Leia Ruseva

Leia Ruseva is the co-founder of EllisX, a startup that connects startups with visibility opportunities. EllisX was inspired by a side project Leia started in order to help change the narrative around immigration in the US by providing visibility for immigrant entrepreneurs. This led her to discover that traditional PR doesn't work for startups, and she set out to create a new market category - visibility-as-a-service. Leia started her career as an early employee at two different Boston startups (#5 and #3, respectively), before becoming the first business development hire at a mid-sized tech company. There, she built the business development program from the ground up, creating a pipeline of $9 million, and led strategic initiatives across marketing, sales operations and sales enablement.