San Francisco California Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses

May10

“It turned out humans were overrated, and our portfolio of work and word-of-mouth referrals were enough to get even large organizations to work with our bird-brained team.”

Jessica Greenwalt

Pixelkeet

Founder and Principal

http://www.Pixelkeet.com

Pixelkeet is the world’s only “parakeet run” graphic design and web development firm. Their talented parakeets have helped to create projects for clients all over the world including LinkedIn; Telefónica; University of California, Berkeley; CrowdMed; and many more.

The Pixelkeet parakeets have also enjoyed some Internet fame for their good looks in addition to their talents. Pico, the Vice Parakeet of Markeeting, has even done some modeling for Marc Jacobs: http://instagram.com/p/OtwLmEv5M-/ . Pixelkeet was launched in 2012 by Jessica Greenwalt and is based in San Francisco, California.

MO: What inspired you to launch your first business while still attending high school and what were some early entrepreneurial lessons that you learned?

Apr29

No Comments

“If 20th century leadership was about having the right answers, 21st century leadership is about asking the right questions.”

Jessica Weatherford

Marble Arch

President & CEO

http://www.MarbleArchInc.com

Marble Arch is a performance acceleration consultancy helping leaders take their business to the next level, finding long-term sustainable success.

Whether it’s a company with a 40-year history or a startup ready for growth, they bring evidence-based tools and external expertise for focused company change.

MO: Can you talk about your journey from being a CFO of a mid-sized construction company to launching Marble Arch? What did your turning point look like?

Mar21

No Comments

“My successes were team members’ successes, and vice versa.”

Steven Dupree

Richmond Global

General Partner

http://www.RGlobal.com/

Steven Dupree is a General Partner at Richmond Global, where he identifies and invests in seed- and early-stage companies across verticals such as digital media, mobile, and consumer Internet — but any technology that addresses a clear market need interests him. Dupree’s true passion is customer acquisition, and he provides marketing tips for entrepreneurs through his e-newsletter, MarketFound.

Jan16

No Comments

“We knew how much better the conversation would be if accompanied by real-time video – only video can fully capture a “Did you see that?!?!” moment that catapults the conversation to another realm.”

Mike Folgner

SnappyTV

CEO

http://www.SnappyTV.com

Mike Folgner is the founder and CEO of SnappyTV, a platform for sharing clips from live television with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Mike’s career has been at the intersection of technology and media. He was the General Manager of Video at Yahoo! after his first company Jumpcut was acquired by Yahoo! in 2006.

SnappyTV offers a robust suite of tools that enable organizations of all sizes to edit, share, and archive live video and TV programming completely within the cloud. The SnappyTV platform enables organizations to rapidly create, distribute and measure real-time video content delivered via social media channels. The result is the viral sharing of video clips merged with social messaging which allows fans to instantly show friends the best video moments from the broadcast, increasing the social conversation and driving tune-in.

MO: Can you talk about the inspiration behind Snappy TV? Was it a concept that you had been thinking about for a while or was it more of an “aha moment?”

Jan11

No Comments

“I acknowledge the changes that make up my life”

Belo Cipriani

Blind: A Memoir

Author

http://BeloCipriani.com/

Belo Miguel Cipriani is a freelance writer, speaker, and author of Blind: A Memoir. Belo was the keynote speaker for the 2011 Americans with Disabilities Act celebration in San Francisco and was a guest lecturer at both Yale University and the University of San Francisco. Amber Clovers, his first work of fiction, will be published in 2013. Belo is a Lambda Literary Foundation fellow, a fellow with Yaddo (a premiere artist colony), and he loves his guide dog, Madge. He welcomes anyone to reach out to him at belocipriani.com or on Twitter @Beloism.

Dec27

No Comments

“Our palates are more refined than our skills in the kitchen, and instead of preparing the food ourselves, we work with a team of hand selected local chefs, street food vendors, restaurants, and boutique caterers to offer one-of-a-kind specialized concepts.”

Zachary Yungst

Cater2.me

Co-Founder

http://Cater2.me/

Zachary Yungst grew up in Sarasota, Florida before attending Penn’s Wharton School. Before starting Cater2.me, Zach worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and in private equity for TPG in San Francisco.

Founded in 2010, Cater2.me connects chefs, food trucks, restaurants, and top local food vendors with offices and startups. They’re focused on making office meals exciting and the process of ordering group meals excitingly simple. Cater2.me has served over a million meals, feeding many well-known companies and startups in Silicon Valley and New York City.

MO: What inspired you to launch Cater2.me? How did you make the leap from investment banking to catering?

Dec7

No Comments

“Memories are the most valuable thing we have, and our photos represent our memories.”

Tekin Tatar

BeFunky

Founder

http://www.BeFunky.com

With an MBA from Sabanci University and 10 years of professional experience, Tekin Tatar has built his career around e-business, digital brand management, and interactive advertising. Prior to starting BeFunky in 2007, Tekin wore many hats as the Business Development Manager of McCann Relationship Marketing Turkey, a leading multinational company focusing on digital brand management.

After realizing one day that he was tired of working for someone else’s company, his passion for digital media led him to establish the company BeFunky and a team that will always feel funky.

Founded in 2007 by engineers and cartoonists with a unique desire to integrate art and technology, BeFunky’s photo editor was designed to be a fun, easy-to-use tool that helps you turn ordinary pictures into incredible works of art. Today BeFunky is not only the photo editor that gives people the most creative control, but it’s also the only one available across every platform, including phones and tablets for iOS and Android, and the web. BeFunky is more than just an app: It’s a digital dream come true for people ready to get creative with their photos at home or on-the-go!

MO: How did your background and previous experience help contribute to the direction and vision of BeFunky?

Nov7

No Comments

“Ideas are worthless – just try selling out. It’s all about execution.”

Matt Mickiewicz

Flippa.com

Co-Founder

http://www.Flippa.com

Matt Mickiewicz was named to the Forbes Magazine “30 under 30″ list in 2012, co-founded 99designs which has hosted more than 130,000 design contests and paid out more than $30 million to designers, while winning a 2010 Webby Award for “Best Web Service” and raising $35 million from Accel Partners. Matt has also co-founded Flippa.com which has helped entrepreneurs sell more than $70 million in websites & domain names. INC Magazine named Matt to their “30 under 30″ list in 2011.

MO: You started your first company while still attending High School. What inspired your early interest in entrepreneurship and how did you manage to gain such insight and credibility to attract a client base before even having your driving license?

Nov7

No Comments

“Make culture a key element of your strategy.”

Dr. Linda D. Sharkey

Achieveblue, Inc.

Global Managing Director and Partner

www.achieveblue.com

Dr. Linda D. Sharkey is Global Managing Director and Partner at Achieveblue a boutique consultancy that specializes in leadership development, cultural transformation and talent and organization development. Prior to joining Achieveblue, Linda was the Chief Talent Officer for HP and also held numerous Executive Human Resources roles at GE. Linda is co-author of Winning with Transglobal Leadership which has been recognized as one of the Top 30 Best Business Books for 2012 by Executive Summaries. She has also co-authored a ground breaking book on talent management entitled Optimizing Talent. Linda is a widely sought after executive coach and as such is a Founding Member of the Marshall Goldsmith Group. She is a frequent keynote speaker at industry and company events and is often cited as one of the best thought leaders in her field. She holds a Ph.D from Benedictine University and lives in Saratoga, California.

Oct10

No Comments

“We focus on helping a small part of that equation by saving companies time, money and effort.”

Kevin Rohling & John Frost

cisimple

Co-Founders

http://www.cisimple.com

Kevin Rohling has an engineering background, business savvy and significant experience leading and managing teams. He came up with the idea for cisimple while working as the CTO at a previous startup. When he went looking for a simple, easy solution for setting up continuous integration for his engineering team he came up empty handed and knew this was a great opportunity.

John Frost is a serial entrepreneur with a background in Business Development and Marketing. At 23 he co-founded a company that he helped grow to 6 divisions with operations in 7 countries and eventually to a public listing on the NGM stock market. He and Kevin met through a mutual friend visiting from Australia and ever since John has been driving sales and business development at cisimple.

Cisimple’s cloud services automate the continuous testing, build, and deployment of mobile applications and SDK’s. Tight integration with Github and Testflight means the setup process takes minutes instead of days and all without the cost of setting up and maintaining build servers.

MO: How did you come up with the idea for cisimple?

Oct5

No Comments

“Now with the economy as it is and with the proliferation of digital, it’s all changed. Now it’s back to the message.”

Maggie O'Neill

Peppercommotions

Founder

http://www.Peppercommotions.com

Maggie O’Neill brings 15 years of communications and event planning experience to Peppercommotions, the experiential events division of Peppercom Strategic Communications. The division, which she created in 2005, has grown to a $1M plus arm of Peppercom with a client roster which has included Whirlpool, Tyco, T.G.I. Friday’s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Panasonic, Crocs, Nikon and more.

Peppercommotions is the award-winning experiential marketing branch of Peppercom, a strategic communications agency that combines strategic events and integrated communications expertise. Headquartered in New York with offices in San Francisco and London, we deliver experiences that build your brand, create industry buzz and address your bottom line.

MO: What’s your favorite part of your job?

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Spotlight: San Francisco, California

Spotlight Interview: Gordon Logan

Spotlight Interview: David Allen

Spotlight Interview: Chris Babel

“It turned out humans were overrated, and our portfolio of work and word-of-mouth referrals were enough to get even large organizations to work with our bird-brained team.”

“If 20th century leadership was about having the right answers, 21st century leadership is about asking the right questions.”

“My successes were team members’ successes, and vice versa.”

“I acknowledge the changes that make up my life”

“Our palates are more refined than our skills in the kitchen, and instead of preparing the food ourselves, we work with a team of hand selected local chefs, street food vendors, restaurants, and boutique caterers to offer one-of-a-kind specialized concepts.”

“Ideas are worthless – just try selling out. It’s all about execution.”

“Make culture a key element of your strategy.”

“We focus on helping a small part of that equation by saving companies time, money and effort.”

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