ACG NJ Breakfast Meeting | Deals Start Here: Inside NJ’s Innovation Infrastructure | April 21, 2026

Deals Start Here: Inside NJ’s Innovation Infrastructure

How venture capital, government investment, and founder-focused innovation hubs are producing the next generation of acquisition targets and investment opportunities.

New Jersey is no longer flying under the radar. It's rapidly becoming a hotbed for early-stage innovation, where venture-backed companies, innovative founders and government-funded accelerators as well as corporate partnerships are fueling a powerful new deal pipeline.

This panel will offer insights from founders, VC funds, NJ government startup development ecosystems and early-stage focused attorneys and risk management professionals for a strategic look at how the businesses being built in NJ today are becoming the acquisition targets, clients, and investment opportunities of tomorrow.

Whether you advise, invest in, acquire, or support high-growth companies… this discussion will help you orient yourself in the NJ early-stage business ecosystem.

Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at how NJ’s innovation infrastructure is evolving, and what service providers, investors, and M&A leaders need to know to stay ahead of the curve.

Featured Panelists include:
Vaughn Crowe, Managing Partner, nvp capital
Lexie Demirali, Senior Venture Officer, NJEDA
Kwasi Kyei, Co-Founder and President, Handspring Health
Derrick Maultsby Jr., Managing Associate Attorney, FBT Gibbons
Moderator, Yelena Dunaevsky, Senior Vice President, Woodruff Sawyer, a Gallagher Company

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear directly from the leaders shaping NJ’s innovation economy — and discover how to position yourself for the deals already taking shape.

Meet the Panel

Image

Vaughn Crowe, Managing Partner, nvp capital
Vaughn Crowe is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of nvp capital, where he leads direct investments across the firm’s core themes in B2B software and vertical AI. With a career spanning operational leadership and venture investing, Vaughn is known for building long-term partnerships with founders from the earliest stages through scale.

Before launching nvp, Vaughn was Managing Director at Wesray, the family office of Ray Chambers, where he invested across seed, growth, and buyout stages and helped seed several notable PE and VC firms. He also served as Executive Chair of a $300M consumer products company, leading key operational and strategic initiatives. Earlier in his career, Vaughn worked at Chubb Insurance as a property and casualty underwriter and marketing manager.

Vaughn serves as Vice Chair of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, part of RWJBarnabas Health, and sits on several boards, including, Toothio, Handspring Health, Ryse Marketplace, and Workgrounds. He holds a BA in Political Science from Colgate University, where he played football (Go ‘Gate!) and attended Harvard Business School.

Image

Lexie Demirali, Senior Venture Officer, New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA)
Lexie Demirali is a seasoned finance professional with a specialized focus on angel, venture and private equity markets, catering to investors, fund managers, and entrepreneurs. Her expertise encompasses the life sciences, healthcare, and technology sectors, with a strong commitment to supporting women-led enterprises. Lexie excels in connecting investors with entrepreneurs, working closely with angel investors, venture capitalists, and private equity funds to deliver innovative products and facilitate strategic partnerships.

With a proven track record in business development, sales, and growth strategy formulation, Lexie has successfully marketed advanced technology solutions to both the financial and pharmaceutical sectors, addressing complex enterprise challenges. Her diverse experience also includes selling fixed-income products to institutional investors and spearheading business development initiatives at law and consulting firms. Her extensive background in management and sales enables her to consistently achieve outstanding results.

Lexie holds a degree in Economics from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Northeastern University, further reinforcing her expertise in business and strategic thinking.

Image

Kwasi Kyei, Co-founder and President, Handspring Health
Kwasi Kyei is Co-founder and President of Handspring Health, a pediatric mental health care company that delivers full-spectrum support, with a focus on moderate to high-acuity needs.

He brings close to 15 years of experience across healthcare venture capital, strategy, and corporate development. Before founding Handspring, Kwasi was an investor at Blue Venture Fund and Cigna Ventures, where he invested in and supported healthcare startups including Solera Health, Cleerly Health, AbleTo, Datavant, Ginger (now Headspace), Emids Health, Octave Health, and others.

Earlier in his career, he worked in healthcare investment banking at UBS and in corporate development at the Advisory Board (now part of Optum). Kwasi holds a BA in Economics with honors from Davidson College and an MBA from Yale University.

Image

Derrick Maultsby Jr., Managing Associate Attorney, FBT Gibbons
Derrick L. Maultsby Jr. is a Managing Associate Attorney at FBT Gibbons LLP where he is a member of the Private Equity & Venture, Data Digital Assets & Technology, and Corporate practice groups. Derrick serves as a key advisor and outside general counsel to venture backed companies, venture capital funds, privately held businesses, and private equity firms, as well as a technology transactions advisor to enterprise businesses. Derrick has been invited to speak on various topics at the intersection of the law, venture capital, and technology at Legalweek New York, Brown University’s Nelson Center of Entrepreneurship, University of Dayton School of Law, Minority Innovation Weekend, FounderX Global Summit, Howard University School of Law, SXSW and Black Tech Week, amongst others. Derrick is also the founder of the Maultsby Accelerator and Micro-Grant Competition at Robert Morris University. Aside from his practice, Derrick is also committed to creating a more equitable and inclusive environment within his law firm through serving on the firm's Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee and through his diversity scholarship funds at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Duquesne University School of Law. Derrick has garnered national attention and recognition for his work both in the legal industry, venture industry, and his community, such as being named a 2021 Trailblazer in the Law by the American Lawyer Magazine, Pittsburgh 30under30 by the Pittsburgh Business Times in 2021, a Lawyer on the Fast Track by the Legal Intelligencer in 2022, received a 2023 Young Alumni Award from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2023, named a Duke of the Last Decade by Duquesne University in 2023, chosen for the Sheila S. Boston Excellence Award by the National Bar Association in 2023, and was named 40 under 40 by the New Pittsburgh Courier and by the Pittsburgh Magazine, respectively, in 2025.

Image

Moderator, Yelena Dunaevsky, Senior Vice President, Woodruff Sawyer, a Gallagher Company
Experienced complex commercial insurance broker and former securities and M&A attorney with over 20 years of experience in law and insurance, Yelena advises clients on M&A- and IPO-related insurance solutions, including representations and warranties insurance (RWI) and D&O insurance for public companies and SPACs.

Yelena is a frequent speaker and author and has been featured in many publications including S&P Global, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, Investment News Today, Business Law Today, Law360, CFO.com, Business Journal, Deal Flow and Bloomberg.

She is the M&A Executive Editor of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Today and the Executive Editor of the SPAC Notebook, a blog series that covers SPACs and SPAC risks.

In 2022, Yelena was named in Insurance Business America's "Hot 100," which lists top professionals whose contributions have helped shape the insurance industry. Yelena also received the JD Supra “Readers’ Choice” and “Top Read Article” Awards for her M&A articles in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Prior to Woodruff Sawyer, Yelena practiced as a senior capital markets associate at Clifford Chance and a corporate/M&A associate at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae (later Dewey & LeBoeuf) and earned her BS in Economics from Cornell University and her JD from Fordham University School of Law.