Mentors and Competing Teams

Here is a list of the current mentors and teams that are participating in the contest.

Mentors

• Abrams, Reesa
  Techno-Coach
  Techno-Coach
  
  Consulting practice is focused on Technology Brokering, Relationship Management, Corporate legacy and operations based learning requirements(partner training, vendor training,etc.), and Education's Career Technical Education (CTE) initiatives. I am also currently working with start-up comnpanies in Santa Cruz. I have worked with all sizes of businesses - small through large. Ran UCSC's Collaborative Research Mentoring and Entrepreneurship program. Worked at De Anza College as Executive Director of their Center for Competitive Technologies as a business plan coach for small companies. Certified as a coach and quality manager.
  
  
• Baskin, Caleb
  Member
  Baskin & Grant, LLP
  
  Experienced business attorney and litigator, with company foundation, fundraising and management experience.
  
  
• Blumberg, Robert
  Managing Director
  Soquel Group
  
  As Managing Director of Soquel Group, Robert Blumberg specializes in patent prosecution, analysis, & brokering. His works with his clients to create patent portfolios that build company value. Previously, Mr. Blumberg worked as a marketing consultant. His engagements included Adobe Systems, ACD Systems, and Stratify and Fresher Information System. At Fresher, he developed a restart strategy and then served as CEO until the Company was sold. Using its real-time database management technology, Fresher developed Web services and network infrastructure solutions. Formerly, Blumberg co-founded and served as executive vice president of Live Picture Inc., where he directed product management and marketing for more than ten imaging and Internet products that won over 30 industry awards. He also led a professional services team that sold and implemented internet imaging solutions. While at Live Picture, Blumberg co-founded and served as the Chairman of the Board of the International Industry Imaging Association (I3A), a consortium that develops new standards for digital imaging. Blumberg has written numerous articles on data management and holds 4 US patents. He has a M.S. degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a B.A. degree in computer science from the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC).
  
  
• Britton, David
  Managing Director
  SBN Association
  
  David Britton <dbritton@earthlink.net> Summary Biography Summary Biography: David Britton enjoys a career dedicated to building startup companies, managing the development of innovative products in high technology start-ups, consulting to start-up companies, and building non-profit organizations. Britton was CEO founder of four hi-tech companies, (two became public companies). He was the 2006/7 Chair of the Small Business Administration, Santa Cruz organization and is a Capitola/Soquel Chamber of Commerce Board member and volunteered as a certified Court Mediator in Santa Cruz, CA. Britton is currently the Managing Director of the Santa Cruz County Sustainable Business Network.
  
  
• Brock, Jim
  Chairman & Co-Founder
  Attributor
  
  Jim Brock is Chairman and Co-Founder of Attributor, a venture-backed content monetization platform whose customers include Turner Broadcasting and the the Associated Press. Until 2005, Jim was SVP Communications & Consumer Services at Yahoo!, where he oversaw the company's global communications products (including Yahoo! Mail and Messenger), the broadband businesses (including the landmark partnerships with SBC/AT&T and other broadband ISPs), and the bulk of the company's global subscription businesses. He joined Yahoo! in 2001 as SVP of Major Initiatives, reporting to Jerry Yang. In that role, he developed and executed the company's broadband and subscriber acquisition strategy, a key element of Yahoo!'s turnaround after the dot-com crash. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Jim was a partner with Venture Law Group, a leading Silicon Valley technology law firm, where he led the firm's Internet practice, serving as counsel and advisor to pioneering companies such as Yahoo!, Hotmail, LinkExchange and eToys. In 1998, Brock co-founded Amicus, a private advisory and investment firm. Jim holds a B.A. in economics with honors from Claremont McKenna College and a law degree with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics and on the managing board of the Law Review.
  
  
• Erickson, Doug
  Director AsiaPac
  SugarCRM, Inc.
  
  20+ years in high tech including SugarCRM, Cisco WebEx, and Live Picture. A career snapshot and full career profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/1/808
  
  
• Fedor, Donna
  Director
  The Arden Technology Group
  
  Worked in the high-tech device industry my entire career with the last 5 yrs focused on strategy, strategic marketing and technology planning. My consultancy is jsut starting up and focused on these areas. Started my own internet-based HR services company during my career. I have volunteered to be a judge in the international collegiate business strategy competition many times over the past 8 yrs and I taught entrepreneurial education at The Girls' Middle School in Mtn View for 5 years and mentored for 2 years. I also volunteer at Womens and Girls Economic Power Day teaching interactive classes on budgeting. I am also becoming active in Girls in Tech Santa Cruz chapter.
  
  
• Graham, Jim
  Principal
  Jim Graham Public Relations
  
  I've done high tech PR for 16 years and was a reporter for 12, including four in Washington, D.C. I co-founded an Internet start up in the late 90s, helping raise $300k in angel money and then $6 million in VC financing. I'm now working on a new start up that we expect to launch at the end of March. As a PR person I've helped launch several start ups. My expertise is crafting PR strategies to maximize visibilities for new companies. Online bio is here: http://www.jgpr.com/about.html
  
  
• Guerrieri, Matt
  Principal
  Opus
  
  Management Consultant to technology product companies. Former B2B Technology Manufacturing executive with several Silicon Valley companies, (Applied Materials, Measurex, and others and Company CEO of RPC Industries from 1989 to 1995. Founded The Opus Group in 1995. Functional expertise in Marketing and product development as well as general management.
  
  
• Jordan, Bill
  Business/corporate development contractor/investor
  SBM2G, Inc.
  
  Over twenty-five years experience in the computer software business focused on business and strategy development, marketing, competitive analysis, developing partner distribution channels, legal agreements and contract negotiations.
  
  
• Leavitt, Thomas
  Owner
  Godmoma's Forge, LLC
  
  Co-founded Web Communications, LLC (aka WebCom) in Santa Cruz in May of 1994. Sold it to Verio in February of 1999. Bootstrapped it with no external investment to a $3 million/year run rate at time of sale. Co-founded TargetFirst, Inc. in Santa Cruz in September of 1999 - company later moved over the hill to Santa Clara then San Mateo. Company was venture financed, went through Angel, A and B rounds of funding before going defunct in 2002. Have worked as a self-employed IT Consultant since then.
  
  
• Marshall, John
  CTO
  Market Motive
  
  http://www.linkedin.com/in/jbmarshall
  
  
• McKay, Tom
  President
  Tidal microWave LLC
  
  Founder, Tidal microWave LLC 2008. Principal engineer RF Micro Devices 2003-2008. Cell phone RF chip design innovation. Co-Founder, Zeevo, 1999, delivering Bluetooth chips to top-tier PDA makers. Acquired by Broadcom. UCSC lecturer, winter 2007, electrical engineering special studies in RF design. 8 patents, several technical journal publications.
  
  
• Mueller, Andrew
  COO
  Sagas
  
  Been working with start up and fast growth companies since 1982 when I worked for a small manufacturer that was #39 on the inc. 500. Since then, I have seen some successes and many failures.
  
  
• Olson, Steven
  Principal
  New Venture Support
  
  I have over 25 years executive level management experience in technology focused organizations. I've successfully managed in startup and high growth environments raising capital, building organizations, process, and infrastructure to support aggressive domestic and international expansion. My background as the VP Finance/CFO coupled with other senior executive roles I've played in general management and operations, gives me a broad business experience set to draw from while being fiscally grounded in my approach. Prior to founding New Venture Support, I served as VP Finance for Dexterra Inc. a mobile enterprise software company. Before that I was VP, Financial Services for Corollary Solutions, a customer management solutions provider. I also served as CFO for Softbank Inc., in addition to various other senior executive roles in operations and general management. I hold a BS in Business from San Jose State University and an MBA from Santa Clara University.
  
  
• Ornas, Eric
  COO
  Satori Labs, Inc
  
  Eric has worked in the high tech arena for over twenty years, serving in both strategic and operational roles in start-up and established companies. The first half of his career was spent building his operational expertise creating and managing customer facing organizations providing customer service, tech support and direct marketing fulfillment. As the head of world-wide customer support for Borland International, Eric was part of the senior management team that grew the company from $50M to $500M. During that time of explosive growth in Borland's customer base, his organizations won multiple industry and customer satisfaction awards, including the coveted J.D. Powers and PC Magazine customer satisfaction awards, for their quality and efficiency. As the Web took hold in the mid-nineties Eric was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and left Borland to found WebAnswers. This pioneering ASP provided web-based automated customer service, search and knowledge management services to Fortune 1000 companies including HP, Intel and FujiFilm. Subsequent to WebAnswers, Eric joined Starfish Software, a subsidiary of Motorola that developed connectivity software for the wireless market, as Vice-President of Strategic and Business Development. Eric was a driver of corporate strategy while also responsible for developing and managing relationships with key partners including IBM, Yahoo, Nokia and Ericsson. Satori Labs is a leading provider of digital pen-based information solutions for the U.S. healthcare market. In addition to his operational responsibilities as COO of Satori Labs, Eric also drives sales and business development. With over 120 installations including deployments at Massachusetts General Hospital and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center,
  
  
• Picco, Marty
  Principal
  Self
  
  Look at my LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/picco . Founded and taken two companies through liquidity. Have held senior management positions at a public company. Led multiple corporate acquisitions.
  
  
• Pommerenke, Kai
  Lecturer
  UCSC
  
  Founder of internet start-up Lecturer in finance at UCSC Management Consultant with Booz & Company
  
  
• Rosas, Margaret
  Founder and Chief Strategist
  Quiddities
  
  Margaret Rosas has been pushing the boundaries of technology since creating her first web application 14 years ago. More recently, she has discovered that the craft of building websites is evolving into hosting conversations and building community both online and offline. Margaret now creates conversation platforms using open source technology and fostering real human relationships around those tools. With the aid of a grant from the Knight Foundation, she is now able to pursue her passion for community building with RadioEngage, transforming the conversation for public radio stations.
  
  
• Sadin, Jerry
  Sr Manager, SW Development and Technical Services
  Independent
  
  Twenty+ years in SW development, Technical Services, Product Marketing and Developer relations with system SW companies SCO, Sun Microsystems, Go Corporation, and Taligent. -UCSC CIS Grad '84 -US Navy Aviation Electronics Tech '77-'80 -Industrial Mechanic
  
  
• Sahai, Anil
  President and CEO
  AndesITUSA, Inc.
  
  * * Anil has over 15 years of experience in the IT industry managing engineering and business organizations at Fortune 500 companies like Amdahl/Fujitsu, Compaq, Intel, Apple and Vodafone in the areas of capacity planning, performance evaluation, simulation & modeling, IT security, and wireless and wired network architecture as well as development of enterprise solutions. In 1999, Anil founded Ezyte Inc., offering products and services in the areas of performance modeling and capacity planning. He developed the performance architecture of the wireless portal for Vodafone in 128 countries. He developed major Fortune100 accounts and sold multi-million $$ contracts. He also consulted with various government and private organizations all over Africa in developing national IT strategies and capacity building. In March 2004, following the acquisition of Ezyte, he joined Procera Networks, a public company, as its Executive Vice-President and CTO. At Procera, he managed operations, engineering, marketing, product-management, and support organizations. He developed high performance security appliances and a hardware based security platform that provided a wire-speed performance using a combination of FPGA, custom ASIC, and network processors. Anil founded AndesITUSA in 2006 offering business strategy consulting as well as professional services in the areas of capacity planning, performance testing, monitoring and management for enterprise networks and applications. He has consulted with companies in the Healthcare, Telecom, Security, IT, Financial, Airlines and Retail industries in US, Africa, Middle East and South America. He has worked extensively with VCs, private and institutional investors, and raised $M from private (angel), VC Funds and PIPEs through hedge funds. Anil has a PhD. in Computer Science with specialization in Performance Modeling and Packet Switching Networks from Univ. of Calif., M.S. in Computer Science from University of Pittsburgh, M.S. in Mathematics from Ohio University, and B.A. (Honors) in Mathematics from St. Stephen�¢ï¿½ï¿½s College in Delhi, India. Anil also has a Masters from Sloan School of Management at MIT with specialization in International Corporate Strategies and New Product Development. Anil has published in various research and business journals, and has given presentations and seminars all over the world in the areas of new product development, capacity planning, queuing theory, system performance management, and IT strategy.
  
  
• Schneeberger, Claire
  CEO
  Monarch Media, Inc.
  
  After a first career as a musician and opera conductor, Claire discovered the Internet and entrepreneurship. She founded Monarch Media, Inc. in 1997, and the company has grown to include both a strong Santa Cruz and global team of more than 40 professionals. Areas of expertise include, project management, eLearning, web site usability, instructional design, and application architecting.
  
  
• Siegel, Robert
  General Partner
  X/Seed Capital Management
  
  Robert Siegel is a general partner at X/Seed Capital Management. He has extensive business experience with a variety of companies, including large multinationals and start-ups. Before coming to X/Seed, Robert was a general manager for GE Security where he was responsible for General Electric�s global video surveillance business. Previously, Robert was an executive vice president responsible for product development and corporate strategy at semiconductor start-up Pixim. From 1998 to 2001 he served as chief executive of software services company Weave Innovations and served as a senior product manager of corporate business development for Intel in the 1990s. Robert earned his BA from the University of California at Berkeley and his MBA from Stanford University.
  
  
• Stock, Ian
  Owner
  EntrepreLaw
  
  Start-up lawyer who was Special Counsel at Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto during the internet bubble years. 25 years experience split between New York, Paris and the Bay Area, as well as between law firms and in-house positions.
  
  

Teams

Teams with a line through their name have been eliminated.

• 33Link
  Sergey Mirkin
  
• ACR
  
  A Cappella Records LLC, is a music service company that legalizes the online sales of collegiate a cappella music, and then distributes and promotes this music internationally. Through strategic partnerships, multiple revenue models, exclusive contracts and sophisticated technology, ACR plans to penetrate a cappella into the digital mainstream music market like never before.
  
  Jesse Avshalomov
  Chris Crawford
  Benjamin Walklet
  
• Advocates for Congolese Women
  Jessica Carsten
  
• Al-Badia
  Shawn Harris
  
• Armagaia Consulting
  Sam Harris
  
• AskOurTechs.com
  
  AskOurTechs.com is a tech support company focused on providing affordable, in-home, in-office and online service in Santa Cruz County. Our business model focuses on offering customers a full range of technical assistance and resolution services for computer problems and needs.
  
  Aaron Greene
  Alex Miller
  
• Eco Diamond
  Jason Barbaria
  
• EZ Axes
  Jamieson Johnson
  Kushyar Kasraie
  
• Gallant
  
  Portpholiage.com is an investment and social networking platform aimed at connecting any investor with renewable energy companies and/or entrepreneurs regardless of size. Investment options will include private stocks and microloans intended at promoting growth within the entities listed. The aggregate goal of our platform is to foster overall growth and usage of alternative energy sources.
  
  Gregory Brown
  Kevin Ip
  Leah Kuo
  Juan Pascua
  
• Go for the Green
  Melissa Abel
  
• Golden Set Tennis Lessons
  Bryan Lee
  
• GoMarket
  Cassandra Janakos
  Albert Putra
  
• JohnDownian
  John Dow
  
• JustClick
  Mikhail Xu
  Fan Zhu
  
• LinguaEarth
  David Olsen
  
• Macrohard
  
  Open Source Solutions for Your Technology Needs
  
  Michael Cusack
  Maxwell McDonald
  Clint Potter
  
• Magic Hat Floor Cleaner
  
  The SimpleBot team is dedicated to developing the cheapest domestic cleaning robots, starting with the Magic Hat! Floor Cleaner. We are highly motivated, innovative, and well qualified to pursue new high growth market opportunities that spare consumers of unpleasant household chores.
  
  Juan Abuanza
  Justin Clune
  Janette Gellert
  
• Mr. Opportunity
  Shenelle easterling
  
• Mulva
  Tony Gonella
  Danielle Husen
  Nicholas Jones
  
• Need A Ride
  Christos Fotopoulos
  
• Phenomenon
  Tim Thimmaiah
  
• Pherica
  
  Nearly every pill taker, at one time or another, has found themselves in a precarious situation in which they know that it is time to take their medication but simply cannot remember if they have already taken the dose. Pherica offers a line of products designed to quickly and effectively answer the question "Did I take this pill?"
  
  Jarrett Fishpaw
  
• RouteMe2 Technologies, Inc.
  
  RouteMe2 Technologies develops location-based solutions for mobile devices. Its first product, PedNav, is a location-aware day planner that helps people save time and energy when using public transit.
  
  Shawn Bohonos
  Amir Malik
  
• RRR
  Evan Abt
  Kenneth Srivijittakar
  Larry Tse
  
• Santa Cruz Bottling Co.
  Robert Graeber
  Honzik Horava
  Chris Yap
  
• Saveworld.org
  Nicholas Schenck
  
• Securos
  Mark Adams
  Akshay Verma
  
• Shazz.com
  Dmitry Kogan
  Elena Perel
  
• Siris
  
  The Service allows you to pay for coin operated machines via phone call or txt message. It satisfies the need to have change wherever and whenever you want. The Service integrates with existing coin operated machines, providing customizable fulfillment and accounting processes for streamlining payments. For instance parking meters, vending machines, and laundry machines.
  
  Robert Palmiotto
  
• Sky is the Limit
  
  Sky's the Limit solves the problem of counterfeit pharmaceuticals that runs rampant worldwide. This problem comes at a social cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and the monetary loss of billions of dollars for pharmaceutical companies. Our cheap and efficient solution is easily implementable and will recoup lives and money.
  
  Chirag Sharma
  
• Slug
  Chris Spencer
  
• Slugz
  Kevin Neuburger
  
• SomNoir Co.
  Samuel Hilliard
  
• Sustainabites Baby Food
  
  Sustainabites will provide organic baby food products to the greater Bay Area. Our green products are easily traced from farm to fork to better connect our customers to their local, organic food sources. Our business model is designed to assure parents that they are providing their children with the safest and healthiest baby food products, and are investing in their children’s sustainable future.
  
  Jackie Olin (recently changed from Gordon)
  erica smeltzer
  
• Test Team
  Stephen Bourdow
  Eric Gonzalez
  Tim Gustafson
  Richard Shall
  Divya Sharma
  
• The Amigos
  Aditya Bandi
  Matthew Pecenco
  Derek Schipper
  
• The Cournalist
  Christiane Volk
  
• The Electric Fence
  Vasant Chandrasekhar
  
• The Executives
  Alireza Ataei
  Max Hill
  Moaath Sebiaa
  Nathan Zaru
  
• The yellow yiladeem
  James Ge
  John Kuan
  Connie Yeung
  Kevin Zheng
  
• Thirty Three Oh One
  Charles Harring
  Robbie Passemar
  
• Tri Solar
  
  Tri-Solar solves energy problem by utilizing a third party solution. Solar electricity is sold to host sites through a power purchase agreement. There can be multiple host sites. Solar securities are sold to investors to pay for the upfront cost of installation. The solar security represents partial ownership in a solar electric installation giving investors a revenue stream over the lifetime of the power purchase agreement (25 years). A $1,000 solar security offsets 4 tons of carbon emissions.
  
  Patrick Johnston
  Chris Mathews
  
• U Design Furniture
  Alexander Scordino
  
• what the crepe
  Brock Cardiner
  Jeff Wang
  
• XpertLinx
  
  Got information scattered all over the Internet and on multiple PCs? XpertLinx's MyXPL is a personal web interface that allows you to gather your contacts, webmails, bookmarks, and files in *one place* and lets you protect and share information. For more information, visit http://www.myxpl.com
  
  Anselm Kia
  Yasemin Ozcan