Current Members
If you come by for a visit to Conjunctured, here are some of the folks you’re likely to find making big things happen! Come say HOWDY!
Adam Luikart
Adam is a freelance HTML5 developer with a passion for fast, well-architected front-ends, great design, and “just works” usability.
Anna Carroll
I believe with my whole being that people working together can bring out amazing contributions from one another and from the group as a whole. I design inspirational ways for people to talk, create, learn, and accomplish great things together. These takes the form of training, planning sessions, facilitation of problem solving, celebrations, and other creative endeavors.
I love the integration of technical knowledge and social creativity. I use my past experiences in areas such as Six Sigma quality, teaching high school math, world music DJing, & planning dinner parties–in combination with years of organization development, competency-based people development and recruiting, training trainers, and designing training in dozens of areas–to enhance social creativity and creative society.
Brad Istre
WHO I AM :
Located in Austin, Texas - Stamped “The Live Music Capital of the World” - I am an independent designer, thinker and creator that taps into contemporary ideas to produce a timeless experience. I have been a designer, project manager and a creative director over the past 7 years working in 2 separate design studios with a talented team of individuals. I have recently decided to take my skills and venture the world of branding on my own to create a unique, unseasoned, untouched, untried, unknown creative environment.
WHAT I DO:
I brand companies. It is that simple, but much more complicated when you look at the process. It is similar to building any structure — I start from the ground up. Creating a good foundation is the key to a successful campaign and helps carry it through to the highest level. This includes, but not limited to, logo, web, stationary, advertising, print, packaging environmental graphic design and anything else that might elevate your presence . I could even help you decide where to put that new piece of office furniture. Simply put I give you an identity that will give you a unique position in your market.
Cesar Torres
Cesar attended The University of Texas at Austin where he received a bachelor of science degree in advertising and was part of the famed Texas Creative portfolio program. After graduation, rather than leaving Austin to work for a large ad agency, he stuck around Austin and founded kumulus: art + direction, with a strict client list of fellow entrepreneurs, tech startups and local initiatives. Cesar feels the best messages say meaningful things and do it in such a way that’s captivating and memorable. Ever the idealist and inspirer, he always tries to help people—professionally and personally—find their passions and tries to get them one step closer to changing the world. When he’s not working, Cesar loves technology, music, art, traveling and frequently likes to get away for some fresh air while camping or biking.
Cheyenne Weaver
Cheyenne Weaver graduated with a BFA from CalArts in 2004. Recent work includes user interface design, brand identity and graphic design, illustration, print and sculpture relating to her work with various non-profits involved locally and in developing countries. Upcoming projects include an exhibit entitled Against the Grain, at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Damaged Romantics, held at the Blaffer Gallery in Houston, and most recently the Machine Project Guide to Cultural History and Natural Sciences, exhibited at the Pomona Museum of Art.
Christopher Schmitt
ChristopherSchmitt.com - designer, web developer, author, strategist, dreamer
The founder of Heat Vision, a small new media publishing and design firm, Christopher is an award-winning Web designer who has been working with the Web since 1993. As a sought-after speaker and trainer, Christopher regularly demonstrates the use and benefits of practical standards-based designs. He is Co-Lead of the Adobe Task Force for the Web Standards Project (WaSP) in addition to being a contributing member of its Education Task Force
Author of numerous Web design and digital imaging books, including Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites and CSS Cookbook, Christopher has also written for New Architect Magazine, A List Apart, Digital Web, and Web Reference.
Online: christopherschmitt.com | twitter | facebook | flickr
David Ainsburg
bio coming soon
David Walker
302designs - Organic T-Shirts, Unique Clothing
David Walker is 26 years old and a 2006 graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in marketing from the McCombs School of Business plus a concentration in sociology. Born into a family of entrepreneurs, David has been exposed to and been interested in forging new trails since a child. Passionate and progressive-minded, he despises the phrase, “it’s just business,” and believes that instead of a means towards wealth creation, business should be about forming a symbiotic relationship with society, providing a method to bring us all together and promote meaning in our lives. David is the co-founder of 302designs, an eco-friendly, positive-minded clothing company and is also the co-founder of Conjunctured, a retail coworking space in East Austin.
302designs is a clothing label whose poetic, artistic & unique designs inspire, define and push the limits of the t-shirt fashion status-quo. Our poetic & organic t-shirts convey a powerful, philosophical, and motivational message through our creative and unique approach. We successfully sell online and in about 25 retail stores across the country, most notably in Whole Foods Market.
Dave Winter
Dave Winter is a 2005 graduate of Southwestern University, who has always thought big and likes to take risks and make the most out of life. After graduating Southwestern, Dave embarked on a 1-year trek across Europe, where in between hopping on trains and sleeping in hostels, he worked as a bilingual marketing coordinator in Barcelona, Spain and a tour guide marketing coordinator in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Upon returning to Texas, Dave became immersed in the world of internet marketing through working as a Web Marketing Intern for D Magazine in Dallas, Texas for six months, and then joining Standing Dog Interactive as a Search Engine Optimization Copywriter. After spending 2 ½ years marketing hotels and resorts with the Standing Dog team, Dave branched out on his own in Austin, TX with SEO Launchpad. Apart from a passion for Search Engine Optimization & Web Marketing, Dave loves comic books, sailing, labrador retrievers, biking, and fishing.
Dusty Reagan
Featured Users - Get More Twitter Followers, Friend or Follow - Manage Twitter Followers
Dusty is an entrepreneur, humanist, self-proclaimed “geek”, and lover of computers. He strives to add value to his community and is a proponent of the arts and local small businesses. His deepest desire is to make a substantial positive impact on society. Born and raised in Cleburne Texas, Dusty was resourceful and had a natural affinity for computers. Through high school, Dusty used his computer skills as a freelancer, providing design and technical support for local businesses. During his junior and senior years of high school Dusty fought a life-or-death battle against Ulcerative Colitis. Always the optimist, Dusty was thankful for the character he developed through his battle and for the insights he gained on life. Dusty received a bachelor of science in computer science with a minor in business from Texas A&M University in 2003. After graduating, Dusty moved to Austin, where he briefly freelanced as a web developer before landing a full-time programmer position at Direct Impact, an Austin-based direct marketing agency. In early 2007, Dusty left his full-time position to create Floating Head Studios, a web application company. Shortly afterwards, Dusty founded the Austin spinoff of “Jelly,” a community of freelancers and telecommuters who desire to work around other like-minded individuals. You can find Dusty at any of the weekly Jelly in Austin meetups consulting, working on Conjunctured, or growing Floating Head Studios.
Eric McGregor
I am a design, identity, and development freelancer located in Austin, Texas that specializes in information architecture, user experience, and content management. I help individuals and companies understand the implications of media and accessibility in today’s web. I focus on simple, clear websites that are as easy to manage as they are to use.
Evan James
bio coming soon
Gavin Todes
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, I moved to Philadelphia in ‘93. I graduated from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Business in 2005, and since then have lived in Washington, DC, San Diego, and now Austin. I’ve always had a love for technology and a passion for innovation, which lead me to my role as co-founder and “technology guy” at Howzit. We offer a web-based platform for SMS marketing as well as mobile app development.
Previously, I worked as a consultant specializing in IT risk and controls for KPMG’s Information Technology Advisory Services practice and later as an independent consultant. I helped organizations to assess their IT risk and to enhance the controls in place within their IT environments. My clients included a number of well-known Fortune 500 companies and government departments, as well as some smaller organizations.
Outside of work, I’ve been known to rock climb, take photos, play guitar, consume delicious food, prepare somewhat less delicious food, and ride my bike.
James Cobb
I’m the Visual Design Lead for an Open Source software company. Through UI, logo design and other brand initiatives, my goal is to help open source projects expand their appeal and reach to a wider audience of developers and potential software contributors. It’s open source… what goes around, comes around. I hold a BFA in Graphic Communications from the University of Houston and have been in the design field for quite a while.
I’m an avid mountain biker and can be found tooling around various trails across Austin. I’ve also been known to play a mean game of paintball and fly model airplanes.
James Werner
James is an experienced sales consultant who has specialized in enterprise software and services. He has guided successful start-ups from formation through acquisition, and has worked for companies ranging in size from microscopic to Fortune 1000. Also active in politics, James was the Libertarian nominee for Governor of Texas in the 2006 election. He appeared on the ballot facing Rick Perry, Chris Bell, Kinky Friedman, and Carol Strayhorn. He did not win.
Jason Bornhorst
Jason is a serial entrepreneur interested in beautiful software and it’s ability to create change in the world. He’s no stranger to the world of startups; he buried his first company at a cost of 25k, sold his second venture 8 months after founding it, and is currently apart of a high-growth startup in the travel space.
Jason holds a dual degree in Computer Science Engineering and Entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan, and recently moved to Austin in search of new networks and experiences. He enjoys good people, live music, the outdoors, and staying active.
A unique project of his is DoGood, an iPhone app based on the movie “Pay It Forward”. DoGood encourages thousands of people to do a single good deed each day. To date, over 500,000 good deeds have been done on behalf of the application and the community continues to grow.
Jason spends his days as project manager/engineer/designer for Mobiata, a young startup that creates beautiful mobile apps to help people travel. Mobiata’s apps (available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry) include:
- FlightTrack, the benchmark flight tracker for iPhone and #1 selling travel app for one year straight.
- HotelPal, the first and only hotel app with live availability and booking.
- TripDeck, iPhone’s complete travel itinerary manager
- Managed mobile services for large travel brands
John Erik Metcalf
John is a 25 year old entrepreneur and new venture enthusiast. John is a Board Member and Co-Founder of Texas Ventures, a nonprofit focused on accelerating young businesses and entrepreneurs. Texas Ventures is under the guidance of Dr. John Sibley Butler, Director of The IC2 Institute and supported by the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship. He has served as a consultant to companies such as radar.net, qipit.com and Mr. Youth. John holds an Advertising degree from The University of Texas at Austin, with a heavy concentration in Computer Science and a research emphasis in STS (Science, Technology and Society). A maven/relater, John is most excited when connecting people and businesses to form mutually beneficial relationships. John practices and holds dearly the concepts of empathy, critical thinking and awareness. Ever one for exploration and excitement, John is an avid mountain biker and a frequent skydiver.
Jeremy Brooks
At Brooks Research Corporation, Jeremy oversees all aspects of product development and strategy. He began his career in Internet technology and search marketing in 1997 and moved to Austin, Texas from Dallas in 2000. Jeremy is the creator of the Bid Master search term valuation and PPC management system.
Jon Ray
I’m a “twenty-something” full of ideas and opinions. I’m not a judge. Given this fact, I am not qualified to determine if the aforementioned ideas and opinions are any good. But, there are companies that pay me big bucks to share these ideas and opinions. Apparently, I represent a coveted demographic and hold the answer to all of their problems. It’s all very scientific.
Lee Harper
The 451 Group is an independent IT analyst company focused on innovation as it affects the way businesses consume technology. The insights of the analysts are delivered to our clients via syndicated research and advisory services. The 451 Group is known for its delivery of information with an emphasis on value-for-time, allowing quick consumption of business critical information.
Max More
MaxMore.com,Max’s Wikipedia Page
Dr. Max More is a strategic philosopher widely recognized for his thinking on the philosophical and cultural implications of emerging technologies. Max’s contributions include founding the philosophy of transhumanism, authoring the transhumanist philosophy of extropy, and co-founding Extropy magazine and Extropy Institute, an organization crucial in building the transhumanist movement since 1988.
Max is been concerned that our escalating technological capabilities are racing far ahead of our standard ways of thinking about future possibilities. Through a highly interdisciplinary approach drawing on philosophy, economics, cognitive and social psychology, and management theory, Max developed a distinctive approach known as the “Proactionary Principle” a tool for making smarter decisions about advanced technologies by minimizing the dangers of progress and maximizing the benefits.
Nik Daftary
Turn2Live- Discover Your Austin Live Music Experience
Turn2Live is online tool that allows concertgoers to find live-music by a “mood search.” In contrast to current live-music search offerings both locally and nationally, Turn2Live allows live-music goers to painlessly sift through the hundreds of live-music showings per week based simply on what mood of live-music they are feeling by means of an intuitive mood-wheel. Feeling like some live-music great for a date-night? Try searching for a combination of mellow + sensual and check out who’s playing in your neck of the woods tonight.
Phil Dhingra
Nuclear Elements - mobile apps, Philosophistry - personal blog
Phil makes iPhone and iPad apps. His hits include Tarot Pro, Rave Light (YouTube), and the Creative Whack Pack. Phil also publishes web media, and has had a few viral hits like RealOrFake3D.com and his Prison Population Chart.
Previously, he was the Hiring Manager at Mutual Mobile, and before that he programmed video games at Aspyr. Before coming to Austin, he lived in Silicon Valley where he co-founded Leetster, a social network for gamers, and where he had a short stint at Google. Phil graduated from Stanford with a Bachelors in Mathematical and Computational Sciences.
Outside of work, Phil sings karaoke and plays tennis.
Riley
Lynch
Riley makes domain-driven, database-backed software for a variety of platforms. He’s currently working on web applications in Ruby on Rails. He has also worked in Java, Python, C, Objective C, PHP and Perl, and developed for Mac OS X and Palm OS.
Riley grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and later moved to Seattle, Washington where he worked for Amazon.com. He developed the customizable database architecture used by Rhode Island’s BatchBlue Software.
When he’s not building software, Riley likes to play guitar, travel, take photographs and study foreign languages. He arrived in Austin, Texas in September 2009, after seven months learning Spanish and teaching English in Guatemala.
Shelly Leonard
I’m Shelly, a freelance writer born and raised in Iowa. I graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in marketing and journalism, then worked for Principal Financial and ITAGroup before realizing the 9 to 5 wasn’t for me. In late July 2009, I co-founded SparkNight, a business that aims to create spontaneous, fun dates for couples. We’re currently putting our focus on the Des Moines market but will eventually branch out to other U.S. cities. I moved to Austin on a whim in September 2009 - right now, I like spending my time exploring the city, running and discovering Austin’s awesome restaurants.
Thomas Umstattd
Thomas Umstattd is a wordpress developer and social media coach. He helps authors and small business sell more books and make more money online using tools like Twitter, Blogging and Facebook. He also runs AuthorTechTips
William Sandler
After working for the US Dept of the Treasury while completing post graduate studies (International Financial Law, Georgetown University), William moved from NYC to Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan). There, he served in the capacity of General Counsel for two broadly diversified business conglomerates. Since 2002, William has been based in the US doing corporate, business and real estate development. His work at Conjunctured is focused on intellectual property, particularly the prosecution of patents before the USPTO. William enjoys ultimate frisbee, garden-grown fruits and veggies and all his new friends at Conjunctured.
Zach Taylor
Zach writes and draws comics. He’s been self-publishing since 2003 and is the author of books such as The Miner and the Cave That Ate Time and Bear Quest
Lifetime Members
These particular individuals have been integral to the beginning stages of Conjunctured. Without their guidance and support Austin’s first coworking space would not have been possible.
Jim Hillhouse
Jim is a pilot, a photographer, and an areospace engineer. He’s also got a thing for coworking and Cocoa development. Jim has been with Conjunctured from the beginning. He helped in every way possible to get us on our feet.
Rajat Datta
bio coming soon
Sherry Lowry
Sherry Lowry, MCC, is a lifetime serial entrepreneur. For the most recent fourteen years, she has delighted in taking the best learnings forward of six previous business focuses to now include in her services as a full time, professional business mentor and a collaboration and alliance coach. Her clients advantageously and consistently draw from their own and her own backgrounds. In so doing, they identify and expand usage of their own most natural capabilities and interests, plus extend their potential for innovation and new levels of partnership.
Drew Jones
SHIFT is a change management consultancy that helps companies increase flexibility, engagement, and productivity through workspace design and telecommuting solutions.
Alumni
Once you’ve been a member, you’re always a close-knit part of the Conjunctured community. A bond seems to happen when you cowork side by side with someone for quite some time. Below is our extended family!
Abdon Nacif
302designs - Organic T-Shirts, Unique Clothing
Abdon Nacif is a graduate with Honors of The University of Texas at Austin. He holds a degree in Management Information Systems from the McCombs School of Business and a concentration in Finance. He is native from Bolivia and born into a family of entrepreneurs. He moved to the United States looking for a top caliber career, a better professional life, and an expanded land of opportunities. He has worked for McKinsey & Company, Santa Cruz FC, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is an extremely driven person and loves the art of business; he feels business runs through his blood. Abdon is an optimistic person with high values in business. He believes that a business should grow under true values of integrity, honesty, professionalism, humbleness, and excellence. Abdon currently works at 302designs, an eco-friendly, positive-minded clothing company.
302designs is a clothing label whose poetic, artistic & unique designs inspire, define and push the limits of the t-shirt fashion status-quo. Our poetic & organic t-shirts convey a powerful, philosophical, and motivational message through our creative and unique approach. We successfully sell online and in about 25 retail stores across the country, most notably in Whole Foods Market.
Adam Kaye
Dr. Webstein is a full-service, independent web development company, based in Austin, Texas. Dr. Webstein builds websites with clean, straightforward design and Web Standards.
Alec Robinson
Prior to MobiTech, Alec worked at Thomas Weisel Partners in their Technology Banking Group and was a Program Manager at Texas Instruments in TI’s Imaging and Audio Group. He received an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and holds a Masters in EE from Stanford and a BSEE from Georgia Tech.
Andy Skelton
Andy is a Vermont born, Austin resident since 1999. He’s been working with Automattic, and their flagship product WordPress.com, since August 2005. He rides a Goldwing, uses a Mac and enjoys helping people.
Brian Buser
bio coming soon
Carly Pollack
Nutritional Wisdom - website coming soon
Carly’s mission is to educate clients so that they can become their own “nutritionist”. Through her clinical experience of over 800 clients, she has obtained the tools necessary to coach a wide spectrum of individuals. Carly Pollack holds a Master’s Degree in Holistic Nutrition and is a Certified Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach by the prestigious CHEK Institute. Her passion for new knowledge keeps her on the cutting edge of nutrition. She will soon obtain one of the highest nutritional credentials, CCN (Certified Clinical Nutritionist).
Carly started seeing clients as one of the first nutritionists for Whole Foods Market. In the two years she spent with Whole Foods, she saw hundreds of clients with goals ranging from weight loss to healthy eating for Cancer and Diabetes. Carly’s no-nonsense approach to lifestyle coaching will guide you through this journey with honesty, caring and laughter. Carly currently resides in Austin where she works with clients in her private practice and lectures throughout the United States.
Carson Coots
Carson Coots is a brand identity and web designer with a specialty in new media and hyper-local marketing. He lives to work with companies, organizations and individuals that recognize the value of a great design combined with an genuine, creative message that communicates a company purpose. He advocates the use of new media to communicate and interact with peers and customers online to build relationships in an authentic way, which he believes will create lasting loyalty and increased word-of-mouth.
Catherine Crago
To help distributed science, technology, engineering teams compete we have developed practical tools to help you context shift when context changes: cultural barriers, time and distance.
Cheyenne Martin
My previous experience with social businesses and non-profit organizations has given me insight into Aldea’s mission and beliefs, and encouraged me to join its cause. As an advocate for entrepreneurship, conscious consumerism and fair trade, I recently joined founder, Matthew Arnold, in his mission to connect artisans from developing countries, such as Guatemala, to US consumers.
I have gained meaningful and important knowledge while working with organizations such as Breakthrough Austin, The Women’s Outreach Center, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. This experience helped me to understand the importance of the relationships we have cultivated and the ones we will continue to form. It will also continue to aid in implementing the operations of these social businesses.
The Aldea mission is to connect artisans from developing countries to YOU, sharing their authentic stories through the beautiful goods they make. We work directly with artisans to provide access to international markets for their handmade goods. Access to these markets creates income-generating opportunities for the artisans that are greater than those available locally, often doubling the price per piece she could otherwise command in regional markets.
Chris Treadaway
Mr Treadaway is a 13 year veteran of online businesses with experience in both startups and large enterprises. Most recently, he was Group Product Manager of Web Strategy at Microsoft, where he was responsible for the company’s Web marketing and messaging. Previously, Chris was the Founder/Co-Founder of 3 other Web startups: Cruising Speed, Infraworks, and Stratfor.com where he built the company’s first portal — a site that was profiled in Time Magazine and other international publications. He received an MBA from the University of Texas, and he blogs regularly on Web 2.0 issues at http://treadaway.typepad.com and on Twitter @ctreada.
Cullen Wilson
The web has been my playground, obsession, and place of work for much of my relatively short life. I was fortunate enough to have access to a computer and the Internet at a young age thanks to my father. My passions lie in development, design, and the constantly evolving market of web technology.
In my free time I enjoy simply living in Austin, with all of its sites and sounds. I spend my weekends at Zilker Park, Barton Springs, or at one of Austin’s many live music venues. When I need some time away from the city I drive 40 minutes southwest to a small town called Wimberley, where my family lives.
Cy Huckaba
Cy is a results-driven senior technology executive with over 15 years of success using technology to achieve business goals. He a deep understanding of technology as a result of constant research and evaluation of tools and technologies, as well as many years leading technology projects both as a consultant and product owner. Cy is committed to continuous improvement and has sponsored and lead many operational initiatives that target improvements in resource utilization and forecasting, staff development, workflow, efficiency, quality, and communication to exceed expectations whenever possible and ensure bottom line success. He is also a respected leader, recognized for his ability to provide focus and direction in the fast-paced agency environment where client’s business objectives and project requirements are always changing, schedules are always tight and budgets are always shrinking.
Cyndi Nickel
Cyndi Nickel has cross functional management experience with leadership experience in technology research, business strategy, operations management, product management, sales and R&D engineering. Cyndi was an initiator and founder in three high-tech businesses using emerging technology, while at Hewlett-Packard. Most recently she was a Strategic Planning Executive at Hewlett-Packard Research Labs. While Cyndi was at HP Labs, she improved the quality and value of transferring technology by 65% using a variety of operational changes, providing business consulting, and research project portfolio management.
Recently, Cyndi started a new venture, Telemedicine Up Close, which is focused on healthcare needs of rural Texas. The company provides virtual exam rooms that allow primary care physicians to remotely address the health needs of patients in nursing homes, hospice, or in home care situations. Also, the company is bringing to market a new point-of-care diagnostic for rapid detection of bacterial infections based on technology created at Texas A&M University. The diagnostic identifies bacteria and conclusively identifies an effective antibiotic, ruling out antibiotics to which the bacteria has resistance – all at the point-of-care, all within minutes.
Dakota Kent
bio coming soon.
Dan Quellhorst
bio coming soon.
Dane Hurtubise
Dane Hurtubise is a lover of all things spicy, especially good design and clean code. Hurtubise holds a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin
Ed Melendez
I specialize in the identification of opportunities and the launch of new ventures and projects. I spot trends early and develop strategies to capitalize on them.
While my career spans both for profit and non-profit organizations in variety of industries, I am passionate about 4th Sector organizations, businesses driven by a social purpose that are economically self-sustaining and socially, ethically, and environmentally responsible.
Eric Perkins
Hey guys! My name is Eric Perkins and I currently live in Austin, Texas. I am starting my own little tech business after years of working for other companies, getting bored with college, and just general life.
My last employer was Instinct Marketing. There, we managed online marketing and telemarketing for the brick-and-mortar dating industry. My friend and I developed a large CRM project and managed the general tech infrastructure. Before that, I did lots of freelance for clients local and national.
Eric Tucker
Eric and his company, Semperex, make intelligent software.
He’s accusedly LIBERTARIAN and believes in personal responsibility, personal freedom, honor, style, fast cars, and world domination.
Irl Nathan
Irl is leading the creation of MouseCloud, a one-click collaboration environment.
J Weis
As the Chief Watt Monkey, my daily responsibilities include harvesting sweet bananas and coconuts from high above at great risk to personal safety for the nourishment and well-being of others in my tribe. While skilled at picking fleas off my collegues, I am most strong at vine swing and playing arial tag. I take my responsibilities very seriously, but do enjoy humaning-around so that the journey to our combined goals is memorable. When scrutinized by other jungle animals, or even attacked by neighboring tribes, I fight. The battles that I have engaged in have only made my strength and resolve increase.
Jason Cartwright
I am a Scientist and Engineer that believes in only using my talents to benefit mankind (for the most part anyway…gotta eat ya know). My specialties are computation and research for the applied sciences. When not at work or ‘building my brand’ I am listening to the latest music off of blogs, playing guitar (at least in theory), or out & about trying to find Austin spots that maximize the coolness-to-cost ratio. I’m a native Texan from Dallas-ish, and I’ve lived in Washington State– Okahoma, Indiana, and DC/Baltimore for some summer work which included academic research in Physics. I hold a Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University and BS Physics from UT Austin.
Jason Derrett
Jason likes to dig stuff up. When presented with a mess of a project, codebase, or situation, he’s likely to just dive in and swim. After ten years of consulting experience, Jason finally decided to make the jump to the fun side of software development. He’s a pragmatist who loves elegant solutions and making code simpler. When not managing clients or cleaning up a messy Rails implementation, Jason can be found hacking away in the kitchen, snapping photos of inanimate objects, or biking all over Austin.
Jason Moore
bio coming soon.
Kaitlin Robinson
bio coming soon
Karen Ngo
Karen Ngo Photography + Design
Originally from San Francisco, Karen had worked for many years in the fashion industry as a creative director in
New York City. For the latter part, she was also leading a secret life as a dog photographer. Her dog images have
been published in magazines and on calendars and stationery. She recently rescued her third dog while she was traveling in Thailand. She currently resides in Austin, Texas with her dogs Martini, Emma and Ping Pong. Her latest book, InDognito: A Book of Dogs in Costume is in stores nationwide and on amazon.com. You can order InDognito at Amazon.com!
Larry Kubin
bio coming soon.
Kevin Scott
Kevin Scott is a web developer originally hailing from Connecticut via NYC. He worked at Edulence for most of 2009 while freelancing on the side. In December he moved to Austin to pursue music and work as a full-time freelancer. He works primarily with the LAMP stack and Flash, and is looking to learn Python and Rails in 2010. He also plays guitar, bass, and piano. In 2008 he made a music video which can be found on here: http://vimeo.com/2105645
Kyle Bunch
SEOintelligence - SEO tools, Blogs With Balls - Sports Blog
SEOintelligence is the easy, cost-effective way to implement a successful search marketing campaign. Our industry-leading hosted software solution provides you with regularly-updated insights into your site’s performance in any keyword category, and offers code and link strategy recommendations to drive your site to the top.
Blogs With Balls is the world’s largest sports blogger and new media gathering. Sports fans, writers, sites, teams, athletes and companies, don’t miss your chance to talk with industry leaders about the future of sports media. Our first event takes place June 13, 2009 in New York City.
Mark Hacker
Since completing his graduate program in screenwriting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Mark has worked as a story editor and script Consultant for Morgan Creek, 20th-Century Fox, MTV Films, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, Imagine Entertainment, Columbia TriStar, and Humble Journey Films. He has done screenplay punch-up for Susan Sarandon, Scarlett Johansson, Russell Crowe, Julianne Moore, Holly Hunter, Nicole Kidman, Jeff Bridges and Jamie Kennedy. Mark is developing projects for Wildfire with Starz/Overture Films, CBS, HBO, Warner Brothers, Humble Journey Films, Jet/Ebony/LRMR Innovative Marketing, and Branding (LeBron James Productions), Our Stories Films, The Discovery Channel, and Bristol Bay. Mark is currently writing a feature film (un-announced) for Academy Award-winning producer Fred Roos, and Starz Entertainment. In addition, Mark has written story/scripts for some of the largest developers in the video gaming industry. The Journey of Your Life (writer, executive producer, Producer) is currently in post-production, and is in negotiations with HBO and Starz/Encore. The Journey of Your Life, Children’s book, written by Hacker, Illustrated by David Wallace, and published by Scholastic Books hits bookstores nationwide September 24, 2009.
Matthew Arnold
After studying at the Acton School of Business in Austin, I returned to Guatemala to learn more about microcredit and fair trade. Four months later, I was able to found Aldea and continues to grow the company and multiply its positive social and economic impact. As for the rest of me, I live in Austin and sit on the board of directors of Long Way Home. I am a self-titled relentless social entrepreneur and a playful social enthusiast, spending my free time discussing business ideas with friends over a bag of gourmet popcorn or exercising among the parks and greenbelts of Austin. also, see http://www.actonmba.org/people/scholars/matthew-arnold/
The Aldea mission is to connect artisans from developing countries to YOU, sharing their authentic stories through the beautiful goods they make. We work directly with artisans to provide access to international markets for their handmade goods. Access to these markets creates income-generating opportunities for the artisans that are greater than those available locally, often doubling the price per piece she could otherwise command in regional markets.
Michael Hanratty
bio coming soon.
Michelle Greer
I love people. I love life. I hate being at a computer but it helps me get to know you better and make good things happen. I thrive on using new media to Make Things Happen. Thus far I’ve organized a blood drive that doubled the traffic of a blood bank in three days and was one of the global organizers of Twestival, a global twitter-based charity event that raised over $250,000 for charity:water in over 200 cities globally. I executed the NameCheap Twitter Trivia Contest, one of the first Twitter contests on the web that gained NameCheap almost 8000 followers to date, was featured in Mashable, Yahoo News, and as an O’Reilly case study. Plus the customers loved it :D.
Jonathan Simmons
I’m a graphic designer and front-end developer living and working in sunny Austin, Texas. I enjoy riding my bike, boxing, hiking, swimming and meeting new people. I do own a television but it hasn’t been plugged in for months, a fact that I take great pride in.
Josh Dilworth
Josh is a helluva PR hack. He’s currently rockin with Porter Novelli Austin. Launching startups is what he does. Well, that and filmmaking. We love this guy and we love PN for letting him and other great peeps cowork with us–what a company.
Michael Propst
I’m Mike Propst. I design user interfaces for web software at AOL. My most notable projects are Blogsmith (the publishing platform that powers this blog and many others, including Engadget, TMZ.com, Autoblog, Spinner, and a bunch more) and Emurse (an online résume and job finding service). I live in Austin, Texas with my wife and wiener dog. Say hey sometime.
Neville Reynolds
bio coming soon.
Robert Rasmussen
Moonlight Tower is a web application development company based in Austin, Texas, specializing primarily in Ruby on Rails and with expertise in other agile web development frameworks including merb and django. Robert Rasmussen owns Moonlight Tower. He’s been developing, deploying, and troubleshooting web applications for 10 years and knows how to bend them to his will.
Robert Starek
Mr Starek is an expert in Microsoft’s .NET technology who holds 11 patents in information and data architecture. Most recently, Robert developed the intellectual property suite for Pinion Software’s Digital Rights Management enterprise application suite, while serving as their Director of Research until its acquisition in Q4 2007. Prior to Pinion, Robert was a co-founder of Stratfor.com, a global intelligence portal. At Stratfor, Robert created several patented technologies which are used today by the United States Department of Defense, other government agencies, and enterprise institutions worldwide to manage sensitive data.
Regan Coleman
Regan is co-founder of Xenient, a boutique consulting and training firm focusing on SymbianOS.
Ross Barbash 
After a nine-year stint in Los Angeles, I have returned to Texas to rekindle my passion for BBQ, grow my company, and enjoy everything Austin has to offer. I currently run business development for Howzit, a digital marketing company specializing in SMS marketing and mobile app development.
Prior to Howzit, I worked as the Digital Media Coordinator at the United Talent Agency in Beverly Hills where I connected Hollywood talent with major web players such as YouTube, MySpace, and Vuguru. Additionally, I consulted for digital media startups including Cyworld, Buzznet, and Vuze. I’ve also produced several commercials, a theater play, and helped launch the interactive movie entitled Alternate Endings, the first project of its kind to be available in the iPhone App Store.
I enjoy participating in strenuous outdoor activities such as soccer, football, running, snowboarding, wakeboarding etc and eating large meals afterwards. I’m a big fan of independent film, the music scene in Austin, and The Dallas Cowboys.
Sarah Vela
Sarah is a content strategist and developer for community building, marketing, and branding. She consults with organizations and individuals looking to beef up their internet presence through new media and web 2.0 strategies. She co-hosts the podcasts “Push My Follow,” “Back off Man, I’m a Scientist,” produces interviews for StartupLucky.com, Austin’s Social Media Club, and her own video interview show, “Too Much Information.” Her favorite dessert is mango slices drenched in lime juice accompanied by sticky rice.
Orchid 8 Consulting provides content development and strategy with a focus on marketing, branding, and community building. We help businesses and non-profits create a long-term, comprehensive game plan that focuses on website copy and design, blogging, and social media tools.
At POGO Creative, we want to know what makes your band tick, how you work together, and where you want to go. That’s what POGO is here for. Combined we have over 25 years working in music, media and web. We get it. We’ve played in bands, managed bands, run record labels, toured, and watched our friends succeed and fail. We love music and we know it’s tough out there. Let us help you do better. In the end every band has a story to tell. What’s yours?
Scott Bellware
bio coming soon
Shang-Mei Hillhouse
I was a full-time finance professor for 7 years. Now, I am a full-time Vedic Astrology student at American College of Vedic Astrology.
Sherry Jones
Pioneering in the dangerous territory of the bistro business & art representation!
Stefani Zellmer
After 16 years as a writer in the advertising industry, working for agencies in Portland, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Austin, she finally started one of her own. Stefani is now a Creative Partner of Swizzle, which she co-founded with her husband, who is also a writer. Swizzle officially opened for business in April 2009 thanks to a huge leap of faith from their first client. So far, so good.
Always good with directions, she’s happy to have found her way back to her native Texas and the town where she went to college lo those many years ago. While advertising has served her well, she has also dabbled in journalism, fiction writing and a few years of pounding away on the drums. If she ever found the time to pick them back up, she’d start a band and call it Mommy. But that’s a very big If.
Steve Odom
Steve’s hobby is creating rails applications that no one visits. Sites like smarkets.net, trivionomy.com, and quizical.net. He’s also created a couple of rails plugins; s3cache is one, and elasticrails.com is the other.
Trey Philips
Word up. I’m Trey Philips, a web developer and recent graduate from The University of Texas, where I completed a B.A. in philosophy and B.S. in psychology. I do occasional freelance jobs for my miniature web development firm, Abogax. Additionally, I work on my personal Facebook applications, mainly Extended Info. My focuses in the web world are information design, usability, high-performance interfaces, and generally just putting out awesome, useful web applications.
Tanner Moehle
I was born and raised in Corpus Christi, TX. I am currently living in the greatest city in the world Austin, TX with my girlfriend Cara and our schnauzer Jax. I am a Freelance Art Director and Creative Consultant with over 7 years of experience. I’m constantly exploring all things visual and live to solve creative problems. At one time or another I’ve had my hands in Graphic Design, Photography, Web Design, Directing and Editing. I find that the agency model can be stifling for creative individuals. One of the biggest downfalls in projects is internal resistance and micro-managment. I prefer freelance specialists to own projects in a collaborative environment. This promotes creative growth and allows projects to reach their full potential.