Stu has been an investment professional for over thirty years and a vegetarian interested in the natural products industry for over forty. He spent the first fifteen years of his career on Wall Street at firms including Paine Webber (now UBS AG), Advest, Inc., and finally at Oppenheimer & Co. He left the industry in 2006 to found Snow Beverages, a manufacturer of natural soda. At Snow, Stu personally raised millions in angel financing and acquired distribution in top retail chains including Whole Foods, Central Market, Stop & Shop, Super Target (nationwide) and many others. After serving as Snow’s CEO for six years Stu left in 2012 and founded Green Circle Capital Partners.

A graduate of Cornell University, Stu is also a writer whose first published novel, “The Organ Broker,” was released in 2015 and named one of five finalists for the Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing (the prior year’s winner was Stephen King). He speaks on raising capital and entrepreneurship, has been quoted broadly on food & bev in leading media outlets such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Mergermarket, The Washington Post, Bevnet, Food Navigator, etc., and is a mentor for several Foodtech accelerators. Stu is also a Director for The Better Meat Co. and a registered rep with Dalmore Group, LLC (member FINRA & SIPC) holding Series 7, 63, 79 and 82 registrations with FINRA.

Ben Brachot is a Co-Founder at Dwight Funding. At Dwight, Ben works with early stage and growth stage companies in the natural food and beverage space among other industries. Dwight provides lines of credit designed to work alongside investor backed businesses that have working capital needs. Prior to Dwight, Ben has over 10 years of experience providing flexible capital solutions to lower middle market businesses.

Neda Daneshzadeh is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Prelude Growth Partners, a growth equity firm that supports brands made for the new modern consumer. Prelude Growth partners with founders and CEOs to provide deep category experience, value-added operational support and a broad network to power the high potential, fast-growing consumer brands of tomorrow. Prelude Growth Partners seeks to make investments of $10 million to over $50 million in each company, across branded consumer categories including food & beverage, baby, pet, health & wellness, personal care, beauty and other consumer product, service and technology companies. Investments include: Banza, Bachan’s, Fly By Jing, So Good So You, Sol de Janeiro, Summer Fridays, Westman Atelier, 8Greens, Blueland, dpHUE, and Naturium. Prelude Growth recently raised its second fund and is female founded and owned.

Neda has been an investor, senior operator, and strategic consultant in the consumer sector for the last 25 years. Prior to founding Prelude Growth Partners, Neda spent 12 years at L Catterton, a global consumer-focused private equity firm, where she was a Partner and a member of the Investment Committee. Her growth investing experience spans the consumer landscape. Prior to that, she was an executive at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Neda began her career at McKinsey & Company and Morgan Stanley.

Neda received a Masters in Economics from Cambridge University, England and she earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.

Sarah has over 20 years of experience in finance investing in privately owned companies. She has served as a Director or Observer on numerous Boards across a variety of industries, including consumer branded companies. Currently, Sarah manages SWAT Equity Partners, an early-stage, consumer-focused venture firm and serves as a Director or Observer on the Boards of Foodstirs, Powerful Foods, 305 Fitness and Stix.

Franklin is a Founding Partner at Coefficient Capital and has over fifteen years of investing experience in consumer products and has worked in the sector his whole career. His investments include Magic Spoon, Sir Kensington’s, Hodinkee, Nom Nom and Just Spices.

Franklin lead deal sourcing in the US and select European countries for Verlinvest, the Brussels-based investment firm backed by the founding shareholders of Anheuser-Busch InBev. He set-up the New York office and led growth investments
within the branded consumer and retail sectors, deploying equity checks of $5m to $150m.

Prior to joining Verlinvest, Franklin worked in the consumer products investment banking group at UBS, in M&A and strategy at Diageo and in brand marketing at LVMH. He started his career at The Boston Consulting Group where he served clients in consumer products and retail.

Franklin received an MBA from Columbia Business School, a BA from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, and a Diploma from Sciences Po. in Paris. Franklin is Dutch, grew up in Europe where he learnt to speak four languages and has lived and worked in New York since 2005.