We support today's underdogs in becoming tomorrow's champions

Han’s career in venture capital started in 2009 and has spanned at VantagePoint and Formation 8, where he was the first hire on the investment team. He led and/or contributed to the investment in Motive Drilling (acquired by Helmerich & Payne), Lucid (acquired by Acuity), Comfy (acquired by Siemens), Oculus (acquired by Facebook), Taxon (acquired by DuPont), and AlertMe (acquired by British Gas). Han has served on the board of multiple portfolio companies including BorderX Lab, Sweet a Little, Motive Drilling, and Grabit, and has closely advised entrepreneurs in building a startup from the ground up. He received the title of “Honorary Employee” (with badge #36) from one of his current portfolio companies to recognize the instrumental role he has played. Earlier in his career, Han worked for Rohm and Haas Company, the largest US specialty chemical company, where he was credited as key inventor of four US patents.

Han earned his bachelor’s degree from Nanjing University, Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and MBA from The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Han holds a private pilot license issued by the US FAA and was the Dignitary Champion of International Cherry Pit Spitting Competition in 2002.

Martin’s career has spanned several industries in Austin. Prior to iFly, Martin worked in Operations and Project Management at Toyota, Samsung, and a few Austin staples. As an Austin native, Martin brings valuable insight to the team. He is a passionate soccer fan, closely following his hometown club of Lille, France, and enjoys traveling to National Parks.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and began his part-time MBA program at the University of Texas in Austin in 2022.

Eric’s career has spanned several industries. Most recently he was a Senior Product Manager at Amazon’s Lab 126, where he worked on Alexa’s Q&A team. Earlier he was COO and co-founder of a venture-backed on-demand startup, and a strategy and operations consultant at Ernst & Young, where he helped fortune-500 technology and healthcare companies implement large-scale infrastructure and intelligence improvements.

Eric’s career has spanned several industries. Most recently he was a Senior Product Manager at Amazon’s Lab 126, where he worked on Alexa’s Q&A team. Earlier he was COO and co-founder of a venture-backed on-demand startup, and a strategy and operations consultant at Ernst & Young, where he helped fortune-500 technology and healthcare companies implement large-scale infrastructure and intelligence improvements.Eric earned his bachelor’s degree from The University of Southern California, MS in Computer Science from The University of Pennsylvania, and MBA from Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar. Eric is an avid soccer player and fan, and has taken a strong interest in mountaineering, having recent climbed a couple 18k+ ft. mountains including Mount Kilimanjaro.

Alfred Chu has over eighteen years of global venture capital experience. Alfred is currently a partner with DIR Ventures, a multifamily office focused on investments in the alternative data ecosystem and data driven disruptions. Previously, Alfred was with Yimei Capital, a China based Fund of Funds, where he led the firm’s global direct investment practice and US and European expansion. Prior to that, Alfred spent eight years in China focusing on early stage, venture capital investments as a partner for IPV Capital and TDRH Capital. Before China, Alfred was based in Silicon Valley and spent six years as a venture partner in the corporate venture fund of Panasonic. Early in his career, Alfred was an investment banker at Citigroup and a financial analyst at Hewlett-Packard.

Alfred holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS from the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude.

Brian Goodall’s career spans Big Oil (Royal Dutch/Shell), Major Chemical companies (BFGoodrich, Rohm and Haas, Albemarle), Start-ups (Sapphire Energy) and privately held companies (Valicor). Brian’s experience covers the spectrum from invention and innovation (about 100 published US patents) to commercialization and business development. Brian has the innate ability to identify the market, the value and the opportunities for a potential new product or technology. Examples include the catalyst that is used to make almost 50% of the World’s polypropylene (Shell), BFGoodrich’s first new division in decades (Electronic Materials – sold to Sumitomo Bakelite), the Continental USA’s largest commercial algae farm (Valicor/Qualitas) producing the vital omega-3, EPA in a new high value, highly bioavailable form.

Brian has led the internal innovation programs at 2 major companies, and raised $130 million in funding from various Federal agencies. Landmark contributions in the Renewables space include his key contributions to the first non-petroleum-derived jet fuel to fly on a commercial jet (Virgin Atlantic February 2008 – from coconut oil) and the first US flight (Continental Airlines, January 2009 – from algae oil).

Free joined Tencent in 1999 and was a member of the founding team. Free led the development and product planning for the Group’s core product, QQ, and served as project manager for the QQ research and development team. He also served as General Manager of the IM product division and General Manager of the internet business division. He was later promoted to Senior Executive Vice President of the internet services division and Chief Executive Officer of Tencent E-Commerce Holdings Limited. Free has extensive experience in product research and development, product planning, product operations and marketing internet businesses. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Weather Dynamics from Nanjing University in 1996 and an EMBA degree from China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in 2008.

In his previous role at Nike, Jason oversaw the design and execution of all conceptual products, data driven innovations and inline lifestyle and performance product for Jordan Brand, as the Senior Global Design Director. During his 13+ year career at Nike, Mayden led and contributed to the creation of innovative sport performances products for athletes and cultural icons such as Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Derek Jeter, and Michael Jordan.

In 2011, Mayden successfully received his Master’s in General Management and Social Innovation from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and shortly there after he returned to Nike as the Global

Director of Innovation for Nike Digital Sport where he was responsible for the strategic investigation of new technologies and services, such as the Nike Fuel Band.

Most recently, Jason was the VP of Design at Mark One, an IoT startup focusing on the intersection of consumption and behavior change. Mayden is also a d.Fellow and Media Designer at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University, a frequent lecturer at Stanford University’s prestigious Graduate School of Business, a regular columnist/blogger for Hypebeast Magazine and hypebeast.com and an advisory board member to his undergraduate alma mater, the College for Creative Studies.

He is now at Accel assisting with the continuous development of Accel’s brand position amongst the global community of entrepreneurs while working with portfolio companies on deepening and extending their knowledge and ability to create cultures of curiosity. Moreover, he is also an advisor of Slyce, a company created by fellow Nike alum Bryant Barr and NBA Superstar Stephen Curry, a platform focused on creating a new paradigm at the intersection of campaign workflow planning and brand-to-influencer content management. Lastly, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Super Heroic a business focused on provided quality play-performance footwear, apparel and technology for elementary school aged children.

Jessica started her career in design at Balsam Hill, a luxury online retailer specializing home decor as the first designer. During her years at Balsam Hill, she dove deep and wide in all things design from e-commerce experiences, marketing design, branding, product development, photo-art direction and more. Jessica then went on to grow, manage, and lead the design team both in-house and remote.

After years in e-commerce, Jessica joined ZURB, a design agency to expand her skills in digital products in various industries. She helped companies like Samsung, SAP, JCPenney, BDBiosciences and well as other startups to jumpstart new creative solutions to help grow their businesses.

Jessica then went out on her own as an independent designer, designing for Sequoia Capital, Teleon Health, Talend and was an expert-in-residence at General Assembly to guide and mentor aspiring designers.

Later she joined Zugata, an HR tech startup with a mission to empower employees to own their development. As Founding Designer, she was responsible for all things design ranging from user experience to branding and identity. As the company grew, she became Head of Design, where she grew the design team and partnered closely with executives to guide the product and company roadmap.

Today, Jessica is an independent design consultant and design advisor, helping various startups and companies solve meaningful problems. In addition to design, Jessica founded Hathorway.com, a sustainable fashion brand with a mission to empower women. As a one women business, she does everything from product development, marketing, front-end, and e-commerce experiences.

Joe was an early institutional investor in many notable companies including Wish, Oculus, Illumio, Virgin Hyperloop One, RelateIQ, ZenReach, Color Genomics and uBiome, and in 2016 and 2017 was the youngest member of the Forbes 100 Midas List.

Joe is a co-founder of Palantir, a multi-billion dollar global software company best known for its work in defense and finance. Most recently, he was a founding partner at Formation 8, the precursor fund to 8VC, which manages over 1.5 billion USD and is one of the top performing private funds. Before that, he founded Addepar, a leading wealth management technology platform, and OpenGov. He is also a founder of Affinity and Anduin. Previously, Joe was an early executive at Clarium Capital, which he helped grow into a large global macro hedge fund. He also worked at PayPal while he was at Stanford.

Joe and his wife Tayler are active in a variety of philanthropic and mission-driven pursuits involving public policy and liberty, classical arts, and healthcare innovation. In addition to supporting various nonprofit organizations such as Thorn, an NGO which leverages technology to fight child trafficking, Joe and Tayler are focused on harnessing the power of markets to create more opportunity for all parts of society.

Joe received a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford in 2003. He often lectures and writes on entrepreneurship, technology, and public policy.

Ken is the cofounder and CEO of Lexent Bio, building liquid biopsy technology to enable better cancer treatment decisions, faster. Prior to Lexent, Ken led product strategy at Counsyl, managing genetic testing and software product teams in reproductive health and oncology. At Noom, as VP of Product Strategy he led international launches of the company’s consumer-facing wellness apps in Germany, Japan, and the UK, achieving top-grossing app ranks, and later launched Noom’s digital health team. He has worked in consulting and banking with BCG and Goldman Sachs, and cofounded Done.com in 2011. He completed his MBA at Wharton. Prior to business school, he was a founding employee at Codon Devices, an industry-pioneering synthetic biology firm. He obtained SBs in Biology and Political Science from MIT.

Radu B. Rusu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fyusion, Inc, President of Open Perception, Inc,  and a world renowned expert in 3D data processing with over 10 years of experience in the field. Radu was named Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs in 2016 by Goldman Sachs. Before Fyusion, Radu was a Visiting Lecturer at Stanford University and a Research Scientist at Willow Garage where he led the 3D Computer Vision efforts that created the Point Cloud Library (PCL) project. Radu received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), Germany in 2009 with summa cum laude. During his Ph.D., Radu was affiliated with the CoTeSys (Cognition for Technical Systems) excellence cluster at TUM, and the AIC (Artificial Intelligence Center) at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) as an International Fellow Researcher working on 3D semantic mapping techniques for mobile robots. Over the past years, Radu has been on the board of many workshops and scientific events in the field, held at prestigious conferences such as: RSS, ICRA, IROS, ECCV, ICCV, AAAI, CVPR, 3DIMPVT, etc. He has co-/authored over 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications, including 2 books, and three best paper awards and nominations (ICAR 2009, RSS 2011, and EURON George Giralt PhD award). Radu is a senior IEEE member, and the recipient of the IEEE RAS Early Career Award 2013. Radu also won the Open Source Software (OSS) World Challenge in 2011 with PCL.