Management

David S. Rose

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

David S. Rose is a serial entrepreneur who crossed the aisle to become one of the country's leading angel investors... and then crossed back to found Gust, filling a major need in the rapidly growing world of early stage investing.

As an entrepreneur, David has founded half a dozen companies since his first one at the age of ten, and has personally raised tens of millions of dollars of venture, strategic and institutional capital. He was named to the Inc 500 list as CEO of one of the country's fastest growing private companies, and has been described as a 'world conquering entrepreneur' by BusinessWeek.

As an angel investor, David founded and chairs New York Angels, one of the largest and most active angel investment groups in the US. He has personally invested in over 70 early stage companies, and serves on the boards of directors of KoolSpan, Magnify Networks, Social Bomb, comiXology, and Pond5.

Outside of Gust, David is Managing Principal of Rose Tech Ventures, Chairman of Egret Capital Partners, and Track Chair for Finance, Entrepreneurship and Economics at Singularity University. He has been dubbed "The Pitch Coach" by BusinessWeek for his work with early stage entrepreneurs, a "top dog in tech"; by Crains New York Business, and "patriarch of Silicon Alley" by Red Herring magazine.

David writes about early stage investing and entrepreneurship on Quora and Twitter as @davidsrose and on his blog, rose.vc/angelnotes.

Andrei Godoroja

VP, Product Development and CTO

As CTO of Gust, Andrei leads the entire Technology team in the development and deployment of our platform and products.

Andrei has a classical education in the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and quadrivium (astronomy, arithmetic, music, geometry). With a triple degree in Mathematics, Physics, and Engineering, plus a complete formal classical music education, Andrei brings an unparalleled level of expertise to our development team.

Prior to working for Gust, Andrei taught Computer Science at the university level for three years and lectured in Astronomy for 10 years. His business career includes a 16-year tenure at a wireless data company, where he started as an Engineer and left as the CTO. In addition, Andrei brings over 10 years of start-up experience to Gust, having consulted to several technology organizations in the past. Andrei's rich professional experience also includes a 5-year tenure as a singer in a professional opera company.

Andrei is a good representative of Gust's global team, having lived and worked in Beijing, Sydney, London, Florence, Vancouver and New York. Andrei's passion for travel includes a sailing trip from Nova Scotia to Rarotonga on a 3-masted tall ship as a cook and deckhand for 5 months. Andrei lives in Vancouver, where our Technology team is based.

Ilana Grossman

VP, Marketing

Ilana heads up all marketing and communication efforts for Gust. Prior to joining Gust, Ilana has held senior positions at leading digital marketing agencies, most notably Digitas and Organic, where she has led the development and implementation of several CRM and digital campaigns for clients such as Bank of America, Sanofi-Aventis, Johnson & Johnson, and Astra Zeneca. Ilana is a passionate marketer who always advocates for user-centric design and improved customer experience.

Prior to starting her Marketing career, Ilana was a Senior Associate with The Boston Consulting Group, and has also worked for the Brazilian joint venture of Salomon Brothers in her native Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Ilana holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Fundacao Getulio Vargas and an MBA in Finance and Strategic Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She lives on the Upper East Side with her husband and two children.

Lisa Balter Saacks

VP, Business Development

Lisa is in charge of all business development and strategic partnership efforts globally. Before joining Gust, Lisa held senior positions in the financial and media worlds. Most recently, she was VP of Strategic Partnerships at SecondMarket, the marketplace for alternative investments, where she also created and managed Alchemy Magazine, a publication on the alternative asset class.

The launch came on the heels of her previous tenure as VP, International Publisher at the financial media organization, The Deal LLC, where she ran the firm’s custom media and events division.

She began her career in finance at the European-based Creditanstalt Investment Bank. While there she worked on project finance, M & A and PE deals in Eastern and Central Europe.

Lisa holds a Masters in International Finance from Columbia’s School of International Affairs and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Michigan.