43North Finals was 10/10!

Candice Matthews Brackeen is a General Partner at Lightship Capital, where she finds and funds high-growth, minority-led companies operating in underserved ecosystems throughout the Midwest. Launched in 2020, Lightship Capital is raising $50MM for investment into underrepresented founders operating in the CPG, E-Commerce, Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, and Healthcare spaces. Candice is also the Founder and CEO of Lightship Foundation, the inclusion-focused entrepreneur enrichment program guiding minority founders with instruction in product development, brand building, leveraging artificial intelligence for business, and fundraising.

Candice lends her strategic vision to Lightship’s founder-centric programming and events including Lightship Accelerator, Lightship Bootcamp, and Black Tech Week. Her commitment to advancement and inclusion has most recently been recognized by organizations such as the Cincinnati Bengals (2022 Inspire Change Changemaker Award) and Doritos and Pepsi Co. (2023 Doritos Change Maker).

Candice expands upon her work driving representation in innovation with her role on the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium for NASA, where she leads diversity of thought as new cultures and economies are developed. She also sits on the advisory committee and selection committees for technology for the Ohio State University and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, ensuring that as technology is commercialized by these entities, diversity is at the forefront of decision-making.

Geoff was raised in Williamsville, NY, and went on to become the president of Y Combinator from early 2019 until the end of 2022, having been a YC partner since 2011. During his tenure, he worked with companies like Stripe, Gingko, Clever, and Boom, and angel-invested in over 100 startups.

Early in his career, Geoff co-created Rocketmail, one of the first web-based email products, which was later acquired by Yahoo! and became Yahoo! Mail. At Yahoo!, he held key roles, including SVP/GM and Chief Product Officer. After Yahoo!, Geoff was CEO of Lala Media, which was acquired by Apple in 2010. Geoff joined YC in 2011 and co-founded Imagine K12, an edtech accelerator that funded startups like ClassDojo and Remind. He holds degrees from Dartmouth, Stanford, and an MBA from INSEAD

Andrea Gouw is a customer-centric product and marketing executive. Most recently, Andrea led the global team for all Seller Marketing activities for B2C and C2C sellers on eBay, responsible for supporting the growth and retention of the diverse and dynamic seller community.

Andrea was previously the GM for Home & Garden and Consumer Electronics categories at eBay. Prior to joining eBay, Andrea founded social shopping website, ShopperSeeks, aimed at driving efficiencies in online shopping. She was also the General Manager of digital media start-up, Global Grind, where she oversaw product management, marketing and business development. Andrea has spent time advising start-ups with business plans, product-market fit, and go-to-market.

Having grown up in Western New York, she is excited to see the innovation in Buffalo and ever hopeful for a Bills Super Bowl win. She holds an MBA from Kellogg, and a BA in Economics and International Relations from Boston University.

Paul Ciriello has a career that spans public service, financial services and venture capital. Paul started his career as a United States Presidential Fellow and then a senior policy advisor at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Next, he joined Fidelity Investments in Boston and was the founder and president of several investment and financial services companies, including The Proxy Edge, which automated proxy voting and corporate governance tracking for the U.S. securities industry. The Proxy Edge was acquired by ADP. Paul founded and was the managing director of TD Capital Ventures in Boston, which led to his founding Fairhaven Capital Partners, where he is the managing general partner. He founded and is a managing partner for Milk Street Investments, a systematic investing platform for early-stage companies – which created the MIT Alumni Angels and the Harvard Founders Network. Paul is also an investing partner at Finistere Ventures in Palo Alto. All told, Paul has managed funds that have invested about $500M in nearly 100 early-stage startups, generating many realizations including five unicorn exits. He has served on the boards of director for many venture backed companies and also on the advisory boards for several U.S. universities in New York, Virginia and Massachusetts.

Megann Vaughn Watters is an experienced corporate development executive and investor with over 12 years of novel technology identification, partnership development, deal execution, alliance management, financial and strategic return, and venture-backed board experience within the healthcare industry. As the Vice President of New Ventures & Strategic Alliances at Labcorp, Megann manages the Labcorp Venture Fund and leads the Corporate Development team tasked to identify, assess, and bring innovative science and technology to Labcorp through partnerships, such as equity investments, licensing, commercial collaborations, including data use agreements and sponsored testing programs with pharma. As one of the founding members of the Labcorp Venture Fund, Megann has managed more than $200M in total equity investments in over 70 early-stage private companies with novel science and technology making healthcare more convenient, accessible, and personalized.

Megann previously held positions at the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a Patent Examiner for medical devices and Humacyte conducting tissue engineering research. Megann received her M.B.A. from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and her B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.

Megann is a mother of two young kids, wife, daughter, sister, reader, yogi, and Peloton & tennis enthusiast.