Shauna Swerland
Shauna Swerland is CEO at Fuel Talent, where she leads a recruiting and staffing firm focused on connecting companies with exceptional talent and evolving toward scalable AI solutions for the future of work. She is the host of the What Fuels You podcast and a member of YPO and Entrepreneurs’ Organization. She is also a limited partner at AI House.
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Hope Cochran
Hope Cochran is currently a Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group. Previously, she served as the CFO of King Digital, the creators of Candy Crush. At King, she not only led the company through an IPO and acquisition to Activision but also became a rockstar Candy Crush player. Prior to that she was the CFO of Clearwire through its sale to Sprint in 2013 and was the founder of her own company, SkillsVillage which she went on to sell to PeopleSoft. In 2013 Fortune named her to the top 10 Most Powerful Women in Gaming and in 2018 Women’s Inc…
Derek Streat
Derek Streat is the Co-founder and CEO of DexCare, a data-driven intelligence company that makes healthcare access better for everyone. He is an accomplished healthcare technology entrepreneur and executive, having co-founded and/or led six venture-backed companies including three in health tech and four acquired by public companies. Prior to joining Providence as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence to commercialize DexCare, Derek served as Vice President of Digital Solutions at Johnson & Johnson after it acquired his surgical AI company, C-SATS. Derek is also actively involved in national healthcare data transparency efforts for the improvement of patient care as a Co-founder and Board member…
Kris Engskov
Kris Engskov is the Co-Founder & CEO of Rippl, a venture-backed start-up redefining the next generation of mental health for seniors. Leveraging a value-based approach, disruptive technology, and a relentless focus on empowering its clinicians, Rippl is pioneering a new care model to dramatically expand access to high-quality, wrap-around mental and behavioral healthcare for seniors, their families, and caregivers. Most recently, Kris served as President of Aegis Living, one of the nation’s leading innovators in providing assisted living, memory care, and wellness services to seniors. Prior to jumping into senior health, Kris spent over 16 years at Starbucks Coffee Company…
Mo Afshar
Mo Afshar is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pipe17 - Bringing the power of modern enterprise software to the e-commerce marketplace. Previously, he was CEO of Spoken Communications which was acquired by Avaya and served in various positions at Oracle. Over his fourteen years at Oracle, he built and managed multi-billion-dollar businesses. Mo is an advisor to several venture and private equity firms. He was educated in the UK and attended Cambridge University for his Ph.D. in Computer Science. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Grin Lord
Dr. Grin Lord is a clinical psychologist and AI empathy innovator. She is the founder/CEO of mpathic.ai - AI empathy at scale - and of Therapists in Tech, a collaborative of 3k+ digital mental health experts who are defining the digital mental health revolution together. Grin was previously the Chief Clinical Officer of Lyssn.io, a Clinical Product Psychologist at Youper.ai, and a Research Scientist at the University of Washington where she studied the key ingredients in conversation that make therapy effective and promote change. Her areas of expertise include conversational design, using machine learning to augment human connection, evidence-based therapy…
Matt Ehrlichman
Matt Ehrlichman is the CEO, Chairman, and founder of Porch Group, a Seattle-based vertical software platform for the home. Porch’s mission is to help home services companies grow and through these relationships to help make the home simple, from moving to maintenance and everything in between. Prior to founding Porch, Matt created his first technology startup, Thriva, in his dorm room at Stanford University, where he also received his Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Engineering and Master of Science in Management Science and Engineering. In 2007, he sold Thriva to Active Network for $60 million and went on to become…
Erin Quick
Erin Quick is the Co-founder and CEO of PairTree. With more than 20 years of global brand marketing experience, and more importantly, as a two-time adoptive mother, Erin is a leader in the movement to modernize adoption in the U.S. Previously, Erin co-founded Stoke Strategy, a Seattle-based brand strategy firm, which she led for 12 years. She began her marketing career at Addison in San Francisco and New York, where she worked on global branding for Domino’s Pizza, Merrill Lynch and The Make-a-Wish Foundation. Erin is a recipient of Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40-Under-40 award and most recently, PairTree, under…
Omri Gazitt
Omri Gazitt is the co-founder and CEO of Aserto, an authorization startup and his third entrepreneurial venture. He’s spent the majority of his 30-year career working on developer and infrastructure technology, most recently as the CPO of Puppet. Previously, he was the VP and GM of HP’s Cloud Native Platform, and General Manager at Microsoft with responsibilities for Azure, SQL Server, Application Server, and the .NET Framework. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ryan Frazier
Ryan Frazier is the Co-Founder & CEO of Arrived. Arrived makes it easy for anyone to invest in shares of single-family rental homes, and earn passive rental income + property appreciation right away. The company is backed by Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff, Spencer Rascoff (the former CEO and founder of Zillow), and Core Innovation Capital. Previously, Ryan was the Co-Founder and CEO of DataRank, an alumni of Y Combinator, and GM at Sprout Social. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dan Lewis
Dan Lewis is the Co-Founder and CEO of Convoy, a digital trucking network that is transforming the trillion-dollar global trucking industry in service of its mission, “To transport the world with endless capacity and zero waste”. Before Convoy, Dan served as General Manager of New Shopping Experiences at Amazon, after having product and data roles at Microsoft, Google, and various startups. Dan started his career in supply-chain and strategy consulting for Oliver Wyman, working in operations across Europe, Latin America, and the US, after graduating from Yale University with a Bachelor’s degree in cognitive science. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Melissa Widner
Melissa Widner is the CEO of Lighter Capital, the pioneer and leader in revenue-based financing for tech startups and scales-ups. Prior to Lighter Capital, Melissa was the Managing Director of NAB Ventures, the VC arm of the National Australia Bank and a General Partner at Seattle based SeaPoint Ventures. She was also the founder and CEO of 7Software, and the CEO of Northwest Industrial Supply, where under her leadership, both companies generated over a 10X return to investors. Melissa is also the co-founder and Chairperson of Sydney based Heads Over Heels, an organization that supports women entrepreneurs running companies with…
Frank Mycroft
Frank Mycroft is the co-founder and CEO of Booster, the leading mobile energy delivery platform that delivers fuels including renewables to fleets and consumers in the U.S. Prior to Booster, Mycroft worked as a rocket scientist for NASA and Boeing. He also served as the Vice President of Strategy for Planetary Resources, a robotics company that aspired to mine asteroids in space. Mycroft and colleagues Tyler Raugh and Diego Netto founded Booster Fuels in 2014. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Yadhu Gopalan
Yadhu Gopalan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Esper, the DevOps platform for intelligent edge devices. Esper is helping thousands of enterprise customers manage their device fleets, with the first DevOps enterprise-grade functionality with the ability to scale. Yadhu has over 25 years and 35 patents in embedded systems and security. Code he has built helps run over 100 million devices globally. He has held engineering leadership roles over the years, including owning systems engineering for Amazon, designing back-end solutions for FireOS and serving as the Chief Architect of Microsoft Windows CE. Yadhu spends his free time recharging by hiking…
Rajeev Singh
Rajeev Singh is CEO of Accolade, the Seattle-based company providing millions of people and their families with an exceptional healthcare experience that is personal, data driven and value-based, so that they can live their healthiest lives. Last month was Rajeev’s sixth anniversary at Accolade – congratulations! Prior to joining Accolade, he co-founded Concur, the global leader in travel and expense management, in 1993. Concur went public (Nasdaq: CNQR) in 1998, and grew to more than $800mm in revenue, over 4,000 employees, and more than 25,000 customers before being acquired by SAP AG for $8.3 billion in 2014. Rajeev’s desire to…
Scott Jacobson
Scott Jacobson is a Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group, where he has spent over 14 years helping early-stage technology entrepreneurs in the Pacific Northwest build and scale their companies. Scott is on the boards of companies like Rover, Flexe, and CommerceIQ, and focuses much of his energy on consumer businesses or business technologies that have a significant consumer component. Prior to joining Madrona, Scott worked at Amazon, where he did two tours of duty, leading product management for Amazon’s 3rd-party seller platform and working on the launch of the original Kindle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jesse Proudman
Jesse Proudman is the co-founder and CEO of Makara, a new investment platform democratizing access to the cryptocurrency markets, and the co-founder of Strix Leviathan, a crypto investment manager powered by a sophisticated proprietary trading platform. Prior to Strix Leviathan and Makara, Jesse founded Blue Box, a cloud computing startup that he led to a successful acquisition by IBM. During his time at IBM as an IBM Distinguished Engineer, Jesse focused on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency applications. With more than two decades of experience as a technical entrepreneur, Jesse serves on the board for the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at…
Ed Petersen
Ed Petersen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wrench, Inc. The company was started with the mission to remove the hassle of vehicle ownership through trust, transparency, and convenience. Wrench operates throughout all 50 states and British Columbia and Ontario, Canada providing maintenance and repair to consumers and enterprises and vehicle inspection services. Ed is a serial entrepreneur, having founded multiple companies, including Intelius, Talentwise, Union-Street.com, LocalMobile, and Pantheon. These companies have provided approximately $1 billion in exits to their collective shareholders. While leading Wrench, he was a 2020 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, and in 2021…
David Wolf
David Wolf is the founder and CTO of JetClosing, a tech startup in the Real Estate space working to make all-digital home closings the new normal. A UW and Stanford CS graduate, he has worked in the Seattle area tech scene for over 20 years. Prior to JetClosing, he worked At Amazon, where he ran the team who built the Amazon retail shopping iPhone app, used by millions worldwide. He also led teams at other local tech companies like Xome, Motricity, and Infospace. David also happened to be one of Redfin’s first customers in 2006, and is passionate about transforming…
Joe Ottinger
Joe Ottinger is a management consultant, board member, author, and thought leader in the areas of entrepreneurial leadership, Innovation, and strategy execution. After a 15 year technology career, Joe co-founded a global management consulting firm called Kotter International with Harvard Business School professor John Kotter. After Kotter International, Joe founded his own management consulting firm called Iinnovate which provides comprehensive strategic advisory services to CEOs and senior teams that are scaling, as well as CEO peer forum groups for CEOs of companies that are scaling. Joe is the author of books and articles on entrepreneurial leadership, that have appeared in…
Pete Christothoulou
Pete Christothoulou is an entrepreneur and company leader who has focused on building and scaling technology-driven business productivity platforms for most of his career. He's currently the founder and CEO of Xembly, a fast-growing start-up using AI to rid the world of bad meetings. Prior to Xembly, Pete was the CEO of Marchex, a conversational analytics company he co-founded and took public. After residing in Seattle for many years, Pete, his wife Heather, and two daughters, Pia and Coco, moved to Canada during the pandemic (to support their daughter's acting career) and now reside in Napa, California. See omnystudio.com/listener for…
Jessica Eggert
Jessica is the CEO and Founder of LegUp, a venture-backed Seattle-based organization that connects families to available childcare, and helps small business childcare providers grow. Prior to LegUp, Jessica spent over 10 years in operations, HR, and consulting at various companies, including Common Engine and The Riveter. She also serves as an advisor at Ethel’s Club, the first social club and digital space for people of color, and Female Founders Alliance, a startup community dedicated to accelerating the success of highly scalable companies founded by women and non-binary individuals. Alongside these roles, Jessica is a Vice Chair of the King…
What Fuels You: Life and leadership with Jane Park
We're starting a new tradition on GeekWire, periodically sharing selected episodes of some of our favorite podcasts about startups, leadership, technology, science and more from the Seattle region and beyond. First up: What Fuels You, a new podcast from Shauna Swerland of Fuel Talent, featuring conversations and insights from successful business leaders. Her guest on this episode is Jane Park, the CEO and founder of Seattle-based beauty products company Julep. Park, who founded Julep in 2006, was named CEO of the Year in the 2014 GeekWire Awards. She sold Julep in 2016 to beauty brand Glansaol, which filed for bankruptcy…
Organizations
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AI House Limited Partner 2025–present · current
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YPO Member 2021–present · current
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What Fuels You Podcast Host 2019–present · current
Education
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University of Washington 1990–1994
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Lakeside School
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mercer Island High School
