As a self-described "digital native" Lauren has been part of the online marketing industry for several years. Having started her career as the original social media lead for the PGA Tour, she spent 15+ years optimizing fan engagement in sports, B2B, B2C, healthcare, higher ed, and several more industries. With Fanwagn, she has figured out how to merge fan engagement with an e-commerce platform that helps to ensure team gear, such as jerseys, hats, and more does not end up in landfills.

About the UpStart Collective: Born out of the pandemic, the UpStart Collective is a group of founders in one place to learn, connect, and commiserate together in a safe space to help collaborate and grow.

Born in Columbia, Mariana Ferreira found herself accidentally falling into entrepreneurship during her days in college in which she learned more through failure than success. Today, leading a CPG company focused on healthy eating through a device that consumers can put on their kitchen counter to grow microgreens, Mariana is leaning in on her learnings to give back to the founder community.

About the UpStart Collective: Born out of the pandemic, the UpStart Collective is a group of founders in one place to learn, connect, and commiserate together in a safe space to help collaborate and grow.

When Nick Lawson began his founder journey, he didn't know immediately that it was even starting. Sqwad was born out of necessity and found product market fit very quickly. In nearly a decade, Sqwad has worked with teams from every major US sports league and even some overseas. And while his founder journey ended up finding him, he's learned quite a bit along the way including how to make LinkedIn his superpower and why fundraising was not a priority as Sqwad made their way towards profitability.

About the UpStart Collective: Born out of the pandemic, the UpStart Collective is a group of founders in one place to learn, connect, and commiserate together in a safe space to help collaborate and grow.