Anthony Kelani

Technical Evangelist, Microsoft

Los Angeles

Anthony Kelani was born and raised in Oakland, CA. He was exposed to technology at a very early age, and started building and programming his own computers by the age of 11. He went on to graduate from Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. With over 10 years of professional experience in full-stack software development and systems architecture, Anthony is an expert in mobile and web technologies. He is a proven leader and entrepreneur with experience as founder and CEO of his previous startup, ShowKit. At ShowKit, Anthony was selected to compete with 25 other top startups from around the world at TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield in 2014. His pitch was judged by several big names in the tech industry including Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, and was voted as a finalist in the competition. Prior to ShowKit, Anthony served as Principal Engineer of Mobile at Northrop Grumman, where we was honored for his work developing life-saving mobile situational awareness software for the US Department of Defense. Anthony also served as Head of Engineering at Curious Minds, managing a team in developing several mobile products. Today Anthony is Lead Technical Evangelist on the Microsoft Startup team. He advises and works on projects with startups from the top startup accelerators in the country (Mucker Lab, Amplify, Techstars, 500 Startups, YC, etc). He is a strong advocate for diversity in tech and recently met with lawmakers in DC to spur support for tech inclusion and entrepreneurial success. Anthony is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and a mentor for CodeTruck and Black Girls Code.