Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based CEO’ operating in the Digital Media space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Kong Pham
CEO & Founder of Jumpcut
Follow Kong Pham:
About Jumpcut: Jumpcut creates captivating online courses.
Andrew McCollum
CEO of Philo
In 2014, Andrew McCollum became CEO at Philo, an entertainment-focused OTT streaming service that launched nationwide in November 2017. Before assuming the role of CEO, Andrew served on Philo’s board, mentored Philo’s co-founders, and was one of the company’s first investors. Prior to Philo, Andrew was on the founding team of Facebook, and the social design of products has been a persistent interest. After Facebook, Andrew was an Entrepreneur in Residence at two of Philo’s investors, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Flybridge Partners. He continues to be an active early-stage angel investor and advisor.
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About Philo: Philo offers an entertainment-focused streaming service nationwide.
Christopher Rudy
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Cut.com, Inc.
Christopher Rudy is the CEO, Co-Founder at Cut.com.
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About Cut.com, Inc.: Cut makes little stories of some interest.
Mike Lu
Chief Executive Officer of Triller
Mike Lu is the CEO at Triller. He has over 16 years of product and technology experience working in mobile/social games and online media.
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About Triller: Triller is an AI-powered music video app that enables anyone to make professional videos, effortlessly.
Nick Hedges
CEO of MomentFeed
A 20-year veteran of the Internet and software as a service (SaaS) industry, Nick comes to MomentFeed having been President and CEO of Velocify, the leading consumer sales acceleration platform. Nick helped orchestrate the successful sale of the company to Velocify partner and leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, Ellie Mae. A widely recognized thought leader on organization transformation, technologies, and sales strategies, Nick has held senior positions at Bain & Company, Accenture.com, and Ogilvy. He was named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management. A Fulbright Scholar, Hedges holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree with first-class honors from Manchester University.
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About ICE Mortgage Technology, MomentFeed, uberall: MomentFeed is a platform that helps multi-location brands optimize for proximity search in order to connect customers with brands.
Michael Ritter
Founder & CEO of Maple Media
Michael Ritter is the Founder and CEO of Maple Media, a mobile apps and games company backed by private equity firm Shamrock Capital. Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising and technology company that acquires, manages and operates mobile applications focused on the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. Popular titles include Snowboard Party: World Tour, Skateboard Party, Minesweeper Classic, Sudoku 🙂 and CalConvert. Previously he was SVP of Business & Corporate Development for Jam City, a large social and mobile game company based in Los Angeles where he oversaw mergers & acquisition activities, publishing, licensing, distribution, sales, legal and partnerships for social and mobile games. Michael was also the Founder and Publisher of Saturday Night Magazine, which at the time, he built into the largest circulated monthly collegiate lifestyle and entertainment magazine in the country.
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About Fantasy Baseball Arbitration, Maple Media: Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising, and technology company that acquires and operates category-leading, consumer apps.
Arjun Mehta
Founder & CEO of Moment House
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About Moment House, Trakfire: Social live media platform for creators.
Jeff Green
CEO of The Trade Desk
Jeff Green is founder and CEO of The Trade Desk, Inc., a demand-side platform that powers the desks of the world’s most advanced buyers in online advertising. Green built The Trade Desk as second-generation demand-side platform, positioning it at the center of online advertising’s trading future by offering efficient, transparent technology. Since its inception in 2009, the company has grown on pace with the now-$3B RTB industry, having been included as an alpha partner in Facebook’s launch of the Facebook Exchange, and having been recently being named one of OnMedia’s “35 [Private Companies] to Watch.” By focusing on the technology of the buy-side, Green has shaped The Trade Desk into one of the fastest growing companies in ad tech. He was a finalist for the Ernst & Young 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year award for Greater Los Angeles. Prior to The Trade Desk, Green founded AdECN, which he built in 2004 as the world’s first online advertising exchange. As COO, he led all strategy, product, and business development. AdECN was acquired by the Microsoft Corporation within three years of launch. At Microsoft, Green not only oversaw the AdECN exchange business, but also all reseller and channel partner business. Additionally, he advised the all-up strategy for the Online Services Division. In 2009, Green left to launch The Trade Desk. Green has also played a leadership role in the ad tech industry, having served on the Networks and Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines Committee for the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) from 2011-2012. Green led working groups that established rules and best practices for acquiring inventory, and set data transaction standards.
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About The Trade Desk, Trade Desk Inc.: The Trade Desk is an online demand-side platform that provides buying tools for digital media buyers.
Chase Harmer
Chief Executive Officer of PayCertify
Integrity, honesty, and longevity. Those are the qualities that have shaped Chase Harmer, a successful entrepreneur, leader, speaker, and innovator. For 15 years, Chase has built businesses, led companies, created products, and helped bring the best out of his employees. As a merchant services professional, Chase has launched several companies and products—such as MLS Hotel, Power Payments, Payment Reservations, and Pay Certify—that focus on hotel and e-commerce verticals. His companies process transactions and create software products that help increase cash flow and longevity of merchant accounts in those industries.
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About PayCertify: The PayCertify Companies Inc. is an All-In-One payments co and digital wallet with a family of brands and services in the US, EU and CA.
Adrian Turner
CEO of Data61
CEO, Co-Founder of new platform company in stealth. CEO and entrepreneurial business builder focused on leveraging platform economics and pervasive computing to disrupt traditionally conservative industries. Member of Accenture’s Tech Vision External Advisory Board. Member of Business School Advisory Board of University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Author of the eBook BlueSky Mining that analyzes the underlying conditions that have made Silicon Valley so successful in spawning new billion dollar industries. http://www.blueskyminingbook.com Past President and Chairman of Australia’s expat network Advance, with 25,000 members across 90 countries. 3 of the last 4 Australian Prime Ministers have been patrons to Advance.
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About Data61: Data61 is the largest data innovation group in Australia. Bringing together our Digital Productivity team and National ICT Australia
Katherine Power
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Clique
Katherine Power is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clique Media Group (CMG), the parent media company of WhoWhatWear (fashion), MyDomaine (lifestyle) Byrdie (beauty) and Obsessee (new omni-channel platform, specifically targeted at Gen-Z). In 2006, Katherine left her editorial role at ELLE to launch Who What Wear with her co-founder, Hillary Kerr. The goal was to disrupt the DNA of the magazine industry with a simple idea: do it digitally. By bringing print magazine sensibilities to the online space, CMG was born to offer readers elevated and curated access to their core passions: fashion, beauty, home and shopping. At CMG, Katherine drives all business operations, advertising and brand partnerships, along with the development of branded technology products. Just within the last year, Katherine has led the charge on exciting new initiatives for CMG, which include announcing the brand’s first foray into product with the launch of the Who What Wear collection at Target, a Series B round of funding that Amazon participated in, international expansion to the UK and Australia, and the acquisition of Wantering, a Canadian startup and social shopping search engine. Additionally, a third co-authored book, The Career Code, which serves as the modern girl’s guide for creating your own professional success, came out in the spring of 2016. As a leader that constantly innovates about what readers and consumers might want next, Katherine and her CMG team are continuing to enhance their offerings and user experience for the new generation of consumers.
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About AVALINE, Clique, MERIT Beauty, Sonoma Brands, Versed, Who What Wear: Clique is a media and commerce company
Daniel Chu
CEO and Co-Founder of MakersPlace
Daniel Chu is the CEO and co-founder at MakersPlace. He is a product and engineering leader with a passion for applying technologies to drive real-world change.
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About MakersPlace: MakersPlace is an authentic and unique digital creation platform powered by blockchain technology for digital creators.
Alex Beckman
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of GameOn Technology
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About Elastic Holdings, GameOn Technology: Our technology powers intelligent chat applications across multiple platforms for some of the world’s largest brands.
Sarah Lacy
Founder, Editor-in-Chief, and CEO of PandoDaily
Sarah Lacy is the founder, editor-in-chief, and chief executive officer of [PandoDaily](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/pandodaily), a web publication that offers technology news, analysis, and commentaries about Silicon Valley-based startups. Lacy is also an award winning journalist and author of two critically acclaimed books, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 and Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos. Lacy has been a reporter in Silicon Valley for nearly fifteen years covering everything from the tiniest startups to the largest public companies. She was formerly a staff writer and columnist for [BusinessWeek](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/businessweek), the founding co-host of Yahoo Finance’s Tech Ticker, and a senior editor at [TechCrunch](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/techcrunch). Born on December 29, 1975, Lacy currently lives in San Francisco, California.
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About Chairman Mom, PandoDaily: PandoDaily is a web publication offering technology news, analysis, and commentary, focusing mainly on Silicon Valley and startup companies.
Chris M. Willliams
Founder & CEO of pocket.watch
Chris M. Williams is the Founder & CEO at pocket.watch.
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About pocket.watch, pocket.watch: Pocket.watch is a new studio creating global franchises from the YouTube stars and characters loved by Generation Alpha.
Alan Chan
Co-Founder & CEO of Joy
Alan Chan is the Cofounder & CEO of Joy (https://joy.co)
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About Joy: Joy is the first Smart Photo Album – an all-in-one hardware, software and cloud solution for families to organize and relive their memories.
Co-Founder, CEO of Samba TV
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About Carrot Capital, i/o Ventures, Samba TV: Samba TV enables the next-generation TV experience powered by its first-party data and helps viewers engage with relevant media.
Sepideh Nasiri
Founder & CEO of Persian Women In Tech
Sepideh (“Sepi”) Nasiri is an award winning serial Entrepreneur with 16 years of experience working in the Tech Industry, the Founder of Persian Women In Tech, the former Vice President at Women 2.0 and a life-time advocate for women, diversity and inclusion. Mrs. Nasiri started her career as a Co-founder and Managing Editor of a digital and print Los Angeles Magazine and later joined a number of successful startups in Silicon Valley. In 2014, she was recognized by San Francisco Business Times/Journal “40under40” and Diversity Journal’s 2014 “Women Worth Watching”. Currently, Mrs. Nasiri advises early stage startups including at global initiatives such as WeMENA (a program by the World Bank) and mentors globally many female entrepreneurs and founders in technology serving as an advisor to initiatives such as TechWomen, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
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About Persian Women In Tech: Persian Women In Tech supports Iranian women in Tech/STEM from all across the Globe’s landscape.
Carlos Watson
Co-Founder & CEO of OZY Media
Carlos Watson co-anchors MSNBC 2 p.m. news program from NBC headquarters at 30 Rock. A Harvard grad, he got his start in politics, serving as campaign manager and chief of staff for Florida Representative Daryl Jones and managing Bill Clintonâs 1992 Election Day effort in Miami-Dade County. While at Harvard, he also worked with Senator Bob Graham, DNC Chair Ron Brown, and Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. After graduating from Stanford Law, where he edited the Law Review, Watson joined the business world, advising Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. He later struck out on his own and co-founded Achieva College Prep Services, which helped thousands of high school students prepare for college and was written about in Time and Forbes, among others. Watson sold the firm to the Washington Post/Kaplan in 2002.
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About Achieva.com, OZY Media, The Stimulist: OZY Media is a premium media and entertainment for curious people — across TV, events, podcasts and news.
Jim McKelvey
Founder & CEO of Invisibly
Jim co-founded Square, where he now serves as a Director. Jim is also a General Partner at FINTOP Capital and Green Visor Capital. He serves as a Director of the St. Louis Federal Reserve and as a Trustee to Washington University in St. Louis. Jim’s first venture was co-founding Mira Digital Publishing in 1990, which is a leader in electronic publishing for scientific conferences. In 2013, he founded the LaunchCode Foundation, currently bringing free computer education and jobs to 5 US cities. In addition to his businesses and philanthropy, Jim is a glassblowing artist and co-founded one of the nation’s top glass centers, Third Degree Glass Factory. He has published two books on computer programming and one on glassblowing. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.
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About Arch Grants, FINTOP Capital, Invisibly, LaunchCode, Mira Smart Conference, Square, Third Degree Glass Factory, Washington University in St. Louis: Invisibly puts the power of your data back in your hands.
Chris Kantrowitz
CEO, Founder of Gobbler
Chris is a serial entrepreneur in gaming, technology, and music. At age 14, he founded his first company– a game testing business for clients like Sony Imagesoft. After university, he co-founded 3D Groove, online gaming technology company that powered the first online 3D games at sites like shockwave.com and nickelodeon.com. In 2003, he started ODVD games, whose premiere title, “Shout!â€, a pop culture interactive DVD trivia game,was distributed globally by Hasbro and is returning in 2011. In 2006, Chris combined his passion for creative and technology and co-founded Frank the Plumber, a leading concert design and production company creating digital and live experiences for such artists as Akon, The Strokes, Lady Antebellum, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Katy Perry and Madonna and brands like Ford, Apple and AOL. Most recently, he founded his third technology company, Gobbler, along with his sister Jamie. Gobbler is a purpose built cloud for media creators and the software companies who provide tools to them.
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About Gobbler, Mootral: The largest marketplace for subscription pro-audio plugins.
Jed Simon
Founder & CEO of FastPay
Jed Simon is the founder and CEO of FastPay, providing liquidity and financial workflow solutions to the digital media industry. Formerly, Simon was an investment banking analyst program at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York working on IPOs, debt finance transactions, and M&A for media companies. After joining DreamWorks SKG in 1996, Simon managed aspects of its finance, distribution, marketing, and new media businesses, and was a senior executive at DreamWorks Records before assisting in the sale of the company to Universal Music Group. His last position with DreamWorks was Vice President of International Distribution and Marketing for DreamWorks Pictures, based in London.
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About DreamWorks Studios, FastPay: FastPay is the definitive financial platform for digital media.
Aaron Emigh
Co-founder & CEO of Brilliant
Aaron Emigh is the co-founder and CEO of Brilliant. He was previously co-founder and CTO of shopkick, EVP and GM of Technology at Six Apart, CTO of Rojo Networks, Managing Director of Radix Labs, and CEO of CommerceFlow. Aaron is a seasoned entrepreneur with four acquisitions and one IPO. He has over 90 issued US patents, has been named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, and has presented original research at numerous conferences and research colloquia, including RSA, APWG, DIMACS, TIPPI, SFECTF, ISSA, MAAWG, ITTC, and the AAAS. Aaron has served as a member of the US Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force and the US-DHS Infosec Technology Transition Council, a Research Fellow of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and a technical advisor to the Financial Services Technology Consortium.
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About Brilliant: We make the Brilliant Control, a smart home control system that replaces an existing light switch.
Mike Melby
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FITLAB
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About ELECTRIC, FITLAB, FITLAB, FITLAB, Mayweather Boxing & Fitness, XPT: FitLab powers experiences that inspire you to move.
Bertram Meyer
Co-founder and CEO of ONEDOME
Bertram is a serial entrepreneur. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Onedome. Prior, he co-founded Taulia and led it as CEO for 7 years. He has raised $100M+ for various companies and had a successful exit in 2006 as one of only 5 executives and equity holders in Ebydos (sold to Readsoft which was then acquired by Lexmark). Bertram is passionate about impactful and mission-driven businesses…and in showing that they can be very profitable at the same time.
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About ONEDOME: ONEDOME is a location-based entertainment and immersive media company.
Clark Benson
CEO & Founder of Ranker
Clark Benson is a serial entrepreneur with 5 startups under his belt including an internet exit eCrush (primary site was http://www.espin.com) to Hearst in 2006. Ranker is his current startup and he also funded the seed round. Benson’s other startups have been in the music industry. 2 of them have been merged into Almighty Music Marketing (http://www.almightymusicmarketing.com) which his partner Joel Oberstein runs. He has also been an angel investor, in Jumpcut/Miravida which sold to Yahoo! in 2006.
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About Ranker: Attracting more than 30 million monthly unique visitors worldwide, Ranker is the leader in fan-powered rankings on just about everything.
Kyle Wong
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Pixlee
Kyle Wong is the CEO & Co-Founder of Pixlee, a visual marketing platform that helps brands market and sells with customer photos and videos. The company works with more than 150 brands such as Kenneth Cole, Gaiam, Levi Strauss and Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants to develop a more authentic marketing experience and create stronger relationships with their most passionate customers. Apart from that, he is currently working as a contributor with Forbes magazine and as a leadership council with Ad Council. Kyle attended Stanford University where he studied engineering and co-founded Pixlee out of his dorm room in 2012. He is a mentor for the Stanford Accelerator (StartX) program, where he advises several early-stage VC backed tech startups. Kyle has been featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List and is a regular speaker and domain expert on influencer marketing and driving consumer engagement through social media. He is also an active contributor for Forbes and Fortune Magazine where he writes on digital marketing, entrepreneurship, and various leadership and career topics.
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About Ad Council, Forbes Magazine, Pixlee: Pixlee is a user-generated content marketing platform that helps brands to market and sell by using real customer photos and videos.
Matthew Levin
Co-Founder and CEO of Donut Media
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About Donut Media: A digital network for the next generation of automotive enthusiasts.
Raju Sagiraju
CEO/Founder of Dime Development
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About Dime Development: Digital Agency to help brands
Michael Deng
Founder & CEO of ArcSoft
An unusual entrepreneur – with a finely balanced scientist’s left brain and artist-photographer’s right brain – Michael initially sought out funding from friends and family to start ArcSoft in 1994. His original idea was to build an imaging software title with sophisticated photo editing functionality that was not only effortless to use but could be enjoyed at a nominal cost. Since those early days, Michael’s strategic, customer-focused vision for the future together with his deep industry knowledge has transformed ArcSoft into a global leader in imaging technology and multimedia software, licensing its products and IPs to mainstream digital camera, mobile phone and multimedia PC manufacturers.
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About ArcSoft: ArcSoft is a software developer of multimedia technologies and applications across desktop, mobile and embedded platforms.
Cristobal Viedma
Founder & CEO of Lingokids
Viedma Cristobal is the Software Engineer: Head of platform at Viki Inc.
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About Lingokids, Viki: Helping families around the world raise amazing kids.
Brian Graden
Founder and CEO of Brian Graden Media
For generations of young people, the name Brian Graden might not ring a bell. A glance at his resume certainly will. This longtime production pacesetter has spent a career developing and fostering cutting-edge television as well as steering the programming divisions of major entertainment networks: with his talented hand, some of the most forward-thinking, edgy, and plain entertaining television of the past 25 years has come to life. His accomplishments each stand on their own as signposts of a career that’s anticipated every major turn. From his earliest days as a junior executive overseeing the trailblazing COPS and America’s Most Wanted, to his guiding hand in the development of South Park, to transforming the formerly staid VH1 into a pop culture powerhouse, Brian Graden’s work has consistently helped to define it’s time while also pointing to what’s next. During his time as MTV Networks President of Entertainment, he oversaw the creation of a new canon of young people’s programming with shows like TRL, Pimp My Ride, Punk’d, Jackass, Jersey Shore, and countless others. Striking out on his own, Brian started Brian Graden Media in 2013. BGM’s forays into the digital world have continued the success he started on television, garnering an Emmy award for the genre-bending interactive show HitRecord on TV, and developing a suite of YouTube Original programming and unconventionally fascinating cable shows, each tuned into what’s driving views and clicks in today’s evolving media landscape. With his track record, it’s hard to bet against BGM. It’s not entertainment alone that defines Brian Graden. A passionate advocate for equality, Brian personally spearheaded MTV’s Fight for Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Violence campaign while at the network. He’s been the recipient of numerous awards for his advocacy including the GLAAD Media Vito Russo Award for Excellence in Media, the EQCA Award for Commitment to Advancing LGBT Equality, and the Equality Forum’s National Role Model award. He’s also delivered keynote addresses at the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus Annual Commencement, the Reaching Out MBA Conference, and the Cellcom Media Conference. When he isn’t working, Brian is an avid musician, having manned the keyboards for cover band Ace Oxygen and the Ozones in high school before turning his ambitions towards Hollywood. Today, his musical tastes are as varied and diverse as his shows’ audiences. Brian Graden currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
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About Brian Graden Media: Brian Graden Media an Emmy award-winning television production company based in Hollywood, CA.
Brian Nam
CEO and Co-Founder of DIVE Studios
Brian Nam is a Co-founder & CEO of MINDSET.
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About DIVE Studios, MINDSET: DIVE Studios is a podcast production company creating a world of audio that positively impacts culture and society.
Kevin Miller – GR0
CEO of GR0
Kevin Miller grew up in Ormond Beach, FL, before moving to Washington DC to attend Georgetown University. From Georgetown, Kevin moved to California to pursue an entrepreneurial career in one of the tech capitals of the world. Kevin worked at Google at their HQ in Mountain View as well as for smaller firms and startups looking to improve their online advertising strategies. Over years of hard work and dedicated focus, Kevin grew from SEO-amateur into the head of growth and marketing at Opendoor. In 2020, Kevin left Opendoor to co-found GR0, an SEO agency, with his long-time friend Jonathan Zacharias.
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About GR0, The Word Counter: At GR0, our mission is to help brands rank #1 on Google.
Brian D. Litman
President & CEO of PlayMedia Systems, Inc.
Brian D. Litman is a media and technology entrepreneur operating out of both the United States and Europe. He is currently the CEO of PlayMedia Systems, Inc. is a principal of the stealth investment entity Qontinuum™ developing media monetization project “Qovert™ | SPON™ and the advanced digital assets project “MediumRare™”. In 1997, Litman conceived and co-founded PlayMedia® Systems, Inc., the firm that developed the core AMP® MP3 technology used in WinAmp® and the original Napster®. Facebook’s co-founder Sean Parker and his partner Sean Fanning licensed Litman’s AMP for use in the massively popular Napster client of the late 1990’s through early 2000’s until the pioneering file sharing client failed to survive a strategic bankruptcy. PlayMedia “.nap” technology was core to the Bertelsmann’s planned acquisition of the digital media sharing platform. PlayMedia’ global technology footprint pivoted and became ever-wider when they were contracted by the dominant “background music” operator (currently known as Mood Media | Muzak) to develop the first Internet-based music playback system (PlayCore). PlayMedia’s strategic relationships have also include Intel, STMicro, France Telecom|Orange and the Hughes Corporation. Litman’s career has spanned the spectrum of media, including: Radio (Bonneville Broadcasting), journalism (Knight-Ridder’s Kansas City Star), Recorded Music (CBS Records Group), Cable Television (Time, Inc. and Hearst/ABC/NBC), Digital Telephony (AT&T spin-off US West), Russian Media Development (E.C.H.O.: Entertainment & Communications Holdings Group and Digital Music (Advanced Multimedia Products, PlayMedia Systems). In 1988 Litman served as the founding Chairman of the Cable Television Committee for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys) and also sat on the Emmy Awards Committee. Along with now-Chairman and CEO of Comcast / NBC / Universal Brian Roberts, Litman also served on the Board of Directors of the California Cable Television Association, (CCTA) from June 1987 – October 1990. In 1992, Litman negotiated the first intellectual property development agreement with the Soviet KGB pursuant to new material related to the Cold War and other topics. This included the release of the critical Soviet archives on JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. The archives revealed hitherto unknown degree of violent psychopathology inherent to Oswald’s character. Litman also was a media consultant in the pre and post-perestroika eras to Soviet Central Television (Ostankino Teleradio), Pravda, Komsomolskaya Pravda and Moskovski Novosti. In 1993 he formed a brief business partnership with ex-Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov to create the “Ryzhkov Group”. Ryzhkov had been head of government under Mikhail Gorbachev and was massively connected in state industrial circles. Litman holds a Patent for the “System and Method for Advertisement Sponsored Content Distribution”. Litman also has investments outside of PlayMedia in the fintech project “Bitzerland” and stealth projects in artificial intelligence/machine learning. Litman travels frequently and is usually domiciled in Europe. In the US he maintains residences in the West.
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About MediumRare™, PlayMedia Systems, Inc., Qovert Systems, Qovert Systems: Digital Audiovisual Technologies, Background Music Playback Systems
Rehan Fernando
CEO of EIGHT25MEDIA
Rehan Fernando is the chief executive officer of EIGHT25MEDIA.
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About EIGHT25MEDIA: EIGHT25MEDIA is a full-service digital agency that offers strategic consulting, web design, and mobile app development.
Stefan Lederer
Co-Founder & CEO of Bitmovin
Stefan Lederer is co-founder and Head of Business of bitmovinin 2012, a company which focuses on products, cloud services and consulting in the area of adaptive HTTP streaming. He received his B.Sc. (Bakk.) in Information Management in Aug’10, his M.Sc. (Dipl.-Ing.) in Computer Science in Mar’12 and his M.Sc. (Mag.) in Marketing and International Management in Jun’13, all with distinction from the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. He gained practical and international expertise in various companies (IBM, McKinsey&Company, Dolby, Hillside, Ilogs, etc.) and has a strong business focus in marketing and international management. He founded his first company in 2008 and led several IT projects in central and eastern Europe. In his position of an Assistant Professor at the Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Institute of Information Technology (ITEC), Multimedia Communication Group he participated in several EC-funded projects (ALICANTE, SocialSensor). His research topics include transport of modern/rich media, multimedia adaptation, QoS/QoE as well as future internet architectures and he has published more than 20 papers in these areas. He participated in the MPEG-DASH standardization, contributed several open source tools (DASHEncoder, DASHoverCCN VLC plugin) and datasets.
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About Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Bitmovin: Bitmovin is a multimedia technology company providing adaptive streaming video infrastructure for global digital media companies.
Luigi Picarazzi
CEO of Digital Media Management
As President & CEO of Digital Media Management (DMM), Luigi Picarazzi leverages years of experience as a digital manager, web producer and network executive to help Hollywood’s most notable brands engage online audiences. Since founding DMM in 2010, Picarazzi has grown the independent agency beyond digital management and talent representation to also include five distinct divisions with a variety of services. In response to social media’s surging role in marketing to consumer, Picarazzi launched DM2, a creative agency that provides design and development support for innovative projects. DMedia later joined the DMM family to create publishing destinations for the huge communities the agency was establishing such as Felicity Huffman’s WhatheFlicka.com. As the firm’s production studio, DStudio creates original social video concepts like the web series, ‘Really Important Questions’ with star client, Elizabeth Banks. Over the last five years, Picarazzi has grown Digital Media Management’s Beverly Hills team to 45 employees and serve as Hollywood’s premier marketing and social media partner.
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About Digital Media Management: Digital Media Management helps Hollywood’s biggest brands navigate social media channels, activate fan bases and secure brand partnerships
Alok Bhat
Founder & CEO of ADVIDS
Founder & CEO at advids.co
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About ADVIDS, COVOCO: ADVIDS is an online platform and concierge service to produce web videos.
Jeff Yasuda
CEO & Founder of Feed Media Group
Jeff is the CEO and Founder of Feed.fm (Feed Media Inc.). Feed.fm helps game developers, content publishers, and e-commerce retailers increase customer engagement, retention, and conversions by incorporating popular music into their environments– at the lowest possible cost. These engagement metric improvements in turn improve financial metrics– including increased ARPU (average revenue per user), reduced average CAC (customer acquisition cost), and lower churn. API documentation and links to the iOS, Javascript, and Unity SDKs can be found at http://feed.fm/documentation. Music has always been an important part of Jeff’s life and he considers himself a bona fide hack on guitar. Prior to Blip.fm, Jeff has worked with numerous technology companies in software, hardware, computer services, semiconductor services and telecommunications equipment companies. Most recently, Jeff was Managing Director and CFO of Redwood Ventures where he managed investments in their technology portfolio. Prior to that he worked in Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers, and did strategic consulting, M&A and financial valuation at Arthur Andersen. Jeff is a CPA, has an MBA from New York University, and a BA from Dartmouth College. He is also a co-founding director for Little Kids Rock, a non-profit helping to teach music to children in our public schools.
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About Feed Media Group, Fuzz: Feed Media Group is for businesses that need licensed popular music to create engaging customer experiences.
Erik Huberman
Founder and CEO of Hawke Media
Forbes 30 Under 30. Erik Huberman is a brand marketing expert, serial entrepreneur and founder of Hawke Media, a full-service outsourced CMO for brands like Red Bull, Verizon, Evite and Eddie Bauer. Prior to Hawke, Erik founded, grew and sold Swag of the Month, and grew Ellie.com’s sales to $1 million in four months. Erik is also an Inc. Top 25 Marketing Influencer and received a 2016 Telly Award.
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About Hawke Media, Hawke Ventures: Hawke Media provides a host of services that help businesses strategize and realize their potential.
Douglas Colbeth
Founder & CEO of MedCircle
Douglas Colbeth became president and chief executive officer of Kinaxis in March 2003. As one of the true visionaries of the Internet explosion in the mid 1990’s, he envisioned the opportunity to be a leader in delivering an on-demand supply chain management service. He then came across what he describes as a “gang of supply chain geniuses” in Canada, who had already developed very powerful modeling and collaboration technology. After going public in 2014 – Kinaxis has a market capitalization of approximately $2 Billion. Doug understood what the Internet’s influence on consumer behavior would be and how it would dramatically increase demand volatility. The problem of effectively responding to consumer demand would be further exacerbated by the dramatic market shift of outsourced manufacturing operations. Under Doug’s leadership, Kinaxis developed a world-class offering which enables companies to build better supply chain plans and quickly respond to constant changes in demand, supply and product — driving breakthroughs in customer service and operations performance. Today, the Kinaxis RapidResponse® cloud service empowers front-line decision makers at brand name companies and contract manufacturers with multi-enterprise visibility and collaborative analysis tools to effectively respond to change across an entire distributed supply chain. Prior to Kinaxis, Doug was chief executive officer of Spyglass Inc., a leading provider of Internet software technologies. Spyglass technologies are utilized inside millions of products including PCs, televisions, telephones, and other hand-held devices. Most notably, Spyglass technology is the foundation of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. In June 1995, Spyglass became the first Internet software company to conduct a successful Initial Public Offering. In March 2000, Doug negotiated its merger with OpenTV Inc., at a value of $2.4 Billion. Outside of his work with Kinaxis, Doug and his wife Margaret are pioneer philanthropists in the area of juvenile brain diseases. Established in 2000, the Colbeth Clinic is operated by the University of Illinois Medical Center and serves inner city children in the Chicago area. This state of the art clinic employs a multidisciplinary approach to treating a wide range of brain diseases including: autism, depression, bipolar, OCD, ADHD, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Doug holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Siena College in Loudonville, New York, and studied Quantitative Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (R.P.I.) in Troy, New York. While attending R.P.I., Doug was awarded a research grant from Texas Instruments Inc. to develop modeling software for various Texas Instruments products.
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About MedCircle: MedCircle is a San Diego based company redefining the mental health care market
Tyler Lenane
CEO and Co-Founder of Gimme Radio
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About Gimme Radio: Gimme Radio is a digital music platform designed for passionate music fans.
Rob Emrich
Founder & CEO of The Mobile Majority
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About Alliance for Audited Media, The Emrich Foundation, The Mobile Majority, YPO: We help brands realize the full potential of mobile.
Ryan Born
Founder & CEO of HAAWK
Ryan Born is the Founder & CEO of HAAWK, Inc. a VC backed digital rights management and copyright administration agency specializing in YouTube and Facebook/Instagram rights management and digital distribution services. He started his career in the Atlanta office of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Assurance and Business Advisory Services Practice where he gained experience in an array of industries. Ryan later transferred to New York City to broaden his experience in the firm’s Tax and Legal Services division. After PwC, he served as VP of Finance and Financial Controller at WireImage.com during which time the Company was acquired by Getty Images for $208 million. After WireImage, he angel invested in Internet Marketing Inc. and NewCondosOnline.com, the largest one-stop resource for finding and comparing new condo developments, where he also served as CFO. In 2007, he relocated to Los Angeles and founded AudioMicro, Inc, which operates a network of digital content licensing marketplaces, each targeted at a specific vertical — celebrity photos (ImageCollect), stock music & sound effects (AudioMicro), and YouTube monetization (AdRev). In 2015, the Zealot Networks acquired a majority of the company for over $20M. Prior to Zealot’s acquisition, the Company was backed by DFJ Frontier, part of the largest VC network in the world with over $7B under management, and Fotolia LLC, a leading stock photo marketplace with over 12 million images which itself was acquired by Adobe in 2014 for $800M. Ryan graduated Beta Gamma Sigma with an undergraduate degree in Accounting/Marketing & Art history and a Studio Art minor from Emory University. In addition, he possesses a Masters of Accounting Science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds an active CPA license with the State Board of Accountancy of his home state, Tennessee, and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA).
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About AudioMicro, HAAWK: HAAWK polices, administers, distributes, & licenses content to UGC video sites on behalf of copyright holders.
Pervez Qureshi
Chief Executive Officer of Saba Software
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About Saba Software: We want to help transform your talent management processes to help you drive better business results and gain competitive advantage.
Philip Saunders
CEO and Member of the Board of Directors of Saba Software
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About Saba Software: We want to help transform your talent management processes to help you drive better business results and gain competitive advantage.
David Dolby
CEO of Dolby Family Ventures
David Dolby is a director of Dolby Laboratories and a member of the technology strategy committee focused on long-term growth opportunities. He is also a director of Cogstate Limited, where he serves on the audit, nominating and governance, and compensation committees. David is also the CFO of the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund, supporting a variety of not-for-profit initiatives in academic and research institutions, and other social impact sectors. David has a BSE in Civil Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. David has studied overseas in Salamanca, Spain, Oxford, England, and Erlangen, Germany. David recently completed a year-long program at the Philanthropy Workshop West with a focus on impact investing. David participates regularly in public company directors’ programs, including Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance and Harvard Business School.
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About Dolby Family Ventures: Dolby Family Ventures is an early stage venture firm focused on building great technology companies.
Moshe Mosbacher
Co-founder – CEO of TubeScience
Moshe Mosbacher is the CEO and co-founder of TubeScience.
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About TubeScience: TubeScience produces conversion-optimized video for many of Facebook’s largest performance marketers.
Ted Dhanik
CEO, Co-founder & chairman of engage:BDR
A co-founder of engage:BDR, Inc. Ted serves as President and Exec Vice President of Business Development overseeing strategic marketing, sales and business development, client relationship management, and content acquisition. From 2003 – 2008, Ted was with MySpace.com developing strategic marketing initiatives. Working very closely with founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, Ted was responsible for launching the brand in its infancy through a very specific combination of on- and offline campaigns. Also, Mr. Dhanik innovated business development at LowerMyBills.com in its early stages through acquisition by Experian, and was also an integral part of the early development and launch of the consumer lending program at NexTag Corporation. Mr. Dhanik has worked for or been a partner at several other companies in business development, sales, and managerial positions, such as Xoriant Corporation, Atesto Technologies, Inc., Brigade Solutions, Beyond.com/Cybersource Corporation, and Merrill Corporation. Ted sits on the board or advises other tech startups such as Fighter, LottoGopher and Schizo Pictures, and is an active mentor at Los Angeles-based startup accelerator Start Engine. Engage:BDR is a top-tier online display, video and mobile advertising network and technology provider.
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About engage:BDR: engage:BDR is a digital advertising company that offers cross-device video and display advertising solutions.
Sam Wang
Founder & CEO of ProGuides
Founder & CEO of ProGuides.
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About ProGuides: ProGuides is an esports training platform where millions of committed gamers get better.
Matthew Adell
Co-Founder and CEO of OnNow.tv
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About MetaPop Inc., OnNow.tv: Discover, Share and Promote Livestreams
Sergii Mashevskyi
Founder, CEO of Cameo FX
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About Cameo FX, Prope: Visual effects and animation company
David Abraham
CEO of Channel 4
David Abraham became the sixth Chief Executive of Channel 4 when he took up his post in May 2010. David joined Channel 4 from UKTV where he was appointed Chief Executive in April 2007. During his first year he masterminded the launch of Dave which laid the foundation for rebranding the entire UKTV network. Prior to this David worked at Discovery Networks USA, where, as President and General Manager for TLC from 2005, he was responsible for overseeing all content investment and strategy for the leading US cable network. Before heading to the US David was General Manager of Discovery Networks UK for four years from 2001. David began his career in 1984 as a graduate trainee in advertising after taking a degree in Modern History from Oxford University. In the 1990s he was a founding partner and Chief Operating Officer at leading independent advertising agency St Luke’s.
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About Channel 4, Wonderhood Studios: Channel 4 provides public broadcasting services via television.
David Abraham
CEO of Channel 4
David Abraham became the sixth Chief Executive of Channel 4 when he took up his post in May 2010. David joined Channel 4 from UKTV where he was appointed Chief Executive in April 2007. During his first year he masterminded the launch of Dave which laid the foundation for rebranding the entire UKTV network. Prior to this David worked at Discovery Networks USA, where, as President and General Manager for TLC from 2005, he was responsible for overseeing all content investment and strategy for the leading US cable network. Before heading to the US David was General Manager of Discovery Networks UK for four years from 2001. David began his career in 1984 as a graduate trainee in advertising after taking a degree in Modern History from Oxford University. In the 1990s he was a founding partner and Chief Operating Officer at leading independent advertising agency St Luke’s.
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About Channel 4, Wonderhood Studios: Channel 4 provides public broadcasting services via television.
Jonathan Skogmo
Founder & CEO of Jukin Media
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About Jukin Media, pocket.watch, Producers Guild of America: Jukin Media is the global leader in user-generated entertainment.
Vito Palermo
Chief Executive Officer of Secret Golf
As CEO of Secret Golf, Inc., Palermo is applying his expertise in technology to the game he loves most. His professional experience includes leadership positions at Bay Networks, Extreme Networks, and Procket Networks, among others. His professional-amateur golf career has landed him at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Champions Siebel Classic golf tournament. As Palermo sees it, Secret Golf’s mission is to deliver innovative and creative golf instruction and entertainment to golfers wherever they watch it — television, computers and mobile devices.
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About 38 Degree Advisors, Secret Golf: Secret Golf, Inc. is a media production and publishing co. connecting the golf industry to consumers through tech, content & personalities
Lee Newman
Chief Executive Officer of Mullen Advertising
Lee has a passion for innovation and a belief in the power of creativity to achieve extraordinary business results. At MullenLowe U.S., he oversees all four domestic offices, ensuring seamless integration and collaboration across each. He brings deep experience in the automotive industry, having worked on BMW’s groundbreaking “BMW Films” campaign as well as Audi’s award-winning “Art of the Heist” campaign. Prior to joining MullenLowe U.S., Lee served as President of Ogilvy Chicago, overseeing all aspects of their integrated offering. Before that he served as Managing Director of Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. During his four years there, the office added new clients, significantly increased profitability and expanded its footprint to include Russia and the Middle East. In 2011, The Gunn Report named Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam the most creatively awarded agency in the world. Over his career, he has worked with many prestigious companies to build some of the world’s strongest brands — BMW, Coca-Cola, Nike, P&G, Kimberly-Clark, Heineken and Levi’s, to name just a few.
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About Mullen Advertising: Mullen is an American advertising and marketing communications agency based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Daniel Dargham
President & Chief Executive Officer of Lohika
Daniel Dargham brings twenty years of international experience in a diversified range of software engineering, marketing, sales and general management experience to Lohika, from both established and high-growth companies at the cutting edge of software development. Mr. Dargham comes to Lohika from KLA-Tencor, where he held full P&L responsibility for the Test and Analysis Software Division, including the management of the Custom Software Development and Client Services departments. While at KLA-Tencor, he achieved 250% revenue growth in three years, and developed the annual Strategic Plans for his division. He is also credited with turning around the Test Software product line, making it the most profitable in the company. Prior to KLA-Tencor, Mr. Dargham was at IBM, where he held several software engineering and engineering management roles in data analysis application development. Leading an IBM-Siemens (now Infineon) joint venture team, he was instrumental in introducing and ramping up IBM’s Advanced Memory Manufacturing Line in Paris.
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About Capgemini Engineering, Lohika: Lohika significantly improves your time to market by providing fully managed teams of senior engineers.
Suresh Reddy
Chairman and CEO of Brightcom Group (formerly LYCOS Internet Ltd)
Suresh Reddy is the Chairman and CEO at Brightcom Group (formerly LYCOS Internet Ltd).
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About Brightcom Group (formerly LYCOS Internet Ltd), Brightcom Group (formerly LYCOS Internet Ltd), Brightcom Group (formerly LYCOS Internet Ltd), Lycos, Ybrant Reach: Brightcom Group consolidates Ad-tech, New Media and IoT based businesses across the globe, primarily in the digital eco-system.
Abdur Chowdhury
Co-Founder and CEO of Aura Frames
Abdur Chowdhury was the co-founder of Summize which he sold to Twitter in 2008. He then became Twitter’s Chief Scientist. A few years ago, he left and started a new company called Pushd, which is backed by a couple of million in seed funding from various angels, as well as Betaworks. On September 4, 2014 Pushd, Inc. released an Emoji based mobile app called Steven.
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About Aura Frames: Aura Frames is a smart picture frame designed to fill their home with beautiful photos of their family and friends.
Ian Levitt
President & Chief Executive Officer of Wide Angle Group
Ian Levitt, President and CEO of Wide Angle Group, was born and raised in Los Angeles. Ian grew up playing basketball and dreaming of working for the Los Angeles Lakers. Ian studied sports marketing and management at Indiana University followed by an internship and job with the Basketball Competition Division at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. After the Olympics, Ian went on to start the WNBA and Los Angeles Sparks at the Great Western Forum. In addition to working with the Sparks, Ian began working for the Los Angeles Lakers and became part of some of greatest moments in NBA history with the opening of Staples Center and being a part of the Lakers’ three NBA Championships. After many years living his dream in professional sports, Ian decided to set his sights on a new adventure, Wide Angle Group. Ian founded WAG nearly 10 years ago and has over 20 years of event production, design, execution, operations and logistical planning experience that has grown WAG’s unique events globally. As his company grew, so did their reputation and today they are doing events all over the world. It is fair to say that Wide Angle Group has grown into its name quite well. Ian believes all of Wide Angle Group’s success stems from living by its motto—“We love what we do!”.
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About Wide Angle Group: Wide Angle Group Limited is a fully integrated industrial/trade media and commerce company
Brad Sexton
President / CEO of Live Media Group
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About Live Media Group: Live Media Group is a multi media company
Jake Litke
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MediaJel
Jake is a highly-regarded visionary leader with fifteen years in the mobile and advertising industries. Before founding MediaJel with his business partner, Aaron, Jake started the mobile advertising company, Media Cannon. As CEO, he built the company up and led it to a successful exit in 2010. He’s created successful mobile products, ad-tech platforms serving millions of users, and has a proven executive management track record. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything, as far we can tell. And no, you won’t beat him at trivia.
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About MediaJel: Digital Marketing platform for Cannabis, CBD, and Alcohol Brands – it’s our thing.
JM Yujuico
Founder & CEO of Vicarious, Inc.
J.M Yujuico is a 3-time founder that has built large scale companies from the ground up in varying industries. A sci-fi fan and lover of media and technology led him down the VR rabbit hole and to founding Vicarious. He sees the path to large scale consumer adoption coming from a product that leverages the most ubiquitous digital behavior (sharing photos and videos online) and marries it with VR’s ability to put you into the experience of another person. Live Vicariously on Vicarious.
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About Vicarious, Inc.: Sharing your life’s moments in VR by using your media mixed with 3D animated stickers, particles, environments, 360 media and audio.
Kevin B. Howard
CEO of AWM Smart Shelf
Kevin launched AWM utilizing AI and deep learning with the intent of making Smart Shelf the go-to retail platform for customer engagement and shopper behavior/store operations analytics. As CEO he is responsible for AWM’s long-term vision and global strategy. Prior to AWM, Kevin was the CEO of ICG, a full-service digital media firm. Under his leadership, ICG grew from a shared office with two desks to a digital format leader serving globally known Fortune 500 brands, college and professional sports venues and even government agencies. Prior to this, Kevin was an executive at Wells Fargo, UBS Financial, and Smith Barney, specializing in technology, asset management, capital raises and corporate guidance. Kevin has also owned businesses in a wide spectrum of sectors ranging from alternative energy to a professional motocross team.
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About AWM Smart Shelf: AWM Smart Shelf reinvents the online experience for the in-store market place.
Tyler Williams
CEO & Founder of Nextbeat
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About Bubl, Nextbeat: Nextbeat is an interactive video platform that lets you hang out with your favorite creators and your fellow fans in real time.
Ruben Vardanyan
Founder & CEO of Joomag, Inc.
Dr Ruben Vardanyan is an innovative and result-driven leader with more than a decade of experience in building hi-tech companies. He is a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Joomag, a US based SaaS company that provides integrated solution for creating interactive digital publications. Under Vardanyan’s guidance the company developed a series of revolutionary products and became an industry leader. He has extensive experience working with SMBs as well as large enterprises including Fortune 500 companies. He is an angel investor, advisor and serves as a board member for various tech startups. Prior to his Joomag experience, he was the founding CEO of mobile app development company Magy. The company produced several best-seller and award winning apps. In addition to being a master strategist, Vardanyan is an aficionado of all aspects of computer programming, security, databases, software, protocols and web servers. In fact, he co-authored “Principles of C++” and authored “Programming in Macromedia Flash Action Script.” Along with his Executive Education from Harvard, Vardanyan holds a PhD in Computer Science and maintains active involvement in workshops, trainings and is a guest speaker at several international conferences.
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About Joomag, Inc.: Joomag is the all-in-one platform empowering businesses large and small to create, distribute, track, and monetize their interactive content
Brian Fargo
CEO & Owner of inXile Entertainment
Brian Fargo has been in the games business since its infancy having founded Interplay Entertainment in 1983. Interplay became a top 5 PC games publisher in the mid 90’s having produced some of the biggest franchises of all time including Bard’s Tale, Wasteland, and Fallout. Interplay also helped to launch the careers of some of the biggest developers such as Blizzard, Bioware, and Treyarch. While at Interplay, Fargo brought Universal/MCA in as an equity partner and later took Interplay public in 1998. In addition, Fargo has served on the board of the IDSA, given key speeches at the industry’s leading shows and most recently was the keynote at GDC China. Fargo formed inXile entertainment in 2002 and has just recently raised just under 3 million dollars with crowd sourced funding via Kickstarter for the newest project Wasteland® 2.
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About inXile Entertainment, inXile Entertainment: inXile Entertainment is a video game development studio that offers Bard’s Tale, Wasteland, and Torment.
Chad Robley
Chairman & CEO of Mindgruve
Chad is the Cofounder and CEO of Mindgruve (INC. 5000 Company). Since launching the agency in 2001, he has played a key strategic role in helping brands transform their business through marketing and technology. Over the past two decades, he has worked with some of the top global consumer and B2B brands such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Qualcomm, Oracle, Merck, Live Nation and House of Blues. Prior to Mindgruve, Chad spent more than a decade as a startup entrepreneur building and scaling early stage businesses into mature, sustainable companies. He is now an angel investor and advisor to fast growth companies. Chad also serves on several company and industry boards in the consumer, technology, healthcare and B2B space. Chad is a regular writer and public speaker on the Convergence of Technology and Marketing, Digital Business Transformation and Customer Acquisition Strategies for Rapid Growth Companies.
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About Ad Age Collective, Bay City Brewing Co, Celebration Wishes, Honeymoon Wishes, Mindgruve, Mindgruve Ventures: A Modern Marketing Agency. Ideas connecting brands to people.
Charles King
Founder & CEO of Macro
Charles D. King is founder and CEO of MACRO. Launched in 2015, MACRO is a newly formed venture that sits at the intersection of content, technology and brand curation. With a focus on creating film, television and digital content for African-American, Latino and Multicultural consumers (ALM), the company is perfectly positioned to capitalize on the explosive growth in this important market. Formerly, King was Partner/Agent in the Motion Picture Department at William Morris Endeavor (WME). His career as an agent spanned over 15 years, during which he was known for his innovative deal making and strategy in developing brands for and around his clients. King has been featured in many national media outlets and publications, including NPR, Essence, The Weekly Variety, and the Los Angeles Times. Fortune Magazine has named him one of the nation’s most influential Latino, Asian or African-Americans in their 2005 Diversity Issue, and he was recently included in the 2014 Ebony Power 100 List. King is an active angel investor in synergistic ventures at the nexus between the technology sector and the media content business. A graduate of Vanderbilt University and the Howard University School of Law, he resides in Los Angeles, CA with his wife Stacey, a fashion designer/executive and their two young sons, Noah and Julian.
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About MaC Venture Capital, Macro: Macro is a disruptive media company focused on the multicultural market.
Sarah Harden
CEO of Hello Sunshine
Sarah Harden is President of Otter Media, The Chernin Group’s (TCG) venture with AT&T which manages, invests in and operates businesses in the media, entertainment and consumer internet industries. Prior to Otter Media, Harden joined TCG as Executive Vice President in September 2013 where she played key roles in TCG’s majority stake acquisition of Crunchyroll, a leading global subscription and ad-supported video platform for Japanese anime; the formation of Otter Media with AT&T; and Otter Media’s acquisition of a controlling stake in Fullscreen, a leading global youth media company. Prior to TCG Harden was Group Director, Partnerships and Development, Asia, at News Corporation where she was responsible for overseeing News’ joint ventures, investments and growth initiatives in Asia. Before moving to Asia, Harden spent four years in the role of Senior Vice President of Business Development for Fox Networks Group in Los Angeles; spent time at Ascent Media identifying and driving new business initiatives in the US, UK and Asia and was a co-founder at venture-backed Linkscape software in San Francisco. Harden began her career as a Senior Associate with The Boston Consulting Group in Melbourne, Australia. She is a graduate of University of Melbourne (Bachelor of Arts, Hons) and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where she graduated as a Baker Scholar. Harden currently sits on the boards at Crunchyroll and Fullscreen.
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About Hello Sunshine: Hello Sunshine is a media company that is dedicated to female authorship across all storytelling platforms.
Robert Tallack
CEO of ConversionPoint Technologies Inc.
Robert Tallack is the CEO of ConversionPoint Technologies, Inc. He brings over 15 years of experience in the health industry, having sold his last consumer products company to a publicly traded pharma company. An industry veteran of the digital marketing business, Robert has developed direct-to-consumer sales and marketing campaigns that have generated millions per month in sales. His ability to build an efficient organization using technology to scale rapidly has contributed greatly to his success. Robert earned his B.A. in health sciences from Queens University, Ontario. Robert also brings a unique background in professional sports having previously been a 3-time World Martial Arts Champion and still holds a world record.
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About Branded Response, ConversionPoint Technologies Inc., Sellpoints: ConversionPoint Technologies Inc., is a leading e-commerce infrastructure technology platform that powers high growth e-commerce sales.
Julie Uhrman
Founder & CEO of OUYA
Julie Uhrman is a video game entrepreneur. She is founder and CEO of OUYA—an innovative gaming console that enables any developer to publish a console game by bringing the mobile app model to the TV. OUYA is a powerful, beautifully designed, open and inexpensive alternative to traditional game consoles. Julie started in the game business ten years ago. Before launching OUYA, she held several executive roles with video game companies such as GameFly, IGN (where she led digital distribution and business development) and Vivendi Universal. Julie loves to play games: she plays platformers, 3rd person shooters and she loves playing games on a TV. But the last few years, she’s played more on mobile phones, because that’s where the action’s been. She wants to go back to playing on a TV. By combining a classic console format with the ease of access of open mobile SDKs, Julie seeks to make OUYA the open pathway for all developers—AAA and indie alike—to bring their craft to the world.
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About Angel City, Highway1, OUYA: OUYA develops and delivers open video game consoles for televisions.
Garrett Dodge
Co-Founder, CEO of Rockbot
Garrett is the Co-Founder and CEO Rockbot. As such, he is responsible for all marketing, business development, and operational activities for the company.
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About Rockbot: Rockbot is a streaming media platform for businesses including TV, background music, mobile app and digital signage applications.
Debbie Sterling
Founder / CEO of GoldieBlox
Debbie Sterling is the founder and CEO of GoldieBlox. She never knew what engineering was until her high school math teacher suggested she pursue it as a college major. Debbie couldn’t figure out why her math teacher thought she should be a train conductor! Nevertheless, she gave engineering a try during her freshman year at Stanford. Four years later, she graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering / Product Design. Bothered by how few women there were in her program, Debbie became obsessed with the notion of “disrupting the pink aisle” with a toy that would introduce girls to the joy of engineering at a young age.
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About GoldieBlox, GoldieBlox: GoldieBlox a children’s multimedia company out to show the world that girls deserve more choices than dolls and princesses.
Evan Asano
Founder and former CEO of Mediakix
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About Mediakix: Mediakix connects brands and influencers on YouTube, blogs and Instagram. Driving reach, ROI and sales for top brands.
Andrew Heckler
CEO of Hone
Hone’s Heckler has a diverse entrepreneurial and investor background spanning the clean technology and digital media spaces. In addition to his position at Hone, Heckler also serves as founding partner and chairman of Brightfield Energy, a clean energy business, and is a partner at Workhouse Capital, an early stage investment technology fund. He entered the clean tech investor space as a consultant at Sequoia Capital. Previously, Heckler has been responsible for an array of investments, including Plain Vanilla Games, the studio behind QuizUp, the fastest growing iPhone game in history; Useek, a video advertising platform; Black Book, a digital magazine; and Modern Meadows, a company developing novel biomaterials.
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About Hone: Content marketing and native advertising technology company.
Sheldon Owen
Founder and CEO of Vana
Sheldon is a proven entrepreneur and senior business operator with over 20 years of experience developing emerging technology companies. Sheldon is the Founder of Digital Tower, Inc. (dba Muncheez) and the Co-Founder of Unified. Prior to starting Muncheez, Sheldon was the founding CEO of Unified for nearly five years. During his tenure as CEO, Unified successfully raised over $60 million in venture financing, grew to hundreds of customers and 150 employees, made two successful acquisitions, won countless awards, and became one of the industry’s most recognized marketing technology startups. Prior to co-founding Unified, Sheldon held many senior executive roles throughout his career including Vice President at CA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: CA), EVP/General Manager at Connexus and Founder of tmpSocial, an early Facebook Marketing Partner. Sheldon is an active startup advisor, mentor, board member, speaker and angel investor. He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), an advisor for Techweek, and an advisor to hedge funds and professional investment firms on industry trends in software, marketing technology, mobile, digital advertising, and social media.
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About Vana: Leading recommendation engine and compliant marketing platform for the legal cannabis and CBD industry
Cedric Rogers
CEO/Co-Founder of Culture Genesis
Cedric Rogers is a co-founder and CEO of Culture Genesis.
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About Culture Genesis: Culture Genesis is a digital studio, focused on remixing digital technology for urban multicultural audiences.
Jim Jannard
Founder/CEO of RED Digital Cinema
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About RED Digital Cinema: Red.com is an American manufacturing company that produces digital cinema cameras.
Brendan Cotter
Investor & Advisor to the CEO of H Code Media
Brendan Cotter provides leadership and management over sales strategy, business development initiatives, and the sales partnership culture at Social Sentinel. In this role, he brings decades of experience in social media alert technology, the education industry, market share growth, and success in innovation and entrepreneurialism. Prior to Social Sentinel, Brendan was President of TweetMyJobs Government where he led the new-to-market localized social recruiting platform. He also held multiple leadership positions at Blackboard, Inc. where he drove initiatives for the next generation of mass notification and alert technology for K12 leaders, government, and civic leaders.
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About H Code Media: H Code is the largest Hispanic digital media company in the US, enabling brands to reach Hispanic audiences with unmatched authenticity.
Phil Schraeder
CEO of GumGum
Phil Schraeder serves as the Chief Executive Officer at GumGum.
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About GumGum, GumGum: GumGum is an Artificial Intelligence company that uses machine learning to extract value from digital content.
Matt Plotke
CEO of SendOwl
Matt Plotke is the CEO at SendOwl.
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About SendOwl: SendOwl is a software company that develops tools for selling digital products through social media and blogs.
Laura Wittig
CEO of Brightly
Laura Wittig is the CEO of Brightly. She previously lead product development strategy in e-commerce, social impact, design and community engagement for Google, Adobe, Amazon, Sephora. She has appeared on CNBC and spoken at conferences like Altitude Summit and the Yellow Conference. She lives in Oakland with her husband and two dogs, and enjoys hiking and doing DIY projects around the house.
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About Brightly: Brightly is a community-driven lifestyle brand empowering conscious consumers.
Magnus Sorlander
CEO, Founder & Member of Edisen, LLC
Magnus Sorlander is the Founder and Chairman at Edisen.
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About Edisen, Edisen, LLC: SAAS, Digital Asset Management
Jonathan Strauss
Co-Founder and CEO of Create Music Group
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About Create Music Group, CreateTV, INC: Create Music Group is a music and media technology company
Kosta Jordanov
Co – Founder & CEO of FITE
Serial entrepreneur – built several software companies from scratch. Ran a professional services company in the mobile software space for customers such as IBM, Samsung, Procter & Gamble and Ogilvy. Previously: CTO of TTS; Software Engineer at IBM. Education: Technical University of Sofia (Computer Science); UNWE (Macroeconomics). Two exits, one IPO at BSE.
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About FITE: FITE is a direct-to-consumer digital live sports streaming service for sports and entertainment.
Jay Penske
Chairman & CEO of Penske Media Corporation
Jay is the Chairman and CEO of PMC. Under his leadership, PMC has been named one of the Top 100 Private Companies in the United States. With the preeminence of its brands, which now reach more than 140 million people each month, PMC is one of the largest digital media companies in the world. Since its founding ten years ago, PMC successfully created, built, and sold the 5th largest portal (Mail.com) to United Internet, and today operates and publishes over 20 leading content websites including India.com, a digital joint venture in India with ZEEtv, India’s largest media business. Additionally, Jay owns and operates Dragon Racing, a global racing team that participates in the Formula-E racing series (www.dragonracing.com). Previously he was the Co-Founder and Chairman of Firefly Mobile Inc., and owns an antiquarian bookstore in Los Angeles (www.dragonbooks.com). Jay is a graduate of The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, with concentrations in Finance, Management, and Information Systems, and was formerly on the board of the Wharton Entrepreneurial School. Jay currently sits on the Board of the following companies: PMC, India.com, Penske Business Media (PBM), and Dragon Racing, LLC.
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About Mail.com Media Corporation, Penske Media Corporation: PMC is a Leading Digital Media and Publishing Company
Greg Shove
Chief Executive Officer of Section4
Gregory Shove is the Chief Executive Officer of Section4.
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About Section4, SocialChorus: Section4 is democratizing business education through innovative and engaging 2-3 week sprints.
Jill Koziol
Co-Founder + CEO of Motherly
Jill Koziol is the co-founder and CEO of Motherly a modern lifestyle brand redefining motherhood with it’s 30M+ monthly audience. She is also the co-author of “This Is Motherhood: A Motherly Collection of Reflections and Practices” and the forthcoming book, “The Motherly Guide to Becoming Mama: Redefining the Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum Journey”. Jill is passionate about serving and empowering women and mothers because when mamas are successful, everyone wins. She is an advocate for families, female founders, and how to thrive with multiple sclerosis. Jill lives in Menlo Park with her husband and two daughters.
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About Motherly: Motherly is a community-driven lifestyle brand redefining motherhood.
Chandra De Keyser
CEO of MoodMe
Founder & CEO of MoodMe (aka Mach-3D). MoodMe transforms pictures into emotional interactive 3D Living Portraits. MoodMe is an emotional engagement platform for Mobile, Web and social Apps. Your new social identity alive in tune with your mood. Our value proposition is to enrich brands – consumers and sports clubs – fans relations. Teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azcrQhLPYTc&feature=plcp Our core technology transforms pictures into 3D avatars, called Living Portraits™, animates them with real-life and fun emotions and allows sharing through social networks and interacting by sending virtual goods using our cloud – based social platform. Markets Sports Fans Engagement, Advertising, Social Media and Consumers. 20+ B$. Sports Fans are offered digital goods (free, paid or sponsored) to accessorize their Living Portraits: become their favorite athlete, interact, send Moods, paint faces with Team colors, share in social media, Web and on displays at the Stadium. MoodMe Ads: interactive video animations on the mobile. The branded product and Faces animated with emotions are shared in social media. B2C: emotional communications App for Y generation. MoodMe! Don’t text me (it’s so 90ies). Emoticons with your Face! Social Media & Celebrity Apps: Living Portraits in tune with your mood to share your Mood, dress your Living Portrait with digital goods and offer them to friends and fans. The core team is based on the friendship between Massimiliano Tarquini, CTO, and Chandra, co-Founders, along with their respective companies, 4IT (Italy) and Internationalize IT (USA). Former positions: Director international business development at Internationalize IT. Lead Enterprise Fraud Management practice offering solutions based on Intellinx. Internationalization strategy for tech companies. eGov strategy for Tunisian Government. Partner, Board Member & International Advisor at www.comunicando.biz, a mobile solutions software company offering roamer fidelization platforms, used by Vodafone among other operators. Founder at Brasil Universe www.bra-uni.com, a boutique consultancy for assisting international companies in their entry & expansion strategies into Brazil. Director Sales at Verdemar Ltd UK and international consultant in charge of EU & International Programmes with Software AG. Director Business Development at TRW Systems & Northrop Grumman. Owner at Maxware Ltda, São Paulo, Brazil. Project Manager at the European Commission IDA Programme, in charge of international telematic applications between EU Member States administrations and EU Institutions. He worked as software engineer in startup Kiel Corp. in Nashua NH on the first PDA with built-in modem, touch screen LCD and on home banking projects at Chemical Bank, NYC, Kiel’s VC & customer back in …1987.
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About MoodMe: MoodMe provides unique insights and experiences for the emotion economy with unbiased face AI & AR.
Jeremy O’Briant
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Torch
Jeremy OBriant is the Chief Executive Officer at Torch.
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About Torch: Torch is a agile growth marketing agency based in San Francisco.
Aurelie Guerrieri
Founder & CEO of Akila Media
Aurelie Guerrieri is the Chief Marketing Officer of Open Systems.
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About Akila Media, Open Systems, Stanford Continuing Studies: Media Planning made Simple
Kevin Winston
CEO & Founder of Digital LA
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About Digital LA: Digital LA organizes networking events for digital entertainment, marketing, startups.
John Gower
Founder & CEO of Dialect, Inc.
John has launched and run content marketing agencies on 3 continents over the past 20 years. He pioneered early research into content’s effect on brand uplift and has a won multiple awards for magazines and digital products. In 2011, John founded Dialect in San Francisco which operates as a content x media x data agency and works with brands like Amazon, Logitech, NVIDIA and EA. Dialect is the first ‘content networking’ agency, that uses content primarily as an acquisition tool and partners with massive sites to discover new audiences for brands. They use their billions of data points to predict their next move and prove effectiveness. Now with offices in London and Bristol (UK), Dialect is at the forefront of media disruption.
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About Dialect, Inc.: Dialect is a full service agency, specialising in the art and science of engaging gaming and tech audiences.
Keemia Ferasat
Founder & CEO of Style Salute
Keemia Ferasat is the founder & CEO of Style Salute, a mission-driven digital media, and entertainment company with a global audience footprint of 400 thousand a month across platforms. Focused around the core values of individuality and creativity, Style Salute delivers content and experiences that speak to an audience that’s highly engaged across a variety of devices and destinations, from original content and email newsletters, to live experiences and social storytelling. Our audience is comprised of self-made dreamers who are smart and passionate, always seeking out the next thing and living to their full potential in every aspect of their lives. As a next-generation women’s media company, Style Salute is changing the way content speaks to and represents women, always sparking the conversations that matter most. Delivering on that mission, Keemia is driven every day to celebrate women and to help them see, feel and own their power — walking the walk in all that she does.
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About Style Salute: Style Salute is a digital media and entertainment company dedicated to inspiring young women to live a smarter, more stylish life.
Rafi Fine
Co-Founder & CEO of FBE
Benny and Rafi Fine are pioneering content creators, digital media entrepreneurs, and co-founders of Fine Brothers Entertainment—a media company, studio, and network with a staff of more than 50 employees that creates innovative and entertaining programming for a global audience. From their first launch of content online in 2004, Benny and Rafi have told dynamic stories through their diverse original content, including their genre-defining “REACT” videos, YouTube Red half-hour comedy “Sing It!,” and animated series “Emo Dad.” Expanding outside of digital, FBE also recently finished production on its first feature film F#!& THE PROM, and has created TV shows for Nickelodeon, truTV, and Freeform. Each week, the company produces ten serialized shows for 20 million YouTube subscribers– totaling 150 million views per month and over 5 billion lifetime views.
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About FBE, FBE: FBE has pioneered the digital revolution for over a decade.
Rafi Fine
Co-Founder & CEO of FBE
Benny and Rafi Fine are pioneering content creators, digital media entrepreneurs, and co-founders of Fine Brothers Entertainment—a media company, studio, and network with a staff of more than 50 employees that creates innovative and entertaining programming for a global audience. From their first launch of content online in 2004, Benny and Rafi have told dynamic stories through their diverse original content, including their genre-defining “REACT” videos, YouTube Red half-hour comedy “Sing It!,” and animated series “Emo Dad.” Expanding outside of digital, FBE also recently finished production on its first feature film F#!& THE PROM, and has created TV shows for Nickelodeon, truTV, and Freeform. Each week, the company produces ten serialized shows for 20 million YouTube subscribers– totaling 150 million views per month and over 5 billion lifetime views.
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About FBE, FBE: FBE has pioneered the digital revolution for over a decade.
Patrick O’Leary
Founder & CEO of boostr
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About boostr: boostr is a CRM and order management platform designed for the media & advertising industry.
David Kingsdale
Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Dance Media, LLC
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About Millennium Dance Media, LLC: Millennium Dance Media, LLC An international expansion of commercial dance studios and the building of a lifestyle brand.
