After Alex Rodrigues built a fully autonomous golf cart as a 19-year-old University of Waterloo student, he decided it was time to go big. He dropped out, joined YC, and now his startup, Embark -- cofounded with former classmate Brandon Moak -- is building self-driving trucks in partnership with Peterbilt. It has also garnered funding from Y Continuity Fund, Data Collective, and a host of other investors -- one of whom recently called Alex a "force of nature."

Megan Quinn is a GP at Spark Capital, where she is investing the firm’s very first two growth funds. Before joining spark, Quinn was a partner at Kleiner Perkins, which she'd joined from Square, where she worked as director of products.

Megan, a Stanford grad, also spent seven years at Google in a variety of roles, including to help oversee and launch Google Maps. Her investments include Affirm, Wealthfront, and Medium.

Seven years ago, when former investment banker and venture capitalist Michael Kim first approached investors with the idea of creating a fund-of-funds that would invest in seed-stage funds, they were cool to the idea. Now Michael is managing $260 in fresh funding, and his venture portfolio includes Forerunner Ventures, SoftTech VC, IA Ventures, Bowery Capital and Lerer Hippeau Ventures, among others.

Jules Maltz is a GP at IVP, which he joined in 2008 as a vice president and where he focuses today on growth capital and later-stage tech investments. Previously, Jules evaluated startups at 3i Group. He also worked in biz dev at AdMob and co-founded early internet ad company AdNectar. A graduate of Yale and Stanford, Jules has led deals in Yext and Mulesoft (both now public) and Slack. 

Elizabeth “Beezer” Clarkson has been investing in venture firms globally -- including August Capital and Point Nine Capital -- for the last five years as the managing director of Sapphire Ventures. Before joining Sapphire, Beezer oversaw the DFJ global network of partner funds and was an investment manager with Omidyar Network. Clarkson, a Wesleyan and HBS grad, started her career as a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley.

 Marco Santori leads Cooley’s fintech practice from New York, and has established expertise in blockchain technology. (American Banker has called him the “dean of digital currency.") Marco, who has degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Notre Dame, focuses his practice on structuring new products into existing regulations. He previously was a partner with Pillsbury. He's also the former chair of the nonprofit organization Bitcoin Foundation.

Stan Miroshnik is the CEO and founder of L.A.-based Element Group, an investment bank for the digital token capital markets. Formerly, Stan was the CEO of the Argon Group, a financial advisory firm focused on cryptocurrency. He was also a managing director at Rosemont Consulting Partners. Stan, who has degrees from UC Berkeley and MIT, earlier spent a decade with Morgan Stanley, starting as an analyst and leaving as an executive director.

Sarah McBride is a reporter with Bloomberg in San Francisco, covering venture capital and technology. Sarah joined Bloomberg last year after spending more than five years with Reuters, where she also covered VC as well as election issues. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she began her career with the Wall Street Journal, working in its L.A. bureau, as well as its Hong Kong Bureau, writing on a wide range of issues, including digital entertainment.

Lora Kolodny is a tech reporter for CNBC, where she covers advanced tech, startups, and venture capital. Previously, Lora was the emerging tech editor and a video host at TechCrunch, which she had joined from the Wall Street Journal, where she covered VC and tech startups. Earlier in her career, Lora, a Williams College grad, was a reporter and blogger for the NYTimes online, as well as a reporter and research manager at Inc. magazine.

Semil Shah is the cofounder of Haystack, a seed-stage venture firm that operates three funds. He's also a venture partner with GGV Capital, a cross-border venture firm that invests in both the U.S. and China. Semil, who has degrees from the University of Michigan and Harvard, previously worked at Rexly (acquired by LiveNation) and Swell (acquired by Apple) and is an advisor to StrictlyVC. His investments include Navdy, OpenDoor, and Chain.

Connie Loizos is a journalist and the founder of StrictlyVC, a news organization centered around a daily e-mail newsletter that provides readers in the startup industry the news they need to start their day. Connie, an Ohio State Buckeye, got her start in Silicon Valley at the original Red Herring magazine and has worked for Dow Jones, Time Inc., the SJ Merc, and Reuters, among other media companies. In addition to running StrictlyVC, she is Silicon Valley Editor at TechCrunch.