Advisors and Investors

Gabriel Weinberg

Gabriel is the founder of search engine DuckDuckGo (www.DuckDuckGo.com) and an active angel investor and blogger: www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/



Kal Vepuri, Founder of The Trisiras Group

Kal formed The Trisiras Group in 2009 to manage his investing activities and operating companies. Originally a software engineer turned entrepreneur, Kal bootstrapped multiple enterprise technology and telecom ventures during and after his time at Duke University, where he received a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Economics. He has also spent time in academic research (Fulbright Scholar), management consulting (Bain & Company) and institutional private equity investing (AEA Investors, Thomas H. Lee Capital/Lee Equity Partners). Today, he focuses his energy on working with talented engineers, founders and management teams to build and scale high-growth technology, healthcare and consumer products companies in North America, Europe and Asia.



Project 11 Ventures

Project 11 Ventures is a seed-stage investment fund, founded by accomplished entrepreneurs Reed Sturtevant and Katie Rae. For more information, see: Project11.com.



Rip Gerber, President and CEO of LOC-AID

Prior to joining LOC-AID, Rip Gerber was General Manager, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Nokia/Intellisync, a provider of platform-independent wireless messaging and mobile software, where he also ran business development, marketing, analyst relations and ecommerce (NASDAQ: SYNC). He is widely recognized for transforming the company's brand and product offering and helped to orchestrate a $510M acquisition by Nokia. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia. Mr. Gerber also serves on LOC-AID's board of directors.



Aaron Kechley, VP Products, DataXu

Aaron is a technology business strategist and product innovator with experience spanning numerous industries, from consumer finance and security, to e-commerce and advertising technology. He has held leadership roles at EMC / RSA and several venture-backed start-ups, including ChoiceStream and HelloWallet.com. He currently serves as the VP of Products at DataXu, the leading demand-side platform for online advertising. Aaron holds a BA from WIlliams College, and and MBA from MIT Sloan. He lives in Newton, MA with his wife and daughter.



Bill Simmons, Founder/CTO, DataXu

Dr. Willard (Bill) Simmons is CTO at DataXu, the first automated, real-time media decision platform for advertisers and their agencies. Dr. Simmons co-invented DataXu’s real-time optimization technology and helped raise $19M in capital to turn the technology ideas into a growing commercial opportunity. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in Aerospace Engineering and also holds engineering degrees from Princeton, University of Colorado, and University of New Hampshire. His professional background includes working on real-time controls for 12 different space missions.