BUILDING SOUTHERN NEVADA’S STARTUP ECOSYSTEM

StartUp Vegas is a 501c3 nonprofit whose mission is to boost the startup culture and create an environment of entrepreneurship. By building the infrastructure needed for a sustainable startup ecosystem, this grassroots effort will provide access and exposure for the community while enabling knowledge exchange and advancing the innovation economy of Southern Nevada.

StartUp Vegas has harnessed the shared entrepreneurial excitement, energy, and encouragement to provide value to the startup scene in Southern Nevada through training, workshops, mentorship, collaboration, and networking opportunities.

In order to achieve this, StartUp Vegas is focused on a bottom-up approach that will connect, educate, and promote a robust startup ecosystem by supporting founders / entrepreneurs, creating meaningful programming, and provide opportunities to access capital.

MEET OUR TEAM

Heather Brown

Heather Brown is President and Co-Founder of StartUp Vegas, a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to boost the startup culture and create an environment of entrepreneurship in Southern Nevada. Heather came to this role with 15 years of experience working as a political strategist for candidates and political parties across the United States and abroad.

Heather, a Las Vegas native, brings her experience of grassroots organizing and strategy building to Southern Nevada as she helps to build the infrastructure needed for a sustainable startup community. Her diverse background provides versatility to the ecosystem as she focuses on harnessing the shared entrepreneurial excitement, energy, and encouragement to provide value to the startup scene in Southern Nevada through training, workshops, mentorship, collaboration, and networking opportunities.

Piotr Tomasik

Co-Founder of StartUp Vegas, Tomasik is the Founder & CEO of LetsRolo, the world’s first MicroCRM. He started his newest venture after more than 12 years of progressively responsible experience leading high technology start-ups as co-founder and various other leadership roles.

Specialties include: SaaS, FinTech, Creator Economy, Consumer software products, team building, AI/ML, software architecture, product vision, execution.

He has been honored as a Las Vegas Top Tech Executive in 2017, Las Vegas 40 under 40 in 2018, and most recently named UNLV Alumni of the Year for the Engineering College in 2020.

He volunteers his time advising budding startup founders and sits on the UNLV Computer Science Advisory Board

Marco Benvenuti

Marco Benvenuti is co-founder of Duetto. Prior to launching the revenue strategy platform, he was an Executive at Wynn and Encore resorts in Las Vegas, where he founded and managed the Enterprise Strategy Group. Marco has also held the honoured post of Pillsbury Institute’s Entrepreneur in Residence at Cornell University’s School of Hospitality Administration

Angela Bakke

Community Manager of StartUp Vegas, Angela Bakke, is an expert communicator, project manager and innovative leader with more than 15 years of experiential marketing, communications, and customer service experience.

Angela hails from the broadcast industry where she served as strategic advisor to company and community leaders as well as relevant non-profit organizations in creating a shared mission that defined longer-term programs, made a deep impact in community betterment, and enabled community as a core tenet of a culture.

iHeart Media featured Angela as one of a select few “Women Who Shine” 2023 award recipients for her efforts to build and connect the Las Vegas community.