Join Tech in Motion and Rachel Koretsky, Director of DC Startup Week and CEO of Upace, for the second installment of our brand new Startup Fireside Chat series: Success in Set Backs. This series will feature inspirational Startup CEOs and trailblazers who will share their stories, insights, tips & tricks, lessons learned, and more!
Whether you're a founder, aspiring entrepreneur, investor or startup enthusiast, this conversation is sure to inspire you!
Ian Swanson, CEO & Founder, Protect AI. Prior to founding Protect AI, Ian led Amazon Web Services' worldwide AI and ML business. He also served as Vice President of Machine Learning at Oracle where he oversaw strategy for Oracle’s AI and ML products. Previously, Ian was CEO and Founder of enterprise data science platform DataScience.com which was acquired by Oracle in May 2018. Earlier in his career, he was an executive at American Express, Sprint, and CEO of Sometrics, which was acquired by American Express in 2011. Sometrics was the industry's first global virtual currency platform and managed more than 3.3 trillion units of virtual currency for more than 250 million people in 180 countries.
Rachel Koretsky is the Founder and CEO of Upace: the leading platform for community recreation centers in reservations and member engagement that supports facility operators and their members. Recreation and fitness center managers can remotely and instantly access analytics, communicate directly with members, and update the app within minutes. Via the app, members can view center occupancy, reserve equipment, and sign up for classes. Upace is “Fitness Meets Convenience” for facility managers and members alike.
Rachel is passionate about entrepreneurship and supporting entrepreneurs and founders. Four years ago, she became a Co-Organizer of DC Startup Week where under her leadership the community grew to over 10,000 entrepreneurs in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region.
She speaks on the importance of community engagement within community recreation centers, technology, and entrepreneurship at both recreational conferences and entrepreneurship-focused conferences throughout the United States and Canada.
Zainab is a research associate at Cleantech Group covering topics including grid resiliency, small modular reactors, fusion, long duration energy storage and other topics in Energy and Power.
Prior to joining Cleantech Group, Zainab has researched circular economy solutions including evaluating recycling challenges and reuse systems, identifying collection strategies for marine plastics, and collaborating with informal waste worker collectives.
Zainab earned her Undergraduate Degrees in Physics and English from Binghamton University
