Jason Navallo's Blog, page 23

David Barnett – Founder & CEO, PopSockets

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In 2010, David Barnett was looking for a way to stop his earbud cord from getting tangled, and he achieved this by gluing two buttons to the back of his phone and wrapping the earbud cord around the buttons. As ugly as the buttons were, they worked. In the course of improving on the idea, he developed about 60 different prototypes, making the buttons expand and collapse via an accordion mechanism, so that they could function as both a stand and a grip.

In 2012, Barnett launched a KickStarter...

Sam Zaid – Founder & CEO, Getaround

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Sam is an engineer and entrepreneur. He is founder & CEO at Getaround, the leading marketplace empowering people to instantly rent and drive great cars shared by other people in their city. Getaround has raised over $400M in venture capital from top investors including SoftBank, Menlo Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Toyota Motor Corporation, and Shanghai Auto.

Prior to Getaround, Sam founded Apption, an enterprise software consultancy, and 360pi, the leading retail price intelligence plat...

Michael Garrity – Co-Founder & CEO, Financeit

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Michael has spent most of the last 15 years devoted to driving growth in businesses dedicated to innovation in financial services. Prior to co-founding Financeit, Michael was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at epost, a world leader in the electronic bill presentment and payment industry. Michael was responsible for leading the team that built the epost customer network which grew to include every major Canadian financial institution, over 100 of Canada’s largest companies, and over...

Shane Evans – Founder & CEO, Massage Heights

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Shane Evans is co-founder and president of Massage Heights, an international franchise company founded in San Antonio, Texas, in 2004.

Massage Heights’ vision is to elevate the lives of the people they touch. Massage Heights provides a heightened service experience to the Guests and Members of its retail spa-like Retreats, a purposeful, values-based employment opportunity for over 5,000 Team Members and a proven business proposition that Franchisees can be proud of in a space where the sky i...

Anders Gustafsson – CEO, Zebra Technologies

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Anders Gustafsson became chief executive officer and a director of Zebra on September 4, 2007. Prior to joining Zebra Technologies, Mr. Gustafsson served as CEO of Spirent Communications plc, a publicly-traded telecommunications company.

At Spirent, Mr. Gustafsson redirected that company’s growth strategy, divested non-core operations, integrated historic acquisitions, and streamlined the organization to realize significant cost savings. Prior to Spirent, he was senior executive vice preside...

Taro Fukuyama – Co-Founder & CEO, Fond

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Taro co-founded Fond (formerly AnyPerk) in 2012 and serves as the Chief Executive Officer. Born and raised in Tokyo, Taro is a Y Combinator graduate and part of the first Japanese team ever to be admitted into the program. He studied Law at Keio University in Tokyo and was named one of Business Insider’s “Silicon Valley 100: The Coolest People in Tech Right Now”. And yes, he helped found Fond in a Taco Bell parking lot.

How did the concept for Fond come about?
When I moved from Japan to San...

Sébastien Dupéré – Founder & President, Dupray

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Sébastien Dupéré is the founder and president of Dupray, a leading provider of advanced cleaning systems; being vapor steam cleaners, floor scrubbers and carpet cleaners. In North America, Dupray is known for providing world renowned Tecnovap® commercial steam cleaners, Multiplo floor scubbers and carpet cleaners.

Tell me about your early career.
My early career was eventful to say the least. I had a ton of ideas and often got distracted by the million and one things that kept popping into m...

James Marks – Co-Founder & CEO, Whiplash Merchandising

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James is a serial entrepreneur, multi-year member of the Inc. 5000, and the co-founder and CEO of Whiplash Merchandising. Whiplash connects eCommerce sellers with warehouse capacity and coordinates fulfillment for millions of orders.

Prior to Whiplash, James founded VGKids, a screen printing company focused on high quality artist prints and custom printed goods. James also founded SPUR Studios, providing work spaces for artists and musicians, and The Vegetarian Grocer, a natural foods store...

Nelson Nahum – Founder & CEO, Zadara Storage

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Nelson Nahum brings over twenty years of experience in the storage industry. He is known for creating innovative products and successfully bringing them to the market. Prior to co-founding Zadara Storage, he was a Fellow and Vice President of Software Engineering at LSI Corporation, where he was responsible for an engineering team of over 250 people. Previously, he was Co-Founder and CTO of StoreAge Networking Technologies, which was acquired by LSI in 2006. At StoreAge, he invented the out-...

Scott Wolfe Sr. – Founder, President & CEO, Melba’s Famous Poboys

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Founder, President and CEO of Melba’s Famous Poboys, which has been declared by Inc. 500 magazine as the #1 fastest-growing company in Louisiana (2016) and recognized by GQ Magazine as one of the BEST restaurants in America.

President and CEO of Wagner’s Meat (Est. 1980). Wagner’s Meat was a chain of convenience stores in the New Orleans Area from 1982 to 2003. In 2001, Wagner’s was slated as one of the 100 Fastest Growing Inner City Companies in America (#31) by Inc. Magazine and listed in...