We’re a team of entrepreneurs that have already worked together in crowdfunding for several years. We’ve had the privilege of seeing the crowd investment market develop all over the world, seeing what works and what doesn’t. We’re optimistic for the market potential for job growth, but we’re not leaving anything to chance. We’re here to make it happen.
Markus Lampinen, Founder & CEO 
Internationally awarded entrepreneur, previously founder and COO and Senior Partner of the Grow VC Group, pioneering new funding models on six continents.
Markus serves as the CEO of Crowd Valley Inc, a US based marketplace platform provider and a spinoff from Grow VC, where Markus previous served as COO. He is also a global investor and senior partner at the Grow VC group. During his tenure as COO of Grow VC, he has recruited over 100 individuals, built up a global team on six continents and expanded operations to over 150 countries. In his earlier businesses, he has focused on responsibilities of CFO and e.g. been responsible for sales growth of over 270% per year, for several subsequent years.
Markus has pioneered new funding models in the US and Europe, advised policy makers such as the SEC, European Commission and Consob, worldwide for a more effective market, and worked with visionary organizations such as the World Bank and the Kauffman Foundation, to improve the framework for new funding models, including crowdfunding, cross border investments and private placements. He serves as a frequent public speaker on related themes. Markus is married and constantly bringing presents from his travels to his two children.
Paul Higgins, Founder & COO
Serial entrepreneur with an operational background in finance and technology companies. Paul was previously responsible for the development of the Crowd Valley product suite as part of the Grow VC Group.
Paul is a regular speaker on new financial models and crowdfunding and has been involved in working with Crowd Valley’s pioneering customers across the financial services sector, as well as advising global institutions such as the World Bank and national regulators such as Italy’s CONSOB.
Paul has 10 years’ experience working in various operational, sales, marketing, and product roles within technology companies, including two B2B startups that have achieved 8-figure exits following 100% year-on-year growth. He started his career in product development and testing roles at IBM’s Hursley Research Lab in the UK before going on to eBay, UBS, and Barclays.
Paul holds an M.A. (Hons) in Computer Science and Philosophy from Churchill College, Cambridge University. He has lived and worked in the US and Portugal, and speaks fluent Portuguese and French.
Alessandro Ravanetti, Founder & CMO
Alessandro has built and managed web 2.0 companies with international teams and networks of partners.
Alessandro grew up in Italy, where he graduated with a bachelor degree in Economics. After having obtained a Master of Science in Finance at Regent’s College he gained extensive experiences in both marketing and finance through positions at British Telecom and Bloomberg.
Alessandro has studied and worked in many different cities, including Munich, Geneva, London and Valencia. Genuinely passionate about international business and innovation; he loves to spend his spare time traveling and discovering new cultures. He now lives between Italy and UK.
Dan McNamee, Founder & Legal Expert
Dan McNamee is a U.S. trained and qualified lawyer (New York) with extensive experience in capital markets and M&A transactions in the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa. This background has provided extensive exposure to rules, regulations and regulators (including the SEC and FINRA) governing all forms capital raisings in the United States. With this foundation in the traditional capital markets space, Dan is seeking to help grow the crowdfunding market in the United States in a manner that encourages capital formation by start-ups, protects investors and meets the extensive requirements of the nation’s regulators.
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Dan has worked and lived throughout the United States, in London and elsewhere in Europe. In his spare time, Dan has contributed a significant amount of pro-bono work to a number of organizations, including the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and enjoys suffering as he watches Cleveland’s consistently terrible sport’s teams lose.
Vamsi Sistla, Technical Strategist
Vamsi is an innovative technologist with over 15 years of experience in the Television, Media & Entertainment industry, and has built various enterprise quality software and technology platforms. Currently he is involved in a stealth startup building Digital Venue for Live Concerts. In the past he was technology co-founder for three start-ups in interactive TV, mobile events and Social TV industries. He worked for media and entertainment giants such as Gemstar TV Guide & Rovi Corp. He has many years of experience in building Mobile Platforms, Social TV tools, Video Streaming, Enterprise Applications & E-commerce..
He is an active Angel investor in ARC Angels, Eniac Ventures and an active TIE Angel. Vamsi Sistla is also active in social & impact enterprises as a mentor (The Unreasonable Institute, SpringBoard IoT & 37Angels), advisor to various early stage startups and a blogger.
Valto Loikkanen, Chairman
Valto Loikkanen is a serial entrepreneur who has started several companies across Europe and the US in the web and mobile fields. At the age 24, Valto started and grew his first company VTG Worldwide, selling custom mobile phone covers, from the ground up into an international business with a turnover of over 100 million FIM.
Forward thinking and always seeking the next big web and mobile success, Valto became fed up with the lack of transparency and openness in the startup funding process. Valto saw that with Web 2.0 taking hold, lack of transparency no longer works in helping the Internet’s shining stars find their grounding, which was one of the drivers behind him co-founding Grow VC.
Jouko Ahvenainen, Chairman, Grow VC Group
Jouko is an investor and entrepreneur across the US, Europe and Asia and is active at a senior level with many web and mobile enterprises.
Starting his first software company at the age of 16, Jouko then held progressively senior positions at diverse technology firms including Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Powerwave Technologies Inc., Nokia, and Sonera. He is a pioneer in the field of social media marketing, and played a significant role in developing the first social marketing intelligence solutions for mobile and media companies. Jouko sits on the boards of various start-up companies and is a co-founder or seed investor at six companies, including Replicon and Xtract. Jouko is a certified advisor for NasdaqOMX Stockholm and Helsinki early phase company lists.