alex bard ceo / founder
Alex Bard is a passionate internet entrepreneur who has been part of the founding team of multiple software start ups including eShare Technologies (Customer Service Software - 1996), eAssist Global Solutions (Customer Service Software - 1999) and Goowy Media (Widget Analytics Platform - 2004), which was sold to AOL in 2008. He has held executive roles including VP Customer Solutions - eShare, VP Sales / Marketing - eAssist, CEO - Goowy and VP Products AOL. Alex is also an advisor to several start-ups and sits on the board of Irata labs (playspymaster.com).Alex has lived all over the world including NY, Toronto, London, LA, and currently resides in San Diego with his wife Shari and his daughter Taylor. Favorite quote "The universe always conspires to help the dreamer.” — “The Alchemist”, Paulo Coelho
contact me:
| twitter.com/alexbard
gary benitt coo / founder
Gary Benitt is a seasoned tech entrepreneur with 13 years of diverse management experience, mostly within the customer service industry. Gary has managed various technology teams including development, quality assurance and client implementations. More importantly, Gary has broad knowledge across all facets of growing a business from startup mode into a mature organization.Most recently Gary was with AOL, after his prior startup (Goowy Media) was acquired in early 2008. At Goowy, Gary was one of the co-founders and served as the COO/CFO. Gary has now returned to his customer service roots and has teamed up with his long time friends to co-found Assistly. Gary is the COO/CFO of Assistly - responsible for, among other things, “everything else”.
contact me:
| twitter.com/garybenitt
brad birnbaum cto / founder
Brad Birnbaum currently serves as Chief Technology Officer for Assistly, Inc. continuing his 15+ year tenure focusing on improving customer service. Prior to Assistly’s founding Brad was at AOL responsible for development for AIM Chat and AIM Connect. Previously, Brad was CTO for Talisma Corporation, Vice President, Product Strategy at eAssist Global Solutions. Prior to eAssist Brad was Vice President of Product Development for the CIM group at Divine, Inc. Brad also served as CTO and EVP of Product Development at eShare Communications and its successor Melita Corporation.Brad served as a Justice Louis Brandeis Scholar at Brandeis University and a Simon’s fellow at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he conducted advanced organo-metallic research in chemistry. Brad is a NY native living on Long Island with his wife and 2 daughters.
contact me:
| twitter.com/bradbirnbaum
jeremy suriel chief architect / founder
Jeremy Suriel is the Chief Architect for Assistly, Inc. He brings more than 13 years of experience in Software Design and Architecture specializing in Enterprise-scale Web Applications. Jeremy has co-founded and been a part of the core team of developers around numerous Customer Service, CRM, and enterprise application projects including eShare NetAgent (1996) and eAssist Global Solutions SaaS Customer Interaction Management & CRM platform (1999). Prior to Assistly, Jeremy was the CTO / Chief Architect of Goowy Media where he brought his expertise to the consumer space, leading the development of the Goowy Widget Analytics Platform (2004) which was later acquired by AOL in 2008. In addition to his technology expertise, Jeremy also brings significant domain knowledge in the area of customer service and web analytics to the Assistly team.Jeremy is a native New Yorker, a die-hard Yankee fan, and loves spending time with family.
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| twitter.com/jrmey
mark cuban advisor
Mark Cuban is a tech entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He was the founder of Broadcast.com, the live-streaming Internet operation, which he sold to Yahoo for a record breaking price of $4.6 billion. Mark is a founder/owner of HDNet, 2929 Entertainment, Landmark Theaters and several other companies. He has also been an angel investor for several startups including SlideShare, Goowy Media, RedSwoosh, Box.net, Weblogs, Inc and Mahalo.Mark lives in Dallas with his wife Tiffany and two daughters, Alexis and Alyssa.
contact me: blogmaverick.com | twitter.com/mcuban
david liu advisor
David Liu is a tech executive and investor. Most recently, David led teams that created next generation social media and communications platforms as head of Global Messaging for AOL. His team opened up the AIM platform and application to developers and partners, re-conceptualized and launched a new AIM product globally, and launched a completely new real-time, social communication platform called the Lifestream. Earlier in David's career, he helped AOL take down the subscription walled garden by leading the initial launch and growth of the AOL.com portal as an internal start-up, as well as create the world's first and largest online rewards program.David enjoys working with talented entrepreneurs through the acquisition and integration of start-ups like Goowy Media and Socialthing, as well as angel investing in cool tech companies like SimpleGeo. David is a Pittsburgh native living in New York City who enjoys spending time with his family, golfing whenever it is above 50 degrees, playing tennis and watching the Steelers play, win or lose.
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| twitter.com/dliu8