Innovator Stories

McCormick PR specializes in brand building  through high impact media and analyst relations. Laura McCormick has  represented many high-profile brands in Tech, eCommerce, Retail,  Hospitality, Lifestyle, Travel and Arts and Culture. She works  independently, with a distributed team of engagement-specific experts.   Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID:  35467]

Craig Harris, former Peace Corps worker, turned  his passion for non-profits into a multi-hundred million dollar data  company. Craig has nearly 20-years of successful entrepreneurial  leadership experiences. Prior to launching HG Insights, Craig served as  the Founder and CEO of NOZA, which he led through a successful  acquisition by Blackbaud in 2010. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating  Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 35562]

In 2015, Emma Rose Cohen and several friends  launched Save The Mermaids, a nonprofit focused on educating young (and  old) people about the dangers of ocean pollution and how each of us can  do our part to combat it. Thus, it’s not surprising that Emma’s passion  to clean up our oceans resulted in her Co-founding FinalStraw - the  world’s first collapsible, reusable straw, which sports the tagline,  #SuckResponsibly. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from  Nothing" [Show ID: 35563]

Kevin Zhang looks for interdisciplinary  entrepreneurs solving big problems in healthcare and the life sciences.  He's also a passionate gamer and invests in interactive media platforms,  tools and content. Prior to joining Upfront in 2012, Kevin was at The  Boston Consulting Group, where he advised on strategy, M&A and  operations for technology, healthcare, and industrial goods clients in  the US and Asia. Previously, Kevin worked at Verscend Technologies, a  healthcare software startup in Boston, focusing on data analytics  product development selling into payers and providers. Kevin studied  Biology at Harvard College. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating  Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 35468]

This edition of Lost Voices from unsung  entrepreneurs looks at Ng Poon Chew, an entrepreneur and social  activist. Ng Poon Chew immigrated to the US in 1881 at the age of 14. He  was an author, publisher and advocate for Chinese American civil  rights. He published the first Chinese language daily newspaper to be  printed outside of China. UC Santa Barbara theater student Martin Wong  performs with the coaching of Fang He, IHC Research Fellow at UC Santa  Barbara. Then, hear from today's co-sponsors: Impact, an affiliate  marketer in Santa Barbara and Tapjoy, a mobile advertising platform.  Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID:  35445]

Since its beginning in 1999, the UCSB New Venture  Competition provides a unique opportunity for UCSB students to learn  how to start a business. This eight-month educational experience, with  activities and curriculum spanning the entire academic year, culminates  with the finals where the student teams present an investor pitch to a  panel of judges for prize money. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating  Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 35006]

2018 Daytime Emmy Winner for best original song  and 2015 Daytime Emmy Nominee, Eve Nelson brings her musical alchemy to  each project, evidenced by her body of work tackling many genres of  music. Working closely with artists has given her music scoring,  producing and songwriting a refreshingly new perspective. Series:  "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show  ID: 34904]

Jenny Du is is the Vice President of Operations  at Apeel Sciences, where she is responsible for leading the company’s  efforts in Regulatory Affairs & Compliance, Manufacturing, Quality,  Supply Chain, Logistics, IT, Facilities and EH&S. Series: "Innovator  Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34905]

Diane Flynn is Cofounder and CEO of ReBoot Accel,  designing work cultures that support and advance women. ReBoot Accel  has assisted over 2500 women interested in resuming careers after time  out of the workforce. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something  from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34903]

Bridget “Biddy” Mason, born a slave in  Mississippi in 1818, achieved financial success that enabled her to  support her extended family for generations, despite the fact that she  was illiterate. In a landmark case, she sued her master for their  freedom, saved her earnings, invested in real estate, and became a  well-known philanthropist in Los Angeles, California.  Series:  "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show  ID: 34785]

Ning Wang is a seasoned executive with P&L  responsibilities of several SaaS and technology businesses. She also  holds a PhD in physics from UC Berkeley. Ning is currently CEO of  Offensive Security. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from  Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34784]

After 15 years running Partner Management at  Yahoo, Josh Cobb became the President of the America's for Media.net,  the worlds #2 largest advertising technology company, after Google. He  is also a member of the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance, an angel investor  group focused on startup and early-stage companies. Series: "Innovator  Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34783]

Shannon Jessup is a sales and marketing executive  with a 20-year track record of top performance with mobile, internet  and technology companies. She started her career in sales at IBM.  Shannon makes her home in Santa Barbara, CA with her husband and three  children. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing"  [Business] [Show ID: 34782]

Al Ferrer is the President/CEO of Linea  Consulting, a multi-national Major League Baseball interpreter provider.  Linea also researches, analyzes, interprets and presents advanced  sabermetrics. Clients have included the Los Angeles Dodgers, Angels, New  York Yankees and the top sports agents in the country. Series:  "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show  ID: 34374]

Peter Biggs experienced the transition from  slavery to freedom a decade before the outbreak of the Civil War. Jarred  Webb portrays the historical figure who lived in Los Angeles and was  one of only twelve people in Los Angeles marked 'Black' on the 1850 US  Census. Webb is then joined Dan Lynch (UCLA History) to discuss the high  (and low) points of his life. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating  Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34370]

Dafina Toncheva invests in emerging technologies in the enterprise space with focus on Enterprise SaaS applications and security. She recounts her personal history; born and raised in Bulgaria with its political instability and financial hardships and her road to success. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34369]

As a music supervisor and executive on such films as The Big Lebowski, Sweet Home Alabama and Dead Man Walking, Dawn Solér joined ABC Studios in 2006 to bring her extensive film experience to the world of television. Once there, she established a full-service music department that manages every musical component on all of its shows -- the hiring of music supervisors and composers, budgets and integrating music from programming into marketing. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34368]

Prior to becoming a professional poker player,  Annie was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship. Through  this fellowship, she studied Cognitive Psychology at the University of  Pennsylvania, which eventually led to her current book, Thinking In  Bets. Here, Annie explores bad experiences as opportunities to learn  from. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing"  [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34445]

Bing Chen is a digital media pioneer and  entrepreneur. As a founding architect behind YouTube's multi-billion  dollar global digital creator and influencer ecosystem, he was  responsible for numerous groundbreaking initiatives that engaged more  than 500 million content creators worldwide. Here Chen shares his three  rules of job networking. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something  from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34036]

Since its beginning in 1999, the UCSB New Venture  Competition provides a unique opportunity for UCSB students to learn  how to start a business. This eight-month educational experience, with  activities and curriculum spanning the entire academic year, culminates  with the New Venture Finals, where the finalist teams present an  investor pitch to a panel of judges for prize money.  Series: "Innovator  Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33938]

Randy Modos is the president and a founder of  PayJunction, where he provides vision and leadership for the company as  it pioneers green payment technology and delivers operational  efficiencies for businesses. The founders of PayJunction took an  inspired idea and grew it into a company that process over $4 billion  annually. But it’s one thing to create a world-class product, it’s  another to leverage your core beliefs into a revolutionary approach.  PayJunction is a leader in ethical payment processing and prioritizes  long-term relationships over short-term profit. Modos has been a  champion of this approach over PayJunction’s 18 years in business.  Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business]  [Show ID: 33673]

Eytan Elbaz is an American entrepreneur and  investor best known for co-founding Applied Semantics. In 2003, Applied  Semantics was acquired by Google for $102 million in a deal that  included pre-IPO Google company stock. As part of the acquisition, Elbaz  served as Head of Domain Channel at Google from 2003 to 2007. Eytan is  an Angel investor and founder of many Los Angeles companies, most  notably Scopely, a mobile gaming startup. He is also the founder and  Chairman of the Board of Render Media, a new-age digital media start up.  Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Science]  [Business] [Show ID: 33473]

With over twenty-five years of sales and  operations experience within the technology sector, Lars Nilsson is a  global leader in enterprise software and selling solutions. He is  currently the VP of Global Inside Sales for Cloudera, the company that  has revolutionized enterprise data management by offering the first  unified platform for data management and analytics. He explores his  professional wins and his personal losses. Series: "Innovator Stories:  Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33675]

Hans Swildens is the CEO and Founder of Industry  Ventures and manages the overall business. As an early pioneer of the  modern secondary market for venture capital, he created new ways to get  liquidity for venture capital investments prior to an IPO or M&A  event. Additionally, he was early to support the development of a new  class of venture capital partnerships focused on seed and early stage  investing during the last decade.  He directs the firm’s investment  processes, operations and limited partner relationships. Series:  "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show  ID: 33676]

Elizabeth Cholawsky is a seasoned executive  leader in the technology industry with a strong focus on growing  successful SaaS-based (software as service) businesses. Most recently,  she was CEO of Support.com, where she transformed the business from  being solely reliant on outsourced services revenue to selling a SaaS  product that intelligently ran large contact centers. Series: "Innovator  Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Science] [Business] [Show  ID: 33674]

Despite being retired for nearly a decade, until  very recently, Annie was the world's winningest female poker player. In  2004, she bested a field of 234 players to win her first World Series of  Poker (WSOP) bracelet. The same year, she triumphed in the $2 million  winner-take-all, invitation-only WSOP Tournament of Champions. Prior to  becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded the National  Science Foundation Fellowship. Through this fellowship, she studied  Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, which eventually  led to her current book, Thinking In Bets, which combines her academic  studies with real-life decision making experiences at the poker table.  Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business]  [Show ID: 33474]

Kim Coalson is Senior Vice President for  Appfolio's MyCase, case management software that serves the legal  industry. Kim ensures that the MyCase team delivers an outstanding  customer experience and provides software that supports the success of  solo practitioners and small law firms.  Kim joined the AppFolio team in 2011 as Vice President, Value Added  Services for AppFolio Property Manager, where she launched and grew  customer services. Prior to AppFolio, Kim served as Vice President of  Marketing for Mindflash.com, from 2008 to 2010, where she was  responsible for customer acquisition, web presence and customer  research. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing"  [Business] [Show ID: 33472]

Brian is a computer programmer, entrepreneur,  consultant, Angel investor, author and free software advocate. He was  the original author of the GNU Bash shell and the primary maintainer of  bash until early 1993. Brian also built the first interactive online  banking software in the US for Wells Fargo in 1995 and he created an  open source election system in 2008. Fox co-wrote a New York Times piece  in 2017 with former CIA head R. James Woolsey advocating open source  election systems as a means of securing US elections against Russian  interference. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from  Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33471]

Meredith Amdur is an investor, advisor and  “execupreneur” in a range of data-driven enterprise and consumer  software application businesses. She talks with UCSB students about  leading high-tech ventures from startup to IPO. She is currently the CEO  of Rhetorik Solutions & Wanted Technologies and an angel investor.  Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business]  [Show ID: 33059]

Alexander Fang is an entrepreneur with a track  record of building teams that take ideas from the research laboratory  through commercialization. He talks with UCSB students about how an  academic transitioned his research into a commercial solution  potentially worth billions.  Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating  Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33058]

Two-time Grammy nominated / multiplatinum music  producer for top talent such as Pink, Eminem, and The Black Eyed Peas  talks to UCSB students about specific pain-points within the music  industry as inspiration for Partner.ly, an experiential marketing  agency. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing"  [Business] [Show ID: 33057]

Kelly Ferguson is the Director of Santa Barbara  and Ventura Counties Energize California Program, an initiative of the  Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. She is a lifelong Green Entrepreneur  and Eco Warrior. She works to accelerate clean energy development by  supporting energy entrepreneurs and startups and helping them get access  to the business and technical resources they need to bring new  technology to market. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something  from Nothing" [Public Affairs] [Business] [Show ID: 33056]

Bruce Heavin, co-founder Lynda.com, talks to UCSB  student about taking the business from a garage to a $1.5B LinkedIn  acquisition, and how he lives a fulfilled life, in spite of sudden,  massive wealth. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from  Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33055]

Upon graduation from UCSB, Doug Otto decided he  wanted to surf, rather than taking a job. To pay his bills, he began  making flip flops in his garage. He turned this humble beginning into  Deckers Brands, an International, public company, generating billions in  sales from brands it owns such as UGG, Teva, Sanuk, HOKA, and Ahnu.  Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business]  [Show ID: 32699]

Since its beginning in 1999, the UCSB New Venture  Competition provides a unique opportunity for UCSB students to learn  how to start a business. The culmination of the program is New Venture  Finals, where the finalist teams present an investor pitch to a panel of  judges for prize money.  Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something  from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 32748]