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ADVISORY BOARD

TOP LEADERS
2023

Some of the biggest names and renowned players from the global marketplace and digital platform ecosystem. Founders. CEOs. Executives. Experts. They shape who we are and what we do.

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

Rodrigo de Alvarenga

Managing Partner

HAG Partners, Inc

Curitiba, Brasil

Rodrigo is a board member, mentor (North Forge, Alchemist, EIA, AIA, Copernicus, Startup Chile), jury at MIT Innovators under 35 Award EU&LATAM. He was awarded the 10th Edition of the Aster Prize, founded HAG Ventures, invested in +25 startups (USA, EU, LATAM & MENA), besides accelerating & helping hundreds of entrepreneurs worldwide. He is an expert in CVB & CVC, ranked by Thinkers 360 as Top 50 Thought Leaders in Startups.

Polly Applegate

Advisor/Chief of Staff

Brighton, UK

Having led the Community Experience teams at the global fashion marketplace depop from Series B to Etsy acquisition, Polly moved to advisory work in similar spaces. She has great experience in how online communities grow through providing a safe and transparent platform for their users particularly in the marketplace, live shopping & e-commerce space. Working as an advisor she supports founders and early stage teams across a number of scaling challenges, and is always thinking about how to shape decisions with a people-first approach to get team buy-in by creating a culture where teams feel a sense of belonging and inclusion.

Matthew Bagley

Vice President

Crum & Forster

Glastonbury, CT

Matthew has been with Crum & Forster for seven years and currently leads their Occupational Accident Division located in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Matthew manages a high-energy, resolution oriented, team of underwriters, operational staff, and accountants solely dedicated to the insurance products offered within the division.

Alex Baker Kroeger

Attorney

Larson King

Minneapolis, MN

Alex is an Attorney at Larson King, a boutique firm with deep trial experience. After 10 years in communications and product marketing, Alex changed careers to become an attorney. She has planned a sprint, launched a product, and represented people in court. Alex enjoys working with marketplace companies because of their unique set of problems and growing pains. In her free time she runs a travel website with her husband and attempts to learn French.

Matt Bendett

Co-Founder, SVP Global Operations

Peerspace

San Francisco, CA

Matt is the Co-Founder and Head of Operations at Peerspace, a fast-growing, short-term space and events marketplace. He has spent his career launching and building consumer-facing businesses, spending time in leadership as an operator, marketer, and product manager. He is passionate about delighting customers, building creative solutions to complex problems, and providing answers for those in search of inspiration. Matt holds a BA in Political Economies from the University of California - Berkeley.

Adrian Brown

Co-Founder

Authillo

Charlotte, NC

Adrian is the Co-Founder of Authillo, an identity provider building the world's first internet passport to prevent fake accounts on any online platform. Former Lead Engineer on the T&S/growth team at YikYak he was able to help scale to 1M DAU’s, build internal tooling and close a seed round of $6M dollars. With his background he has had the pleasure of working alongside the brightest minds in the industry and have found his passion for building a better internet.

Saray Covey

Consultant

Know Your Merchants

Seattle, WA

Saray started out in online retail advertising and financial technology, starting before the ability to purchase products online was available. Her current focus is on merchant developments of fraud and risk. With the many tools available that can help keep merchants and marketplaces safe and their brand reputations clean, narrowing down the specific needs can be difficult; her goal is to provide insights to keep illegal activities out of marketplaces and all online merchants. Saray says, “The saying goes, ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’ and criminals have the will, so we need to stay ahead of their ways to keep our industry clean and safe from possible illegal activities”.

Brian Davis

Head of Trust & Safety

Dodgeball

Massachusetts, MA

Brian builds fraud and T&S teams from scratch. He likes to call it organizing the chaos. Now ge gets to be an extension of T&S teams and help them build out their strategy to scale T&S to align with their companies lofty goals. His internal goal is to help the community to find their voices and be seen as the true experts they are. Fraudsters work together, so it only makes sense we do too!

Chad Dennis

Manager, Trust & Safety Strategy

DoorDash

Austin, TX

Chad is passionate about designing products, processes, and
policies that keep global marketplace platforms safe and operationally sound. At DoorDash
he is responsible for safety products like real-time intervention, misconduct detection, and
critical crisis monitoring and response. He currently resides in Austin, TX. He has previously
worked with marketplaces Gopuff, Lime, and Instacart, in addition to founding his own social
media sharing startup, AddMe.

Zufi Deo

Co Founder

BizGees Ltd

London, UK

Zufi has been using the sharing economy approach for 12 years in all his projects. He is an innovator and an entrepreneur. His first startup was using AI to generate behavioural profiles 20 years ago. Today he is still pushing the boundaries on business model innovation.

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