***TO ATTEND MUST RSVP***
Free Event
Dell for Startups presents Founder Path to Success, an in-person event in Dallas on January 30 at Pegasus Park.
Calling all: Entrepreneurs, Business owners, Professionals, Investors, Free-lancers, policy makers, game changers, and heroes!
Starting 2024 with an evening of inspiration, knowledge-sharing, networking and collaboration. Followed by a networking happy hour.
The Fireside Chat will bring in key players in the North Texas Innovation ecosystem to bring invaluable insights on the founder journey and the impact the entrepreneurial ecosystem plays in bringing founders to success.
Speakers:
Kenny Freeland : Kenny co-founded the non-profit Salood. Salood is dedicated to providing entrepreneurial experiences and financial relief for families impacted by childhood cancer. Kenny’s 8-years of experience in the tech industry has influenced the foundation of Salood. Salood has disrupted the traditional non-profit framework by executing 15 national brand collaborations led by childhood cancer warriors while financially supporting 300+ families.
Ayodele Aigbe: Ayodele Aigbe is the CEO of Hangio, a black and women-owned innovative premium clothing care company that created the world's 1st patented luxury bendable hangers that can be bent in more than 6 ways and stops clothes from being stretched out. Her flagship product sold out within 3 days of its pilot launch, has been seen in NYFW and featured in Fast Company and Mashable. Through her work, she has been named a 2019 Texas Business Hall of Fame Scholar and North Texas Inno Under 25. Ayodele has a background in engineering.
Kat Weaver: Kat was able to scale and sell her first company she started out of her college dorm room. After winning 22 pitches, she founded Power To Pitch to help founders build a winning pitch, deck & fundraising strategy to help them get funded faster.
Hubert Zajicek: Hubert Zajicek, MD, MBA, is CEO & Co-founder of Health Wildcatters, a top ranked healthcare accelerator and fund in Dallas, TX. Health Wildcatters provides mentorship, capital and guidance to up to 12 healthcare related startups during an intensive 3 month program, annually. The fund has invested in 109 healthcare startups, which have attracted over $250M in capital in 11 years. Dr. Zajicek has extensive experience with startups and is an active speaker, panelist and thought leader on healthcare startups, entrepreneurship, financing & healthcare. He serves as advisor, mentor and board member on various organizations and startup companies.
In March of 2020, Dr. Zajicek started the Health Hacking Crisis Network (HHCN), a non-profit organization that engages in bringing together a rapid reaction force to deal with acute problems arising in healthcare due to COVID-19. The organization has over 500 volunteer members and has supported the creation of a variety of initiatives that had a big impact on the North Texas region and beyond.
Prior to Health Wildcatters and the creation of HHCN, he was managing director – medical technology at NTEC (North Texas Enterprise Center), where he ran what eventually became the Southwest’s largest medtech investment conference, showcasing startups that attracted in excess of $300M. Prior, he was on faculty at UT Southwestern, as an NIH funded principal investigator, in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Cell Biology. He has an MD from the University of Vienna and an MBA from SMU. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Beth McNally Zajicek, MD and two daughters.
Brad Phelan: Brad Phelan, Assistant Vice President of Technology Commercialization and Business Development and Director of Blackstone LaunchPad at UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), focuses on engaging with UTSW students and faculty internally and entrepreneurs, investors and commercialization partners externally to support the advancement of research toward the commercial application to positively impact patient lives. A graduate of Baylor University (BBA in Finance & Real Estate) and The University of Arkansas (MBA in Entrepreneurship); Brad holds a Series 65 license and previously worked for JP Morgan Chase, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC and more recently launched three companies and served as a fractional COO for entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals prior to joining UTSW.