Brent is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Founders Factory. Brent co-founded lastminute.com in April 1998, was CEO from its inception, and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn. Brent is the co-founder and was founding chairman of made.com, a direct-from-factory consumer retailer in the UK.

Brent is the co-founder and chairman of Founders Forum, a series of intimate invite only events for leading entrepreneurs and senior investors; firstminute capital, a pan-European $100m seed fund, backed by Atomico, Tencent and over 30 unicorn founders as well as Karakuri, a provider of robotics, AI and automation systems.

Brent is a former board member of TalkTalk, TimeOut, The Guardian Media Group, Shazam Entertainment and The Economist. He currently sits on the advisory board of LetterOne Technology (a $16bn investment fund), the Oxford Foundry and the UK Gov Digital Advisory Board.

Brent is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a former Prime Minister's Business Trade Ambassador and co-chairs the Prime Minister Theresa May's Business Sector Council for Britain in entrepreneurship, scale-ups and small business. In 2015, Brent was awarded a CBE for services to entrepreneurship.

Dame Stephanie Shirley is a highly successful entrepreneur turned ardent philanthropist.

Having arrived in Britain as an unaccompanied child refugee in 1939, she started what became Xansa on her dining room table with £6 in 1962. In 25 years as its Chief Executive she developed it into a leading business technology group, pioneering new work practices and changing the position of professional women (especially in hi-tech) along the way. In 2007 it was acquired by Steria, having now grown to be a public company with revenues of over £370 million.

Since retiring in 1993, she has served on corporate Boards such as Tandem Computers Inc. (1992-7), the John Lewis Partnership plc (1999-2001) and the European Advisory Board of Korn/Ferry International (2001-4). But her focus has been increasingly on philanthropy based on her strong belief in business people giving something back to society. Her main interests are autism (her autistic son Giles died age 35 in 1998) and making better use of IT in the voluntary sector. She is also much in demand as a keynote speaker at international conferences.

Her charitable Shirley Foundation is now one of the top 50 grant-giving foundations in the UK with well over £50m grants given. It has initiated and funded a number of projects that are pioneering by nature, strategic in impact and significant in money terms. Current activity is focussed on Autistica in the UK and internationally, dedicated to fund research into the causes of autism and hence halve the global cost of the disorder by 2020. Dame Stephanie was also a major donor to the Oxford Internet Institute. 

Xansa was acquired by Steria in 2007, Steve served on Steria's CSR Advisory Board in 2008/9. She was appointed by the UK government to serve as the national Ambassador for Philanthropy in 2009/10.

Dame Stephanie Shirley published her deeply inspiring memoir, Let IT Go, which charts her life from her time as a child in Germany and arrival in England as an unaccompanied Kindertransport refugee through to her retirement and dedication to charity.  It is an amazing read which will take you through the entire range of emotions - from happiness at the success of her original company Freelance Programmers through to the ultimate sadness of losing her only child.

Copies of the book will be available on the day for a £10 donation. 

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He has been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 150+ and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $10 billion.

Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Scott worked as vice president and general manager of Software-as-a-Service at Hewlett Packard. Scott joined HP in 2007 as part of the Opsware acquisition, where he was senior vice president of Customer Solutions. In this role, he had global responsibility for customer interaction, including professional services, technical pre-sales, and customer support. Scott joined Opsware shortly after the company’s founding and held numerous executive management positions including vice president, financial planning and vice president, corporate development. In these roles, he led the company’s private financing activities as well as its initial public offering in 2001. Scott also started the company’s Asia Pacific operations and led the execution of the company’s multiple acquisitions.

Prior to Opsware, Scott represented software companies in both financing and mergers and acquisitions transactions at Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in public policy with honors and distinction. Scott also holds a law degree with distinction from Stanford University and is a member of the State Bar of California. Scott is chairman of the board of Genesys Works; cofounder and co-director of the Stanford Venture Capital Director’s College; co-founder and co-director of the Stanford Rock Center’s Guide to Venture-Backed Board Membership; Executive in Residence at Haas School of Business and Boalt School of Law; and a Lecturer at Stanford Law School. He is vice-chair of the investment committee of St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Research Hospital and also serves as a member of the investment committees for Stanford Medical Center, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Lick Wilmerding High School.

Scott served as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association (2017-2018). He is the author of the national bestselling book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin.

Dhiraj Mukherjee is one of the cofounders of the music identifying service, Shazam. He completed his Master's at Stanford University in 1997 and currently serves as the Head of Banking Innovation for Virgin Money in the United Kingdom. Prior to starting Shazam, Mukherjee worked in consulting for Bain & Company and as a Project Manager for Viant Corp.

Reshma Sohoni is Managing Partner of Seedcamp, the European seed fund she co-founded in 2007 with a strong belief that European entrepreneurs have the power to compete on a global scale. A decade later and Seedcamp has invested in over 270 companies including three unicorns: TransferWise, Revolut and UiPath and wefox, and has raised four funds.

Reshma is passionate about the intersection of business and technology and has degrees in Engineering and Business from UPenn and M&T as well as an MBA from INSEAD. She describes starting Seedcamp as a "once in a lifetime opportunity and one that she jumped into with a strong desire to help the European founder realize global success." Reshma is frequently listed as one of the most influential women in technology and VC and sits on the Digital Economy Council, working alongside the UK government and leading tech industry experts to provide policy advice to support tech startups and innovation in the UK. In 2017 Reshma also made it onto the inaugural Forbes Midas List for Europe as one of the most influential VCs on the continent.

Tom is a general partner at GV. Prior to GV, Tom was a design director at IDEO Europe. He founded OpenIDEO, an open innovation platform where 100,000 users from more than 170 countries solve challenges for social good. Tom also launched OIEngine, a SaaS platform with clients including Harvard Business School and the Knight Foundation.

Prior to IDEO, Tom was managing director of Marcos, a British sports car manufacturer and founded Magnom, a magnetic filter startup. Tom’s filter designs have been widely used in Formula One, superbikes, agricultural equipment, and central heating systems.

Tom has also angel-invested in more than 20 companies, including as the founding investor in Mile IQ (sold to Microsoft).

Tom has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and has been featured in WIRED UK’s Top 100 Digital Power Brokers list every year since the list was established. He has also been included in the Evening Standard list of London’s 1000 Most Influential People.

Tom earned a first class bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Bristol, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he received the Baker Scholar Award of high distinction. He also received an honorary doctorate from University of the Arts London.

Country Manager Startup Grind Israel - Father, business culture catalyst, Startup ecosystem builder & connector

Experienced Entrepreneur. Shahar has over 20 years of Global startup ecosystem experience. Shahar is the person responsible for putting Israel on the Global Startup Grind map. Today Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting more than 3,500,000 entrepreneurs in over 600 chapters. SG nurture startup ecosystems in 125+ countries through events, media, and partnerships with organizations like Google for Startups.

Skilled in strategy, management, investor relations. Globally connected professional with a can-do attitude.

Today Shahar is connecting Machine Intelligence, Web Intelligence and Human Intelligence for one big mission, Climate!