Speakers

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  Matt Carbonara

  Speaking: Sunday evening

  Topic: Funding

  Bio: Matt has over 18 years of experience working with technology companies, in venture capital, product marketing and design engineering roles. Matt is both a General Partner at Reservoir Venture Partners and a Managing Director at TeleSoft Partners, a Silicon Valley based Venture Capital firm.

  As a venture capitalist Matt has invested in Jungo Software (NDS), Matrix Semiconductor (SanDisk), Ikanos Communications(IPO: IKAN) and SigmaTel (IPO: SGTL). Matt was recently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at TechColumbus.  Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Matt was at Terayon Communication Systems (IPO: TERN), where he initially architected and designed ASICs for Terayon’s cable modem systems before moving into product marketing and product management. He also had design roles at LSI Logic and Amdahl Corporation. Matt received his B.S., Summa Cum Laude, and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University.

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  Dan Rockwell

  Speaking: Saturday mid-day

  Topic: Protobaking

  Bio: Dan Rockwell is the Tools Czar at www.Lextant.com, where he works with user experience, design research and insight translation teams in the formation of new tools and applications to capture, analyze and synthesize data in more efficient and useful ways.

   Along with his passion for research, Rockwell is a futurist to highest degree and  a self-professed trend hound.  He actively monitors, shapes and makes sense of trends in social media, data mining, collective intelligence, crowd sourcing and startup culture. In 2009 he formed Big Kitty Labs, an idea lab focusing on rapid concept development for web and iPhone application platforms.

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  Brooke Paul

  Speaking: Sunday evening

  Topic: Team Building and Exit

  Bio: Brooke Paul is an entrepreneur that has led several successful companies in the Internet technology, software, and risk management industries.  He has founded three companies and helped numerous early stage companies raise capital, grow revenue, develop products, and successfully exit.  As a corporate executive he has led product development and service provider teams in the financial services and publishing industries.

  Through Capital Informatics, he provides business strategy, product management, and marketing services to growth stage companies. He is currently president of MobileWait, a central Ohio-based technology start-up and an executive mentor for the entrepreneurial program at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. 

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  Mike Blackwell

  Speaking: Friday evening

  Topic: Execution

  Bio: Mike Blackwell is the CEO of VacationView, a new startup quickly becoming the largest online marketplace for rental or trade of vacation resort timeshares.  He is the former CEO of ShareThis a popular tool used on tens of thousands of web sites to share and syndicate web content to other popular social web sites and communication channels.

  Most recently, Mike has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at TechColumbus, a technology business incubator located in Columbus, Ohio.  While at TechColumbus, Mike conducted due diligence on technology companies seeking funding and worked with funded companies to increase their chances of meeting the milestones necessary for their success. Prior to that Mike had a very long and successful career with CompuServe, Netscape and AOL where he led the AOL Search Technology Product Development and Netscape Product Management. AOL and CompuServe Search had unprecedented revenue and usage growth under his leadership. He was also a contributor to patents related to AOL Instant Messenger and the Netscape Browser.  Mike has built a strong reputation as a builder, has intimate knowledge of consumer behavior online and very practical experience in building heavily used consumer-centric internet product solutions.

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  Dave Gillespie

  Speaking: Sunday evening

  Topic: Startup Legal

  Bio: Dave is the principal at The Gillespie Law Group, Ltd., but began his legal career at Baker Hostetler where he represented clients ranging from local start-ups to Fortune 20 companies.

  He has served as transaction counsel in a variety of mergers, acquisitions and private equity deals, has represented start-up clients through formation, capital raising and operation, and has served as outside general counsel offering practical advice on the multitude of legal issues business owners face daily. Dave's practice also includes strategic tax planning and structuring advice with respect to corporate transactions, complex partnerships and joint ventures, and advising clients facing the complex legal issues implicated by today's most forward-looking web technologies.  Dave is a "double-Buckeye" receiving both his undergraduate and law degrees from The Ohio State University. Aside from practicing law, Dave also worked for several years in the real estate and finance industries and has served as a business adviser to area startup companies.

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  Greg Ruf

  Speaking: Sunday evening

  Topic: Startup Coaching

  Bio: Greg Ruf is the CEO and partner of MBA Focus. In his role, Greg provides strategic leadership helping MBA Focus elevate global MBA recruiting.

  Greg is a veteran of the MBA recruiting world having founded Resume’ Link, one of the first computer based recruiting services, in 1987.  In 2000, Resume’-Link was acquired by BrassRing.  Greg directed many of BrassRing’s business units until 2002.     Greg is a serial entrepreneur, an equity partner and board member in several high growth businesses including Data Management Consulting, an IT consulting firm, and Career Services, a firm that provides outsourced career services to professional membership associations.   Greg graduated with honors from Bowling Green State University, in 1986, with a double major in finance and economics. His senior year, he was President of Mortar Board national honor society.  He resides in Dublin, Ohio with his wife and three children.

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  Ray Bohac

  Speaking: Sunday evening

  Topic: Boostrap

  Bio: Ray Bohac is the founder, president and CEO of CallCopy, Inc., one of the fastest-growing companies in the call recording and quality monitoring industry.

  It was Bohac's vision that first identified the market opportunity, laid the plans for the development of the company’s cc: Discover suite and built the team to bring the product to market. Prior to founding CallCopy, Bohac had worked with multiple call recording systems while working for a global BPO/outsourcer. He recognized that of all the applications installed, none had the capacity to scale quickly and affordably to accommodate the changing needs of the clients. A market niche was identified, and Bohac began planning the development of cc: Discover. The end-user was a key consideration in every phase of design, and the finished product was an easy-to-use and feature-rich application. CallCopy has seen tremendous growth since its inception in 2004. Unlike many small companies, CallCopy has achieved entirely organic growth with no outside investments, venture capital or debt. Because of its rapid growth, CallCopy was recently included in the 2009 Columbus Business First Fast Fifty list. In addition to its impressive expansion, CallCopy also takes pride in its people and products, winning both the 2008 Columbus Business First Best Place to Work award and the 2008 Product of the Year award from Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC). Adding to his experience in corporate finance and business development, Bohac has extensive knowledge in IT systems administration and application programming, specifically within the realm of Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI). Bohac has been a featured speaker at various business and technology events including the Ohio State Business Builders Club, TechColumbus and the PEP Talks. Bohac is also a founding member of Columbus TechLife, a grassroots group fostering greater culture and passion for social media, Internet, Web and other cutting-edge technology.