AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders

AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders Sarah Mason

Sarah Mason is the founder and owner of Cape Cod Nail Co., an award-winning nail salon and 21-free nail polish brand inspired by life on Cape Cod. What began as the Cape’s first mobile nail salon in 2016 has grown into a thriving multi-location business known for healthy nail care, exceptional sanitation standards, and a strong sense of community. Sarah is passionate about redefining the nail industry through education, ethical business practices, and products designed to perform without compromising nail health. In addition to leading her growing brand, she is the founder of Colors for Causes, a purpose-driven initiative using nail polish collections to support nonprofits, scholarships, and community impact projects. Known for her honest storytelling, creative marketing, and approachable leadership style, Sarah shares the realities of entrepreneurship, balancing business growth with motherhood, and building a values-driven brand from the ground up on Cape Cod.

AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders Howard Zonder

Howard's entrepreneurial journey spans a career in tech, media, and real estate. After serving as Chief Marketing Officer of a publicly-traded media company, he turned to real estate investing and closed hundreds of transactions. To scale his investing activities, he founded LandSpeed — developing CRMs and pricing tools that became widely popular with land investors across the country. That experience as both a practitioner and a builder gave him a unique lens on what real estate professionals actually need — and earsnax is the answer.

AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders Julie Foster

Julie Foster, is the founder of A New Path Life & Grief Coaching. She helps adults navigate grief, loss, and life’s toughest transitions with a mix of compassion, real-life experience, and practical tools that actually help. Julie has a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling from Bridgewater State University and has spent over 10 years working as a mental health counselor in the substance use disorder treatment field. She’s also a certified Grief Recovery Specialist, an ICF-trained Life Coach, and a certified Grief Educator through David Kessler’s program. Julie’s work is deeply personal. After losing her mother to glioblastoma in 2018, she went on her own healing journey and discovered the grief recovery methods she now teaches to others. Along with her professional background, she also brings more than 23 years of sobriety to the work she does today. She’s passionate about helping people move through grief in a way that feels supportive and empowering. Julie serves on the Women’s Wellness Committee at The JPH Organization in Marshfield and volunteers at Hope Floats Healing & Wellness Center in Kingston, where she co-facilitates a parent loss support group.

AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders Sergei Pull Pustylnikov

Sergei is the founder and CEO of 100XBIO, a Boston-based startup automating cell biology. An immunologist with 20 years of R&D experience, he previously led preclinical research for oncology and mRNA vaccine projects. He believes we cannot accelerate biotech while most lab experiments are still run manually. Sergei is now building a "one-click" benchtop instrument to make life-saving research 10x more efficient and research infrastructure AI-ready. Automating complex workflows is the only path to truly AI-driven biology labs.

AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders Jeff Sigel

Jeff Sigel is passionate about creating better work environments and more fulfilling careers for middle managers everywhere. After over 20 years of corporate experience in top US food manufacturing, grocery retail, and restaurant companies, Jeff coaches mid-level leaders and supports companies looking to empower their middle management teams. He is the author of “The Middle Matters: A Toolkit for Middle Managers.” When not coaching or writing, Jeff is the CEO of Twinning Edge, a company focused on enabling small business growth by leveraging AI, automation, and "digital twins." He speaks and trains mid-to-senior level executives on ways to leverage AI to become more effective and productive people leaders.