Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO, Socializr
Jonathan Abrams is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, the founder & CEO of the new online event service Socializr, and co-owner of San Francisco nightclub Slide. Jonathan was hailed as “The Social Pioneer” by Vanity Fair in June 2008 for creating the pioneering social networking service Friendster.
Valeria Alberola, Partner, Q Advisors
Valeria has over 13 years of international experience in corporate finance and strategic consulting. At Q Advisors, Valeria has executed mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, and strategic financial advisory engagements across the technology and communications sectors. Prior to joining Q Advisors, Valeria was the Director of Business Development for VeloCom, an international telecommunications company. Previously, she was a strategic consultant with McKinsey & Company and an equity analyst with Citigroup. Valeria currently serves as a member of the Associate Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver and is a member of the Board of Directors of OpenWorld Learning and the Board of the International Business Circle of Colorado. Valeria received a B.S. in Economics and Business Administration from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management where she was a Fulbright scholar.
Phyllis Albritton, Executive Director, CORHIO
Phyllis Albritton is the interim executive director for the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization. Prior to this position, Ms. Albritton was the Executive Director of the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation where she facilitated increasing community activities that prevent oral disease and advance the science and practice of oral health care in Colorado. Other projects for which Ms. Albritton has experience developing new programs include Colorado’s Children’s Basic Health Plan (low cost health insurance for uninsured children) and the federal E-Rate program (telecommunications discounts for schools and libraries)
Gill Asakawa, Manager of Audience Development, MediaNews Group
Gil Asakawa has worked online since 1996, managing content for AOL and a succession of startups and news media companies. He's currently Manager of Audience Development for MediaNews Group, the parent company of The Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News. He started his career as music editor of Denver's alternative newsweekly Westword (1980-1991), and was entertainment editor and art critic for the Colorado Springs Gazette from 1992-1996. He has written freelance articles for NY Rocker, Request, Creem, Pulse and Rolling Stone magazines, and authored Being Japanese American (Stone Bridge Press 2004) and co-authored The Toy Book (Knopf, 1991). He writes a blog, Nikkeiview.com, about pop culture from an Asian American perspective, he Twitters, and he's a member of every social site and service he hears about.
Terry Ash, EVP Co Founder, VMIX Media
Terry Ash is co-founder EVP /sales of VMIX Media, a software as service company which provides media ingestion and serving to 200 media sites. Formerly he was VP of Special Markets at Universal Music Group and EVP of Sales at Universal Net Group directing over $200 million per year in sales. Mr. Ash was SVP of sales at mp3.com when the profitable company was sold to Universal. His prior positions included 18 years in traditional broadcast.
Micah Baldwin, VP Business Development, Lijit
Micah – who upon his original introduction to the Lijit team was described as “scary” and “tattooed” – is a 14-year veteran of the Marketing and Advertising space. He parlayed his love for those functions and desire to be more than just a user into creating his own search marketing agency, Current Wisdom, which he sold in March 2007 to Indigio. Armed with Biff, the trusty Wifi Rabbit, Micah travels the planet in search of strategic alliances and new business development opportunities that drive revenue for Lijit and value for our users.
Dave Balter, Founder & CEO, Bzzagent
Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent, Inc., the advertising industry’s only cross-continental word-of-mouth media channel. He launched BzzAgent in 2002, and today nearly 500,000 consumers have joined the company’s network, which spans North America and the United Kingdom. Since its launch, BzzAgent has been featured everywhere from the CBS Evening News to the BBC to The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Dave co-founded the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), and he currently serves on its Executive Council and as Chair of the Association’s International Committee. The author of two books on the subject, Grapevine and The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II, Dave lectures around the world on trends in word of mouth and social media. In 2008, Dave was recognized as a Future Legend by the AdClub and he was named to the 40 under 40 list by The Boston Business Journal and Advertising Specialty Institute. Dave also sits on the advisory boards of Crowdsprout, a collaborative commerce start-up, and the Boston Boys & Girls Club Marketing and Communications Committee.
Luke Beatty, Founder & CEO, Associated Content
Luke Beatty is the founder and President of Associated Content. Before starting Associated Content, Luke was on the executive management team at WAND, Inc., a closely held corporation located in Denver, Colorado. WAND is a leading developer of online directory, search and advertising taxonomies and technologies. WAND's ontology-driven search applications power some of the world's largest business to business and business to consumer online directory and search platforms, many used by Fortune 500 companies. He has offered his expertise in consumer driven multi-media content, social networking, contextual advertising models and online media collection and distribution strategies at numerous conferences and events held by InfoCommerce, YPPA, Venture Capital in the Rockies, CSIA, among many others. In 2007, Luke was selected as one of the Denver Business Journal's "Forty Under 40". This list celebrates 40 Denver top business leaders under the age of 40. Luke serves on the Board of Directors of Publish2, a social network and web 2.0 platform for journalists. Luke holds a bachelor's degree from Connecticut College and a master's degree from Harvard University.
Keith Berets, Partner, Cooley Godward Kronish
Keith Berets is a partner in the Technology Transactions and the Trademark, Advertising & Copyright practice groups, and a member of the Cooley Godward Kronish Business Department. He joined the firm in 2000. Keith focuses on technology and intellectual property transactions, including outsourcing, consulting, licensing, distribution, development and transfer agreements; information technology, electronic commerce, Web and Internet transactions and intellectual property counseling. His practice also includes trademark, internet, false advertising, unfair competition, trade secret and copyright litigation, counseling and prosecution, and advice on brand selection, advertising and promotions, and other proprietary rights. He represents leading IT firms and Internet companies, software developers and distributors, Internet service providers, information systems, network systems, hardware and communications companies and other technology companies in connection with the commercialization of their technology products and services. He has also been involved in numerous legal actions to protect the trademarks, trade secrets and copyrights of his clients. Prior to joining Cooley's Colorado office, Keith Berets was an associate at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago. He received a JD cum laude, in 1997 from the University of Wisconsin Law School where he was elected to Order of the Coif, was a teaching assistant for the Legal Research and Writing Program and the Senior Articles Editor of the Law Review . He also worked as an extern for Judge Barbara Crabb in the United States District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin. He received a BA degree in Psychology from Pomona College in 1990.
Rick Brindle, VP eBusiness and Industry Relations, Kraft Foods North America
Rick has been in the Packaged Goods industry since 1977. During his career, he has held leadership positions within Kraft Foods, Nabisco, Procter & Gamble and Safeway Food Stores. Rick leads Kraft’s Customer eBusiness Development and Industry Relations efforts throughout North America. He also leads Kraft’s Industry Relations efforts within the National Grocers Association. In June 2006, Consumer Goods Technology magazine recognized Rick as one of the CPG industry’s 20 top visionaries for his work in eCommerce.
Hans Peter Brondmo, CEO and Co-Founder, Plum
Hans Peter is an MIT graduate who built his first computer at 16, wrote his first commercial software program at 17, began using the Internet in 1982 at the age of 20, studied at the MIT Media Lab, and co-founded his first company by 25. In his early 30's, he recreated himself from a highly technical entrepreneur into marketing visionary who helped transform the way leading companies communicate with their customers. He has worked with such traditional businesses as Victoria's Secret, Wegman's Food Markets, Amtrak, and Palm, as well as dotcom pioneers such as Women.com, CDNow, and eBags. Hans Peter has spent his career at the intersection of technology innovation and empowering consumers. He is a successful serial entrepreneur who is at it again. Plum, his latest company is powering social media sharing solutions for any web property, making it easy for people to share and discover anything they find on the web.
Mark Caron, VP CTO, Catholic Health Initiatives
Mark Caron, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mark’s background includes holding Senior Vice President and/or Chief Information Officer positions with Southern Maine Medical Center, Cobalt Corporation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Healthsource and others. Mark is certified by the Project Management Institute (PMI), he received advanced executive training from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he’s been on the board of directors for Maine Heart Center and he’s an adjunct Professor at the New Hampshire College Graduate School. Mark has an MBA and an MS in Computer Information Systems from New Hampshire College and a BS in Computer Science from Franklin Pierce College.
Robert Carrera, President, Pinnacle III, LLC
With over 20 years of healthcare experience, Rob has spent the last 15 years developing and managing ASCs, physical/occupational rehabilitation centers, diagnostic imaging facilities, and occupational medicine clinics in a multi-state region maintaining responsibility for over $150 million in annual revenue. Rob provides PINNACLE III clients expertise in operational and financial controls/management as well as business development for both our managed centers and physician partners. Rob’s innovative operational approach has created solid physician loyalty to the ancillary entities he oversees. Organizations who have adopted Rob’s recommended action plans experience increased volume and enhanced bottom line performance while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and quality of care. Rob has been active legislatively at the State level regarding issues affecting ASCs in Colorado, Minnesota, and Utah. He formerly served as the Colorado Ambulatory Surgery Center Association’s Vice President, and was one of its founding members. Rob received his BS in Physical Therapy from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
Xavier Casanova, Founder and CEO, Liveclicker
Xavier Casanova is a Silicon Valley high-tech entrepreneur, specialized in ecommerce, online marketing and video applications. He founded web analytics vendor Fireclick (acquired by Digital River), and fast media sharing company Wambo. He is currently the CEO and founder, of Liveclicker, a new startup located in Silicon Valley, California. In partnership with leading eCommerce sites, he is currently building a solution for enabling, managing and profiting from video commerce applications.
Vince Chirico, Mountain States & South West Regions, Google
Vince currently heads up both the Mountain States and Southwest Regions for Google. He consults with key business decision makers to assist with mitigating pain points and achieving sales and marketing objectives. In addition to his daily sales responsibility, Vince is a steward of the Google value proposition and helps evangelize Google’s story for all marketers. Prior to assuming responsibility for the Mountain States and Southwest Regions, Vince headed up the US travel practice in the East for Google. Vince has over 10 years of experience in the travel industry having worked on both the supplier and distribution sides of the business. Prior to joining Google, he spent two years as Cendant’s Vice-President of Strategy, Marketing and Product Development in their Travel Distribution Services division and nearly eight years with Delta Air Lines in multiple posts, most notably General Manager of eBusiness Development where he headed up strategy and business development for delta.com and served as Delta’s lead in the creation of ORBITZ.com. Vince graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with an undergraduate degree in business administration in 1986 and earned an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 1991. He works out of Google’s Denver, CO offices where he lives with his lovely wife Kristina and dog Orion.
Srinivas Chitrapu, IT Manager, Sun Microsystems
As Sr. Manager for Sun's Global Data Centers, Srinivas is responsible for developing and implementing programs and technologies to support Data Center Consolidation, Server Consolidation and managing the growth in demand for compute capacity. He is also actively leading efforts to deliver a Virtual Platform for supporting Application Services. This includes Server & Storage Virtualization and initiatives to increase speed and consistency of delivering Services. Srinivas has an M.S in Computer Engineering and an MBA. He is also holds a Manager's certificate in ITIL
Tom Ciancio, COO, Fowler Software Development
Tom Ciancio has over 15 years of management experience and leadership in IT. He has been directly involved in establishing organizations, improving organizational efficiencies, implementing necessary organizational processes and procedures, and making necessary organizational and process changes to improve customer satisfaction. One particular area of expertise is in his application development and networking technologies. Tom has strong contract negotiation skills. His direct customer relations management experience is committed to building a customer-centric organization that is responsive to customers’ needs. His experiences range across a variety of industries: from telecommunications to IT services to military support services.
James Clark, Co-Founder & Partner, Room 214
James is a visionary dedicated to ensuring that each customer and partner of Room 214 is thrilled with the expectations, responsiveness, execution and success of marketing integration efforts. He plays a lead role in helping clients rapidly examine and radically improve their marketing tactics. James leverages over a decade of public relations experience to devise market-leading positions and big-picture strategies. As President and COO of Metzger Associates, James grew the company to become the Rocky Mountain Region's largest public relations and investor relations firm. Under his leadership, his company was recognized and listed on the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies and The Best Places to Work. Clients included Sprint PCS, BTI, Qwest, Digital Globe. While at Metzger Associates, James also founded (and sold) one of the earliest and most successful web conferencing companies, E-Conference.
Peter Cobb, SVP and Co-Founder, eBags.com
Peter is a Co-founder and Senior Vice President for eBags, Inc. During his tenure he has been responsible for marketing efforts including online and offline advertising, public relations, and the affiliate program. Peter also heads up the company’s Global Technology Services efforts involving building and managing e-commerce websites for global brands such as Tumi.com. Peter's career path has included Director of Marketing for Samsonite, Vice President, Australian Equity and the Director of Marketing, Ben Hogan Golf. Peter says eBags gives him the opportunity to marry his passion for luggage with the potential of the Intertet to create something that has never been done before. In 2003, he was named Colorado Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association. He was formerly responsible for marketing at Samsonite and received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Graduate Management.
David Cohen, Executive Director, Techstars
David Cohen founded and runs TechStars, a seed stage mentorship driven investment fund in Boulder, Colorado. Prior to this David was a three time Founder and CTO of software companies here in Colorado.
Bruce Cunningham, Corporate Attorney, Jones Education Online
(No bio available)
Dan Daugherty, CEO, Rent Marketer, Inc.
Dan Daugherty is the Founder and CEO of Rent Marketer, a distribution platform and advertising network for rental properties. Prior to Rent Marketer Dan spent four years with Google where he led the operations team for the Mountain States Region. He helped to grow the region from $1 million in annual sales to over $100 million within the four years in operation. Dan is also active in residential real estate investing and received his business degree in International Business from Ohio Wesleyan University.
Pete Dignan, President, ProtoTest
Pete Dignan is founder and President of ProtoTest, a software QA and testing services firm based in the Denver Tech Center. He is also co-founder and CEO of WatirCraft, an open source software company .
John Eckstein, Director, Fairfield and Woods
Mr. Eckstein focuses upon the general representation of technology-based companies and venture capital funds, investors, investment bankers, financial advisors, and financial institutions. He works with complex legal structures in entity and project financings. He also provides advice regarding finance and governance matters to individual officers and directors of such companies. His legal training is in securities, tax, finance and corporate law. He works in the application of technology to the business of energy and is actively involved in legal and public policy aspects of energy, biomedical, and IT/software. Mr. Eckstein has been chair of the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute and a member of technology advisory committees to several Colorado governors; he has been chair of the Colorado Biotechnology-Medical Technology Roundtable and president of the Colorado chapter of the Federal Bar Association and of the Denver chapter of the Licensing Executives Society. Mr. Eckstein has been listed in Who’s Who in American Law, Colorado Super Lawyers, Corporate Counsel Black Book, and Who’s Who in High Tech in Denver/Boulder.
Charles N. Feinn, President and CEO, MixMatchMusic, Ltd.
The co-founder of MixMatchMusic, Charles is a multi-instrumentalist who has studied music his entire life. He was inspired to start the company in part by his immersion in the technologies used to create, edit and distribute modern music. And he was intrigued by the similarities between Internet and human neural networks, his field of study at UCLA. In creating MixMatchMusic, Charles applied human networking principles of modularity, complexity, information exchange and emergent properties to the Internet. By employing the Internet network, artists will experience meaningful and fruitful collaborations that will result in the next evolutionary step of music. Prior to founding MixMatchMusic, Charles worked in an electrophysiology lab studying the kinetics of temperature sensitive proteins (TRP channels) at the Centro de Estudios Cientificos in Valdivia, Chile. From this experience, Charles learned the important management principles of employee self-worth, independence and communication.
Marwan Forzley, Founder & CEO, eBillme.com
Marwan is the founder and CEO of eBillme, and has been the driving force behind the company's strategic vision and partnerships. Prior to founding eBillme, Marwan was Director of Business Development at Nokia, where he focused on large-scale eCommerce infrastructure, mobile payments and content delivery. Before joining Nokia, Marwan acted as product and solution manager at Vienna Systems, a startup that was eventually acquired by Nokia. Marwan is respected as an expert in alternative payments, articulating the evolving dynamics of the industry with major publications including: Internet Retailer, Forbes, Business Week, American Banker, Associated Press, CNN Radio and eCommerce Times.
Matt Frary, Founder, ROIRocket.com
Prior to ROIRocket.com, Matt started his career on the internet in 1999 with eBags.com as an Internet Marketing Manager. While working at eBags, Matt helped launch KickStart.com which received $13 million in funding and aggregated over 250 online ecommerce merchants into an online fundraising and charity shopping mall. Then Matt moved onto DriveOff.com to grow their Affiliate Marketing Channel, signing up over 17,000 affiliated websites. Microsoft became interested in DriveOff.com in 2001 and the MSN Autos channel (then called CarPoint.com) purchased the website and all of its assets. In 2004 he pursued his International MBA at Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management to build a strong foundation in Finance, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. While studying for his graduate degree, Matt interned at Mercedes Benz to help with the product launch of the Smart Car into the United States. Matt Graduated and started an online Marketing and Sales company named ROIRocket.com. ROI Rocket focuses on the Return on Investment portion of online marketing, and allows large clients to control their marketing budgets online by being able to measure the success of the campaign immediately and tie the performance back to important business metrics. ROI Rocket is located in Denver, with over 30+ employees and a healthy P & L. ROI Rocket services over 100 clients, 13,000 affiliated websites, and is growing year over year. Matt has managed the growth with several partners, and no outside investment. The company is privately funded through its founders, and remains profitable.
Matt Galligan, CEO, Socialthing!
Matt Galligan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Socialthing, Inc., a company that was chosen to be part of the inaugural year of TechStars, a program that provides seed capital and mentorship for startups. Socialthing, Inc. produces Socialthing!, a first-of-its-kind digital life manager that pledges to make your online life easier. Currently in private beta, Socialthing! created a strong buzz at South by Southwest (SXSW) in 2008, and since then, the Socialthing! team has been working hard on creating, and releasing version 2.0 of their digital life manager. Matt’s background is in graphic design and user interface, working for MonsterCommerce, now Network Solutions, based out of St. Louis, MO. He got his start in computers and design while working for Evans Services, Inc., a disaster restoration company out of Illinois before he turned 16.
Greg Gianforte, Founder & CEO, RightNow Technologies
A serial entrepreneur, Greg founded RightNow in 1997 and took the company public in 2004 with one of that year’s most successful initial public offerings. Greg has grown RightNow to more than 700 employees worldwide and more than $100 million in revenue.
Chris Glode, Sr. Director – Product, Useful Networks
Chris Glode leads the Product Management organization for Useful Networks, tasked with bringing compelling location-aware mobile applications, advertising, and aggregation platform solutions to market. Prior to joining Useful Networks, Chris worked in OSS and BSS software and consulting for Communications Service Providers.
Steven L. Grandchamp, CEO, OpenLogic
Steven L. Grandchamp has over twenty-five years of experience in the software industry, where he has served in executive roles for both vendor and IT customer organizations. He was formerly President and CEO of Information Management Research where he led the company's move into Enterprise Content Management. Prior to that, he was Vice President and a principal shareholder at American Fundware, where he was responsible for the company's software development effort. Steven was also a founding partner of Formation Technologies Inc, a software company for the banking industry that emerged as a leader in the loan origination segment. Steven also held various senior management positions with Microsoft including the application development segment of Microsoft Consulting Services. Steven spent the early part of his career in progressively responsible IT roles in the banking industry. Steven graduated summa cum laude from Regis University with a Bachelor's degree in International Business.
Andy Graziano, CIO, Colorado Department Healthcare Financing & Policy
Andy Graziano is a member of the Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology and the Chief Information Officer for Health Care Policy & Financing. In this role he is responsible for the strategic architecture, enhancement and operation of all computer systems and infrastructure that deliver Medicaid and Child Health Programs for the State of Colorado. The integrated performance of these complex information systems enables the delivery of billions of dollars worth of healthcare services to Colorado citizens. Previously Mr. Graziano was the Sr. VP of Information Technology for Centric Health Finance, a company that delivers unique financial solutions to providers in the Oncology, Rheumatology and Nephrology specialties. His career is punctuated by leadership and technical management experience within the U.S. Navy, biotechnology, engineering and health care industries. Mr. Graziano has an engineering degree from the United States Naval Academy, a Masters in Information Systems from California Lutheran University and is a certified Project Management Professional.
Mitchell Green, Junior Partner, Eastern Advisors
Mitchell Green is a Junior Partner at Eastern Advisors, a fund seeded by Julian Robertson in 2003. Mitchell primarily invests in the internet, software and digital media sectors. Eastern has traditionally made public company investments in Asia and in 2008 launched a formal private equity vehicle to invest in late stage businesses in the United States wanting to enter the Asia Pacific Region. Eastern is a long tenured investor in Alibaba Group, the largest internet/ecommerce company in China and has recently begun making investments in late stage US companies wanting to enter the region. Prior to joining Eastern Advisors in 2008, Mitchell was at Bessemer Venture Partners. While at the firm he sourced investments in several companies, including Wikia.com, a community-focused website founded by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Prior to Bessemer, Mitchell worked at UBS Investment Bank in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group. Mitchell graduated from Williams College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.
Dave Haucke, VP of Global Marketing, ISYS Search Software
As ISYS Search Software's vice president of global marketing, Dave is responsible for the development and execution of the company's worldwide marketing efforts. He has more than 12 years' experience serving as a marketing communications and public relations professional, working exclusively in the technology industry and providing PR services for companies that include Qwest Communications, eToys and Cirrus Logic. Prior to joining ISYS, Dave served as a senior consultant for VisiTech Public Relations, where he led the firm's editorial efforts. Before this, he worked as a marketing manager for eBags.com, where he was part of the original team that launched the company and helped it achieve significant growth during its early years. While at eBags, he co-managed the company's public relations and branding efforts, as well as produced much of its website content and marketing communications material. Dave has presented on a variety of search-related topics at several industry conferences, including the Enterprise Colorado State University with a bachelor's degree in technical journalism.
Jeff Herman, CEO, Fuser
As Fuser's president and chief operating officer, Jeff Herman is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Fuser as well as overseeing the strategic development and execution of the company's corporate and product plans. Hand-picked by Fuser's founder Jared Polis to help execute his vision of simplifying Internet users' digital lifestyles, Jeff brings over 15 years of experience in the consumer technology industry and a wealth of leadership and entrepreneurial expertise to the Fuser management team. Prior to joining Fuser, Jeff served as the vice president of operations and product development Webroot Software Inc. In addition to his tenure at Webroot Software, Jeff worked in a variety of leadership and product management positions at IBM Global Services, NetLibrary and Accenture. Jeff earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from the University of Florida.
Tim Higgins, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Bridgeline Software – Denver
Tim Higgins founded Indigio nine years ago with the idea of helping companies make online channels a bigger part of their business. Mr. Higgins has nineteen years of IT and Consulting experience related to enterprise application development and Internet technology and implementation. Mr. Higgins has worked with many Fortune 500 companies, assisting them with large scale systems development and deployment, both from a business strategy perspective as well as from IT integration and deployment perspective. Mr. Higgins strength lies in translating the formation of a business objective into the execution of a solution, and takes pride in directing the largest full service interactive agency in the Rocky Mountain region. Recently Indigio Group, Inc. merged with Bridgeline Software, expanding Bridgeline Software's presence into Denver, Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.
Tom Higley, Founder and CEO of iggli, inc.
Tom Higley is the founder and CEO of iggli, inc., an invitation-based social application that monetizes friend-to-friend communication to help ticket distributors, artists, promoters and venues generate event awareness and increase ticket sales. Tom is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and led five tech start-ups, developing disruptive technologies for music & entertainment, network security and internet services industries. He serves as advisor and coach to many Colorado-based start-up teams and has a lifelong passion for music and technology. Tom has a BA from the University of Michigan and is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He has raised approximately $40 million in funding for his companies and returned over $1.2 billion to investors.
Joe Hodas, Vice President, Communications, Consumer Capital Partners
Joe Hodas is the Vice President of Corporate Communications for Consumer Capital Partners and leads the firm’s internal communications and national public relations. With over a dozen years of public relations and corporate communications experience, Mr. Hodas has developed an expertise in building brands and strengthening corporate reputations through earned media and integrated marketing communications. In addition, Mr. Hodas has advised organizations on crisis communications, media training and reputation management. Mr. Hodas previously served as the Sr. Director of Corporate Communications for Frontier Airlines. In addition, Mr. Hodas has several years of experience in high-tech PR, including his work with both public and privately held clients during his three years with Ogilvy Public Relations, as well as his tenure as director of corporate communications for Denver-based Web hosting firm, Verado, Inc. He holds a Master of Science degree in communications from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Texas.
John Hoholik, HomeAndAbroad
John Hoholik has a proven track record as an executive-level leader, able to produce strong results in both start-up and large corporate environments. His focus is zeroing in on market needs and positioning businesses to address those needs, driving meaningful results for the enterprise. John is also often engaged as a speaker for corporations across various industries and public events. As a Board Member and investor at Home & Abroad, John helps drive the strategic direction of the company and, as EVP Business and Partnership Development, is highly active in new business / business development efforts, including the acquisition of initial "high profile" cornerstone clients. John also oversees the continued growth and quality of Home & Abroad's new business pipeline. With a senior-level background in advertising and marketing, John has been instrumental in building go-to-market strategies and private label solutions for H&A.
Dr. J. Glen House, Founder, Disaboom
As an undergraduate in the Biomedical Science program at Texas A&M University, Dr. House suffered a snow-skiing accident which resulted in a broken neck (C7 complete). At that time he was planning on going to Dental School to pursue a career in oral surgery. Because of his limited hand dexterity that was no longer an option. Instead he attended the University of Washington School of Medicine and then a residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. After his residency he completed an additional year of fellowship training in Spinal Cord Medicine at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. Dr. House is now Board Certified in both Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Spinal Cord Medicine and serves as the Medical Director of the Center for Neuro & Trauma Rehabilitation at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, CO as well as serving as Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Disaboom.com.
Brett Hurt, Founder and CEO, Bazaarvoice
Brett is the Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. He has extensive experience in the online marketing arena, especially as it pertains to the eCommerce industry. Brett founded Coremetrics in February 1999 after spending 10 years developing Internet-based software. Brett helped grow Coremetrics into the leading marketing analytics solution for the eCommerce industry, servicing more than 1,000 clients today. Brett holds an MBA in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin. Brett serves on the Board of Directors of Shop.org, the leading non-profit industry association for retailers online and a division of the National Retail Federation, the largest trade organization for retailers. He also serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Wharton School and served as a Board of Advisors member to the non-profit Web Analytics Association. Brett actively advises several early-stage technology companies.
Karl Jacob, CEO, Wallop
Karl was an Entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital, founder of a software company named Dimension X which was sold to Microsoft, CEO of Keen.com which became Ingenio.com among other companies. Wallop.com is Karl's latest innovative work.
Denise Jendrusch, Advertising Director, Denver Business Journal
Denise Jendrusch started her advertising career with The Houston Post in 1985 where she held the positions of sales representative, Retail Sales Manager and National Advertising Manager. After moving to Denver in 1995 she joined The Denver Post as a Retail Sales Manager. Since 1996, Denise has been the Advertising Director at the Denver Business Journal. Denise is very active in the community and is currently participating in Downtown Denver Partnership Leadership Program.
Marion Jenkins, CEO, QSE Technologies
Marion Jenkins is founder and CEO of QSE Technologies, Inc. He has over two decades of executive management experience in a variety of high-growth technology and communications companies. He has served as a chief information officer, chief operating officer, vice president of sales and marketing, vice president of sales operations and chief technology officer. Jenkins is a nationally-recognized author and speaker on the role of technology in healthcare, and is a contributing author to the book, “Business Driven Information Technology,” published by Stanford University Press and used as an MBA textbook in business schools around the country. Jenkins holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Utah State University, and Masters and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
JR Johnson, Founder & Former CEO, VirtualTourist.com
J.R. caught the travel bug as a teenager when he traveled around the world on a Semester at Sea program. After getting a taste of the roaming life in places like Calcutta, the Seychelles, and Kenya, J.R. jumped at the chance to make VirtualTourist a hobby and full time job. J.R. is a graduate of University of Southern California and S.M.U Law School. When not at the helm of VirtualTourist, J.R. enjoys perfecting his hobby of making elaborate crop circles in remote locations.
Kimberly Johnson, Reporter, Business/Technology/Politics, The Denver Post
Kimberly is a daily business writer focused on coverage of technology, biotechnology, telecommunications, cable and satellite television. She is responsible for breaking news involving companies such as EchoStar Communications, Qwest, Liberty Media, Sun Microsystems, Comcast and Amgen. For the last three years, Kimberly has reported local and national news out of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Enterprise reporting efforts include coverage of Phillip Anschutz’s media holdings the decline of technology companies headquartered along the Front Range, Amgen’s drug development pipeline and effects on Colorado, the technology transfer efforts at Colorado universities and has landed several breaking news stories on page one of the newspaper, including coverage of HP’s pretexting scandal and how the Internet has affected Colorado’s public libraries. She currently serves as editor of the Sunday real estate page, working with a team of freelance writers to develop stories about real estate investments and trends.
Scott Johnson, Director of Emerging Business, Microsoft
A 15-year veteran of Microsoft Corp., Scott has led technical, sales and consulting teams in a variety of roles working with Microsoft’s customers, partners and product teams. Previously at McGhee Produtivity, Scott was focused on helping our customers derive maximum benefits from their investments in the Microsoft productivity platform through high performance coaching and education.
Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Chief Creative Officer, skinnyCorp
Jeffrey is your average 29-year-old tattooed metal-head with an eye for design and nose for tomfoolery. Most of any time not spent with his wife and small family of cats is spent as partner and chief creative officer of the Chicago-based, community-business-centric skinnyCorp. The focus of his work is design and strategy for skinnyCorp's numerous community-based web projects. These projects range in scale from Threadless, a multi-million dollar tee shirt business and ongoing open-call for tee shirt design submissions which sells more than 90,000 tees per month and has over 800,000 registered users, to YayHooray, a just-for-fun design and technology community site with only a few thousand members. His work has been published numerous times, and he's had the pleasure of speaking for students and peers all over the world from MIT to the University of Copenhagen to CNN to NPR.
John Kembel, CEO and Co-Founder, HiveLive, Inc.
As a repeat entrepreneur, John has been creating and bringing new products and technologies to market for more than a decade. He gained experience with startups when he co-founded DoDots, a high-profile, venture-backed internet company. He has directed cutting edge, innovative companies that provide solutions reflecting an elegant mix of sound engineering and top-notch design. He has won national and industry awards in design, and frequently consults as an innovation expert for major consumer product companies nationwide. He is a Consulting Associate Professor and Strategy Board Member for the new Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University (the d.school). John has also worked in industry and research environments for companies such as IDEO, Intel, IBM, and Interval Research. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering and design from Stanford University and an M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.
Alan D. Khalfin, CFO and Director of A&R, MixMatchMusic, Ltd.
The co-founder of MixMatchMusic, Alan is a musician and a producer. He has played music since childhood and is an accomplished drummer, guitarist, keyboardist and singer. Alan was inspired to start the company through his love of music and a desire to safeguard the rights of artists in the digital music age. He received his Juris Doctor in 2007 from Santa Clara University School of Law. His studies focused on Intellectual Property, Internet, and Entertainment law, and in his third year, he wrote a research article entitled "Digitalization and its discontents: Safeguarding artists' rights in the digital music age." Prior to founding MixMatchMusic, Alan was a business consultant to The Bayliens, Throw Me the Statue, and Cait La Dee. Alan also worked as a radio DJ for KSCU (103.3 FM, San Jose) from 2005-2006, spinning several shows per week, and as a production assistant for Noa Noa Music in 2004 (LA). He has traveled extensively throughout the world and speaks fluent Russian and French.
Patrick Koppula, CEO and Founder, ffwd
Formerly reforming the music industry as co-founder of iLike, Patrick Koppula, now CEO of ffwd, is rethinking television for its ubiquitous, on-demand and interactive future. Patrick holds a degree in environmental science and public policy from Harvard University and is a guest lecturer at MIT Sloan on the topics of crowdsourcing intelligence and innovation. Patrick also plays guitar for a San Francisco rock cover band called Bottoms Up.
Greg Kostello, CEO, VMIX
As CEO and Founder of VMIX Media, Inc., an interactive media platform that bridges the gap between content creators, publishers and distributors online, Greg Kostello brings more than 20 years of experience in technology development and management. Previously, Greg was President of Vivendi-Universal Net Technologies where he integrated the advances made in technology from MP3.com into the music industry’s commercial systems. Previous to the sale of MP3.com to Vivendi-Universal in 2001, Greg was Executive Vice President of Technology for MP3.com where he was instrumental in growing its Web site into the Number 1 music community on the Internet with more than 30 million registered visitors. He is also the co-founder of DIgitalStyle which was acquired by Netscape/AOL in 1997. His extensive knowledge and expertise within the technology industry also includes past positions at leading companies such as Apple Computer and Netscape. Greg has also founded or participated in five other early stage startups. Greg Kostello graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in Information and Computer Science. He served on the UCSD Connect Leadership Council from 1999-2001.
Alex Lange, Co-Founder and CTO, Roost.com
Alex is a seasoned IT executive with over 23 years driving product innovation and currently is CTO and Co-Founder of Roost.com; an innovative platform for real estate search. Roost partners with Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) to help local real estate brokers and agents attract high-quality consumer traffic directly to their Web sites via an intuitive search tool. Additionally, Alex serves on advisory boards for RealAgile (real estate / sales prospecting), WeMeUs (social media / networking) and Cranium Solutions (security / penetration testing). Prior to Roost, Alex served as VP, IT and Chief Architect for AllPosters / Art.com and was a major contributor of Art.com’s expansion from a single location, $40M dollar business to a multinational $120M company in four years. Representative volumes include 750M page-views per month, over 50,000 registered affiliates, 4M e-mail advertisements per month, 1.2M new customers in 2005 (4M since inception) and over 40,000 shipments per day. During this time he also rebuilt his team from 4 to over 50 internal and 20 offshore personnel. Alex attended the University of California Irvine, is an active member of the Silicon Valley CIO Community of Practice (CIO Cop) and the Consortium of Information Systems Executives.
Dr. Mark Levine, Chief Medical Officer Region VIII, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Mark A. Levine, MD is the Chief Medical Officer for the Denver Region of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He has practiced primary care internal medicine in Colorado for many years and continues to be clinically active. He received his undergraduate degree from Rutgers College and his medical degree from Temple University with postgraduate training at Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Colorado. He co-founded the Colorado Patient Safety Coalition, served as President for several years and currently sits on its board of directors. He has previously served as Associate Medical Director of the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care and as Executive Medical Director of Healthcare Colorado. Dr. Levine has an enduring interest in medical ethics and professionalism. He has served as Vice Chair of the Rocky Mountain Center for Healthcare Ethics and as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Organizational Ethics for the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the UCDHSC. He is Vice-Chair of the American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs and serves on the Oversight Body of the Ethical Force program of the AMA's Institute of Ethics. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities since 2003.
Usher Lieberman, Senior Manager Corporate Communications, eBay
Lieberman co-founded The Usher Group with former client Jim Lejeal in January of 2002. Since its inception, Lieberman has been the driving force behind the strategy and go-to-market messages of The Usher Group’s diverse client base. Prior to co-founding The Usher Group, Lieberman’s experience includes leading award-winning campaign teams at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for Xerox, CitySearch, DataPlay, and Raindance Communications. Lieberman’s five years with Ogilvy began in that firm’s Alexander Communications technology subsidiary in San Francisco. From 1996 to 1999, Lieberman remained in the firm’s San Francisco office as a supervisor. Lieberman continued his tenure with Ogilvy by helping to establish the firm’s Denver presence as a director, responsible for overall account strategy and daily execution, a position he held from 1999-2001. Lieberman started his career in public relations as an intern in the Manhattan office of former Governor Mario Cuomo in 1988. Lieberman continued the political side of his career in the home office of former Arizona Congressman, Sam Coppersmith. Lieberman ultimately landed in San Francisco in 1994 as an account executive with Pacific/West Communications, an integrated marketing communications firm specializing in issues management. Lieberman has a bachelor-of-arts degree in political science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Alfred Lin, CEO & COO, Zappos
Alfred joined Zappos.com in 2005 and is responsible for all financial, administrative, and warehouse operations. Alfred focuses on bringing focus, strategy and financial discipline in order to grow the business efficiently and profitably. Prior to joining Zappos.com, Alfred served as VP of Finance and Business Development at Tellme Networks, helping grow that business from $0 revenue to over $120M in recurring revenue per year, 30% cash margins and a $0.5B estimated contracted revenue backlog. Prior to joining Tellme Networks, Alfred co-founded Venture Frogs with Tony Hsieh. Venture Frogs is an incubator and investment firm that invested in Internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, Tellme Networks, and of course, Zappos.com. Prior to Venture Frogs, Alfred served as VP of Finance and Administration at LinkExchange, where he managed the sale of the Company to Microsoft for $265M. Alfred met Tony Hsieh (CEO) in college, when Tony was running a pizza business and Alfred was his #1 customer.
Laura Love, Founder & President, Groundfloor Media
As the founder of GroundFloor Media, Laura Love provides vision and leadership for the Denver-based public relations agency she founded in 2001. In the past seven years, Laura has taken a business she started in her basement in Boulder, Colo., and built it into one of the region’s fastest growers, boasting a national client base that has included Coors Light, Starbucks Coffee Company, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Corporate Express, the Special Olympics U.S.A. National Games, The Children’s Hospital and CH2M HILL. The agency has become an award-winning public relations firm and one of the fastest-growing companies in Colorado. Recently recognized by The Denver Business Journal as the best small company to work for in Denver. In 2007, GroundFloor Media received two Gold Pick awards from Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Colorado and in 2006, was one of two Colorado agencies to be named to PR Weeks Top 100 PR Firms nationally. Additionally, Laura was recently named a finalist for the Denver Business Journals (DBJ) 2006 and 2007 Outstanding Women in Business awards, and in 2005, Love was recognized as one of the Forty under 40 by the DBJ.
Donald Lutz, President, Technetronic Solutions, Inc.
Donald Lutz has enormous depth and breadth in Microsoft architecture as well as having over 20 years experience in designing and building large enterprise systems. Donald specializes in providing companies real-world SOA solutions implementing both BizTalk and integrated, orchestrated web services using the Microsoft .NET framework. Donald’s thought leadership enables him to creatively and effectively drive business solutions through technology. Technically, his expertise with system architecture and programming ensures project success. Donald is founder and CTO of Technetronic Solutions, Inc. which provides infrastructure and application services. He is a regular guest on Network World’s Converging Microsoft podcasts. Recently, Donald has focused attention on the areas of energy monitoring and management. His team at Technetronic Solutions will strategize with companies to reduce energy consumption and improve operational efficiencies through the deployment of building monitoring equipment, build out of analytic solutions, and automation of business processes and controls.
Dave Madden, CEO, WildTangent
Dave Madden is responsible for the sales and marketing of WildTangent's products and services and for its business development efforts. A media industry veteran, Mr. Madden has over a dozen years of experience in Print, Cable, Broadcast and Interactive. Prior to joining WildTangent, he was the Executive Vice President of Sales for News Digital Media, the Internet Division of News Corporation and before that, the Associate Publisher of Runner's World magazine. At News Digital, Madden ran the sales and marketing for the digital properties of Fox Sports, Fox News and Fox Entertainment and was tasked with cross-media integration around properties like the World Series and Super Bowl. At Runner's World Dave oversaw sales and marketing of the dominant title for the US and overseas editions. Under his guidance, Runner's World was a top 10-consumer title for advertising sales growth. Dave is the Chair of the IAB Interactive Games Committee.
Max Mancini, Senior Director, Platform and Disruptive Innovation, eBay
Max Mancini joined eBay in December 2003 and is the senior director of Disruptive Innovation. He is responsible for leading the eBay Marketplaces global web services platform and strategy, including technical APIs, developer marketing, PR, certified provider program, evangelism and solutions marketing. The program currently has over 50,000 developers who have over 4,200 active applications built on the platform and delivers more than 25% of the eBay Marketplaces listings. In the Disruptive Innovation role, I am responsible for establishing eBay Marketplaces innovation program and strategy; managed the disruptive innovation team focused on building concepts related to our next generation buyer applications and social commerce applications and established a new product process to rapidly iterate on innovation ideas and product experiments to support innovation, product velocity and flexibility. Max graduated from Santa Clara University with a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Engineering Management.
Ryan Martens, Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Rally Software
Ryan Martens brings to Rally proven leadership in dynamic, high growth software companies and is an expert in assisting organizations transition from traditional development processes to more Agile techniques. Before founding Rally Software Development - his fourth software start-up - Ryan directed the corporate adoption of Internet technologies within Qwest Communications, and then moved on to co-found Avitek, a Boulder-based custom software development firm where he served as Vice President of Marketing & Business Development. Ryan's successful efforts at Avitek culminated in an acquisition by BEA Systems in 1999. At BEA, Ryan served as Director of Product Management for the eCommerce applications division and he was instrumental in growing that division to more than $50 million in revenue within its first twelve months.Ryan is an alumnus of the Colorado Chapter of Young Entrepreneurs' Organization and is also involved in a variety of community organizations including Colorado Conservation Trust, the Knight Foundation and the Entrepreneur Foundation of Colorado. Most recently, Ryan was named as a semi-finalist for the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award. Ryan received his Masters in Business Administration and his Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Jeanine Martin, US Health Provider Strategist, Microsoft
Jeanine Martin has been in the healthcare-technology industry for the past 10 years. Some of her National not-for-profit Board affiliations in the industry are: Past President of the International Association of IT Professionals, Past President of Women in Technology International, Founding President of Women in Technology of TN, Founding Officer of the TN Health Information Management & Systems Society, Founder of the National Healthcare Information Technology Summit, Former National Director of Marketing for the National Project Management Institute Project Management-Healthcare SIG, Member of the Nashville Healthcare Council, Member of the Leadership Healthcare Council, Member of the T.I.G.E.R. Initiative (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform), Member of the HIMSS RHIO Federation Roundtable, Member of the HIMSS RHIO HIE Tech Best Practices Task Force, Member of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Task Force, Member of the HIMSS-Cisco Community for Connected Health, Member of the HIMSS-AMDIS Physician Community PHR Task Force and Member of the SoCal HIMSS Chapter Board of Director & RHIO Co-Chair. She currently is a US Health Provider Strategist at Microsoft. She was a member of Microsoft 5-Year Strategic Planning Committee. She is the HIMSS Liaison for the Microsoft Healthcare User Group Advisory Committee. She formed National Clinical Council.
Martin May, CEO, Brightkite
Prior to founding Brightkite, Martin worked on geospatial services and mobile location technology as a Lead Research Engineer at Local Matters. Martin has worked in various R&D positions at companies such as Sun Microsystems and various European telcos. Martin holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Margi Mellott, Senior Manager, Staff Operations, Sun Microsytems
Margi Mellott is the Staff Operations Manager for the Projects and Program Delivery (PPD) office in Sun's Information Technology Operations department. Margi is responsible for the business management and operational excellence within the PPD team, including the budget, goals, communications, meeting facilitation and strategy management. Margi joined Sun in 1999 and has found many opportunities to expand her leadership potential in Sun IT, IT Operations, Marketing, Services, and Professional Services Delivery. Prior to this role, Margi was the Operations Manager for the Professional Services Delivery organization where she was responsible for resource management, procurement, financial management (budgets and forecast), goal management, third party product / labor partner management, and relationship management with the sales organization. Margi holds an Associates degree in Computer Networking, a Bachelors degree in Business, with a focus in Information Systems, and will complete her general MBA in October, 2008. Margi also teaches Computer Networking and UNIX Systems Administration for an online college in Denver. Prior to Sun, she worked for Professional Networking and Technology Associates and the IT department for the corporate offices of Rock Bottom Restaurants.
Steve Merkel, Chief Information Officer, Data393
As Chief Information Officer, Steve oversees the development and implementation of systems and hosting infrastructure as well as product development. Before joining Data393, Steve was the Chief Technology Officer for Ventures Online, a premier web hosting provider that specialized in solutions for web hosting resellers. Ventures Online was acquired by Data393 in January of 2004. Steve received his BS in Computer Science from Colorado State University. Immediately after graduating, he began work as a systems engineer for a real-time driving simulation company implementing Linux based simulators for research and educational institutions. Steve has also held technical positions with large ISP’s including AOL and CompuServe.
Michael Moe, Founder & CEO, ThinkPanmure
Michael Moe is a founding partner of ThinkPanmure and was formerly Director of Global Growth Stock Research and a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in 1998, Michael was a Senior Managing Director and Director of Growth Stock Strategy at Montgomery Securities. Michael has been named to Institutional Investor's "All American" research team and has been awarded "Best on the Street" by The Wall Street Journal. He has also testified in front of the U.S. Congress on the subjects of education technology, the new economy and initial public offerings, and he has also appeared before the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. Michael is frequently cited in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for his opinions on growth companies. Michael also appears regularly on financial programs on CNBC and CNN and is a contributor to the AlwaysOn Network — a blog site about new media technology and venture capital news. Michael earned his BA in Political Science and Economics at the University of Minnesota. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, a member of the San Francisco Analyst Society, on the Board of Directors for the National Football Foundation & College Football Hall of Fame, and is a past advisor for the Center for Innovation. In 2007 he published his first book, Finding The Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow.
Kimbal Musk, CEO, Me.dium
Kimbal started his first company in 1995, called Zip2. It was the first to provide maps and door-to-door directions on the Internet, and grew to an exciting company that built sophisticated content management technology for large media companies, including The New York Times. After selling it to Compaq (for cash in easy-to-carry bags), Kimbal spent a few years working on other technology companies. After swearing off the software business altogether, he went to cooking school in NY, and then ran off to Boulder to start his restaurant, The Kitchen, which surprisingly enough, people actually liked. They liked it enough that it has become one of America's best restaurants(per the incredibly smart people at Gourmet, Zagat, Food and Wine, and Cooking Light). In his spare time, Kimbal sits on the board of some very exciting companies, including: Space X, (you can see his blog at kwajrockets.blogspot.com); Tesla Motors; Keith Glen Media; and ProgressNow.org. Kimbal really thought he was out of software for good, when along came Me.dium and he was sucked back in. So here he is, back in the software business and thoroughly enjoying the chance to change the world with technology.
Jon Nordmark, Founder, eBags
Jon Nordmark founded eBags.com in early 1998. During the following months, Jon recruited four other people who ultimately became his co-founders. As a startup company in a startup industry, the Company, which raised $30 million in 1999, pioneered two concepts. First, eBags introduced drop-ship to the bag industry, allowing eBags to showcase 600 brands and 33,000 products while operating with a negative cash conversion cycle. Second, it pioneered a Web 2.0 concept, being one of only five retailers worldwide collecting product reviews from shoppers as late as 2004. As of 2008, during Jon's tenth year as CEO, shoppers had posted more than 1.5 million product reviews on eBags.com. Those same shoppers were ordering more than $100 million worth of product per year from eBags. Between 2000 and 2008, while weathering the 2000 recession, the dotbomb, and the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Company's compound annual growth rate was 33%. The Company became cash flow positive in mid-2002, and has remained positive since. During fiscal 2008, eBags posted a 4.2% EBITDAA. Prior to founding eBags, Jon spent 11 years at Samsonite, ultimately serving as Senior Marketing Director for North and South America overseeing 20 distribution channels, design direction, presentations, pricing, P&L's and forecasts for more than 1,500 products. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado's business school.
Bob Ogdon, CEO, SwiftPage
Bob Ogdon is an executive technologies and business professional with more than 27 years of experience in the multimedia market. His background includes expertise in multimedia, telecommunications and computer-based high technology companies. Bob founded and served as CEO of four companies, the latest being SwiftPage Email, an email marketing company that has helped hundreds of for-profit and non-profit organizations create, send and track the performance of email campaigns. Most recently, SwiftPage Email became the first server-based email management system to be fully integrated into ACT!, the leading contact management system in the world. Prior to SwiftPage Email, Ogdon founded MSHOW.com, a leading web interactive broadcasting company. Prior to MSHOW.com, Ogdon founded Mammoth Micro Productions, a pioneer in CD-ROM multimedia tools, technology and publishing, and Action Graphics, a game design and software development company.
Steve Papa, Founder and CEO, Endeca
Steve founded Endeca in 1999 to use innovative technology to solve a long-standing class of business problems that stem from information overload. He has since led it to become one of the fastest-growing software companies in the world, with five consecutive years of more than 100% revenue growth. Prior to Endeca, he was an early team member of Inktomi, the pioneer in large-scale parallel web search, and worked at Teradata, the world leader in large-scale structured data warehouses.Steve holds a B.S. in Operations Research and Economics from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Rick Patch, CEO, LifePics
30 years running and building early stage technology businesses, 9 of which included founding and building venture firm Sequel Venture Partners.
Vipanj Patel, Chairman, Taaz
Vipanj serves as Chairman of Taaz. He also serves as Managing Partner of iSherpa Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. Vipanj sits on the board of numerous private companies.
Aaron Patzer, CEO, Mint.com
Aaron is both the visionary and technical mind behind Mint the first free, automatic and secure way for money management and save money online. He designed Mint to meet his own needs and those of people like him who value the immediacy of the Web, simplicity and their free time. Prior to founding Mint, Aaron was an architect and technical lead for the San Jose division of Nascentric. Before Nascentric, Aaron worked for IBM and founded two web development and online marketing companies: PWeb and International. Aaron holds an MSEE from Princeton University and a BS in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering from Duke University. He has ten patents filed or pending.
Krista Paul, Founder & CEO, Travelfli
Krista Paul is the co-founder and CEO of Travelfli, Inc. She has a strong background in Sales, Marketing and Internet technologies. She graduated #1 From the Leeds School of Business with a Summa Cum Laude designation.
Stormy Peters, Executive Director, GNOME Foundation
Stormy Peters is Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation. She joins the GNOME Foundation from OpenLogic where she set up their OpenLogic Expert Community. Previously, Stormy worked at Hewlett-Packard (HP) where she founded and managed the Open Source Program Office that is responsible for HP's open source strategy, policy and business practices. Stormy joined HP as a software engineer in the Unix Development Lab after graduating from Rice University with a B.A. in Computer Science. Stormy is a frequent keynote speaker on business aspects of Open Source Software at major conferences such as the Open Source Business Conference and the O'Reilly conferences, as well as government organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union.
R.J. Pittman, Director of Disruptive Innovation, Google
R.J. is currently working for Google on a broad range of products, driving innovation for company's next generation consumer search properties. Previously, he was the co-founder and CEO of Groxis, the advanced search engine technology company that created the industry’s first graphical information interface, the GII, to hundreds of prominent content services including Google, Yahoo, and Amazon. Mr. Pittman has spent the last two decades building Internet software companies to help accelerate the evolution of a commerce-enabled Web. He has applied this experience to the creation many pioneering Internet companies and projects in the field of web search, social networking, e-payments, and online trading. R.J. has raised $50M in venture capital for the companies he has founded or co-founded since 1992, completing two IPOs, and the sale of two other companies. Mr. Pittman has also led e-business transformations at large multi-billion dollar corporations including Mckesson (NYSE: MCK), and Interface Global (NASDAQ: IFSIA). R.J. is best known as a highly technical company chief executive, product innovator, and business development maverick applying his balance of deep technical expertise and product vision with sound business principles that keep his ventures well grounded for success.
Jeff Potter, CEO, Exclusive Resorts
Mr. Potter is chief executive officer of Exclusive Resorts. He brings more than 20 years of airline and airline-related experience to the company, having most recently served as president and chief executive officer of Frontier Airlines, a position he held from 2002 until he joined Exclusive Resorts in 2007. In addition to a 12-year career with Frontier, he also previously served as president and chief executive officer of Vanguard Airlines, and held various management positions with McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Pacific Southwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and the former Frontier Airlines.
Jeff Powers, CEO, Flux Capacity
Jeff with co-Founder Vikas Reddy, created Occipital, a company dedicated to revolutionizing the way we think about digital photos. One of ten TechStars 2008 companies, Occipital recently demonstrated a prototype which applies modern computer vision to organize and visualize a stream of digital photos. Jeff holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering and a Master's in Intelligent Systems (A.I.) from the University of Michigan. He has worked at the Department of Defense and at the blogging startup, Xanga.com.
Scott Prindle, VP & Director of Technology, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Scott Prindle joined Crispin Porter + Bogusky in early 2006 to build out and lead an in-house development team focused on creative collaboration and innovative use of emerging technologies. In the last two years his teams have helped concept, prototype, and develop work for Volkswagen (including a full redesign of vw.com), Burger King, Domino’s, Coke Zero and Sprite. Their work has received numerous awards including two Webbies and two golds at One Show Interactive for their VW work, and back-to-back Titanium Lions at Cannes for Interactive Agency of the Year. Prior to CP+B, Prindle was a Technology Director at R/GA Interactive in New York, overseeing architecture and development for Nike (nikeid.com, nikebasketball.com, nikerunning.com and nikewomen.com), Nokia, and IBM. While at R/GA, Prindle also relocated briefly to Stockholm, Sweden to head up technical project management for the ericsson.com global redesign and mobile development effort.
Kevin Raasch, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, Dean Evans & Associates
As the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, Kevin Raasch leads the company's Marketing and Sales Departments, plays a key role in product and business strategy, and provides consulting for clients. Raasch joined the company in 1988, bringing eight years of experience in event management, facility scheduling, and catering from Colorado State University's Lory Student Center. Raasch studied electrical engineering at Colorado State University and received a bachelor's degree in accounting (1991) and an MBA in marketing (1999) from the University of Colorado.
John Raeder, CEO, IQ Navigator
P. Raeder, Jr. is president and CEO of IQNavigator, Inc. Under Raeder’s leadership, IQNavigator has transformed from a start-up Contingent Workforce Management vendor into the market-leading, global Services Procurement and Optimization solutions provider. As the driving force behind IQNavigator’s solutions and services strategy, Raeder also oversees operations, product development and delivery, sales and marketing, finance and administration along with his executive team. Since 1999, Raeder has led IQNavigator through 33 consecutive Quarters of record revenues. He has orchestrated an impressive surge of 1,177% compounded annual revenue growth over the past 5 years as recognized by Deloitte and Touche’s Technology Fast 50. IQNavigator’s Global Fortune 500 customer base includes marquee clients in every major industry vertical including: Financial Services, Energy, Telecommunications, Consumer Packaged Goods, Electronics Manufacturing, Healthcare, and various Services industries.
Steven Reading, Chief Revenue officer, Dogster Inc
Founder and Chief Business Officer at Dogster.com and Catster.com, Steven Reading Oversees Revenue, Partnerships, Business Development, Sales, Marketing and Legal matters. He was Born and Raised in London is a Lawyer by training and has made San Francisco his home since 1994.
Adeo Ressi, Founder, TheFunded.com
Adeo Ressi is The Founding Member of TheFunded.com, an online resource for CEO's to research, rate, and review venture firms worldwide. As of mid-July, 8,451 entrepreneurs from around America had become members of Mr. Ressi's Multi-Author-Blog Website which has become the open and honest voice of the individual entrepreneur. Mr. Ressi also serves on the Board of the X PRIZE foundation, a non-profit chartered to inspire human achievements through competition. Mr. Ressi hopes that TheFunded.com will inspire greater commercial innovation through investment and that the X PRIZE will inspire more radical breakthroughs through the Grand Challenges in space, healthcare, energy, and beyond.
Rob Reuteman, Business Editor, Rocky Mountain News
Rob Reuteman has been business editor of the Rocky since 1997. He is serving a second term on the board of governors for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He has been an editor at the Rocky since 1983, working previously as city editor, national editor and state/regional editor.
M.H. "Rip"Ripley, President – Denver, HSR Business to Business
Rip Ripley brings more than 27 years of business-to-business and consumer account management experience to the agency. Over that time, Rip has gained a reputation for making projects sail smoothly, and rapidly, from strategy development through execution. Armed with a degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Colorado, Rip began his career as an account executive at J. Walter Thompson before moving to the position of account supervisor at Tracy-Locke/BBDO. Rip’s account experience spans consumer, retail and B2B marketing clients. Throughout his tenure Rip has focused on client strategy development and overall agency management. He has a sense for “what’s next”, in the world of marketing and was an early proponent of integrating interactive and online marketing into client’s strategic marketing mix. As a “Lifetime” member of the Business Marketing Association, (BMA), he has been recognized as the 1999 “Communicator of the Year”, and was the Chairman of BMA International from 2003-2004. He currently serves as President of the Denver office of HSR and as a shareholder, serves on the HSR Board of Directors.
Laura Roden, CEO & Founder, VCprive.com
Laura Roden founded VC Prive to provide a channel to provide private investors - accredited individuals, foundations, and endowments - with information about, and access to, high quality venture capital funds as investment vehicles. VC Prive is the only institutional intermediary in this niche. Laura's prior experience includes running The Angels Forum private investor group, running the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE), 15 years of raising and spending corporate and venture capital as CFO of both large and startup communications companies, and teaching finance fundamentals at San Jose State University. She received both her AB and MBA from Harvard.
Nikhil Roy, Founder & CEO, Rudder
Nikhil Roy’s first entrepreneurial experience was back in 2001, when he co-founded eSoftware Solutions. He was the chief architect of the company’s flagship CRM product, which was successfully deployed at Home Depot Stores. In 2003 after experiencing substantial growth, eSoftware Solutions was acquired by a Home Depot subsidiary. Between 2002 and 2004, Nikhil directed the product strategy at bigvault.com, a company that pioneered the open internet based file system (online storage). Since then, he has been involved with early stage startups in the Enterprise Software Arena, where he engineered several products from concept to market.
Thomas Ryan, CEO, Threadless.com
Tom's been working on the web since '96 when he started an indie music download company called Cductive, which was bought by eMusic. He also worked at Virgin Mobile USA and EMI Music, where he oversaw the company's global digital business. Tom's spent most of his career helping grow companies that bridge the creative world and technology / web world.
Adam Sachs, CEO, Ignighter
After graduating from college, Adam Sachs spent the following year teaching English in Madrid and Prague. Upon his return he worked in the Ad Sales department for Sony Pictures Television where he coordinated ads for syndicated shows like Seinfeld and Jeopardy. He left Sony in 2007 to co-found Ignighter and is a proud member of the TechStars class of 2008. Adam holds a BS with a double major in Radio/Television/Film and History from Northwestern University.
Heather Sachs, Associate Director, Public Relations, HSR Business to Business, LLC
After owning her own firm for five years, Heather joined HSR to further the mission of solid public relations and to help clients manage all channels of their internal and external communication. She has a unique and well rounded public relations perspective and is passionate about effective communication. From the creation of a strategic plan to coordinating/di