YetiZen™

Will Harbin is the Chairman & CEO of KIXEYE a hard core social gaming company that is the makers of popular successes like Backyard Monsters, Battle Pirates, and Desktop Defender. With KIXEYE since early 2010, he recently led it to a successful $18 Million seed round.

Prior to Casual Collective, he co-founded Affinity Labs, a company focused on building a global network of online communities. Post acquisition by Monster Worldwide (NYSE:MWW), he served as General Manager and led all operations for Affinity Labs and Monster’s Education properties.

Previously, he was part of the team responsible for restarting Netscape Communications Corp. where he led product management for the Netscape Browser and was responsible for various patents in security and usability. Before Netscape, he co-founded MD Drinks, Inc and Media1st as well as held positions at Yahoo, Internet Security Systems, Radiant Systems and was the Entrepreneur in Residence with Trinity Ventures.

Will advises YetiZen startups on overall strategy, product development and game design.

Jay is a serial, parallel entrepreneur whose expertise in business startup, branding, corporate development, and business strategy have made him a key advisor to a number of game studios. Jay helped bootstrap GarageGames, a development tool and game publisher, as Evangelist and Business Development & Marketing Director. He was an equity partner in GarageGames, which sold in 2007 to IAC for a reported $70 million. He has served in a variety of executive roles as well as on boards for companies in and out of the gaming industry.

Asra Rasheed is CEO of RRKidz. RRKidz develops and publishes engaging, educational interactive content for today’s digital kids. Curated by Reading Rainbow’s LeVar Burton, RRKidz brings learning and skill based experiences to children within a safe social environment online on handheld devices.

Asra is an industry executive and accomplished entrepreneur. Recently, Asra was President of Thumb Media Group, a content publishing platform for mobile and tablet devices. Previously, Asra was President and COO of Gottaplay Interactive, an online videogame rental service; aka: Netflix for games. Prior to that, she was Founder and Director of Interactive Media at Koyo Graphic International where she worked on creating online and interactive experiences for companies such as Bandai Entertainment, Warner Bros., Sanyo, and others.

Asra also serves as Business Advisor for Peanut Labs Media, Helios Interactive, and is an Advisor for The Los Angeles Film School Game Production Degree Program. She is also actively involved with Women in Games International (WIGI), where she is an executive board member of the organization and is also a member of the Award Jury for IndieCade 2010.

Asra advises YetiZen startups on all a variety of items including interactive media, entertainment, videogames, online and offline business strategies and operations.

Mark leads PlaySpan’s Payments and Platform Product management team (acquired by Visa in March 2011). Mark joined PlaySpan after co-founding Spare Change – the first and largest micropayments solution on social networks (acquired by PlaySpan in April 2009). Mark has over 15 years experience in product management and consumer financial services including PayPal, E*TRADE, Yodlee and HedgeStreet. A consumer experience zealot and analytics driven decison maker, Mark advises YetiZen startups on consumer experience, analytics and navigating the Mergers and Acquisition team.

Christine joined Intel Capital in 2010. Previously, Christine was a Principal with First Round Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, where she worked with companies such as BillFloat, Double Verify, Get Satisfaction, Mint, and Xobni. As a Director at Omidyar Network, she developed the Media practice strategy, investing in Common Sense Media, Digg, Socialtext, and Wikia, among others. Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Christine was the VP of Marketing for Mission Research, which develops small business CRM solutions. Earlier, Christine was the founder and CEO of Mercury2, a SaaS developer of international trade logistics systems. She also managed developer tools at NetObjects and played for the Internet Server Team at Microsoft. Christine started as an investor with Geocapital Partners, where she focused on early Internet infrastructure and network management software. Her investments there included Netcom Online Communications, AXON Networks, D-Vision Systems, ViaGrafix, and FocusVision. In each case, Geocapital was the initial professional investor and helped to bring the company to a dominant market position. Christine is a board observer for betaworks, SmartZip, and Yummly. She serves on the advisory boards for 500 Startups, SSE Labs, and Web 2.0 Expo. Christine has previously served on the Mission Research, Nonprofit Technology Conference (N-TEN), and Typepad advisory boards and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet Board of Directors.

Christine advises our startups on pitching to investors.

Margaret Wallace is an entrepreneur, gaming and media executive, with experience in creating both original IP and leveraging big brands in new ways. A recognized expert in the growing field gamification, she is CEO of Playmatics, a company dedicated to bringing rich user experiences to the Internet, in social media networks, and on a variety of connected platforms and products. She is also CEO of Shadow Government, Inc. — a social mobile start-up which recently raised a $1 million angel investment round to create an entirely new form of social gaming based on the gamification of real countries, systems, and worldwide events. Prior to these companies, Margaret was also CEO of venture-backed Rebel Monkey and of Skunk Studios, one of the first-ever casual game companies and gaming portals.

Margaret advises YetiZen startups on fundraising and scalable hiring practices.

James Cross is a vice president, research analyst and portfolio manager with Franklin Equity Group. He currently oversees the firm’s investments in the Interactive Entertainment and Industrial sectors. He also is a portfolio manager on the Franklin Small/Mid Cap Growth Fund and responsible for Franklin’s investments in firms such as Zynga, EA, and Gamestop.

James also the founded Slospeak Records in 2010, an independent record label based in Nashville, TN. The label currently has five acts on the roster and is growing rapidly in the pop punk and indie rock genres.

James mentors YetiZen startups on executive leadership and social dynamics in the business setting.

Kai Huang is a co-founder of RedOctane and was been the President and CEO from 1999 to 2010. Publishers of the popular Guitar Hero franchise, RedOctane was acquired by Activision in June 2006. Prior to RedOctane, Mr. Huang was co-founder and CEO of Adux Software, a software company developing solutions for the server appliance market. Adux Software was sold in 1999. From July 1994 to August 1998, Mr. Huang was a consultant with Accenture where he worked with Fortune 500 clients in the area of supply chain management.

Currently Kai is interested in gamification of real world problems particular health. He guides YetiZen companies fitting this criteria on product, marketing, monetization, and partnerships.

Patrick is Marketing Director Mobile Apps at Google. With 15 years of marketing experience at leading companies such as GetJar, Glu Mobile, PepsiCo and Diamondcluster, Patrick has worked in large multinationals and venture-backed start-ups in marketing, sales and general management.

Patrick has been in the mobile content space since 2004 first at mobile games publisher i-Play and then subsequently at Glu mobile. Patrick was Marketing Director Europe at Glu where he built up the company’s marketing team and was a key part of the European management team that helped take the company public on the NASDAQ in March 2007. He then joined GetJar where he has led marketing content and communications strategies, developed and executed effective conversions of publishers to paying customers and forged key relationships with top game companies like Rovio (Angry Birds), Glu Mobile, Electronic Arts, and Zynga.

Patrick advises YetiZen startups on marketing in the mobile app ecosystem and publisher development (for platform startups).

Carter Lipscomb is best know for his Marketing, Sales and Business Development experience in the gaming industry, where he’s been a fixture since 1990. Carter Lipscomb directed AOL’s Video Games strategic direction and growth. As the former Director of Sales and Marketing for BAM Entertainment, Director of Sales and Marketing for Microprose/Hasbro, and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Xatrix Entertainment/Virgin, his insight into interactive business and video game sales and marketing provides valuable gaming industry perspective.

Carter has directly managed sales and marketing organizations with staffs greater than 25 and has been responsible for the release of more than one-hundred game titles (resulting in sales of over a billion dollars in revenue). Carter maintains a great relationship with the media and continues to leverage his skills and an articulate and entertaining industry spokesperson on-line and on air! Carter was also credited with having the best office bar in Silicon Valley which was funded by a craps game he ran after hours during the dot com bomb. Currently Carter works at Sony Computer Entertainment America leading the Special Markets Group focusing on alternative channels and business models for any and all first party PlayStation hardware, software and peripherals.

Carter advises YetiZen startups on brand partnerships and business development.

David Helgason

Co-founder and CEO

Unity Technologies

An entrepreneur, visionary, and ex-programmer, David’s job is to lead the team to stardom, while making sure that each step is taken with love and care. In the past David founded and participated in startups in fields such as news & community integration, music distribution, and consulting. David serves on the boards of several games and technology startups.

David advises our startups on multiplatform development.

Cynthia Woll has been a games industry producer and designer for more than 15 years. She is currently focused on mobile games, with an emphasis on social mobile gaming.

She founded Creative Ninja Productions in 2007, and has worked as a consultant on game design and rewards systems for a variety of game and media clients, from AOL to MTV. Prior to her work as a consultant, she was an Executive Producer for top companies in the games industry. Her published games are a diverse portfolio and include Yahoo! Chess, Scrabble, Monopoly, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Barbie Magic Hair Styler, and Fisher Price Baby Smartronics. She is Founder and CEO of Cul de Sac Studios, a company specializing in the design and development of games for Facebook and other social networks.

Cythia advises YetiZen startups on game design and best practices in mobile game design.

Joe is the cofounder of E23 Games. Over the last 20 years he has been responsible for new products, corporate strategy, turnrounds, team building, dialog design and buying the pizza. He was instrumental in building Macromedia into a successful public company. Joe has built and launched everything from one of the original casual gaming sites (shockwave.com) through high-end desktop software to tiny fileservers.

He enjoys firing up small teams of great people building hard new stuff. At YetiZen he does this by sparking people’s thinking on business models and team building strategies.

Rizwan Virk (aka “Riz”) possesses extensive experience as an entrepreneur, technologist, author, angel investor, and indie film producer. His areas of experience include social and mobile games, online publishing and advertising, venture capital, with a particular focus on innovative, early stage organizations.

Riz is currently CEO of Gameview Studios, which he cofounded and exited to DeNA, a leading Japanese mobile/social game company in 2010. Gameview’s mobile games have been used by over 30 million iphone and android smartphone users.

In addition, Riz has been an angel investor in many gaming and social/mobile companies, including Offerpal Media, Tapjoy, Apsalar, Pocket Gems, Telltale games, Funzio, Assured Labor, and others. Prior to Gameview, Riz was a cofounder of a number of technology companies, including CambridgeDocs (sold to EMC), Service Metrics (sold to Exodus) and Brainstorm Technologies.

Riz frequently writes and lectures on mobile, social, gaming technologies, and entrepreneurship. Riz has also been a executive producer in a number of independent family and fantasy/sci-fi films. He has been featured in in periodicals ranging from the Boston Globe , Inc. Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. Riz is also the author of Zen Entrepreneurship. Visit his blog at www.zenentrepreneur.com/blog

At YetiZen Riz guides game startups on product and marketing strategy as well as high level production decisions.

Damon Grow is CEO and Co-Founder of CrowdMob Inc., a mobile social startup that builds geolocation games for the masses. Damon has been a top serial entrepreneur and game designer for social games. He previously founded Shattered Reality Interactive (now Rocket Ninja), a venture funded social gaming company and 2008 TechCrunch 50 finalist. He has formerly served as Creative Director of Lolapps where he built their X-Wars games, Yakuza Lords, Diva Life and Band of Heroes. Prior to Lolapps, Damon was Co-Founder and Head of Games at ROFLplay, which was acquired by Lolapps.

A lifelong gamer, Damon has designed games for multiple platforms and genres, from immediate social experiences to large-scale massively multiplayer online games. His depth of knowledge in gaming and ability to spot emerging market trends within the social gaming space has earned him a top spot as one of the most respected social game designers.

At YetiZen Damon guides startups on game design, analytics, and company building strategies.

Mark is a serial entrepreneur and Internet pioneer who has founded, grown and sold 4 companies. He co-founded Industrygamers.com that was acquired by Eurogamer in March 201l. He was the founder of GameDaily.com and grew it to one of world’s largest video games websites and ad networks. It was acquired by TimeWarner AOL in 2006. He was an AOL executive until late 2007. Previously, he started Gigex, the leading download service for game and software demos. He co-founded content delivery service V-Cast, Inc, which was acquired by Verizon Wireless.

Mark is a frequently invited speaker to leading business and technology conferences including CES, GDC, E3, VentureBeat, EO, Digital Hollywood, MI6, OMMA, AdTech and IMedia.
Mark consults with several leading entrepreneurial companies, speaks to business groups and advises CEOs on growth strategies. He is a patented inventor, an investor, advisor and a board member of several Internet companies.

Mark mentors YetiZen startups on understanding and managing the motivations of acquiring companies for a successful exit.

Benjamin Joffe is a renowned expert on Asia’s digital scene. During the past 11 years, he has been part of Japan’s mobile revolution, Korea’s Internet boom and the rise of China as a digital superpower.

As CEO of the strategy consultancy +8* he brings the best practices from Asia’s digital scene to clients worldwide (e.g. Microsoft, IMVU, Kabam, Citibank, China Mobile, Harvard Business School…). Bridging technology, sociology and anthropology, his research covers virtual economies, digital third places, artificial artificial intelligence (AAI) and online social dynamics.
Benjamin shared insights in over 100 talks across 17 countries, and was selected among China’s Top 100 Mobile Industry Influencers in 2007 and 2008 as founder of Mobile Monday in Beijing. Last, he is an angel investor in Asia-based startups, including Cmune, leader of 3D social games on Facebook and Mac App Store with its FPS Uberstrike, and MyGengo, a global human translation platform.

Ben advises YetiZen startups on the Asian game market landscape.

Blake single-handedly pioneered the social gaming space with his creation of the iconic and super-viral Facebook games Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves & Slayers which acquired over 45 million users. He then went on to cofound Ohai with part of the team from Everquest. Prior to that, he led the development of Causes on Facebook, cofounded CareBadges (acquired by Causes), Mogad (acquired by iSkoot) and BuildForge (acquired by IBM). He’s also held senior engineering positions at Plaxo and Infraworks.

Blake advises YetiZen startups on building company culture and analytics focused game design.

David is Yammer’s Vice President of Product Management. Prior to joining Yammer, David served as Senior Director of Product at Playdom, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company, where he focused on virality and user acquisition for social applications. Before working at Playdom he was the Product Marketing lead for YouTube’s Platforms and Partnerships, and before that the Business Marketing lead Google’s Commerce team, which includes Google Analytics, Checkout, and Product Search. Prior to Google he was a strategic consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

David advises YetiZen startups on analytics.

Feisal Maroof is an Executive Producer at SilverTree Media. He has shipped titles on PC, console, handheld, and mobile; most recently “Cordy” (Android). Cordy was chosen as one of the inaugural 24 “Editors’ Choice” apps by Android Market staff. Ranked #1 Action game on the iPad, #2 overall, and featured by Apple. His other recent title Sleepy Jack (Android) demo was named as one of the “ten best” mobile games of E3 2011 by Pocket Gamer UK.

Prior to SilverTree Media, Feisal worked at Tapulous where he led the production of titles like Tap Tap Revenge 4 (iPhone), a free-to-play rhythm game that hit #1 Top Free on the App Store in 18 hours, in 37 countries. At peak, 44k downloads per hour.

Feisal advises YetiZen startups on game production, design, and analytics.

YuChiang Cheng has a history of taking compelling proprietary content and building them into growth businesses. Co-founding World Golf Tour (WGT) in 2006, he serves as CEO for the company. YuChiang has successfully grown WGT from a dream in a garage to a community of millions of online players and one of the largest golf sites in the world. The game’s proprietary 3D HD web technology has earned a reputation for being one of the most sophisticated on the web today and crushed the barrier of bringing console quality graphics to browsers. WGT is one of the first sports games in the US to pioneer the virtual item transaction model merged with an in-game advertising platform. WGT has been able to forge partnerships with over 12 top tier golf courses, the USGA, R&A, ESPN, NBC Sports and top brand sponsors.

Prior to joining WGT, YuChiang served on the executive team at WagerWorks as the vice president of business development and product marketing. As the tenth employee of the company, YuChiang spearheaded the company’s business development and product initiatives. Directly responsible for product marketing, business development and customer management, YuChiang led the strategic product direction for the WagerWorks gaming platform and was instrumental in securing international business clients such as Virgin Games, MGM-MIRAGE, World Poker Tour and BskyB. During his tenure, WagerWorks was acquired by IGT for $90 million in 2005. Prior, YuChiang spent time at Youbet.com as a product manager.

He advises YetiZen startups on monetization and funnel optimization.

Mitch Liu started Gameview Studios in April 2010 with his good friend and long-time business partner Rizwan Virk. Gameview is best known for its Tap Fish mobile social game on iPhone and Android and has been downloaded more than 10 million times. The company was acquired in September 2010 by DeNA, one of the largest social gaming companies in the world with $1.3 Billion in revenues.
Prior, Mitch co-founded Offerpal Media (now known as Tapjoy) which pioneered social media and virtual currency monetization on Facebook and mobile platforms on iOS and Android. Before that he spent some time at Adteractive, a pay-for-performance CPA lead gen company and a startup at the time called salesforce.com.
Mitch is also an active angel investor in the Bay area and advisor to a number of startups.

He advises YetiZen startups on product and business strategy.

Randy is a seasoned consumer technology exec specializing in producing games, interface technology and mobile and social media. Most recently as CEO for SGN, the company develops and publishes social and mobile games and was among the first in the market to transition mobile games to Free-to-Play. The company was recently acquired by Mindjolt.

Prior to joining SGN, as Chief Product Officer, Randy led Emotiv Systems to create a low-cost, wireless EEG hardware device, coupled with an SDK, allowing developers to integrate the HCI device via an API. The system classifies brainwave activity; detecting facial expressions, emotions, and thought patterns in real-time.

Prior to Emotiv, Randy served as VP of Product Development at LucasArts. During this period, LucasArts developed over two-dozen titles for PC and consoles including;Knights of the Old Republic, which won Game of the Year, original and critically acclaimed titles such as Mercenaries and Gladius, release of the company’s first MMO with Galaxies Online, and online title Star Wars Battlefront.

Randy began his game industry career at Electronic Arts prior to its IPO, culminating in a 5-year term as Executive Producer and Creative Director. Randy created and managed the Road Rash franchise, originally developed for the Sega Genesis. The property was sequelled several times and went on to span three generations of platforms over a 10-year period. Other acclaimed products produced include; Strike Fleet, 688 Attack Sub,Indy 500: the Simulation, Kasparov’s Gambit, Delphine’s Fade to Black, Adeline’s Little Big Adventure and EA’s Nuclear Strike, and Creative Direction of the movie title 007:The World Is Not Enough.

Randy advises YetiZen startups on project management for game releases and navigating the VC landscape.

The founder of DDM, Jeff is widely recognized as one of the industry’s leading agents, with over 19 years of business development and management experience. Since his first client, Virgin Interactive, Jeff has secured deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide. Jeff’s experience spans initiating new properties, working with some of the largest existing entertainment IP’s, transitioning in-progress games out of troubled situations and assisting publishers in portfolio rebalancing. Jeff helped to structure one of the very first bank and bonded deals in the industry and has an uncanny ability to uncover mutually beneficial opportunities where others see roadblocks. Jeff mentors the DDM agents and works continuously to bring greater opportunities to DDM’s entire client base.

He advises YetiZen startups on driving and negotiating publishing deals.

Jorden Woods is a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur who has founded and led 3 IT-focused companies over the last 12 years: two enterprise software companies and a management consultancy. He very much enjoys working with entrepreneurs and fast-paced high-tech companies in either a consulting or operational capacity.

As a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur he has significant experience in the areas of mobile/wireless solutions, Web 2.0/3.0, online/mobile video gaming, enterprise software, networking, medical software/devices, Ajax/RIA technologies, and globalization.

In addition to technology and startups, he is passionate about environmental protection, sustainability, and clean technologies. He worked as an environmental consultant between 1993-95 in Hong Kong providing significant input to some of the first large-scale EIAs in the Territory. He is also an earlier adopter of clean technologies, powering his home with solar since 2002, driving a hybrid car since 2004, and using offsets to maintain a zero carbon footprint since 2004.

He advises YetiZen startups on managing and negotiating the fund raising process.

Joshua represents an extraordinary fusion of creativity and passion for community development and interaction. A seasoned Web Designer/Developer with formal training in the Games Development pipeline. He has also been called on as a revenue-driven business strategist and entrepreneur. As a freelancer Joshua offered full-service, interactive solutions & comprehensive strategic consulting, Planned and executed web design & development for a diverse client roster spanning a wide spectrum of industries and has executed over 100 projects since 1995. Formerly Interactive Art Director at Taylor Johnson Associates in Chicago and Lead Interactive Designer at Rhea & Kaiser in Naperville, IL.

He advises YetiZen startups on people dynamics, relationship management, and maximizing their time in the accelerator program.

Kevin Heidorn is currently the Founder/CEO of sCommerce Solutions, which is a social/mobile monetization and distribution platform. Kevin also currently manages business development for CrowdMob, which is a social/mobile location based game development company. Prior to sCommerce Solutions, Kevin managed Publisher Development for EpicSocial and was formerly the SVP Business Development for Social Suitcase, which was acquired by Traffic Marketplace in March 2010. Kevin was responsible for managing the publisher network to optimize the integration of the EpicSocial monetization platform within virtual economy environments.

Prior to Social Suitcase, Kevin managed publisher development at TapJoy (formerly Offerpal Media), which saw a +1,000% revenue growth from early 2008 till his departure in late 2009. Before his social media career, Kevin led business development at Owner’s Pass, which was an exclusive luxury assets management company. Kevin currently resides in Las Vegas and enjoys playing sports, photography, entertaining friends and supporting his family’s non-profit (No Barriers) which is a community access program for developmentally disabled adults.

Kevin advises YetiZen startups on monetization and international markets.

Jesse Janosov started his career working on device drivers for DirectX. He then spent a while as a developer in the games division at Microsoft, shipping several titles, and working on nearly all technical and product developmental aspects of games, including: audio, graphics, tools, UI, test automation, general performance, physics, input, gameplay, and design. After spending several years as leading product development and working with many of Microsoft’s smaller development partners, he managed the development of their internal core shared technology that ultimately shipped in several of their first party titles. After that, it was a brief detour back to Harvard for business school. He was then able to land with a great VC firml, and after a year there, jumped into Playdom. After the Playdom exit to Disney Jesse left to become CEO of RivetGames where he is now.

Jesse advises YetiZen startups on VC negotiations, technology solutions, strategy and competitive advantage building.

Mike Ayer is a veteran of the games business, having managed sales and business development teams at GameSpy, Crispy Gamer, Xfire and MTV Games. He’s been a featured presenter at professional forums such as the OMMA Gaming Conference, Bay Area Interactive Group, iMedia and others, and was an early member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Games Committee. Mike has served as an advisor to several games startups including Wild Pockets and Greystripe. Currently, he’s the Founder and CEO of Broccoli Ice Cream.

Mike guides YetiZen companies on business development strategies.

Ian McGee was the co-founder and Software VP of Expresso Fitness, he drew on his long experience in console, PC and online casual games to bring a rich virtual world experience to high-end commercial stationary bikes. Ghost rides, achievements, asynchronous play and later Facebook/Twitter integration provided much-needed motivation to people trapped in the typical 80′s-tech gym. Ian helped Expresso raise $40m in venture capital over 7 years.

Previously Ian worked at multiple startups. He started & ran Malibu Interactive UK developing original and licensed IP on console. Next he joined Sony internal development for the launch of the original Sony Playstation in 1995. At AndNow in Half Moon Bay he used development talent from Moscow Russia and Budapest Hungary to develop original console & PC titles. Also at AndNow he helped create the online casual game SmallBall in 2001.

Ian advises startups and consults at the intersection of games, fitness and social as well as managing external production teams.

Serial entrepreneur, startup advisor, angel investor, restauranteur, and carpenter. Most recently, Dean co-founded the first virtual currency, Zeevex, which was acquired by InComm 8 months after product launch. He has invested in RubyCoins, Gamify, Voxy, ScribbleBoards, and the Taco Buggy. In August 2011, he jumped back into the gaming arena as Founder and CEO of Face The Fans, the hottest upcoming social game you’ve never heard of.

Dean advises YetiZen startups on product marketing, business development, and funnel optimization.

Nick Bhardwaj is the VP of Monetization at NaturalMotion Games. NaturalMotion is a leading game technology and development company based in Oxford, London and San Francisco that is developing highly differentiated next-gen console and iPhone games. Titles include My Horse, Backbreaker Vengeance, Backbreaker 2, Icebreaker, NFL Rivals, and Jenga.

Nick brings extensive experience from the advertising industry, where he served as a Business Development Executive for various mobile ad networks. He has worked directly with top gaming studios to develop user acquisition strategies and new revenue models while providing insight on mobile game development, mechanics and heuristics. Nick is also an advisor and angel investor to mobile gaming and tech startups in Silicon Valley.

Nick mentors YetiZen startups on customer acquisition and monetization strategies, with a special focus on monetization via advertising.

James Schermerhorn, Vice President Business Development for Aaxis Group is responsible for driving new opportunities that leverage emerging trends in commerce like social and mobile for both new existing Aaxis Group clients. He began his professional career in finance and retail for companies such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Nordstrom; eventually moving into sales, management and corporate development roles for technology companies like Yahoo!, Oracle and ATG. He brings innovative and fresh experience in the social and mobile commerce space, helping found a mobile games company, Flying Wisdom Studios, which launched several popular titles with brands like Star Wars and Lady Gaga for top publishers.
James advises YetiZen startups on business development and sales tactics.

Deepika has a strong background in social mobile gaming in both developing and implementing strategies for monetization of both freemium and premium mobile games at companies such as Fierce Wombat Games and Tapjoy.

She enjoys working with fun, energetic and innovative teams passionate about figuring out opportunities to improve engagement, virality, and customer lifetime value. She is committed to the possibility of creating blockbuster games that are best in class and the success of the teams building them.

She advises YetiZen startups on company branding.

Neil Haldar’s first-hand experience managing internal and external teams across for various mobile and online platforms and his work with gigantic international properties like James Bond, Rocky, and Unreal Tournament brings terrific bench strength to the team at Rocket Ninja. An 18-year videogame industry veteran, Haldar has participated in the production of over 80 games, resulting in nearly USD $3B in consumer spending worldwide. Haldar has experience with all major facets of the games business, including production, publishing, business development and marketing. Previously, Haldar served as VP of Content Programming and Strategy at upstart mobile game publisher SkyZone Entertainment, and as VP of Production and Business Development at MGM Interactive, a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

Neil advises YetiZen startups on game production, publishing and business development.

James Portnow received his masters from Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, went on to work for Activision as a designer on the Call of Duty series before raising funds to start his own company, Divide by Zero Games. Recently he’s opened Rainmaker Games a design and narrative consulting firm that has worked with partners from Warner Bros. to Zynga.

James Portnow has written for every major trade publication including Gamasutra, The Escapist, Edge &c. He is currently the writer on the hit consumer facing series about game design: Extra Credits. He is known for his theories on socially positive design and has been asked to speak at universities and companies around the world. He is the co-author of a book on Invented Languages being published by Oxford University Press to be released this fall.

James advises YetiZen startups on the Latin American market and game design.

Brian enjoys working with creative teams to develop market-changing consumer products, and take them from concept to market. He has been developing interactive entertainment since 1993. His current company, Kidlandia, is an opportunity to engage and delight children and their family both offline and online. Kidlandia has millions of users and works with top companies like Disney and Marvel.

He advises startups on game design that makes your customers your chief evangelists.

Markus Weichselbaum is the founder and CEO of TheBroth, a social application developer from Australia, now headquartered in San Francisco. After a PhD in Neuroscience, Markus left academic research in 2003 and formed a company focused on performance based affiliate marketing. With his focus on monetization on the internet, Markus recognized the potential of social networks as an application platform and began to develop social games. TheBroth’s most successful game is Barn Buddy, a farming game played by 2 million daily active users.

Markus advises YetiZen startups on game distribution and navigating international publishing agreements.

Joseph is currently the managing partner and co-founder of VisionNexus, an online marketing and monetization firm focused on search marketing and content development. Prior to VisionNexus, he was the co-founder and former COO of Sometrics. Sometrics was venture backed by The Mailroom Fund, Greycroft Parters, and Steamboat Ventures, raising a total amount of $5.5M.

Joseph advises YetiZen startups on analytics and customer acquisition.

David Hassell is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of 15Five, a software company focused on producing transparency and alignment in organizations through structured, efficient and effective communication practices. He recently served as President of the San Francisco chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO, http://www.eonetwork.org), an International network of entrepreneurs who each have businesses with annual revenues in excess of $1mil, and has been named The Most Connected Man You Don’t Know in Silicon Valley by Forbes.

In 2004, he co-founded Kite Adventures, an adventure travel company offering guided downwind tours and pro-coached kiteboarding camps in northeast Brazil.http://www.kiteadventures.com. He is also co-founder of Endai Worldwide, a NYC-based Internet marketing and services firm founded in 1999, and served as the company’s CTO through 2006. Endai has been recognized on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in America. http://www.endai.com.

He advises YetiZen startups on how to discover their company’s most effective strategy to achieve their mission.

Curt Bererton is the CEO and Co-Founder of ZipZapPlay. Curt is very familiar with the acquisition procces, as his company ZipZapPlay was acquired by PopCap, which in turn was acquired by EA only a few months afterwards. Curt earned his PhD in Robotics from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to co-founding ZipZapPlay, he gained three years of game industry startup experience at AILive, an artificial intelligence middleware company, developing innovative machine learning tools. Curt’s passion is creating something from nothing. Whether it is developing innovative products from concept to release, researching new algorithms and ideas in academia, or starting organizations, Curt is all about creating products with real-world value.

Curt advises YetiZen startups on creating minimum viable launch games and iteration methods.

As EVP of Billing Revolution, Greg is responsible for leading the company’s business development, marketing and account management efforts.

Greg is an experienced entrepreneur and advisor who for the past 15 years has worked as a founder and advisor incubating and scaling early stage technology companies with a focus on mobile and gaming. During this time he has helped early stage companies raise over $90MM in financing and served in operating or advisory roles focusing on strategy, business development and market expansion. Greg has worked extensively with a number of Silicon Valley based private equity and venture capital firms including USVP, SV Angels, Mohr Davidow, SK Telecom Ventures, Google Ventures, Doll Capital, Index Ventures, Deep Fork Capital and Motorola Ventures. Greg’s client and partnering experience includes working with companies such as Disney, Motorola, Omnicom, Zynga, Sulake, HP, IBM, MTV Networks, Yahoo!, Nokia, EA, France Telecom, MySpace, CAA, Google, and Playdom.

Greg advises YetiZen startups on creating and delivering compelling company brands and navigating the brave new world of carriers when creating a mobile strategy.

Nate Ahearn is a Marketing and Business Affairs Manager at Apple. Prior to this, he served the Editorial staff at IGN.com (February 2009 to December 2010.)

Gaming entered Nate’s life while visiting his grandmother in Vestal, New York. Tetris on the Nintendo Entertainment System was his first, followed promptly by Mario and Duck Hunt. Man did that light gun rock. Later came the Super Nintendo, which is still possibly the best Christmas present Nate has ever received, and his life of gaming was off to the races from there. He began his professional gaming career when he was sixteen, though at the time he was making no money and getting no games for his efforts. He moved up the ranks and eventually found himself working at TeamXbox.com which fed his collegiate drinking habit nicely thanks to a monthly paycheck. He made the switch to working full-time for IGN’s Insider channel in San Francisco. After years at IGN working for channels such as IGN Xbox and IGN Sports, Nate left IGN for a role at Apple in 2010.

Nate advises YetiZen startups on best practices in Appstore marketing.

Adam Boyes is a 15 year game industry veteran who has specialized in Production and Business Development. He has held positions such as Executive Producer at Midway and most recently he ran the Product Development group at Capcom US. At the helm, he delivered the most successful digital games initiative of the industry. Adam has founded Beefy Media to fill a hole in the video gaming industry – to build strategic visions for brands, IP holders, publishers, and developers. Once the vision is built, his team goes to work to oversee the entire production process of building the content and getting it to market on mobile, social, and console platforms.

Adam advises YetiZen startups on negotiating and managing relationships with brands, IP holders and publishers.

Rob Carroll is the Director of Publishing for Tapjoy, where he collaborates with game publishers of all sizes to improve their monetization, game mechanics and viral distribution. Before joining the Tapjoy team, Rob was a Facebook and MySpace game producer for Zynga and Hive7 and a console game producer at LucasArts. Odds are you have played one of his titles, such as Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, Street Racer, Pirates, YoVille, Knighthood, The Sindicate, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Star Wars: Elite Squadron and many others.

Rob advises YetiZen startups on virtual goods and monetization.

Yousuf Bhaijee works in Business Development at Tapulous, a subsidiary of Disney Mobile. Tapulous is an American video game and software developer that was founded in 2008. Its most profitable products are the Tap Tap series of games which have seen upwards of thirty-five million downloads. Before moving to Tapulous, Yousuf was Head of Platform Services at Origo Networks and an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company. He is a graduate of UC Berkely and the Walter A. Haas School of Business.

Yousuf guides YetiZen startups on customer acquisition best practices.

Vatsal Bhardwaj is a Senior Manager of Corporate Strategy at Zynga. In addition to his time and experience at one of the world’s leading mobile/social developers, Vatsal also has close to ten years experience working for and promoting the product lines of major company’s such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Cooliris.

He guides YetiZen startups on opportunity areas outside of the United States, specifically Latin America.

Jim Greer is the Founder and CEO of Kongregate which recently exited to GameStop. Kongregate is an online games hosting website that allows users to upload their own Adobe Flash or Unity3D games, and it incorporates an API that flash developers can integrate into their games so users can submit high-scores, share achievements and earn rewards. Jim has over ten years experience in game development as an engineer, team leader, and tech director, and the bulk of that experience has been in online and web-based games.

He guides YetiZen startups on game production and the virtual goods.

Jacob joined Shasta Ventures in the summer of 2011 bringing with him a wealth of experience from many sides of the modern day startup industry. Before Shasta, Jacob joined Microsoft to help design and launch the BizSpark program, Microsoft’s first initiative tailored specifically for early-stage startups. As US program lead, his focus was working with all constituents of the startup ecosystem, from early-stage incubators, investors, service providers, and more, to help align mutual interests for the startup’s success. At the time of his leaving, BizSpark had over 35,000 members in over 100 countries. Prior to Microsoft, Jacob was the “business guy” at VentureBeat.com leading all non-editorial efforts including revenue generation, advertising relationships and strategic partnerships with companies like The New York Times and IDG. During college, Jacob co-founded a nutraceutical company with significant international operations in South Africa. As CEO, he led this startup to become a publicly traded-OTC company that manufactured and distributed three product lines: a dietary supplement, gum, and energy drink, in retail, online, and direct marketing channels.

Jacob advises YetiZen startups on pitching to investors.

Brendan is Director of Business Development and Chief Data Scientist at Playnomics. He plays a dual role at Playnomics – focusing on both understanding how players interact with games through the use of predictive analysis, and helping game publishers utilize that information on an ongoing basis. Prior to Playnomics, Brendan was in the Bioinformatics PhD program at Stanford, applying algorithms to predict the mutation rates of infectious diseases.

He advises YetiZen startups on using deeper analytics to qualify high paying customer profiles and maximize their monetization.

David Scott is a founding member of KIXEYE and Executive Producer of the runaway hit game, Backyard Monsters. With over twelve million installs since its release last year, Backyard Monsters is among the most successful real-time strategy games ever on the Facebook platform. Hailed as “a social game for gamers who hate social games,” Backyard Monsters pushes the boundaries of what people consider social gaming.

Prior to KIXEYE, Scott designed games, websites and videos for corporations such as Warner Brothers, GlaxoSmithKline and Wrigley.

David advises YetiZen startups on game design.

Tony Parisi

CTO

Large

Tony Parisi is an entrepreneur and career CTO/architect. He has developed international standards and protocols, created noteworthy software products, and started and sold several technology companies. Tony’s passion for innovating is exceeded only by his desire to bring coolness and fun to the broadest possible audience. Tony’s first startup, Intervista Software (1995-1998), developed the first-ever real-time VRML plugin for Internet Explorer, which Microsoft bundled with millions of copies of their browser. His most recent company, Vivaty (2007-2010), created a novel end-to-end virtual world system fully integrated with the web and serving up millions of virtual goods transactions.

Tony is perhaps best known for his work as a pioneer of 3D standards for the web. He is the co-creator of VRML and X3D, ISO standards for networked 3D graphics. He also co-developed SWMP, a real-time messaging protocol for multi-user virtual worlds. Tony continues to build community around innovations in 3D as the cochair of the WebGL Meetup (www.meetup.com/WebGLDevelopers-Meetup) and a founder of the Rest3D working group (http://www.rest3d.org/).

Tony mentors YetiZen startups all all things technical with a key focus on developing scalable platform companies.

Ritu Malhotra

Vice President / Associate

Finance and Strategy Advisor

Ritu advises technology companies on expansion, corporate development, and exit strategies. Her roles have included Vice President and Sr. Associate in Technology Investment Banking at Wunderlich Securities, Director at S&P, Capital Markets Associate at Lehman Brothers, and founder of an online investing portal. Before moving into advisory she led product development of real time sales trading and valuation applications for several years.

Ritu participates with angel groups and is Chair of the internet & ecommerce group at SVForum where her group holds Founder and VC panels on emerging topics and companies in internet, e-commerce, gaming and game commerce in Silicon Valley.

Ritu mentors YetiZen startups on building relationships with potential exit partners and evaluating expansion opportunities and PNL.

Scott Foe is an award-winning leader in interactive entertainment; he is passionate about driving new technology, marketing, and methodology for the games industry. In 1999, Foe joined Sega as a member of the DreamCast product development team – the world’s first online games console. In 2003, Nokia acquired the games platform technology he helped to develop at Sega, and he went on to join the N-Gage product development team – the world’s first online games handheld.

In 2004, Foe launched the Game of the Year Award-winning Pocket Kingdom, the world’s first global massively multiplayer mobile game – touted as “the ultimate online game” by GameSpy. In 2008, he shipped Game of the Year Award-winning Reset Generation – called “one of the most-important handheld games of the past five years” by Pocket Gamer. Reset Generation was both cross-platform and multiplatform; players could play together from mobile devices or from the web. In 2009, Reset Generation was nominated for an Interactive Achievement Award by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.

Currently, Foe serves as a production, design and execution consultant for numerous pre-funding and early-stage gaming startups, primarily in the social and mobile gaming spaces. Foe also serves as an advisor to Cerca Trova Advisors, a boutique investment bank which boasts a combined team experience representing over 100 deals and over USD 20B-worth of business.

Scott advises YetiZen startups on external and internal production methodologies to ensure they are developing scalable reliable production teams.

Brian Wong is the founder of Kiip (pronounced “keep”), a mobile rewards network, backed by True Ventures. Kiip has raised over $4.4 million in funding to date and is redefining the advertising industry through a moments-based model, versus the traditional attention-driven model. Very recently, Kiip was listed by Forbes as one of the “4 Hot Online Ad Companies to Put on Your Watch List”, and was also named to the Dow Jones’ FastTech50 List.

Techcrunch and the Wall Street Journal called Brian the “youngest person to ever receive funding by a venture capital firm”. He was recently honored in the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30, and was also lauded in Mashable as one of “The Top 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch”, and the Vancouver Sun called him “a budding internet visionary”. He was also recently a recipient of the Top 20 Under 20 awards in all of Canada. Brian was also recently listed to AdAge’s Creativity Top 50, and Business Insider’s Top 25 Under 25 in Silicon Valley list.

Before starting Kiip, Brian was responsible for key publisher and tech partnerships at the social news website Digg.com. He also launched the Digg Android mobile app, adding to the company’s rising mobile presence.

Brian mentors YetiZen startups on developing a quality founder brand with press, investors, partners and customers.

Since 1994 Ken has shipped nearly two dozen titles with platform experience ranging from XBOX 360 to SNES and mobile/ web. Ken is a classically-trained illustrator and award-winning, multi-talented veteran artist who directs & contributes to all aspects of art production including visual development, concept art creation, scoping/ scheduling/ staffing, mentoring, pipeline & tools development, outsourcing management, story and hands-on art creation. His expertise lies not only in creating original IP but also in appropriately servicing existing brands and updating legacy IP. Ken is noted for his grace under fire, eye for detail, sense of style, penchant for hitting deliverable dates on time and his outsourcing savvy.

Ken advises YetiZen startups on art production for their games.

Twice named one of the “Top 50 Women In Mobile” by Mobile Entertainment Magazine, Chriss is a recognized expert in mobility, gaming, and digital content. At Mobile Theory, she is tasked with building exclusive, direct relationships with the company’s key media verticals – business, technology, parenting, health, and entertainment.

Responsible for leading efforts with content owners and creating a vibrant and sustainable publisher eco-system, Chriss also joins Mobile Theory from Greystripe. There, she was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, and managed all strategic partnerships, licensing, syndication and advertising programs. Experienced working with brands of all sizes, Erica forged first-of-their-kind mobile licensing deals with NBCUniversal, Time Inc, KingWorld Television, Rachel Ray, and many others.

Chriss has a keen ability for leading startups, and has held executive roles at LimeLife, Inc, Digital Chocolate, and Nextbus.

She advises YetiZen startups on business development practices through out the lifecycle of your company.

Mr. Darko joined Morgan Keegan Technology Group as an Analyst in November 2010. Prior to joining Morgan Keegan Technology Group, Mr. Darko worked in Business Development at the Gores Group, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm investing primarily in technology, telecom, business services and industrials.

Jerry advises startups on market sizing.

Jean-Francois Gauthier (also known as JF’s) negotiation skills were first recognized in 1995 when he ranked #1 negotiator of 810 participants in a 4-month Harvard Negotiation program. He has since sharpened his skills in a multitude of contexts, as CEO, CFO, investment banker, and financial & strategy consultant working with startups, mature companies and VCs.

As Managing Partner JF has led several rounds of financing, including two VC financings and one project financing in 2010. He was previously CEO of Iscopia Software, a 15-year-old technology company he turned around from a 5-year decline to a 10X revenue growth in 3 years, then financed it through premier VCs Garage and Rho. Prior to that JF was a partner of TSG Partners (now ScientiaAdvisors), providing corporate finance, M&A, and strategic advice to CEOs of startups and public Life Sciences companies.

The breadth of his experience includes leading the stealth team advising the Department of Justice and its key witnesses against Microsoft, completing a merger between the #1 Italian law firm and a top-10 US firm, and advising a VC with second round investments. His clients have included Cisco, IBM, Agilent, J&J, Abbott, and many others.

Prior to that Mr. Gauthier provided growth strategy, M&A, and corporate finance advice as a partner of TSG Partners/Scientia Advisers, and earlier with Analysis Group, Blaqwell (in London), and Booz-Allen & Hamilton (in Paris).

JF advises YetiZen startups on creating and delivering compelling startup stories to attract investors.

Brian is a highly experience MMO developer with a background in TexMUDS. He administrated and developed the classic MMO Meridian 59 for several years. He has also worked at companies such as Sunflowers GMBH and Bigpoint. As Namaste’s MMO Wizard, he is taking our innovative concepts and helping them see life as an online game.

Brian advises YetiZen startups on using MMO design concepts in social and mobile games.