Startup Genomeis the world-leading policy advisory and research organization for public and private organizations committed to accelerating the success of their startup ecosystem.
Startup Genome has advised more than 125 clients across six continents in 45+ countries to date. Our impact is rooted in over a decade of independent research with data on three million companies across 280 cities. Working side-by-side with 300 partner organizations, our frameworks and methodologies have become instrumental in building foundations for startups and startup ecosystems to grow.
David Overton – Partner, Opus Faveo Innovation Development Austin, TX
David Overton has extensive experience in strategic planning, competitor analysis and customer research for a wide range of organizations. After completing his studies, David joined McKinsey & Company as a management consultant, where he focused on strategy, growth and profit improvement projects. He then worked in executive roles for several leading retailers, including May Department Stores, Sears, and JCPenney, most recently as Vice President for Customer and Strategic Insights.
David has served on several boards, and he currently serves on the board of Mercy Ships, a leading international NGO focused on health and human development. David holds a degree in Accounting from Texas Tech University and a Masters of Management degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.
Simon Mak – Director, Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
Dr. Simon Mak (@profsmak) is Executive Director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Professor of Practice in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Business Economics at the SMU Cox School of Business. He directs the Caruth Institute staff and its many community service programs, such as the Dallas 100 Entrepreneur Awards, the Southwest Venture Forum, the Starting A Business certificate course, and the Startup Camp for Teens. In addition, Dr. Mak leads the academic entrepreneurship programs at Cox by overseeing the BBA Specialization in Entrepreneurship and the MBA/graduate program in entrepreneurship, managing a team of over a dozen adjunct professors in teaching over 20 entrepreneurship courses. Dr. Mak also works with the Lyle School of Engineering on the MS in Engineering Entrepreneurship degree program.
Dr. Mak is one of the leaders at SMU in researching blockchain and created an MBA class called Blockchain Entrepreneurship where he taught about CryptoKitties as one of the first NFT (Non-Fungible Token) startup business models. He has traveled to London, Berlin, Malta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Israel, Beijing, and Shanghai researching blockchain startups. He has formed a company Genesis Blockchain Academy, LLC that is supported by the SMU Incubator.
Dr. Mak also researches esports entrepreneurship and just completed a project with a graduate assistant researching startup business models in esports. He is the faculty advisor for the SMU Esports Club and co-director of the newly created SMU Esports Business Management Certificate. He has traveled to London, Stockholm and Israel researching esports startups. His newest research interest is in space entrepreneurship.
Dr. Mak specializes in ideation (having created an BBA course called Identifying Entrepreneurial Opportunities), emerging business models and strategies, corporate entrepreneurship (having created an MBA course called Corporate Entrepreneurship:Intrapreneuring), and global entrepreneurship (having created an MBA course called Global Explorations in Entrepreneurship and brought his students to Berlin, Zurich, Israel, and Kuala Lumpur to study their local entrepreneurship ecosystems). Dr. Mak also teaches strategic thinking in the SMU Cox Executive Education program called Transformational Leadership.
Prior to joining SMU, Dr. Mak worked as an engineer for Fortune 50 companies Raytheon and Digital Equipment Corporation, and then was an early employee of venture-backed software startup Mercury Interactive in Silicon Valley as a field applications engineer and then was the Texas Regional Sales Manager after the company’s IPO. He was involved in his own healthcare dot.com startup and presented to top-tier venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, and then was the vice president of sales and marketing for a startup Asian business magazine, and most recently he was vice president of marketing and business development for a small, Dallas-based private-equity backed Linux software company and led the sales expansion into the Japanese market and the eventual company sale to a large Japanese systems integration company.
Dr. Mak earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an MBA in Finance from the SMU Cox School of Business, and a Ph.D. in Applied Science (Systems Engineering focus) from the SMU Lyle School of Engineering, where his PhD dissertation was entitled: Improving Investment Performance of Venture Financing Utilizing Bayesian Fundamentals. Dr. Mak is also the recipient of the SMU Cox Teaching Innovation award, SMU Distinguished Community Service Award, the SMU Rotunda Outstanding Professor Award, and the Global Educator of the Year by the Dallas Global Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Mak is also the faculty advisor to the SMU Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club, the MBA Entrepreneurship Club, the SMU Intervarsity Fellowship, is on the SMU Incubator Advisory Committee, and also helps judge the annual Big Ideas undergraduate business plan competition.
In January 2021, Dr. Mak helped launch the USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Tech Entrepreneurship and serves as the inaugural chair.
In January 2021, Dr. Mak was appointed to the Dallas Mayor’s Task on Innovation and Entrepreneurship where he chairs the Big Fat Hairy Audacious Idea Committee.
Ebetuel (Beto) Pallares was born in Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in El Paso, TX. He began his career as a management consultant focused primarily on the telecom industry. He’s also been a start-up entrepreneur, a telecom executive, and restaurateur, a nonprofit director, a venture capitalist, and a professor. Beto’s investment expertise is in seed and early stage venture investments, as well as venture fund creation. He currently advises a family office on fund commitments and direct investments into private operating companies, and is the general partner/fund manager of two funds. Beto enjoys being involved in entrepreneurial transformation, particularly in the Borderplex region where he incorporates best-in-class mentorship, tech tools and resources for start-up founders and aspiring investors. He teaches entrepreneurship and strategic management at New Mexico State University where he holds the Bill and Sharron Sheriff Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship. Beto is a Kauffman Fellow and a Presidio Fellow and over the years has served on the board of over two dozen private companies. He also serves on the board of Exagen, Inc. (NASDAQ: XGN). Beto holds a Ph.D. in International Business Strategy from the University of Texas at El Paso, in addition to an MBA. He received a B.A. in economics from Brandeis University. Beto frequently lectures internationally on topics ranging from tech ecosystem development and start-up mentorship.
Juliana Garaizar – Head of Houston Incubator, VP of Innovation for Greentown Labs, Houston, TX
Juliana is the Head of Houston Incubator and VP of Innovation for Greentown Labs. A Board Member of the Angel Capital Association, Juliana is a Lead Investor of the Portfolia Rising America Fund that invests in BIPOC and LGTBQ founders, as well as the Portfolia Consumer and Rising Tide Funds. She is also an Advisory Board Member of the Houston Diversity Fund, the Investors of Color network, the Latinx Startup Alliance and Impulse4women. A Kauffman Fellow experienced in Bridging the Gender Gap in investing, she is part of the City of Houston’s Women Commission. Juliana was the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund Director and the Managing Director of the Houston Angel Network. She was the Manager of the in the French Riviera’s Sophia Business Angels network and Antipolis Innovation Campus and Project Manager of several International Projects funded by the European Commission. Previously, Juliana worked for 5 years in Singapore: first as an International Trade Consultant for the Trade Commission of Spain in a broad range of industry sectors and then as a Project Manager for the Asia Technology Office of Citigroup, leading projects at the international level. Juliana obtained an MBA at the London Business School and Haas School of Business in Berkeley, specializing in Entrepreneurship.
Stephen Kuester – Head of Ecosystem Strategy, Startup Genome, London
Stephan works with clients in government and private industry consortia all around the world, advising on the creation and the acceleration of tech and innovation clusters. Prior to his role at Startup Genome, Stephan headed up the International Consulting practice at UK ecosystem agency Tech Nation (aka Tech City UK) in London and served as Managing Director of digital Switzerland.
Previous to his work in the digital ecosystems space, Stephan worked as an executive director for professional services firms Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. Stephan holds an MSc in Economics and studied at the University of Bonn, Germany and the London School of Economics (LSE).
