Investor & Startup Panel with Entrepreneurs, Mentors, Venture Capitalists & More

Happy Hour and live Q&A panel with investors and entrepreneurs moderated by Simon Kuo from from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at the Grid Collaborative Workspace. Panelists include: Tan Nguyen - Panelist - As president of NuWin Enterprises, Mr. Tan H. Nguyen leverage over 17 years of proven success in wireless to create a company culture that moves fast and has learned the skill of failing quickly and moving forward. NuWin innovations tend to produce value disproportionate to the investment they require...allowing them to consistently deliver disruptive solutions. Twitter: @TanHNguyen1 Matthew Marcus - Panelist - Computer programming for the better part of 20 years, Matthew decided in 2010 that it was time to move onto new pastures. Venturing into the startup world was his first step. He’s blessed to have been CTO and co-founder for KULA Causes, COO and co-founder of Hoopla.io / Local Ruckus, and CEO and co-founder for 1 Minute Candidate. As part of his community building efforts, he is Executive Director & Board Chairman of Kansas City Startup Foundation and an active co-leader of the Kansas City Startup Village. Twitter - @TheMarcus, @KCstartupFDN, @KCSV Blake Miller - Panelist - Blake Miller is a partner and the director of the accelerator at Think Big Partners and managing partner at The Collective Funds where he focuses on investing in promising entrepreneurs to build, launch and grow their company. He specializes in Smart Cities, Growth, UI/UX, Innovation and connecting the dots. Twitter: @ImBmills Valerie Jennings - Panelist - Valerie Jennings is the CEO and founder of two digital marketing agencies JSMM+VBM. She started her first company at the age of 24 in Overland Park, Kan. in 2003 and is an early adopter in social media since 2005. She is also an investor in Betablox, one of the largest startup incubators in Kansas City, was Kansas City’s Most Wanted Honoree in 2015 for her business achievements, mentorship and philanthropic contributions to the community. Valerie was also in the Most Influential Women in Business Class in 2014 by Kansas City Business magazine and was the featured cover story. Twitter: @valeriejennings Simon Kuo - Moderator - Simon Kuo, Ph. D. has been an active entrepreneur and investor since 2008. He has been a partner at Betablox since 2012, a mentor at SparkLab KC and prior to joining the startup community was a Fortune 60 to 300 executive. He is also active on many non-profit boards and in 2015, was one of the co-founders of Guildit the Kauffman Foundation-backed "1 Million Cups" for Art. Twitter: @simonkuo