{"version":"1.0","type":"stack","id":"9165f567-af44-4ad0-8743-6428f1b085b2","url":"https://stacklist.com/stack/9165f567-af44-4ad0-8743-6428f1b085b2","title":"1:20 - 1:50 PM | Small Teams, Big Checks: What Investors Are Backing Now","description":"Fresh off the pitches, our investors get candid about what they're backing now: lean teams, output per person, and how AI changes what a fundable company looks like in Arizona.","privacy":"public","created_at":"2026-10-05T11:57:42.844Z","updated_at":"2026-10-19T23:55:30.409Z","author":{"username":"daniela-santangelo-tts","name":"Daniela Santangelo","url":"https://stacklist.com/daniela-santangelo-tts","type":"person"},"category":null,"items":[{"id":"2c591885-89e8-4a47-afff-b3b68214f25f","position":1,"title":"Sharon Ducati","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/sducati/?isSelfProfile=false","note":"Sharon Rose Ducati is the Executive Director of Invest Southwest and a strategic storyteller, community builder, and ecosystem leader. Through her leadership of Arizona's longest running investor conference and pitch competition, Venture Madness, she connects entrepreneurs, investors, and community partners to advance tech and economic growth across Arizona. Sharon is passionate about authentic connection, inclusive leadership, and creating opportunities for innovation, investors, and leaders to thrive.","image":{"url":"https://ucarecdn.com/e922810e-5087-4b44-acbe-684be8525fc5/","alt":"Sharon Ducati","width":1080,"height":1080},"direct_link":"https://stacklist.com/card/2c591885-89e8-4a47-afff-b3b68214f25f","created_at":"2026-10-20T00:12:47.975Z","updated_at":null},{"id":"f8346a98-7e6a-4485-be3f-90701ee7fc16","position":2,"title":"Glenn Lurie","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennlurie/","note":"I began my 30+ year career in the early days of the wireless industry at McCaw Cellular. I went on to help usher in the modern smartphone era by leading AT&T’s negotiations with Apple to introduce the first iPhone and iPad. I was honored to lead the building of three, from the ground up businesses for AT&T: The IoT business, Digital Life and the launch of Aio Wireless – now Cricket Wireless, the company’s industry-leading prepaid flanker brand.\n\nToward the end of 2018, I retired from AT&T as President & CEO of Mobility and Consumer Operations. Shortly thereafter, I joined Synchronoss as President, CEO, and a member of the Board of Directors. Throughout my career, I have consistently maintained a leadership-style founded on the 3P’s philosophy: People, Purpose and Passion. This philosophy guided my teams and me from the beginning, and it is now the foundation in which Synchronoss operates, both internally and externally.\n\nPeople are the most important asset of any business and they are the accumulation of great individuals bringing their unique perspectives and experiences to the table. Passion for one’s work is the motivation, it’s the love of what you do that drives the will to find a way to win every day. Purpose is when an individual fully understands how they contribute to the company’s overall success. When the culture of a company is rooted in the 3P’s philosophy, great innovations prosper for customers, partners and colleagues. This philosophy is also critical when building trusted partnerships with customers and partners to get deals over the line that deliver value to all involved.\nI have been fortunate to be on the frontlines of the TMT space, both living through and leading some of the most transformative mobile revolutions.\n\n","image":{"url":"https://ucarecdn.com/fedd2b92-f0f1-4ebb-9977-e655e061c20f/","alt":"Glenn Lurie","width":1080,"height":1080},"direct_link":"https://stacklist.com/card/f8346a98-7e6a-4485-be3f-90701ee7fc16","created_at":"2026-03-13T15:45:21.563Z","updated_at":null},{"id":"0bfc9bee-3569-46ff-a925-195feb5a2bf7","position":3,"title":"Azin Radsan Van Alebeek","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/azin-radsan-van-alebeek/?isSelfProfile=false","note":"Azin Radsan van Alebeek is Co-Founder and General Partner of Emmeline Ventures, an early-stage venture fund backing technology in women's health, wealth, and sustainability. Trained as a quantitative economist at Stanford, Azin has been writing checks into startups since 2008. At Emmeline, she co-leads investment strategy and deal execution across a portfolio of 25 companies, and runs the fund's LP relations and operations, from tax and legal to banking. Her thesis is straightforward: underrepresentation in these markets is a market failure, and market failures are where outsized returns are found. She has spoken to investor audiences in Paris, London, New York, and San Francisco, and holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson.","image":{"url":"https://ucarecdn.com/c06f9369-5753-4cf3-bb35-31aee839e601/","alt":"Azin Radsan Van Alebeek","width":1080,"height":1080},"direct_link":"https://stacklist.com/card/0bfc9bee-3569-46ff-a925-195feb5a2bf7","created_at":"2026-10-05T11:59:07.224Z","updated_at":null},{"id":"7c57dcbe-1994-4ce5-8ccb-b97e9f4f0037","position":4,"title":"Justin Gray","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/inrevenue?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios","note":"Justin Gray is an award-winning 5X entrepreneur, CEO, and habitual operator who has made a career of launching and scaling companies to successful exits of over 500MM. After his last exit Justin co-founded In Revenue Capital, where he combined GTM expertise with early-stage funding to form a completely new type of Venture Capital firm. Focused on amplifying early-stage B2B Vertical SaaS/AI startups, In Revenue accelerates the $1M to $10M journey for its portfolio by leveraging a first of its kind model coined Operator-Immersive Investing.","image":{"url":"https://ucarecdn.com/b9874762-cb69-4370-ab24-8692f27e9735/","alt":"Justin Gray","width":1080,"height":1080},"direct_link":"https://stacklist.com/card/7c57dcbe-1994-4ce5-8ccb-b97e9f4f0037","created_at":"2026-04-06T21:05:42.418Z","updated_at":null},{"id":"5adad7b3-f211-469d-9785-233e39bff7be","position":5,"title":"Patricia Burnett","url":"https://linkedin.com/in/patricia-velarde-burnett-6392b695","note":"Patricia represents founders and emerging-growth companies across the full lifecycle: entity formation and governance, venture and angel financings, equity compensation, and mergers and acquisitions on both the buy and sell side. Her transactional work ranges from seed-stage SAFE and convertible note offerings through sell-side M&A and strategic acquisitions on the buy side. She works most often with venture-backed and founder-led businesses, frequently as outside general counsel.\n\nHer practice spans technology companies broadly, including in regulated sectors (medical device, healthcare SaaS, and telehealth among them), where founders have to build for commercial growth and compliance at the same time. That combination lets Patricia move a company from financing through diligence to closing without handing off the parts that touch regulatory risk.\n\nPatricia's clients are often technical founders who want to understand the mechanics, not just the recommendation. She shows the work (how a given term allocates risk or control, and what it costs them later) so founders can make the call with the full picture in front of them. Her aim is straightforward: clarify who owns what, who decides what, and what triggers what, before it matters.","image":{"url":"https://ucarecdn.com/66bee6c6-912a-4992-b0d2-5c692b2cf79c/","alt":"Patricia Burnett","width":1080,"height":1080},"direct_link":"https://stacklist.com/card/5adad7b3-f211-469d-9785-233e39bff7be","created_at":"2026-10-12T11:45:56.289Z","updated_at":null}],"stats":{"likes_count":0,"items_count":5},"_links":{"self":"/api/public/stack/9165f567-af44-4ad0-8743-6428f1b085b2.json","html":"https://stacklist.com/stack/9165f567-af44-4ad0-8743-6428f1b085b2","rss":"/api/feeds/stack/9165f567-af44-4ad0-8743-6428f1b085b2/rss","json_feed":"/api/feeds/stack/9165f567-af44-4ad0-8743-6428f1b085b2/json"}}