Startup Grind Assistant Co-Directors Matt Lohstroh and Grant Weston host Dana Rygwelski, co-director of MassChallengeTX, a Top 10 global startup accelerator. Dana’s experience extends more than a decade of building strategic programs and communities for entrepreneurs across the world. Dana’s career started at the University of Southern California where she was part of the team that founded the TEDx conference series. At Hulu, she was their first internal communications lead and designed programs to increase familiarity and transparency company-wide. In 2012, Dana moved into the Director of Programs role at DreamIt Ventures where she designed an “accelerator in a box” solution to scale the organization’s core product – a startup accelerator - to five locations ensuring each entrepreneur, no matter where they were in the world, had the same DreamIt experience. She has worked with countless startups and has a unique perspective of how they can leverage ecosystems, resources, and programs to succeed. Dana’s career is driven by a passion to be a trendsetter. She has the desire to help companies [and people!] identify new, creative opportunities through community and technology to solve big problems. When she’s not working; Dana is often found hiking with her dogs, Squat and Dale, or in the gym. In fact, she is one of only 7 women in history to squat more than 700lbs.