Mama Gaia

Highly accomplished, result-oriented IT Executive with over 15 years of development and technical leadership experience. Brings superior team-building and management expertise with a focus on process improvement to enhance IT operations and software development practices. Proven track record of designing, developing and implementing enterprise-class, scalable data management solutions. A tendency to thrive in dynamic and full environments while remaining pragmatic and focused. Giovanni works up to 40 hours per week for Mama Gaia. His primary occupation is being the CTO of Mama Gaia.

Hayden Brink has been working as the co-founder and President of Maia Growth Capital since July 2018. Maia Growth Capital is a private financial consulting and investment firm for start-ups & small businesses. As part of his role at the firm, Hayden spent a year as CFO of a home health care investment, improving its cash flows and financial processes, before selling the firm’s equity in the business. Hayden currently splits his time running Maia’s day-to-day operations and as the co-founder of Mama Gaia, working on the Advisory Board with an emphasis on Finance & Strategy. Mr. Brink is a financial advisor to, and holds options in, several startup companies including Mama Gaia, a FinTech company, and a BioTech company. Mr. Brink began his career doing 409a valuations and then as a sell-side investment banking analyst. He holds a BSBA in Finance with a Minor in Computer Science from the University of Denver. Mr. Brink spends 15-20 hours per week on Mama Gaia.

Sarah singlehandedly founded Mama Gaia in May of 2018, by launching 3 test fridges in offices and apartment complexes and testing the concept, spending her time connecting with local food vendors, talking to her daily customers, and donating the leftovers to local food banks. She learned how much local food vendors were struggling to be seen on crowded grocery shelves, competing with mass-produced brands; she learned the value in offering high-quality foods to her customers in a convenient manner that doesn’t take a second out of their day; and she saw firsthand the importance of being zero-food-waste and paying it forward as a business. She also quickly realized not only the community benefit from a business model such as this, but the speed in which a new customer became a repeat daily customer. She saw how vending machines were outdated, unhealthy, and dirty - yet they sit untouched right in the places where customers spend most of their day, with thousands of potential daily touch-points. No wait times, no delivery fees, no walking to the convenience store - she saw it as an untapped market opportunity. From that point, she pivoted her business model to building a technology platform centered around supporting local food by providing it to customers in the most convenient manner possible.

Carolyn works as an AI Specialist and Data Scientist for Mama Gaia. Dr. Ford has a PhD in Electrical Engineering/Digital Signal Processing from the University of Colorado. Her industry experience includes adaptive learning systems, image and video processing.