Shauna is with Sutherland Labs, and she also mentors Founders Space startups.
She is a curious designer, thinker, and doer.
She has a PhD in Sustainable Design and a background in design and engineering. She has worked as a researcher, designer, and strategy consultant for startups and non-profits in Western Europe, the U.S., and SE Asia.
Lauren is with Sutherland Labs, and she also mentors Founders Space startups.
She brings the world of ideas and reality together.
Over the past 10 years, she launched growth and design-driven products for startups and enterprise clients.
Tom Byun is a mentor at Founders Space and recently was GM and SVP of the Global Small Business division of LivePerson.
LivePerson helps businesses strengthen sales and customer support via messaging solutions (chat, SMS, messaging). He oversaw all programs for acquisition, retention and growth of small and mid-sized business customers across US, EMEA, and APAC.
Prior to LivePerson, Tom was VP and GM of Yahoo! Small Business, where he focused on serving SMBs to grow and manage their business online via hosting, e-commerce, marketing solutions and other offerings.
Johnson Hor has been involved with Founders Space since 2010 as a mentor, connector, and adviser.
Johnson is the founder and Director of Something at Shoebox Ventures – a 501c3 charitable nonprofit enabling people, organizations, and community programs to excel. Like everyone else, he has worked in various capacities for various industries including, but notwithstanding, automotive, nonprofit, petroleum, textiles, finance, law, health, telemedicine, technology, and telecommunications.
Johnson is actively engaged in the community, locally and nationally, serving on various boards, committees, round tables, and whenever the need arises, connecting the dots globally. He’s a Coro Community Leader, a Honorary Alameda County Deputy Sheriff, GIA Alumni, an Association of Asian American Bankers’ life member, an American Bar Foundation Life Fellow, as well as a member of the bars of California, US District – Northern District of California, and SCOTUS. He also has a Spec.Cert (Anti-Moneylaundering: New Payment Products and Services) and is a Certified Fraud Specialist and Certified Anti-Moneylaundering Specialist.
Ryan Shaening Pokrasso is a mentor at Founders Space and a founding attorney at SPZ Legal, an Oakland, CA business law firm founded on the belief that business should be a powerful tool for social change and environmental stewardship.
Ryan advises startups and non-profits as outside general counsel on a variety of matters, including: incorporation, employment, financing, intellectual property, regulatory compliance and land use, and custom contracts.
Ryan received his J.D. from UC Berkeley, and his B.S. from UC Santa Cruz. In his free time, Ryan enjoys traveling, hiking, camping, cooking, and playing and watching baseball and basketball.
Hash Zahed is a mentor at Founders Space and a founding attorney at SPZ Legal, an Oakland, CA business law firm founded on the belief that business should be a powerful tool for social change and environmental stewardship.
Hash advises startups and non-profits as outside general counsel on a variety of matters, including: incorporation, employment, financing, intellectual property, and custom contracts.
Hash received his J.D. and B.A. from UC Berkeley. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, being active, and rooting for his SF Giants, Golden State Warriors, and Cal Golden Bears.
Liz Skalla joined Founders Space as a mentor. Liz enjoys building and growing brands – brands with a purpose that help people and/or the world. Liz has fortune 50 experience, is a past AMA board member and has a masters degree in Marketing Strategy and Management. She has started companies from the ground up, raised venture capital, mentored, advised, held board seats, build boards, and sold her first startup to a competitor. She is currently consulting growing companies and is part of the GIVN Goods team that makes it easy for consumers to make an impact on the world while buying everyday products.
Liz’s Linkedin profile here.
Howard Lim is a mentor at Founders Space. As founder of HOW Creative, Howard has been building business and brands for nearly three decades. His passion is helping organizations transform products and services into rich brand experiences that motivate and inspire consumers achieve their aspirations.
Howard has shepherded the brands of emerging, leading and Fortune 100 companies such as Apple, Disney, DreamWorks, Honda, Xerox, Namco, HBO, Mattel, Oracle adding billions of dollars to clients’ profits, brand value and equity.
A veteran whole-brain thinker, Howard is dedicated to innovation and creating aesthetic assets that become valuable financial assets. He is a frequent speaker, judge and panelist at invention, product and business conferences, and through his seminars and workshops, has taught more than 75,000 entrepreneurs how to build differentiated brands that connect with customers intellectually and emotionally, proving that an Authentic Brand® accelerates growth, customers, profit and value for every company, large or small.
Umesh was introduced to Founders Space and has, ever since, enjoyed mentoring startups from an early stage. With experiences in a wide range of industries, he helps provide unique market perspectives as well as technology insights. He enjoys working with people.
With a masters in Robotics and Automation, and a long career in Research & Development, he started looking for opportunities to help and grow small companies. Since then, he has helped several startups in the Bay Area quickly grow into large organizations, breaking down barriers and identifying new business opportunities. He enjoys pushing the envelope in unique ways.
He has worked at consulting firms (Keane Inc), fortune 500 corporations (GE, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Pacific Bell) and overseas companies like Namco Games, SRA America, Toyota Research and Pioneer Electronics. He helped create strategic positions for Pioneer in the Connected Vehicles markets and has helped the company understand opportunities and complexities of IoT and Connected Lifestyles. He led the USDOT initiative for Smart Transportation and Smart Cities and was a lead member of the Connected Car Consortium.
Evert Zelaya joined Founders Space as a Mentor and Advisor.
Evert is on a mission to help people achieve greater confidence. Through his coaching sessions and workshop’s engaging discussions and exercises, attendees gain insight and actionable tips on confidence.
Evert has been leading workshops on confidence and self-esteem for the better part of a decade and has spoken in front of 100,000 people. He has worked as a coach for UnCollege: An educational startup based in San Francisco. Evert has also worked at academic research organizations such as The Institute for Scientific Analysis and The Public Research Institute focusing on social and cognitive research.
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