Introducing our March Cohort of Tech Startup Founders

We are proud to introduce our March ’12 Cohort of Tech Startup Founders. Pictured from top left, they are:

1. Preston Silverman, co-founder of Raise based in San Francisco is working to help students from low-income families go to college. Prior startups include successful home contracting business, previously Director of Business Development for Asia-Pacific at Frontier Strategy Group, taught high school Economics in India at Shanti Bhavan, has worked in Singapore, Argentina, India, London, and now the US.
2. Allan Thorvaldsen, founder/CEO of Panorama9 based in San Francisco lets you control your entire IT environment from a single Cloud-based dashboard. Two previous startups including SoftScan (exited to Symantec Inc.), has 16 years B2B biz expertise within tech and cloud computing (SAAS).
3. Amir Tarighat, co-founder/CEO of EquaMetrics based in New York, NY is developing patent pending technology for algorithmic trading. Raised $1.5M from Angels and Super Angels, Harvard Economics, LSE Graduate Management.
4. Andrew Jones, founder of GolfRival based in San Jose, CA is a social network that enables golfers to connect and compete when and where they want. Prior financial/operational experience working with Cisco, Apple, Selectron and 3COM, Santa Clara University MBA Entrepreneurship.
5. Tyler Koblasa, founder/CEO of Mingly based in San Francisco is developing a better way to stay connected to your true social network. Previous startups include OneStop.net and StoreAndServe (Top 700 Alexa), prior experience at AOL, won then co-organized Startup Weekend LA, launched Startup Nights in LA, completed Lean UX Residency (LUXr) program.
6. Bert Parekh, founder of My Vicinia based in Naperville, IL a social utility that connects local merchants with consumers in their neighborhood. Previously founded Romtrac South Asia, 20 years of int’l business experience with Microsoft, Intel, Gateway, Immersion and Fujitsu PC, Wayne State Masters in CS.
7. Gabriel Bestard-Ribas, founder of IDK Makes Life Simple based in Barcelona helps consumers manage accessibility to their everyday activities e.g. key fob mobile app. Prior experience in digital advertising strategy roles with Danone (launched award winning 1st Social CRM app in Spain), Wunderman / Y&R Brands and OgilvyOne, MBA IESE.
8. Alex Skirpa, founder of Savnor based in Oakland is a screen capturing tool that allows people to select and share any dynamic part of any live web page. Previous owner of a successful real estate maintenance co., mentored and assisted many Lithuanian Americans in acquiring US membership and starting businesses of their own.
9. Yogen Kapadia, co-founder and CEO of Infinote based in Sunnyvale, CA is revolutionizing document management. Previously worked with Genetech as Systems Architect for the Regulatory, Quality and Compliance group and with Sapient providing business and technology solutions to Fortune 500 companies, MS from Wright State University, Bombay University.
10. Julian Mattatia, co-founder of RatesOnline based in Melbourne is Australia’s most popular and independent home loan and insurance comparison website. Prior experience includes business development roles for RealEstate.com.au, Fairfax Digital and Organic Inc.
11. Brendan Quinlan, co-founder of RiskRadius based in San Francisco provides insurance organizations with real time data on the activity in the insurance marketplace. Prior experience advises in risk management/insurance for Fortune 500 companies and startups, BS Economics, Santa Clara University.

With the addition of the March Cohort, Founders Network is now 121 members strong! We are excited about the rich and diverse experience sets and perspectives each new member brings to our peer mentorship community of tech startup founders. Together we are taking management and personal risk off the table and ensuring mutual success. Stay tuned to the fnBlog for startup updates, tips and lessons learned from each of our new members.

Founders Network