Jon Matsuo - Serial Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist, Jon served as General Manager and member of the initial Delrina team that created the award winning and popular software package CommSuite which included WinFAX. Delrina was acquired by Symantec in a deal worth $415 million.
In his latest successful venture, Jon was Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales of Qpass Inc. QPass, a venture-backed company which was acquired for $275 million by a publicly-traded company, Amdocs.
He served as Chief Executive Officer of Enliven Software LLC, formerly Fidesic Corporation. Jon secured the initial $3 million VC funding (led by Voyager Capital, with participation from Northwest Venture Associates). Jon led the growth and the repositioning of Fidesic Corporation which was acquired by Enliven Software. Subsequently, Enliven Software was sold for $71 million.
Jon served as President of Concur Technologies and Vice President of Marketing for Contact Software International. Jon has over 20 years of proven successful senior leadership experience in the technology industry. In each of these roles, he helped these market-leading companies create and develop large and new high-growth software segments, and strategic acquisition. He has also served on the Board of Directors or Advisory Boards for several technology and service companies, including Radielle, eTunnels Inc., Detto Technologies and Aimeo Corporation. He served as Director of Layer 7 Technologies, Inc. Jon is based in Seattle, WA with other new ventures in the works. He visits San Diego frequently, having attended the University of San Diego, receiving his Bachelors of Science in Accounting.
(In Memory of Graham Downes, 1956-2103) - Serial Design Entrepreneur and urban real estate developer. Founder and chief executive of Graham Downes Architecture, BLOKHAUS Capital Corporation, Blokhaus Developement, reproHAUS, HIVEHAUS, BHAUSmedia, EMBLEMhaus, MoranDownes Architecture and RothschildDownes. Graham is recognized for launching one of the first coworking establishments, HIVEHAUS, with two locations in the popular San Diego downtown East Village District. His coworking concepts were designed into edgy and trendy warehouse-urban-loft style buildings, consistent with the urban live-work area. July, 2011 PC Magazine lists HIVEHAUS as 1 of 10 great coworking spaces in the U.S.(1)
A licensed architect in California, Britain and South Africa. His early work focused on major civic and urban renewal projects. His more recent work has been in commercial architecture, specializing in retail, hospitality, health club, multi-family, residential and mixed-use projects. Graham’s work shows an infusion of energy and excitement that serves to activate and enliven any development, and he is constantly pushing the limits of convention.
Some of his clients include: Hard Rock Hotel, Tower 23, Wyland Waikiki, Palomar, Le Meridien, Hotel La Jolla, BASIC, Robert Cromeans, BARRIOHAUS, NEUHAUS Studio Lofts, Kelly Capital, Love Culture, Sauvage and Quicksliver.
Jerome Chang - Licensed architect and Entrepreneur who pioneered coworking from an open-space shell. Jerome honed his design skills at Clive Wilkinson Architects (CWA), known worldwide for the office headquarters of Google, Chiat/Day and Mother Advertising. Prior to CWA, Jerome was a designer at SFJones Architect, which has designed renowned restaurants such as Spago Beverly Hills, Nobu Malibu, Hamasaku, and Lucky Strike Bowl.
Jerome holds a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University; Master of Engineering and Bachelors of Science degrees from Cornell University. He has synthesized his career of creating award-winning architecture, engineering, and construction to establish BLANKSPACES (two locations, downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica, CA), a progressive workspace environment for creative professionals.
Recognized and respected by his peers, Jerome is one of the pioneers in coworking. As an architect, he raised investment capital in excess of $2 million from private investors, and designed his coworking workspaces from a open-space shell, and from the ground floor up to accommodate modern and high-end furniture, custom build outs and the integration of high technology applications. His vision was to provide coworkers with the proper space and enough ambient noise to stimulate much needed energy for entrepreneurs.
Greg Decker - Managing Director and Principal Founder of Working-Knowledge. Working Knowledge Principals have extensive hands-on experience with both private and public companies in all facets of business strategy development and operational execution. Clients include, Decker Outdoor Corporation (NasdaqGS: DECK) with a market cap of $3.5 billion. Decker Outdoor Corporation is the parent company of the popular shoe brands; Teva, UGG Australia, Simple, Tsubo, Ahnu, Mozo and recently acquired, Sanuk.
Greg served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Concerto Networks, Inc., a San Diego, California global franchisor of business technology solutions to the small to medium size business market; as Chief Financial Officer of Viking Systems, Inc (OTC: VKNG), a publicly-traded medical device manufacturer; and was the Chief Financial Officer for Sensoria Corporation, a developer of mobile wireless mesh-networking products for the Muni Wi-Fi, Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and physical security markets, acquired by Tranzeo (TO:TZT).
Prior to Sensoria, Greg was Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration for NeoPoint, Inc., a designer of the world’s first smartphones, built by ODMs to the Company’s specifications, and distributed to Sprint PCS, and other carriers in North and South America. As the Director of Finance, Subscriber Products Division, of Qualcomm, Incorporated, Greg was the senior divisional finance executive supporting Qualcomm’s nascent handset business, which grew from a $10 million revenue base to over $1 billion during his tenure. Greg spent seven years in Silicon Valley at Ericsson-Raynet where he served in the capacities of Controller & International Finance Director and International Marketing Director & Manager, Business Planning.
Prior to Ericsson, Greg spent two years on Wall Street as a Securities Analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc, and three years in London as Operations Manager for CCI Consortium Communications International, Inc., where he hired, trained and supervised 35 employees supporting a 24/7 global telex store-and-forward service.
Greg earned his Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Pomona College, Claremont, California, and earned a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.
David Andreone – Music Artist and Recording Executive, served as General Manager of MySpace Records, a division of Myspace Music, and a joint venture with Interscope Records/UMG. In his previous roles as Senior Director of A&R at Warner/Chappell and Vice President of A&R at Columbia Records-Sony BMG, David signed artists that resulted in sales exceeding 21 million units worldwide, generating record sales in excess of $325 million in revenues.
His responsibilities were to discover or identify high market value recording prospects, and sign artists, as well as playing a role in the artist’s development and marketing. He signed artists to include; Michelle Branch, Hoobstank, Disturbed, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Remy Zero, among others.
Prior to MySpace Records, he was Partner in Melodic Arts Music, which consulted with artists, labels and music publishers. And acted as General Manager for Infinite Music Group; consulted the estates of: The Doors, Janis Joplin, Peter Tosh, Gram Parsons and Rick James.
David is on the Board of Advisors for Bandcamp, an online music store, as well as a platform for artist promotion, catering mainly to independent artists. He attended Pepperdine University, receiving his Bachelors of Arts in Communications/Advertising with a minor in Marketing. Prior to Pepperdine University, David attended San Diego State University.
Steven Chic – Director of Business Development at LegalZoom.com, Steven plays a key role in maintaining and growing partners which strengthens the overall LegalZoom customer experience. Under his management these partners included; American Express Open, Microsoft, LogoWorks, a Hewlett Packard company, Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corporation, Web.com, and Palo Alto Software. Legalzoom was co-founded by a team of top attorneys, including attorney Robert Shapiro. From LegalZoom’s humble beginnings as a startup based in an apartment by a couple of college students from UCLA, today, LegalZoom’s estimated valuation is based on $100 million round of funding. LegalZoom is the nation’s leading online legal document services company with offices in San Francisco, CA, Austin, TX and headquarters in Glendale, CA. Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Polaris Venture Partners are investors in LegalZoom.
Steven served as a business consultant to Ron Artest of the Los Angeles Lakers. He worked on several charity events, including the Rhyme and Reason concert at LA Live and the grand opening of Ron’s restaurant, Saladish, both, which benefited the organization, Best Friends and Ron’s championship ring charity raffle resulting in over $500,000 raised for charity.
Prior to LegalZoom, Steven held the position of Chief Operating Officer for Nikko Enterprise Corporation, an Asian food distributor with over 300 locations in the U.S. Clients included Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Henry’s Farmers Market, Pathmark and Foodland. During his tenure, Nikko Corporation increased revenues by 40% and distribution outlets increased by 20%. He holds a Bachelors of Arts in History from the University of California, Riverside.
