The meeting starts at 8 am for coffee/networking. The program will begin at 8:30 am. 

Meet and mingle with Pinterest's initial investor, Brian Cohen.  Brian will talk about why he initially invested in Pinterest, where Pinterest is going, why Pinterest has become one of the top social networking sites and he will talk about key campaigns on the site.

 As an investor and entrepreneur mentor, Brian now serves as the Chairman of the New York Angels who has invested over $50 million into more than 70 early stage technology companies.

With the belief that all new products, services and ideas should be easy to discover, find, share and buy, Brian launched the first direct to customer - self-publishing PR news platform called Launch.it in May 2012.

Brian is a founding Board member of Center4, NYC’s first technology accelerator devoted to serving the non-profit community. Center4 is scheduled to open this fall in Hudson Square, New York.

Brian Shawn Cohen is considered one of the fathers of science & technology strategic communications, having founded Technology Solutions, Inc. in 1983.  TSI's client list read like an entrepreneurial Who's Who of startup technology companies in computing, communication, software, education, and entertainment. For more than a decade, Brian maintained a broad strategic communications partnership with Sony & IBM Corporation providing counsel to dozens of their entrepreneurial new technology divisions. Notably, TSI received the Gold CIPRA award in 1998 for the IBM Deep Blue/Gary Kasparov Chess Match concept and communications program. In 1996, TSI was recognized as the #1 fastest growing agency in the United States.  He later sold the company to The McCann Erickson World Group in 1997 and became the Vice Chairman of their technology group.

As a researcher, Brian created Focus Technology, an organization that provided qualitative research and instituted the RPM model of integrated strategic communications providing ultra-competitive technology clients the ability to quickly discover and leverage their key strengths, as well as mitigate their destructive weaknesses.

As a publisher, Brian was a pioneer in the founding of a number of the first computing publications, to include Computer Systems News and InformationWeek Magazine.

Brian is now writing a book for McGraw Hill entitled “What Every Angel Investor Wants You To Know To Raise Money For Billion Dollar Idea”.

As a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award, Brian holds a Masters Degree in Science Communications from Boston University's School of Public Communications and currently serves on the Dean's Board of Directors.