Meet the Mentors of TINC

The TINC accelerator program offers participating startups access to leading mentors that not only have experience in Silicon Valley but also have ties to the Nordics. The TINC mentors are an integral part of the success of the program, and bring the best practices from Silicon Valley to Nordic companies to accelerate and increase global competitiveness. 

The program is designed for companies to deep dive over 4 weeks with a few core mentors who are fully committed during the program and with whom companies meet with on a regular cadence. TINC does not host 100+ mentors, instead TINC offers the opportunity to build relationships and take mind share from these fantastic Silicon Valley mentors!

While the mentors evolve with the cohorts, here’s a quick look at some of the dedicated mentors that are supporting companies in the TINC Spring 2022 program:

Daniel Kjellen- Silicon Valley Fintech Founder, Growth Advisor, Mentor & Angel Investor

Daniel mentors TINC companies on product, marketing, funding, and growth strategies. He is a Silicon Valley-based executive with a successful track record of leading marketing, product, and business development teams at a wide range of finance and technology companies including PayPal/eBay, Check (acquired by Intuit), Green Dot (IPO), AccountNow (acquired by Green Dot) and Providian Financial (acquired by Chase).

Since 2015, he has been engaged with US and European technology ventures and investment firms, and has worked with them to bring in proven B2C & B2B growth strategies and operating principles, financial modeling, investment evaluations, talent acquisition, and aids in opening doors to global connections. He’s also a Senior Advisor for Business Sweden in North America.

Eva Nahari -Principal at DNX Ventures, Investor with a background in software and GTM development

Eva is a problem solver who has a passion for software development and people management. Adding to that, her true interest in finding ways to make customer projects successful. During her years in the industry, she has consistently excelled in technical and non-technical roles. 

Eva enjoys helping Nordic companies become more successful by applying her 20+ years of know-how in product development and global go-to-market product launches. She has  experienced and navigated through multiple acquisitions, and also successfully learned how to scale in times of extreme company growth. Eva helps TINC companies sharpen their GTM strategies and pitch decks. She brings with her a mix of both technical software and non-technical business skills, specializing in leadership development, strategic thinking, competitive ideation, software development, people management, project management, and a passion for innovation that goes beyond the status quo.

“I am inspired by highly-effective teams that constantly reach new heights, and take great joy in contributing to and being a part of the team's success.”

Han Jin- Founder and CEO of Lucid, contributor to Forbes and lecturer at UC Berkeley, Inc & Forbes 30U30, 40U40

Han really understands what it means to run a Silicon Valley startup - as he is successfully leading Lucid, democratizing AI for a better world. He smiles as he says, ‘I like helping Nordic startups become more successful than American ones.’ Han has worked hard and overcome adversity many times over, lived in eight countries and has founded a series of AR/VR, artificial intelligence and robotics startups. Han is a creative self-starter who takes pride in achieving ambitious results through teamwork in order to make a difference in this world.

Han is also educated and involved as a lecturer at the prestigious University of California at Berkeley. He’s been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Bloomberg, Fox News, ABC News, VentureBeat and Techcrunch, Discovery Channel, LA Times. He has ben featured as Forbes 30 under 30 and Inc. 40 under 40. His specialties include: product management/ product marketing, fundraising and sales, retail and channel sales, project management and execution, supply chain/manufacturing process optimization and innovation, and working in collaborative, multi-disciplinary and cross-functional teams. 

Julie Hanna, Venture Partner at Obvious Ventures, Senior Advisor at (Google) X, Executive Board Chair at Kiva

Julie is a renowned and celebrated Silicon Valley technologist, entrepreneur, board director, advisor and investor working with purpose-driven companies that are solving humanity’s most pressing challenges. She is a Senior Advisor at X (Google X) | Executive Board Chair at Kiva | Venture Partner at Obvious Ventures. She was appointed by President Obama in 2015 as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. 

Julie's mentor workshops with the TINC founders are different and unique. Julie will tell you about the inside track to the secret sauce of Silicon Valley and take you under the hood to the tried and true principles and frameworks used by Silicon Valley companies. Julie covers a holistic picture and likes to meet you where you are and contextualize some of the principles and frameworks in the context of your company. Julie shapes her workshops dynamically on demand based on companies’ input. She applies what companies have heard and learned during TINC.  She is dedicated to democratizing and demystifying Silicon Valley and promotes the shaping of thinking around leadership, culture and mindset. Julie has been with TINC since the very beginning.

Nathan Gold -Award-winning, High Stakes Presentations Coach

Also known as The Demo Coach, Nathan has been with TINC as a mentor since it started a decade ago. Nathan coaches people on how to prepare for high-stakes speaking opportunities and how to harness speaking anxiety. He helps companies improve their presentation and pitching skills, and better understand the American storytelling approach to discussing with customers and investors.  

The Wall Street Journal called him, “An elevator pitch expert.” He is an Industry Fellow at UC Berkeley and Hong Kong Baptist University, a guest lecturer at Wharton Entrepreneurship, is featured on The Kauffman Founders School and is a published author.

Nathan has worked with small and large companies, including GetAround.com, Glue Networks, Bill.com, Education.com, Ensafer, Innovation Norway, SanDisk, Kaiser Permanente, and IBM — on designing, scripting and delivering more compelling and memorable presentations and product demos. He’s also a two-time winner of the distinguished DEMOgod Award, and the co-author of Giving Memorable Product Demos. We have coined the term #goldtouched for his amazing work with TINC.

Shomit Ghose- Start-up advisor, coach, board member. Previous General Partner, Onset Ventures and longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

As a long-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur with deep experience in software start-ups, both as a venture capitalist/board member and as an operating executive, Shomit has successfully been through multiple IPOs and exits by acquisition. He started his entrepreneurial life as a UC Berkeley-trained software engineer, and has held numerous roles in startups, including: board member, CEO, COO, VP Marketing, VP Sales, VP Engineering, and VP Services.

Shomit is also active in supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs through deep involvement at UC Berkeley College of Engineering, UC Riverside, Open Entrepreneurship (Denmark), Innovation Center Denmark, the University of San Francisco School of Management, Novo Nordisk BioInnovation Institute, The Lundbeck Foundation and German Accelerator Silicon Valley. Shomit was previously a managing director and partner at ONSET Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that he invested in, and served on the boards of multiple software start-ups. 

Sean Percival - Marketing exec, author and investor. Chief Marketing Officer at Iterate. Global CMO with a focus on Growth Marketing and Metrics 

Sean Percival is an American entrepreneur, investor, and author originally from California and currently living in Norway, working as CMO of Iterate Norway. Through his work in acclaimed accelerator programs like 500 Startups and Katapult Accelerator, Sean has helped mentor 1000s of startups on growth marketing and fundraising.

Sean has also invested in 100+ startups and founded several of his own. Additionally, he is an experienced marketing executive with prior experience as the Vice President of Online Marketing at Myspace and as former CMO of Whereby.

Victor Belfor - Startup advisor, angel investor. Global VP, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at 8x8 with a focus on Revenue Development

Victor helps TINC companies focus on what he refers to as the ‘front of the house’ activities, namely sales, marketing, business development, and revenue generation. As the Global VP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at 8x8, he is well versed in the American style of sales. 

Victor worked on his own startup in 1998, and now likes to live vicariously through the successes of the companies he mentors. While his startup didn’t succeed, he went on to work and generate profit with over seven global companies. For nearly 20 years, Victor has been laser focused on extracting value out of synergies between world's top technology companies and ecosystems.