PopCom

Dawn is a serial entrepreneur with over 16 years in business development. Dawn has received numerous awards and regularly speaks on panels and workshops around the country. She's been featured in countless media outlets including Forbes, Inc Magazine, VentureBeat, Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, Ebony.com, Women’s World Daily, CNBC/Yahoo, MSNBC and on the cover of Black Enterprise. Dawn received her B.A. in Journalism from The Ohio State University and studied Information Technology at Devry. Additionally, Dawn has been selected to participate in some of the nation’s top accelerator programs for entrepreneurs including NewME, Canopy Boulder, Techstars, Brinc, and Nasdaq Milestone Makers and is recognized as one of the nation’s top entrepreneurs.

Crystal Begley is an advisor to leaders, CEO’s, Founders, Mothers in leadership & Women in Business as well as strategist for start-up businesses and is a Real Estate Consultant in California at the Nationally acclaimed Commercial Investments brokerage Lee & Associates and became a member of the Berzack Investment Property Advisors. She started and operated English schools in Japan, hosts self-development programs for leaders all over the world. She has advised fashion and skin care companies & tech companies, focusing on entrepreneurs & product startups and is especially relentless in helping leaders in every walk of life realize their full potential by spending one to one time coaching and advising on their particular style and field of expertise. She is a realist and utilizes her large network of high level leaders to bring a vision to realization-the greatest factors in creating a life-long network of professionals and a global business family is in integrity and longevity. The Entrepreneurial approach is one of Crystal Begley’s strongest virtues. Identifying marketing strategies, developing opportunity and navigating business productivity, offering clients a real-world business orientation combined with rigorous attention to results. She sits on the board of the International Design Awards and was an advisor to the City Summit during its’ early years of inception and is a member of Driving Force Enterprises training, coaching and mentorships.

After a career in state and national politics, Derrick Clay joined New Visions Group in 2004 as Vice President and Partner. He became CEO after acquiring the firm in 2014. Previously, he served as Midwest Political Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Ohio State Director for the Gore-Lieberman 2000 Presidential Campaign, a member of the historic Florida Recount Committee, and Executive Director of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, among other leadership roles. Other career highlights include: Board Member, Columbus Chamber of Commerce; Chair, Columbus Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs Steering Committee; Chair, Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation Board; Commissioner, City of Columbus Recreation and Parks Commission; Ebony Magazine 30 Young Leaders of the Future.

eff Hoffman is an award-winning global entrepreneur, proven CEO, worldwide motivational speaker, bestselling author, Hollywood film producer, a producer of a Grammy winning jazz album, and executive producer of an Emmy Award winning television show. In his career, he has been the founder of multiple startups, he has been the CEO of both public and private companies, and he has served as a senior executive in many capacities. Jeff has been part of a number of well-known successful startups, including Priceline.com/Booking.com, uBid.com and more. Jeff serves on the boards of companies in the US, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa, and Asia. He supports entrepreneurs and small businesses on a worldwide basis. He is the Chairman of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, which works with entrepreneurs in 180 countries, as well as being a founding board member of The Unreasonable Group, whose startup companies have operations in 185 countries and have raised over $4 billion in funding. He is also the Global Chairman of Dream Tank, a worldwide youth problem solving network. Jeff supports the White House, the State Department, the United Nations, and similar organizations internationally on economic growth initiatives and entrepreneurship programs. Jeff is a featured business expert seen on Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, CNN International, Bloomberg News, CNBC, ABC, and NPR, and in publications including Forbes, Inc., Time, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, and more.

Born on the roots of rapid prototyping and Startup Weekends, Dan Rockwell is a source of inspiration and creation in the startup ecosystem in Central Ohio. He is the of co-founder of Big Kitty Labs, a digital software agency. The work by him and his team can be found in numerous startups and fortune 500 companies in the region and nationwide. Having a knack for ideas and building concepts came to him first while working at Lextant a design research firm where he conceived and built numerous research tools. It was at this time the early roots of Big Kitty were planted, along the way Ohio State University recruited him to help monetize software intellectual property which through his efforts led to 8+ startups in four years. He is often a speaker at Startup Weekend, Give Back Hack and related tech startup events. For fun Dan enjoys writing short stories, performing in an electronic music band and mixing tiki cocktails. --- 3-year employment/business history: Big Kitty Labs CEO (Part-Time 20 hrs/week) Feb 2009- Present Solutions Vending International (Popcom) CTO (Part-Time 20 hrs/week) Apr 2018- Present The Ohio State University, Technology Commercialization Office Program Manager of Software Prototyping Center Feb 2012- Oct 2016

Jared is a computer engineer turned product manager and marketer with deep experience in building highly scalable and marketable products. He has worked with and within both large and small organizations from many industries including space (NASA), research and academia (Arizona State University), blue-chip (Intel Corp.), commercial airlines (KLM) and many startups. Jared has founded and co-founded multiple startups, the first of which was acquired 18 months after launch. He was subsequently chosen to assist in brokering the relationship between Draper University and the business school of America’s largest university to develop first-of-its-kind, nationally accredited entrepreneurship curriculum, called Semester in Silicon Valley. During that time he worked alongside several leaders in the Draper and Arizona State ecosystem and served as a commercial strategist and advisor to 150+ founders and early-stage startup teams from 41 countries in their product ideation and development, brand identity, growth strategy, and capital raising. Jared received a Bachelor of Science (BSE) in Computer Systems Engineering from Arizona State University with a focus in Information Assurance and physics. Note: Jared is not a fulltime colleague at PopCom/SVI.

Kaleem is a passionate professional for empowerment, critical thinking, education, and technology. His background is as a software engineer with proficiency in various full stack technologies. He has been a part of P2P integration projects, app development and is constantly in search of new ways to innovate. Prior to entering the technology industry, Kaleem worked in the various across various sectors. In addition to being a performer and public speaker, under his own company, he was able to develop city wide programs and initiatives for community development ranging from violence prevention to real estate. The silver lining in his versatility is the ability to solve complex problems and create solutions whether for users or within teams. A creative collaborator, original thinker and dynamic communicator he is glad to bring his talents ideas to the success of the PopCom family!

Natasia Malaihollo is the Head of Business Development at PopCom. Prior to PopCom, Natasia was the co-founder/CEO of Wyzerr, a software company that develops gamified surveys. At Wyzerr, Natasia grew its' customer base to over 2,200 small and large businesses in 53 countries in less than 2 years, and counts Google, Facebook, P&G, Unilever, Walmart, and Kroger as clients. Natasia was inspired to become a tech entrepreneur after working for many years as a patent specialist in Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley. Natasia received her BA degree from UC Berkeley, where she studied Computer Science and Legal Studies. Natasia has won multiple business and innovation awards for her customer feedback work with Wyzerr. In 2017, Smithsonian Magazine named Natasia to their annual Eight Innovators to Watch List. Other awards include: Forbes Under 30 Global Change the World, FedEx's 36|86 Entrepreneurial award, CART Retail Innovation, Cincinnati Courier's Women Who Mean Business, and Kentucky's Thoroughbred Award.

With a degree in IT, a background in systems analysis and more than 20 years of for and non-profit business experience, Pat is a natural problem solver and organizer. She has a passion for quality and efficiency and knows the PopShop customer experience inside and out. Pat’s professional career started at DuPont where she led the development of one of their first laptop sales tools. She migrated to administration, marketing and fund development in the non-profit sector until making a decision several years ago to return to her IT roots. She took a full-time programming bootcamp and ended up teaching the class. Pat is PopCom’s field marshal and swiss army knife, rolling up her sleeves to contribute to wherever her experience can make a difference, but her primary focus is delivering a stellar customer experience to each and every one of PopCom’s clients.