startups

I love startups.  I love innovation.  I love technology.  I love product. and I LOVE the business of products, startups and innovation.  What you see below is a little bit about my startup experience.  I tend to get involved with startups early – I love that phase that makes most peoples stomaches turn and heads spin.  Over the years I’ve learned a ton and refined my approach to opportunity selection and startup operations.  So, here is a list of stuff… you can see I’ve been sharpening my saw ; )

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SocialGuides – President, Founding Team (2008 -> current)

Location specific social media (thats all I’m saying for now).  Look for our location focused twitter client on a web browser or Android very soon.  Ping me on twitter if you’d like to know more…

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LeadForce1 – Advisor (2009 -> current)

Marketing Automation startup – more info soon…

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FeedTrace – Advisor (2009 -> current) – filtering out the noise on Twitter.

Working w/ Bernardo, CEO/Founder, I helped define the product. Coverage so far includes Venturebeat, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOm & Technorati.  They also helped w/ bitly.tv.

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Traveling Geeks – Sponsor for LeWeb (personal/private sponsorship) – because I believe in their mission (I’ve traveled the world in the name of technology for big companies and startups alike).

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XPrize Foundation – Consultant.  Helped Heathcare XPrize director develop/refine business strategy & plan for submission to board and potential sponsors.  A fun project in a category that is ripe for startups (FINALLY – I love this category as a former pharma chemist).

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Twiistup 6 – Panel Moderator, LA Ecosystem panel w/ Mike Jones, David Sacks, Mark Suster & Jamie Montgomery.

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Maga Design Group – Advisor/Consultant (2006-2009).  DC based consulting firm focused on visual strategy – worked w/ Autodesk, iRobot, Genentech , ICOR Partners (acquired 2010) & others.

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Scoob & Gecko – Advisor (1Q08)
Popular Facebook developer – acquired by SLIDE.

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Mobile-XL – Interim COO (2H07) – emerging markets mobile platform. Helped launch (product, marketing and BD) in Middle East (GSM Dubai) and Africa (GSM Capetown & Kenya Partner Launch).

–  Nokia piloting in Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania, Launching w/ Orange in Cameroon & New York Times coverage

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Facebook App Developer – Product Consultant (4Q07)
Designed facebook apps and built specs – achieved #1 activity rank in category w/in 2wks and resulted in >200k installs.  Participate in early Facebook Developer Garages in LA.

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Twiistup 2 – Sponsor (via Teleflip – 2007) – because I support the LA ecosystem – I met a lot of my early/current LA collaborators there.

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Teleflip – VP Product [Development/Marketing/Social] – mobile communications/applications.  I joined when Series A – GRP funded.

– Red Herring 100 winner, DEMO’07 Launch and tons of press (NYTimes, WallStreet Journal, etc) – this is an unfortunate situation of bad timing.  iPhone came out and completely reset consumer expectations.  Could have built something better, but some folks didn’t get ‘social’.

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Startups x & y – Advisor (1H07)

Adviser to CEO (previous exit to Sylvan Learning Systems).  Helped with two startup pre-launch – web video platform for brands and vertically focused lead gen platform.

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Personal Finance Startup – COO (2006) – brought in to do a turnaround – personal finance media and tool portal (in the spirt of mint.com, wasabe.com and billshrink.com) – just a little too early.  I did secure our first customer and get us launched with 4 months of joining.

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AvTech Labs – Researcher (1995-1999).  Helped build new division of startup pharmaceutical lab – acquired by Eurofins Scientific.

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