Healthy Founders, Healthy Exits

Expert Panel: Healthy Founders, Healthy Exits

Join us for a conversation on why the healthiest companies are often led by the healthiest founders. Join investors, operators, and exited entrepreneurs as they share practical strategies for preventing burnout, building resilient leadership, and creating businesses positioned for exceptional exits.

Moderator

Reuben Levinsohn, founding partner or Washington Avenue Advisors. Reuben started his first business with a national home improvement company while attending Michigan State University for a Finance degree. He grew this business to become one of Michigan’s largest painting and home maintenance companies before he sold it the age of 30. He then pursued his passion of helping people make smart life and wealth choices as a registered financial advisor, and over the past decade developed a Financial Roadmap program to guide business owners and medical professionals through the development and implementation of their custom financial plans.

Panelists

Sean McKenna is an entrepreneur, technology executive, and advisor with deep experience building and scaling businesses in Human Capital Management, payroll technology, compliance, and data integration. He founded DataFuZion HCM and grew it into a technology provider serving complex payroll and compliance needs before Ceridian acquired substantially all of the company’s assets in 2021. Today, Sean advises founders and business owners, particularly in WorkTech, SaaS, and technology-enabled services, helping them build scalable businesses and position for strategic growth and successful exits.

Ashley Pattee is an executive coach and leadership consultant who supports business owners and companies in building high-performing teams and strengthening their leadership effectiveness. She brings a practical, cross-industry perspective to solving people and organizational challenges. Backed by her background in psychology, Ashley equips leaders with skills and tools that create lasting behavioral change and align development directly with company goals. She partners with companies through coaching, team development, and fractional leadership support to drive scalable growth.

Todd Sullivan is an entrepreneur and M&A advisor who has built, scaled, acquired, and exited four consumer and technology companies. Having sat on both sides of the M&A table - as a founder and seller, a buyer, and now an advisor - Todd brings a uniquely practical perspective on building enterprise value and preparing for a successful exit. Through Exitwise, he works with founders across a range of industries to build more valuable companies, attract the right buyers, and maximize the outcome when it’s time to sell. He has also helped fellow founders successfully sell their companies for more than $1 billion in aggregate value. 

Showcase Presentation

This event will feature a 10-minute investor-focused pitch, developed by a local entrepreneur with the help of NEF’s coaching program. The goal of the Showcase Presentation is to allow entrepreneurs to present their business plan and connect with potential investors.

This month’s Showcase Presentation will be by Derya Karaarslan of EvaGenomics, a genomic data company building a symptom-first platform that connects structured health information with whole genome sequencing. The platform helps individuals move from unexplained symptoms to deeper genomic insights, while allowing their genomic information to remain useful through future reanalysis as symptoms and scientific knowledge evolve. At the same time, EvaGenomics is building a living symptom-genome dataset designed to grow in depth and value over time, creating a differentiated data asset for research, cohort discovery, drug development, and life sciences partnerships.

Networking

Come join us in person to enjoy food and drink and conversation with members of the local startup community.