Brett is co-Founder and Managing Partner of Charge Ventures, a pre-seed focused venture fund based in Brooklyn, NY. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School.
A 2x founder and 3x investor, Brett has spent his entire career building or investing in technology startups, including stints as an EIR @PrimaryVC (NYC-based seed stage fund with >$100MM AUM), Co-Founder @Switchapp (mobile recruiting), Co-Founder @Sonar (pioneering location-based social network), Director of Investments @Appfund (NYC-based incubator and seed stage fund), and @Vice (the multi-billion dollar media company). He began his career on Wall Street as an equity research analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners.
Beyond tech, Brett has published his Fulbright research in Harvard Business, founded an indie rock band, started a non-profit, and sailed 6,000 miles on a 30ft sailboat. He graduated from Dartmouth College and proudly hails from Ocean City, MD.
Despoina Kouzioka
Business Plan Formulation
Despoina specializes in dynamic financial modeling, business plan formation and statistical analysis for business. She started with niche marketing consultancy Frost & Sullivan, and then with Accenture, in the Resources & Strategy group of Accenture’s matrix organization, reaching the level of senior manager. Next, Despoina moved to BP Downstream to join the Strategic Planning team in the Program Management Office (PMO) of a large cross-sectional transformation initiative, where she led the business case development Subsequently, Despoina joined the Strategy Group of the Wholesale arm of Eurobank EFG.
She holds MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Patras and an MBA from the Imperial College Management School of London University.
Eirinikos Platis
Legal & Tax
Eirinikos is a corporate lawyer with extensive international experience in company acquisitions and restructuring, capital markets and financing. He is the partner entrusted with the management of the associated law firms of Ernst & Young in Bucharest and Athens, having also worked beforehand in London, Ince & Co LLP. He constantly supports entrepreneurship and the community, aiming to an environment that both would thrive and to this respect he is the appointed legal counsel of Hellenic-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Member of the Board of Directors of Arkadia Culture Foundation (Viohalco Group).
Eirinikos has published essays in academic journals on corporate and capital markets law and is a member of the Bar Associations of Piraeus and Bucharest.
He holds his LLB degree from the University of Athens and his Masters in Law from the University of Oxford.
Keith Mukai
Technology
Keith thrives on innovative thinking and creative problem solving. He has spent his entire technical career working in startups, often serving as a one-man seed tech team. Some of the startup he helped to spawn actually grew strong to become leaders in their space – like pharmaceutical market research firm AlphaDetail that was recently acquired by Impact Rx. Keith is the founder and CEO of EssayTagger.com, a revolutionary web-based tool for teachers that leverages his experience as a classroom teacher.
Keith earned his Master of Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an AB in Computer Science from Princeton University.
Thanos Papadimitriou
Strategy
Thanos is co-Founder and Partner of Charge Ventures, a seed focused venture fund based in Brooklyn, NY. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern and teaches at other prestigious Business Schools such as SDA Bocconi, and London Business School (LBS).
He has co-founded or served as advisor to more than a dozen of start-ups in the US and Europe including AlphaDetail, LingoSpot, giaola, moveo, and M2C Media. He has three exits under his belt and is a Techstars “All-Star” mentor.
He earned his BSc from MIT in Computer Science and MS in Computer Science and PhD in Management from UCLA with the aid of an Onassis scholarship. He has published numerous articles in academic and trade journals alike.
Vas Bakopoulos
Market Insight
Vassilis is a digital marketer with hands on experience on both creative and business strategy. He designs integrated communication platforms for Fortune 100 companies, but he also works with early stage startups consulting them in areas of branding, consumer insights and digital strategy Vassilis started his career at WPP where he worked for a number of agencies in Greece and then in New York.
He is currently Head of Research for the Mobile Marketing Association, leading all research initiatives in areas of Measurement and Attribution, Viewability & cognition in mobile (using neuroscience), Location targeting and more.
Vassilis holds a BSc in Economics from ASOEE in Greece and an MBA in Banking and Finance from the University of Birmingham in the UK. He has published a book about online advertising.
Lefteris Santikos
Business Development
Lefteris is passionate about enabling founders to materialize their vision and companies to grow. He focuses on business development and startup law working with startups such as Just: Access and Workathlon.
He earned his BA from Boston University in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, his GDL from City, University of London and his LPC degree from BPP Law School
Melanie Gonzales Prestes Maia
Executive Education
Melanie has over 10 years of international experience in senior executive education. Before joining mbriyo, she was involved with the Bocconi Senior Management Program and where she performed a variety of organizational and administrative tasks earning the acclaim of faculty and participants alike.
An entrepreneur at heart, Melanie has also founded and run De’Mel, an experiential shopping made-in-Italy jewelry brand. Her multicultural exposure from a young age and fluency in 6 languages lends her a unique approach to problem solving and management of critical situations – no matter how diverse or demanding.
Melanie has earned her BSc from QUT in Australia in Marketing and International Business and holds a MSc from SDA Bocconi in Milan in Fashion and Design Management.