Breaking into Boards and Investing
For engineering leaders, the path to the boardroom can feel less visible — and less accessible. Venture capitalists often assume that technical expertise is already represented by founders, leaving fewer seats open for engineering leaders to join as independents. At the same time, investing itself — whether angel, venture, or fund-based — is something women are still rarely encouraged or invited to do.
This panel will tackle both challenges head-on: how to break into board roles, and how to step confidently into investing. Leaders who have done both will share candid experiences about building networks, positioning your expertise, and overcoming the biases that keep engineering leaders — especially women — on the sidelines. The conversation will also highlight how investing and board service build influence, expand opportunity, and create wealth that multiplies across careers and communities. For leaders aiming to expand their impact, this session will illuminate what it takes to get into the rooms where decisions — and futures — are made.
Akriti Dokania
PARTNER
RIDGE VENTURES
Akriti is a Partner at Ridge Ventures. Her background in computer science, product management, and building a B2B business from the ground up have expertly positioned Akriti to understand the complexities that founders face not only in developing software, but in all aspects of the lifecycle of a startup.
Previously, Akriti was an investor at Octopus Ventures and was part of the Deep Tech pod focusing on everything from AI/ML automation to Quantum Computing. She worked as Product Manager with Windows Security and in the User Experience team at Windows Edge. While completing her MBA at the London Business School, she worked with the Amazon Alexa team to help launch Alexa in new territories. Prior to this, she built a B2B business focused on accounting in the retail space in India.
She holds a BS in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from London Business School.
Akriti enjoys tennis, soccer, and pretty much any competitive sport.
Tolithia Kornweibel
CEO
BEAM BENEFITS
Tolithia Kornweibel is a highly accomplished business leader with extensive experience in driving growth, innovation, and strategic transformation across multiple sectors. As the Chief Executive Officer of Beam Benefits, she leads the company’s vision to redefine ancillary employee benefits with cutting-edge technology and a customer-centric approach. Under her leadership, Beam Benefits is emerging as a disruptive force in the benefits space - consolidating, curating, and creating big benefits for small businesses.
With over two decades of experience in leadership roles, Kornweibel is recognized for her dynamic leadership style, blending deep operational expertise with a passion for empowering individuals and organizations. Prior to Beam Benefits, she served as Chief Revenue Officer at Gusto, where she was instrumental in scaling the company’s go-to-market strategy, driving revenue growth, and fostering a culture of inclusivity and collaboration. Kornweibel's work at Gusto also extended to her role in navigating complex business challenges, guiding the company through critical phases of growth, and strengthening its position as a leader in HR technology and payroll services. Previously, she was also the Chief Marketing Officer at Gusto with prior tenures at Esurance, Revcube and Netflix.
Kornweibel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Francisco State University. Beyond her professional accomplishments and passion for democratizing big benefits for SMBs, she is an advocate for work-life balance and believes in giving back to the community through mentorship and volunteerism.
Ashmeet Sidana
CHIEF ENGINEER
ENGINEERING CAPITAL
Ashmeet is the Founder and Chief Engineer of Engineering Capital.
Investing before traditional venture firms, Engineering Capital specializes in leading seed rounds in software companies with a technical insight. Ashmeet’s experience includes running venture capital funds and leadership positions helping build the industry leading products VMware ESX Server and Silicon Graphics WebFORCE.
Ashmeet came to venture from VMware, where he ran product management for their flagship product - ESX Server. His successful investments include Azure (IPO AZRE), Rubrik (IPO RBRK), SignalFx, acquired by Splunk for $1 billion, Tubi.tv, acquired by FOX, AirGap, acquired by ZScaler, Robust Intelligence acquired by Cisco etc. He serves on the Board of Directors of Evinced, Nexla, Tapistro and WideField. His other investments include Asimily, CtrlStack, Kentik, Kognitos, Menlo Security, vFunction, and Xano – in all of which he was the seed investor.
Ashmeet received an MBA from Wharton with Honors, MS in Computer Science from Stanford University, and a BS in Computer Science summa cum laude from the University of Southern California. In his spare-time he can be found planning his second trip to Mt. Everest.
Nandini Easwar
CTO
BEAM BENEFITS
Nandini Easwar is the CTO and Co-Founder of Speakfully who led her company through an acquisition in Nov 2022. At Speakfully, she was responsible for the product and tech side of the human-centric SaaS platform to address workplace mistreatment including retaliation, harassment, and microaggression. Known for humanizing tech solutions, Nandini ensured the success of the Speakfully mission by integrating social and emotional intelligence into the overall product roadmap of the brand. Prior to joining Speakfully, Nandini was the Global Head of Engineering at Esurance and led the engineering function through the acquisition of Esurance by Allstate in 2012.
Nandini is now VP, Engineering at HR Acuity, the acquiring company of her startup Speakfully. She currently also serves as a Board Member at SheTO.org, an organization whose mission is to increase the 9% representation of women+ in engineering leadership. She is a technical advisor at Intelliswift, Good4Work, Fikia and is a founding member at FirstBoard.io, working on increasing representation of women on corporate boards. A passionate proponent of women in STEM, Nandini was invited to a special White House briefing where she expressed her support for SheTO. She supports access to diverse talents while enabling women to grow and learn to
their fullest potential.
Nandini holds a Masters degree in Computer Science and holds a certificate on Executive Leadership from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She speaks about equity and equality of women in tech and has been featured in many articles including Medium. Her startup Speakfully was named the top 20 startups to watch for in 2022 and 2019.