Author
Gesche Haas is the Founder/CEO of Dreamers & Doers, a private collective that amplifies the entrepreneurial pursuits of extraordinary womxn through visibility opportunities, resource exchange, and collective support. Furthermore, Dreamers & Doers has built an entrepreneurial ecosystem of over 30,000 womxn globally. Gesche's views on the tech space and beyond have been featured on Bloomberg TV, CNNMoney, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Business Insider, Forbes, Fortune Magazine, Refinery29, Broadly/Vice, and other major media outlets, as well as at the United Nations, where she spoke during the sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Gesche was also awarded "2016 Empowered Woman of the Year" by WWD/Variety/Ciroc, was named among "Best of Tech on Twitter" by CB Insights, and recognized as one of Techweek's "New York 2017 Talent Cultivators". Prior to founding Dreamers & Doers, Gesche held senior positions at multiple venture-backed startups in roles covering growth, strategy, finance, business operations, business development, and more. She also spent five years as an investor at a healthcare-focused hedge fund (~$3bn AUM, SAC spin-off).
Andres Wydler Executive Director, StartOut Andres Wydler is the Executive Director of StartOut, the largest national nonprofit organization supporting LGBTQ entrepreneurs. He has two decades of successful start-up experience as a co-founder, executive, angel investor, advisor, and board member. Andres’ career focused on corporate and business development, predominantly with early stage technology firms. Over the last decade, he raised equity and debt financing from first tier VCs, investment banks, strategic investors, and economic development partners. He secured government funds to augment private capital and completed acquisitions in the US, Europe, and Latin America. Most of his director and advisor positions focused on fast growing software and clean tech companies. Andres also co-founded an angel group that invested in and exited tech firms with cross-border strategies, and continues to be active in the space. Andres earned an MBA from Stanford and a JD equivalent (lic. iur.) from the University of Zurich’s law school. He developed and lectured a course on Clean Tech Entrepreneurship at Stanford University’s continuing studies program.
