SNAP Summit Speakers

Jessica Alter; Director of Platform and Business Development, Bebo

Jessica is Director of Platform and Business Development at Bebo. She leads the platform strategy and community at Bebo as well as multiple business development efforts. Prior to Bebo Jessica worked in business development at Hands-On Mobile. She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Kevin Barenblat; CEO of [context]

Kevin Barenblat is co-founder and CEO of [context], a San Francisco-based team of developers and interactive marketing specialists with experience building Facebook applications since May 2007, the first weekend of the platform launch. [context] works with brands such as Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Samsung, and Paramount Pictures to build interactive, engaging, and viral applications on social networks. Prior to founding [context] Kevin held product marketing, business development, and strategic advising positions at Verizon Wireless, WideRay, Adventureseek, and The Boston Consulting Group. Kevin has a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jim Benedetto; MySpace

Jim Benedetto is the Vice President of Technology and one of the original architects of MySpace, the world’s most popular social networking and lifestyle portal on the Internet. In this position Benedetto oversees technical operations, overall architecture and technological direction of MySpace and continues to help the site reach its full potential.

Since joining MySpace in November 2003 Benedetto’s expertise in distributed architectures, database technologies, storage and scalability helped MySpace grow to more than 115 million unique users per month, and more than 23 localized sites worldwide. Benedetto continues to be a key influential player in the ongoing success of MySpace.

Prior to MySpace, Jim was a highly recognized consultant in database design and architecture. He holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Siqi Chen; Developer, Friends For Sale

Siqi Chen is a co-founder of Serious Business Inc, the creators of Friends for Sale, a top 10 Facebook application. He was previously a software engineer at Powerset, where worked on the design and development of Powerlabs. Before that, he was the product manager for the web presence of Veoh.com, now a top 100 video sharing site.

Jeff Clavier; Managing Partner, SoftTech VC

Based in Palo Alto, California, Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. Since 2004, Jeff has invested in more than 20 consumer Internet companies developing new concepts (such as social media) or revisiting “old” ideas with a new set of economics and technologies. In 2007, Jeff was recognized as one of the 13 “Web 2.0 King Makers” by Business 2.0, and is often noted for his investments in categories such as “passion-centric communities,” or for having already sold five of his companies in the past two years through successful M&As. Jeff’s 19 years of operational, entrepreneurial and venture capital experience enable him to add relevant perspective and value to the companies in which he invests.

Jeff’s initial investments were in the search, social media, online communities and application infrastructure sectors. Most recently, he added gaming and monetization to his investment focus, and he has been dabbling in Enterprise 2.0, system infrastructure and a few other emerging categories. Jeff invests primarily, but not exclusively, in Silicon Valley-based startups.

A popular speaker and moderator, Jeff participates in dozens of industry events throughout the year. These events range from local Silicon Valley panel discussions to international conferences, where he shares his passion for building Internet startups, angel and VC investing, innovation and entrepreneurship. Jeff has also produced a number of technology conferences and is a founding co-chair of the SDForum Search Special Interest Group.

Jeff’s blog, Software Only, was one of the early venture capital blogs, started in 2004, where he primarily covered social media, search, online communities and investing. After a few years of active posting, Jeff switched to micro-blogging, and a less time consuming production, using Twitter and Pownce.

Jared Fliesler, Director, Business Development Slide

Jared Fliesler is responsible for Slide’s business development and advertising products. He works with some of the world’s most recognized brands and premium content partners, helping them reach and engage consumers across Slide’s network of more than 170 million viewers worldwide. Prior to joining Slide, Jared managed business development for an investment firm. Jared graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Francisco.

BJ Fogg; Psychology and Technology professor, Stanford University

BJ Fogg is a researcher, teacher, and innovator trained in experimental psychology, especially the psychology of using computers. Since 1993, he’s been at Stanford University, investigating how computers can be designed to change attitudes and behaviors. He’s written a book on this topic: Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do., and recently taught a class for developing on the Facebook platform.

Seth Goldstein, CEO and co-founder, SocialMedia.com

Seth Goldstein is co-founder and CEO of SocialMedia.com. In his role as CEO, Seth drives the strategic direction of the company, overseeing the development of technologies and services to keep SocialMedia at the forefront of social media and advertising. Seth has extensive leadership experience advising advertisers on the evolving opportunities in social media, while encouraging developer creation of lasting and interactive applications for online consumers.

An experienced entrepreneur, he has created several successful Internet businesses, including one of the first Internet advertising companies, SiteSpecific, in 1995. He was also the first investor in Web 2.0 pioneer del.icio.us(now part of Yahoo!).

In addition to Seth’s entrepreneurial efforts, he is also an active member on the speaking circuit, considered the de facto expert on social media. Providing insight for both advertisers and developers, Seth is often asked for his thoughts on best practices, emerging trends and the future of the social media landscape. He contributed his expertise to articles in the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek, offering the inside scoop on monetizing social media, connecting advertisers with developers and the importance of social network applications as part of multi-channel advertising campaigns.

Martin Green; Meebo, VP Business Development

Martin Green is Meebo’s business vice president, responsible for community engagement, revenue strategy and corporate partnerships. He started his career at Morgan Stanley and in 1996, joined an emerging client of Morgan Stanley, CNET. Martin spent 10 years at CNET Networks in a variety of
strategic, financial and operations roles, most recently serving on the executive committee and serving as senior vice president of lifestyle and community.

Steve Jang; CMO and Head of Biz Dev, imeem

With experience in helping to build several internet startups and to execute digital media strategy at large companies, Steve focuses on strategic alliances, product planning, and consumer marketing for the imeem service. Prior to joining imeem, Steve was Director of Digital Business Development at EMI Music, where he worked on global digital partnerships and new platforms strategy. Over the course of his career, Steve has worked in business development, marketing and research roles at Kyocera Wireless, Xuma (Dell and Intel venture), WR Hambrecht & Co., and Salon.com. Steve holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Southern California. For fun, Steve programmed in Pascal as a child, but now spends his free time seeking out surf breaks in California and Hawaii and producing live music shows.

Aaron Kahlow; Managing Partner, BusinessOnLine

Aaron Kahlow serves Chairman & Founder of the Online Marketing Summit as well as Managing Partner of BusinessOnLine, a leader in the Search & Usability space. Having delivered over 170 seminars nationwide and frequently quoted in such publications as Industry Week, BtoBOnline, and BusinessWeek, Aaron is a recognized authority on the subjects of Web Site Usability, Search Engine Optimization, Web Analytics and overall Web Strategy. Most recently, Kahlow was named as one of the “Top 40 entrepreneurs under the age of 40” by Metropolitan Magazine. He also serves on the International Board of Directors for the Business Marketers Association (BMA) as Chair of Interactive Community Education.

Jeremy Liew; Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Jeremy Liew invests primarily in the internet and mobile sectors, with a particular interest in social media, gaming, commerce, and methods for increasing monetization. He joined Lightspeed in early 2006. Previously, Jeremy was with AOL, first as SVP of Corporate Development and Chief of Staff to the CEO, and then as General Manager of Netscape. Jeremy joined AOL from InterActiveCorp (originally USA Networks) where he was VP of Strategic Planning. While there, he was responsible for acquisitions, divestitures and investments in TV Networks, consumer internet companies and online travel companies.Jeremy started working in the consumer internet industry as an early employee of CitySearch in 1996 where he held a variety of sales management, operational and business development roles. He was also a management consultant at McKinsey and Company. Jeremy holds an MBA from Stanford and a BA/BSc from the Australian National University in Linguistics and Pure Mathematics. Jeremy is a frequent contributor to the Lightspeed blog.

Lee Lorenzen; CEO, Altura Ventures

Lee Jay Lorenzen is a highly successful serial entrepreneur with more than 26 years of experience developing software and founding and/or funding numerous software ventures and non-profit organizations. Some of his successful companies include Independent Programming Teams, Ventura Software, Altura Software, Post Digital, Fractal Design Corporation, CoolChat and PGSoft. Lorenzen also developed some of the world’s first graphical user interfaces, including icon-based graphical desktop user interface at Xerox Office Products Division and a graphical windowing system and user interface for the PC at Digital Research Inc. He is currently the CEO and president of Altura Ventures, the sponsor of Altura 1, focused on advising entreprenuers as they go through the key transitions of their Facebook business from start-up, through fund-raising, to shipping and to liquidity event.

Dave McClure; Advisor/Investor, Blogger, 500hats.com

Dave McClure has been geeking out in Silicon Valley for over fifteen years as a developer, entrepreneur, startup advisor, angel investor, blogger, and internet marketing nerd. He is the founder of 500 Hats LLC, and advisor / investor for Mint Software, Spock Networks, Mashery, Simply Hired, TeachStreet, Oortle, CrazyEgg, Eventvue, SlideShare, RichRelevance, HealthUnity, and Canopy Financial.Dave is the conference chair for Graphing Social Patterns, and co-chair for O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo. He was also a guest lecturer at Stanford University for a new course on building Facebook Apps. Dave is a board member for microfinance accelerator Unitus, advisor to microfinance lender Kiva.org, and a co-founder of the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network. Previously Dave was Director of Marketing at PayPal where he founded & ran the PayPal Developer Network, and later VP Evangelism at Simply Hired.Before coming to Silicon Valley, Dave barely graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Mathematical Sciences Engineering and a minor in frisbee, billiards, & foosball. His interests include microfinance and economic innovation, entrepreneurship and venture capital, ultimate frisbee, cartoons and animation, and an ever-growing collection of funny-looking hats.For more info on Dave, visit his blog: Master of 500 Hats.

Dave Morin; Senior Platform Manager, Facebook

Dave Morin is the Senior Platform Manager at Facebook where he leads platform strategy and community. Dave joined Facebook from Apple, where most recently he was the Manager of Creation & Collaboration technologies and was initially the Manager of Student Marketing worldwide. Prior to Apple, Dave founded the company Viadi, a technology and marketing company focused on building great brands and experiences using the power of the internet. His focus on innovation, visionary marketing and technology strategy has involved extensive interaction with the global market at large. Dave received a B.S. in Economics and Business from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Jeremiah Owyang; Web Analyst, Forrester

Jeremiah is a leading expert on social computing, social media, social media measurement, Web marketing, and interactive marketing. In the past, he has lead the social computing program at Hitachi Data Systems from 2005-2006 as the online community marketing manager, then left to join PodTech Network, an online video and podcasting company as the director of corporate media strategy. According to Technorati, Jeremiah is one of the top 1% of bloggers, and his blog is listed as the 19th ranked blog according to Advertising Age (November 2007). A video blogger, podcaster, he speaks at a strategic level on Web marketing topics around the globe. He frequently publishes at the Web strategy blog.

Rajat Paharia; CEO, Bunchball inc.

Rajat Paharia is the founder and CEO of Bunchball. An entrepreneur at heart, Rajat’s skill set combines a unique understanding of technology and design that stems from a four year career at design firm IDEO where he was co-director of the Software Experiences Practice. While there he worked with clients including AT&T Wireless, Avaya, Microsoft, McDonald’s, HP and Philips. Before IDEO, Rajat worked at Philips Consumer Electronics, IBM Research and ViewStar. He has a Masters degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, with a focus on Human Computer Interaction, and an undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley

Joshua Porter; Founder, Bokardo.com: Social Web Design

Josh is a web designer, researcher, and writer who runs a web design and consulting company called Bokardo Design. Before Bokardo, he was a leading member of User Interface Engineering’s research team and wrote extensively on such topics as Web 2.0, Ajax, web standards, and on-site search systems.

Jim Scheinman; Entrepreneur-in-Residence, CRV, former VP of Bebo

Jim joined Charles River Ventures in 2007. His focus is on uncovering new investments in the consumer Internet, social networking and social media sectors, while working with the firm’s portfolio companies and evaluating opportunities for his own next start-up venture. Jim is one of the early pioneers of the social networking phenomenon and was previously the head of business development and sales at the first social networking site, Friendster. There he created the concept of engagement marketing within social networking sites, mobilizing the idea of enabling consumers to become brand advocates of engaging content and spreading the brands’ messages amongst their network of friends. Following Friendster, Jim was an early employee of Bebo and served as vice president of business development and sales. At Bebo Jim helped many great brands, including Disney and Coke, with their marketing efforts. Jim is a seasoned speaker and is often called upon to talk on the subject of social networking and marketing. In recent times this has included events such as; Ad Tech in both San Francisco and London, Harvard Business School, Digital Hollywood and the IIA Annual Congressin Ireland. As one of the industry’s leading experts, Jim provides regular comment on engagement marketing and the future of social networking for wide range of publications including; the Economist, WallStreet Journal, New York Times, Ad Week and e-consultancy, in addition to TV and radio.

Jia Shen; CTO and co-founder, RockYou

Jia is the CTO and co-founder of RockYou, and has focused extensively on graphic design and usability throughout his professional web development career spanning over 10 years. Prior to RockYou, Jia has held management roles leading the user interface and technical solutions teams at Open Harbor, and managing the majority of engineering at Iconix. Jia started working on scalable consumer applications at shopping tools internet provider Bluedog, a Stanford based startup, and was part of the original team at Bell Laboratories which developed the VoiceXML format into the W3C standard. In addition, Jia’s experience has spanned enterprise sales and professional services functions, as he closed transactions and integrated with large multi-national corporation customers like Mitsubishi, Tyco, Flextronics, and DHL. Jia has a double major in Computer Science and Computer Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Anu Shukla; CEO and Founder, Offerpal Media

Anu Shukla is a serial entrepreneur. Prior to founding Offerpal Media, she was the founder and CEO of Mybuys Inc. where she currently serves on the Board of Directors. Mybuys is a venture-backed company in the eCommerce personalization market. Prior to Mybuys, Anu pioneered the category of Internet Marketing Automation as founder and CEO of Rubric, Inc. Rubric was acquired in 2000 for $366 million.

Prior to Rubric, Anu has held a variety of executive roles including the VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at Versata (VATA), and Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Product Management at Compuware/Uniface Corporation (CPWR).

Anu serves on the Board of Directors of FWE&E (Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives), International Museum of Women (imow.org), and the Advisory Board for the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. She was named to the Computer Industry “Dream Team” by Business 2.0 magazine in 2004, awarded the YSU Distinguished Alumni award in 2005, and the Entrepreneur of the Year by the Washington D.C. based Dialogue on Diversity organization in 2005.