HeyVail

Co-founder of the AI revenue partner that you always wish you had. :D

Co-Founder

Meetball

GTM Marketing advisory. Occasional spotlighting as Head T-Shirt Boy.

Marketing & GTM Advisor

SwipeSwipe

Advisor on marketing, GTM, positioning, and copy for a Founder Institute graduate startup

Advisor

CrowdTamers

Crowdtamers grows startups from $0 to $2MM+ ARR. As founder & CEO of CrowdTamers, I've taken 12 startups to $2MM+ ARR, each in under 18 months. We've launched 50+ startups, mentored more than 200, and taught branding, positioning, and growth to nearly a thousand through organizations like Founder Institute, StartupHub, and more.

Founder & CEO

MantaBond

Part of the cofounding group that is the super group of founders known as MantaBond. Scaling is hard. Get a suite of C-level execs to help.

Ended this role with merging MantaBond into Crowdtamers to make CrowdTamers Automation and CrowdTamers Content Engine teams.

Chief Mustache Officer

Indivity

Co-founder of Indivity.io, a solution that integrates data about people across software.

Co-founder & CEO

Unito - Unite your tools & work better. Together!

Evangelist, enthusiast, and encourager. Marketing, customer success, & revenue visionary. Chief Mustache Officer. Key accomplishments:

• First non-tech hire; led business recruiting efforts to grow team to 8 in 10 months.
• Built and ran CSM team from scratch, achieving CSAT of 95% average over 9 months & NPS 33
• Created entire pricing & revenue funnel from scratch, growing to $90,000 MRR in 18 months
• Drove business sector of company to help attract & land seed round of $2MM

BeeTrip.io

Co-founded BeeTrip, a better way to manage business travel expenses. Recruited and hired team up to 8, self-funded development with other co-founders, created first full UX & UI, led creation of MVP, found first 5 customers, and led drive to fundraise. Sadly, ran out of money & time and had to close shop before getting enough traction to get seed investment.

Kontakt.io, Inc.

While serving as the Head of Marketing for Kontakt.io's huge growth year of 2015, I was also asked to serve as interim head of product to help solve problems with the team's ability to ship new products; they'd launched the Cloud Beacon and the Tough Beacon in 2015 and had not had another key product launch since. Taking over in July 2015, I served as Head of Product alongside being Head of Marketing until, in December 2015, I concentrated solely on the Product role.

Key achievements:
* Increased key launch velocity over 600%, launching a key product every month in January - June 2016
* Built 1 and 2 year product roadmaps and achieved 80% win rate on hitting target release dates.
* Created cross-functional scrum teams that aligned the whole company (engineering, software, marketing, and sales) around product and gave the entire company complete knowledge of our roadmap.

Head of Product

I joined Kontakt.io in a newly-created role of Head of Marketing, and built up the marketing team there from scratch to a group of 7 high-achievers. While I was Head of Marketing, the marketing team was instrumental in: seeing the company through a landmark year of growth, securing a series B round of funding, and establishing a strong company brand and story.

Key achievements in 2015:
* Grew lead captures from 100 a month to over 1,000 a month through content marketing and SEO
* Launched 9 events in 7 cities in 6 months, driving 20% of the company's volume of units sold in 2015 for under $75,000 in event marketing budget.
* Oversaw growth of company sales volume to #1 in the market, an achievement that ABI Research noted and found a "surprising" achievement, with 500,000 units sold in 2015.

Head of Marketing & PR

GOG.com

I joined GOG.com when in the newly-created head of Marketing & PR role when it was a scrappy startup and I was the 16th employee. When I left, they had over 70 employees, were #1 in the classic gaming market segment with over 75% of the market, and had increased revenues over 1,000% from 2010 to 2014. 

Key achievements:
* Grew user base from 250,000 to over 4 million in 4 years; MAUs from 1,000 to over 10,000.
* Organized award-winning tradeshow at PAX; also organized profitable events at E3, Gamescom, GDC and others.
* Front page of Reddit 9 times; front page placement in key trade media at least once a quarter; organic site traffic from social and press sources increased 430% in 4 years. 
* Successfully repositioned brand from niche classic games distributor to leading independent games distributor with ~50% market share on indie games.
* Created high-achieving marketing & PR team of 11 from scratch & had 90%+ employee retention from 2010 - 2014.

Head of PR & Marketing

I build million-dollar marketing engines. 15x from $0 to $3MM+ ARR so far. Founder @CrowdTamers

I launch 🚀 startups. 15x from $0 to $2MM+ ARR so far, founder @CrowdTamers. CrowdTamer, leader, and growth content marketing thinker.  FI Mentor since 2017; my mission is to help 1,000 founders make >$1MM in annual revenue.

Check out my blog at http://crowdtamers.com/blog to read about how. ;)

Key achievements:
* Oversaw growth of 15 companies to grow them from $0 to $3MM+ in annual revenue
* Built 12 high-achieving international teams of marketers from scratch at different companies
* Generated more than $50MM in revenue for companies I've lead marketing & revenue at

Specialties: senior management, management, product portfolio management, public speaking, PR, online marketing, marketing planning, team leadership, writing, and video games.

Trevor Longino

Geek Ventures

Geek Ventures drives equal opportunity for visionary immigrant entrepreneurs (to the U.S.) through capital and connections

Pitch Us: https://geek.vc/pitch

Associate

Hustle Fund

• Recruited new members to Angel Squad; learn more here: https://go.angelsquad.co/gBiU
• Sourced Pre-seed B2B SaaS startups, evaluated pitch decks, crafted questions to ask founders, and set up pitch calls with founders
• Attended pitch events, deal reviews, and sector deep dives
• Networked with investors, operators, early-stage founders, and ecosystem builders

Angel Squad Ambassador & Member

MassChallenge

• Selected as the Top 2024-2025 MassChallenge VIP Ambassador
• Showcased my thought leadership and grew my personal brand by crafting LinkedIn posts about MassChallenge 
• Attended MassChallenge events and conferences
• Networked with investors, operators, early-stage founders, ecosystem builders, and influential speakers
• Recruited two professionals to apply to be a VIP Ambassador

VIP Ambassador

Sputnik ATX VC

• Sourced startups for the Sputnik ATX VC S24 Cohort: evaluated pitch decks, crafted questions to ask founders, set up pitch calls with founders, and held office hours for founders to answer frequently asked questions
• Provided hands-on support to two Sputnik ATX VC portfolio companies:
 - Coordinated the fundraising process for a Sputnik ATX VC portfolio company: researched 238 VCs to determine their level of strategic fit, crafted targeted outreach to the relevant VCs, and generated leads, which led to 63 meetings between me and other VCs; 14 of which took an introductory call with the Sputnik ATX VC portfolio company
 - Evaluated the existing fundraising process for a different Sputnik ATX VC portfolio company and offered areas for improvement
  - Researched techniques for both portfolio company founders to improve their communication skills
• Evaluated existing social media content, videos, and copy and brainstormed new ideas, crafted LinkedIn copy, and researched top-performing LinkedIn hashtags, resulting in a 285% increase in impressions from the previous 10 months
• Promoted the Sputnik ATX VC S24 Cohort application:
  - Researched 52 potential partners, crafted targeted outreach to these partners, and generated leads, which led to 20 meetings; 8 resulted in completed partnerships and 7 resulted in partnerships in progress
  - Crafted two LinkedIn posts promoting our application on my LinkedIn: 1) generate interest (4,146 impressions, 72 reactions, and 3 comments) and 2) announce the launch (6,452 impressions, 85 reactions, 19 comments and 5 reposts)
  - Posted in 21 startup and VC networking groups 
• Built a relationship with the organizers of the Texas Venture Gala and Forum, which led me to securing Sputnik ATX VC as a Founding Sponsor for the Inaugural Texas Venture Gala and Forum, as well as our Managing Partner and I both being invited to be Founding Speakers

Venture Fellow

Dash VC

• Crafted deal memos, attended founder and LP calls, enriched Dash VC's LP data on Decile Hub, and suggested product improvements to enhance the functionality of Decile Hub

Venture Analyst

Pegasus Angel Accelerator

• Sourced industry-agnostic pre-seed and seed U.S. based startups with a valuation cap of $3.5m

Venture Scout

Boss Me In

• Provided feedback on Boss Me In’s pitch deck, provided advice on fundraising (including organizing 2 pitch practice sessions to prepare for investor pitches), wrote an executive summary, and suggested new ideas for the startup
•  Placed a recent college graduate at Boss Me In for the Special Projects role

VC Advisor

Venturous

• Sourced 400+ industry agnostic idea stage, pre-seed, seed, and Series A U.S.-based startups and onboarded 70 founders onto the Venturous platform, earning me the distinction as the #1 performer for my cohort
• Laid out the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Austin to help others navigate it
• Developed key relationships with founders, VCs, students, and other members of the startup and VC community in Austin

Venture Fellow, Inaugural Cohort

Able Partners

• Selected as 1 of 12 national board members to serve as an expert on all things Gen Z and surfaced ideas, articles, and content from Twitter, Instagram, and other emerging platforms identifying trends, themes, and specific startups building for Gen Z
• Supported due diligence on investment opportunities within Able Partners’ Gen Z thematic focus area
• Acted as a liaison between Able Partners’ investment team and the broader Gen Z community to help them grow their network, meet entrepreneurs, and connect with relevant startups

Inaugural Gen Z Advisory Board Member

Venture Institute

Not only was I part of the 10% of people who were accepted into the Inaugural Cohort of the Venture Institute program, but I also completed the program at the top of my cohort. As a result of my hard work, I was selected to work with Dash VC to gain additional VC experience.

The first half of Venture Institute was focused on individual learning, where I:
1️⃣ Researched the benefits and risks of venture capital, the role of venture capital in startups, the investment process and stages of venture capital, venture capital structures, key metrics (e.g. IRR, TVPI, DPI) in venture capital, how to discover limited partners based on their archetypes, and how to pitch to limited partners
2️⃣ Researched and crafted an investment memo for Boss Me In
3️⃣ Learned how to use Decile Hub, the leading venture capital platform
4️⃣ Developed a data room for a hypothetical institutional limited partner
5️⃣ Researched best practices for a venture fund model, such as the failure rate of investments, and implemented these practices into a hypothetical venture fund model
6️⃣ Crafted a plan to build my venture brand and updated my LinkedIn to reflect my branding and vision
7️⃣ Became fluent in essential venture capital terminology

The second half of Venture Institute was focused on group learning, where I:
1️⃣ Sourced and evaluated 3 startups for our assigned VC firm
2️⃣ Crafted a concise email to our assigned VC firm that highlighted our combined team skills, the top 3 startups we sourced as a group, and our group recommendations on how our assigned VC firm could improve their deal tracking
3️⃣ Collaborated with my group to evaluate a cap table with 3 co-founders, multiple funding rounds, and an employee option pool that adjusts with each funding round and the growth of the team
4️⃣ Researched successful government VC initiatives in Texas for my group's venture research project on successful government VC initiatives in the United States

Inaugural Cohort

Asset Management | Startups & Venture Capital | NTX Inno Under 25 | SkillsUSA Past National Officer & National Champion |

Sarah Romanko is an Associate at Geek Ventures, focusing on deal sourcing, screening, and conducting in-depth analyses of prospective startups. Geek Ventures drives equal opportunity for visionary immigrant entrepreneurs (to the U.S.) through capital and connections. Pitch Us: https://geek.vc/pitch

Before joining Geek Ventures, Sarah gained experience at several different early-stage VC firms, where she focused on 1) building relationships with VCs, founders, and community builders, 2) sourcing and evaluating startups, and 3) performing due diligence. She's also worked for several startups, including Bulletpitch and WingDriver (Techstars '23).

She's very active in the startup and VC community, and served as the Chief of Staff, member of the investor Committee, and a Founding Speaker for the Inaugural Texas Venture Gala and Forum, as well as a SXSW 2024, 2025, and 2026 Conference PanelPicker Evaluator. On top of this, she's had 60+ speaking engagements on pitching, funding and investing, selecting a viable startup to invest in, and obtaining experience in VC. 

Drawing on her industry experience, she served as a guest judge for one section of the University of Texas at Dallas Jindal School of Management's undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship class, where she judged final student pitches. She also served as a Finalist Judge for the Global Summer Marketing Challenge (GSMC) 2023, served as a judge for the 2024 McNeil High School Mock DECA Competition, served as a judge at the 50th, 51st, 52nd, and 53rd Edition of GGW Sharks, and served as a judge for the 2025 Stony Point High School Mock DECA Competition. Most recently, she served as a judge for the 2025 Texas DECA District 5 Competition (where she evaluated students' written plans and oral presentations in the Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan Competition), served as a judge for the 2025 Startup Grind Global Pitch Battle - Austin (where she judged 10 startups, with the winner moving on to the North American Semi-Final), served as a judge for the HubSpot X Literally Helping Startups⚡Flash Pitch Competition, and served as a judge for Startup Grind’s StartupMania Pitch Competition in Miami.

Outside of her professional pursuits, Sarah loves spending time with her family, friends, and fiancé. She also enjoys going to the arcade. An arcade master, she taught herself how to win countless stuffed animals from crane games by watching YouTube videos.

Sarah Romanko

Applications are open for the Startup Innovation Showcase at TechCon SouthWest 2026 in Austin, TX on February 12-13, 2026!

This premier event will highlight breakthroughs across sectors like AI, digital health, life sciences, semiconductors, transportation, ConsumerTech, FinTech, SaaS, sustainability, and DeepTech.

As part of the showcase, selected companies will:
• Pitch live to 100+ investors, corporate innovation teams and angels
• Receive complimentary access and exhibition space at TechCon SouthWest
• Be personally matched with investors aligned to their market and stage

If you’re a startup with strong innovation, traction and ambition - this is your moment. Don’t miss out.

Learn more (https://lnkd.in/gh6iA3gf) and apply here (https://lnkd.in/gUKrDMmh)!

Geek Ventures, Faisal Mushtaq, Nikos Iatropoulos, IA Global Ventures, Chris Garabedian, Xontogeny, Jonathan Hung, Entrepreneur Ventures, Sabari Raja, JFFVentures, Susan Akbarpour, Candou Ventures, Dr. Kyle Hoedebecke, 1836 Ventures, Aaron Perman, S3 Ventures, Ernie B., Forgepoint Capital, Yousuf Khan, Ridge Ventures

#VentureCapital #Startups #Austin #PitchCompetition #Founders

Venture Capital @ Geek Ventures | Investing in Immigrant Founders

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The Battle

Trevor Longino

Sarah Romanko

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The Battle

Trevor Longino

Sarah Romanko

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sarah Romanko's LinkedIn Performance

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