Demo Day 2024 Judges
Santa Cruz Works is thrilled to announce the esteemed panel of judges for Demo Day 2024 on November 6, where nine innovative startups from the 6th cohort of Santa Cruz Accelerates will present their business ventures. The startups, having completed the accelerator program, will showcase their unique solutions, commercial viability, and market opportunities, competing for the top three spots.
The judges for this year’s event bring a wealth of experience across industries:
Alexi Sevastopoulos, Partner at Santa Cruz Ventures, is well-known for his expertise in identifying and nurturing early-stage companies. His investment focus spans a variety of sectors, making him an invaluable judge for startups aiming to scale.
Danny Bernstein, CEO of Hawktower, brings deep knowledge of tech and business operations. With a background in scaling successful tech companies, Danny is uniquely positioned to evaluate the problem-solving capabilities and market size potential of the startups.
Laurie Negro, Founder of Betty Burgers, and angel investor, adds a local business perspective. Having grown her business into a beloved Santa Cruz institution, Laurie will offer insights into the practicality and commercial appeal of the startups’ ideas.
Madison Hawkinson, Principal at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), specializes in backing transformative tech startups. With her venture capital experience, Madison will assess the commercial viability and growth potential of the startups. (tentative)
These four judges will select the top three startups based on the clarity of their problem-solving approach, the uniqueness of their solution, the commercial viability, and the market size. Get your tickets now for this exciting annual event, where innovation meets opportunity, and help celebrate the future of entrepreneurship in Santa Cruz!
Alexi Sevastopoulos
Alexi is a Santa Cruz resident, holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He is GP of Santa Cruz Ventures, as well as part of the founding teams at Armature Systems (F2000 technology integrator), the Santa Clara University Venture Accelerator, and Santa Clara Ventures - a venture capital firm that invests in the top start-ups founded by Santa Clara University alumni, graduate-level students, faculty, and staff.
Danny Bernstein
Danny is the Managing Partner of HawkTower. HawkTower invests in early-stage startups that apply breakthrough computing technologies to sustain and maximize California's natural resource markets. Hawktower generates investor returns by backing companies that achieve rapid commercial growth by building technology-enabled interventions to critical industrial and environmental imperatives.
Laurie Negro
Laurie Negro is the founder and operator of Betty Burgers, an iconic Santa Cruz restaurant chain. She is a serial restaurant/retail entrepreneur driven by her early career in Mergers and Acquisitions as well as tech. Laurie is an investor and advisor at Entefy, an enterprise AI software and automation company. She is most passionate about giving back to her community through philanthropic endeavors with organizations such as Second Harvest food Bank.
Madison Hawkinson
Madison is an investor in early stage data and AI at New Enterprise Associates. Previously, she invested at Costanoa Ventures and led machine learning organizations at startup Thrasio and Greycroft. She also worked as a data science leader at Facebook on deep learning and infrastructure. Madison graduated from Stanford engineering and grew up in Colorado performing in rodeos.
