Serial entrepreneurs Steve Socolof, the managing partner of New Jersey Tech Council Ventures, and Daniella Kranjac, the founding partner of Dynamk Capital, will participate in a virtual webinar discussing the state of the entrepreneurial community in the region at 5 p.m. Monday.
The event, sponsored by Innovation+, is free. It will be on Zoom. Register here.
The one-hour talk with include a number of topics, including:
- State of the entrepreneurial community in the region and worldwide;
- Investment outlook in various sectors in short and medium term;
- Advice for entrepreneurs as we look to the other side of the pandemic.
There also will be a question-and-answer period.
Socolof has been a technology investor for over 20 years. His interests are in enterprise software, particularly applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning; infrastructure required to collect, store and process data; Internet of Things; wireless; and environmental and materials technologies.
He is currently on the board of ChoiceWORX, Data Inventions, Kintra Fibers, SunRay Scientific and Vydia. He was recently a director of Airclic (sold to Descartes Systems), Alverix (sold to BD), Everspin Technologies, Neohapsis (sold to Cisco), Silicon Hive (sold to Intel), Sychip (sold to Murata), and an observer of Flarion Technologies (sold to Qualcomm).
Socolof has also been a leader in the corporate venture community and was chair of the Corporate Venture Group within the National Venture Capital Association and on the advisory board of Global Corporate Venturing. Prior to Tech Council Ventures, he created a venture incubator for Lucent’s Bell Laboratories for five years and then formed and ran New Venture Partners for 15 years investing in commercialization of technologies spun out of corporate labs.
Socolof received an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, where he is currently on the board of the Center for the Study of VC & PE. He received degrees in economics and mathematical sciences from Stanford University.
Kranjac, a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology, has been building life sciences businesses, developing and commercializing life sciences products for 20 years. Having co-founded Wave Biotech LLC from her dormitory room, she and a partner drove the startup, growth and commercialization of a highly disruptive technology.
As vice president of the organization, Kranjac established a high-growth company with significant brand recognition, and led the group to a successful exit and acquisition by GE Healthcare in 2007.
At GE Healthcare, Kranjac held a variety of strategic, M&A and business development roles. One of her most notable achievements is the success in an entrepreneurial group within the broader GE Healthcare, where a focus on integrating the acquired Xcellerex business enabled global commercialization of a several-hundred-million-dollar enterprise solutions business. Her extensive business development, negotiations and deal-making experience with multinational biopharma and governments in developed and emerging markets provides Dynamk with a broad network of colleagues, customers, innovators and key opinion leaders.
Kranjac holds a B.E. in chemical engineering from Stevens and an executive MBA from New York University Stern School of Business.
