Upendra Shardanand, CEO and Founder

Mr. Shardanand is having a fun career as an entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded his first venture, Firefly Network, as a spin-off of his work at the MIT Media Lab. Upendra's graduate thesis centered on Collaborative Filtering (the recommendation technology now commonplace on the web). Firefly Network was a pioneer in personalization and several web technologies, and was acquired by Microsoft in 1998. At Microsoft, he architected and launched Microsoft Passport; he also drove Microsoft's privacy initiatives and served on industry bodies to further the cause of online privacy.

Following Microsoft, Upendra was a founding partner of The Accelerator Group, a venture firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London. He went on to serve as the Director of Technology at Time Warner Corporate. At TWX, Upendra worked with the CTOs of the various divisions on cross-corporate issues such as content piracy, high-definition formats, and DVRs. Mr. Shardanand received in 1994 a Masters of Engineering (as well as his undergraduate degree) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Shardanand is serving or has served on the boards of advisors for several organizations, including Help Remedies, the Better Business Bureau Online, PeoplePC (acquired by Earthlink), TreeHugger (acquired by Discovery), MediaCode (acquired by Yahoo), RealNames, and InsightFirst (acquired by 24/7 RealMedia).

Salek Brodsky, Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Brodsky brings over a decade of business strategy and operating experience to the company. Most recently, he served as SVP, Corporate Development for Verified Person, Inc. where he was responsible for developing and managing the company's channel partnerships and strategic accounts.

Prior to his work with Verified Person, Mr. Brodsky worked at StarMedia Network, Inc. (now Wanadoo), where he headed business, product, and corporate development. As SVP of Corporate Development for StarMedia, he was responsible for managing the publicly traded media company's acquisition and investment activities. While serving in a product and business development capacity, Mr. Brodsky directed international product strategy and new product development, as well as the negotiation of technology, content, and distribution agreements. Mr. Brodsky joined StarMedia from Firefly Network, Inc. where he was responsible for business development and product marketing.

Mr. Brodsky earned his A.B. from Harvard University.

Tom Tercek, Vice President of Strategic Development

As part of the Denuo Group, Tom Tercek headed SMG Access, a programming unit of media services agency Starcom Mediavest Group that provides digital entertainment experiences for marketers which leverage emerging digital platforms to reach targeted audiences.

Mr. Tercek is a former cable television producer and programmer with over 20 years of experience: 9 years with MTV Networks, then later as co-founder of Global Media Holdings, where he created and launched two C/S networks in Japan; SF, a Science Fiction channel; and SheTV, the first channel created for women in Japan, with extensive crossplatform programming to incorporate viewer interaction and participation.

Mr. Tercek also oversaw network strategy, programming and marketing of AtomTelevision, a new channel devoted exclusively to the emerging world of short films, currently with Video-on-Demand programming available on major domestic cable systems throughout the US.

John Donovan, Vice President of Platform Services

John Donovan manages Daylife's Platform product line and leads the team that helps Daylife’s customers get Daylife powered products out the door. Since Daylife delivered the world's first published API for news (in 2006), Daylife has helped customers from A-List media companies to major news brands to consumer packaged goods companies lever the Daylife Platform to deliver compelling, relevant applications to their readers.

Most recently, Mr. Donovan was a founder and principal of The Spoken Hub, LLC, which developed technology that powered several of the largest citizen mobilization efforts in history, including programs by the Kerry Edwards Campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and America Coming Together.

Previously, Mr. Donovan has worked with such organizations as Wunderman, Firefly Network (now Microsoft), Global Media Holdings, Peppers and Rodgers Group, Barnes & Noble.com, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Lucent Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, and PeoplePC. Mr. Donovan holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College, and has been an adjunct faculty member at New York University.

Rob Guttman, Vice President of Engineering

Prior to joining Daylife, Mr. Guttman led a worldwide R&D initiative at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center arming IBM's business consultants with powerful modeling tools and methods that are actively transforming clients' business processes "on demand". In 1998, he co-founded Frictionless Commerce, initially a consumer-oriented comparison shopping platform provider, based on software agent technologies he invented at MIT's Media Laboratory -- earning him a 2002 MIT Technology Review Top 100 Young Innovators Award (TR100). Mr. Guttman helped transform Frictionless and its technologies to provide strategic sourcing professionals with the tools needed to negotiate online and make optimal sourcing award allocation decisions, which led to SAP's acquisition of Frictionless in 2006. Prior to MIT, he developed artificial intelligence software at Motorola and participated in U.S. Army war games to demonstrate and harden Motorola's battlefield intelligence technologies.

Mr. Guttman received a MS in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT in 1998 and a BSE in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1992.

Anil Podduturi, Vice President of Product Development

Most recently, Anil Podduturi was Vice President of Product Development at Social Project, Inc., where he led the development of MTV Networks' new social media brand, Flux. Prior to his work at Social Project, Mr. Podduturi headed platform development for social media products at MTV Networks across all MTVN brands. He came to MTV from Microsoft, where he managed the MSN Sports & Leagues Channel, a $20MM advertising and subscription business. He was responsible for all product development, advertising execution, editorial programming, and partner relations for MSN's sports offering, as well as strategic business partnerships with Fox Sports, ESPN, Major League Baseball, and the National Hockey League. Mr. Podduturi began his career at Atom Entertainment as a producer.

Mr. Podduturi received his B.A. from University of California at Berkeley.