The world is waiting for your idea

Smirk :) 

Real time markerless face motion capture for low bandwidth mobile and web  Avatar communication as well as professional animation.   www.smirk.co

Tactile Acoustic Devices

TACTILE.  The world's first of is kind - the high fidelity enhancement to your favorite music and movie sound tracks.   TADs delivers the experience to a viewer or listener's skin and provides an unprecedented level of immersion and "emotional attachment" with both musicians and directors.  Consumer tests have shown that it is a "must have" for any audio or cinema experience.

Stealth sports safety product

Web and app startup - helping couples to focus on the best parts of their relationship.

Stealth outdoorsman product

Brian Nilles - Founder/CEO

20 years successful Executive Management, led Evolver - bringing human Avatar creation tools to the web (acquired by Autodesk 2011), eight years as CEO of Vicon/House of Moves, world’s largest manufacturer of motion capture used for character animation – Games, VFX, TV, Engineering, Life Sciences. Team achievements - 33% CAGR over 10 years, IPO, Academy Award™, Emmy™, several successful M&A's.

In an effort to prove that men really are capable of multitasking, Brian balances his passion for innovation with his family and a sports schedule including surfing, downhill mountain biking, barefoot waterskiing, snowboarding, and an occasional very long trail run.

www.bnilles.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bnilles

Tom Armbruster - Sales/Marketing, Partnerships, Product road mapping, Operations

Tom has held leadership roles in fast growing technology companies including personally delivering Vicon and House of Moves into the market leadership position for Film and Games.  Tom’s combination of relationship sales skills and his Mechanical Engineering background makes him lethal when it comes to delivering products to clients that they really want to buy.  

Tom also closed the top 5 largest deals in the industry’s history, was the driving force in Vicon’s technical team’s recognition of a Sci-Tech Academy Award™, and accepted the Emmy™ for his work in expanding worldwide presence in a spinout Film offering - 2d3.com.

When not conquering the earth in the media and entertainment space, Tom balances his time between the joys of family and his career of sailing wins.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tom-armbruster/3/836/799

Alberto Menache - Facial Animation Genius

Alberto has 20 years in visual effects for blockbuster films including Superman Returns, Spiderman, Stuart Little II, Polar Express, Shrek, and many others.  He is the world renowned technical author and visionary for visual effects technology advancements in the field of procedural facial muscle systems and volume deformation toolsets for digital character animation software and motion capture integration.  Past positions include Visual Effects Supervisor at House of Moves, Digital Effects Supervisor at Sony Imageworks and Character Technology Supervisor at PDI/Dreamworks.

In Alberto’s spare time, he authors books about Motion Capture, and Animation. His latest is “Understanding Motion Capture, 2^nd Edition”

 http://www.linkedin.com/pub/alberto-menache/1/934/574 

Stefanie Boose - Executive Producer

Stefanie brings a long, successful history of content production and management in Film work as well as TV features, episodics and commercials.  Currently Executive Producer at Animatrik Film Design™, Stefanie has also performed Producer roles at Image Engine™ with credits on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse; District 9 (for which she was VES nominated); The Incredible Hulk; and 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer; on Walt Disney Pictures™ Valiant’ Stefanie managed the Vanguard editorial department for this fully animated feature film, and at The Mill™ she was 3D Producer and earned credits on award winning international commercials for clients including Nike, Sony, Electronic Arts, and Vodaphone.

Stefanie is the one in the room who can help the techies understand Content Art, Story, Production Techniques, Timelines and basic reality, and she regularly does so while keeping our soft male egos intact.

http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/stefanie-boose/0/489/239

Matt Lawrence – FP&A / Strategic Road Mapping (a.k.a. Excel guy)

Matt’s passion to help business concepts grow into enterprises.  He has served in various financial and operational roles, both as a company leader and has a trusted consultant.

He is currently a partner of The Branstetter Group, bringing over 15 years of combined experience in retail and service operations, strategic planning and turnaround management.  Matt had his own consulting practice serving various clients and he also served as the chief operating officer for House of Moves, an animation software and service company, responsible for the ops of the business.  And met really cool people while at House of Moves; read Brian’s, Tom’s and Alberto’s bios for examples of Matt’s definition of “cool”.

Matt enjoys riding his Derringer (www.derringercycles.com) around Orange County…usually to catch up to his wife and two kids.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mjlsa


Svein Rorvik - VP Engineering - Web and Mobile

Svein carries 17 years of successful software architecture experience focusing on development of highly scalable business critical systems, the largest of which is currently $3B in annual transactions.  He has been in senior management roles for over a dozen years and has extensive experience building engineering teams for startup companies.  He has contributed to the success of such companies as Clear Channel, Realty Trac, Google, and others. 

Svein has a genuine knack for using phrases like “yeah we can do that” and “we’ll have it done in a couple days” a LOT more than “wow – that is really hard”, or “it’s going to take weeks.

Outside his time overdelivering at work, he spends time with his family in the US and abroad.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/rorvik

Taylor Wilson, big CTO skills

 Taylor has a seemingly impossible combination of technical depth/breadth - as well as the people and project management skills required to be a genuinely good leader.  This year marks his 20^th year in 3D computer graphics, most of which was spent managing the challenges of complex, small and large team software development.  You’ll see the results of his work every day in animated films, special FX , computer games, on the web and on mobile devices.

 We’re pretty sure Taylor gets those killer management skills from managing his large family which at one point required a bus.  We’re thinking that being a senior technology executive is the easier of those two jobs.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/taylor-wilson/0/613/810

Jim Sadler - Product designer extraordinaire.

Jim is a true innovator in the product design world and has produced shockingly cool action sports products with gigs at Oakley, Burton, North Face, Bern, Billabong, Black Diamond, CaseLogic, Under Armour and a dozen or so others.  He is the guy that can take a functional spec and turn our punk ass drawings into a product that not only works, but also looks great, is manufacturable, and minimizes cost while maximizing quality and customer stoke factor. 

In his spare time, Jim spends time outdoors using all the products he designs - charging on his mountain bike, snowboard and motorcycles.

Portfolio

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jim-sadler/1/591/96a

Ryan M. Fuller - Creative Director

12+ years of Creative Design, UI Architecture, Brand Development, Mobile App Development & Design, Industrial Design, Professional Photography, Product Creation and Sports Marketing. Ryan has held Founder, Creative Director, and Lead Designer roles with Oakley, National Geographic, Virgin Records, UFC, PurePhoto.com, JrPixels Corp., Estebull Corp. and Net Applications. Ryan currently holds the Creative Director roll at Klickthru, where Ryan creates advertising products for both desktop and mobile devices that are seen by 100+ Million viewers per month.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmfuller

Personal Site: www.photofurious.com

Evolver

Acquired by Autodesk August 2011

The Evolver™ character (Avatar) engine was the first to put Hollywood Visual Effects tools in the hands of worldwide web and mobile consumers of all ages.   Users create their own fantasy or photo real Avatar, then automatically deliver their design into dozens of online experiences.  An extensive library of user generated content enabled a micro-transaction fueled  marketplace.

Accel3D provided strategy for leveraging existing University IP and moving into new markets, funding strategy, preparation of materials, pitch meetings, through funding close.  Then Accel3D provided executive management including recruiting, product road map, sales and marketing.