Small Business Expo Washington D.C. 2026

Shirah Benarde is the CEO and co-founder of NightCap, the drink-spiking prevention company. Shirah invented the NightCap Scrunchie in a dream after a friend of hers had her drink spiked. NightCap gained widespread support after securing a deal on Shark Tank and quickly became a force for cultural and policy change. As a passionate advocate for safety and innovation, Shirah was instrumental in passing a California law, requiring bars and nightclubs across the state to offer drink covers upon request. NightCap has partnered with over 200 universities and major organizations such as Bumble, Bacardi, and RAINN, driving awareness, education, and action around drink safety. NightCap has sold more than one million customers worldwide, solidifying NightCap as the most widely used drink-spiking prevention tool on the market. Shirah’s work has been recognized in major media outlets including USA Today, and Inc.’s Female Founders 500, and she was named one of the youngest Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees in North America. She continues to build solutions that protect people, influence policy, and redefine what safety looks like in nightlife and beyond.

Marcia’s prior experience includes working with the IRS Small Business/Self Employed (SBSE) Division both as Revenue Agent and Revenue Officer. Prior to this current assignment, Marcia was a Revenue Agent in the International unit in the Large Business and International (LB&I) division where she handled many aspects of US citizens and resident aliens’ taxation related to living, working, and investing in foreign countries and U.S. Territories. Marcia came to the Agency with 10-years of retail bank management and mortgage bank experience gained while working in management positions at Bank of America, SunTrust, and TD Bank. She completed a Master of Science, Taxation, from Florida Atlantic University. She graduated Palm Beach Atlantic University with an MBA, Finance and a Bachelor of Science, Organizational Management.

As the ExecuCare National Practice Leader, I help small business owners get the best healthcare coverage for themselves and their key leaders. I’ve combined my technology expertise with a decade of experience in health insurance to build a streamlined platform that enables owners, presidents, CEOs and other heads of business to shop, get a proposal and, ultimately, buy this modern-day executive medical reimbursement plan completely online.

Ron Fulton is an experienced Cybersecurity professional, senior consultant, secure enterprise architect, instructor and certified APMG trainer focused on IT/OT systems, Generative AI (GenAI) architectures, data privacy and protection, information security, multi-cloud technologies, application security, zero trust and data lifecycle management, risk management modeling, IoT/IIoT, Blockchain, DR/BCP, and training methodologies.

Emily Goble has been in the public communication industry for over twenty years. As Brainiest AI’s Customer Success Manager she ensures Brainiest subscribers needs are being met. Her strong background in museums, education and the non-profit world made her passionate about helping people craft and communicate their stories for a broad audience. She is excited to help small businesses create the quality marketing content they need to share their visions and engage their audience.

Laine is a seasoned marketing automation & integration consultant with a knack for untangling technical and strategic knots. Since 2007, she’s been a dual citizen of the MarTech and traditional marketing worlds, serving B2B and B2C clients world-wide. Laine founded LMB DigiMarketing in 2015 with a mission to make highly effective marketing automation more accessible to growing businesses. With a Digital Marketing certification from Emory University, and specialist certifications from MailChimp, Hubspot and Salesforce MCAE (Pardot), her happy place is orchestrating streamlined marketing platform integrations. Laine also started her Accountability Arcade in 2024.

Kenneth was born in Cheyenne, WY, and came of age in Riverton, Wyoming. He has founded and sold several businesses, also serving as a leader to several companies during mergers and acquisitions and as a strategy consultant to numerous large private companies. He served in the US Army and Wyoming National Guard and was honorably discharged, after leading the tactical operations section of his unit for many years. Kenneth has presented on multiple multi-national issues and innovations to industry leaders while advising on the course forward for multi-billion dollar companies. He spent several years on Wall Street from Credit Suisse to Goldman Sachs. Kenneth holds two MBAs from the University of Wyoming and Hochchule Pforzheim University, Germany, specializing in Finance, International Finance, and Innovation management.

23 years in the insurance industry, covering Non-Standard, Standard, and Preferred markets. As a producer, he has sold in 48 states and served as a Territory Manager/Wholesaler for Personal Lines and Commercial Lines, spanning small markets, large markets, and CAT markets across the country. Nicknames include Insurance Guru, Coinsurer of Property and Casualty, Dr. of Insurance, and Master of Avoiding Disaster… Cowboy Jody Collins.

Max Chacon is a Program Manager at Amazon where he develops and manages educational programing for entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them find success selling in our store. Since joining Amazon in November 2021, Max has dedicated himself to enabling the success of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and new brands in Amazon's store. He has worked directly with new selling partners to help grow their businesses and led a specialized team supporting selling partners with a preferred language, primarily Spanish-speaking sellers. Prior to joining Amazon, Max held positions in the non-profit sector and global public relations industry, specializing in corporate social responsibility initiatives. His work focused on collaborating with brands to implement impactful community-driven projects worldwide

Zac Ricci has been a key member of Fund&Grow for over a decade, bringing extensive expertise in business funding. As a funding expert, he not only educates clients but also shares his knowledge through Fund&Grow's YouTube channel. In addition to being a trusted educator, Zac serves as the company’s video producer, helping create engaging and informative content.

As a former Middle School Science Teacher and Assistant Principal, I now use my background in education to help teach people how to become healthier and happier by eliminating their stress and helping them understand what their individual body needs in the form of nutrition.I currently run a health and wellness education business called Carya, in which I focus on teaching people daily practices for healthy eating and stress elimination.

Asset protection specialist Angela Adams is the director of legal services for American Society for Asset Protection (ASAP). Angela has extensive knowledge and experience helping clients implement the protection and planning strategies recommended by attorneys and has saved clients millions of dollars. She not only helps customers get protected, but she helps them stay protected by assisting them with updating and maintaining total asset protection.

Ernie began his career in 1993 as a storyboard artist for an ad agency in SLC, UT after studying illustration at Utah State University. Two years later he founded a creative production studio called 8fish that built a reputation for illustration, animation, video production, ad design, writing, and brand development for a variety of clients. Ten years later he led Maverik’s marketing and branding efforts as their Exec Dir of Marketing which catapulted Maverik into a $3 billion dollar brand.

Stormie Andrews is the Founder of Yokel Local Internet Marketing. He is an award-winning international author for "Power of the Platform, Speakers on Success," which he co-authored with Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, and Les Brown. In July 2020, he released his 2nd book, The World's Best Buyer Persona System, which quickly made it to number one on the Amazon New Releases Best Sellers list. Intercon named him one of the TOP 50 Tech Visionaries for 2020 for his system.

Specialist. Licensed in every type of Healthcare in the US! With decades in leadership in Sales Trevor has decided to focus all of his efforts on helping as many people as possible navigate the wonderfully imperfect US Healthcare system. Health. Life. Retirement. We can help everyone. Trevor has a wife and 3 sons. Is a former youth athletics coach and has held MANY interesting positions in fields such as real estate, retail, fitness and children's athletics.

I graduated from Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and minor in Spanish where I decided to write my book. I lost my dad in college, and decided to write this book to help kids understand life and death.