Mike Lightman is an experienced international entrepreneur. After completing his MBA, Mike worked with at Excell Partners, a smaller hardware focused VC in New York that invests in pre-seed and seed deals. Mike had the traditional associate role, conducting diligence and finding new deals. Over time he took on a more senior position and led diligence teams for multiple deals.

Mike joined the World Bank in November, 2015. His roles normally involve assessing and redesigning startup support programs, preparing startups for investment, and liaising directly with investors.

In his free time Mike is a part time EIR with Hax, the world’s first and largest hardware accelerator. He mentors companies at Urban-X (a smart city accelerator in NYC) and 1776 (a global incubator). Mike has been on the selection committee of SXSW Eco, is a founding board member of CENTCOM New York tech scout week (where US Central Command meets with technology startups), and is generally mentoring a few startups at any given time.

Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellightman/Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moeini/