YetiZen™

Chris is the co-founder of the Unlock Games Summit. Prior to this, he was the GM of Digital Ventures for GameStop. He was responsible for building the company’s efforts to integrate Digital into the company’s global multi-channel strategy through strategic partnerships, new product development; strategic investment and M&A.

Prior to GameStop, Chris served as the VP, Digital Media for Playboy Enterprises where he managed multiple online and mobile initiatives, while also guiding new product and digital media business development efforts – both domestically and internationally. His innovative ideas and focused management style resulted in the expansion of Playboy as a lifestyle brand as he spearheaded content creation and distribution initiatives, as well as the deployment of new business models (mostly around advertising) for new and emerging platforms.

Gerard is an expert in blending creativity and analytics to build consumer brands around the world.

Most recently, Gerard was Founder and President of Betfair USA, and a member of the Betfair global management team. Betfair is one of the largest legal online betting businesses in the world, and Gerard led the acquisition and turnaround of TVG the largest, legal, online betting business in USA. He also led Betfair’s Series B investment in Kabam, and served on the board of the largest Social MMO game company. In addition, Gerard actively campaigned at State and National level to regulate online poker and casino gaming, successfully opening up Illinois to online wagering on horse racing.

Gerard worked with Blue Chips and Startups all over Europe and Asia before making Silicon Valley his home nearly 20 years ago.

Gerard advises YetiZen companies on company building and all growth on Google Play.

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.

Andrew serves as President of Kabam Game Studios, overseeing 12 development teams in the global production of web and mobile games. He also manages the product marketing, community and player insights functions. He most recently served as Kabam Chief Product Officer for the past two years, leading our product strategy, product development and engineering efforts.

Before joining Kabam, he led hi5 Networks’ transformation from a social networking site into a social entertainment destination. Prior to hi5, Sheppard’s experience in the games industry included positions at Outspark, Electronic Arts and CBS Interactive. Andrew holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business and a BA from Pomona College.

Andrew advises YetiZen startups on game design.

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.

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.

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.

Atul Bagga is currently the Vice President of Finance at Zynga. Before joining Zynga, Atul was a Senior Vice President and senior research analyst covering the Video Games and China Internet industries with Lazard Capital Market. Atul returned to his career in investment research in 2006 after 10 years of working in industry. Prior to joining Lazard Capital Markets, he was a senior research analyst at ThinkEquity. Atul has been frequently quoted with respect to trends in video games, games-as-a-service and social media in various publications including the Economist, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Atul advises YetiZen startups on understanding large company strategies.

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).

Jason Citron is Founder and CEO of Aurora Feint Inc., developer of OpenFeint, the leading social gaming platform for the iPhone with over 200 games live in the AppStore, 500 more in development, and 2500 registered application developers. OpenFeint has become the de-facto choice for many game developers and publishers entering the social gaming space on the iPhone.

In April 2011, OpenFeint was acquired by GREE for $104 million.

Jason advises YetiZen startups across areas of startup building marketing, hiring, management and product design.

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.

Blake is the CEO & Founder of MediaSpike, the first native monetization platform that enables true product placement in web-based and mobile games at scale. 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 50 million users. Prior to that, he was a senior engineer at Plaxo, led the development of Causes on Facebook, cofounded CareBadges (acquired by Causes), Mogad (acquired by iSkoot) and BuildForge (acquired by IBM). He is an advisor & mentor to 500S as well as several tech companies, including Branchout and Fitocracy. He holds a degree in Computer Science from Rice University.

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

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.

William Grosso is an experienced product and engineering leader with strong operational and strategic experience. He has launched innovative and successful companies and built high-performance multi-national teams in the US, Europe and Asia. Over the past decade, he has been deeply involved in building Web 2.0, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products for both consumer and business markets. Bill is passionate about creating empowering and innovative organizations, about creating and championing new technologies, and about delivering products to market. He is also a trusted advisor to a number of early stage startup companies.

Widely regarded as an expert on virtual currencies and payments, due to his work in building LiveGamer. Bill advises YetiZen startups on virtual economies and analytics.

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 were delivering IP/content to the core gamer audience across whatever devices or screens they are on. Jesse is currently now the VP/GM at Zynga.

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

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.

Lloyd Melnick is currently part of Zynga’s Growth and User Acquisition. Before working for Zynga, Lloyd has been the Chief Growth Officer of Spooky Cool Labs and the CEO of FiveOneNine games, a social gaming joint venture owned by two major media companies (The E.W. Scripps Company and Capitol Broadcasting). Lloyd previously was GM, International Publishing, at Playdom/Disney, where he built and led the team responsible for bringing Playdom’s games to Europe, Latin America, Russia and India. Lloyd began his career in gaming by co-founding Merscom, which started as a value game publisher, pivoted to become one of the top-5 casual game developers and pivoted again to social gaming in 2009. Lloyd then initiated and negotiated the sale of Merscom to Playdom in April, 2010.

Lloyd advises YetiZen companies on M&A strategies and corporate development.

Perry Tam is the CEO and co-founder of Storm8, the leading social game developer on iPhone and Android with over 210 million downloads across 58 million devices. Having never taken funding, Storm8 is also the parent company of the TeamLava studio. Every title released by Storm8 and TeamLava has reached the Top 10 Free Apps in the Apple App Store. Prior to founding Storm8, Perry worked as an engineer at Facebook, where he led the payments team and architected Facebook Credits. The author of four patents, Perry received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University.

Perry advises YetiZen companies on customer acquisition and company building.

A decisive business strategist with a unique combination of product, operations, marketing & business development expertise, Patrick Ramsey brings creative & profitable approaches to problem solving, enjoys building new technology-based products & monetization models, and balances solid strategic thinking & flawless execution in fast paced, undefined environments.

Patrick is the Vice President of Business Development for the Strategy & Innovation Division at Blackhawk Network. An innovative leader and “self-professed payments geek”, his focus is building strategy and developing & structuring relationships with key partners for emerging payment technology platforms, marketing services & digital distribution. Prior to joining Blackhawk, Patrick was the Vice President at American Express where he was a founding team member in the launch of American Express’ digital wallet platform and led the West coast team in developing & growing new partnerships, developing overall program strategy and driving its execution to build consumer preference and new channel reach. Prior to American Express, Patrick led product, technology, marketing, operations and business development teams at PayPal, Wells Fargo Bank and Providian Financial.

Patrick is a graduate of the University of California, Davis.

Patrick advises YetiZen companies on business development and market positioning.

Jon-Paul is currently the Studio Director at Disney Mobile. Prior to Disney, Jon-Paul has been a designer, product manager and Director of Game Design in his three years at Zynga leading games like Mafia Wars. He later moved over to work on mobile titles. He was one of the early creative directors on Zynga mobile, working on games like CityVille Hometown, and Zynga Poker mobile, among others.

Before Zynga, he was a game designer at EA on the Godfather 2, Lord of the Rings and other titles.

Jon-Paul advises YetiZen companies on game design and product.

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.

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.

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 advises YetiZen startups on customer acquisition best practices.

Jerry Darko is Vice President of Technology Investment Banking at Raymond James, the largest middle-market investment banking firm in the US with a $8B market cap.  Mr. Darko works closely with growth-stage Internet and Software companies advising on M&A, capital raises as well as IPOs and has spent the majority of his career covering the evolution of mobile.  Jerry joined Raymond James through the firm’s acquisition of Morgan Keegan in 2012.  Prior to Morgan Keegan, Mr. Darko worked in Business Development at the Gores Group, a $3B Los Angeles-based private equity firm investing primarily in technology, telecom, and industrials.  Mr. Darko holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, a Masters degree in Engineering from USC as well as Bachelors degrees in Physics and Math from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.

Jerry advises startups on market sizing.

Sash grew up in Sydney where he ran a small flash games company out of his room during college. He moved to the valley to work at Zynga, where he became Mark Pincus’ technical assistant. Now, he’s making games again as a cofounder at MinoMonsters, an iOS games startup.

Sash advises YetiZen startups on game design, category analysis and all things product.

Michael Agustin co-founded GameSalad in 2007 with the intention of making media creation a lifestyle accessible to everyone, not simply a tool for the technically literate. In a previous life, he designed tools and AI for console games such as Pitfall: The Lost Expedition and Sharktale. Michael was also part of Apple’s Platform Experience Group assigned to work on the MacOS X operating system. Earlier, he served as a designer and programmer at Three Rings for the online game Bang! Howdy.

Michael earned a Master’s in entertainment technology from Carnegie Mellon, where his primary research was focused on the rapid ideation and prototyping of games. He received his Bachelor’s in CS from The University of Texas at Austin.

Michael advises YetiZen companies on company building for scale and venture.

Matt’s background consists of over 10 years of experience in the mobile apps, games and marketing. He has served in senior management positions for American Greetings, THQ and W3i along with supporting multiple successful startups which he founded or co-founded. His background includes media acquisitions, mobile marketing and monetization strategies, product management and business development with partners spanning NFL to Disney. Matt currently leads the US division of Taptica.

Matt mentors YetiZen accelerator companies on distribution and monetization strategies and modeling.

Chris Bergstresser, is an industry veteran responsible for driving the international growth of numerous top-selling and highly acclaimed video games for the past 20 years. He is currently the EVP/Commercial Director of Miniclip where he focused on business development, strategic partnerships, and M&A for games content on mobile.

Prior to Miniclip Chris was the cofounder and CEO of Vector Entertainment, creators of the online casual game Vector City Racers. Vector City Racers saw incredible growth under Bergstresser’s leadership - over 500,000 registered users in 8 months. Chris has also been the Senior Vice President of publishing and online entertainment at Atari, Inc. There he established, managed and executed comprehensive publishing, product and online strategies, as well as created the casual games group for the international publisher. He built and grew a dedicated and monetizeable online community from 500,000 unique visitors to more than 2 million in only six months. Revenue grew over 200%.

Prior to Atari, Chris was the CEO of Gamer.TV, the leading producer of video game television shows for global syndication and online games. Under his direction, Gamer.TV’s syndication grew to 375 million households from 300,000 within just two years, generating millions in revenue.

Chris has also held key positions at some of the world’s top video game publishers including Konami, Climax (UK Games Development Studio) and Sega of America/Sega Channel.

Chris advises YetiZen startups on business development and publisher relationship management.

Seth Crofton is currently working as the Business Development Representative at Wargaming.net. He has been involved in the gaming arena through traditional models first (www.eposent.com) in board and card games. He got involved in video games in 2006 in regards to their integration within larger products with GSA. In the last two years he has worked in integration of products with mobile, MMO, and traditional browser based games (www.gameshirtz.com). Most recently in coordinating the joint venture of AA global industries with Code monkeys in creating the story and base architecture to an existing IP (www.2bcb.com). In the past work he has worked in tech and Fortune 100 companies as a digital strategist. He has also worked with startups, brick and mortar companies and .coms. Seth has taught and executed a wide range of experiences in Social Media and in configuring it to best suit a spectrum of companies and Industries as an integrated whole into their existing marketing programs.

Seth advises YetiZen companies on using merchandizing to promote customer acquisition and revenues for their games.

Will (aka “Don Perone”) has been developing video games since 1992 and has grown with the game industry from the 8-bit era to modern transmedia social games. A DigiPen honors graduate, Will has developed games for console, PC, mobile and web and has served in engineering, management, product, design and business development roles. In 2008, his first company Andrograde pioneered the virtual goods and currency movement and subsequently built his second company RubyCoins into a cross platform international enterprise billing solution which was acquired by PayPal. Will also pioneered the ragdoll casual game genre in 2007 and has been a part of Glu Mobile (IPO at $84MM), Loopt, Funzio (acquired by Gree for $210MM) and Kixeye. Will is an avid genealogist, ulcerative colitis advocate and DIY tinkerer on the side.

Will advises YetiZen portfolio companies on technological scaling and game design.

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.

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.

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.

Cynthia 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.

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.

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.

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.

Nick Bhardwaj is the Founder & CEO of Beyond Games. Prior to Beyond Games he was 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.

Brian Backus currently is the Principal at Backus Media. He 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 last company, Kidlandia, presents opportunities 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.

Brian 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.

Vatsal Bhardwaj is on the product team at Storm8 where he focuses on strategic planning, new IP development and network products. Prior to Storm8, he was 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.

Tim is a Founding General Partner with ENIAC Ventures and brings twelve years of experience working with early stage ventures as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, operator and intellectual property attorney. Tim founded Bridge Consulting, based in Beijing, China, which offered language training software to Fortune 500 corporations. While at Bridge, Tim reengineered the business strategy to focus on the corporate market, which led to a successful exit. While at Metropolitan Venture Partners (MVP), Tim sourced dozens of deals and joined MVP portfolio venture Quoteship.com, which was later acquired by Logistics.com (an Internet Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICGE) venture). As the Director of Business Development for Korean Business Consultants, he led a deal to bring the first internet connection to hospitals and universities in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Tim advises YetiZen startups on venture finance, intellectual property and licensing/commercial transactions.

Jacob Mullins is the CEO & Founder of Exitround, an anonymous marketplace for founders to discreetly explore strategic acquisition opportunities. Prior to Exitround, Jacob worked at Shasta Ventures and Microsoft where he helped design and launch the BizSpark program. 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 plays a dual role at Playnomics – focusing on both understanding how players interact with games through the use of predictive analytics, and helping game publishers utilize that information on an ongoing basis. Prior to joining Playnomics, Brendan worked as a research scientist in Bioinformatics through the Genetics Department at Stanford, where he did his undergraduate as well. As a bench researcher he developed statistical models describing the evolution in season viruses and other infections diseases. He now studies how players interact games, adapting biologically inspired models to predict virality and lifecycle change in user populations across online, social and mobile apps.

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

Eric has been involved in Game Art, Animation, and Design since the early 1990’s.
He has contributed to processes and products from EA, Maxis, 3DO, Disney Interactive, Disney Onine Studios, Mirada (Google Chrome WebGL launch/RoME), and STAR WARS: Kinect (Jedi and Pod Cinematics). He has worked on animated movie and television projects at Walt Disney Feature Animation (Meet The Robinsons), Nickelodeon (Tak), The Jim Henson Company (Sid the Science Kid), & Mirada Studios(Prevacid24HR Summertime Ad).

His most notable successes were helping define the original Sims PC broad pantomime animation style, then going on to define animation and visual design for the most successful Sims PC Expansion Packs: Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed and Superstar.

Eric has been an independent content maker for Second Life since 2007; Participating in Steampunk Caledon, Object Oirented Burlesque and Tiki Theme Object Creations. His “irkmade” brand was extended into the Crytek2 powered Blue Mars: Steampunk Caledon World where he designed and created some of the first and only Musical and Live Show performace animation suites.

He is currently a next-level design and planning evangelist, and works at a startup as a Creative/Art Director.

Eric mentors YetiZen startups on production, user experience, and art direction.

Nick O’Neill is no stranger to entrepreneurship. He built a social network in 2002, built a search engine for textbooks in 2004, imported liquor from Brazil to attempt building a new brand in 2005, and finally developed a business that could support himself beginning in 2007.

At AllFacebook.com, Nick built a blog attracting over 1.4 million monthly unique visitors and developed data solutions that were valuable to Facebook marketers and developers (both of those systems have been rolled into PageData and AppData). After having SocialTimes (and AllFacebook.com) acquired by WebMediaBrands in 2010, Nick sought out a new journey: Holler. Alas, Holler was not meant to be. However Nick is also no stranger of persistence and has since moved on to a new project called StartupStats.

Nick mentors YetiZen startups on minimum viable community and social media marketing for impact

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.

Keith McCurdy’s career has spanned more than 20 years in the digital media industry where he has held numerous executive positions at industry leader Electronic Arts and at innovative private companies backed by leading venture capital firms. Mr. McCurdy’s career has consistently been focused on innovation in products, business models, technology and distribution, and leading the creation of new interactive, online, and mobile businesses.

Currently Mr. McCurdy is a board member, CEO advisor, entrepreneur, financial advisor, and investor advisor working with several companies and on a variety of projects.

Most recently Mr. McCurdy was CEO and co-founder of Vivaty, a web based 3D virtual world platform company. The Vivaty platform enabled a high level of user generated avatar personalization and environment customization and was fully integrated within a community, social network, or a branded web site. Vivaty was financed by top tier venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Mohr Davidow Ventures. Vivaty was acquired by Microsoft.

Previously Mr. McCurdy was Chief Operating Officer at Hands-On Mobile, a mobile content company with over 800 employees in 6 countries around the world delivering a wide range of mobile products including games, consumer applications, IM services, personalization content, and SMS products. Prior to this, Mr. McCurdy was CEO of Blaze Entertainment, where he built the company into a global mobile games publisher with operations in the US and Europe and releasing content worldwide on over 100 mobile operators reaching nearly 1 billion end users. Blaze signed several key licensing partnerships including Sony Pictures and MTV Networks, establishing the company as a premier partner for world class content owners. Blaze was acquired by Oberon Media.

Keith advises YetiZen startups on strategy.

Rob Oshima is the Head of Business Development at PlayFirst, a leading publisher of Mobile Games. Rob has more than a decade of experience in mobile and gaming business development including: Co-Founder of Escape Plan B,VP of Business Development at GameStop’s Kongregate, and VP of Business Development at FunMobility, and various roles at Moderati. He is also the cofounder of ilovezombies.com a transmedia business that at its peak achieved 10.2 million downloads across platforms.

Rob advises YetiZen startups on creative customer acquisition.

Zhan Ye is a veteran game developer and entrepreneur. As one of China’s first-generation hardcore game developers, Zhan began creating PC games in 1995 and his thinking and writings have inspired many of today’s Chinese game developers. Zhan established China’s first game developers magazine in 2005 and served as its editorial director. He is the founder and president of GameVision, a business consulting and outsourcing management firm. GameVision’s clients include global game publishers and developers, Venture Capital firms, technology vendors, and media companies.

Zhan advises YetiZen startups on the Chinese marketplace.

Kristine Coco is an operations expert who consults with start-ups that need operational expertise but don’t have the budget or workload to hire a full-time executive. She is passionate about and skilled at empowering creative teams to deliver at a rapid pace by introducing just enough process to keep chaos at bay without stifling innovation.

Kristine has been developing games for 10 years and has held leadership positions that have contributed to shipping dozens of games. At ngmoco, Kristine built the the QA, submissions and project management teams and processes for the rapidly growing start up. ngmoco was acquired by DeNA in 2010 for $400 million. Prior to ngmoco, Kristine worked at Midway Games where she created and ran their Central Outsourcing Group, and ION Storm, where she shipped her first game - Thief: Deadly Shadows.

Kristine advises YetiZen startups on process and operations

Mickey currently leads all business development initiatives for Applifier. Applifier’s product suite includes the largest click sharing network on Facebook, the Impact game trailer network for Facebook and mobile and, most recently, the Everyplay mobile gaming network. His marketing and user acquisition knowledge spans across the IOS, Facebook and Android platforms. Prior to Applifier, as Director of Business Development at Sometrics, Mickey was responsible for bringing in new business to the company, directly impacting revenue. He is responsible for both the Sometrics Payment Platform and the GameCoins.com revenue streams.The new business included social gaming publishers, online games, payment companies and platform partnerships, such as Facebook. Mickey was solely responsible for the GameCoins/Facebook Credits deal. Sometrics was acquired by American Express in 2011 and Mickey worked in American Express’ Serve eWallet group as Director of Business Development until May 2012.

Mickey advises YetiZen startups on marketing and user acquisition.

Chris has over 8 years of experience as an investor, entrepreneur, operational executive and investment banker within the technology space. Prior to Blumberg, Chris worked at Menlo Ventures where he pursued investment opportunities in mobile, internet, gaming, software, and e-commerce. Before joining Menlo Ventures, Chris served as the Director of Corporate Development & Analytics at PlayPhone. In this role he was responsible for M&A sourcing and execution, strategic partnerships, and improving operational metrics. In addition, Chris has consulted for several technology startups including Gilt Groupe and ngmoco.

Chris earned a B.A. with a double major in Economics and Political Science from the University of California, Davis and an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona. Chris was selected as a Kauffman Finalist in 2012.

Chris advises YetiZen startups on financial models and operational metrics for venture financing.

Amber is a team leader whose focus includes operations, project management, process development, and people management. She understands the challenges of mobile app development and submissions, as well as games and software development; and is experienced in creating results oriented processes that help enable creativity while meeting deadlines for deliverables.

Most recently Amber created and lead the Mobage West Developer Services department from ground up at DeNA West, with her team publishing over 100 apps to both Apple and Google on behalf of internal and external developers. She previously worked in leadership and project management roles at ngmoco (now DeNA) on mobile gaming titles, on a new IP team at LucasArts, and at Electronic Arts for FIFA 08 & 09. Prior to her gaming experience, Amber was the Studio Manager at Switch United, a digital and graphic design agency; and the president of Swing Media, video production company in Canada.

Amber advises Yetizen startups on process, operations and people management.

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.

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.

Ted is currently Head of Publisher Relations at Rixty.com, and a Principal of Universus Networks, LLC.
Having left art school in 1985 to start his first company, Ted has been directly involved in internet start-ups since founding his first internet firm, RE.COM, in 1994. In late 1999, Ted sold RE.COM to run business development for Knight Ridder Digital (KRD) where he was instrumental in bringing national advertisers to the Real Cities Network via contextual advertising.

After KRD, Ted joined start-up digital agency Millions of Us (MoU) as VP of Business Development where he led global brand initiatives for companies such as Coke, Nike, Google, GM, National Geographic, Toyota, Warner Bros, (and many others) in virtual worlds such as Habbo, Gaia Online, and Second Life. MoU later became a division of Omnicom and the team went on to be the primary beta developer of Playstation Home.

Prior to joining Rixty, Ted was VP of business development for the New Zealand MMO, SmallWorlds. A lover of games, he was running a full D&D campaign in the 70’s, and is an avid online gamer today. He lives with his wife and teenage sons in the SF Bay Area, and is always looking for the new and inspired.

Ted advises YetiZen companies on business development and developer relations (for YetiZen platform plays).

Andrew comes to Globant through the acquisition of Nextive, a San Francisco-based mobile software developer he co-founded and led as CEO. Today he is a Business Partner for the Mobile Studio.

Andrew has experience in finance, consulting and management roles at companies in the US and Latin America. Prior to co-founding Nextive, Andrew structured private/public equity and public debt offerings, M&A transactions and strategic advisory engagements for approximately $20 billion at Wachovia Securities.
Before joining Wachovia in San Francisco, California, Andrew was a Financial Analyst at Fidelity Broadband Group, a private equity division of Fidelity Investments focusing on worldwide telecom and software in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to Fidelity, Andrew consulted for Lucent Technologies and IBM Software.

Andrew holds an MBA and M.S. in Information Systems with high honors from Boston University and a B.S. in Business Administration and B.S. in Information Systems from Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Andrew advises YetiZen companies on scaling, structuring for exit, and negotiating exits.

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.

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.

Bio coming shortly…

Bio coming shortly…

Fred Thuard is an seasoned startup entrepreneur with over 12 years of mobile apps experiences. Fred is currently an advisors to three companies - Youboox, Searchman.com, and Wisemetrics. Prior to the advisory role, Fred was the Executive Vice President at App Annie.

Fred advises YetiZen platform companies on platform strategy and customer scaling.

Eric Tilenius

Executive-in-Residence

ScaleVP

Eric is currently ScaleVP’s Executive-in-Residence (EIR) focused on consumer Internet and mobile. Prior to ScaleVP, Eric was general manager for Zynga, where he ran Mafia Wars and Zynga’s other MMO games, setting records for Daily Active Users and monetization on those franchises. Eric also ran Zynga’s corporate-wide player retention and engagement efforts.

Before Zynga, Eric was an active angel investor, founded two companies, and served as CEO of three companies, all of which had successful exits (two IPO’s and one acquisition). Eric holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University.

Eric advises YetiZen companies on metrics for fundraising in today’s game industry investment climate.

Kenneth have over 17 years of experience in digital media and online games. His legal expertise combined with his business and production experience helps game, and other digital media and internet companies to succeed. He have served as General Counsel and run operations for game development and online game publishing companies in the PC, MMO, console, social, mobile and casual game space. Kenneth is currently a partner in Williams & Fletcher, a law firm that is uniquely poised to offer expert legal services to the game industry and beyond.

Kenneth advises YetiZen startups on legal and operations.

Nate Hennings is an Associate at Union Square Advisors. Nate has eight years of investment banking, private equity, and startup experience in the Internet sector. Prior to joining Union Square Advisors, Nate joined ThinkEquity in 2010 to cover Internet and Gaming in the Investment Banking Division. Prior to joining ThinkEquity, Nate was the Co-Founder of NationalBLS, a real estate website listing home buyers instead of properties. NationalBLS was the first buyer-focused listing service enabling Realtors and sellers to make “reverse offers” to buyers.

Previously, Nate was an Associate at Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, the venture capital arm of Lehman Brothers’ private equity group. Prior to Lehman, Nate was an Associate at Gabriel Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he covered Internet, Gaming, and Mobile.

Nate joined Gabriel from Seven Hills Partners LLC, a boutique investment bank serving technology and healthcare companies. Prior to joining Seven Hills, Nate served as Director of the Stanford Directory, an advertising service for businesses reaching the Stanford community. Previously, Nate worked as a Market Analyst for Altera Corporation and as a Research Assistant for Hewlett-Packard Labs.

Nate advises YetiZen companies on the world of exits and exit valuations.

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.

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked.

Dean advises YetiZen startups on pitching company stories to the press for maximum hit rate.

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.

As an entrepreneur and veteran game creator, Randy has built a career working at startups or companies pivoting for emerging technologies with new business models. A champion of change, innovation and creative problem solving, Randy approaches each new challenge with his polymath skills in game design, software engineering, production, studio management, consumer behavior, player psychology and brand building.

With credits on over 60 games, Randy has worked on almost every platform and genre of games (including table-top). As president and co-founder of Pronto Games, a 3rd party game developer, he helped bootstrap the studio from 4 people to 45 people over 8 years earning millions in revenue and generating hundreds of millions for the clients.

His ‘order and chaos’ style creates a mixture of enthusiasm, invention and ‘get it done’ discipline. His PM methodologies allow small, motivated, teams to be much more productive and truly agile compared to larger teams. His systematic and iterative approach to game design ensures fewer project risks and staying focused on player satisfying features with a production roadmap that adapts easily to changing business needs.

Since 2008 Randy has put his sights on the rapidly growing mobile and emerging smart-device app market helping to develop free-to-play mobile social games for companies like SGN, FunMobility and iWin. Randy thrives in this new frontier as it requires the unique blending of social analysis, business acumen and game design to run successful games as a service.

As a strong believer in sharing what he has learned and mentoring others, he enjoys working with passionate and creative teams at all stages of development or business expertise. He advises several early stage mobile social game studios on both product development and business issues. As Randy says, “Do Good, Annoy Evil!”

Randy mentors YetiZen startups on game design, studio and production management.

With over 17 years of success in the interactive entertainment industry, Flying Wisdom Studios is the fourth company Josh has started. Josh created Weaselsoft, Game Performance Labs, and Lamplighter Studios, Inc. where he built a worldwide team of 80 artists for outsourcing and art services generating $1.2 million in sales in 2008, before a sale to Broadcaster.com in 2008. Josh is equal parts producer, game designer, and mentor.

He advises YetiZen companies on social mobile game design.

As founder & director of the {M} Consultancy, Mike has been responsible for some of the most innovative work within social media, branding, and new media. Much of his work has become case studies for the industry, including proving new media marketing models for web series with the award-winning series Compulsions, and for proving the business use case for Twitter with Kogi BBQ and for FourSquare with Fatburger. For over a decade, he has worked with brands and companies such as Microsoft, Toms Shoes, Chrysler, Amadeus, and alongside agencies such as Porter Novelli, M80 and Trailer Park with their clients.

Outside of {M} Consultancy, Mike is also the co-founder of the lifestyle brand communities GirlGamer and Ani.ME.

Mike advises YetiZen startups on finding and broadcasting “the shiny” in guerrilla marketing activities for real world conversion.

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.

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.

Ricky has been entrenched in the emerging social and mobile gaming industry for the last four years. Currently, he is the Head of Talent Acquisition for GREE where Ricky leads a team responsible for the hiring of software engineers, mobile developers, producers, game designers and artists. Ricky came to GREE through the May 2011 acquisition of Funzio. As one of the early leaders at Funzio Ricky had scaled the business from 25 to 135 employees in eleven months. Funzio published wildly successfully RPG games on Facebook, iOS, iPad and Android platforms.

Prior to GREE, Ricky was the first USA Head of Staffing for Betfair, the UK’s leading online betting exchange. He also consulted with Peanut Labs, during a time of rapid growth, before their acquisition by E-Rewards and was at CBS Interactive where he built the Talent Acquisition Strategy.

Ricky mentors YetiZen companies on best in class recruitment strategies as they scale.

David Stewart is the founder of JumpCam. Prior to JumpCam, he was Yammer’s Vice President of Product Management and prior to that 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.

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, founder of SectionZ Inc., 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.

Dane Frederiksen owns Digital Accomplice, a Bay Area digital media company focused on creating video content for the gaming and tech world as well as partnering with developers to help them develop and market their apps.

Dane has been producing content for over 20 years and has worked with National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Adobe, Nokia, Microsoft, Sony, EA, Ubi, Activision, Capcom and many indie developers. In the past decade he’s produced hundreds of video game-related features at game developers world-wide.

Dane advises YetiZen startups on communicating the feel, excitement, and power of their games and products through video.

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.

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.

George Dolbier is IBM’s CTO for Social & Interactive Media. As a technical executive with global responsibilities George works with the entire range of companies in the Entertainment Industry-Industry Giants to independent studios in advertising, animation, digital effects, online games, post production, console games, video serving, serious games, MMOs. His unique and insightful perspective is gained from a diverse 20+ year career that includes notable technical and management roles. George got his start in the entertainment industry in the late 90s where he was Director of Engineering for an entertainment product and services company; there he lead the development of game software, game devices and web enhanced consumer electronics. His drive has always been to exceed expectations and deliver innovative technology products on time and on budget.

George belongs to a select set of individuals that can bridge the gap between business executives, business goals and technology. George continues to be involved in all aspects of business, from strategic market development on down to tactical development and execution. In addition to entertainment industries George has deep background in the business and technical aspects of commercial software development, Retail, CPG, high tech., life Sciences.

George advises YetiZen startups on CTO technical integration - backend infrastructure.

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.

A serial entrepreneur, Brent has been doing new technology creation for more than 20 years. He brings strong technical leadership and solid development experience to Originate, having established expertise in service scalability, mobile computing and information security – all technologies that make the cloud go. A strong advocate for the agile concept that ideas are best expressed in working code, Brent’s main focus at Originate is to empower the team and create real technology value at a very quick pace.

Brent advises YetiZen startups on scalability and other technical topics.

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.

Being trained in business and law Stéphane Panyasiri combines a full range of international business development (70 countries covered) and sales expert skills in both fields online and mobile. Additional years of consulting in business development strategy and sales add up to his reputation. Operation management in international environments are well combined in his business development positions at companies like SponsorPay, Danal, and 123Ticket. Stephane is currently expanding his presence in Asian markets.

Stephane advises YetiZen startups on Asian business development deals.

Alex is the co-founder of CrowdMob, a VC-backed highly targeted monetization platform and distribution network for mobile games and apps. Prior to CrowdMob, Alex was a technology investor covering internet and digital media investments and helped launch the firm’s expansion into Asia at Summit Partners, an $11 billion venture capital and private equity fund. Before joining Summit, Alex worked on mergers and acquisitions, IPO’s, leveraged buyouts, and various equity and debt financings at Lehman Brothers, Lazard, and Financial Technology Partners.

Alex advises YetiZen startups on the ins and outs of VC financing.

Google Ventures

Shanna Tellerman, a partner at Google Ventures, has over seven years of experience working in the video game and emerging serious games industry with a focus on breaking down the barriers for creative development in 3D environments. This shows at her time with Autodesk as Product Line Manager.
Shanna has experience in a variety of roles including her initial involvement as visionary, product manager and designer, focused on user-centered design and research in game development, through to her role as CEO focused on all levels execution in the company from the product roadmap to business development.

In 2004, Shanna had the opportunity to work for Electronic Arts on The Sims 2, the sequel to the best-selling PC game ever. She has also researched and co-authored the paper titled “Emergent Stories in Massively Multiplayer Online Games: Using Improvisational Techniques to Design for Emotional Impact,” (International Conference on Entertainment Computing, 2004).

Shanna advises our startups on succeeding as an indie game developer.

Paul Thind, Co-Founder/CEO/Leader/Business Development, is a recognized digital authority in online games and virtual worlds. He is the former US CEO for Habbo North America and former COO of Outspark, and has vast experience in the Music Industry and Digital Media Businesses. He frequently speaks at conferences and is quoted in news stories on virtual goods and online games.

Paul advises YetiZen startups on business development and operations.

Dani Zuniga is currently the Senior Business Analysis at Machine Zone. Prior to that, Dani Zuniga was the Co-Founder of BitPollen. BitPollen makes products to help developers deliver a personalized gaming experience to their players. By identifying and evaluating individual player behaviors, BitPollen builds an ifactor for each player. The ifactor is a summary of scores across key metrics like Life Time Value, Virality and Engagement. A developer can use the ifactor to tailor in-game content to each player, for example a developer can now focus monetization efforts on players that have shown to monetize on other games. BitPollen uses the ifactor to help players discover games that they will engage with, share and monetize on.

Dani has worked with a number of notable social game companies since 2008 such as Crowdstar, Sibblingz, and Mighty Fingers.

A lover of all things analytics, Dani advises YetiZen startups on keep analytics, tracking and optimization.

Bryan Scott

Director of Risk

Square

As of January 2011, Bryan works at AngelList, where he does a mix of product design and engineering.
He has been passionate about technology and finance since early childhood. He compiled his first program inGW-BASIC when he was seven, and all he wanted for Christmas when I was 10 was a C++ compiler. In fourth grade, he picked my first tech stock, Geocities, but he has since made better investment decisions.
He has been fortunate to work with some fantastic companies during my short time in Silicon Valley:TechCrunch (acquired by AOL), then OpenDNS (funded by Sequoia and Greylock), then Playdom(acquired by Disney), then AngelList.

He also advises Youtorial, a recipient of the Kauffman Labs fellowship and grant.

Bryan advises YetiZen startups on product management and analytics.

Landon Pollack is an entrepreneur of 25 years. Landon has been, at different times, an athlete, an entrepreneur, a herpetologist, inventor, investor and sports manager, as well as animal and environmental advocate. His foundation for success was established during his time training to play professional baseball. Landon has been a founder of, or founding investor in, more than two dozen companies, with exits ranging from IPOs to being acquired by Fortune 50 companies to private sales. Before reaching 20, Landon had started four businesses, earning his first million dollars at 13 selling sports memorabilia by mail order. In the ensuing 15 years, some of his ventures have included a beverage company (Juice Bowl- acquired by Dole/Pepsi), a multi-media company (ClubCom- acquired by Amer Group Fitness Equipment business, Precor Inc.), a robotically-controlled exercise system (Intelligent Health), a coaching and lifestyle company (Personalized Lifestyle Programs- private sale), health clubs (Firm Fitness), a cable company (Cable Satisfaction- IPO), a non-alcoholic beverage conglomerate (Liboza Holdings, Inc.), a chain of yoga studios (Vitalize Studios), a telecom company (Uniconnexions), a social networking company (WeMeUs), and a digital music company (MySongToYou). He is Managing Partner of Ignite Venture Partners, a company that brings together consulting and capital under one organization. In addition to his experience as an entrepreneur and investor, he has served as a consultant to some of the most recognizable brands in the world and some of the most innovative of start-ups.

Landon advises YetiZen startups on fundraising negotiations.

Janice is a coach and advisor to early stage companies, helping founder/CEO’s develop good user experience and product management capabilities.

After 15 years in the Valley, she has seen a lot — bubbles, busts, and fantastic acts of collaboration that have transformed literally billions of lives. And that’s what she believes starting a company is — a radically optimistic collaboration between founders, funders, and customers to make the world better, more efficient, and more interesting.

Her proudest success is Adaptive Path, a leading product design firm. She was a founder and served as the company’s first CEO. During her tenure, the company tripled in staff and revenues, developed and sold a product to Google, coined the term Ajax, and transformed from a lifestyle partnership to a leading firm.

Her proudest failure is EmmetLabs.com, which was incubated at Kapor Enterprises. This open wiki project is (still) mapping the social network of the past, despite its lack of viability as a high-growth startup.

Over the years, she has raised capital, founded both successful and failed startups, and consulted to large and small enterprises. She now focuses on early-stage companies, preferring to work directly with entrepreneurs to untangle the inevitable thicket of great ideas, and clear a path toward execution.

In her public life, she is a teacher rather than a pundit. She is a guest lecturer at Haas, Stanford, and the Presido Graduate School of Management. She previously taught interaction design as faculty at SFSU. During several years on the conference circuit, she was a featured speaker at nearly every web design conference, from the Nielsen/Norman world tour to SXSW. And though Time magazine once called her a “grizzled and cynical veteran” of the dot-com era, she remain an idealistic champion of experience-driven product strategy.

She guides YetiZen startups on user experience and analytics.

Shuchi Rana is currently the partner & co-founder at Via Earth Lifestyle. She brings experience working in the Silicon Valley in various industries. Her main focus has been working with high-tech start-ups.
In the past several years, Shuchi has taken on various projects including the Integration for an acquisition for a public company and founding Scape. She has been actively involved in the fund raising due diligence process for several startups. She has served as the Financial Controller for several Silicon Valley startups including Utopy, Inc., Sonoa Systems, SiPort, Inc, Ankeena Networks, Pumposh & a few others. She was with SiPort from Inception thru their acquisition by Intel Corp and also served as their Director of Human Resources.

She is also a Consulting CFO, Business Strategic Advisor and a Board Member for Urban Diversion, the bay area’s premier social club for Events, Adventures and Activities.

Shuchi is a Member of Watermark, a Bay Area Organization for Executive women. She is passionate about studying international & emerging markets as it relates to entrepreneurship, innovation and investment and has travelled extensively with Geeks on a Plane, a group of Bay area Entrepreneurs, Executives & Investors. She has, over the course of her career interacted & worked with several entrepreneurs and mentored several startups out of startup weekend and women2.0. She was invited by Intrabond Capital & The Decision Institute to attend an executive program at Harvard Business School and is certified by National Association of Corporate Directors.

Shuchi advises YetiZen startups on finance.

Danny Maco is currently the General Manager of the Digital Division at University Games. He has the unique opportunity and responsibility to use the ever-evolving world of new media to expand upon the delight that University Games has brought to children and families for over a quarter century as the 5th largest board game company in the US.

As former CEO and co-founder of Hot Shot Media, Inc. he conquered new ground by applying gamification and monetization through virtual currency to the world of Digital Photography. He uniquely evolved the concept of and built a platform for, Social Photography; thus melding the value propositions of Casual Gaming, Digital Photography and Social Networks together.

He architected the acquisition and became the CEO of Woophy, Inc, giving him the wonderful opportunity to work with it original founders based in the Netherlands. Woophy.com is a community of global photographers whose passion for imagery has evolved into an international network of creativity and discovery.

Before Woophy, Danny was CEO and co-founder of Hot Shot Media, Inc. At Hot Shot Media was conquering new ground as one of the first companies of its kind. We are staking our claim in the world of Social Photography, melding the value propositions of Casual Gaming, Digital Photography and Social Networks, together.
Before Hot Shot Media, he represented ExitReality in the US as SVP of BD. ExitReality has a portfolio of technologies and applications (vSide) intent on transforming the internet to 3d.
Previously he was VP, Privacy and Corporate Development for Adzilla, an ISP based behavioral analytics company. Adzilla leveraged clickstream data derived from within ISPs to deliver highly targeted online ads.
Formerly,heI was GM of Ventures and COO for MCC:O2. MCC:O2 provided funding and operational support for early stage companies. As GM of ventures, he managed the operations of our client companies from the US and Europe, drove business development and fund raising initiatives.

At YetiZen, Danny guides our companies on business strategy and pitching.

Katy Haddix is a Senior Partner at VonChurch Inc, the Bay Area’s most successful Digital Entertainment Staffing Firm. Katy joined VonChurch in 2009, and within months created the highly successful Social Games Division. Her team has been responsible for staffing some of the Silicon Valley’s most thriving startups in the social space. VonChurch is now widely recognized as global leaders within this exciting and fast-pace niche.

Katy loves how quickly the social space moves and how everything is constantly changing. “You have to keep up with trends on a daily basis or your might miss something. I like being part of an industry that is changing the way people look at gaming.”
Katy has an amazing track record of success. Prior to VonChurch, she was a leading Account Manager at Kforce’s San Francisco office and the #2 Rookie Nationwide.

She advises YetiZen companies on innovative recruiting practices to help them build their teams.

Sushma Malhotra has more than two decades of operational and management experience managing Facilities and Real Estate around the world. Sushma currently works as Executive Vice President at CRESA Partners and helps companies of all sizes develop strategy for real estate, find the appropriate office space and negotiate at significant discounts from Bay area to San Francisco. Sushma takes pride in her negotiation skills. Her clients include Venture Capital firms for their portfolio companies and Serial-Entrepreneurs. Sushma was recognized as “Women of Distinction” Honoree by Business Journal a few years ago and top 100 “Women of Influence” Silicon Valley this year.

Sushma is also a Managing Partners at Base77, a leading company in mobile game development. Base77 provides 3d art & content development services to leading game publishers/developers and independent studios for their game title projects on Sony (PS3), Nintendo (GameCube) and Microsoft (XBOX) consoles and PC platforms. Services include Low-polygon & Character Modeling, 3D graphics, Art-work and mobile game porting.
Sushma is very active in the community and is a charter member of TiE; Board member South West YMCA, Member FWE, Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives.

Sushma helps companies think about real estate decisions for their companies as they grow and get funding.

Jim Gatto is a partner in the Sheppard Mullin’s Intellectual Property Practice Group in its Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto offices. He leverages his unique combination of nearly 30 years of IP experience, business insights and attention to technology trends to help companies develop IP and other legal strategies that are aligned with their business objectives. His practice focuses on all aspects of intellectual property, internet and technology law, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret and open source. Jim advises clients of all sizes (start-ups to Fortune 100 companies) on key legal and business issues relating to the use of social media, video games, social games and online gambling (gamblification), virtual goods and currency, social networks, virtual worlds, mirror worlds, augmented reality, open source user-generated content, location-based services and gamification.

Jim has extensive experience advising internet and social media companies on business and legal strategies relating to virtual goods and virtual currency, developing IP protection and monetization strategies, handling terms of service and end user license agreements, development, licensing and partnership agreements, developing DMCA policies, handling DMCA enforcement, privacy and COPPA policies and much more. His practice is national and international, and it encompasses a full range of IP and technology issues, including: patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret litigation; counseling and technology transactions; developing and implementing IP strategies to protect and to monetize IP assets; creating and implementing corporate IP programs; conducting IP audits; conducting complex patent prosecution, including patent appeals, interferences, Inter Partes Review (IPRs), reissues and protests; handling patent enforcement issues, including licensing and litigation; negotiating and drafting technology agreements; conducting IP due diligence in and negotiating IP aspects of mergers, acquisitions and financings; rendering opinions concerning the infringement, validity and enforceability of patents; handling trademark prosecution, domain name, copyright and trade secret matters; handling IP aspects of employment issues; advising clients on legal issues associated with open source software including open source patent issues, licensing, open source compatibility issues, indemnity issues and developing and implementing corporate policies on use of open source software; advising clients on the legality of cutting edge Internet business methods and technology; and advising clients on computer law issues such as computer fraud and abuse and SPAM-related issues.

He advises YetiZen companies on legal issues relating to intellectual property.

Stephanie Zeppa is a partner in Sheppard Mullin’s Corporate & Securities Group in its Palo Alto and San Francisco offices, and co-chairs the firm’s Videogame Group. Her corporate expertise covers businesses in a variety of industries including social media and video games, software and information technology, FinTech, digital currencies and digital health. Nationally recognized as a leading venture capital and M&A lawyer, Chambers USA’s Guide to Leading Lawyers noted that Stephanie is a “a very solid ally on your team,” “a very logical and fast thinker” and “an excellent negotiator” with a “broad understanding of issues.”
Stephanie has extensive experience representing both private and public companies in a wide range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, investments, strategic transactions as well as corporate governance matters. She also represents emerging growth companies, founders, institutional and strategic investors in connection with formation, financing and exits of emerging growth and technology companies.
She advises YetiZen companies on legal issues relating to corporate and emerging growth issues.