Martin is a venture partner at Ignition Partners, private investor and consultant who works with early stage software start-ups. Martin was the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Loudeye Technologies, Inc. (NASDQ: LOUD), a pioneer in digital media production, distribution, and applications. Through his leadership, the company grew to be one of the largest providers of digital media enabling solutions for the Internet.

Prior to Loudeye, Martin spent six years with the dark forces of Microsoft and four with blue suits and white shirts of Andersen Consulting (Accenture). Martin was one of the first Accenture consultants to break the strict formal dress code and wear jeans, a tee-shirt and flip-flops to work, one of the earliest in a string of broken rules which litter and distinguish his career. Martin and his wife Alex were profiled in the 1997 Harley movie "Biker Dreams" and are involved in a number of charities through the Martin and Alex Tobias Foundation.

Kevin Cable is co-founder of Cascadia Capital, where he leads strategic development including public relations, marketing, and general business development. In the past 18 months Cascadia has closed more than $400 Million in transactions in the Pacific Northwest spanning both Corporate Finance, M&A and restructuring. With 32 banking professionals and a staff of 40, the team at Cascadia maintains an active perspective on the financing scene both locally and nationally. Kevin is currently a director of the Washington State Technology Alliance and has served as a director of the Washington Software Alliance, the Alliance of Angels, and several private technology companies. Kevin holds a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Washington.

Dave is a partner at OVP Partners with more than 20 years of operating experience in the software and communications markets. He began his career in 1979 as one of the early team members at Solectron, a $16 billion market leader in electronics manufacturing. He went on to join McKinsey & Co. Technology Practice in Chicago, and later ran marketing at Mentor Graphics. Dave was also founder and managing partner of The Ascent Group: a strategy consult serving firms like Intel, Microsoft, Sun, Bell Atlantic, and Fujitsu. During his tenure as an OVP partner, he served on the board of @mobile prior to its acquisition by software.com. He served until 2002 on the board of HNC Software (NASDAQ:HNCS, now NYSE:FIC). BA, Biology, University of California, Berkeley; MM, Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

John is a General Partner at Ignition. He invests in enterprise software and services as well as end-user/consumer-facing companies.

John represents Ignition as director on the board of N'Site Solutions. He also acts as Ignition observer on the boards of Intelligent Results, Clearsight Systems, MarketRange, and MobileLime. John is also the co-author (along with Rich Tong) of the upcoming book, The Marketing Playbook.

Prior to Ignition, John spent over 8 years at Microsoft in various senior marketing and strategy positions. As GM of Global Campaigns he was responsible for Microsoft's overall business-to-business communications across all business targets, products and offerings. In previous positions he was responsible for the development of the Microsoft Office brand and marketing the desktop and server applications product lines. He contributed to the original competitive wins of Word and Excel and the re-positioning of desktop applications into Office. This included the launches of every version of Office and all of its component applications and its growth from a $50 MM to a nearly $10 billion business and from 20% to 85% market share. John's other contributions and responsibilities at Microsoft included the company's most successful online marketing campaigns; its first use of internet banners and email; the establishment of a database marketing practice; and an ongoing marketing and business strategy training curriculum.

Before Microsoft, John was a marketing manager at American Express in International Business Development, Customer Acquisition and Retention. John was also an associate at International Data Corporation where he wrote the first industry whitepaper on the Desktop Publishing Industry.

John holds a Masters in International Economics and Monetary Theory from the Fletcher School (Harvard/Tufts), BA (magna cum laude) from Marquette University and a Fulbright Scholarship at Universität zu Köln.

For more on John and his interests see Zagula Spells...; for his and others' reflections on business and marketing topics see the Marketing Playbook and on technology see Geekfishing.

Richis a general partner and one of the founders of Ignition. Rich invests in telecommunications and wireless as well as end-user/consumer-facing companies. Rich is also the co-author (along with John Zagula) of the upcoming book, The Marketing Playbook.

Prior to Ignition, Rich spent 12 years at Microsoft where he most recently served as Vice President of Marketing for MS Office and BackOffice. He was responsible for business branding, advertising and pricing for the MS Office and BackOffice family of products, contributing to a $2 billion revenue stream and driving Windows NT and Exchange to become #1 in Microsoft's unit sales. He oversaw the purchase and integration of over 20 different companies and technologies into the Microsoft enterprise software family.

Rich built and led the marketing teams for Windows, NT, Exchange, SQL Server, BackOffice and Internet server, and managed over 250 people. His team's efforts catapulted Windows from a $50 million to $500 million business in two years. He also developed key business partnerships with Lotus, Intel, 3Com, Compaq, Dell and others.

Rich received his MBA and MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He received his B.S., summa cum laude, in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

For more information on Rich and his interests, see the Tong Family Blog; for his and others' reflections on business and marketing topics see the Marketing Playbook and on technology see Geekfishing.

Steve Hall is a director at Vulcan Capital where his investment focus areas include embedded networks and data intelligence. He sits on the board of Ember Corporation and led Vulcan's investment in Eliyon Technologies. Steve began his venture capital career with New York-based Prospect Street Ventures, where he participated in ten investments that led to five IPOs and one acquisition. Since 1999, he has also been a guest lecturer on venture capital investing at Columbia Law School. In an article entitled Bold: A New Generation is Changing the Face of Venture Capital, Steve was profiled by UPSIDE magazine as one of seven "VCs to watch." Prior to entering the venture industry, Steve was a corporate attorney with White & Case in New York, where his M&A and securities transactions totaled over $2.5 billion. Steve received his BA in business administration and BA in political science from Furman University and JD from Columbia University Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He is a member of the New York Bar. Steve muses about Venture Capital himself over here.