Aaron Bird
Sarah K. Lee
Sarah is a former education startup founder with over sixteen years of experience scaling exceptional education programs/schools and coaching founding teams of EdTech Startups globally.
Sarah has been an early member of innovative organizations such as The KIPP Foundation, GreatSchools.org, Higher Ground Education, and was selected by the U.S. State Department as a Fulbright Fellow in 2005. Subsequently, Sarah founded and exited an education company based in Shanghai, China that served students in 60+ countries, launched international preK-12 programs, coached Stanford MBA students, guided international admissions to Harvard Law School, grew a network of high-fidelity Montessori schools, and advised/invested in EdTech companies around the world
Sarah is passionate about unlocking an individuals’ potential with technology and working closely with founding teams as they innovate the way human beings continuously develop. Sarah studied Political + Economic Analysis at Mills College and International Education Policy at Harvard University.
Jason Freedman
Jason Freedman has spent 20 years as an entrepreneur with 2 venture-backed exits. He is the founder of 42Floors, the top commercial real estate listings site. As an investor and advisor, Jason has worked with the top companies and can share his perspective of their earliest days. Founders like Eric Wu of Opendoor, Robert Reffkin of Compass, and Sandro and Urska of Bellabeat all share one thing in common: when they started, it was just the founders, foolishly trying to change the world. Now look at them
Jason likes working with founders in these earliest days, when the fate of their company is still uncertain. When there aren’t enough hours in the day. When the real founders are just starting to separate themselves from the pretenders
Jason is a two-time alumnus of Y Combinator and holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business
Sergey Young
Sergey Young is the Founding Partner of Peak State Ventures, a serial entrepreneur, and a well-known investor.
He made his name delivering above-average returns as a private equity assets manager with over $2 billion in assets under management. His investment experience in human longevity, digital healthcare, online education, and real estate technologies spans over 20 years, making him one of the most qualified experts in this field.
Prior to becoming an investor, Sergey worked at McKinsey & Co. consulting global Fortune 500 companies. Today, he combines his previously acquired business & investment expertise with his passion for biotech & life-extension breakthroughs as the Founder of the $100M Longevity Vison Fund, Development Sponsor of Longevity XPRIZE, and author of upcoming book on life extension with advice and contributions from Longevity Pioneer Peter Diamandis and NY Times-Bestselling author Ellen Daly.
George Cigale
George founded Tutor.com and served as its CEO until it was acquired by IAC in 2013. Under George’s leadership, Tutor.com became the leading provider of on-demand instructional solutions for students and professionals. George has since advised over 20 early stage and growth companies on fundraising, strategy, and M&A. He serves as a Director on the Boards of Wonder and Lingo Live, and as a Trustee on the Boards of Columbia University Teachers College and The Wild Center
George received a BA in Political Science from SUNY Binghamton, and lives in the Boston area. When he’s not in meetings, George can often be found trying to reach the top of a high peak in the Adirondacks
Nodari Kezua
Nodari previously served as a Vice President at Invest AG where he built and managed a venture portfolio of mid- and late-stage investments, including WeFox, VIPKid, Docplanner, Delivery Hero and Auto1
Nodari graduated with BSc in Economics from the Finance University of Russia and he is an alumnus of Venture Capital Executive Program at Berkeley Haas. Nodari loves Georgian polyphonic singing and plays cello
Seva Zakharov
Seva works on early and growth stage investments across all verticals of Peak State Ventures focus. Prior to Peak State Ventures he developed corporate strategy for Apttus and Severstal and worked as an analyst at Citibank
Seva graduated from Higher School of Economics and holds MBA from INSEAD. In spare time he travels the world and studies history of cinema
Rajit Malhotra
Rajit is the former Managing Partner of McKinsey’s SoCal Practice. He founded his first business while in college, building it into the largest retail chain of paint stores in Oman & Dubai. He was the co-founder and board member of Shantha Biotech, sold to Sanofi-Aventis for $850M. He has been closely involved with over 20 startups over his career. He is on the board of the UCLA Technology Development Group and Bel Air Chapter of YPO. He has been a member of the Dean’s Council at Harvards’s Kennedy School, a member of the SoCal Leadership Council, and on the boards of CAFAM and the Saban Free Clinic
Rajit has dual undergrad degrees in business and liberal arts from Wharton and the College at Penn. He has an MBA from Kellogg and an MPA/ID from Harvard
Bryan Ciambella
Bryan is a venture capitalist and 3x entrepreneur. He has founded three companies that have had successful exits: Amped Fantasy (acquired by the Global Gaming Network), Hello Fresh in the US with Daniel Treiman (Global IPO in 2017) and the World Championship of Ping Pong (acquired by Matchroom Sports).
Bryan was a principal leading global venture + growth equity investments at B Capital. At IAC/InterActiveCorp he led the acquisition of Apalon, a top 10 iOS app publisher. Over the last 15 years Bryan has invested in over 20 of the world’s leading global technology companies ($17B market cap).
He enjoys golfing, ice hockey and traveling. BA – University of Rochester, Masters Investment Management – Cass Business School of London (Dissertation: Valuation models for Pre-IPO companies)