Founding Team
AJ Thomas
AJ is a dynamic leader at the intersection of talent, product, and teams, with a passion for leadership, innovation, and accelerating talent. Her diverse experience spans roles in sales, support engineering, product design, and HR at T-Mobile, Adecco, and HP Enterprise, where she scaled teams from startup to post-IPO. In 2010, she co-founded a non-profit organization called Infuse Program Foundation, created to turn at-risk youth into entrepreneurs in nine weeks focused on first generation immigrant and underrepresented youth in East Side San Jose.
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At X, the Moonshot Factory (formerly Google X), AJ was Global Head of Talent Experience, driving transformative strategies and building moonshot teams to tackle the world's toughest challenges. She also fronted X’s rock band, The Groove Factory, and briefly served as a Resident in the Rapid Evaluation Lab, incubating new projects with X's engineers and scientists.
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AJ founded The Troublemaker Lab in 2016, coaching and advising extraordinary founders and teams, and currently leads the CXO Network at A.Team, helping build high-performing teams to create transformative products. An award-winning children's book author, AJ advises startups in Web 3.0, sustainable battery technologies, and the future of work. She lives in the SF Bay Area with her husband and three children.
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Troublemaker Talk:
Ask her about being signed to a record label at 15 and what it's like being a certified pilot.
Founding Team
Queen Cora Coleman
Queen Cora Coleman stands as a powerhouse in the realms of music, entrepreneurship, and advocacy. As an alumni of Howard University, she has cemented her status as an esteemed musician. With an illustrious career, she boasts accolades such as touring and recording with musical icons Prince and Beyoncé, including performances at two of the NFL's "Top 10 Best" Super Bowl Halftime Shows.
Notably, she clinched victory as the only female in 27 years at the Guitar Center's Annual National Drum-Off and has been the drummer for The Black Girls Rock Awards since its inception.
As a leader, Queen Cora has her own line of drumsticks, authored empowerment books for youth, and developed the acclaimed Grooving with the PROS program. Beyond music, her photography adorns albums by artists like India Arie and Joe Sample. Queen Cora extends her influence as the founder of Building Simple, Inc., a shipping container construction firm, and serves on the boards of prestigious institutions like the Howard University Showtime Music Foundation and the National Black Musicians Coalition. Committed to wellness and sustainability, she advocates for health and leads her own lines of RoyalTEA and Royalwear Apparel.
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Troublemaker Talk:
Ask her about her favorite Michael Jackson memory and serving on Howard University's board.
Founding Team
Kat Steinmetz
Kat Steinmetz is an early-stage investor and creative, most recently with Initialized Capital, focused on the Future of Work and Digital Health. She co-led investments, served as a board member, and coached 40+ portfolio founders. Currently, she’s a PeopleTech Partners Advisor and angel investor in multiple startups. With over 15 years as a Talent and Culture executive, Kat has led teams through hyper-growth, IPOs, global scaling, and M&A. She’s held key roles at Burning Man Project, Box, and Stitch Fix, shaping diverse communities and innovative cultures.
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As a creative artist, Kat Steinmetz is best known as the singer behind “Kepi and Kat”, the electronic music duo voted Best Electronic Music Act in the Bay Area two years in a row and signed by InGrooves. Formerly a committee member of the SF chapter of the Recording Academy (Grammys), she's performed at festivals and clubs across the nation and around the world. She’s also a prolific and award-winning makeup artist working with clients such as Sprint, Yahoo, University of Phoenix, S&G Clothing, and Lucent Dossier, and musicians such as tUnE-yArDs, Lucius, Allison Russell and Girlyman. Her work has been published in GQ, British Vogue, 7x7, Glassbook, and Magnet magazines.
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Troublemaker Talk:
Ask her about performing for thousands of people in Ibiza as a top EDM artist.
Founding Team
Monica Pool Knox
Monica has been a tech industry trailblazer and category creator infusing cloud and AI technologies with product, talent, health and human performance. She’s been an executive, investor, advisor, and board member for over 25 years, leading global human capital for some of the world's most iconic brands in tech, media and entertainment including Microsoft, Sony, Twitter, CBS Interactive and ABC/Walt Disney. She is known for redefining boundaries and unlocking the capability of talent through innovation, cutting-edge technology and human centered leadership.
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As a 2x public company CHRO, Monica has a combination of unique experiences having worked in high-performing Fortune 50 companies as well as smaller early and mid stage companies. In addition to digital tech and entertainment, her diverse experiences cut across healthcare, telecommunications and consumer products.​
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Monica invests in, advises, and consults venture funds and pre-IPO tech companies in the US, Ireland, and the UK. She serves as as a board member of Swedish Health Systems and the CNBC Workforce Executive Council.
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Troublemaker Talk:
Ask her about her first screenplay and salsa dancing, preferably in Spanish.
