Mentor Match Virtual Networking Forum: Featuring Experts in Artificial Intelligence
Mentor Match connects Montana's tech founder's to experienced mentors with lived experience to help inform your strategy and avoid pitfalls. February's event features three mentors, each with extensive AI, product development, and startup advising expertise. Attend to ask questions and get valuable advice from featured mentors in the field of AI in a fast-paced networking format. We'll hear a bit from each of these three mentors, and then break into small groups to give each attendee a chance to have questions specific to their startup answered.
Jim Arnold: Jim co-founded a London-based early-stage venture firm, and prior to that, created and led Stanford Research Institute’s AI ventures group whose portfolio alumni included Siri, the personal assistant acquired by Apple. Jim held founder, CxO, and board roles across software and electronic industries, and holds 15 patents. He currently provides comprehensive consulting services for startups and venture firms. He has engineering degrees from UW-Madison and Stanford.
Eric Loftsgaarden: Eric is the VP of Innovation and Data Science and Co-Founder of Atrium; a consulting services company that helps advise, implement, and optimize artificial intelligence and analytics solutions. He has spent his career implementing technology and advising large fortune 1000 companies on their data strategies, including: Proctor and Gamble, Smuckers, Hershey, Kellogg's, Robert Half and US West. He has founded, grown, and exited high-growth companies and makes his home in Bozeman, MT. He holds a Masters in statistics from Montana State University, and an MBA from University of Montana and a Bachelor Degree in Mathematics from Caltech.
Taylor McCaslin: (he/him) is a multi-disciplinary Investor, Product Manager, and LGBTQ+ mentor living in the mountains of Big Sky, Montana. He is an advocate and defender of privacy, consent, and inclusion. He currently splits his time between his work as Principal Product Manager at GitLab Founder of Product Trust Investments, an angel fund focused on impact investing with companies that build ethical products that customers trust and Advisor at Euphoria.LGBT. He has worked at enterprise-scale, hyper-growth technology companies including: GitLab (IPO $GTLB), Yonder/New Knowledge, Duo Security (acquired by Cisco – $CSCO), WP Engine (majority buyout by Silver Lake), Indeed.com (acquired by Recruit – $RCRUY), Bazaarvoice (IPO $BV, returned private). Taylor graduated from The University of Texas at Austin.