Thomas Sparico is the Founder & Managing Partner of Brand New Matter (BNM) Ventures. BNM Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed stage companies. His current investments include Leaflink, Bizly, VenueBook, Seatboost, AirportSherpa, LYNQ, Beachy and Buster. He is an advisor to several travel industry companies including Rocketrip and Curacity. Tom is a career entrepreneur, inventor, operator and investor with 22 years of experience. He was part of the founding team at priceline.com and a named inventor on over 100 patents at Walker Digital Corp. He was the founder and CEO of Internet Travel Enterprises, led the acquisition and turnaround of Hickory Travel and the turnaround and subsequent sale of ECS to Onyx Centersource.
Gillian Morris is the founder and CEO of Hitlist, named one of the 50 Best Apps of 2016 by TIME. Before entering the start-up world, Gillian worked as a consultant, journalist, and educator in Turkey, China, the Gulf states, and Syria. Her work has appeared in/on the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Buzzfeed, CNN, CNBC, TechCrunch, The Next Web, and LifeHacker. She is a proud mentor with the School of Leadership Afghanistan and Gaza Sky Geeks and serves on the board of Data4America, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank dedicated to bringing data and conversations to advance the understanding of policy.
John Matson is the Managing Director for Voyager HQ, a club connecting startup founders, corporate partners, and investors in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry. Since Voyager HQ’s inception two years ago, when John was Digital Director, Voyager HQ has grown to over 1,000 members, with a vibrant community workspace in the Flatiron/Chelsea area of Manhattan, and the Voyager Clubhouse, which is home to 27 companies and over 70 members.
John is also the Co-Director for Startup Grind NYC, a global community in over 250 cities around the world, united by the mission of educating, inspiring, and connecting entrepreneurs. He helped launch and is now on the leadership council of a non-profit, the NYC Innovation Collective, a network of innovation leaders from over 80 incubators and accelerators coming together to raise the bar for entrepreneurial leadership.
Bess Chapman is an Operating Principal at JetBlue Technology Ventures, which incubates, invests in, and partners with early stage startups at the intersection of technology and travel. Bess was previously the Head of Content, Partnerships & Entertainment Technology at JetBlue before moving to JetBlue Technology Ventures, a position she took after spending time as an analyst in the inflight entertainment division at the company. Previously, Bess was consultant focused on media and entertainment at Cognizant Technology Solutions and was also a business analyst at IBM.
Brandon McKenzie is an experienced travel tech and hospitality startup founder. He has driven the strategy, operations, and product builds that have made MetroButler New York’s leading PMC. Given the regulatory uncertainty surrounding the sharing economy and rapidly evolving trends in the travel tech, home sharing, and OTA ecosystems, his background as an attorney and a real estate broker, and his deep knowledge of mutli-sided marketplaces, have proven indispensable. Outside of the office, Brandon volunteers as an attorney, assisting indigent clients in New York City Housing Court. He also teaches courses on entrepreneurial law as a member of the adjunct faculty at Fordham University School of Law and is a member of Fordham Law’s Entrepreneurial Law Advisory Council.
