Nelly Yusupova

A founder with a strong idea and no engineering background still has to make the technical calls, starting with who builds the product and what it should cost. Nelly Yusupova has spent more than twenty years making those calls as a technology leader, and as a fractional CTO/CPO she now makes them alongside founders. She helps founders and businesses cut costs and reach product-market fit faster, then scale with AI.

Her teaching comes out of that work. She created TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs, which pairs a self-paced bootcamp with an expert-guided 12-week tech accelerator for nontechnical startup founders. She also created Automate How Work Gets Done with AI Agents, a six-week live training that shows nontechnical professionals how to use AI to streamline operations and get more leverage out of their own work.

She mentors founders through Techstars, Founder Institute, StartOut, WEVE Acceleration, DigitalUndivided, and other programs. Fast Company named her to its “League of Extraordinary Women,” and The Wall Street Journal put her on its “Women on the IT Fast Track” list. She has been at the forefront of the women’s movement online since 1997.

Fluent Enough to Decide

Both programs rest on the same premise. A founder can lead a technology company without writing its code, provided they understand it well enough to judge a plan or a hire. Yusupova applies that premise to AI as well. A nontechnical professional can get real work out of AI agents once they know what the tools do well and where in the day to put them.

The person making the decisions should understand what is being built.

Background

• More than twenty years leading companies to technical excellence
• Creator of TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs and Automate How Work Gets Done with AI Agents
• Mentor for Techstars, Founder Institute, StartOut, WEVE Acceleration, and DigitalUndivided
• Named to Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women” and The Wall Street Journal’s “Women on the IT Fast Track”
• Speaker for the HBS Women’s Association, Columbia University, Sloss.Tech, Founder Institute, WeWork Labs, and GSV Bootcamp, among others
• Featured in Inc., Fast Company, NBC’s Today show, O’Reilly, TechRepublic, and SmartMoney

At the Summit

Yusupova joins the 2027 lineup. Session title and format to be announced.