Meet the Team

Arsh Haque, Director

Arsh is a national-award-winning founder, coach, and storyteller. They have founded four startups (which have been accepted into top accelerators like Techstars and Coca Cola), built masters-level courses & taught alongside instructors from Stanford’s d.school, and coached thought leaders on how to deliver Talks at TED. They hold a JD from the University of Southern California and a Master of Public Policy from the Paris Institute of Political Studies. They also have extensive experience in DEI rooted in lived experience, formal academic study, and practice.

Christelle Sheldon, Assistant Director

Christelle grew up in the Chicago area where she earned her B.A in Political Science and her Ed.M. in Global Studies in Education. She has been passionately involved in higher education for over a decade, serving in various capacities and departments for both traditional and online universities as well as for an educational startup. She appreciates the strength and value of community and has been fortunate to meet and interact with so many wonderful people throughout her career and, most recently, after two years of traveling the country with her husband in their camper. Christelle is new to both Portland and to PSU and is very excited to work with the innovative PSBA community!

Entrepreneurs-in-Residence

The PSBA Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program offers the PSBA community access to seasoned entrepreneurs with a wide breadth and depth of experience. EIRs meet one-on-one with members of the PSBA community and provide guidance, advice, and connections.

Ross Barbieri is an accomplished tech entrepreneur having started several successful tech startups in PDX. Beginning in 2003 as co-founder and CTO of Shiftwise which sold to a publicly-traded company in 2013. He then went on as co-founder and CTO of Staffing Robot, which provided software and services to the staffing industry. Ross also started and sold a customer service oriented software startup called Hively which received early stage funding from the Portland Seed Fund I. Ross is currently Founder and CTO of Toolbelt, which is an exciting new venture for the residential construction industry. Being a lover of Portland, his civic engagement includes serving on the BoD of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony and volunteer work for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. Ross lives with his family in SW Portland - Hillsdale.

Mentoring Areas:

Early-stage startups (idea, seed, series A)

• Funding/Pitch advice
• Networking
• Corporate structure and general business advice
• Problem-solving

SaaS (Software as a Service)

• Business applications
• Systems integrations
• Staffing systems and job boards

Angela Jackson is co-founder and managing director of the Portland Seed Fund, a top-performing private/public seed fund with 4 funds/$24 Million under management. The Fund has invested in ~100 high growth, capital-efficient companies in sectors including technology, energy, health and consumer product, primarily in the Northwest. Since 2011, the portfolio has realized numerous accretive exits while achieving stellar metrics for place-based investing/economic impact and backing diverse teams. Ms. Jackson has also shaped PSU's innovation and entrepreneurship presence in the State for the past nine years, most visibly through its award-winning Business Accelerator and signature student invention competitions. 

Angela recently became a venture partner in Portfolia, a new women-led investing model based in San Francisco and investing nationally. Earlier in her career, Ms. Jackson was a founding investor in Oregon Angel Fund and advised/invested in companies in multiple sectors, leading to several of the largest liquidity events in the region. She was a president of the Portland chapter of Keiretsu Forum, a Principal at Emergent Fund, and served as Chair of Angel Oregon, a premier angel investment competition. She was named 2018 Tech Champion of the Year by Technology Association of Oregon, and a Woman of Influence in 2015 by Portland Business Journal, and was a delegate to the US State Department's Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India. She serves on the boards of Lumen Learning, the Oregon Film Board and the Angel Capital Association, and is a frequent judge/mentor for entrepreneur pitch competitions locally and globally. Ms. Jackson credits her serial entrepreneur family history with her comfort in the trenches of early-stage entrepreneurship and investment. She holds a B.A. in English and history from Boston University and an M.A. in environmental studies from the University of Oregon.

Mentoring Areas:

• Fundraising (angel and venture)
• Leadership
• People (conflict, restructuring, etc.)
• Sales/marketing

Mentors

The Accelerator team recruits and matches skilled mentors to company needs, from fundraising to supply chain to go-to-market. To be considered to be a company mentor, submit this Mentor Application. Mentor selection is a competitive process driven by current company needs.