At Innovation Endeavors, we start conversations with “how can we help?”.
Meet our advisors and see how they will help you.

Dror Berman Dror Berman
Founding Managing Partner

Dror Berman

Founding Managing Partner

As the founding Managing Partner of Innovation Endeavors, Dror invests in the raw talent behind a dream. He loves working with entrepreneurs who explore uncharted territory on their path to creating game-changing ventures.

Throughout his career, Dror has been passionate about using technology to personalize people’s experiences in the world. Prior to joining Innovation Endeavors, Dror worked on global search strategy with Yahoo, spearheaded an R&D team at NICE Systems, and led business development for an Israeli CE retailer. He also spent three years in an elite unit at the Israeli Defense Forces.

Dror has an MBA from the Stanford GSB, and graduated cum laude in Computer Science and Bioinformatics from Ben Gurion University in Israel. Dror lives with his wife Diti in Palo Alto and travels frequently to Israel.

Doron Alter Doron Alter
Principal

Doron Alter

Principal

Doron joined Innovation Endeavors in 2011 to focus on discovering and supporting brilliant entrepreneurs in Israel.

Doron is an entrepreneur with a corporate background. He founded and managed various software ventures in the fields of Mobile Payments and Mobile Games. Earlier in his career, in the corporate realm, Doron worked with Microsoft Technology Center and Palm Inc., in roles ranging from software engineering to product management. He served in the elite technology unit of the Israel National Security Agency.

Doron holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in economics and management from Tel-Aviv University.

Celestine Johnson Celestine Johnson
Creative Director

Celestine Johnson

Creative Director

Celestine is passionate about redesigning the experience an entrepreneur has with venture capital. She focuses on high-impact, creative ways to support and celebrate our companies and advisors. Through the creation of innovation environments including our Innovation Space in downtown Palo Alto, Super Happy Block Party Hackathons, and Innovation Challenges with global partners, Celestine is helping our global community of exceptional entrepreneurs share ideas and create solutions to opportunties of global importance.

Before Innovation Endeavors, Celestine worked at Apple in Corporate Social Responsibility to help develop and scale the environmental and human rights program. Prior to Apple, Celestine worked with various organizations focused on social entrepreneurship. Celestine has walked from France across Spain, rode bulls in Montana and lived in a monastery as a monk . Outside of work she is forming ideas around an entrepreneurship program for people with special needs and is training for a barefoot marathon.

Eric Schmidt Eric Schmidt
Founding Partner

Eric Schmidt

Founding Partner

Since joining Google in 2001, Eric Schmidt has helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology. As executive chairman, he is responsible for the external matters of Google: building partnerships and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership, as well as advising the CEO and senior leadership on business and policy issues.

From 2001-2011, Eric served as Google’s chief executive officer, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation.

Prior to joining Google, Eric was the chairman and CEO of Novell and chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Previously, he served on the research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories and Zilog. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Eric is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council in the U.K. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow in 2007. He also chairs the board of the New America Foundation, and since 2008 has been a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

Scott Brady Scott Brady
Slice

Scott Brady

Slice

Scott has been a founder of three publicly traded companies in the software and telecommunications industries. Scott was most recently the Chairman and CEO of FiberTower Corporation (FTWR). He co-founded the company in 2000 and led the company through its successful merger with First Avenue Networks in 2006, which valued the company at over $750mm. FiberTower is the leading independent provider of cell tower backhaul to major wireless carriers and holds the most comprehensive collection of fixed-wireless spectrum assets in the US. Prior to FiberTower, Scott was cofounder and CTO of Clarus Corporation (CLRS), a provider of business to business procurement and settlement software solutions. Before that, Scott was cofounder and CTO of SQL Financials (SQLF), a provider of enterprise financial and human resource software applications. Scott started his career at Andersen Consulting (Accenture). Scott received a MS in Management as a Sloan Fellow from the Stanford Business School and a BS in Business Administration from the University of Florida. He currently serves as Chairman of the Sloan Advisory Board for the Stanford Business School and is a frequent guest lecturer on Entrepreneurship and High Performance Leadership.

Raymond Nasr Raymond Nasr
Communications Consultant

Raymond Nasr

Communications Consultant

Raymond Nasr is the former Director of Executive Communications at Google Inc. He held this role from 2001 to early 2005 and was responsible for several aspects of the public communications for the senior management of the company, including Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt as well as Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Prior to Google, Nasr was Director of Corporate Relations at Novell Inc, where he led the company’s corporate and government relations efforts. Before Novell, Nasr held various positions in the areas of public relations and corporate speech-writing at Apple Computer Inc, and at Sun Microsystems Inc.

Since 2004, he has served as a Special Faculty Advisor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University helping to improve MBA’s communications skills and is a Visiting Fellow at the Said School of Business at Oxford University. Currently, Nasr maintains a communications consultancy where he advises a number of start-up companies and venture capital firms, including Twitter, Inc., Pandora Media, and Sierra Ventures. He is also a past President of the Churchill Club, a Silicon Valley-based business and technology forum. Nasr received his BA in Communication Studies from UCLA (1984), and his Law Degree with Honors from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1986).

In June of 2007, Nasr became a Certified Sommelier through the London-based Court of Master Sommeliers. And in January 2009 he was appointed Director of Wine Programs in the Wine Division of Silicon Valley Bank. He is an advisor of Quixey, Identified, Video Genie and The Obvious Corporation.

Ron Hose Ron Hose
Advisor

Ron Hose

Advisor

Ron was a Founding Partner at Innovation Endeavors, an early stage venture capital fund. Prior to IE, Ron was the Co-Founder and CTO of TokBox, a consumer video conferencing company serving millions of video minutes daily to customers connecting from around the globe. TokBox is backed by Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital, Stanford University and some of Silicon Valleys best known angel investors. Ron Holds a Bachelors and Masters degree from Cornell University, where he graduated at the top of his class. While at Cornell, Ron was one of the founding members of the autonomous flight team, which received funding from Microsoft and Cornell. Ron is an active investor and adviser to several Silicon Valley start-ups.

Harpi Madan Harpi Madan
Slice

Harpi Madan

Slice

Harpi has been an entrepreneur in the internet and wireless space. He is currently the co-founder and VP of Product & Marketing for Project Slice. Previously he was the co-founder and Sr. VP Marketing at FiberTower, a leading independent provider of backhaul to wireless carriers. He also held software development roles building internet infrastructure and transaction processing software at Oracle and Bull-Honeywell.

He holds an MBA from Stanford University, an MS in Computer Science from Indiana University and a BS in Computer Science from Institute of Technology, BHU, India.

Jim Ellis Jim Ellis
Stanford, Asurion

Jim Ellis

Stanford, Asurion

Mr. Ellis is a Lecturer in Management at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Prior to coming to Stanford, Mr. Ellis held a number of positions with both large and small companies. In 1995, Mr. Ellis cofounded Asurion with Kevin Taweel to provide value-added solutions for the wireless communications industry. Previously responsible for Asurion’s sales and marketing efforts, Mr. Ellis is an active member of the company’s board of directors. Mr. Ellis has also held positions as a research associate at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and as a consultant with IMG and Cresap, McCormick, and Paget. He is a member of a number of Boards of Directors including BUILD, Asurion, Service Source Inc., Memento Press, Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, and Southern California Risk Management Associates. Mr. Ellis holds an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree with high honors in economics from Dartmouth College. He is also a recipient of Ernst and Young’s prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Eric Botto Eric Botto
Slice

Eric Botto

Slice

Eric has been an entrepreneur and engineering leader in the Internet, data storage and wireless spaces.  He is currently cofounder and VP Engineering at Project Slice.  Previously he was cofounder and CTO at FiberTower, a leading provider of cell tower backhaul to major wireless carriers.  He spent 10+ years at Quantum Corporation where he ran disk drive development programs that generated over $500mm a year in revenue.  He started his career as a research engineer at HP Labs.  Eric has a MS in Management as a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford Business School and BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford.

 

Yaron Samid Yaron Samid
Billguard

Yaron Samid

Billguard

Yaron Samid is the founder and CEO of BillGuard, the personal finance security company. BillGuard crowdsources the collective knowledge of millions of consumers to protect everyone from unfair, erroneous and fraudulent charges on our credit card bills. Yaron previously co-founded Pando and DeskSite, two profitable Internet companies servicing over 50M users worldwide. Yaron’s design-centric approach to company building stems from leading product management and marketing teams at BackWeb, Zend and Register.com. Yaron advises dozens of startups and is a board member at CloudLock and Pond5. He’s also the founder and organizer of TechAviv, the 2,000 member global Israeli startup founders club.

 

Hoon Kim Hoon Kim
Treatful

Hoon Kim

Treatful

Hoon first conceived the idea of an online gifting startup while at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business with fellow classmate and Treatful co-founder Brent Looney.  Realizing their shared interests in helping local businesses grow and compete in an increasingly online world, they launched Treatful in December 2010.  Treatful levels the playing field for local businesses in the $90 billion gift card market and provides a more personalized gifting option for today’s consumer.

At Treatful, Hoon leads product and strategy.  He loves working at Treatful because he combines his desire to help local businesses and connect people through positive experiences.

Previously, Hoon co-founded LiquidTab, a mobile application that enables restaurant and bar patrons to order and pay for service directly from their smartphones.  Before his career in startups, Hoon was a Portfolio Manager at Microsoft where he managed a derivatives investment portfolio and led the development of internal products.

Outside of Treatful, Hoon enjoys CrossFit, eating at Treatful restaurants, and watching episodes of Man v. Wild.

Maurice Werdegar Maurice Werdegar
WTI

Maurice Werdegar

WTI

Maurice is President and CEO of Western Technology Investment (WTI), a leading venture debt firm and an early investor in Facebook.  His background includes positions as a Venture Partner at Outlook Ventures, and Chief Investment Officer at MetaMarkets, an online mutual fund company.  Previously he founded and served as CEO of Left at Albuquerque, a venture-backed chain of restaurants. Prior to business school, he worked in corporate finance at Robertson Stephens and was a research analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.  He is also an active angel investor in companies including EventBrite, Flixster, GroupMe, Minted, RootMusic, Path, HeyZap, Edmodo, Supyo, RethinkDB, Catch and StarMaker, as well as an LP of several early stage venture funds.  Maurice holds both a BA and MBA from Stanford University.

Carole Robin Carole Robin
Stanford University

Carole Robin

Stanford University

Carole Robin is the Director of the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program, winner of the MBA Distinguished Teaching Award and a full time lecturer in Organization Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. For over 20 years, Carole has also been a senior organization consultant and executive coach. Her experience as a former sales and marketing senior manager and past principal and partner of an international organizational consulting firm provides her students and clients with pragmatic, solution-oriented approaches grounded in real world experience. She has worked with a wide range of business, government, and nonprofit clients ranging in size from start ups to Fortune 50 corporations– specializing in leadership development and executive coaching, executive team building and facilitation.

Carole has a Ph.D. in Human and Organization Systems and a Masters Degree in Organization Development. She was raised in Mexico City, Mexico and speaks fluent Spanish. She is the recipient of two Congressional Awards for Community Service and a member of NTL Institute of Applied Behavioral Science

 

Yuval Shahar Yuval Shachar
CP Lantern

Yuval Shachar

CP Lantern

Yuval is an entrepreneur and angle investor currently involved as a co-founder, Chairman or Board member in a variety of companies (including Qwilt, Taykey, Compass-EOS, Panoramic Power, Tufin etc.). Until 2009 Yuval served as a GM at Cisco running one of the BU’s in Cisco’s Service Provider group. Prior to Cisco Yuval co-founded P-Cube and served as its President and CEO, providing both leadership and vision up to its acquisition by Cisco in 2004. Prior to P-Cube, Yuval co-founded Pentacom, a pioneer in Dynamic Packet Transport (DPT) products, as well as previously leading the creation of Infogear, which developed some of the industry’s first web appliances (both companies were acquired by Cisco). Previously, Yuval served as Vice President of Research and Development at VocalTec, overseeing the and creation and development of the first set of VoIP architectures and products (VocalTec went public on NASDAQ 1996). Yuval started his career at Motorola and National Semiconductors in a variety of technology and software development and management roles.

Luca Mazzei Luca Mazzei
Honeywell

Luca Mazzei

Honeywell

Luca is Vice President of Global Strategy & Marketing for Honeywell Building Solutions (HBS). In this role, he is responsible for developing the company’s global growth strategy while ensuring alignment marketing activities with sales and operations. He also oversees Offer Development, working closely with Technology on the New Product Introduction (NPI) process. Before joining HBS in March 2007 as Director of Global Strategy, Luca was in charge of EMEA strategy and business development for GE Transportation. He led several growth initiatives, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa, and lead to the re-entry in the South African locomotive market. Prior to GE, Luca was a Sr.Manager of the European Customer Strategy Team at Siebel Systems, leading Value Based Selling engagements in close alignment with sales to close strategic accounts across Europe. He started his career as a strategy consultant for Bain & Company, serving primarily industrial customers out of the Milan office. Luca graduated cum laude in Aeronautic Engineering at the University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy, with a major in Computational Fluid Dynamics. He is a Fulbright Scholar and holds Masters degrees in Aeronautics & Astronautics and Mathematics as well as a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering/Computational Mechanics, all from Stanford University, California. He lives in Shorewood, Minnesota, with his wife, Cristina, and their two daughters, Chiara and Martina. He is an avid reader with eclectic interests, is passionate about espresso and Neapolitan-style pizza, and enjoys riding his 1999 Ducati on his spare time. He is currently training for his 4th marathon in Chicago this fall, hoping to break the 4-hrs barrier!

Wang_Charles Charles Wang
zero2one

Charles Wang

zero2one

Charles Wang is focused on finding innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. He has extensive experience uncovering true market needs and product-market fit at Veracyte , a molecular diagnostics company funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, TPG Biotech, Versant Ventures, and Domain Associates. Involved with Veracyte from seed stage incubation through Series A and B financing, and finally to the company’s first product launch, Charles played a key cross functional role which also drew upon his expertise in healthcare and training as a physician.

Prior to Veracyte, Charles has held positions within the commercial organization at Genentech, as a physician and administrator at Kaiser Permanente, and as a resident physician at Yale School of Medicine. He has authored several scientific publications and abstracts, and also continues to practice clinical medicine.

Charles holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an MD from New York University, and a BS from UC San Diego. He lives in Palo Alto, CA with his wife and 2 daughters.

Mike Leeds Mike Leeds
IntroRocket

Mike Leeds

IntroRocket

Michael Leeds is a successful serial entrepreneur with expertise in the real-world opportunities and issues associated with growing a business and someone who brings significant experience with all aspects of sales in particular.  Michael is currently Founder and CEO of IntroRocket, a company helping people get valuable insights and introductions from their trusted networks.  Before IntroRocket, Michael was co-founder and VP sales and marketing at VersionOne, the leading web-based agile project management tool backed by OpenView venture partners.  In 2000, Michael co-founded and was VP sales and marketing at Cariocas.  The company licensed a technology platform for large consumer brand promotions, and was backed by NEA.  Michael also held P&L and general management positions at Lexmark International (NYSE: LXK) and earned an MBA with honors from Stanford University.

Deyan Vitanov Deyan Vitanov
Philanthropedia

Deyan Vitanov

Philanthropedia

Deyan was previously the CEO and co-founder of Philanthropedia, a social venture which identifies high-impact charities by crowdsourcing nonprofit analysis. In March 2011, Philanthropedia was acquired by GuideStar, the leading provider of US nonprofit data, where Deyan is currently leading GuideStar Labs, a corporate incubator that brings new products to market. Prior to Philanthropedia, Deyan cofounded CPP-Home.com, a learning hub for beginner C++ programmers, which was also acquired.

Deyan holds an MBA from the Stanford GSB and an BA in Integrated Social Sciences from Jacobs University Bremen. He also has a deep technical background, being proficient in multiple programming languages and specializing in algorithms, data structures, and reverse engineering. You can visit his personal website at www.deyanvitanov.com.

Leor Stern Leor Stern
Google

Leor Stern

Google

Leor Stern is a member of Google’s new business development team, where he focuses on incubating and launching new products and strategic initiatives through partnerships and technology deals. In this role, Leor has helped create several Google products, including Google Voice, TV ads, and Google Places. Leor joined Google in 2003 and prior to his current role, he launched Google’s field operations in Israel. He also managed Google’s online sales and operations in Russia, the Middle East, South Africa, Croatia, and Israel .

Leor graduated cum laude with a psychology degree from the University of California, Davis. He lives in Belmont, California, and travels to Israel frequently.

 

Yaron Binur Yaron Binur
Redbeacon

Yaron Binur

Redbeacon

Yaron is a co-founder and President at Redbeacon, which is changing the way consumers find and book home services. At Redbeacon, Yaron focuses on product strategy and development. Prior to Redbeacon, he was a Product Manager at Google, where he led the product development of Google News. Yaron was also a Product Manager on Google Search quality, where he worked on improving the quality and feature set for Google’s international users. Yaron is a co-founder and executive board member of Middle East Education through Technology, a non-profit founded in 2004 that brings together Palestinian and Israeli youth around business and technology. Before starting MEET, Yaron was the Vice President of MIT Africa Internet Technology Initiative, a program started by MIT students to integrate computers and Internet technology into the education of students in African schools. Before his studies, Yaron served as a Staff Sergeant and Special Teams Member in an elite Paratroopers unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. Yaron holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Zvi Guterman Zvi Guterman
CloudShare

Zvi Guterman

CloudShare

Zvi co-founded CloudShare in 2007. He previously co-founded and served as CTO at Safend, a leading endpoint security company, and performed as a chief architect in the IP infrastructure group of ECTEL, a leading provider of monitoring solutions for IP, telephony and cellular networks. Zvi is a recognized security expert, lecturing at conferences worldwide, and holds a PhD in Computer Science from Hebrew University.

Perkash_Monisha Monisha Perkash
zero2one

Monisha Perkash

zero2one

Monisha is an accomplished entrepreneur and business leader with deep experience managing cross-functional teams in the Internet, software, and education industries. She is passionate about building innovative solutions that solve important problems.

Monisha previously served as CEO and Co-Founder of TuitionCoach (acquired by SimpleTuition in 2009), where she oversaw the financing, launch, and general management of the start-up. She has also held leadership positions at SimpleTuition, Siebel Systems, Pensare, and AmeriCorps.

She has an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford and a BA from Yale.

Justin Nassiri Justin Nassiri
VideoGenie

Justin Nassiri

VideoGenie

Prior to founding VideoGenie, Justin served as a Naval officer onboard nuclear submarines. There he served as the senior supervisor for the safe operation and navigation of a $1.3 billion nuclear-powered warship and welfare of over 170 lives onboard. He also worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. in New York and assisted with internal operations at San Francisco based start-up, Algentis. Justin holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the US Naval Academy.

Evan MacMillian Evan Macmillian
Groupon

Evan Macmillian

Groupon

From an early age, Evan enjoyed experimenting with computers and business. In middle school, he built websites for local businesses. In high school, he sold chocolates online, eventually building a 50-person operation that was featured by Oprah and the Wall Street Journal. Most recently, Evan co-founded Zappedy, a technology company that was backed by Innovation Endeavors and later acquired by Groupon.

Evan has an engineering degree in Product Design from Stanford University, where he was also head writer of the Stanford Chaparral, one of the nation’s oldest humor magazines. He currently lives and works in the Bay Area.

 

Ed Baker Ed Baker
Facebook (Friend.ly)

Ed Baker

Facebook (Friend.ly)

Ed is the co-founder and CEO of Friend.ly, a social Q&A site with over 25 million users.  He has been working on viral growth for the past ten years across multiple media, including email, SMS, IM, and Facebook.  Since the 2007 launch of the Facebook platform, he has virally grown several Facebook apps to tens of millions of users including Compare People and Send Hotness.  He has an A.B. in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard, and an M.B.A. from Stanford.  On his free time, Ed likes to kiteboard, ski, and run marathons.

Eran Shir Eran Shir
Yahoo (Dapper)

Eran Shir

Yahoo (Dapper)

Eran Shir is an Internet entrepreneur, executive, and angel investor. Currently, Eran is running the Creative Innovation Center at Yahoo!, where he is responsible for Yahoo!’s ad creative technologies strategy and portfolio, as well as the development of its next generation ad creative platforms. Eran joined Yahoo! in Oct. 2010 when Yahoo! acquired Dapper, a dynamic ads and semantic web startup he co-founded in 2007. Earlier in his career, Eran was an academic researcher in fields spanning complex systems, networks, the Internet and black holes, and founded DIMES, an open-source, global networking research project, as well as Cogniview – an enterprise facing startup. Eran holds a BA and MA in theoretical physics from the Technion, and does not hold a PhD from Tel-Aviv university, which he bailed on to found Dapper.

Chris Couhault Chris Couhault
Shopply

Chris Couhault

Shopply

Chris is passionate about building consumer businesses and is the co-founder of Shopply, an internet start-up focused on simplifying online shopping. Prior to Shopply, Chris founded Oohilove, an entertainment eCommerce site where members obtained designer fashion at up to 98% off retail. An Innovation Endeavors backed venture, Oohilove was acquired by Entertainment Shopping, a company funded by August Capital and Wellington Partners. Chris has worked at McKinsey & Company, Macquarie Bank, and has an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Brent Looney Brent Looney
Treatful

Brent Looney

Treatful

Brent Looney is a Bay Area native and two-time entrepreneur who grew up in the thick of Silicon Valley’s innovative culture.

In 2005, Brent co-founded Alter-G, a medical device company that harnessed NASA technology to develop an “anti-gravity treadmill” to dramatically improve physical rehabilitation for personal mobility applications. Through this initial endeavor, Brent developed a passion for building companies that have a measurable impact on the lives of its end users and customers.  He left Alter-G in 2008 to pursue his graduate education in order to advance his entrepreneurial goals.  The company continues to thrive in the medical, professional sports and fitness markets.

While attending Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Brent met his Treatful Co-Founder, Hoon Kim, where the two quickly realized their shared interests.  In an effort to develop a business that would help small businesses better compete in an increasingly online world; the two began a process of interviewing local business owners.  As a results of these efforts, the duo launched Treatful in December of 2010.  Today, Treatful serves the parallel goals of leveling the playing field for local businesses in the $90 Billion gift card market and simultaneously provides a better, more personalized gifting option today’s online consumer.  In this effort, Brent focuses local business outreach and building lasting relationships with their local business partners.

Outside of the office, Brent is a self-described “Foodie” and takes a personal interest in frequenting the company’s many restaurant partners.   He is an avid runner, cross fitter and amateur cook.

Ben Suppe Ben Suppe
Slice

Ben Suppe

Slice

Ben is the Founding VP of Finance for Project Slice. Previously he was Sr. Director of Finance and Business Development at Fibertower Corporation, responsible for a range of fundraising, legal, M&A, partnership, real estate and network deployment activities.  Healso advised clients on financial advisory, M&A, restructuring and other matterswhile at Houlihan Lokey.  Ben holds a MBA from the Stanford Business School and a BA in International Relations with honors from Pomona College.

Bryan Wargo Bryan Wargo
Nearbuy Systems

Bryan Wargo

Nearbuy Systems

Bryan Wargo, CEO and co-founder of Nearbuy, has been focused on the promise of the mobile Internet for more than ten years. Before founding Nearbuy, he served as the general manager of Aruba’s AirWave product line focused on multi-vendor wireless management systems. Bryan came to Aruba via the AirWave Wireless acquisition, where he was Vice President of Sales & Business Development since 2002. Prior to AirWave, Bryan successfully founded 2Roam to address the proliferation of mobile Internet devices and the profound effect they have on enterprise computing. Bryan also served as senior business development manager for VeriFone’s e-commerce software products and was a territory manager for Hewlett-Packard’s Unix division. Bryan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University.

Omer Perchik Omer Perchik
Any.DO

Omer Perchik

Any.DO

A highly driven tech entrepreneur who loves challenging the status quo by creating simple yet effective products. Alumnus of an elite technology unit in the Israel Defense Forces. Fascinated with behavioral economics, neuroscience & human behavior at large.

Jonathon Bunt Jonathon Bunt
Humble Brands

Jonathon Bunt

Humble Brands

Jonathon Bunt is the CEO and Founder of humble Brands, Inc, the parent company of reBloom®.  reBloom Natural Sleep Drink has helped thousands embrace the positive potential of a refreshing night’s sleep and has been featured in InStyle, The Oprah Magazine, and Marie Claire among other publications.  Prior to creating reBloom, Jonathon was CFO and Director of Operations of Jetset Beverage, Inc, a San Francisco-based energy drink startup.  Jonathon has consulted for and worked with a variety of consumer and retail companies over the course of his career, including Aritzia, Verde Home Products, Savers and The Holmes Group.  Jonathon started his career working in private equity and venture capital with Berkshire Partners and Goldman Sachs.  He holds a MBA, with distinction, from the Harvard Business School and a BSE, magna cum laude, from Princeton University.  Jonathon is a former NCAA Division I wrestler, a current marathoner and triathlete, and a huge proponent of getting natural, refreshing sleep!

Moshe Pinto Moshe Pinto
Spiracur

Moshe Pinto

Spiracur

After completing his military service in the Israeli Defense Forces, Moshe enrolled in Tel Aviv University Law School where he earned his LLB. He later practiced law for 3 years as a corporate lawyer at Herzog, Fox, and Neeman, Israel’s leading law firm. While at Herzog, Fox, and Neeman, Moshe was elected as the Tel Aviv University representative to the ERASMUS MUNDUS program in law and economics and left Israel for Germany and Italy where he earned a JD and a Masters in Economics.

Upon earning his JD, Moshe was admitted to the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he earned his MBA. During his time at Stanford, Moshe participated at the Stanford Biodesign Innovation program where he teamed up with Dr. Kenton Fong and Dean Hu in the development of the technology around which they formed Spiracur. Moshe has served as Spiracur’s CEO during its first three years of operations and currently serves as its Executive Vice President.

Raphael Ouzan Raphael Ouzan
Billguard

Raphael Ouzan

Billguard

Raphael has been coding professionally since he was 13. Passionate about web, mobile and backend data intensive technologies, he was awarded the first Young Scientist prize in Israel and the second place at the Intel World Science contest. Raphael then established and managed “super hacker” teams as an officer in Israel’s elite military intelligence unit. While there, Raphael architected and built massively scalable and secure intelligent data systems that have become standards and earned him the unit’s highest honor as well as the President’s Award for outstanding achievements. Today, Raphael is disrupting finance security by harnessing the collective intelligence of crowds.

Ajay Prakash Ajay Prakash
Humble Brands

Ajay Prakash

Humble Brands

Although Ajay spends most of his time behind the scenes making sure reBloom can smoothly manage the overwhelming response we have received from customers, when he’s not working (or sleeping), he can be found playing tennis, basketball, or football with friends. Since moving to San Francisco he has also spent more time running along the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, including completing a half-marathon in November. Ajay was born and raised in Minnesota and lived in the Northeast US for nine years before moving West a few years ago. Ajay received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Dartmouth College, where he also played varsity tennis.

Tal Riesenfeld Tal Riesenfeld
EyeView

Tal Riesenfeld

EyeView

Tal Riesenfeld is Co-Founder and VP Business Development of Eyeview, the leading technology for Personalized Video Adverting. Eyeview’s technology helps brands customize their TV commercials for the digital medium by delivering local, real-time, personal messages to each and every viewer. Prior to Eyeview, Tal was an Online Sales Operations manager in Google (YouTube) and before that served as a Strategic Marketing Product Manager at Hewlett- Packard. Tal has and a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Chang_Andrew Andrew Chang
zero2one

Andrew Chang

zero2one

Andrew recently came from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the US Department of Energy where he worked to identify scalable solutions to mitigating climate change and help build a foundation for a broader transformation of our energy system.  He architected key components of the BetterBuildings Program, one of DOE’s signature initiatives, to test and identify models of energy efficiency deployment that can scale.

Before DOE, he was the Senior Energy Analyst for Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection where he helped push for federal climate and energy legislation, build a national climate movement, and helped Mr. Gore with research for his new book, “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis,” which became a NY Times best seller.

He is passionate about the human-technology-environment interaction, and the interdisciplinary and interdependent nature of large complex problems.  He received a Master’s degree from the Atmosphere / Energy Program at Stanford University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Guy Hirsch Guy Hirsch
Saygent

Guy Hirsch

Saygent

Guy writes emails for a living and occasionally convinces people to do stuff. Saygent has retained his services because he started it. Before Saygent Guy founded Vestopia, a VC-backed startup that dealt with stock trading information that at peak had 50,000 members and 20 million dollars in tracked assets, and before that he founded Patus, a homeland security startup that successfully sold. Guy speaks Hebrew because his parents insisted on it and English because Seinfeld is not funny in Hebrew. He received his LL.B Law and B.A. in Business Administration from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. He enjoys spending time with his wife and dog and absorbing American History, politics, and other non-fiction literature.

Tomer Kagan Tomer Kagan
Quixey

Tomer Kagan

Quixey

Tomer Kagan is the co-founder and CEO of Quixey – the search engine for apps. A lifelong serial entrepreneur, Tomer started his first business, Static Printing, while in college. Following Static Printing, he founded Your Logo Here, a branding solutions provider for companies including Google and Slide. He currently advises multiple startups including Particle Code and GeoTrio. He holds a BS in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.

Oren Harnevo Oren Harnevo
Eyeview

Oren Harnevo

Eyeview

Oren Harnevo is the co-founder and CEO of EyeView, a personalized video technology provider. Oren’s vision for Eyeview began while simultaneously working on a Bachelor’s in Film and Television and a BS.C in Computer Science at Tel-Aviv University. Oren has always been fascinated with measuring the quality of creative video and its effect on viewers using optimization and analytics metrics. Eyeview’s technology enables both the creation and optimization of personalized video campaigns.

Before Eyeview, Oren’s online experience was shaped by his role in leading the product at 888.com, an online gaming and entertainment solutions provider that IPO’d for $1B in the London stock exchange in 2006. 888.com’s CEO, Gigi Levy, became a principal investor in 2008 and is still an active board member.

Since founding Eyeview in 2007, Oren has led the company in launches of hundreds of online campaigns for leading brands such as eBay, Verizon, LendingTree, Johnson & Johnson, and more. Oren has recruited world-renowned investors such as LightSpeed, Eric Schmidt and Gemini.

alexi Alexi Suvacioglu
Shopply

Alexi Suvacioglu

Shopply

Alexi is passionate about all consumer-facing businesses and is the co-founder of Shopply, an internet startup focused on simplifying online shopping.

Prior to Shopply, Alexi founded Oohilove, an entertainment eCommerce site where members obtained the latest designer accessories at up to 98% off retail. An Innovation Endeavors backed venture, Oohilove was acquired by Entertainment Shopping, a company funded by August Capital and Wellington Partners.

Alexi has also worked for eBay’s Internet Marketing group and spent 6 years doing technology consulting at Accenture. Alexi has an MBA from the Stanford GSB and a Bachelor’s from King’s College London.

 

Ori Zaltzman Ori Zaltzman
Gogobot

Ori Zaltzman

Gogobot

Ori Zaltzman is a serial entrepreneur, technologist and road trip enthusiast. Ori was the chief architect of Yahoo! BOSS, and one of the lead technologists for Yahoo! Answers, in charge of content quality for one of the largest social platforms on the web. Ori co-founded 2 companies, utvee and Tailor Made Television. Tailor Made Television provided Interactive TV services to the 3 major cable companies in Israel, offering micropayments, multi-player gaming, chat and analytics. utvee is a startup focused on crowdsourced, contextual shopping services for major television shows.

Ajao Adeyemi Adeyemi Ajao
Identified

Adeyemi Ajao

Identified

Originally from Spain, Adeyemi is the founder of Tuenti.com, the “Spanish Facebook” and Jobandtalent.com, Spain’s #1 Elite Recruiting site, as well as the co-founder and CEO of Identified.com, a social recruiting site. Tuenti.com was sold to Telefonica in July of 2010 for $100 million, boasts 14 million users and is the largest Invite-Only network in the world. Adeyemi earned a Masters in Finance from Emory, a J.D. from ICADE in Madrid and an MBA from Stanford, and graduated at the top of his class at each university. He was elected one of the “Top 100 Spaniards of the Year” in 2009, and was invited by the U.S. Congress to the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama as a representative of the Spanish Commission for Accomplishments in Entrepreneurship.

 

Umed Latifov Umed Latifov
CharmRoom

Umed Latifov

CharmRoom

Umed is an entrepreneur at Innovation Endeavors and is passionate about businesses that solve everyday problems in novel ways. He built his first business when he was thirteen; selling bulk sugar to local merchants in Soviet Tajikistan to help pay for his school transportation (he proudly carries the five rouble note he made from his first sale).  His other endeavors include starting a mining company after high school, putting together a restructuring plan that resulted in a $1.7 billion exit value creation and starting a $1.5 billion dollar project to connect five energy generation, transmission and retail markets of 270 million people in Central and South Asia.

After moving to the Silicon Valley in 2006, Umed starting getting involved in the startup scene investing and advising various startups with their funding and execution strategies. While a graduate student at Stanford, he started working on his first eCommerce venture, Decorem, which was aimed at utilizing 3D imaging technology to make furnishing a home less daunting. His next venture, Seflection.com aimed at helping consumers choose the right size while shopping for apparel online. He is currently developing his new venture in online retail, focusing on personalized shopping.

Umed received his bachelors degree from Arizona State University with high honors and holds an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Nir Eyal Nir Eyal
Nir and Far

Nir Eyal

Nir and Far

Nir Eyal founded and sold two tech companies since 2003 and today is an advisor, consultant, and investor in several Bay Area companies and incubators. Nir’s last company, AdNectar, received venture funding from Kleiner Perkins and was sold in 2011. He is a contributing writer for  for TechCrunch and Forbes. Nir blogs about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business at NirAndFar.com.

Thomas Duterme Tom Duterme
Groupon

Tom Duterme

Groupon

Tom currently does corporate development for Groupon in the bay area.  Previously, he held both corporate development and business development positions at Google.  Prior to working at Google, Tom spent 7 years in China and helped launch two companies in the consumer internet and advisory spaces in China, playing the role of CTO and head of sales for both ventures.

Tom graduated with a degree in physics from Macalester College. He also has an MBA from the MIT Sloan of Management.  He speaks Mandarin and French and is working on his Japanese these days.

How we help...

Innovation Endeavors helps small teams tackling big problems. We have so far partnered with teams in the United States, Israel, and India, and we’re exploring new regions. We are here to push your limits and explore uncharted territory in the early stages and beyond.

 

Exactly how we help? Coaching. Contacts. Brainstorming. Curated Discussions. Portfolio Mixers. Patience. An Abundance of Post-it Notes. An Innovation Space in Palo Alto. Strategy Sessions. Panels. Open House Pitch Hours. Introductions. Access to the IE Family. Friday Speakers. Happy Hours. Design Thinking Workshops.

 

Our office:

 

The Innovation Space:

575 High Street Suite 400
Palo Alto, California 94301

 

Mailing Address:

555 Bryant St. #268
Palo Alto, California 94301
Email: info@InnovationEndeavors.com

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