Community Leaders panel ft Dan Newman from Startup Boston Week, Rachel McIntosh from Venture Lane, and Kylie Bourjaily from InnoCrew. Hosted at MassChallenge from 1700 to 1900 and moderated by Madison Sowards.

​

About the Speakers

Dan Newman: I was put on this planet to be an orientation leader.
In the past 15+ years, I've run hundreds of new hire onboarding classes, coached executives from many backgrounds, built countless learning programs, and launched my own business focused on helping leadership teams navigate the internal challenges to growth. Throughout it all, the throughline for success were communities that helped me grow and sharing those communities to people who were just a few steps behind me on their personal journey.
As the Head of Operations for Startup Boston, I am helping curate spaces for founders, startup enthusiasts, and startup-focused service providers, all in the pursuit of a healthy and growing startup ecosystem. This ecosystem has room for everyone: I can't wait to introduce you to a new corner you haven't seen yet!

Rachel McIntosh: Working to build a community of incredible startup founders and teams in Boston's tech ecosystem and beyond.
Spending my days crafting the founder experience by facilitating connections, investor-matching, researching exciting new startups and organizing events that bring Boston's tech ecosystem together.
Passionate about VC, startups, community building, and creating solutions that help make the world a better place to be? Let's chat!

Kylie Bourjaily: What started as me sharing candidly on Twitter about the struggles I was facing as a startup founder quickly turned into me receiving hundreds of messages from founders all over the world. They shared with me their stories, often involving constant cycles of loneliness and depression and a lack of support. Everyone told me that they wished more people in the startup world talked about the tough stuff. They were craving people that understood them. Admittedly, I was, too. It got me thinking…how incredible would it be to have of a community of founder friends that aren’t afraid to have these hard conversations? An easily accessible community for founders to connect with each other and find support? From there, InnoCrew was born.
My goals are simple: I want founders to know that they are not alone. When you are going through a difficult time with your startup and it feels like no one can relate, I want you to know and I want you to see that there are people who understand you. There are people out there that are willing to help you.
My overarching hope is that this community will serve as a safe place for you throughout your entire entrepreneurial journey — not just the tough times. I like to think of InnoCrew as a home base. A sounding board. A place where genuine, life-long connections and friendships will be made. I also hope we have a bit (or more than bit) of fun! Another extremely important thing to me is that this community be accessible. The majority of our events are free and all are welcome, no matter your background or the stage of your company.

Madison Sowards (moderator):
Madison is dedicated to bridging gaps within the innovation ecosystem by facilitating relationships between entrepreneurs and a global network of experts, mentors, and corporate, governmental, and academic partners.
In her current role as Senior Community Manager for MassChallenge, Madison is responsible for engaging the local MC Boston and Rhode Island community and MC’s global network of innovators through mentorship, speaking engagements, judging opportunities, and community partnerships. In her time at MassChallenge, Madison has also been responsible for driving meaningful relationships with the MC Partner network to meet corporate innovation goals.
Madison leverages her strategic communications and public relations background to collaborate with MassChallenge team members in marketing, operations, events, and mentorship coordination to bolster the MassChallenge Brand.