We’re AdeptID.

Fernando Rodriguez-Villa

Fernando is a veteran of machine learning ventures whose passion for improving job mobility comes from his own unconventional career transitions. He was the commercial lead and founding team member at TellusLabs, a satellite analytics venture which was acquired by Indigo Ag in 2018. At Indigo, he served as Director, International Strategy. Previously, he drove EMEA expansion for Knewton, an adaptive learning company. He began his career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan covering Financial Institutions. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College.

He’s a member of the Board of Trustees at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology (“BFIT”) in Boston.

Big (6'6") reader... mostly sci-fi and historical fiction.

Brian DeAngelis, PhD

Brian has led innovative work applying machine learning to particularly challenging real-world applications. Most recently, he worked on quantification of soil carbon for offset products at Indigo Ag. Previously, he implemented data science solutions for private sector clients at Opera Solutions. He holds a PhD in Computational Neuroscience from Yale and a B.A. from Dartmouth.

A hockey fanatic, his previous founding role was as Co-Founder of the Hopewell Hockey Company.

Dan Restuccia

Dan has spent his career at the intersection of big data, workforce development and advancing educational opportunity. He served as Chief Product and Analytics Officer of Burning Glass Technologies, transforming online job ads into an actionable data source about global demand for jobs and skills.  His research has helped to shape the national conversation on careers and the skills gap and has been featured in publications including the New York Times, Wall St Journal and the Economist. He has also worked at Amazon Alexa, Jobs for the Future and as a math teacher at an urban public high school. He holds a BA from Brown University.

He lives in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood with his wife, two daughters and pandemic puppy Penny.

Dan Smith

Dan began his career as a technical lead/manager while developing new communication systems for the US Navy, US Air Force, and NORAD at Inter-National Research Institute. He next worked as an engineering director at a series of startups and innovative technology companies, including Live Software, Allaire, Macromedia, and Adobe Systems. He led teams developing JRun, Coldfusion, the legendary Flash Player, and Adobe Flex.

Pursuing a latent interest in science, he was the founding engineering leader of the PerkinElmer innovation lab in Kendall Square. Most recently, Dan was the Senior Director of Carbon Sequestration apps at Indigo Ag. He is on the board of two 501(c)3 non-profit organizations and holds a BS in Computer Science from Old Dominion University.

Dan resides in Boston Metrowest with his wife and two children.

Holly Mandel, PhD

Holly comes to AdeptID from quant finance, where she built machine learning algorithms for high-frequency trading. She has a Ph.D. in mathematics from UC Berkeley and experience in visual neuroscience research and open-source Python development.

Outside of work, Holly likes reading books and running up hills.

James Alner

James joins AdeptID as a Data Scientist working remotely from the UK. His previous projects focused on developing object detection and image classification models for embedded systems, and adversarial reinforcement learning algorithms. James holds a B.A. in Computer Science with Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

In his free time, James is an avid poker player, often traveling around the UK and abroad for events. He’s also a keen skier & snowboarder.

Kathleen Cachel, PhD

Kathleen began her career as a program manager at Microsoft. She comes to AdeptID after completing her Ph.D. in Data Science during which her research focused on designing fairness-focused technologies for ranked systems. Outside of work Kathleen enjoys cooking, hikes with her dogs, and quilting projects.

Katie Kamio

Katie comes to us as a recent graduate from Colorado College, where she earned her BA in English with a focus on Creative Writing. She is eager to use her passion for storytelling and ability to craft compelling narratives to create content.

Outside of work, Katie is an avid book reader and watercolor/collage artist. 

Kat Sievers

Kat comes from Pearson’s Workforce Skills division, where she was a Professional Services Lead and digital credentialing subject matter expert, tackling skills and talent challenges within enterprise and regional workforces. In addition to her day job, she helps teach graduate courses on emerging education technologies, adult learning and motivation theories, and entrepreneurship in education.

Ken Hoffmann

Senior Software Engineer

Ken has spent the last 12 years working for several tech startups in the Boston area in a variety of fields. His experiences span a multiple of industries such as cloud data backup and Big Data, music, e-commerce and two-sided marketplaces, and job placement. Throughout his career, Ken has worked as a backend engineer, full stack engineer, team technical lead, as well as a staff engineer in multiple programming languages. In his free time, Ken is working on learning Italian and has enjoyed turning his backyard into a garden of native perennials. Additionally, Ken is also a strong advocate for transit and housing. We are excited to welcome Ken to AdeptID as a senior software engineer!

Mark DeAngelis

Mark joins the AdeptID team as a remote worker living in New Jersey. He holds an AAS in Applied Arts and Sciences from Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Individualized Study. His role includes data curation and preparation, prompt engineering, fine-tuning and model optimization, and cross-functional collaboration. He is also a multi-instrumentalist musician and martial artist.

Matt Aliber

Matt brings 15 years of experience spanning technology, strategy consulting, and data science. Most recently, Matt worked at Boston Consulting Group where he led teams that built AI/ML and software solutions, advised on technology strategy, and advised on people, talent & organizational strategy for Fortune 500 clients. He spent additional years at Accenture working with U.S. government agencies, and in the HRTech space at PeopleFluent.

He holds an M.S. in Computational Data Analytics from Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Vanderbilt University. Matt lives in Brookline, MA with his wife, and is an avid hiker, biker, and skier.

Omer Mano, PhD

Omer has worked on a wide variety of projects involving computer science, engineering, and statistics. He began his career writing software to automate the analysis of biological image data, tracking the machinery inside our cells. He then developed computational and statistical tools to understand how the tiny brain of the fruit fly can perceive the world. Before joining AdeptID, Omer was a neurotechnology engineer building software, electronic and mechanical devices, and microscopes to enable new experimental designs in the field of Neuroscience. He holds a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Yale and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers.

An avid travel photographer, he is also the co-creator of the Filmulator image editor.

Phil Voulgaris

Phil is a full-stack product marketer who has spanned both hardware and software products. His over 10 year product marketing career began at AT&T’s developer program, which led him to PMM roles at SmartBear, Toast, and Google. His diverse background, including serving six years as a Navy intelligence officer, a stint in corporate strategy, and even a turn as an improv comedian, uniquely informs his approach to product marketing.

Phil holds a B.S. in Economics from the United States Naval Academy and a M.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

He’s an avid (yet mediocre surfer) who’s still searching for the perfect wave.

Sam Richards

Sam is from the UK and is currently studying for a double major in Computer Science and Physics at Northeastern University in Boston.  He joins AdeptID as part of their Coop program.  He has worked previously on neural network development for embedded systems and has been developing high performance image classifiers and detectors for these devices.

In his spare time he can be found at the gym or during the summer  break months as a caddy at Brookline Country Club.  He is a keen sailor and skier.

Spencer Rhodes

Spencer is a Software Engineer at AdeptID in Boston, working in a hybrid role. Previously, he worked at AWS on Resource Explorer, contributing to its initial launch in 2022 and later participating in feature launches such as multi-account search support, the list-resources API, and the “tag:all” filter feature. He was also a founding engineer at Umax, a project that achieved over 8 million iOS downloads and multimillion-dollar ARR. He holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University, graduating with a perfect GPA.

Outside of work, Spencer enjoys working on personal projects, working out, and snowboarding. He is an avid reader and committed lifelong learner. 

Tyler Steele

Tyler has spent the past 12 years working in a variety of industries from game development, printing services, and home appraisal services. Specializing in API development and integrations he aims to build comprehensive usable APIs for customers to interact with.

At his core he is a craftsman who brings thoughtfulness and quality to any work he does whether that is building APIs, and applications, or brewing mead and making handcrafted wood products in his free time.

Winton Davies, PhD

After an undergrad in Comp Sci from Reading University in England, Winton began his career as a DEC software engineer working on ALL-IN-1, the most successful office automation suite of the 1980s. He integrated an experimental rule-based email filtering from MIT into the product, and this led him to go back to school for a Master’s in artificial intelligence and PhD in machine learning from Aberdeen University, Scotland.

After a post-doc research engineering post at Stanford, he moved into the world of startups, first at the original Search Ads company GoTo, eventually acquired by Yahoo and then at the social Q&A search engine Aardvark, quickly acquired by Google. At Google he was responsible for the quality of the long tail of the search index for almost a decade.

Winton lives in San Francisco with his wife and son.

Nasir Qadree

Prior Experience

• Associate Director of Social Investments at AT&T
• Head of Education at Village Capital
• US Economic Opportunity lead at Village Capital
• Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Education - Connecticut State Department of Education
• Senior Associate - State Street Corporation
• Analyst -  Goldman Sachs

Education

• Hampton University, BS in Marketing
• General Assembly Front End Web Development, Python Programming

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO LAUNCH ZEAL CAPITAL PARTNERS?

I’ve dedicated my career to sourcing, investing, and scaling high growth early stage  businesses led by exceptional founders across the country, many of whom do not fit the traditional tech founder mold. Not enough founders are getting a fair shot – they’re not receiving the best resources, mentorship, and capital. Far too much innovation and genius are going untapped. Small businesses are getting left behind, which is critical to the infrastructure of our US and global economy.

Zeal is on a path towards democratizing venture capital and entrepreneurship with our Inclusive Investing™ strategy. Together with our team and dedicated limited partners, we are rethinking how we support entrepreneurs today and long term so that they too can leverage opportunities to scale.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN FOUNDERS? WHAT GETS YOU EXCITED?

I’m interested in founders who are humble and have “zeal”( pun intended) – a fire and relentlessness to go the distance. If a founder is not madly in love with their business, I won’t be either. I’m also interested in founders who have deep insight into their market and are solving a “painkiller” problem(s) without compromising their  integrity.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO EXPAND OUR LENS TO NON-TRADITIONAL STARTUP HOTBEDS?

I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing first hand, through my previous investments, that there are exceptional founders and businesses everywhere and I believe there’s power in leveraging local assets in all geographies. Over the past decade , founders from secondary markets have become more and more sophisticated, building profitable and sustainable business models with the same rigor as in primary markets. We are beginning to see more cities known for sector-specific innovations, and many are partnering with universities and large corporations to develop transformational ideas that have economic and social returns. Investing in companies in lower cost cities allows dollars to go much further than investments in traditional financial and tech ecosystems such as SF , Boston, and NYC.

YOU OFTEN SAY “WEALTH AND SKILL ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE IN THE PATH TOWARD UPWARD MOBILITY." CAN YOU EXPLAIN THIS?

Given the fast-changing demands of the labor market, more skills are required  in order for people to have a competitive advantage that offers economic mobility.  Some form of postsecondary education, credentialing or ability to re/up-skill is pivotal in unlocking higher earning potential in the modern economy.  And, to capitalize on new and evolving career opportunities, people need access to financial services and an understanding of financial management. We are excited to partner with founders who are developing important tools and resources across the Future of Work and Financial Technology  sectors.  These innovative solutions allow people and small businesses to reach their full potential. Wealth and skills go hand-in-hand.

WHAT MAKES THE ZEAL CAPITAL PARTNERS TEAM UNIQUE?

Our team hustles like the entrepreneurs we seek to back. We bring a combination of high-IQ and low-ego. Everyone is genuinely motivated to help founders and companies maximize their potential.  We come from diverse backgrounds and have different operating expertise, which makes our collective advice all the more thoughtful and practical.

FAVORITE QUOTE YOU LIVE BY?

“I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort where we overlap.” - Ani DiFranco

OUTSIDE OF VENTURE, WHAT INTERESTS YOU?

I find so much joy in running. Running introduces me to my worst enemy. I have an obsessive goal to run 51 full marathons — one in each state and Washington, DC. I’ve completed 18 full marathons to date. I also find myself unwinding by playing pickup basketball, anything Larry David, and more recently, perfecting my DJ skills. DJing is a newfound passion that allows me to share my music artistry with our community, which I love to do on weekends at a local vinyl shop in Washington, DC. Specifically, I love house music!

FIRST LIVE CONCERT YOU WENT TO?

Incognito - 1995 Atlanta Tabernacle

Lyndsey Boucherle

Lyndsey is passionate about the role companies can play in catalyzing significant and scalable positive change in the world. She has 12 years of experience in finance with UBS in Switzerland, Hong Kong and the US where she held numerous leadership roles across investment products and services, business development and corporate strategy. She also helped launch ‘UBS and Society’, an initiative bringing together the bank’s sustainable investing and social impact offerings, and led a global program sourcing financial solutions to support the Sustainable Development Goals. She has spent the last decade advising social enterprises in Asia, Africa and the US and is passionate about connecting early stage entrepreneurs with the resources and capital to succeed and scale. She has a Masters in Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business and now lives in Oakland, CA. An avid adventurer and music lover, she is often off exploring the outdoors of Northern California or seeking out live bands in dive bars and unique venues.

Kathleen Creel, PhD

Dr. Kathleen A. Creel is the Embedded EthiCS fellow at Stanford University based in the Center for Ethics in Society (EiS) and the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI).Her current research explores the moral, political, and epistemic implications of machine learning as it is used in non-state automated decision making and in science. Dr. Creel has other ongoing projects on early modern philosophy and general philosophy of science.

Dr. Creel’s work broadly concerns philosophy of machine learning, ethics of AI, and general philosophy of science. Her main interests include examining such topics as how humans can best use computation to understand themselves and their world, how can we gain scientific understanding with opaque, black-box computational methods, and what ways of explaining machine learning best serve scientific and public life. In answering these sorts of questions, Dr. Creel connects traditional topics in philosophy of science such as explanation, reference, and natural kinds with a practice-based approach to the study of methods in contemporary machine learning. By examining these epistemic and normative questions, she outlines more fruitful uses of machine learning for human flourishing.

Dr. Creel holds a PhD in History & Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, MA in Philosophy at Simon Fraser University, and BA in Computer Science & Philosophy at Williams College. She’s also worked with MIT’s prestigious Lincoln Laboratory as a software engineer.

Joe Fuller

Joseph Fuller is a Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, the co-director of the school’s long-term project, Managing the Future of Work, and a co-head of the Harvard Project on the Workforce. He is a Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and studies issues related to employment and income polarization and the relationship between talent and economic competitiveness. Specifically, he has focused on the ‘skills gap’ and opportunities to expand work-based learning programs, such as apprenticeships. His research on the workings of the “care economy” in the United States focuses on the impact that episodic and predictable caregiving obligations have on workers, their career paths and the implications for employers. His 2021 study, Hidden Workers, Untapped Talent, explores how the processes companies use to attract and evaluate job candidates contributes to the growing labor shortage in the developed world, while ongoing research focuses on the future of work more broadly, specifically the growth of non-traditional employment relationships, the impact of caregiving obligations on the workforce and employee productivity, the best practices of American community colleges in working with employers and strategies for lifting workers out of low paying jobs.

Prior to joining the Harvard Business School faculty, Joe was a co-founder and long-time CEO of Monitor Group, the global consultancy now called Monitor-Deloitte. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School and a director of PVH Corporation, Aera Technology and a trustee of Western Governors University.

Spencer Thompson

Spencer is the Founder & CEO of Prelude. Prior to Prelude, Spencer founded Sokanu, the Internet’s largest career advancement platform. Sokanu serves over 10m people a year, has had ~1B questions answered through the platform and developed the most advanced career matching platform algorithm. Spencer led Sokanu to a successful acquisition by Two Sigma Impact & Baypine in early 2021. Spencer also serves as an advisor to several companies and investment funds in the impact and workforce development space. Spencer partially completed a BSc in Economics from the University of London before stopping out to found Sokanu.