Tim Baskerville is a veteran company builder and advisor to the data publishing, media, and communications industries. As either a consultant or roll-up-your-sleeves P&L leader, he’s unlocked value in organizations ranging from startups to the Global 1000. His specialty is forging business models where technology converges with content.  Read more...

Jen Beever is a “CMO for Hire” who drives marketing results for clients through both traditional and online marketing. She’s done search engine optimization, web sites and online marketing since 1998. In 2009 she became an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional (IMCP) with Honors Distinction, which only 15% receive. Read more...

Alex Benzer is an entrepreneur, designer, and angel investor. He co-founded and bootstrapped his first company while in college, and sold it in 2007. Alex then bootstrapped his second company, SocialEngine, to thousands of customers and profitability. Now, having recently graduated from the TechStars Boulder accelerator program, Alex is launching his third startup - an intelligent, automated advisor for social media managers.  Read more...

Sara Bordo is the Co-founder & President of NowLive, the leading entertainment production and streaming company for live events.  From the hottest red carpet movie premieres, music concerts, and celebrity cast chats to the latest gaming and social media events, NowLive offers the highest quality live show for both brands and audiences. Since it’s launch in 2010, NowLive has been hired to produce, stream and syndicate events such as The Hangover Part II Premiere, Fast Five Premiere from Rio de Janeiro, Sony Playstation’s Press Conference from E3 and Entertainment Weekly Live from Comic-Con. Read more...

Bruce Brown is a technology executive, entrepreneur, mentor and angel investor, but remains a tech geek at heart. As a Series A investor and VP of Product Management at Evryx Technologies (2007-2009), he led the design and development of visual search applications for iPhone, BlackBerry, WindowsMobile, J2ME, BREW, Symbian and Android mobile phones. Bruce spent the bulk of his career at Microsoft in their consulting division (1991-2003), playing a crucial role for many of Microsoft’s largest customers in Southern California. Read more...

Alexander Chen is a partner at Fortis General Counsel, LLP, providing corporate legal services.  He works extensively with technology companies in all stages of their life cycle.  Alex’s practice focuses on general counsel services, with an emphasis on corporate formations, equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, licensing and commercial agreements, and public offerings. Read more...

Kevin Colligan is an Internet executive with a rare blend of creative, technical and entrepreneurial expertise. An authority on live event coverage and web/television integration, he has led digital teams covering the Super Bowl (FOXsports.com), five World Series (MLB.com) and two GRAMMY Awards (GRAMMY.com). Kevin is a Content Management System expert - he designed the proprietary CMS which powers MLB.com and all 30 big league team sites, and helped to scale the Open Source Drupal CMS to serve 30+ million uniques for GRAMMY Sunday.  Read more...

Dan Dato is an experienced entrepreneur and veteran senior executive of several venture-backed digital businesses. His passion has always been working with startups. Dan has developed products and built sales & marketing teams with The Motley Fool, TouchCommerce (SaaS e-commerce chat/IM) and Evryx Technologies (mobile search & marketing), while also serving as an advisor & mentor to several early-stage companies in the areas of product development, strategy & fund raising in a variety of industries such as publishing, education, internet infrastructure and mobile. Dan has helped his companies raise more than $50 million in venture and corporate financing. Read more...

Ron Garret, Ph.D., is an entrepreneur, software engineer, angel investor, and filmmaker.  He worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab as a research scientist for twelve years before quitting to go to work for an obscure Silicon Valley startup company called Google.  He has co-founded three startup companies, including an on-line jet charter business that was acquired by Richard Branson and became Virgin Charter, and invested in a dozen others.  Read more...

Paul Glen is an award-winning author, management columnist and professional speaker. Founded C2 Consulting to help technology organizations grow better leaders and help technical managers perform at their best. 20+ years experience delivering and managing IT related products and services. Author  of "Leading Geeks: How to Lead and Manage People Who Deliver Technology". Writes a monthly for Computerworld USA which is frequently syndicated around the globe. Read more...

Gautam Godse is the founder of Appmosis, Inc., focused on building the next generation communications app for the Mac & iOS platform and also consults with various companies for their iOS solutions. He is a software engineer and a serial entrepreneur, having launched his first startup, JabberWocky BBS in 1994, right out of college. The BBS was extremely successful and grew to over 5000 subscribers by 1997. In 1997, he parlayed the BBS into WMINet, India's first private ISP.  Read more...

Yarone Goren builds, launches, and grows technology startups, including co-founding Zumbox and Academy123. While he's working on ideas for his next startup, he's helping other founders get their startups off the ground. This usually starts by helping them nail their product strategy and specs. Yarone specializes in Product Strategy, Product Design, User Interfaces, Usability, Human Computer Interaction, Technology, and Business Development. Read more...

Ron Gould is a versatile marketer with over 20 years experience in advertising, experiential, broadcast, web and social marketing/communication initiatives. He is especially skilled at pulling together diverse specialists to solve complex problems in a highly creative way. Award-winning and passionately committed, Ron has had a results-oriented career directing integrated initiatives to drive brand visibility, image and niche positioning. Ambidextrous in thought and action, Ron takes pride in building the bridge between the story that needs to be told and the audience that needs to hear that story. Read more...

Brett Greene is the Co-Founder and CMO of Hip Chameleon, a Strategic Marketing & Advanced Social Media company.  Brett was named the #3 CMO on Twitter by Social Media Marketing Magazine and brings over 20 years of experience as a marketing and communications expert. Brett is a talented web-marketing strategist with extensive marketing, branding, copy writing, promotion and communications experience. He lives and breathes social media. His clients have achieved exceptional results and revenue gains by developing aligned customer communities, which serve the social needs of targeted consumers. Read more...

Dan D. Gutierrez is CEO and Co-founder of FundaGeek LLC, a new entry in the Crowd Funding arena with specific focus on technical innovation and basic research projects. FundaGeek is the only Crowd Funding site for technology and scientific projects. Previously Dan served as CEO of AMULET Development Corp. a Los Angeles web back-end developer of high-end database driven web applications and e-commerce solutions. AMULET's flagship product was HostedDatabase.com, the web's first database-in-the-cloud service first launched in 1999. Dan holds a BS degree from UCLA in mathematics and computer science.

Mark Hoebich is the CEO & Founder of TVtracker.com, a premium entertainment research and data tracking firm serving the entertainment industry.  The company was founded in 1999 and sold to Variety in 2011. TVtracker.com is used by companies that need the most timely and accurate development and production information in order to compete in today’s business environment. The company comprehensively tracks and analyzes all three major divisions of filmed entertainment in the US market, including television, feature film and digital entertainment. Read more...

Stephen Hughes is a Senior Relationship Manager for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) based in Los Angeles.  Stephen leads the SVB Financial Group Early Stage team in the region. The Early Stage team focuses on the banking needs of Technology, Life Science, and Cleantech companies from startup through revenues of $75MM. Through its 27 domestic offices and operations in England, India, Israel, and China, SVB Financial Group (NASD: SIVB) provides domestic and international commercial banking, investment management, and valuation services to technology companies at all stages of their life cycles -- from startup to public.  Read more...

Jonathan L. “Jake” Jacobs has over 30 years of history in successfully helping clients identify and satisfy their business and financial needs. He has established a network of business relationships with various financial experts who provide solutions to issues confronting entrepreneurial companies and wealth families. Previously Jake served as Partner-in-Charge of the Middle Market Practice and the Warner Center Office of KPMG Peat Marwick. Read more...

Dr. Tony Karrer has been a part-time CTO or technology advisor for more than 25 early-stage startups over the past 15 years most notably eHarmony.  This gives him an incredibly diverse experience with different business models, products and technologies.  Tony is also Founder and CEO of TechEmpower, a web development firm based in Los Angeles.  And Tony is Founder and CTO of Aggregage, a company that creates online publications in B2B markets based on curation, aggregation and social filtering. Read more...

Grant A. Kirkwood is the Founder & CEO of Unitas Global, a facilities-based IT and network services integrator, providing unified IT service outsourcing to companies around the world. Mr. Kirkwood founded Unitas because he saw a need for managed, end-to-end IT outsourcing solutions for enterprise organizations that rely heavily on IT and network infrastructure, but don’t want to focus on it as a core function of their business. Read more...

Bruce Krysiak is VP of Advanced Product Development at TrueCar, Inc. a cutting-edge company focused on reinventing the car buying experience for consumers, dealers, and partners. TrueCar purchased Honk.com in May 2010 where Bruce was the Chief Technology Officer.  In 2007, Bruce won the 2007 DEMO Conference DEMOgod Award Winner for Panjea.  Read more...

Sanjeev Kuwadekar is the CEO of GrowBiz Services Inc, a leading tele-communications software consulting firm in California. After working at Microsoft for over 9 years, he founded his own company – HeyAnita Inc. Sanjeev raised over 39 million dollars from leading firms like Softbank, Mobius Venture Capital and Intel and acted as the CEO of the company for over 6 years. In that role, he expanded company’s operations in Europe and Asia, turned the company into profitable business in less than 2 years, formed strategic partnerships with companies like Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Vodafone, Commverse, Microsoft, Mitsubhishi and HP and negotiated successful sale of the company.  Read more...

Mark J. Landay is Managing Director of Dynamic Synergy, a leading retained executive recruitment firm. An experienced startup investor & mentor, Mark has been recognized as an industry expert in technology, executive search, team building and fund raising.  Mark is extremely well connected in the emerging technology industry with numerous contacts, including many leading venture capitalists.  In addition, Mark hosts LA CEOs, an education and support group for CEOs and founding executives. Read more...

Shuki Lehavi is an avid technologist with over a decade of successful experience in managing and developing enterprise applications in the banking, healthcare, automotive, and mobile industries. As CEO of Gumiyo, Shuki leads application development and business development. As a co-founder, Shuki helped shape the vision and mission of Gumiyo, and is committed to revolutionizing the mobile online marketplace. Read more...

Pete Mauro, our Lean Startup Expert-in-Residence, is the founder of Startup Partners. Pete is a customer and product-focused entrepreneur with 15 years experience delivering consumer software products in technology-driven start-up and growth environments. Recent companies include Savings.com, SceneTag, Inc. and Warner Brothers Digital Distribution. Pete is co-organizer of the Los Angeles Lean Startup Circle, which helps Los Angeles tech entrepreneurs build successful businesses by learning and practicing Lean Startup techniques. Read more...

Steven Meyer, M.D., J.D. is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor.  He has started, owned, built and successfully sold (either through IPO or sale to private company) companies in a variety of sectors from financial technology to biotech and from real estate and retail to information technology.  His internet lending company  was one of the first in the internet consumer lending space, and originated loans to hundreds of thousands of clients in 44 states   Most recently he has been working with companies in the internet marketing space... Read more...

Shelley Miles has spent her career leading the growth and development of consumer-based entertainment and technology businesses.  Miles brings a unique mix of business development, marketing, technology and financial experience to her work. Ms Miles is currently COO of Donate My Card, new technology company that allows the donation of gift card balances to charity and co-founder of Revizzit, the new platform for exclusive digital content. Read more... 

Jody Mulkey is a technology executive in the Ecommerce/Internet space with successful start-up experience. His specialties include building high performance teams, Systems Architecture, Data Center Design and Management and Infrastructure Design. Jody is currently the SVP, Chief Information Officer for Shopzilla where he has worked for the last 12 years. Jody is also an Investor in Project Playlist, Elite Compliance Group and Metroblogging. Read more...

David Oxstein has been an accomplished early stage investor of startup companies like Klout and Docstoc, and an entrepreneur for over 20 years. He founded both Oxstein Labs and M1 Software, which he grew into one of Los Angeles’ leading application development firms with strong ties to Microsoft. As a personable communicator and team player, David is devoted to helping others define and reach their goals. He is a vibrant organizer of people, teams, and projects, with an inventive flair for mobilizing and implementing business strategies as well as monetizing opportunities in a diverse range of fields. Read more...

Ben Padnos is an Internet sales and marketing pioneer with nearly 15 years of online sales, strategy, marketing and business development experience, including more than four years in the Yahoo! organization. His last company, search engine marketing firm, Better, Inc., was acquired in 2008 by Tsavo Media, Inc., a portfolio company of American Capital Strategies (Nasdaq: ACAS).  A serial entrepreneur, Ben’s company DONE! Ventures has incubated a number of companies including a TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 Start-up Battlefield finalist called Audioo, eCreditCards, a financial services lead-gen play, and two new start-ups launching this summer, Done and Tendy.

Nagesh Rao was a patent examiner for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 2004-2010, wherein most recently he was on special assignment at the Department of Commerce Headquarters serving as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIE). While at OIE, he co-created the i6 Green Grant Challenge, a deliverable for the White House's Startup America Initiative, and helped coordinate Secretary Locke's National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  Read more...

Rita Ravindra is an investor and advisor to several consumer Internet companies in Los Angeles, including Broke Girl's Guide (www.brokegirlsguide.com), ForYourArt (www.foryourart.com) and Digitwirl (www.digitwirl.com). Prior to her investor role, Rita was Vice President of Business Development at Myspace where she led negotiations and structured business partnerships with third-party technology, content and e-commerce companies. Read more...

Mark Schwartz is an entrepreneur with record of creating superior investor returns, a former investment banker, and an experienced board member. Before specialty coffee was a category, Mark assisted Starbucks Coffee in raising their first round of institutional financing and was a member of their board of directors for two years.  Read more...

Mike Sheridan is President and Co-founder of Debtmarket, Inc  which is the first online marketplace for financial institutions to trade whole loans.  DebtMarket is currently being acquired by a public, multi-billion dollar diversified financial services firm.  Mike is currently an advisor to several internet startups in Los Angeles and Mike has a long history working in a variety of roles (marketing, sales, business development, operations) for financial services firms and other B2B and B2C internet start-ups including serving on the Board of Directors at Docstoc. Read more...

John Shiple, one of L.A.'s most sought after CTO's, has been blowing up the Internet going back to the birth of the web itself. He was a founding member of HotWired's engineering team - the web's first commercial website. Thereafter, he went on to re-architect the GeoCities front-end (then, the fourth largest site on the Internet) where he brought pop-up ads to the Internet (yes, it's his fault) which increased ad inventory by more than 10,000 times, and enabled a purchase by Yahoo! for $3.57 billion in stock. Read more...

Jay Stakelon is a designer who codes, a UX practitioner with an undeniable thirst for entrepreneurial intensity and a guy who seriously cannot stop building things with design and technology. Jay learned to design and code on a first-generation aquamarine iMac while he was supposed to be proofreading ad copy at his first job after graduating from Vassar College. He practiced A/B testing before it was cool while designing direct-marketing campaigns, and learned the importance of storytelling and user experience as a designer at Disney Online. Read more...

Joey Tamer (www.joeytamer.com) is a widely acclaimed strategic consultant to technology and digital media CEOs, U.S. and worldwide.  Her work helps create wealth for founders and investors of entrepreneurial ventures, and a high return on investment for Fortune 500 in-house ventures.  Her capital strategies drive up her clients’ valuations and profitability.  She has a special expertise in working with emerging and disruptive technologies. Read more...

Michael Weiss is Managing Director of figure18 and serves as a dynamic force in the Web marketing and development industry as a veteran speaker, consultant, client advocate, and sales executive. For over 14 years Michael was CEO of imagistic, an award-winning Web agency in southern California. He has signed many world-renowned clients, including: Disney, FOX, ACLU, Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, GE Private Asset Management, Estee Lauder, Technicolor, Walden Media, and Hollywood.com. Read more...