Building Billion Dollar Startups: The First Annual Unicorn Quest

Adam Miller is the founder and CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ: CSOD). He started the company in 1999 from his one bedroom apartment to help people around the world to realize their potential. Today Cornerstone is one of the world’s largest cloud computing companies, with over 37 million users across 192 countries. Mr. Miller is also an active social entrepreneur. He is the chairman of Team Rubicon and the Cornerstone OnDemand Foundation, serves on FARE’s executive board and is a current director of IKAR in Los Angeles. He is a frequent speaker and writer on entrepreneurship, philanthropy, technology and talent management. Mr. Miller holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, a BS from its Wharton School of Business, a JD from the UCLA School of Law, an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Business, and has both CPA and Series 7 certifications.

Hemi Zucker is a Managing Principal of OCV Partners. OCV is a $260 Million Los Angeles-based venture fund that invests in, owns, and operates companies in the information technology, e-commerce, media & telecommunications & the life sciences sectors with the objective of creating sustainable long-term value.

Hemi joined OCV Partners in 2018 to replicate his success as the CEO of j2 Global that he co-founded in 1996 in New York City and moved it to LA in 1997. Under Hemi’s management j2 Global reached $4.5 Billion Market Cap, $1.25 Billion Annual Sales in over 50 countries. Hemi and j2 were super acquisitive and it’s M&A activity yield a record of 161 acquisitions during his 21 years.

Hemi is now bringing his M&A, operations and deal making experience to OCV Partners one of LA’s largest Venture Funds.

Chang Xu is a Principal at Upfront Ventures, the oldest and largest early-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles. Upfront is currently investing out of its sixth fund of $400M and primarily leads Seed and Series A rounds.

Chang invests in technology that augments human potential. She is passionate about enabling humans to be what they aspire to be, breaking down artificial barriers, automating undesirable work, and creating original on-ramps. She tends to spend time in the future of work (HR tech, non-traditional education, early childhood), AI/ML (computer vision, robotics), and commerce tech (logistics, manufacturing, supply chain).

Previously, she was the first Product Manager at the Minerva Project, co-founded an ed-tech startup in China, and was a Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. She received her MBA from the Harvard Business School and her AB in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, with a minor in Computer Science.

Jamie Montgomery is a Founder and Managing Director of March Capital Partners. Prior he was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Montgomery & Co, a well-known Los Angeles-based investment bank where he advised and financed hundreds of leading technology companies over a 25 year period. He is the founder of The Montgomery Summit, an annual conference that attracts over 1,000 global entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate executives to Santa Monica. Jamie currently serves on the Board of Directors of Descartes Labs and Foghorn and is a Board Observer at Crowdstrike, Forter and Earnin. Jamie has also had two successful exits at March Capital – the IPO of RUBI and the sale of Telesign to BICS. Jamie focuses on identifying disruptive technology companies and providing capital at a critical inflection point.

In addition to serving on the Advisory Board of the Rady School of Business at the University of California, San Diego, he actively supports programs for innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of California, San Diego, Claremont McKenna College, USC and Chapman University. Jamie received his M.A. in Economics from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.

Eva is a General Partner at Fika Ventures, an early stage technology fund investing in companies that leverage the power of data as a core component of their business model. Prior to Fika, Eva was a founding GP at Susa Ventures. She is a serial entrepreneur and founder, with a company experience portfolio including Applied Semantics (AdSense), Factual, Google, Youtube and Navigating Cancer. She also serves on the board of California Community Foundation. She was recently the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the city of Los Angeles working with Mayor Eric Garcetti and his team. Eva holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard.

Jonathan is an editor at TechCrunch. Previously he worked as a senior reporter for Dow Jones & Co., covering venture capital and private equity investment from New York and Shanghai.

Ophir Tanz is a serial entrepreneur, an enthusiastic woodworker and a recognized thought leader on the subjects of articial intelligence and computer vision. Tanz’s AI expertise was the driving force behind GumGum’s In-Image advertising platform, the rst and largest product of its kind. Under his leadership, GumGum has continued to revolutionize the digital media industry while expanding into the social media and sports marketing. Along the way, Tanz has served as a guest columnist for TechCrunch and earned the distinction of being named one of Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2017.

Prior to founding GumGum in 2008, Tanz co-founded and sold two successful digital media companies: the mobile-media sharing platform Shozu.com and the award-winning interactive and branding agency Fluidesign. Tanz holds a B.S. and an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University and currently lives in Los Angeles. In his free time, he enjoys surphing, playing guitar and hitting the courts for a game of tennis or basketball.

With more than 20 years of experience creating and leading technology businesses, Alex is Openpath’s CEO. Prior to creating Openpath, Alex co-founded EdgeCast Networks, a global content delivery network that sold to Verizon for $400M. After the sale of EdgeCast, Alex spent two years shaping the strategy of Verizon Digital Media Services. Alex also co-founded KnowledgeBase and HostPro, which were both acquired. Alex has received several awards during his career, including E&Y’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2014. Alex is an active investor in several venture capital funds and has served on boards of universities and private and public companies. He graduated from Tufts University and lives in Santa Monica with his wife and children.

J. Douglas Winter, also known as Doug, co-founded Seismic Software, Inc. and has been its Chief Executive Officer since June 2010. Douglas Winter served as Chief Financial Officer of Objectiva Software Solutions, Inc. He served as the Chief Operating Officer at EMC Document Sciences Corp. Douglas Winter served as the General Manager of Technical Operations at EMC Document Sciences Corp.

Prior to joining EMC Document Sciences Corp., Douglas Winter co-founded Objectiva Software Solutions, Inc. and served as its Chief Executive Officer. Previously, he served as General Manager of ONEWORLD Software Solutions California client service centers, establishing their west coast operations and also served as part of their global operations committee, responsible for formulating and executing strategic operations.

Douglas Winter also served as Program Manager for Qualcomms 3500 series of CDMA base stations and later was responsible for the product certification and testing of the QUALCOMM Thin Phone (QCP 860/1960). He served as Chairman of the Board of Objectiva Software Solutions, Inc. He serves as a Director of EMC Document Sciences Corp. and Objectiva Software Solutions, Inc. Following his undergraduate work, he worked for three years for Westinghouse where he was an instructor for the US Navy’s nuclear training program. Douglas Winter holds an MSEE and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BSEE from Virginia Technological University.