ForgeUp experts

Div is a leading computer scientist and AI researcher who has raised in excess of 30 million in venture and is currently on leave from a PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University. He was responsible for founding MultiOn, a personal AI agent startup and spiun out AGI, Inc,, the first autonomous agentic AI for on-device use (like "Siri" that does tasks for you). ‍His work centers on deep learning, reinforcement learning, and building generally intelligent systems. Div created and taught Stanford’s first course on Transformers (CS25), featuring leading AI researchers including Geoffrey Hinton, with lectures reaching over 1M viewers.‍He has presented research at OpenAI, DeepMind, and Apple, and developed state-of-the-art algorithms in reinforcement learning and imitation learning. Prior to Stanford, he conducted pioneering work in computer vision at Cornell and built one of the first camera-based self-driving systems.

Sudha Ganesh is a technology executive with 33 years of Intel experience in IP and SoC power and performance, specializing in the intersection of silicon strategy and workload economics. A specialist in "pressure-testing" roadmaps for organizations exceeding $30B in revenue, she bridges the gap between complex hardware engineering and real-world silicon performance. Now an Executive Advisor and GLG Expert Member, Ms. Ganesh advises institutional investors, technology firms, and industry leaders on silicon strategy and Physical AI market dynamics — while helping CEOs and leadership teams in Industrial Robotics and Physical AI silicon portfolio strategy that turns market insights into disciplined, scalable business opportunities. 

Core Advisory Pillars 

Physical AI: Developed a workload-centric silicon sizing framework that maps Physical AI verticals — from warehouse AMRs and surgical robotics to defense autonomy — to specific compute requirements across perception, SLAM, world model inferencing, LLM reasoning, and fused-loop workloads. Defines silicon requirements through the lens of tokens/second/watt/dollar rather than synthetic TOPS benchmarks — a framework directly applicable to closing the architectural gap between today's repurposed compute and purpose-built Physical AI solution. 

Silicon Strategy & Ecosystem Advancement: Pivoted $30B+ client silicon architecture requirements from synthetic benchmarks toward workload-driven performance targets. By applying deep competitive AI workload analysis across NVIDIA, Qualcomm, AMD, and Apple, she established the methodology to align silicon requirements with actual AI workloads — translating competitive landscape analysis into actionable roadmap pivots and partnership strategies including ecosystem strategies that create durable silicon differentiation and measurable customer value. 

Organizational Transformation & Scaling: Operationalized the transformation playbook for Intel's Client Computing Group, modernizing product lifecycles for 3,000+ employees while protecting culture and core revenue. Led the global scaling of the Evo premium laptop brand to 500+ OEM designs, featured in 

Forbes ("The Women of Athena"). Proven track record building programs from concept to operation — the same discipline now needed to help Physical AI organizations stand up differentiated silicon and ecosystem strategies from the ground up. 

Competitive Intelligence as a Strategic Asset: Pioneered Intel's foundational competitive analysis infrastructure still core to corporate strategy today. Transformed deep-dive technical analytics into a data-driven discipline used to influence high-stakes roadmap decisions, product positioning, and Board of Director updates. Earned the Intel Achievement Award for developing innovative robotics and computer vision-based competitive assessment technologies — directly foundational to her current Physical AI focus. 

Ms. Ganesh holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Electronics Engineering from Bangalore University, India. 

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Jonah Lewis specializes in designing clean, automated revenue systems for early-stage companies. As the founder of Creo, he transforms fragmented databases and tech stacks into predictable, scalable GTM infrastructure. His background spans sales leadership, outbound execution, CRM rebuilds, lifecycle analytics, and AI-enabled workflow design across SaaS, e-commerce, industrial, and construction tech. He helps founders create revenue operations that scale smoothly and consistently drive traction.

JC is a serial entrepreneur in the technology services space. For the last 15 years, he and his company, Made In Tandem (MiT), have helped dozens of clients design, build, and launch complex software, data, and AI/ML products. MiT’s clients have included energy and utility companies, financial services and fintech firms, medical device manufacturers, and public organizations like the US Department of Defense and NASA among many others.

JC has been named to Crain’s Notable LGBT Executives list twice, and MiT has won numerous design awards for their work as well as being named on Inc Magazine’s list of the top 500 fastest growing companies two years running. Today, in addition to leading MiT, JC works as a consulting CTO and technical advisor to companies from startup to enterprise. His passion for building inclusive, highly-effective teams and delivering cutting-edge technology remains his driving force.

Despite a busy schedule, JC still finds time to nourish his creative side—whether behind the piano, camera lens, 3D-printer, or simply enjoying Chicago’s vibrancy with his husband and their energetic Labrador, Lucy.

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Experienced marketing automation and CRM database management professional with deep understanding of digital revenue operations. Able to turn massive amounts of data into digestible and insightful narratives in order to enable executive team to make strategic decisions. Inspired by aligning marketing and sales teams through funnel measurement, strategic insights, and data analysis.

Jason Roche’s practice focuses on working with emerging technology and life science companies throughout the corporate life cycle, including on early-stage formation and structuring matters, angel and venture financings, commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate governance matters. I work with innovative companies during their most critical stages – formation, scaling and exit.

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Prithvi serves as general corporate counsel to early and growth stage technology companies that are building innovative products and services that are changing business processes and the way individuals use and interact with technology on a daily basis. My team and I provide practical, relevant and actionable legal advice based on our hands on understanding of our clients’ products and business goals.  We’ve helped founding teams incorporate companies, protect their intellectual property, raise capital financing, establish clear and defined internal guidelines and procedures, negotiate and enter into commercial agreements, address legal issues that arise in day-to-day operations, and successfully exit.Increasingly, my practice involves representing companies that have built mature teams and stable products overseas and are seeking to have a legal presence in the US to raise venture capital from US sources or access to the US market while still retaining their foreign operations.

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Stephen Kenny’s practice includes patent portfolio development and management, competitive intelligence and analysis, and due diligence investigations. He analyzes competitor patent portfolios to counsel clients on pipeline products and potential design modifications.Stephen prepares validity, infringement, patentability, and clearance opinions in the electro-mechanical and mechanical fields, with a concentration on medical devices. In addition, he studies competitor products to advise clients on enforcement of their patent portfolios against third parties.

Stephen also has extensive experience in drafting and prosecuting patent applications, conducting examiner interviews, filing appeals to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, accelerated examinations and reexamination proceedings. Thus, he provides technical and legal analyses to strategically partner and advise clients with all stages of their products life-cycle development. Some exemplary patents Stephen prosecuted include: 10,034,784 (medical devices); 10,431,789 and 10,066,600 (renewable energy); 10,107,877 (precision instrumentation). Stephen’s practice also includes advising fashion industry clients, exemplary Design patents include D834,421, D834,310 and D835,538.Prior to joining Foley Hoag, Stephen was a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. As an examiner, his docket focused on U.S. and international patent applications in various technologies including dynamo-electric devices, manufacturing processes, medical devices, printed circuit boards, mechanical systems, and business methods.Upon completing his graduate studies, Stephen worked as a flight test engineer with Sikorsky Aircraft, where he developed flight test plans, aircraft maneuvers, and performed data analysis while conducting test flights on both production and experimental helicopters. As a flight test engineer, he gained extensive knowledge in vibration harmonics, electrical noise reduction and electromagnetic interference generated from various navigation equipment employed.Additionally, Stephen's graduate studies focused on analysis of control systems having both linear and nonlinear characteristics, including system modeling and stability criteria determination.

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Allen Dayag has spent close to 15 years building software at every size of company,from startups still working out their first product to large enterprises and government programs.His instinct is to take something big and vague and break it into small pieces that actually ship,without over-engineering it.He's currently a Senior Software Engineer at Made In Tandem (MiT), where he leadsengineering on government projects, builds AI tools for the consulting and engineering teams,and works as a product expert for new and existing clients.Beyond the software, Allen cares just as much about the people side of the work.He's drawn to building effective teams, leading growth, and buttoning up the processes thatmake them successful.

Taryn Elliott’s grasp of technology and creativity assists clients with the protection and enforcement of their intellectual property. Taryn is a physicist and a pilot, and her comprehensive background in a variety of fields including physics, mathematics, aviation, aerospace and computer science provides her with the knowledge and skills to prepare, prosecute and enforce patents in a wide range of technical fields.

She manages domestic and international intellectual property portfolios for clients engaged in numerous industries, ranging from solo inventors and small startups to leading multinational companies. Further, she advises clients regarding disputes, negotiates on their behalf and represents them aggressively in litigation when necessary. Her experience covers a range of enforcement and defensive strategies, both nationally and internationally, including litigation, post grant proceedings, take-down notices, customs enforcement and other specialized proceedings.

Taryn has significant experience in the preparation and prosecution of patent applications. This experience includes drafting provisional, non-provisional, United States national stage, international and reissue patent applications across a variety of technologies; responses to office actions, appeals, and post grant proceedings; and non-infringement and/or invalidity opinions. Taryn leads Polsinelli’s Product Design and User Interface Group, which specializes in securing global design patent rights and enforcing those rights through litigation and alternative enforcement mechanisms. Taryn has executed design patents covering subject matter ranging from vehicles and aircraft to user interfaces to consumer products and packaging, among other industries. She works with clients to develop comprehensive protection strategies for inventive concepts using complementary utility and design patent applications, as further supplemented by the full spectrum of intellectual property rights including trade dress, trademark, copyright and trade secret. Her creativity and understanding of the nuances in these areas and how they work together results in a portfolio tailored to the unique business goals of each client.

Taryn seeks to understand the business context and objective of each innovation to inform not only a protection strategy, where appropriate, but also design-around strategies, freedom-to-operate assessments and defensive strategies and filings. She is frequently engaged in due diligence associated with asset purchases, investments, acquisitions and licensing. At their core, intellectual property matters are business assets so Taryn generates strategies and budgets for the matters that are aligned with the overall business.

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Anthony is a tech-focused marketer who loves turning data, creativity, and smart systems into real growth. Over the past 12 years, he has helped scale fast-moving SaaS companies and breakout DTC brands, including pushing one company to
#101 on the Inc. 5000 and helping another become the top DTC indie brand in its category. With an Economics degree from Binghamton University, a Social Sciences degree from SUNY Alfred, and Marketing Analytics training from Wharton Executive Education, he brings a unique mix of analytical strength and people's understanding to everything he builds. Anthony is also a HubSpot expert who lives in marketing automation, reporting, strategy, workflow design, and integrations,
creating systems that make teams faster and more aligned. He loves mentoring curious minds, building teams that are confident and collaborative, and creating marketing that actually resonates. At the end of the day, he is driven by a simple
belief: understand the customer deeply, and you can unlock growth that lasts.

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Lindsay Lennon Vogel is the founder and principal of Gamut Privacy, a boutique privacy and AI law firm for technology and regulated-industry companies. She pairs regulatory depth with startup speed, drawn from 15 years running privacy programs across both worlds. Before Gamut, she led global privacy at Bumble and held senior privacy roles at the FDIC and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Her approach is hands-on and scaled to what a company needs. She can deliver the essentials, like a privacy policy that keeps a company compliant, or embed with a founder's engineers to build a full program while they ship AI features and raise. Either way, she believes privacy done right should speed growth, not block it.

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Hannah Brown is the owner of Elevato, a performance marketing agency that helps ambitious companies accelerate growth through strategic marketing, demand generation, and revenue-focused execution. After nearly a decade leading client strategy and operations, she acquired the agency she helped build and now oversees marketing initiatives for companies ranging from startups to established enterprise-level brands.

Over the past ten years, Hannah has developed growth strategies across paid acquisition, SEO, brand positioning, lifecycle marketing, content strategy, AI search optimization, and conversion rate optimization. She has helped organizations scale efficiently by connecting marketing directly to business outcomes, not vanity metrics.

As both an owner and operator, Hannah understands the realities founders face. She has navigated acquisitions, built and led high-performing teams, managed profitability, and advised leadership on scaling without losing operational discipline. Her experience gives founders practical guidance rooted in execution rather than theory.

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Steve Turchan runs Praetorian Growth Advisory, which turns early traction into a revenue engine that keeps working long after the engagement ends. He works with companies from pre-seed through Series B, either running the commercial side for a founder without a sales leader or directly with a VP of Sales or Revenue on the most important deals. He's spent Fifteen years closing complex enterprise deals at Salesforce, Rippling, and Checkr across a decade in San Francisco and New York, now spent building revenue a founders and tech startups.

To scale from emerging traction to market dominance, growing platforms don't just need advice—they need proven revenue leadership. As a Fractional CRO and Growth Strategist, David Sommer partners with CEOs, founders, venture-backed startups, and private equity-backed portfolio companies to design, execute, and accelerate their go-to-market strategies.

David’s background combines big-tech execution with founder-led agility. During his 11+ years at Meta leading the CPG, Retail, and Shopper teams, he architected the commercial frameworks that helped power the platform's hyper-growth from $3B to $100B+. Later, he built and scaled an early Retail Media Network through its successful acquisition by WPP.

Whether aligning CMOs and CEOs around long-term enterprise joint ventures, building repeatable sales playbooks, or mentoring high-performing commercial teams, David delivers elite revenue leadership designed to drive immediate, outsized business outcomes across both venture-backed and private equity-backed environments.

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Lee Beckman is Chief of Staff at ForgeUp Ventures, where he helps founders cut through noise, spot risks early, and stay focused on what actually moves the needle. He brings over a decade of strategic operations and revenue leadership across pre-seed to Series D technology companies. As a founding team member at Bowery Valuation, he helped scale the business from $0 to $35M ARR. Lee holds a B.S. in Business Administration from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

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Charles is an early-stage product expert who helps founders design and build products that customers can’t live without. In 2016, he founded Flux Bucket, a software development agency that built products alongside entrepreneurs and early-stage founders. In 2023, he co-founded KeyChange, a strategy firm that guides startups along the path to true product-market fit, a milestone that usually comes with a Series A funding round. He takes a holistic approach to Product, weighing technical tradeoffs, making thoughtful user-facing design choices, and ensuring the product moves in lockstep with Sales and Marketing to drive adoption and revenue growth. Outside of work, Charles loves exploring metaphysics and developing Four Paths To Power, a card game of his own design.