Brian Balfour, Viximo
Brian Balfour is currently founder and VP of Product of Viximo, a VC backed company building a compelling digital goods platform connecting content creators, brands, and publishers. Brian was also a founding member of Betahouse, a co-working space for tech entrepreneurs located in Cambridge, and co-founder of POPSignal, a popular quarterly event for the Boston startup community. Brian’s passion is creating, growing, and monetizing online communities. You can read more about Brian on his blog at http://www.SocialDegree.com.
Lex Bayer, Spare Change Payments
Lex Bayer is the founder and CEO of Spare Change Payments, the leading payment platform designed specifically for social networks. Currently available on Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace, Spare Change has processed over one million payment transactions since its launch in February 2008 and is utilized on over 150 third party applications as a means to monetize virtual goods through micropayments. Lex is Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has led product development at a series of early stage high-tech startups across multiple industries. He received both an MS and BS degrees in engineering from Stanford University.
Joel Brodie, Gamezebo
Joel is the founder and the self-appointed Chief Gamezebo. Previously, Joel was head of business development for Yahoo! Games, where he was responsible building numerous enterprising products, including Yahoo! Games Downloads, Games on Demand, and Video Games. Before that, Joel worked business development at Simutronics, a games company that was doing massively multiplayer games before they were cool. Joel graduated from University of Maryland with an undergraduate degree in economics and political science, and dreams one day of going back to school to get his MBA or writing the great American novel, once he has made his first couple million (I mean, billion). Joel is the most prolific person at Gamezebo and can type more than 101 words per minute.
Adam Caplan, President, Super Rewards
Adam is the President at KITN Media (SuperRewards), the leading monetization technology for social network applications and other websites using virtual currencies. Adam is responsible for SuperRewards’ senior client relationships, strategic partnerships and business development, as well as helping to formulate the long-term development strategy of the company. Prior to joining KITN Media, Adam headed an investment banking advisory practice assisting early stage companies across the internet, social media and casual gaming sectors with capital raising and strategic transactions. Previously, Adam spent more than eleven years as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley, leading the firm’s emerging Internet / digital media effort in New York. Adam holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Law degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and sits on the advisory board at LifeStage Media PLC (owner of OurWeddingDay.com and Memory-of.com)
Andrew Chen, Futuristic Play
Andrew Chen is a blogger and startup executive focused on advertising and social media. He writes the blog Futuristic Play (andrewchen.typepad.com) and was most recently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), a Silicon Valley-based firm with $2B under management. At MDV, Andrew pursued initiatives in digital media and advertising, and was instrumental in MDV’s $20MM investment in Hi5.com, the leading social network for international audiences with over 100 million registered users.Prior to MDV, Andrew was director of product marketing at Revenue Science, where he co-founded the ad network business and was instrumental in growing the network to thousands of websites with over 5 billion ads served per month. He also led teams to handle the company’s initiatives around MySpace and Yahoo, two of Revenue Science’s most strategic partners. In addition, Andrew played key roles in winning the company’s initial brand advertising clients, which now include dozens of top-tier publishers including AOL, InterActiveCorp, ESPN, Washington Post, among others. Andrew holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington.
Susan Choe, CEO & Founder, Outspark
Susan Choe draws upon her more than 12 years of international business management in the video game, internet and financial services industries to lead Outspark’s efforts to reshape online gaming in the U.S. Prior to founding Outspark, Susan most recently served as COO at NHN USA, where she led the US game market entry for Asia’s flagship game portal, NHN/Hangame. Susan also served in many capacities at Yahoo! As director of international operations she supported Yahoo’s 25 international operations, as international director of Yahoo! Games, where she defined and implemented premium games growth strategy, and as director of Corporate Development, where she led investments and acquisitions efforts across games, communities and music. Susan’s other experiences include seven years in financial services working as global Corporate Development lead for CSFBDIRECT’s online broking partnerships in U.K., Japan and Hong Kong, Merrill Lynch’s research group, and American Express’ first online business management team. Susan holds a master’s degree in international finance and business from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from UC Irvine.
Lee Clancy, VP Product Management & GM of Direct Revenue, IMVU
Lee (avatar “Leetri”) joined IMVU in September 2008 from Yahoo!, where he was Senior Director for Community Products. At Yahoo!, Lee also led product management for Yahoo! Groups, a global community of 110 million users, and Yahoo! Personals, the most visited destination in the dating market. Prior to Yahoo!, Lee co-founded a music-focused social networking startup. Lee also worked at Broadband Office in business development and at PricewaterhouseCoopers in strategy consulting advising entertainment and media clients. Lee earned a B.A. in Spanish Literature from Amherst College, an M.B.A. from Cornell University, and an M.A. in International Relations from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University. Lee enjoys running, yoga, and getting outdoors with his wife and two great kids. Fluent in Spanish and French, he is a rabidly passionate fan of Sevilla FC.
Lee Crawford, Founder & CEO, Twofish
Prior to starting Twofish in 2006, Lee was Director of Engineering at Yahoo!, overseeing development efforts across all of the Yahoo! Games properties. He joined Yahoo! through the acquisition of Stadeon, a mobile multiplayer technology company he co-founded in 2001. Before Stadeon, Lee served as VP of Product & Technology at Trintech, a leading supplier of financial governance, risk management, and payment processing solutions. He has also worked as VP of Engineering at Shockwave.com and Director of Engineering at Segasoft Networks, where he led the Engineering and Operations teams for the Dreamcast Network. Lee holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Florida State University.
Christian DeBaun, Director of Business Development, PayByCash
Christian DeBaun is the Director of Business Development at PayByCash, which accepts over 70 alternate payment options from 240 countries. Christian was the Manager of Customer Support for Kesmai Corporation, the first highly successful MMO developer. He has also worked for Electronic Arts, News Corporation, Master Card International, and Apple Computer. In his present roll, he now manages The Ultimate Game Card, a retail pre-paid card for PayByCash.
Christopher Donahue, SVP Marketing & Business Development, Live Gamer
Christopher Donahue is a longtime pioneer and innovator in online gaming, with a career dating to the first graphical role playing games and early online game service initiatives, which he helped deliver while at Sierra Online and the ImagiNation Network. He joins Live Gamer after six years as Group Manager of the Windows Graphics & Gaming Technologies group at Microsoft, where he led business development, marketing, and publisher integration efforts around DirectX and the Games for Windows initiative. Previous positions include leading developer relations efforts at NVIDIA Corporation and at ATI.
Gene Hoffman, Jr., Chairman & CEO, Vindicia
Gene Hoffman is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vindicia. Prior to Vindicia, Mr. Hoffman co-founded eMusic in January 1998 and served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a Director. As head of eMusic, Mr. Hoffman was featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine as a member of the July 1999 E-Gang, and named one of the 100 most influential entrepreneurs in technology in Upside Magazine’s November 2000 Elite 100. Mr. Hoffman led the acquisition of eMusic by Vivendi/Universal in June 2001.
Before founding eMusic Mr. Hoffman was Director of Business Development and Director of Interactive Marketing of Pretty Good Privacy. Mr. Hoffman joined Pretty Good Privacy after it acquired PrivNet, Inc., an Internet privacy software company, where he was co-founder, Director and Executive Vice President.
John Hwang, Director of Products, Automative, RockYou
John Hwang is currently Director of Products, Automotive at RockYou, Inc. He previously founded TripMonger, Inc., an Internet startup focused on travel and social networking applications. At TripMonger, John developed a top 20 Facebook application called Speed Racing, a car gaming app that allows users to customize their own car and race their friends. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and has an MBA from UC Berkeley - Haas School of Business.
Nabeel Hyatt, Founder and CEO, Conduit Labs
Nabeel is a Founder and CEO of Conduit Labs. Also he opens the mail. Nabeel’s first foray into the online world involved racking up $500 monthly phone bills calling BBSes on the path to creating an ANSI art and 8-bit Scream Tracker empire. He recovered from the shock of the death of 8-bit music by founding two consumer Internet startups, eventually selling internetsoccer.com and joining UK Internet media powerhouse Teamtalk, which went public in 2001. Late 2001 brought Ambient Devices, an MIT Media Lab start-up that was named one of the ideas of the year by the NY Times, yet still is known as “that glowing ball company” to most his friends. His ramblings on startups and the industry are at nabeel.typepad.com
Daniel James, CEO, Three Rings
Daniel is the founder and CEO of Three Rings, a San Francisco developer and operator of massively multi-player online games for the mass-market casual audience. Puzzle Pirates, Bang! Howdy and Whirled are Three Rings’ titles. Prior to Three Rings Daniel consulted on game design, toiled for many years on Middle-earth Online, and co-founded two profitable UK internet startups, Avalon and Sense Internet.
Amy Jo Kim, CEO, Shufflebrain
Amy Jo is an internationally-known designer of social games and online communities. Her clients include AOL, BBC, Digital Chocolate, Disney, Electronic Arts, eBay, MTV, Nokia, Square/Enix and Yahoo! She’s also the author of Community Building on the Web, a design handbook for networked communities that’s available in 7 languages (English, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese) and has become required reading in game design studios and universities around the globe. Amy Jo holds a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Washington, and a BS in Experimental Psych from UC San Diego. She is also an adjunct professor in the USC Film School, where she teaches Game Design.
David King, Founder, (Lil) Green Patch
David King is an entrepreneur focused on social gaming and digital media. He is interested in the evolution of digital media which enables people to do good through the use of technology. To this end, the (Lil) Green Patch social game has saved over 60,000,000 square feet of rain forest on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. (Lil) Green Patch accomplishes this through a partnership with the Adopt an Acre program of The Nature Conservancy. Prior to founding Green Patch, Inc. David was a product manager at Google focusing on Google’s Mobile distribution and monetization products and Google’s core Adwords product. David holds a B.S. cum laude in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he also holds an International Minor in Engineering.
David Marcus, CEO, Zong (Echovox, Inc.)
David Marcus is the CEO of Echovox, which he founded in 2000. David drives the overall direction and product strategy for the company to keep Echovox at the forefront of mobile monetization for Web and Media companies. Zong is the company’s flagship service and is now the leading mobile payment system for Web applications. An experienced entrepreneur, David has created a number of successful venture-backed businesses, including the first alternative telecom carrier in Switzerland, GTN Telecom, which he started in 1996. Under his leadership, GTN became one of the top three alternative carriers in Switzerland and was acquired by World Access in 2000. In 2003, David co-founded VOX Telecom, a leading VoIP and wholesale carrier servicing over 60% of the largest incumbent carriers globally. David also spearheaded the creation of Echo6 in 2006, a joint venture between French leading media group M6 (Metropole Television), and Echovox. Echo6 is now one of the most successful mobile entertainment companies in France. In addition to David’s entrepreneurial efforts, he is also an active member on the speaking circuit, considered an expert on web to mobile convergence and monetization opportunities.
Karl Mehta, Founder & CEO, PlaySpan
Karl Mehta brings over 16 years of experience to PlaySpan in founding and building high-tech businesses in the US and international markets. Prior to co-founding PlaySpan Inc., Karl was part of the founding team at MobileAria Inc. (acquired by Wireless Matrix) and co-founder/ CEO of OmniLabs Inc.. Prior to that, he held executive positions at Hughes leading new business and technology development. Karl is Charter member of TiE-Silicon Valley and board member of Ecosystem Ventures.
Matt Mihaly, CEO and Creative Director, Sparkplay Media
Matt was the founder of Iron Realms Entertainment and CEO from 1996 to early 2008. He launched four successful text MUDs while at Iron Realms and pioneered the virtual goods business model in 1998 with its first MUD - Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands - leading to 10 consecutive years of growth. Iron Realms spun off Sparkplay Media in late 2007 to develop casual MMOs and social media games, and has its first game - Earth Eternal - under development. Matt now serves as Sparkplay’s CEO and Creative Director.
Tim Pechmann, President, GMG Entertainment
Tim is the President of GMG Entertainment, an industry leading online video game publisher via prepaid cards. Tim has 12 years retail sales and marketing experience at Target Corporation. Prior to joining, GMG, Tim was the head of digital entertainment for Target, a new position Tim helped the company develop. While at Target, Tim pioneered the prepaid game card category by launching the Nexon game card exclusively at Target. Tim has industry leading experience in building successful prepaid card programs thru the development and execution of strategic pricing and promotional campaigns with companies like iTunes, Ticketmaster and many of the most successful prepaid gaming cards in the marketplace today. Tim holds a B.A. (Honors) from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management, with an emphasis in retail marketing.
David Perry
Perry is one of the veterans of the video game business (26 years), he’s also probably the tallest! He’s the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Acclaim Games, the #1 American Free-to-Play MMO Publisher (www.acclaim.com). His games have generated over a billion dollars in revenue and he’s had numerous #1 hits & “Game of the Year” awards. In his spare time he’s writing a game design reference book for students, and also publishes his business articles at BusinessWeek.com. In the last couple of years he’s been awarded a Masters, a Doctorate & a Fellowship for his achievements. He’s spoken at just about every major video game conference, including keynoting at the biggest game conference in the world (Leipzig 2008, Germany), and also has spoken on behalf of the game industry at the prestigious TED conference. To help the industry to grow, Perry is personally funding an initiative to open the doors to the video game industry for Investors, called www.GameInvestors.com launching Winter 2008. For more info just visit: www.dperry.com
Shervin Pishevar, CEO and Co-Founder, Social Gaming Network
Shervin Pishevar is the CEO and co-founder of Social Gaming Network (SGN), which he helped incubate from within Webs.com Inc. Since its inception in September 2007, SGN has grown to more than a billion page views per month and more than 15 million users (www.socialgn.com). Named “Bill Gates’ Worst Nightmare” by the Financial Times, Shervin is a visionary technology entrepreneur, published researcher and technology incubation expert, best known for helping usher in the on demand web computing era and the visionary behind the first web operating system with his first startup, WebOS. Shervin has an extensive track record for technology innovation and his achievements have been highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, LA Times, CNN and CNBC and Slashdot.
Scott Raney, Partner, Redpoint Ventures
Scott Raney is a Partner with Redpoint Ventures focusing on information and consumer technology, and service investments in consumer, enterprise, wireless and cleantech segments. Scott serves on the board of directors of adap.tv, JumpTap, mig33 and LetsTalk, and is involved with Redpoint’s investments in Gaia Online, Scribd, Cortina Systems, Mobilygen, MobiTV, and Kodiak Networks. Prior to joining Redpoint, Scott served as Senior Manager of New Products with NorthPoint Communications, a data CLEC providing nationwide DSL services. Scott managed NorthPoint’s first consumer product and led product development of other new products. Prior to NorthPoint, Scott worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company, where he helped clients in the private equity and telecommunications industries. Previously, Scott was the Director of Engineering for VideoPort Technologies, a developer of videoconferencing hardware. Scott began his career at Andersen Consulting as a member of the Advanced Technology Group where he assisted clients in the telecommunications industry. Scott holds a B.S.E.E., with high distinction, from Duke University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.
Sean Ryan, CEO, Meez
Sean is the CEO of Meez, a leading provider of 3D avatars. Sean previously served as vice president of music services at RealNetworks, where he managed the music division after selling Listen.com (home of the Rhapsody music service) to Real in August, 2003. Sean had earlier held various positions at Listen.com, including CEO for the 2 years before its sale. Prior to joining Listen.Com, Sean ran business development for online game company SegaSoft Networks, spent several years at the GAP helping launch the successful Old Navy clothing line, and worked at Chemical Bank. Sean holds an M.B.A. from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management and a B.A. from Columbia University.
Anu Shukla, Founder, Offerpal Media
Anu Shukla is a serial entrepreneur. Prior to founding Offerpal Media, she was the founder and CEO of Mybuys Inc., where she currently serves on the Board of Directors. Mybuys is a venture-backed company in the eCommerce personalization market. Prior to Mybuys, Anu pioneered the category of Internet Marketing Automation as founder and CEO of Rubric, Inc. Rubric was acquired in 2000 for $366 million. Prior to Rubric, Anu held a variety of executive roles including the VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at Versata (VATA), and Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Product Management at Compuware/Uniface Corporation (CPWR).
Paul Thind, GM, Habbo
Paul is the General Manager for North America of Sulake Corporation, an interactive entertainment company based in Helsinki, Finland. Thind runs the North American operations from Santa Monica, California. In this role, he is responsible for maintaining the daily operations of the US (.COM) and Canadian Habbo (.CA) branded websites as well as identifying, negotiating and securing business partnerships to develop Sulake’s presence in North America. Sulake is an interactive entertainment company specialized in developing, publishing and distributing multiplayer online games and communities, like Habbo. Sulake’s main product is Habbo, a new type of youth brand, which is based on one of the world’s fastest growing online communities for teenagers.
Paul previously served as CEO of PBA Music, an online music entertainment company as well as the VP of Business Development at Current Attractions, an internet entertainment company and movie database. Prior to that, Paul served as the CEO and President of two community oriented independent record labels including one that was cited as America’s ‘#1 Extreme Entertainment Company’ by Billboard Magazine. Paul has over fifteen years of experience in the entertainment and internet space and a proven track record in senior posts at entertainment companies. Paul holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from California State University, East Bay and is working towards an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University.
Andrew Trader, EVP Business Development, Zynga
As a software and Internet entrepreneur, savvy business leader and long-time gamer, Andrew Trader (A.T.) is establishing Zynga as a tour-de-force in the social gaming genre. By forging business partnerships with both independent and established game developers, A.T. has already grown Zynga’s network to over 1.0 million daily users since the company’s partner program launch in February 2008. Zynga currently boasts 30 games from 15 developers in addition to its own games and 1.6 million daily users.
Before co-founding Zynga, A.T. was the CEO of Utah Street Networks, operator of Tribe.net (www.tribe.net), one of the first social networking sites. He led the sale of Utah Street Networks to Cisco in 2007. He was also the co-founder of Coremetrics (www.coremetrics.com), a leader in website marketing, and served as the company’s VP of Business Development growing the company to over 100 employees and raising $65 million in invested capital.
Earlier in his career, A.T. was a Senior Vice President at Sherwood Partners, a Palo Alto based consulting firm. There, he provided strategic advisory services to private and public technology companies. Earlier in his career, A.T. worked in corporate finance (M&A) and business consulting at Ernst & Young LLP. He holds both BSE and MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Margaret Wallace, CEO & Founder, Rebel Monkey
Margaret Wallace was driven by a love for games and those who play them, Margaret has spent her life creating meaningful experiences for people of all ages. Before Rebel Monkey, she was a CEO of Skunk Studios in San Francisco and spent time at great places like Shockwave.com and PF.Magic. Margaret is frequently a featured panelist at gaming conferences. She serves on the Steering Committee for the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Casual Games Special Interest Group (SIG). Margaret was also a co-editor of the 2006 IGDA Casual Games White Paper. In 2006, she was named by Next Generation as one of the Game Industry’s 100 Most Influential Women.
Mark Wallace, co-Founder & CEO, Wello Horld, Inc.
Mark Wallace is co-Founder and CEO of Wello Horld, Inc. He is also the editor of 3pointD.com, a widely read blog covering virtual worlds and other 3D online technologies. His writing on technology, economics, and other topics has appeared in The New York Times, the Financial Times, Wired, GQ, and many other publications. He has written regularly on online games for The Escapist (escapistmagazine.com), and since January 2005 has helped run the Second Life Herald (secondlifeherald.com), a popular online newspaper covering virtual worlds. With Herald founder Peter Ludlow, he is co-author of “The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse,” a book about virtual worlds. He played his first video game, the text-based Adventure, in 1978 on a PDP-11. He currently lives in Brooklyn.
Susan Wu, CEO, Ohai
Susan Wu is CEO of Ohai and Venture Advisor at Charles River Ventures. As an investor, entrepreneur and developer, she has been involved in the online gaming industry since the text MUD days. Most recently, Susan has been a venture capitalist involved in the funding of industry innovators such as Areae, Live Gamer, and Conduit Labs. She was also the co-producer of the first Virtual Goods Summit and the GDC-CRV Startup Launchpad. Susan received her B.A. from Tufts University and an MBA with distinction from Cornell University.
