Eric has been seeding and investing early stage tech ventures across the continent. In 2013, he co-founded www.angelafrica.net, an Africa wide network of angel investors, and then www.angelfairafrica.com which brings select entrepreneurs to present to potential investors. Over the 7 years of organizing the event, we have realized US$23m of investment and one exit in 2019. He was an ICT Consultant for the WorldBank, Soros Foundations, UNDP, USAID, USDoJ, USDoS as well as African governments and private firms.

He authored “The KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy”, co-authored the “Open Access Model”, adopted globally by the telecommunications industry, “Negotiating the Net” – the politics of Internet Diffusion in Africa and “The Internet in Ghana” with the Mosaic Group. He was invited to contribute ideas to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa.

Isaac began a multi-ventured 21 year career as a songwriter-producer that transitioned into scoring music for TV networks and movies. His songwriting-producing credits include 6x’s platinum T-Pain’s – “Buy You A Drank” to music in films such as “Pitch Perfect 2”, “Think Like A Man Too” and Kevin Hart’s “About Last Night”. Isaac is also credited with scoring for numerous TV networks and shows on MTV, FOX, Bravo, ESPN, TNT, VH1, NBC and countless others.

Isaac’s next career venture in 2013 took him into the family business as President and C.E.O of Isaac Hayes Enterprises. Managing the name, image, likeness, brand, masters and publishing catalog
of his soul icon father, Isaac Hayes.

His passion for his community and his hometown of Atlanta, GA. propelled him into the political arena in 2017, where he championed and served to help elect Atlanta’s 60th Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. His fearless and savvy use of social media and deep knowledge of Atlanta politics ignited the spark that created a social media and political movement of citizens, activists and entertainment community leaders that brought the election and it’s urgent importance directly to voters which changed the trajectory of a closely contested race.

Isaac is now on a new path as a first time founder and CEO of tech start up Fanbase, which raised 2.7 Million Dollars in seed funding on StartEngine in November, 2020. Fanbase is 2nd all time for the most money raised in one day for a Reg CF on the platform at $766,000. Isaac is also the 2nd Black man on StartEngine and 3rd black man ever to raise 1 Million Dollars in a Reg CF campaign.

Currently, she is Vice President of Investments at New Media Ventures, an early stage seed fund that invests in activists and entrepreneurs wrestling with democracy’s biggest challenges. As VP of Investments, Jess is responsible for the cultivation of early-stage deal flow and portfolio management, building mission-driven partnerships, and leading the growth and direction of the investment team.

Previously, she was Partner at an impact fund moving the world towards zero poverty, zero disease and zero pollution. Jessica was also the founding Social Impact Lead at Headspace, where she developed their social impact strategy to integrate mindfulness in K-12 institutions and other nonprofits in an accessible, relevant, scalable manner.

As part of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI), Jessica co-authored the first “State of US Latino Entrepreneurship” research report and established its prestigious executive education program, SLEI-Ed, for Latinx entrepreneurs to scale their businesses.

Jessica serves on the Board of Words Uncaged, which provides programming for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals in LA, and Plug in South LA, a mission-focused organization focused on creating a community for innovation in South LA. Jessica also serves as the Impact Expert for UNLEASH+, a global pre-accelerator under the auspices of the UNDP.

Jessica received her BA in Communication from Stanford and her MS in Social Entrepreneurship from USC Marshall School of Business.

Ryan is currently the Managing Director of Next Play Capital (NPC). He founded the VC firm in 2014 to give his community the opportunity to invest with the brightest minds in tech. NPC is a minority-owned Silicon Valley-based investment platform focused on investing in top-tier venture funds and companies, currently with more than $250M under management. NPC leverages an investment thesis centered around specific manager selection designed to maximize risk-adjusted returns. The combination of a disciplined and experienced management team, a diverse and strategic investor base, and an overall value-add mentality allows NPC access to top-tier venture managers including Accel, Greylock, Andreessen Horowitz, Forerunner Ventures, First Round, Lightspeed Venture Partners, True Ventures, and Union Square. Those relationships, in turn, drive specialized access into some of these funds’ top-performing portfolio companies including ByteDance, Exabeam, Flexport, Guild Education, Hims, Impossible Foods, Peloton, Rubrik, and ThoughtSpot. Ryan is on the advisory board of DocuSign and TONAL, in addition to being part of the Aspen Institute as a Henry Crown Fellow.

When she’s not working, she uses her experience to educate and create space for others as a lecturer with Product School (Best Product Talk of 2020) and Founder. In 2018, she started a coaching initiative called FoldingChair. Through her initiative, Martie has created $7.5M+ in salaries for “coachees”. FoldingChair primarily helps coachees from underserved backgrounds find their first or second roles in product.

Lauren is the Founder and CEO of LMB Group, a strategic marketing and brand advisory company working with Fortune 500 brands and high-growth startups like J.P. Morgan, Cover Girl, and Bumble and Bumble. Lauren was invited by Walmart’s CEO to join the Board of Disruptors of their first-ever Innovation Council. A pioneer in the tech space, she was the first black woman to start an early-stage venture capital fund, as a founding partner and Managing Director at Gen Y Capital Partners. She has advised and invested in over 40 startups. Lauren serves as an advisor to Pipeline Angels, a social enterprise that trains executive women to become angel investors. She is also the founder of Straight Up and Successful, a community and personal and professional development company that empowers and advocates for women. She has distilled what she’s learned about entrepreneurship in her best-selling memoir, The Path Redefined: Getting To the Top On Your Own Terms.

Lauren began her entrepreneurial journey at age 19, when she became the youngest self-made winery owner in the country, co-founding Virginia’s Sugarleaf Vineyards. As the Chief Operating Officer of the boutique winery, it became an internationally recognized, award-winning brand that was eventually acquired in 2011. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Insider, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Cosmo, Inc., CNBC, MSNBC, Fortune, Black Enterprise and others. Lauren was recently named to The Root 100 List of most influential African-Americans in 2020.

She serves on the Board of Directors at CoSign, a technology company which allows users to monetize social media and shareable content, and at the spirits brand LIQS. Lauren is on the Board of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Engagement. She is creator of The Collab art series, which uplifts the work of artists of color. She was also the Vice Chair of The Apollo Theater Foundation’s Young Patrons Steering Committee, a member of New York Urban League’s Development Committee and is a founding member of the Young Entrepreneur Council. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Science, Magna Cum Laude, in International Trade and Marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Prior to Ocean Azul, Lisette was a Managing Partner for Dorm Room Fund, a student-run venture capital fund that invests in student-founded startups. Dorm Room Fund has made over 320 investments that have gone on to raise $1B+ of capital and are collectively valued at $3B+.

Previously, Rami was a Principal at Elevation Partners, where he worked on investments in leading tech companies including Facebook, MarketShare, Sonos, and Airbnb. Rami graduated with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Dean’s Award for Excellence, the school’s top graduation award. Rami previously served on the board of directors of MarketShare (acquired by Neustar) and Business Talent Group (acquired by Heidrick & Struggles) as a board observer and currently serves as a board member on the board of directors of Medsphere.

Rami serves as Co-founder and President of LatinxVC and founded the Leadership Council for Sponsors for Educational Opportunity’s San Francisco Scholars Program.

Previously, Rhonda served as Chief Membership and Partnership Officer at the International Society for Technology in Education, where she led vision, strategy, and fulfillment of membership and strategic partnership programming to serve ISTE’s community of 500,000 education leaders in more than 75 countries. Rhonda spent her early career in the education nonprofit space as an elementary school teacher in public, charter, and international schools before joining Teach For America, where she held various roles, including Vice President of Executive Leadership Team Strategy.

Rhonda earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, Spanish, and Nonprofit Management from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and her Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education from Georgia State University.

Prior to Blue Bear, Vaughn managed a portfolio of emerging and esoteric hedge fund and venture capital fund strategies at a Southern California based Family Office.

He is the founder and managing director of Autochrome Ventures, an early-stage venture firm investing in frontier technologies applied at industrial and enterprise scale.

He currently holds board positions at Emerge, Transect, Mira, and First Resonance.

Vaughn received his Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College.

Before this, she led investments and accelerated 24 underrepresented founders, plus helped invest and support 100 other underrepresented founders internationally at a $7 million dollar venture fund. Afterwards, she took that knowledge and ran a pro-bono accelerator at a legacy nonprofit in South LA for 6 local startups and small businesses. Recognized as an innovative and passionate thought leader in tech, Amiah has been featured on HBCU.vc’s 2019 30 under 30 The Future of Venture Capital, she’s a member of Columbia University Venture Community, Los Angeles Venture Association, and BlackVC, and in 2019, she was voted Visionary Investor of the Year via VentureFuel. Presently, she’s pursuing her Masters in industrial and Organizational Psychology and serves as the Treasurer on the Board of LA nonprofit, Street Soccer USA.

Prior to these roles, Austin was at TenOneTen Ventures, a data focused seed fund based in LA. He has also worked in investment management and founded a mobile app development firm to serve small businesses.

Austin was the founding Chair of PledgeLA, a city-wide initiative to promote civic engagement and diversity in the tech community. He also serves on the board of HBCUvc and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. Austin received his MBA from NYU Stern and his BA from Morehouse College.

Wilmot is also a Venture Partner with RH Managers, a private equity fund investing in healthcare, based in Johannesburg. He previously worked as Director of East Africa with an U.S. investment firm, CrossBoundary LLC, leading the transaction advisory practice for East Africa from Nairobi.

Prior, Wilmot worked with the International Finance Corporation in Washington DC, executing investments totaling over $300million and managing a portfolio of $2.5billion with the private equity and financial institutions groups. At the IFC, he was also Senior Advisor to the CEO on entrepreneurship initiatives in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, in conjunction with the Global Agenda Council on Youth Unemployment at the World Economic Forum. He also helped develop IFC’s strategy on fragile and conflict-affected situations.

Wilmot has a PhD from Georgetown University in Comparative Political Economy, an MBA from the Wharton Business School, an MPA from Harvard University and BA from Yale University.

Previously, Noramay spent over a decade at Boeing leading large teams working on new complex aviation/aerospace programs. As an engineer and business leader, she specializes in manufacturing, scaling, and supply chain, and couples that technical expertise with coaching on strategy, operations and culture.

In the community, Noramay is a lead investor in Portfolia’s Rising America fund investing in Latinx, Black and LGBTQ founders, an advisory board member of the Homeboy Industries Ventures and Jobs Fund, an appointed board member of the Housing Authority Commission of Los Angeles, and a founding board member of LatinxVC, an organization increasing the Latino ecosystem of funders and founders.

In 2020, she was named one of 50 renowned women in robotics and one of the top 100 influential Latinas in the United States. Noramay is a Kauffman Fellow and holds a MBA, a Master’s in Engineering Systems and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering – all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

As Mayor, Tubbs was lauded for his leadership and innovation. He raised over $20 million dollars to create the Stockton Scholars, a scholarship and mentorship program for Stockton students. Additionally, Tubbs launched the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, the nation’s first-ever mayor-led guaranteed income pilot. He then parlayed that effort into creating Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), a coalition of over 30 mayors which advocates for an income floor for all Americans.

Under his leadership, Stockton was named an All American city in 2017 and 2018, saw a 40% drop in homicides in 2018 and 2019, led the state of California in the decline of officer-involved shootings in 2019, was named the second most fiscally healthy city in California, and was featured in an HBO documentary film entitled “Stockton on My Mind.”

Tubbs has been named a fellow at the MIT Media lab, a member of Fortune’s Top 40 under 40, a Forbes 30 under 30 All Star Alumni, the “Most Valuable Mayor” by the Nation Magazine, the 2021 Civic Leadership Award winner from the King Center, and 2019 New Frontier Award Winner from the JFK Library and the Institute of Politics. Prior to his election as Mayor, Tubbs served as a Councilmember for the City of Stockton District 6, a high school educator, and a fellow for the Stanford Design School and the Emerson Collective.