Enhancing Startup Ecosystem Performance

Data-driven insights provide local innovation policy leaders clarity, momentum, and a strategy to help them focus their actions
Startup Genome is the world-leading policy advisory and research organization for public and private organizations committed to accelerating the success of their startup ecosystem. We have advised more than 157 clients across six continents in 55+ countries to date. Our impact is rooted in over a decade of independent research with data on three million companies across 280 cities.


Core Team

Our team brings together a combination of entrepreneurs, policy experts, data scientists, and community builders from all corners of the world.

JF Gauthier

Founder & CEO

Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Startup Genome. He is the world’s leading voice in innovation ecosystem development, having advised more than 100 governments and private-public partnerships across 35 countries.

He has founded five businesses and led others across two continents and three sectors (Tech, Life Sciences and Cleantech), achieving two exits plus one at scaleup stage. He is also an active angel investor and previously worked in corporate innovation, advising IBM, Cisco, Agilent/HP, J&J, and Abbott for the firm of Kim Clark (former dean of Harvard Business School) alongside Clayton Christensen and other thought leaders. Harvard MBA.

Marc Penzel

Founder & President
Marc leads global growth and impact. He advises governments, scientific organizations and venture backed startups alike and is an appointed Expert in Entrepreneurship, IT and Future of Economic Progress by the World Economic Forum. 

Prior to founding Startup Genome, he co-led the startup ecosystem development unit at Silicon Valley-based Startup Compass (acquired by Sage). At PwC, KPMG, and Bayer Group’s internal management consultancy, Marc advised business executives across various sectors. He also founded a nonprofit organization to catalyze social innovation.

Stephan Kuester

Head of Ecosystem Strategy

Stephan works with clients in government and private industry consortia all around the world, advising on the creation and the acceleration of tech and innovation clusters. Prior to his role at Startup Genome, Stephan headed up the International Consulting practice at UK ecosystem agency Tech Nation (fka Tech City UK) in London and served as Managing Director of digitalswitzerland.

Previous to his work in the digital ecosystems space, Stephan worked as an executive director for professional services firms Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. Stephan holds an MSc in Economics and studied at the University of Bonn, Germany and the London School of Economics (LSE).

Tricia Naik

Chief Operating Officer

Tricia runs operations and content at Startup Genome. Most recently she led communications and marketing at the BridgeCommunity corporate commercialization accelerator and helped Georgia State University expand their entrepreneurial efforts through opening an incubator and building a resource directory. 

Tricia previously served as the Director of Marketing at TechSquare Labs incubator and seed fund and kickstarted Hypepotamus as a publication — the largest tech blog in the Southeast U.S.

Dr. Christopher Haley

Head of Research

Chris is Head of Research at Startup Genome. He was formerly head of new technology and startup research at Nesta, the Innovation foundation, and, prior to that, worked for several years in university technology transfer and enterprise strategy. 

Chris has advisory roles with the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship, the UK Intellectual Property Office and the ScaleUp Institute. He is a 'Startup Europe' Ambassador, a Policy Fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge, and a Senior Fellow at the Global Entrepreneurship Network. He also consults as a Senior Entrepreneurship Strategy Specialist at The World Bank. Chris previously helped run the Startup Europe Partnership - a pan-European programme dedicated to promoting corporate-startup collaboration - and was part of the secretariat of the European Digital Forum, dedicated to helping digital startups scale across Europe.

Adam Bregu

Director of Business Development & Partnerships

Adam is focused on the growth and impact of Startup Genome’s acceleration and development globally. Previously, he worked in both the public and private sector across Australia and Europe, including Milan Government, European startup ecosystem projects, tech startups, as well as consulting. 

A strong education and research background from The University of Melbourne and Double Masters from Bocconi University lead to his passionate research on the analysis, mapping, and development of startup ecosystems.

Hazel Boydell

Editor-in-Chief

Hazel leads the content team to create our Global Startup Ecosystem Report and other publications.

An experienced editor, she studied journalism and English before completing Columbia University's publishing course. After working in independent trade book publishing for many years, she moved into the world of entrepreneurship as Startup Guide's Editor-in-Chief before joining Startup Genome.


Rahul Chatterjee

Director, Global Operations and Managing Director, Delhi

Rahul's primary focus is to ensure operational efficiency at Startup Genome, and he is also tasked with building and managing a knowledge hub in India. In a career spanning 18 years, Rahul has had varied experience spanning policy research, strategy consulting, business development, sales operations, and team building. 

His wealth of experience is drawn from companies ranging from the global Fortune 500 to national chambers of commerce to tech startups.

Pranav Arya

Director, Ecosystem Strategy

Pranav supports assessment and strategy formulation for ecosystems across the world. He works extensively with Startup Genome’s members and partners to drive the largest data collection project on startup ecosystems globally. Previously, Pranav was a Research Analyst at A.T. Kearney and supported the firm’s Private Equity and M&A practice. 

He has worked on projects spanning investment strategy development, due diligence, target screening, and synergy optimization.

Parshant Sharma

Data Science Lead

Parshant has been in data analysis for the past 10 years, 6 of which have been in Startup Genome’s Data Science team. He leads the team responsible for the quantitative data infrastructure and analysis. This includes data on over 3 million companies, 280+ ecosystems, and survey data from more than 100,000 startup executives across the globe.

He brings a wealth of experience in working on GSER rankings and Ecosystem Assessments to the role. Prior to Startup Genome, Parshant had a Data Analytics role in a California based SaaS company.

Sama Siddiqui

Member Relationship Lead

Sama is the primary liaison between Startup Genome and the Members, and works closely with the implementation teams to ensure all deliverables are on track. She is the point person managing queries and connecting Members to one another to build a strong, integrated network of ecosystem developers. 

Previously, as part of the Research team she provided research, analytical, and communication support across multiple projects including the production and launch of the annual Global Startup Ecosystem Reports.

Forrest Wright

Research Assessment Lead

Prior to joining Startup Genome, Forrest worked as the Data Manager at the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), where he was responsible for data analysis, survey development, and content generation.

Forrest holds a MS degree in Information Science from Drexel University.

Ethan Webster

Manager, Ecosystem Research and Strategy

Ethan specializes in offering key insights and recommendations for governments and ecosystems globally. He closely engages with our clients to produce relevant and actionable policy roadmaps. 

Prior to joining Startup Genome, Ethan worked with the ESCP Business School studying startup ecosystem creation and success factors and holds a MA from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. He has also worked with Scottish Parliament, US Congress and the Texas House of Representatives specializing in multilevel governance and international trade and finance.

Marina Krizman

Senior Business Development Specialist

Prior to joining Startup Genome, Marina was part of various marketing agencies and early stage and scaling startups, helping win over and gain insights into customers.

Marina acquired and managed accounts for over 100 companies and co-founded a small video production company.



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Our data shows that collaboration is at the core of the fastest growing startup ecosystems. We work with organizations who understand that joining the global startup economy is key to driving innovation and spurring economic growth.