Advisors

EggZack Advisors.

Fred Beste III
Mid Atlantic Venture Funds

Fred Beste has spent his entire career in the venture capital industry, beginning in 1968 with Greater Washington Investors, Inc., a publicly held venture capital firm, where he was Vice-President and Treasurer. In 1975 he joined Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, a private venture capital development firm, where he was Vice-President and, ultimately, President and Chief Executive Officer. He joined MAVF in 1984 as the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of its first general partner. MAVF is comprised of four venture capital limited partnerships totaling approximately $200 million in capital. The funds focus on seed and start-up stage investments, primarily in technology-based companies located in the mid-Atlantic.

During the course of his career, Fred has served on the boards of directors of countless operating companies and has advised and worked with thousands of entrepreneurs. He has been widely published on the subjects of venture capital and entrepreneurship, and has done extensive public speaking on both subjects as well. He was the Chairman of the 1994 Mid-Atlantic Venture Fair, at the time the largest such event in the industry, and the recipient of the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group’s 1995 Blair Thompson Memorial Award for career achievement in venture capital, and Early Stage East’s inaugural (2001) Sal Buccieri Memorial Venture Impact Award for early stage venture capital investment achievement.

Fred received his B.A. in Economics from Stetson University, and, since 2000, has served as an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Cornell University, where each fall he teaches NBA 557, Case Studies in Entrepreneurial Finance.

Steve Goodman
Morgan Lewis

Stephen M. Goodman is a partner at Morgan Lewis in the Business Transactions Practice. Mr. Goodman is co-chairman of the Firm’s Global Technology Practice. His practice focuses on representing emerging growth companies in the technology and life sciences sectors. He has nurtured startup companies such as CDnow, VerticalNet, ICG Commerce, AirClic, and AANet.com. Using the firm's vast resources, he coordinates all aspects of the representation of such companies and concentrates his practice on legal aspects of corporate finance and acquisitions.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Goodman was a senior partner at Wolf Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen. While there, he served as chairman of the Corporate Law Department, chairman of the Hiring Committee, as a member of the Executive Committee and as chairman of the Venture Development Group.

Chris McDemus
MCD Law Partners

Chris is a well-respected corporate transactional attorney with a versatile skill set developed from over 14 years of global law firm and senior in-house counsel experience. Chris advises private and public companies in varying industries on mergers and acquisitions (including stock and asset deals), divestitures and spin-offs, venture capital and private equity transactions, debt financing transactions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, outsourcing transactions, commercialization and licensing of technology, commercial contracts and other general corporate matters. Chris also has significant experience advising and counseling CEOs, directors and senior management on a broad spectrum of issues including corporate governance. Drawing from his in-house experience, Chris understands the needs of corporate clients and the necessity to carefully balance legal advice with a client’s business and financial objectives.

Chris has represented start-up and emerging growth companies, venture capital funds, corporate venture units, angel and other private investors in venture capital transactions and private placements, including structuring and negotiating the purchase and sale of preferred stock, convertible debt and warrants or completing bridge loans, PIPE transactions or financing-related recapitalizations. To date, he has negotiated and closed in excess of $200,000,000 in venture financing rounds. He also makes the necessary introductions to assist his clients in raising capital. Chris is dedicated to nurturing and building start-up and emerging growth companies, networking and interacting with the venture community and providing insight through his blog at www.vcdeallawyer.com.

Bob Weissman
Agency Ventures & Stream Companies

For the past seven years, Bob’s firm, Agency Ventures LLC, has served as a business consultant to more than fifty advertising and digital agencies in Greater Philadelphia and nationally, helping them grow their business. Bob has worked closely with Ben Franklin Technology Partners to help finance and grow partner company businesses. This work includes strategy sessions, business plan development, consulting, fund raising and more.

Previously, Bob served as President and CEO of Cadient, Inc., a leading online pharmaceutical marketing company that was created when he led a management buyout from Qwest Communications’ Professional Services Group by securing venture funding to make the acquisition and provide working capital for the new company. At Qwest, Bob had served as Executive Vice President in the Professional Services Group, managing the eastern half of the country with offices in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. He was responsible for a $50 million, 300 person organization involved in web development, integration services, managed services and resident consulting.

Prior to that, he was Chief Operating Officer of Frontier Media Group, a leading interactive software company based in Malvern, PA, where he helped transition the company through two acquisitions, first to ICON CMT in June, 1998 and to Qwest six months later. Bob has a Bachelor’s degree from Springfield College and an MBA from Northeastern University.

Rich Ullman
Chief Marketing Officer

Rich is responsible for all of the EggZack sales and marketing efforts. He's an Internet media and startup veteran, having led marketing for Ripple6, a social marketing platform that he helped launch in 2006, and which was acquired in 2008 by Gannett. He also led marketing for About.com from start-up in 1997 as The Mining Company, through its IPO, its re-branding to "About.com", and it becoming the fifth most-visited property on the Web. Rich also helped create one of the first interactive ad agency groups at MVBMS Euro RSCG, and had lots of fun in the agency business working primarily on luxury cars and premium liquors, but never simultaneously (so he says). He's a proud hater of the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Eagles and University of Michigan football.