Carter Laren

As self-described “radical individualist,” Carter is the co-founder of Gateway, the premier accelerator for startups in the cannabis space. He is also a Director and mentor for the Founder Institute, the world's largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program. Previously, he developed and built the Founder Lab program for seed stage startups and is co-founder of Pitch.Coach. Carter also served as the CEO of Creative Allies and co-founded MOX, an online 24/7 streaming music video network focused on electronic music. With a background in engineering and cryptography, Carter’s first startup experience was at Cryptography Research, where served as the Chief Architect of Content Protection. The company was sold to Rambus in 2011 for $350M. He also co-invented a new content protection technology and drove its adoption as a standard for Blu-ray discs. He led and subsequently sold the business to Rovi in 2007 for $70M. He is the owner of Inara Ventures, through which he both invests in and advises seed-stage startups. He continues to serve on the boards of and advise several startups, including OhMiBod, Creative Allies, Chaperone, Eleven, Lily, 100% Food, and Kangaroo Health. Carter is the kind of nerd who thinks that good grammar is sexy.