Ideas to Invoices Laura Lorek

Manu Rehani is an innovator in applied behavioral and cognitive linguistics. He is an inventor, mentor, and board advisor for a number of startups. After successfully exiting two tech ventures, he’s currently focused on developing a new class of emotion-aware AI for general application in custom GPTs and LLMs and specific use in mental health and wellness applications to foster a healthy relationship with self and others through AI. His significant prior achievements include authoring patents fundamental to cloud storage and AI language models, and he plays an active role in mentoring at various incubators at the University of Texas and in the Austin area.

Aaron Thweatt is a dynamic executive coach and seasoned HR professional who strongly believes in the power of an individual’s potential. His mission is to create meaningful connections between talent, ambition, and purpose by empowering executives and entrepreneurs to bridge the gaps in their personal and business lives, allowing them to thrive in their zone of genius.
Before establishing his practice, Respark Coaching, Aaron forged an impressive career across diverse industries, including financial services, oil and gas, sales and marketing, human resources, and program management. During his tenure, he was pivotal in shaping executive and broad-based compensation strategies for esteemed companies such as AECOM, Activision Blizzard, SpaceX, and DoorDash. These experiences revealed to him unique insights into the inner workings of high-performing individuals and teams tackling the most audacious creative and technical challenges.

Aruni S. Gunasegaram is a serial entrepreneur and start-up veteran. She consults and
speaks on entrepreneurship, customer success, operations, building trust, and managing
expectations with strategic stakeholders via Customer Concentric. She most recently worked
with SecureAuth in the cybersecurity authentication industry. 
Aruni also served as Director of Operations at the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), where she
supported dozens of entrepreneurial CEOs and managed the incubator's internal operations. 
She was a cofounding parent of the Magellan International School (a nonprofit language
immersion, International Baccalaureate school) and an adjunct lecturer on entrepreneurship at
The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and is currently an MBA+
project coach. She was co-founder/president of Isochron Data, a web and mobile application company targeting the vending and packaged ice industries (aka the “internet of things”), where she coordinated closing the company’s first $1 million in revenue, raising $15 million in equity financing, as well as built a team of employees, board members, and advisors. She co-founded Babble Soft, a web and mobile application company targeted at new parents. 
 Her son attends The University of Texas at Dallas, and her daughter attends George Washington University. Aruni has a BBA (Accounting) and MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

Gary Stephens, CEO and Co-Founder of Vendidit, is a visionary technology executive and is an industry thought leader in reverse logisitics. He is the Imagineer of both Vendidit, launched in 2024, and Renew Logic, which started from a single pallet of recyclables in 2016. His previous career includes working on the Windows 95 launch team, being head of Windows NT updates under Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, and building a third electronics recycling company to $400 million from scratch. His positive contributions to ethical business practices and industry improvements led to testifying before Congress in 2018 about smart, diverse employment policies. Beyond tech, Gary's diverse passions include race car driving, piloting, and philanthropy – particularly helping dog rescues.  He's a proven leader, blending business acumen with a profound commitment to societal impact.

Nilma Achwal is the founder of The Female Founders Lab, a virtual accelerator and coaching service in Austin. Achwal moved to Austin about a year and half ago from Los Angeles. Before launching The Female Founders Lab, Achwal founded Iesha Learning, a technology education platform to teach sexual education to junior high school students in India. She also launched and ran SEED, a social enterprise incubation program at Villgro Innovations Foundation in Chennai. In addition, she was a Kiva Fellow in Bolivia and wrote business case studies at the University of Michigan.
 

Kelsey August is the founding managing director of Austin-based DealFlowNow, a new VC firm that plans to invest $60 million into early-stage companies. August is also a super angel investor with forty active portfolio companies and a serial entrepreneur who founded Lone Star Direct, a marketing firm when she was 24.