RobotLab is pleased to host an evening focusing on autonomous vehicles, smart cities and the future of society with Dan Burstein & Rhonda Binda. 

Dan is a partner of Millennium Technology Value Partners. Dan is also a prolific writer of 14 NY Times best selling books about technology trends, global economic issues, and popular culture (see bio below). 

In light of the recent announcement by GM Cruise to begin autonomous testing in Manhattan, Rhonda Binda a leading policy maker and co-founder of Venture Smarter will speak about the future of Smart Cities and New York (see bio below). 

Concluding the evening we will review the role of drones played in helping relief organizations service victims of the recent wave of natural disasters (Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria). In the spirit of the Holidays, we will also have the opportunity to GIVE to UJA in continuing their social services… 

Please note: due to unforeseen circumstances Steve Girsky is unable to attend the RobotLab event, we apologize for any inconvenience. 

Dan Burstein 

Dan Burstein co-founded Millennium Technology Value Partners with Sam Schwerin in 2002. He has been actively involved in many of Millennium’s most important investments including Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), and led the firm’s investment in Twitter (NYSE: TWTR).

Before Millennium, Dan was Senior Advisor at The Blackstone Group, where he worked for 12 years in a variety of capacities. Over the course of his career, he has been a consultant to the CEOs and senior executives of major global corporations including Sony, Toyota, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems.

During the last two decades, Dan has served on more than a dozen public and private company boards. He has also been a forum fellow at the World Economic Forum in Davos and has been honored many times for his books and journalistic work, including awards from the Overseas Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi. He and Sam Schwerin have co-authored several thought-leading articles and white papers on the Direct Secondary Market and the ever-growing, ever-evolving role of alternative liquidity solutions to address the needs of constituents in the venture capital ecosystem.

Dan has made personal venture capital investments since 1983, when he first worked as a consultant in Silicon Valley. He began making institutional venture capital investments in the second half of the 1990s. He articulated and led an investment thesis that focused on early stage companies building backbone infrastructure for the internet and enhancing the security, reliability, and user experience of the web. The small funds he led experienced extraordinary returns available in that time period for this investment thesis.

The New York Times bestselling author of 14 books, Dan has written about technology trends, global economic issues, and popular culture. Among his path-breaking books are Yen! a 1988 global bestseller about the rise of Japanese financial power; Road Warriors, a 1995 book about the birth of digital media and the internet; Big Dragon, a 1998 book about China’s future; Secrets of the Code, a 2004 guidebook to the Da Vinci Code that was on the New York Times bestseller list for six months; Blog!a pioneering 2005 book about the birth of social media; and Secrets of 24, about the political, moral, and technological issues in the TV series “24.” His 2011 book, THE TATTOOED GIRL: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of our Time, was nominated for the prestigious Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His l most recent book is Secrets of Inferno: In the Footsteps of Dante and Dan Brown (2013). His books have been published in 33 languages and several have been turned into documentary films. He is a frequent speaker at venture capital events and is often asked to help judge venture capital competitions. He has made numerous TV appearances on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, the History Channel, and Charlie Rose and has written more than a thousand articles for well-known magazines and newspapers.

Actively involved in several community initiatives in Connecticut where he lives, Dan was a founding Board member of the Weston Education Foundation and served on the Advisory Board for the Westport Youth Film Festival (WYFF) from its inception in 2004 to 2011. He was honored with WYFF’s Founder’s Award for his community service.

AlwaysOn has named Dan to its lists of the “Power Players” in New York’s venture capital community, the top 100 Power Players in Digital Media, and the top venture capitalists in the U.S.

Rhonda Binda 

Rhonda Binda is VP Policy for Venture Smarter and serves as the Executive Director of Regional Smart Cities Initiatives. She formerly served as Deputy Director for the U.S. Department of State’s Global Intergovernmental Affairs Division in the Office of the Secretary, and in the West Wing of the White House under two administrations, respectively. In between her tours with the government, Rhonda practiced technology and telecommunications law with Alston & Bird, LLP. 

Binda most recently served as the Executive Director of the Jamaica Center Business Improvement District. Binda revitalized downtown by leveraging the 3-Ts strategy: technology, transportation and tourism. In 2016 Jamaica was named #1 hottest neighborhood in NYC (WSJ) and was winner of the NYC Small Business Services Neighborhood Challenge Grant (SBS). Governor Cuomo also awarded Jamaica $10 million for downtown revitalization in 2016, the #1 prize state-wide. She advocated for digital inclusion so that the majority of the Governor’s award was allocated to closing the digital divide in downtown Jamaica, Queens for its over 300+ businesses.

Binda is graduate of Duke University, Georgetown University Law Center and is a Lord Rothermere Scholar of New College, Oxford University. She is from and lives in New York City.