finance from New York University and Ph.D (dropout) from Harvard University.

Dr. Colby Kash, author of The Autoimmune Plague: How to Regain Sovereignty Over Your Body and Life, is a wellness and longevity functional medicine practitioner. A sought-after lecturer on healthcare-related topics. He is a co-founder & COO of Camelot BioCapital, a biotechnology private equity group. Dr. Kash is dedicated to improving the quality of health for all through the combination of modern health technologies and evolutionary biology.

Dr. Kash has a Doctor of Chiropractic and Master of Science in Applied Clinical Nutrition (Northeast College of Health Sciences), and a BS in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology (University of Florida College of Health and Human Performance). He holds additional certifications, including: ADAPT Functional Medicine, American College of Sports Medicine-Certified Exercise Physiologist, and National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Training.

Kayla is a Partner in the Financial Services Group and a leader for the firm’s National Venture Capital Growth initiative. She has over 10 years of experience in public accounting. Kayla provides tax consulting services, including advising on tax strategy, transactions, and accounting matters to clients. She specializes in working with private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, family offices, and management companies. In addition,

Kayla has experience working with portfolio companies, closely held businesses, and high net worth individuals.

Kayla is active in a variety of professional and industry associations. As an active member of the Young Jewish Professionals (YJP), she moderates venture capital panels and private equity roundtables.

Most recently, Crain’s New York Business named Kayla as one of the Notable Women in Accounting and Consulting for 2021. She is a contributor to the firm’s newsletter Engaging Alternatives, providing articles of interest to investors and professionals involved in the asset management industry. She has been a panelist and moderator for emerging manager venture capital and private equity fund roundtables. In addition, Kayla has presented webcast on various topics, including tax reform and qualified small business stock.

Kayla participates in the internal training and mentoring of staff-managers and assists in the firm’s recruitment of new employees.