David Teten, Chairman, is also a Partner at ff Venture Capital and Chairman of Harvard Business School Angels New York. He was previously Acting CEO of Vertical Key, a software startup, and Managing Director with Evalueserve, a 2,500-person global research and analytics company focused on the finance industry. David was previously Founder and CEO of Circle of Experts, an investment research firm he sold to Evalueserve.
David was formerly Founder and CEO of GoldNames, an investment bank serving the internet domain name asset class, which he built to 450 customers. He worked with Bear Stearns' Investment Banking division as a member of their technology/defense mergers and acquisitions team.
David led the first-ever study of best practices of venture capital and private equity funds in originating new deals, published in Institutional Investor, the Journal of Private Equity, and Harvard Business Review. He is the lead author of The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, with Scott Allen.
David is a frequent keynote speaker. He has received the highest ratings of any speaker at three different conferences. David holds a Harvard MBA and a Yale BA, both with honors. While in college, he founded the largest computer consultancy in Connecticut specializing in nonprofits. He first learned to program on an Atari 800. He lives in New York with his family and two laptops.
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Scott Lichtman, President, is a product marketing and operations executive who has led the growth of 'new economy' technologies and services for over 20 years. Most recently, Scott served as a Managing Director at Evalueserve, a 2,500-person research and analytics company. He joined Evalueserve after serving as COO of Circle of Experts, a network of tens of thousands of industry executives that advise investment firms and corporations, which Evalueserve acquired in 2007.
Earlier, Scott led Messaging Products and Marketing at Communicator Inc., supporting real-time interactions among thousands of institutional investors; served as Senior Director of Marketing at InterWorld, e-commerce engine for Nike, Disney, GTE and others; co-founded Economic Oxygen, a provider of banking services to low-income households; was Senior Director of Strategic Marketing at Oracle Corporation, and Advanced IT Strategy Consultant at Deloitte Consulting.
Scott speaks regularly on topics including the use of Web 2.0 technologies and has written analyst reports on topics ranging from developing online communities to pricing strategies in the technology industry. As a member of Harvard Business School's Community Partners non-profit consulting initiative, he is currently advising a climate control advocacy group on creating a parallel, for-profit service model.
He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics (U.S. Marshall Scholar), and a B.Sc. from MIT in Computer Science (4.0 GPA).
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Tim Olson, Head of Engineering, brings over 15 years of technology and 10 years of management experience to the company.He has particular expertise in web scraping, big data, and analytics. He has worked with employers and clients such as Apple, Morgan Stanley, TIAA/CREF, HBO, and NHL.com, as well as a series of startups. Most recently, Tim served as CTO of ResponsePath which identifies arbitrage opportunities across the display and CPC advertising markets. Tim also worked with Media6Degrees, where he leveraged their massive data collection and analysis capability into new business opportunities.
Tim was formerly Director of Engineering at Publishing Data Management where he led a team of 11 developers to collect and compile financial data, marketing collateral, and legal requirements to roll them into print-ready 10-K's, 10-Q's, prospectuses, and other financial documents.Tim was also formerly the CTO of MarketingForce, where he led the overhaul of their core technology and guided the company to a successful acquisition in 2005 by Conclusive Marketing.Tim is also the founder and developer of Online Poker Systems, a company which collected a massive database of poker games and developed an artificial intelligence to play poker online, winning against humans.
Tim taught himself programming in 1980 at the age of 7 and continues his autodidactic education by reading research papers, browsing Wikipedia, and attending scholarly lectures on machine learning, semantic analysis, and data management.
Imran Ahmad has extensive middle-market buy-side and sell-side experience as a private equity professional and former investment banker. As an associate at JMH Capital, a lower middle market focused private equity fund in Boston, Imran focused on originating, evaluating, and executing leveraged buyout, growth equity and distressed investment opportunities in a variety of industries. He has extensive experience performing due diligence, market research and comprehensive financial modeling of potential investments. Additionally, he has worked as a trusted Board advisor and assumed diverse C-level positions with Service Radio Rentals and Industrial Blind Solutions, Endres Processing, and Morningside Venture Group. Prior to his position at JMH Capital, Imran worked as a sell-side M&A and equity investment banker at William Blair & Company in Chicago. At William Blair, he developed financial projections and detailed operating models, drafted marketing materials and managed diligence as a key member of four M&A transactions and over twelve equity and follow-on offerings in a variety of industry verticals, ultimately focusing his efforts in the healthcare space. Imran holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Joel Lindenberg began his investment banking career as a private equity analyst at Trautman Wasserman in San Francisco, where he worked to finance a portfolio of technology and biotechnology companies
through hedge funds and private equity placements. He later began consulting
on middle market M&A transactions at leading acquisition search firm Dinan & Company, where he was instrumental in negotiating over $100MMM in acquisitions for private equity clients and implementing industry specific consolidations for strategic buyers. Mr. Lindenberg was a Senior Director at Growthink Inc. a management consulting and investment banking firm where he oversaw both buy and sell side investment banking engagements and venture capital investments. Most recently, Mr. Lindenberg was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance and Development at ArtistForce Inc, the leading software and technology service provider to the live entertainment industry.
Associated Consultants
Michelle Forczek has been working as a management consultant to the financial services industry for over 15 years, most recently in the private equity sector. Michelle started her career working as a fixed income trader for three years, including Black Monday, October 1987. She earned her MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business in 1992 following which she joined Deloitte Consulting. During her 11+ years with Deloitte she lived and worked in New York, Moscow, Budapest, Paris and London. She achieved Partnership with Deloitte in 2001. Michelle left Deloitte to work for a client, Deutsche Bank, as COO of Global Markets Operations and Technology, a Euro 800m global business. She has particular expertise in CRM systems for private equity funds.
Dinesh Gambhir has fifteen plus years of professional experience with Ernst & Young, Deloitte Consulting, HP, and Navatar Consulting Group. He is an expert in CRM processes for financial markets; from lead generation through opportunity management, sales, and support. At Navatar Group, Dinesh helped start the salesforce.comconsulting practice, developed Navatar’s Private Equity software product, and worked on software for private deal rooms. Dinesh’s clients have included JP Morgan Chase, NYFIX, Transparent Value, BNP Paribas, and CCMP. Dinesh has worked as both an individual contributor and as a senior manager of large consulting teams running CRM and ERP package selection, process design, and implementation projects. He has over 20 CRM implementations to his credit.
