Carla McDonald, the Austin Women Entrepreneurs Task Force

Jeff Eversmann has built a dynamic career that spans Silicon Valley startups, commercial real estate, and private equity. With expertise in both technical and financial realms, Jeff has guided companies through transformative growth and strategic challenges. His MSEE, MBA, and CPA certifications, along with his experience in engineering technologies and securing early-stage investments, position him as a leader in navigating product/market fit. Jeff co-founded Long View Technology Ventures, which has invested in 12 tech startups since 2018 and has supported innovation in Central Texas. Jeff also serves as an Adjunct Instructor at Concordia University Texas, teaching Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Jeff’s book, Fooled by Early Adopters, offers critical insights for first-time founders seeking to understand the path to product/market fit. He is exploring leadership roles with companies looking to scale from $10M to $100M in revenue, bringing a strategic vision for high-growth enterprises.  

Beth White is a trailblazing entrepreneur and the visionary Founder and Chief Bot of MeBeBot, a groundbreaking company revolutionizing the employee experience through AI-powered solutions. Beth's career began in the multifaceted world of Human Resources, where she honed her skills across various roles in startups and Fortune 100 companies. Recognizing the transformative potential of technology, she made a strategic shift to enterprise software sales within the retail tech industry, specializing in omni-channel mobile solutions. In 2018, Beth founded MeBeBot to infuse innovative Business-to-consumer (B2C) customer experiences into the workplace, digitally transforming how employees interact with their companies. Under her leadership, MeBeBot has earned prestigious accolades for its cutting-edge Future of Workplace solutions and Beth’s exemplary leadership as a woman entrepreneur. Notably, she has been recognized by Women in Cloud and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Beth's academic journey includes a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Business Administration from St. Edward's University. Beyond her professional achievements, Beth is an avid runner, yoga enthusiast, and cyclist, balancing these activities with her appreciation for craft beers. She cherishes spending quality time with her family and friends, continually inspired by the balance she brings to her personal and professional life

Carla McDonald is the founder and managing director of Dynabrand Ventures, a boutique investment firm that provides capital and marketing expertise to early-stage consumer goods companies. She also serves as Chair of the Mayor’s Task Force for Austin Women Entrepreneurs, is a mentor at SKU, the nation’s leading CPG accelerator, and was a founding investor in Capital Factory, the nationally known startup accelerator and entrepreneurial hub. Before founding Dynabrand Ventures, Carla ran her own marketing firm for 15 years, advising companies ranging from startups to multi-billion-dollar corporations and the portfolio companies of L Catterton, a leading private equity firm. She also served as CMO of a venture-backed startup that was acquired by Omnicom Group. Prior positions include running the marketing practices at two of the world’s largest PR firms, where she served as the top marketing strategist for clients including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Intel. 

Manu Rehani is an innovator in applied behavioral and cognitive linguistics. He is an inventor, mentor, and board advisor for a number of startups. After successfully exiting two tech ventures, he’s currently focused on developing a new class of emotion-aware AI for general application in custom GPTs and LLMs and specific use in mental health and wellness applications to foster a healthy relationship with self and others through AI. His significant prior achievements include authoring patents fundamental to cloud storage and AI language models, and he plays an active role in mentoring at various incubators at the University of Texas and in the Austin area.

Aaron Thweatt is a dynamic executive coach and seasoned HR professional who strongly believes in the power of an individual’s potential. His mission is to create meaningful connections between talent, ambition, and purpose by empowering executives and entrepreneurs to bridge the gaps in their personal and business lives, allowing them to thrive in their zone of genius. Before establishing his practice, Respark Coaching, Aaron forged an impressive career across diverse industries, including financial services, oil and gas, sales and marketing, human resources, and program management. During his tenure, he was pivotal in shaping executive and broad-based compensation strategies for esteemed companies such as AECOM, Activision Blizzard, SpaceX, and DoorDash. These experiences revealed to him unique insights into the inner workings of high-performing individuals and teams tackling the most audacious creative and technical challenges.

Aruni S. Gunasegaram is a serial entrepreneur and start-up veteran. She consults and speaks on entrepreneurship, customer success, operations, building trust, and managing expectations with strategic stakeholders via Customer Concentric. She most recently worked with SecureAuth in the cybersecurity authentication industry.  Aruni also served as Director of Operations at the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), where she supported dozens of entrepreneurial CEOs and managed the incubator's internal operations.  She was a cofounding parent of the Magellan International School (a nonprofit language immersion, International Baccalaureate school) and an adjunct lecturer on entrepreneurship at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and is currently an MBA+ project coach. She was co-founder/president of Isochron Data, a web and mobile application company targeting the vending and packaged ice industries (aka the “internet of things”), where she coordinated closing the company’s first $1 million in revenue, raising $15 million in equity financing, as well as built a team of employees, board members, and advisors. She co-founded Babble Soft, a web and mobile application company targeted at new parents.   Her son attends The University of Texas at Dallas, and her daughter attends George Washington University. Aruni has a BBA (Accounting) and MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

Gary Stephens, CEO and Co-Founder of Vendidit, is a visionary technology executive and is an industry thought leader in reverse logisitics. He is the Imagineer of both Vendidit, launched in 2024, and Renew Logic, which started from a single pallet of recyclables in 2016. His previous career includes working on the Windows 95 launch team, being head of Windows NT updates under Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, and building a third electronics recycling company to $400 million from scratch. His positive contributions to ethical business practices and industry improvements led to testifying before Congress in 2018 about smart, diverse employment policies. Beyond tech, Gary's diverse passions include race car driving, piloting, and philanthropy – particularly helping dog rescues.  He's a proven leader, blending business acumen with a profound commitment to societal impact.

Nilma Achwal is the founder of The Female Founders Lab, a virtual accelerator and coaching service in Austin. Achwal moved to Austin about a year and half ago from Los Angeles. Before launching The Female Founders Lab, Achwal founded Iesha Learning, a technology education platform to teach sexual education to junior high school students in India. She also launched and ran SEED, a social enterprise incubation program at Villgro Innovations Foundation in Chennai. In addition, she was a Kiva Fellow in Bolivia and wrote business case studies at the University of Michigan.  

Kelsey August is the founding managing director of Austin-based DealFlowNow, a new VC firm that plans to invest $60 million into early-stage companies. August is also a super angel investor with forty active portfolio companies and a serial entrepreneur who founded Lone Star Direct, a marketing firm when she was 24.

In 2011, Petr Marek co-founded Invoice Home, formerly known as Wikilane, with Jiri Hradil. Invoice Home provides invoice generating software designed for the invoicing needs of small businesses, freelancers, and entrepreneurs worldwide. They’ve grown the company to more than 8 million accounts worldwide and last January, Invoice Home relocated its headquarters to WeWork on Congress in Austin. The company was attracted by Austin’s tech scene, quality of life, music scene, and access to talent, Marek said. The company is bootstrapped and caters to small businesses with most of its customers outside the U.S. Marek sold a Fintech company which he created in 1992 in the Czech Republic that focuses on montages brokers and insurance. In this episode of Ideas to Invoices, Marek discusses his entrepreneurial journey, hurdles the company has overcome, opportunities, management style and more that has contributed to the company's success.