Jim is a serial Internet entrepreneur, angel/seed stage investor, and author. He founded and exited three companies — WestEnd New Media in the late 90s focused on providing Internet strategy advice to media firms; ShermansTravel Media (2002 to present), a leading publisher of hand-picked travel deals, and Hamptons Lane, an e-commerce venture targeting foodies. He has deep experience in digital media, advertising & marketing, and e-commerce. His former corporate roles include strategy consulting (Bain & Co.) and publishing (Time Inc.; Pearson; Martha Stewart Living). He is a Board Director of the HBS Alumni Angels of NY, and he loves travel, the theater, and international politics.

Rhonda Shrader is the Executive Director of the Bay Area Node for NSF I-Corps as well as Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship, where she teaches two popular lean startup courses, Lean Transfer and Startup Disco. As an entrepreneur, she was an early team member of MIT spinout Organogenesis, one of the first publicly traded regenerative medicine companies. She has founded or was an early stage team member of startups in biotech, behavioral health, non-profit, retail and AI. She is an active advisor for NASA spinoff BrainAid as well as the Innovation Chair for Invisible International. She earned an undergraduate degree in neuropsychology and premedical studies from Harvard and an MBA from Berkeley Haas.