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Founder of Solar Universe

For Joe Bono, founder of Solar Universe, UCLA has been essential to opening doors and paving the way to a successful and socially-conscious business culture. Bono credits his forward-thinking leadership and strategic style to the strong knowledge foundation and opportunities provided by his alma mater.

“UCLA breeds ideas, it teaches you how to learn,” said Bono, who earned his bachelor’s degree in economics. “I became an eternal student while attending college, which has allowed me to work for different companies in various industries as well as the privilege of starting many of my own businesses.”

President of Pasadena.IO

Before founding Pasadena.IO, Will helped Fortune 100 and biotech startups develop and improve products and processes in semiconductor, healthcare, securities trade desk, and biotech industries. Additionally, Will has launched – or been an early investor for – a number of startups of life science and related fields.

Most recently he has been working on PneuBreath, which reduces lung patient admissions, and Measured Medical, which enables informed health care related purchases. Will sees the VC Fund as "a natural fit for a UCLA Anderson engineer/entrepreneur devoted to tech and healthcare startups."

Co-founder and CEO of Nvestly

Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Otávio completed both a Master of Science in Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering and a bachelor's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCLA.

Prior to Nvestly, Otávio led the Latin American efforts and due diligence investments at Wilshire Private Markets, the latter of which resulted in over $11M of aggregate commitments to private equity funds. He has also held roles as a fixed income analyst at Capital Group and investment advisory at First Investors Corp.

Founder of Jagger

Tatiana is a founder of Jagger, a mobile app that helps customers to find and book last minute, local activities and events uniquely tailored to their taste, interests, and location.

Tatiana studied Business and Entrepreneurship at UCLA, while working full-time. She used the leadership, operations, and product management skills she gained at UCLA to found Jagger, which she launched in April 2014. Since then, Jagger has been downloaded over 12,000 times and has been recognized as one of the most innovative startups of the year by Digital Entertainment World.

Founder of Lightedstar Entertainment LLC, Founder of CINESHARES

Mariah is the founder of Lightedstar Entertainment LLC and CINESHARES, a motion picture marketplace where users watch, make, and fund films.

An Oakland native and Kauffman Fellows Finalist, Mariah is an entrepreneur and media consultant who studied motion picture producing at the UCLA school of Theatre Film & Television. She is the founder of Lightedstar Entertainment LLC and has a patent pending for CINESHARES, a motion picture marketplace where users watch, make, and fund films.