The DreamIt Ventures Managing Partners at the New York City 2012 Demo Day.
The DreamIt Managing Partners are all entrepreneurs. We have each founded, built and successfully sold one or more businesses. We have backgrounds in technology, finance, sales and marketing, and law. Many of us are angel investors and have invested in software/SaaS, chip, pharmaceutical, medical device, and other startup companies.
Founding Partner
New York, Philadelphia
David Bookspan is one of the founding partners of DreamIt Ventures where he helps startups achieve their next market milestones. He is the Founder and Chairman of Monetate, Inc. an online platform that turns eCommerce websites into agile platforms for testing, merchandising, targeting, and creating personal experience for customers. Monetate was part of 20% of all online retail sales during the 2011 holiday season.
David was the Founder, President, and CEO of MarketSpan, Inc., whose CaseStream® service aggregated and enhanced court docket information, creating new research tools and marketing opportunities for legal professionals. MarketSpan was acquired, and CaseStream was rebranded LexisNexis CourtLink.
As a “has been,” David was President of Robin Hood Ventures, Vice Chairman of Mid-Atlantic Angel Group Fund I and a member of the Computer/IT Investment Advisory Committee of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA.
In a previous life, David was a litigation partner at Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, LLP. He received his J.D from Georgetown University where he was an Editor of the Law Review; and was graduated with double honors from Vassar College.
David also pitched semi-pro in the Spanish Federation of Baseball Leagues. He retired before his outfielders got hurt.
Founding Partner
New York, Philadelphia, DreamIt Health – Philadelphia
Mike Levinson is a Founding Partner at DreamIt Ventures; co-founder and CEO of WizeHive, an SaaS productivity tool growing 100% year over year; and an active angel investor with a portfolio of over a dozen technology companies.
Before DreamIt, Mike co-founded PTS Learning Systems, a company focused on corporate technology education and electronic performance support tools. Under his leadership, the company grew into a highly profitable international organization with over 200 employees and revenues of $30 million until he sold it 1999.
Mike also co-founded at later sold TechWise Group, Inc., an information technology-outsourcing firm for small and medium businesses, and was a co-founder of a legal management package called LegalEdge Software. He also helped launch the Aim Academy, a school for bright children who learn differently, where he currently serves on the board.
A graduate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Mike holds a degree in Economics and Accounting, obtained his CPA certificate in Pennsylvania, and graduated with a JD from Villanova Law School.
Founding Partner
Austin, DreamIt Health – Philadelphia
Steve Welch is a co-founder and Managing Partner at DreamIt Ventures overseeing programs in Austin and Philadelphia. He is the Founder and CEO of KinderTown, the Education App Store for parents with children 3-6 and an active angel investor.
KinderTown is currently one of the fastest growing EdTech companies.
The founder of Mitos Technologies at the age of 23, Steve lead Mitos to develop six marketable patents all directed at improving biotech companies efficiency in manufacturing. Mitos successfully to Parker Hannifin (NYSE: PH)—an S&P 500 company – in 2007.
Selected as a member of the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008; Steve was awarded the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship to build bridges internationally in early stage startup communities in 2009, and most recently published a book about entrepreneurship, “We are all Born Entrepreneurs.”
Steve has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Penn State.
Managing Partner
Austin
Kerry Rupp is a Managing Partner at DreamIt Ventures. She manages the organization’s operations and fundraising efforts and leads the Austin program.
Before DreamIt, Kerry was a marketing and strategy consultant to senior executives at AllRecipes, ReadersDigest, LexisNexis, Payscale, and Taleo. With nearly 20 years of executive strategy and operations experience, Rupp spent much of her time at startups, including: Jobster, MarketSpan and CourtLink and at Automated Catalogue Services.
Kerry is the founder of Holiday Golightly, an online travel service specializing in girlfriend getaway trips. She has also served as Vice President of Business Development at Jobster and Classmates.com; Managing Director & Vice President of Market Planning at LexisNexis; and was a Consultant at both McKinsey & Company and Andersen Consulting. She is the publisher of the book “CRAVE Austin: The Urban Girls’ Manifesto” (2009), and the publisher of “The Parisian Cowboy’s Guide to the Round Top Experience” (2010).
Kerry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Biology from Duke University. She is an avid adventurer that has visited over 50 countries and been to 48 States in the USA.
Managing Partner
Philadelphia
Karen Griffith Gryga is a Managing Partner at DreamIt Ventures where she oversees the Philadelphia cycles and leads fundraising efforts for DreamIt Fund II. She is the co-founder of Liberty Venture Partners, a Philadelphia based venture fund established in 1997 with $150M under management; FashInvest, a media and events initiative known internationally, focused on emerging growth entrepreneurs within Branded Goods, Fashion, Fashion Tech and Retail; and co-founder and CEO of Lipstick Wisdom, a community website for mothers of children with neurological differences.
Karen has nearly twenty years of transaction experience. Along with being a co-founder a Liberty Venture Partners, she was Vice President at Philadelphia Ventures, Fund Manager in Residence at Context Capital Partners, and Executive Directors at the Mid-Atlantic Angel Group. Currently, she is board member of Sidecar.
Karen holds a MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (with Distinction) and a Masters in Computer Science from the Moore School of Engineering. Karen earned her Bachelor of Science degree in computer science (Phi Beta Kappa) from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Managing Director
New York
Mark Wachen is the Managing Director for DreamIt Ventures’ NewYork program. He is the Managing Director and Founder of Upstage Ventures, a firm that advises and invests in consumer Internet and interactive marketing companies and board member of Optify and OrderGroove.
Mark is the founder of Optimost, the company that pioneered multivariable testing and optimization on the Internet; and he served as CEO for the company up until its acquisition by Interwoven in November 2007 for $52 million.
Before his entrepreneurial successes, Mark worked for seven years at Sony overseeing a variety of Internet initiatives. He was the CEO of Indimi, a company majority-owned by Sony. While there, he spearheaded the acquisitions of InfoBeat, AdTools, and DailyRating. He was Vice President of Online Ventures for Sony Music, where he directed online initiatives, including Sony Music’s investments in Spinner (acquired by AOL for $300 million), and the launch of the Sony Music Online Website in 1994. Mark has worked with and invested in a variety of other companies, including: ChaiLabs (acquired by Facebook), SeatGeek, YouNow, Thumb, GameChanger, STELLAService, RJMetrics, and CatchAFire.
Mark has an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College.
Managing Director
New York, Philadelphia
William Crowder is Managing Director at DreamIt Ventures where he works closely with DreamIt’s NYC and Philadelphia cycles, overseeing the DreamIt Access track. He is responsible for the operation of DreamIt Access; a partnership between DreamIt Ventures and Comcast to increase the number of minority-led startups.
Outside of DreamIt, William leads the investing activities of the Comcast Ventures Opportunity Fund, a $20M seed stage venture fund; and is the Founder and Managing Director of Growth Strategy Advisors, a boutique strategic advisory and business development company that launched in 2008.
With over 15 years of strategy and operations consulting experience; William has been an integral piece in the acquisition and integration of several technology-focused companies including TACODA, Third Screen Media, Quigo, Community Connect and Transaction Network Services, and remains a trusted advisor to senior executives at top media companies such as AOL, Thomson Reuters, Radio One, and Interactive One.
William holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from North Carolina State University.
Managing Partner
Israel, New York
Mitchell Golner is the Managing Partner of DreamIt Ventures Israel. He is the pioneering force behind the DreamIt Israel program; a hi-tech business manager, advisor, and angel investor.
In 2009, Mitchell founded Tangramix, Ltd., a strategic advisory firm focused on providing business advisory services to companies in Israel. Previously, he was based in China as the business manager for Zoran’s Consumer DVD business, with over $130M in annual sales worldwide.
With over eighteen years of experience in the hi-tech industry, Mitchell has held various business and technical roles in software, hardware, and systems. He has deep experience in managing worldwide business, developing cross-cultural teams, fostering innovation, and executing new product development from inception through development to sales to customers.
Mitchell is a graduate of the GE/Lockheed Martin Edison Engineering Program (EEP), the recipient of a NASA Virginia Space Grant, holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Managing Partner
DreamIt Health – Philadelphia
Elliot is a physician/engineer/hacker turned serial entrepreneur and investor. He is a managing director of DreamIt Health, a program that invests in and accelerates the development of pre-seed healthtech ideas/teams/companies. He is co-founder of Venturef0rth, a campus in Philadelphia for tech startups and an entity dedicated to doing whatever it takes to make it easier for early-stage companies to succeed. He also serves on the Penn faculty where he teaches a crash course in entrepreneurship for engineers and scientists aspiring to create companies that take their tech to market.
Elliot was previously the founder and CEO of HxTechnologies, a pioneer in health information exchange which he sold to MEDecision in May 2009. Following the acquisition, he served as General Manager at MEDecision with responsibility for building new lines of business around health information exchange (HIE), electronic health record (EHR), personal health record (PHR) and telehealth products and services. On the academic side, Elliot is the author and inventor of multiple patents and patents pending. He’s been an oft-invited speaker on the subject of imaging and health information exchange and is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers ranging from medical informatics to computational neuroscience. He’s been the principal investigator for a number of grants from the National Institutes of Health that funded HxTechnologies in its earliest days and has also led research on the economics of fragmented healthcare delivery nationwide.
An NIH Fellow in the Medical Scientist Training Program, Elliot received an MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine following his work on memory function and Alzheimer’s disease developing and exploring massively-parallel computer models of the brain. He holds MSE and BSEE degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University following work on microchip design.
Arie Abecassis is an operator, advisor and venture capital investor of software companies. He currently serves on the boards of SeatGeek and Adaptly, both DreamIt companies, and has advised emerging companies in e-commerce, marketing and advertising technologies including iContact, OrderMotion and Transactis.
Previously, Abecassis was President/COO of MindFireInc, a leading provider of SaaS-based cross-media marketing solutions that was recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the country’s fastest growing software companies. He has also been active in venture capital and corporate venturing. At Updata Partners, a $500 million growth equity firm focused on software and technology-driven business services companies, he was responsible for identifying new investment opportunities and building a team to support deal sourcing, analysis and execution. As a member of Thomson Financial Ventures, now part of Thomson-Reuters, Abecassis actively participated in executing inorganic and organic growth initiatives, including equity investments in CCBN, Creditex Inc., Trepp LLC and Financeware. Earlier in his career, he lead business development activities at Marvel Entertainment, Inc., where he helped incubate and manage several business units related to Marvel’s licensing and interactive efforts, and the New York Daily News, where he worked in strategy and business development.
Abecassis is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and earned his MBA as a Beta Gamma Sigma Scholar of New York University’s Stern School of Business.
