Shawn started as a business owner, founding, and growing a successful company in Beijing China before returning to the US to work with companies ranging from fast growing Silicon Valley startups to established overseas public companies. He brings his international experience working with all stages and sectors of businesses to his role as Principal at a premier middle market investment bank with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructuring, and valuation focusing on transactions between 10-250M.

Shawn holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UCSD and speaks Mandarin and Spanish (lived abroad for almost 8 years) and he is the host of the award-winning Podcast "The Silicon Valley Podcast"

Pouneh is a leader on the Microsoft Mesh team and a collaborative architect of the vision. She leads a team of Product Managers to accelerate product capabilities to meet enterprise standards required to help reduce risk, ensure compliance while supporting global readiness. She is passionate about creating a responsible metaverse to provide safe, inclusive, and accessible platform and experiences where users can be their authentic selves by building meaningful connections as they come together in Microsoft Mesh. She has over 20 years of tech experience in the tech industry primarily on Media and Entertainment and gaming.

Ray is a seasoned venture capitalist with over 20 years of investing experience across a wide range of industries and geographies. Ray is the managing partner of Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund, focusing on Web3, NFT, Defi and Metaverse related investments. Prior to Alumni Ventures, Ray was a partner and adviser at several global venture funds focusing on investment opportunities across the U.S. and Asia Pacific. Earlier, he spent more than 10 years in the corporate ventures: Ray was the managing director of HP’s new business ventures that is responsible for startup technology evaluation, new business incubation, VC relationships, and minority investments. Prior to HP, Mr. Wu spent more than six years with Cisco Systems, and held several senior positions leading investment, M&A, internal incubation, and global consulting. Mr. Wu earned a dual EMBA degree from the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University.

SangSoo is the only Product Manager at the startup XL8. He is responsible for the overall development of the product and its road map, and he is also advising the positioning and messaging of the product. Previously, SangSoo worked in various areas across many leading tech companies such as Palo Alto Networks, DNAnexus, IBM, and so on. He also has hands-on experience in software research and development. He obtained his graduate degree in Computer Science and has worked as a Software Engineer professionally prior to becoming a Product Manager.