Confirmed Judges
| Arun Sundararajan |  |
| Harold Price Professor of Enterpreneurship | |
| NYU Stern School of Business | |
| Arun Sundararajan is the Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Technology, Operations and Statistics at New York University’s (NYU) Stern School of Business, and an affiliated faculty member at many of NYU’s interdisciplinary research centers, including the Center for Data Science and the Center for Urban Science and Progress. His best-selling and award-winning book, “The Sharing Economy,” was published by the MIT Press in 2016, and has been translated into Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Vietnamese.Professor Sundararajan’s research studies how digital technologies transform business, government and civil society. He has published over 50 scientific papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and conferences, and over 35 op-eds in outlets that include The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Wired, Le Monde, Bloomberg View, Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Economic Times, Harvard Business Review and Quartz. His scholarship has been recognized by seven Best Paper awards, two Google Faculty awards, an Axiom Best Business Books Award, and a Thnkers50 Radar Thinker Award. He has given hundreds of keynote, plenary and invited talks at industry, government and academic forums internationally. Watch his 2016 Davos panel. He has provided expert input about the digital economy as testimony to the United States Congress, the European Parliament, and to city, state and federal government agencies that include the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the Federal Trade Commission the National Economic Council, the Federal Reserve Bank, the US Department of Labor, the White House, and the Washington State House of Representatives. He is a widely sought-after commentator by top media platforms. Keep up with his latest views and opinions.Arun is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Technology, Values and Policy, and serves on the Steering Committee of their Operating Models for the Future project. He is an advisor to numerous organizations that include the National Academy of Science, the City of New York, the City of Seoul, Walmart Corporation, Cisco Systems, the Female Founders Fund, the Internet Society of China, OuiShare, Samasource, the National League of Cities, the Royal Society for the Arts and the Center for Global Enterprise. He works with tech companies on issues of strategy and regulation, and with non-tech companies trying to understand how to forecast and address changes induced by digital technologies. He teaches in NYU Stern executive education programs in the U.S., Europe and Asia, focusing primarily on digital strategy and governance. He teaches full-time MBA students about hi-tech entrepreneurship, undergraduates about networks, crowds and markets, and doctoral students about digital economics. He is an occasional angel investor. | |
| Hitesh Aggarwal |  |
| Global Lead, Partnerships and Investments of Institutional Payments, Citigroup | |
| Hitesh Aggarwal leads the Strategic Partnerships, Investments, and Innovation for the Global Payments business at Citibank. Citi Payments team is one of the largest movers of money in the world, moving more than $4Trillion flow daily.Before joining the team Hitesh worked with Citi Ventures and Citi Corporate and Investment banking, leading several investments and advising companies on capital structure and M&A financing across the globe. Hitesh has a wide range of experiences in financial services and technology product development.Hitesh completed his undergrad in engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and MBA at Kellogg School of Management, earning KC Mahindra merit scholarship and featuring in Dean’s list for excellent performance. Hitesh currently lives in downtown Manhattan with his wife. | |
| Joshua Siegel |  |
| General Partner | |
| Rubicon Venture Capital | |
| Joshua Siegel is a General Partner at Rubicon Venture Capital, where he leads Rubicon’s New York office. He oversees the day to day activities and operations of Rubicon including evaluating early stage technology companies seeking funding, assisting current portfolio companies with development and interaction with LPs, attracting LP capital, and developing the Rubicon professional network. Joshua has extensive experience and connections in technology, real estate, luxury lifestyle brands, digital media, and consumer products. Joshua was formerly the Director of Market Intelligence at Citicorp Debt Capital Markets, Manager Eastern European Banking Systems at Citibank and was with the Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC). In 2007, he became an active angel investor with interests in software and technology. Joshua holds a BA degree from Boston University, a MBA from Georgetown University and a Degree in Gastronomy from ICE in New York. Joshua, was born and raised in New York, attended Horace Mann, and still lives there with his family. | |
| Seamon Chan |  |
| Co-Founder and Managing Partner | |
| Palm Drive Capital | |
| Seamon Chan is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Palm Drive Capital, a global venture capital and growth equity firm invested in over 80 technology companies across five continents including WeLab, Jet.com, Clover Health, Rappi, Catalyte, and Boom Supersonic. He is a Co-Founder of Lair East and Lair East Labs, a cross-border innovation space and accelerator. Previously, he was at Insight Venture Partners, a $23 billion venture capital and private equity firm with investments in JD.com and Alibaba. Seamon brings entrepreneurship and operating experience through startup roles in the mobile, gaming, advertising, and social networking spaces in the US, China, and Europe. Earlier in his career, he gained corporate and research experience at Hitachi Data Systems, Citigroup, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, and Stanford Center for Integrated Systems.
Seamon graduated from Stanford University and is completing the Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School, as well as Tsinghua Wudaokou People’s Bank of China School of Finance Belt Road Initiative EMBA Program. He was on the founding teams of the Stanford Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization (Stanford CEO) and the New York City Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization (NYCCEO), both organizations with thousands of members and alumni in US and China. Seamon is a Committee of 100 Next Generation Leader and a member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle and the Economic Club of New York. Seamon is also an advisory board member of the Mekong Future Initiative (MFI), a Singapore-based non-profit organization. It focuses on accelerating young entrepreneurs and develop evolving markets in the Mekong countries and beyond by promoting STEM and entrepreneurship education in the region. Through Palm Drive, Seamon also supports and pledged a seven-figure amount to The Billion Dollar Fund for Women (TBDF), a global consortium of venture funds committed to tackling the gender investment gap by increasing their investments in women-founded companies. |
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The competition for the startup track will abide by the following judging rules:
| Category | Sub-category | Weight |
| Investability | Money |
Future growth potential | 10% |
| Market size potential | 5% | |
| Market share potential | 5% | |
| Progress-and-traction-to-date | 10% | |
| Team formation and attractiveness | 10% | |
| Competition strategy | 10% | |
| Business risk management | 10% | |
| Innovation | Merit |
Why better from existing players | 5% |
| Key technologies/services novelty | 15% | |
| Impact | Value |
Why and how you can make humanity better | 5% |
| Implementable plans to attack big problems | 15% |