Pooja leads Partnerships at Verloop, a conversational automation startup based in Bangalore, India. She has been closely associated with Corp dev functions with multiple startups throughout her journey and has worked for the Indian Angel network fund. She has completed her bachelors in Physics from Delhi University
Gillian is the co-founder of Ai on Spectrum, a startup building socio-emotional education apps for children with disabilities. She is also an early childhood educator & psychology graduate with a deep passion for making the world a more equitable place.
Entrepreneurial, forward-looking fashionpreneur with more than 11 years of financial experience, Melissa made the pivot to start her own company after completing her MBA at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Business in NY, where she discovered 3D-printing to help prototype her first solutions for high heel protector.
Melissa is the founder of krippit, which focuses on 3D-printed fashion wearable solutions for women’s daily wear. Krippit is based out of Toronto’s DMZ Fashion Zone at Ryerson University. She has recently expanded globally to participate in the Foundry FashionTech incubator in Paris, France, after two successful showcases during last year’s London Fashion Fashion week.
Melissa also enjoys consulting early-stage startups on growth strategies and new market opportunities and identifying IP protection areas. Melissa also holds a Masters of Law in Innovation and technology from the University of Toronto (UofT).
Jéssica is an experienced business lawyer and mediator. For the past two years she has also been an entrepreneur after founding her own startup called Elas Resolvem, thought to promote social transformation through collaboration and gender equality.
Ashley is an executive leader with 15+ years’ experience having worked at companies like PUMA and K-Swiss and members only sites like RueLaLa and TechStyle (JustFab, ShoeDazzle, Fabletics), to startups like Markett/Kickback App and Unreal Candy (organic, cpg). She has robust experience in digital marketing and social media, ecommerce and business development roles — and has an innate growth mindset with a scrappy, innovative mentality.
In her most recent role as Vice President of Business Development and Operations at Markett, she took the company from $400k in annual revenue to $4.4m (first year of company profitability), within 12 months of hire through the management and execution of the Sam’s Club and Airbnb Ambassador and Influencer programs.
At PUMA, she created facebook.com/puma, growing the community from 200,000 to 4 million organically within 12 months. At K-Swiss she restructured internal resources and agency relationships to increase Global online revenue 30-40%YoY, managing a $M Global P&L, during aggressive brand turnaround within 3% accuracy and 4x ROI minimum on paid marketing and affiliate efforts.
Ashley is passionate about diversity, inclusion and closing inequality gaps. As Los Angeles Co-Chair of the SoGal Foundation, the largest global platform for the education and empowerment of diverse entrepreneurs and investors with over 50 chapters internationally, she leads events, workshops and pitch competitions to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship and venture capital.
In her spare time, Ashley loves writing and is contributing writer for Boss Babe, where she writes about Branding, Marketing, and Women in Leadership. She’s a big believer in the #humanpotentialmovement and living on purpose, with purpose!
Vedanti is currently pursuing her Masters in Business Psychology from the HMKW University of Applied Sciences, Berlin and certification in Design Thinking. She is passionate about Virtual Work, Leadership, Innovation and User Experience. She will soon be writing her thesis about Virtual Leadership. Her research on LGBTQ+ Diversity and Inclusion initiatives in Indian MNCs was recently published in an international journal (ISSN: 2394-7926).
Alexis is big on inclusion, innovation, and interviewing. After just a few months in the city, they fell in love with Berlin’s startup scene and wished to see more diversity in entrepreneurship.
Alexis uses their skills that they have developed as a recruiter to build the SoGal Berlin network and identify the needs of founders, which are translated into events!
In their spare time, Alexis tries to learn German and listens to an embarrassing amount of ABBA.
Delanea is the co-founder of a mindfulness technology & services company that is trailblazing in mHealth and telemedicine. The Cloud 9 Online digital platform provides an at-home healing tool to patients/employees and predictive analytics to medical providers to improve wellness outcomes. This white labelled platform improves doctor/patient compliance while reducing use of pharmaceuticals. Currently in phase one clinical trials, Cloud 9 Online combines Science-Powered, Clinically Designed Meditation Therapy with cutting-edge technology.
Delanea is also the co-founder of an international management consultancy and a newly minted author. With more than 20 years of expertise building and leading teams, Delanea has a passion for innovation in the insurance and healthcare industries. Her first book personal wellness book, Rune Reading Your Life, is now available at your favorite bookstore or online retailer.
Grace is a former business journalist, now media consultant for tech companies and VCs. She previously reported for CNBC in Singapore, focusing on tech, trade and geopolitics throughout the APAC region.
Grace has also reported for CGTN, based in Shanghai and Beijing, where she covered business, trade and tech in Greater China. Her work has also appeared in S&P Global Market Intelligence, South China Morning Post, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, NBC News, Asia Times, and RealClearPolitics.
Grace holds a B.Comm. in Finance from the University of Alberta, an M.A. in Communications from Tsinghua University and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University.
Bauhinia absolutely believes in bridging the gap in diversity in entrepreneurship. Having spent her previous career in Finance, she is now Head of Sales for Hong Kong & Taiwan region at Glints, a Singapore-headquartered growth startup in the HR & Recruitment vertical.
Before moving back to Hong Kong, Bauhinia co-founded and co-led the SoGal London chapter. In addition to SoGal, she is passionate about coaching and mentoring the next generation of fearless women!
Bauhinia holds a joint honors degree in French & Hispanic Studies BA (Hons) from King’s College London.