Startup Talks: From Chaos to Clarity

​Startup Talks: From Chaos to Clarity
Join us for an inspiring and collaborative event with Tavern Community and Lawrence Krubner at Tempo by Hilton, Times Square!

​Event Highlights:

• ​Communal Lunch: Meet and connect with fellow entrepreneurs over a relaxed, communal lunch while sharing insights and experiences.

• ​Panel Discussion: Hear from seasoned startup experts, including Lawrence Krubner (Cohost), Mark Herschberg, Crystelle Desnoyer, Lio Slama, Kelly O'Donnell, Thejus Chakravarthy, Edward Bridges, Jesse Landry, Robert Bertorelli and Elliana Jin who will share their journeys, challenges, and strategies for turning chaos into clarity in the startup world.

• ​Coworking Session: A dedicated time for networking, collaboration, and sharing ideas with like-minded professionals.

• ​Happy Hour: Wind down and solidify new connections in a casual happy hour setting.

​Join us for the whole day, or just come for the Panel Discussion at 1:30 PM.

​Meet the Speakers:

​Lawrence Krubner (Cohost)
With 24 years of software development experience, Lawrence Krubner is a seasoned technologist and leader who writes code daily for both work and passion. In 2002 he co-founded Starchive.io, where he served as CTO until 2010. Since then he has served as an advisor to both large corporations and early-stage startups. For different organizations he has played diverse roles. As a software architect he rescued firms that were drowning in tech debt. As a director of revenue technology he has overseen the revamping of large-scale sales processes, for sales teams as large as 400 people, and he re-engineered how those sales processes were managed from Salesforce. As a Fractional CTO he has helped many small startups to hire the right teams, with the right mix of skills, and to put in place the right mix of technologies. An enemy of unnecessary complexity, Krubner steers early stage startups away from over-investing in processes whose values are unproven or abstract, but instead keeps the focus on systems that are practical enough that they deliver real value.

​Mark Herschberg is the author of The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You and creator of the Brain Bump app. From tracking criminals and terrorists on the dark web to creating marketplaces and new authentication systems, Mark has spent his career launching and developing new ventures at startups and Fortune 500s and in academia, with over a dozen patents to his name. He helped to start the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, dubbed MIT’s “career success accelerator,” where he teaches annually. At MIT, he received a B.S. in physics, a B.S. in electrical engineering & computer science, and a M.Eng. in electrical engineering & computer science, focusing on cryptography. At Harvard Business School, Mark helped create a platform used to teach finance at prominent business schools. He also works with many non-profits, currently serving on the board of Plant A Million Corals. He was one of the top-ranked ballroom dancers in the country and now lives in New York City, where he is known for his social gatherings, including his annual Halloween party, as well as his diverse cufflink collection.

​Crystelle Desnoyer is the former Chief of Staff to the CEO at Techstars and at Kyndryl (Public company spin-off of IBM) to their consulting business. With experience scaling 27 tech firms and in e-commerce, management consulting, and venture capital firms, she brings a multi-layered perspective to teams needing rapid execution and rapid growth. She serves on the Board of La French Tech New York and is active in networks supporting women executives, investors and founders. Passionate about giving back, Crystelle advises early-stage founders and curates programming for global conferences. She also values community and runs the Chief of Staff group (Fortune 1000) within CHIEF as well as an NYC tech community builder group. Having lived in 10 countries, crossed the Atlantic on a sail boat during the pandemic, she is also a certified rescue scuba diver, tango dancer, and speaks five languages.

​Lio Slama
Lio Slama is a serial entrepreneur and investor based in New York. He currently serves as the CEO of AskNeo.Media (helping startups go to market and grow), the Neo Club (helping founders escape the matrix), and AskNeo.io (SMS for patient care). Lio holds two Masters Degrees, one from Columbia University and one from the Lyon School of Architecture. He is an alum of Techstars NYC and a mentor at the Columbia Startup Lab. He started his career as the Head Architect for the $300M renovation project of the UN/ILO in Switzerland. He is an avid painter and passionate about abstract expressionism, calisthenics, and anthropology.

​Kelly O'Donnell
Kelly is an award-winning theatre director, educator, and trained actor based in New York City. She’s passionate about women’s stories, re-imagined classics, mischievous satires, bilingual theatre, intergenerational theatre, and stories that examine the nuances of gender dynamics and class struggles. As a director she combines rigorous text analysis, tightly-crafted devised movement, and a true ensemble-based rehearsal process to create a highly theatrical experience on stage. As a leader she is nimble, actively committed to collaboration, and very cool under pressure. A co-founder of the critically acclaimed and nationally recognized Flux Theatre Ensemble, she has directed throughout the downtown New York City theatre scene as well as regionally. She has assisted Tina Landau, Anne Bogart, and John Rando. She received her MFA in Directing from Columbia University.

​Thejus Chakravarthy
Thejus is an operational consultant based in New York, specializing in business process optimization and process improvement. With experience in industries from pre-seed tech startups to the United States Coast Guard, Thejus has helped streamline operations, adopt new technologies, and drive growth, by leveraging people, process, and technology. Thejus has helped organizations like Climatebase and the U.S. Coast Guard streamline operations, adopt new technologies, and drive growth.

​Ed Bridges
Edward Bridges is a seasoned Product Engineering Leader with over 15 years of experience driving innovation in high-growth FinTech, HealthTech, and digital media companies. Known for his ability to build and lead globally distributed teams, Edward has successfully developed scalable systems, spearheaded transformative technology initiatives, and launched impactful products. At Squarespace, he expanded mobile engineering from a small team to a global operation, delivering pioneering apps and enhancing user engagement. Most recently serving as Vice President of Engineering at Aetion, he leads efforts to modernize data platforms and streamline software delivery processes. Edward combines technical expertise with a passion for fostering collaborative cultures that thrive on solving complex challenges.

​Jesse Landry
Jesse Landry a powerhouse of expertise and energy in the tech world, blending sharp intellect with an authentic, no-nonsense style. Known for his smart sarcasm and underground cool, Jesse brings a self-made perspective to every piece of content he crafts, making the tech ecosystem accessible, insightful, and fresh. With 13 years of experience, he’s deeply in tune with both the beats of innovation and the voices that truly matter, much like the musical artists he admires—voices that educate and resonate. At Vention, Jesse’s role is multifaceted. He’s not only responsible for building remote software development teams but also personally manages all engagements and every individual involved, from developers to clients. His hands-on approach fosters a collaborative atmosphere where remote doesn’t mean disconnected, and innovation isn’t limited by geography.

​Robert Bertorelli
Rob has over a decade of experience working in engineering, data science, and analytics at various pre and post-IPO tech companies in New York. At his best, he combines a deep, technical understanding of data with a sharp product and business acumen to produce transformative insights. Chaos to clarity, if you will. He currently works as a Staff Analyst at Squarespace.

​Elliana Jin
Elliana is the Head of Investments and a Principal at TB Ventures, where she develops investment strategies and sources, conducts due diligence on potential investments, and, during that process, works alongside many aspiring founders and entrepreneurs at pre-seed and seed stages. Previously, she was a founding member of MoonPay Ventures, a corporate venture arm of MoonPay, where she was involved in many of MoonPay’s strategic acquisitions and helped build out MoonPay Ventures’ portfolio. She appeared as a panelist at a major industry conference, ABC Conclave, in Bangkok last year. She serves as a mentor for the QUBIC Labs Accelerator Program, a non-profit blockchain, web3, fintech, and AI accelerator program in the Greater Boston area, and a pitching coach for the AI Web3 Accelerator for the CryptoOracle Collective Accelerator in New York City. She will also be a featured guest speaker for the Blockchain Revolution course at Suffolk University in Boston. Before MoonPay, she worked at Celsius, Goldman Sachs, Solomon Partners, and EY. Coming from a traditional finance background, she was an investment banker who focused on M&A, financial due diligence, and portfolio management. 

​Let’s turn chaos into clarity and create the future of startups together!

​📅 Date: January 21
🕒 Start Time: 11:30 AM

​Location: Tempo by Hilton, Times Square
RSVP Required

​Schedule:

• ​11:30 AM: Welcome and mingle

• ​12:30 PM: Communal lunch

• ​1:30 PM: Panel discussion

• ​2:30 PM: Coworking and networking

• ​4:30 PM: Happy hour

​RSVP now to secure your spot!