Meet our dedicated mentors
James Neely
Startup Success Manager | Solutions Consultant
James Neely was born and raised in the beautiful Black enclave of Prince George's County, Maryland. He has always been driven by a belief that thoughtfully applied technology solutions have the capacity to democratize, uplift and generally improve the lives of people across the globe. James is honored to serve as a support system for Black founders that are building a better tomorrow.
Alan Ranciato
Startup Success Manager | Cloud Architect, Google
As a Customer Engineer and Cloud Architect, Alan Ranciato helps companies choose and implement the right technologies to achieve their business goals. Alan’s current focus and passion is on DevOps transformation including application modernization, microservice architecture, containerization, CI/CD, and cloud architecture. He has been with Google since June 2019 and specializes in Application Modernization and Hybrid Cloud architecture. Alan holds an undergrad degree in Technology Management and an MBA from the University of Florida. Additionally, he has earned multiple industry certifications including the Google Cloud Professional Architect, Data Engineer, Cloud Developer, and DevOps Engineer designations.
Tanaka Chikosi
Startup Success Manager | Strategy & Ops Program Manager, Google
Tanaka is originally from Zimbabwe but grew up in London and Washington DC. He currently works in strategy and operations for Google and is a results-driven business leader with 7+ years of roles with escalating levels of responsibility in entrepreneurship, venture capital, management consulting, technology operations, and corporate strategy. Tanaka holds an MBA from the Wharton Business School at The University of Pennsylvania as well as a BSc in mechanical engineering and a BA in financial economics from The University of Virginia.
Natasha Walker
Startup Success Manager | Process Design Project Manager, Google
Natasha is a Process Design Project Manager on the Strategy and Integration Team supporting Google’s People Operations. In this role, she focuses on driving broad cross-functional teams with greater efficiency and scalability to enable growth. Natasha has an MBA from the University of Chicago - Booth, an MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from Kettering University. Prior to Google, she worked at Disney, managing a project to centralize HR Operations across the Enterprise (from seven distinct business units), and previously supported theme park operations and efficiency in an internal consulting capacity. Natasha has additional experience in Operations consulting (mostly LEAN transformation) at McKinsey & Company and in manufacturing and distribution at Pepperidge Farm and General Motors.
Angelica Bucci
Startup Success Manager | SA360 Agency Account Manager, Google
Angelica has partnered with businesses of all sizes and across verticals to market their solutions using Google's digital marketing platforms. Angelica's background in Google Ads, Analytics, and enterprise solutions, coupled with her collaboration skills, has allowed her to find efficiencies and scale hundreds of businesses. Prior to Google, Angelica worked with startups in various capacities and even started her own clothing business during college.
Drew McKechnie
Startup Success Manager | Customer Success Manager
Drew McKechnie is a certified Professional Cloud Architect and Project Management Professional who specializes in organizational strategic planning, concept visualization and communication, and the application of effective design toward expedited delivery. Before becoming a Customer Success Manager with Google Cloud, Drew spent nearly twenty years in management consulting, providing a broad range of services to US federal agencies, a number of independently owned small businesses, and individual entrepreneurs. He employs modern methodologies — including Design Thinking, Choice Theory, and Behavioral Economics — to focus on user-centered outcomes and data-driven decision making while minimizing cognitive biases.
KC Ayyagari
Startup Success Manager | Specialist Customer Engineer, Infrastructure
KC is a Specialist Customer Engineer specialized in Infrastructure Modernization at Google. Based out of New York, in this role, he focuses on Google cloud and works for enterprise sales teams. Prior to Google, KC worked for Microsoft, IBM, Thomas Reuters, Infosys and he has over 12 years of industry experience. A postgraduate, startup mentor and a trained architect, he has been active in the space of cloud computing for over 9 years and had experience in architecting and designing solutions for large enterprises, startups and State Governments.
Moni Sallam
Technical Anchor Mentor | Customer Engineer, Google Cloud
Love technology, and have been in systems engineering for 5 years now. Also an avid sports fan and ex-soccer player. Always looking to contribute and learn new things.
Dinesh Chahlia
Startup Success Mentor | Engineering Manager, Google Shopping & Trusted Engineering Advisor, GFS
Dinesh loves bringing complex technical ideas to life. Over the last two decades, he has been solving interesting problems for Google, Microsoft, Netflix and early stage startups. Dinesh is a trusted engineering advisor for Google for Startups, mentoring startups across the world.
Taylor M. LaSane
Startup Success Manager | Internal and Executive Communications Manager, Google
Taylor is a strategic communicator and expert brand builder with experience in vendor operations, digital marketing and people management. A trusted-advisor to Google executives, graduate of Howard University’s School of Business and Harvard Business School Online, Taylor is a multi-faceted leader with a passion for helping BIPOC succeed. She's a freelance consultant, foodie and natural hair enthusiast who loves to travel and mentor Black women.
Michael Mckay
Startup Success Manager | Supplier Strategy Lead, Google LLC
Michael is British with 15 years of experience working in Germany. He has nearly 9 years experience with Google with senior roles within a multitude of business areas from Real Estate, Food, Professional Services, Consulting Services and more. He is based out of Boulder, Colorado and in his current role as Supplier Strategy Lead focuses heavily on Business Strategy and more recently Supplier Diversity efforts in the Real Estate space.
Kai Yee Wan
Technical Anchor Mentor | Partner Engineer, Google
Kai Yee an engineer and cross-functional collaborator at the intersection of hardware and software. At Google, he works with manufacturers to conceptualize, design and build Chromebooks. Before that, he worked on embedded software for Nest smart home devices integration with Google Assistant. Kai Yee loves to engage with thoughtful people who care about technology and cool new ways for user interaction.
Sean Williams
Technical Anchor Mentor | Technical Solutions Consultant, Google
Sean has 17 years of experience in information technology, primarily in client-facing roles in public accounting tax technology and API engineering. For the past seven years, he has helped customers achieve their digital transformation by designing and building secure, scalable, robust APIs across retail, banking, healthcare, insurance, and consumer goods industries. He holds a master's in computer science from DePaul in Artificial Intelligence and he loves automating systems to help customers achieve greater efficiency.
Emeka Nwadibia
Startup Success Manager | Strategic Business Development & Product Partnerships Manager
Emeka is a business executive and self described dreamer with experience building and scaling startups from a sales, business development and strategy perspective. Emeka has also had the opportunity to build a new startup/product inside Google's internal incubator, Area 120. When not working Emeka can be found spending time with family, doing outdoor activities or working out.