Michael Matousek, CEO/Founder

Mike Co-Founded Flashnotes in 2010 while a senior at Kent State University. He brings energy and passion to the company. While at Kent State, Mike studied and graduated with a degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship. Inspired by his personal experience and frustration while in school, Mike believes in the mission of Flashnotes: powering the student-to-student exchange of high quality academic materials to help supplement and complement the learning experience by harnessing commerce and the latest technologies.

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David Petruziello, COO/Founder

Dave Petruziello is the cofounder and COO of Flashnotes.com. Dave cofounded the business with Mike Matousek after his first startup on the west coast. He also worked in the medical sales arena in surgery for 5 years where he was able to apply his education in Anatomy and Physiology. Dave earned his degree from the University of Michigan and was a 4 year letterman/starter on the football team with Big Ten Honors. Prior to that he had a professional football career having spent time with the New England Patriots and the Cleveland Browns.

LinkedIn

Steven Maggs, CTO/Founder

Steven Maggs serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Flashnotes and brings leadership and innovation with both hands-on and management experience building, running, and maintaining large-scale Internet services. As the former CTO of Thinking Screen Media and AVP at CNET Networks, Steven brings an array of experience poised to run Flashnotes through its growth phase. Steven earned his Bachelor of Arts at Amherst College and lives in Acton, MA with his wife, two children, and dog.

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Jeff Kushmerek, CPO

Jeff is responsible for all digital product development and technology. Prior to joining Flashnotes, Jeff ran Product and Operations for Ourstage.com, a powerful source and enabler for new music discovery. Jeff was also the Vice President of Professional Services for Brightcove for several years, growing the team from 4 to 25 and managing a multi million dollar, profitable P&L. There, he architected video solutions for media giants such as Vevo, AOL, AMC and Viacom. Prior to Brightcove, Jeff was at Endeca , overseeing successful ecommerce projects for IBM, Office Depot and QVC.

LinkedIn

Gabriella Caseres, Community Coordinator

Gabriella Caseres is Community Coordinator at Flashnotes.com. She is a 2010 graduate of Northeastern University with a Bachelors degree in Behavioral Neuroscience. As an undergrad, Gabriella spent much of her time dedicated to the Latin American Student Organization where she led several successful fundraisers and cultural events. As part of the NU Global Pact Program, she spent a summer semester in Mae Kachan, Thailand where she Co-founded No Nam Now, an organization dedicated to the eradication of water pollution in a small rural community. Read More

Inspired by her experience with non-profit work, Gabriella returned to the states ready to influence change locally. She Co-founded MS'Informed an on campus organization dedicated to Multiple Sclerosis awareness in partnership with the New England MS Society. Post graduation, Gabriella was recruited by Teach For America and became a 2010 NYC corp member. She fulfilled her commitment at KIPP NYC College Prep as a founding 10th grade Chemistry teacher. Her two years at KIPP provided unique perspective and understanding of the art of teaching as well as the education system as a whole. Experience as a high school science teacher ignited a newfound passion for education equality, which has led her to Flashnotes where she hopes to help change the face of education.
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Martin Dluhos, Junior Software Engineer

Martin grew up in the Czech Republic and decided to come to the US seeking excellent educational opportunities. He found those at Grinnell College, a small liberal-arts college with a large international community in the midst of Iowan cornfields. Upon graduation, he moved to Boston, where he worked at the Free Software Foundation with the systems team. In his spare time, he is fond of playing tennis, biking around the city, and attending meetups.

Jessie Goldbas, Director of Engagement

Jessie joins Flashnotes as the Director of Engagement driving strategic growth and brand visibility on college campuses, leading marketing initiatives for brand ambassadors, qualified note takers, and group leaders nationwide. Jessie also leads her company, Little e Communications managing brand awareness and audience engagement campaigns for corporate, non-profit, media, entertainment and educational organizations. Jessie was named student leader of the year at Northeastern University - where she graduated with Communications Studies degree in 2007.

Sarah Koniniec, Social Media Manager

Sarah has been a social butterfly since day one, so it is not surprising that she finds herself managing social media at Flashnotes. She commands online presence by managing multiple social media profiles, implementing targeted social media strategy and analyzing audience engagement. She brings an unbridled passion for learning and connecting with people that is evident in all of her work. She recently moved to Boston from California where she graduated from CSU Chico in three years with Honors. In her spare time, she enjoys looking at cat pictures online, snowboarding and running half marathons.

Matt Miller, Lead Programmer

Matthew Miller came to New England from South Florida to become involved in the thriving developer community. Matt is a passionate developer whose first computer was a Commodore VIC 20 and whose humble beginnings with programming started with Pascal and BASIC. Animated, quirky and always willing to help.

Jason Myatt, Software Architect

Jason has been working as an application developer and solutions architect in the Boston area for 12 years with companies such as Endeca, MarkLogic and Brightcove. Over the years he has specialized in search / information access, e-commerce, big data, and most recently online video solutions. He comes to Flashnotes with an excitement to contribute to the growth of the Education space, where technology can enhance students' learning experience in effective, tangible ways. In his spare time Jason enjoys spending time with his wife and two young boys, acting in community theater productions, and playing in a local over-30 baseball league.

Lana Nelson, Web Developer

Lana Nelson came to the United States from Ekaterinburg, Russia after graduating in 2007. Living in Boston has made it easy for her to expand her connections and knowledge in IT field. She contributed to a few tech startup projects, while completing her Master's degree at Harvard Extension School. Working as a front end developer at Flashnotes she enjoys the challenge of creating compelling user experience, and is always ready to master new technology or another language.

LinkedIn

Steve Popovich, VP of Business Development

Steve Popovich Jr has currently been involved in the music and entertainment industry for the past 15 years. Was VP for world renowned, Cleveland Int’l Records and was employed at SiriusXM Satellite Radio since 2005. Currently producing weekly radio shows as well as specialty type programming for one of two channels created by Steven Van Zandt. Major connections in the music and entertainment industry Based in Nashville, TN, considered to be the music capital of the world Steve Jr. has established close working relationships with many artists, including artist management, record labels and publishing companies. Steve also has had much success in cross promoting with brands such as, HBO, FX, WWE and UFC to just name a few.

LinkedIn

Teddy Wing, Web Developer

Teddy Wing is a designer and developer. Nearly a century ago he time-travelled to present day Boston and studied computer science at Tufts University. Teddy decided to stay in Boston because of its European atmosphere and so he could continue wearing winter clothes. He enjoys creating and tinkering with software, french viennoiseries, beautiful typography, and listening to classical music.

Adriana Woods, Community Manager

Adriana Campos Woods is a born-and-raised Californian who graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Journalism in 2007 and has called Boston home ever since. At Flashnotes, she draws upon her background in film production and law to fuel her passion for brand management and on-campus marketing. As a former JetBlue campus representative at Northeastern, Adriana pitched and secured approval to award the winning team of NU’s iconic Amazing Husky Hunt with twelve free round-trip tickets to any JetBlue destination. Read More

Carl Rosendorf, Advisor

Carl Rosendorf has been actively involved in the Internet space since 1994, with a specific focus on the business-to-consumer market. Carl established his consulting practice in 2007 with clients including Textbooks.com, AbesMarket.com, FlashNotes.com, amongst others.

Most recently, Carl was President & COO of Gather.com from 2005-October, 2007. Gather is a social networking, social media community website for a 30+ demographic. At Gather, Carl’s responsibilities included marketing, business development, editorial, ad sales and customer service. Investors include McGraw-Hill, Hearst, Jim Manzi and Senator Bill Bradley. Read More

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Pat Kratus, Advisor

Pat is a managing director and head of BMO Capital Market’s Internet & Digital Media practice. Pat has over 12 years of investment & corporate banking experience, leading a wide variety of financing and merger and acquisition transactions across the internet and digital media clients landscape. Pat has also been responsible for executing transactions across the globe. Prior to joining BMO Capital Markets, he has worked with Robertson Stephens, ThinkEquity Partners, Montgomery & Co and UBS. Pat has been based in the bay area for his entire career and brings both company relationships and deep venture relationships. Pat has been responsible for hosting multiple private company conferences with hundreds of VCs in attendance. Pat holds a Bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Michigan

LinkedIn

Paul Tedeschi, Advisor

Paul started his first youth marketing firm, Collegiate Advantage, as a college student in 1988..pre-internet and pre-cell phones. He believed a niche peer-to-peer agency was the best way for brands to market to students. Collegiate Advantage provided a variety of media and marketing services to both agencies and brands. They worked closely with Barnes & Noble College Bookstores creating campus tours, in store tabling events and creative sampling programs for top brands such as M&M Mars, SC Johnson and American Express. Read More

Collegiate Advantage also conducted large promotional efforts for Reebok, Citibank, Rolling Stone Magazine, Coca Cola, EA Sports and Sprint. Additionally, Collegiate Advantage created a massive multi-year brand ambassador program for Sprint that generated hundreds of thousands of new student customers per year. Paul sold Collegiate Advantage to Student Advantage in 1998 where he then became the SVP of Partnership Development for the student discount company. CA was rebranded SAMG (Student Advantage Marketing Group) and eventually sold off to Alloy. After Student Advantage, Paul joined Woolf Associates, a sports marketing agency, as their CMO. Woolf’s corporate clients included John Hancock, Fleet, EMC, Stop & Shop and Liberty Mutual. Paul took his interest in sports marketing to Host Communications (now IMG College) in 2000 where as an SVP, he sold the NCAA Corporate Partnership program to companies including Monster.com. In 2002, Paul co-founded Mr. Youth and served as the CEO until the sale of the business in October, 2008. Mr. Youth’s clients included VS Pink, Microsoft, Neutrogena, MSN, Chase, Red Bull, Google, Valvoline, Calvin Klein, Playstation, Mountain Dew, JetBlue, Butterfinger, GM and Bandai. In 2004, Paul managed the acquisition of CollegeFest by Mr. Youth, an event he first attended in 1986 as a student at Boston University. In late 2008 Paul joined the AVP Pro Beach Voleyball Tour and served as their CMO working with the tour’s sponsors that included Nivea, Crocs, Paul Mitchell, Bud Light, Johnsonville, Barefoot Wines, Nature Valley, Malibu Rum, PopChips and Rockstar. Paul is currently the General Manager of SUMM Agency, a division of StudentUniverse. Read Less

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Donald W. Moorman, M.D., FACS, Advisor

Dr. Moorman is a recognized expert in surgical safety, interdisciplinary team performance and surgical quality assessment. He has had a recognized career as a surgical clinician, educator and administrator, recognized as “One of America’s Top Surgeons”. He has held academic appointments as associate professor or professor at Northeast Ohio Medical School, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, Temple University College of Medicine and the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Moorman is now focusing his professional efforts on health care quality, patient safety and patient empowerment through education. A long-term student of medical error, he has developed programs to better identify and analyze error, implement remedial actions, provide factual transparency and appropriate apology when medical outcomes are suboptimal. He also has significant experience in value based healthcare delivery. Read More

He has been a leader promoting these efforts within the American College of Surgeons, and currently provides expertise to the Institute of Healthcare Improvement as member of both the Advisory Group for the IHI course on Quality Improvement for Chairs and Chiefs and as a member of the Surgical Safety Advisory Panel. He has been an invited consultant for the AORN Board of Directors, as well as hospital systems and healthcare consultants. Read Less

Dr. Shay David

Dr. Shay David is a scholar and serial entrepreneur who specializes in collaborative and open-source information and communication systems. Headquartered in NYC, with over 150,000 publishers, universities and enterprises worldwide who have integrated Kaltura’s open source video platform, the company is the world leader in the field. At Kaltura Shay oversees sales, business development, corporate development and strategy. Shay is also, a founding member of the Open Video Alliance, an organization dedicated to open standards for video. Read More

corp.kaltura.com

Ryan Moore - Atlas Venture

Atlas Venture is an international early-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology, and life sciences companies. From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s the firm was leading investor in startup companies in both the U.S. and Europe. Atlas is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

www.atlasventure.com

Jordy Levy - Softbank Capital

SoftBank Capital is a venture capital group in the United States, focusing on technology and telecom early stage businesses. The firm is established and led by four partners: Ron Fisher, Eric Hippeau, Steve Murray, and Michael Perlis. The company is a member of National Venture Capital Association.

www.softbank.com

Deborah Quazzo - GSV Advisors

Deborah is an investment banker and entrepreneur. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of GSV Advisors, which she started in April 2009. GSV Advisors is a merchant bank providing advisory services to the education and business services sectors. Additionally, as part of her involvement in the education sector, she is an individual investor in companies including Dreambox, Clever, Parchment, Altius, Think Through Math, HotChalk, and Tynker. GSV clients have included Collaborative Learning, Campus Labs, The Gates Foundation, Eloyalty, Praml International, Teachscape, rSmart and ePals (TSXV:SLN). GSV Advisors also has a partnership with Arizona State University to co-host the annual Education Innovation Summit in Scottsdale, AZ and Co-Chair of the SXSW Launchedu Advisory Board.

gsvadvisors.com

Michael Lazerow

Michael is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded four successful internet-based media companies. He has a passion for creating, managing and growing companies from the ground up. Michael is currently Chairman and CEO of Buddy Media, Inc., a New York-based company whose social enterprise management system, the Buddy Media Social Marketing Suite, is used by eight out of the top ten global advertisers.

Before Buddy Media, Michael founded University Wire, an Associated Press-like network of more than 700 student-run newspapers, now owned by CBS Corp, and GOLF.com, a profitable online golf media company purchased by Time Warner's Time Inc. in January 2006. In February 2007, he started Lazerow Consulting, which helps finance, launch, manage and grow numerous digital media businesses. Read More

Michael is widely recognized as a thought leader on digital media and marketing trends and is a contributing writer to Advertising Age, AllThingsD, MediaPost, Business Insider and Fortune, among other publications. He regularly speaks at conferences including the Monaco Media Forum, the Consumer Electronics Show, South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), Bloomberg Empowered Entrepreneur Summit, Mashable Connect, MediaPost OMMA Global, Web 2.0 Expo and iMedia Brand Summit. Michael lives in New York City with his wife, Kass, two sons, Myles and Cole, and daughter Vivian. He graduated from Northwestern University with a B.S. and M.S. in Journalism in 1996. Read Less

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Abigail Coxsen, Investor

Currently Abigail is involved in the bar and restaurant industry in downtown Boston. Having grown up in Westfield, New Jersey, Abigail moved to Boston to attend college. She graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in economics accompanied by a minor in business management.