Mastermind Your Launch

Kashi Sehgal is Co-Founder & CEO of Gigabark, an integrated mobile solutions company rooted in phone and text messaging technologies. She is also Director of Strategic Initiatives & Business Development for International Greetings, a UK-based company that specializes in design and has creates products for celebrations, stationary and creative play, and giftables. She also serves as Executive Director of SuperNova South, the largest multi-disciplinary technology conference in the Southeast. Previously, Kashi spent time as a management consultant at Accenture where she worked with both government and Fortune 100 clients in areas such as visioning and gap analysis, cost reduction, communication plans, training, performance measurement, incentive structures and more. She also has experience in strategic planning and brand strategy – especially as it relates to early stage companies and non-profits. She has started several non-profits including Music For Tomorrow which provided immediate financial assistan

John Mamon/mPowered IT John Mamon, CEO of mPowered IT has 20+ years of experience in I.T. Engineering/Sales/Executive working in startup companies/divisions. He helped build a successful MSP in Atlanta which was acquired in 2011. His technology related specialties Include service design, team creation and oversight, Increasing operational effectiveness. and harnessing cloud and data center services.   Stefanie Diaz/Mastermind Your Launch Stefanie Diaz has always had a keen ability for developing marketing strategies for entrepreneurs, but it’s her ability to position startups for accelerated momentum through personal branding and content marketing that has become the cornerstone to her professional success. Her background includes being a strategic adviser to CEO’s spanning startup phase to over $100 million in annual revenue. She has led strategic partnerships with global retailers and Fortune 500 companies, as well as facilitated multi-million dollar government contracts. There is something magnetic about t

Kelly Burton/Bodyology Kelly Burton is an accomplished entrepreneur with greater than a decade’s experience launching and scaling start-up companies. As Founder and CEO of her most recent venture Bodyology, a high-tech apparel company which infuses performance technology into women’s innerwear, Kelly is revolutionizing the way women dress. Since its launch in 2014, Bodyology has been identified as a high-potential apparel line by Macy’s Incorporated and featured in national publications like Inc. and Essence. Kelly is also a social scientist having earned her PhD from Emory University in 2009.  She went on to work for Emory University as a senior researcher and ultimately left to start her own consultancy, Nexus Research Group. As the CEO of Nexus Research Group, Kelly advises non-profits, foundations and government agencies on how to improve their social programs and maximize their philanthropic investments. She has served on more than a half-dozen boards and received the Visionary Leadership Award for her e

Carole Williams & Gina Gentilozzi/48in48.org Carole Williams comes to 48in48 with six years of experience in nonprofit management. She has worked with large-scale and recognizable nonprofit brands. Most recently Williams worked in Major Gifts with United Way of Miami-Dade while building corporate campaigns in the legal industry. Previously, Williams also worked in nonprofit fundraising and events with the American Diabetes Association. Currently, Williams has moved back to her roots in Georgia and has taken on running the start-up nonprofit, 48in48, as Executive Director, bringing marketing and technology to nonprofits in, now 4 cities across the country. Gina Gentilozzi has worked in hospitality and entertainment for three decades. Gina has started several small businesses in entertainment management and event logistics. Her most recent launch was Whiskey and Redheads Music, specializing in songwriter resources, brand creation and career management. Gentilozzi has joined 48in48, as Manager of Events and

Becky Berry/Becky Berry Career Coaching Infinite possibilities exist at the intersection of women, technology, and education. My belief in those infinite possibilities and my experience in varied careers, including technology, enable me to help clients gain new, unimagined perspectives on their careers. How? By helping clients rediscover, reclaim, and re-imagine their talents, skills, strengths, work experience, and life experience so they can identify their ideal careers and go after them! I know how to help women bridge the gap between their perceptions of what tech work is and the reality of the broad range of career opportunities in technology. Here’s the thing. I’ve had several careers including magazine publisher, software entrepreneur, stay-at-home mom, and social entrepreneur. Now, as a Certified Professional Career Coach, I use my extensive and varied work experience to help women take action to embrace change with excitement to reach their dreams. Clients learn how to dig down and unearth their hidd

Lauren Patrick/PrettySouthern.com and Terminus Lauren Patrick is the Editor of PrettySouthern.com and the Storyteller at Terminus: Account-Based Marketing. She’s a graduate of UGA’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, where she served as Editor of The Red & Black. Since her graduation from UGA in 2007, Lauren worked for Naylor publications, Jezebel magazine, AutoTrader.com, and RaceTrac convenience stores before making her “pivot” to the startup world. Lauren is passionate about helping early-stage technology companies launch their marketing programs. As Storyteller for Terminus, Lauren manages PR, marketing communications, and social media for the brand. 2016 was a big year for Lauren, as she helped Terminus win Best Place to Work from the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Startup of the Year from the Atlanta Chapter of the American Marketing Association, and the TAG Social Savvy award. Terminus is her fourth startup in addition to Pretty Southern, and helping her husband, Kevin, with his car

Melanie Romanaux/Somedia Solutions Melanie leads a team of social media specialists who are passionate about connecting brands with their existing audience and reaching new audiences to: – gain top of mind brand awareness – provide excellent customer service – share valuable information and remarkable content – crowdsource to improve products and services – develop community and loyalty among fans and followers – establish credibility, trust, reliability, and consistency as a brand within social communities – develop and nurture relationships with influential community members and every customer or client Here’s how it works: Somedia Solutions helps you form a strategy (based on their Discovery of your brand) that will place you in the right places (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc…) and attract prospects who will not only buy what you’re selling but who also will talk about you and recommend you to their friends, family, and colleagues. When the strategy has been drafte

Candice Campbell/Nimble. Design Company With nearly a decade of proven experience bringing connected brands to life in the built environment, Candice brings a strategic, thoughtful eye and holistic, experiential approach to every new engagement. Known for her relentless drive, meticulous attention to detail, and connected design approach, Candice has developed a reputation for delivering powerful brand experiences, and an undeterred level of Client service. In 2014, Candice formed Nimble. A Design Consultancy to help clients realize and extend brand stories beyond the logo and into the built environment to differentiate, inspire and influence audience behavior. Since formation, Nimble. has grown from one to an established team of four, producing award-winning, multi-disciplinary brand experiences for clients in real estate and hospitality. In under three years, Nimble. has launched over 75 new brands, led nearly 50 property repositioning campaigns, and traveled 1,000’s of miles to bring innovation and consist

Mark Wyssbrod has intertwined quality of work with small business economics, the importance of financial position and a tax strategy. He is referred to as a Small Business CFO™. As an Eagle Scout, he understands the significance of being prepared and, as an economist; he understands the worth of being efficient. Mark has lived in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast. This diverse background allows him to communicate well with individuals with different backgrounds, as well as understand their motivating factors. Mark has integrated improv in his business, which allows him to be a better active listener and to think creatively for “outside the box” solutions for his clients. Mark earned his Bachelors of Science in Business and Economics with a concentration in Accounting at the University of Kentucky. He earned his Certified Public Accounting designation from Georgia in January 2002. With an entrepreneurial spirit Mark has started several successful small businesses. A past business venture was the award winni

Guest: Brian Srikanchana/WorkReadyGrad Brian Srikanchana is the Founder and CEO of WorkReadyGrad. He is an Atlanta native, graduate of Georgia Tech (Biomedical Engineering, 2008), and EdTech entrepreneur. While in college, Brian co-invented two medical devices: a piezo-electric gait monitor to help post-stroke patients re-learn how to walk, and a modified bronchoscope for use with quantum dots (quantum dots are fluorescent and bind to cancer cells, helping surgeons know where to cut when removing malignant tissue). After college, Brian spent four years as an analyst within a long-short equity macro hedge fund. Inspired by his participation in Mentor Jackets, the alumni mentoring program at Georgia Tech, both as a mentee and later as a mentor, Brian founded WorkReadyGrad to scale mentorship to many more students while helping close the US Skills Gap. WorkReadyGrad connects students with mentors to help them navigate their educational experience. Students will be better able to plan their futures so that upon g

Jonathan Hessing Jonathan is a firm believer and advocate for manifesting realities through positive thinking and energy. Through his life he has found that faith and confidence… and consistency will bring happiness to the mind, body, and spirit. Using this outlook he works with his co-founders to build a company whose platform enables users to make money, as well as view exciting live-streamed content. Austin Schmidt Austin is a creative thinker and marketing innovator. Family and friends play a big part in his life. Surrounding yourself with the right people is necessary. He believes that positive thinking and hustle are the keys to becoming successful. Believe in yourself to achieve something, but put in the work and hustle to earn it. Him and his co-founders are utilizing their complimentary skill sets to change the game in live streaming. Zunair Ukani Zunair is wanting to copy and paste Jonathan’s biography #twins. He also believes in the concept that everything happens for a reason, and that every occur

On this episode, Stefanie had the pleasure of sitting down with Andrew Egenes and Phillip Naples of Unbrokerage.  Listen as they share why Unbrokerage is the easiest way for business owners to purchase and manage their business insurance. Phillip Naples and Andrew Egenes/Unbrokerage Phillip is a 15 year veteran of the insurance industry. He has worked with hundreds of companies and realized the challenges they faced when buying commercial insurance. He is now a recovering broker that is redefining the way companies purchase and manage their insurance. When he’s not flipping the insurance industry on its head, he enjoys spending time with his family, riding bicycles, and coaching run club at a local elementary school. Andrew is a 10 year marketing and technology veteran with experience in a wide range of areas including e-commerce and business process automation. Andrew has an affinity and love for taking on the challenges faced by many of today’s Internet-based businesses. In his spare time, he enjoys obsessi

An economist by training, Andrew began his career in financial services sales and marketing. Andrew and his close friend Gareth explored a number of ideas before identifying the unparalleled potential of Trust Stamp. Although Trust Stamp is Andrew’s first startup, he has immersed himself in the lean-startup environment by completing incubator programs through Founder’s Space in San Francisco, QC FinTech in Charlotte and NAR REach in Chicago. Each of these programs has provided a different perspective and honed a different set of startup skills. Since Trust Stamp founding in November 2015, he has worked with Gareth to develop the core functionality of Trust Stamp as the CEO. His daily focus is on business development. Andrew believes he has fantastic team members who are experts in sales and marketing and it is his task to coordinate them into a cohesive strategy that drives revenue! He is a firm believer that, “the geek shall inherit the earth” and Trust Stamp has greatly deepened his knowledge of technology

On this episode host Stefanie Diaz gets a peek at the driving force who is stimulating innovation and investing in the Atlanta and Alpharetta tech communities. Listen as Arul Murugan, CEO of Eleven Eleven Investments, shares his vision for bringing startups, seasoned investors, and new investors to the table to accelerate success for all. Arul Murugan/Eleven-Eleven Investments Arul Murugan is the Founder and CEO of the innovation-driven venture capital firm, Eleven Eleven Investments (11-11i). Prior to 11-11i, he founded the technology company Enrich which ranked on the Inc 500 list for 5 consecutive years. During his tenure with Enrich, Arul was named a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award – South East Region. He also received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from B2B Magazine and was named Top 10 Tamil Entrepreneur by The Federation of Tamil Sangams in North America (FeTNA). As the visionary behind 11-11i, Arul created the 50-30-20 model to increase the value and approachability

Nick Santora is the founder and CEO at Curricula. Curricula is a cyber security company that helps teach other companies how to not get hacked. The Curricula team develops short animated stories that teach organizations and their people about cyber security. The Aware platform tracks the entire learner experience including analytics on learner behaviors. Curricula’s mission is to put an end to “death by PowerPoint” by providing a turn key cyber security educational experience for its customers. Nick founded Curricula after a 7 year career at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as their cyber security advisor. As the federal regulatory for our nation's power grid, Nicks role at NERC was to help ensure the security and reliability of the power grid in North America as well as advise utility organization on the threats and vulnerabilities relating to cyber security. Nick holds a Bachelor in Computer Information Systems as well as an MBA from Rider University. He is an accredited CISSP (Cer

In today’s podcast we talk to Christian Zimmerman, Founder of Qoins. Qoins is a new way to conquer your debt. Use the spare change from each checking account transaction to automatically pay off your debt. Christian, only 23 years old, has worked in the startup world for the last 2 years. Today he shares his journey to leverage his experience to launch an app of his own. Not featured in the interview, but another important member of the Qoins team is Co-Founder Nate Washington. Nate is 25 years old and an award-winning programmer. I had the pleasure of connecting with this dynamic duo at Atlanta Tech Village’s Startup Village where they did an amazing job of pitching and demoing the platform. Mission: The average household carries nearly $50k in student loan debt alone. With statistics like that, you can imagine that today’s college grads have to be more focused than ever on managing and paying down debt. Christian is no different, except that he saw an opportunity to make it easier to tackle this big problem

Named Top 5 Agent company wide at Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, with awards such as “Best Realtor in Atlanta,” Jereis a highly sought-after real estate agent who speaks and inspires others to reach their full potential. While overseeing her growing real estate business in the prestigious areas of Buckhead and Brookhaven, Jere speaks to, teaches, enjoys and is energized by assisting other real estate agents reach their own goals. Mission: Jere has experienced some turbulent times in life. She found herself, 13 years ago, rebuilding personally and financially. She started her career in real estate at a rock-bottom time in life. With no car, few connections, a pair of jeans, a tank top, flip-flops, and $65 in her pocket, Jere rebuilt herself and her business and, within two years, became the No. 2 selling agent in a top Keller Williams Atlanta office of over 150 real estate agents.   Mindset: I’ve always been fascinated by people who dig deep and find their greatest strength during the harde

Samantha Hodgkins is Founder & Chief FireStarter of SparkFire Active, a new line of performance activewear clothing designed exclusively for teen girls in just-right styles, colors and custom-sizing to fit & flatter their developing bodies and to support life in motion. From working out to adventuring out, SparkFire Active helps girls move freely and feel strong so they’re always ready to step off the sidelines, get into the game, and PLAY HARD, DREAM BIG!  There is a fire within every girl, ready to ignite with strength, confidence and passion. Let that light shine bright and BE THE SPARK! Mission: Being the mom, Samantha has a front row seat to the challenges teen girls face and just how sensitive their self esteem can be at such a critical time. She also watched as her wardrobe of athletic wear was constantly disappearing into her teen daughter’s closet… It wasn’t long before she soon connected to the mission for SparkFire Active. Mindset: As her idea began to grow, Samantha knew she needed a sound

Drew Massie is the founder of AttorneyFone, a service for generating new business for lawyers. He has been an entrepreneur for 17 years and is a graduate of the Chicago Booth School of Business. He currently lives in Denver with his wife and 3 children. Mission: AttorneyFone is the result of an evolution of technology that Drew created many years ago. Seeing the opportunity and value for this new vertical, he launched the new platform. Mindset: Keep it simple. After working with over 20 startups, Drew has been behind the scenes and had a front row seat to enough successes and failures to know that the biggest pitfall is trying to do too much. Listen as he shares his perspective on where people misinterpret the goal of the minimum viable product (MVP). Marketing: Content marketing has been key for the growth of AttorneyFone. I love how Drew describes the shift in mindset that’s required here. Rather than keeping all of his experience and expertise hidden, Drew’s found that sharing what he’s learned and accompl

Kimberly Lexow is an entrepreneur and full-time adventurer. After working in the tech space for a decade, Lexow co-founded Sifted, an experiential lunch provider for startups. Lexow expedites the sales process by identifying destination workplaces like Lyft, Salesloft and Eventbrite that see chef-made lunches as a universal perk. When she's not growing the business or networking at the Atlanta Tech Village, the full-time hustler is centering her work and personal life by backpacking Big Sur or Yosemite. When Jess Legge co-founded Sifted, she led branding and design. Today, she drives growth by doubling everyone's goals and building models that have allowed the company to hit $1.5M in ARR in under two years. She manages the cash as a bootstrapped company, positioning Sifted to add 20+ employees and enter two markets in 16 months, all while remaining profitable. She's most proud of the team her and partner have created and the tech communities they support. Mission: The idea for Sifted was still a work-in-progr