Food & Beverage

Jacob Jaber is the Co-Founder & Chairman of Philz Coffee. As CEO for nearly two decades, Jacob grew Philz from the original coffee shop in San Francisco's Mission District to more than 70 locations across the country. Jacob has raised more than $100 million in funding from investors. Jacob is also a renowned investor and advisor and was named Forbes' 30 Under 30. Jacob is a pro in the consumer space, specializing in product, design, customer experience, retail, consumer technology, team building, org culture and more.

Mikael Makinen is the Co-Founder of Four Sigmatic, a functional foods company especially known for its mushroom coffees. Mikael was responsible for growing Four Sigmatic's retail business from scratch to 8 figures profitable revenue and +5,000 retail doors in over 20 countries with the main focus in the United States. In the process, he hired and managed an internal team from the ground up, and sourced tens of distributors, and hundreds of external sales reps. Mikael stepped down from his operational role after 11 years and remains an active board member of the company. Mikael is an expert in B2B sales, profitability, fundraising, international business, and CPG strategy and operations. 

Alec Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Endless West, a beverage startup that creates its own unique blend of wines and spirits using scientific production methods. The whiskey has won 14 awards, and the company has raised more than $100 million in funding from IndieBio, SOSV, Horizon Ventures, and Level One Fund. Prior to Endless West, he co-founded M Prep, a pre-medical online education company that he bootstrapped and scaled before being acquired by a strategic in 2019. Alec Lee graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in biotechnology and later earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.