Meet the 2024 New England honorees

Eric is the CEO of CrowdComfort

CrowdComfort transforms buildings into dynamic spaces that enhance the productivity and well-being of occupants and operational teams to drive the performance and experiences of building occupants. Their model is a real estate SaaS platform that communicates and measures the needs of occupants and those responsible for safe, comfortable, and productive workplaces.  CrowdComfort’s mobile-first solutions and analytics enable frontline facilities management teams and third-party vendors to validate their daily cleaning activities, facility requests, and scheduled inspections. This allows school districts, colleges & universities, and corporations to improve their environments' cleanliness, health and safety, and productivity while streamlining operations and better-allocating teams and resources that drive considerable cost and time savings.

CrowdComfort is trusted by some of the US's most prominent corporate occupiers and educational institutions. 

Brendan is the CEO and Founder of Cuseum

Cuseum helps hundreds of organizations drive visitor, member, and patron engagement using digital tools. Cuseum's software platform makes it easy for museums, attractions, and nonprofits to publish mobile apps, generate digital membership cards, and leverage data insights. Headquartered in Boston, the company is backed by leading investors, including Techstars. For more information, visit www.cuseum.com.

Peter is the CEO and Chairman of DemandScience

DemandScience is the premier B2B demand generation company accelerating global growth for businesses around the world. The DemandScience intelligence platform empowers B2B organizations to swiftly identify the right accounts and target in-market buyers with precision. By combining groundbreaking technologies, machine learning, and data science innovation, the company ensures timely delivery of accurate data, intelligence, and insights, adding value to the end-to-end journey from initial engagement to conversion. Founded in 2012, DemandScience provides 1,500 global customers with superior marketing solutions, B2B data, and leads. With a team of 600 employees across operations in seven countries, DemandScience is certified as a Great Place To Work and one of only 143 companies in history to be named to the Inc. 5000 for 10 consecutive years. 

Marc is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Intentsify

Intentsify provides B2B organizations with the most accurate, comprehensive buyer-intent intelligence in the market today, and solutions to act on that intelligence. By delivering and activating proprietary, next-generation precision intent data, Intentsify’s Intelligence Activation Platform identifies companies exhibiting research behaviors directly related to your business solutions, pinpoints where they are in the buying process, surfaces the issues they care about most, and enables you to engage identified companies with full-funnel buying experiences that drive revenue.

Justin is the Founder and CEO of ISlide

ISlide creates premium custom slides, footwear, and apparel for any type of customer, including individuals purchasing one custom pair off our website or major retailers placing orders to go in stores across the country. ISlide's revolutionary print-on-demand processes allow for unmatched speed to the customer and unlimited potential for what customers can add to their slides and other products.  

Vanessa is the CEO, CMO and Co-Founder of Jaju Pierogi
Casey is the COO, CFO and Co-Founder of Jaju Pierogi

Founded by sisters Vanessa and Casey White using their grandfather's, or Jaju's (dziadziu's) recipes, Jaju Pierogi sells homemade-quality pierogi in approximately 2,000 stores nationwide. The sisters were lucky enough to have pierogi from their family deli always in the freezer, and people were constantly asking where they got them. They realized that there weren’t options in the grocery store - and that people were craving them. In addition to the strong nostalgic ties people have to pierogi, sales for convenient, high-quality ethnic foods are increasing year over year. Jaju Pierogi’s mission is to increase pierogi awareness and make these dumplings a household staple. It’s Pierogi’s time to shine!

Kassia is the Owner, Executive Chairwoman, and Interim CEO of PF Flyers

Born in 1937,  PF sport styles were renowned for helping customers “run faster and jump higher.” The first insole was designed specifically for sport shoes, and was a footwear industry breakthrough in cushioning and support. Today, they design for all individuals. Their sneakers are modern and wearable, taking clear inspiration from our sportswear heritage. Comfort is still at the core of everything they design, and the result is a brand where form meets function in unexpected ways.

Josh is the CEO of Precisely

Precisely is today's leading data integrity company with a remarkable heritage. With more than 50 years of unmatched data expertise, they empower businesses to make more confident decisions based on data that’s trusted to have maximum accuracy, consistency, and context. They accomplish that through their unique combination of software, data, and data strategy services—a portfolio that’s earned high recognition from leading industry analysts and customers alike. Knowing that no two organizations are the same, their market-leading Data Integrity Suite is designed to be flexible, modular, and interoperable—meeting them wherever they're at on your journey to data integrity. Their comprehensive solutions for data integration, data quality, data governance, location intelligence, and data enrichment enable customers to reach new levels of business value. Today, Precisely powers better decisions for more than 12,000 global organizations, including 99 of the Fortune 100—and the possibilities continue to grow.

Taja is the Founder and Creative Director of Pulp+Wire

Founded over two decades ago by Taja Dockendorf, Pulp+Wire specializes in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector, emphasizing sustainable packaging and innovative solutions. With a deep commitment to driving growth and value for emerging brands, the agency stands at the forefront of market awareness and sustainable business practices. At the heart of Pulp+Wire's success is a culture of creativity, resilience, and a purpose-driven approach to business, fostering a team environment where talent flourishes. The agency's focus on developing and implementing strategies for a sustainable future has not only garnered a reputation for excellence but also inspired a movement towards more responsible and impactful brand development. Through a blend of strategic expertise, passionate leadership, and a dedication to positive change, Pulp+Wire continues to shape the future of branding for a better world.

Dr. Anastasia Volkova is CEO and Co-Founder of Regrow Ag
Dr. Bill Salas is Co-Founder and CSO of Regrow Ag

Regrow powers Agriculture Resilience across the supply chain of retailers, CPGs, processors, and farmers. Regrow’s global partners include Unilever, Nestlé, Cargill, General Mills, PepsiCo, and Kellanova. With Regrow’s Agriculture Resilience Platform, these companies can achieve their climate goals by measuring and reporting on the impact of on-farm emissions and implementing programs encouraging climate-positive farming practices. Sustainability programs powered by Regrow incentivize growers, e.g., smallholder rice farmers in Vietnam and cotton farmers in India, to implement climate-positive practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance crop resilience, and foster healthier soil.

Regrow’s platform enables customers to measure scope 3 emissions with up to 95% accuracy, create effective plans to reduce on-farm emissions, and substantiate environmental claims with the trust of leading carbon standards and protocols, including Verra, Climate Action Reserve, and SustainCERT.

Dr. Andee Wallace is the Co-Founder and CEO of Robigo

Robigo's pioneering technology holds tremendous promise in addressing the pressing issue of food security on a global scale. Every year, growers spend over $80 billion on pesticides, yet still lose 20 - 40% of crops to pests and diseases. As the climate changes, these losses are expected to increase by 10 - 25% for every degree of atmospheric warming. By leveraging bioengineering and data science, Robigo is developing biological solutions that surpass traditional chemical standards, offering more effective and sustainable alternatives for crop protection and agricultural inputs. Robigo’s platform uses microbial strains, genetic tools, and bioactive payloads to empower agriculturally beneficial microbes to protect plants from disease more effectively without the need for chemical pesticides. In the long term, Robigo is working to use their platform to create more effective and sustainable bio-based solutions across the agricultural industry, including crop protection, biofertilization, and climate adaptation.

Brendan is the Co-Founder and CEO of SidelineSwap

SidelineSwap is an online marketplace that makes it easy for athletes, fans, and sports families to buy and sell their gear. They were founded by former athletes and coaches who set out to make sports more affordable after finding it hard to shop for quality used sports gear online. Since launching the marketplace in 2015, millions of athletes have joined their community to buy and sell more than $200 million worth of gear.

They recently partnered with leading sports retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods to power recommerce experiences where families can trade in their gear and receive an instant gift card for the value of their gear. SidelineSwap sits at the intersection of two very large markets—sporting goods and recommerce—and has positioned itself as the leader in the space.

At the heart of SidelineSwap is their seller community, which is made up of peer-to-peer sellers and small businesses. The average seller on SidelineSwap earns $716 per year, but many have built businesses that earn hundreds of thousands per year on the platform. They are a venture-backed startup that's raised $18 million to date, with recent strategic investments from DSG Ventures and eBay Ventures.

Molly is the CEO of The Mobile Locker Co

The Mobile Locker Co is the first mobile locker service in the US, started by their Founder + CEO as a solution to a pain point she faced herself—the need for a better solution for gear check during road races. Now with 17 locker and bag check trucks in their fleet, coast-to-coast coverage, and more than 2,100 activations annually, The Mobile Locker Co service competitive events, major stadiums and venues, festivals, expos, conferences, and more—anywhere you might need to #lockitup!

Craig is the CEO of Vecna Robotics

Vecna Robotics is an award-winning flexible, intelligent material handling automation company with solutions engineered for seamless work between autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and the labor, equipment, facilities, and systems that make business go. Their self-driving forklifts, pallet jacks, and tuggers—powered by Vecna’s Pivotal™ orchestration software and supported by a 24/7/365 Command Center—help distribution, warehousing, and manufacturing organizations automate their most critical workflows, maximize throughput, and scale operations fast. 

Amanda is the CEO of Zelis Healthcare

Zelis is modernizing the healthcare financial experience by providing a connected platform that bridges the gaps and aligns interests across payers, providers, and healthcare consumers. The platform serves 750 payers, including the top 5 national health plans, BCBS insurers, regional health plans, TPAs, and self-insured employers, plus millions of healthcare providers and consumers. Zelis sees across the system to identify, optimize, and solve problems holistically with technology built by healthcare experts – driving real, measurable results for clients.

Payers seek out Zelis solutions to support their most fundamental capabilities, including how they arrive at the optimal reimbursement for a healthcare claim, efficiently pay that claim, and explain the process to both providers and healthcare consumers. Providers benefit directly from a streamlined and accelerated payment process and data-rich remittance and payment information, and indirectly from a healthcare consumer that is more prepared for the healthcare financial journey. Healthcare consumers are empowered by the information Zelis provides, enabling them to make more informed decisions prior to care and to better understand the cost of their healthcare episode post-care.