Maria Velissaris

Mrs. Velissaris is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She is the Founding Partner of SteelSky Ventures LLC, which provides consulting and capital raising services for female-led companies. She founded her first business, Wakeboxes in 2000, which became Collegeboxes and was later acquired by Uhaul. Mrs. Velissaris started her career as a technology strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and throughout her 18-year career, has been at the forefront of marketing, strategy, and technology solutions working with companies including Samsung, Philips, Pfizer, SAP, GE, American Express, and Kraft. She is extremely passionate about developing a pipeline of diverse female entrepreneurs, and is an advisor in the Million Dollar Women program, board member of Women Who Dare and a member of Pipeline Angels, whose missions are to help female and diverse founders succeed. Mrs. Velissaris obtained a B.S. in Information Systems from Wake Forest University and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. She holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses.