Management

Steven is Founder and CEO of TakeLessons, America's largest music lessons company. Prior to founding TakeLessons, Steven was Managing Partner of Reddito LLC, an ecommerce and Internet marketplaces consulting firm with clients including Cisco, Club Med, Wells Fargo, and Intel.

Prior to this, Steven served as Vice President of Business Development for CollegeClub.com, an early social network, and was a founding employee of an internet B2B marketplace firm that grew to an IPO in 1999.

Steven started in music when he was six years old, singing and playing bass guitar in the family gospel band with his parents and three brothers. For years, the family would play original songs and country gospel favorites in churches throughout the Midwest.

He continued his musical journey in college by playing in rock bands and DJ’ing on the college circuit, spinning, mixing, and scratching in college dance clubs.

After school, he and his band mate Enrique Platas released two alternative rock albums on Convertible Fly Records with one song making it to radio and another featured in an indie film.

Steven graduated with honors and degrees in Investment Finance and Human Communications. He can be seen on occasion belting out a Sinatra song at The Lamplighter, a San Diego Karaoke bar.

As Chief Revenue Officer, Alan is responsible for all sales, marketing and business development activities at TakeLessons. Alan’s music experience began with piano lessons throughout grade school which paved the way for his role as the keyboardist in the funk / ska band Sol Circus during High School.

Alan’s professional career began as co-founder and President of DELTYME Corporation, a San Diego based web services firm. Alan was responsible for strategy, operations, business development and was even known to cut code on rare occasions. DELTYME secured engagements with top national clients including Target Stores, Cisco Systems and CostCo Travel, as well as several regional leaders such as the San Diego Sports Arena and Garden Fresh (Souplantation). After stepping away from DELTYME, Alan went to business school at the University of Texas where he focused on entrepreneurial management. During his time in Austin he took on due diligence responsibilities at Gefinor Ventures (an early stage venture firm) and worked in marketing and business development roles in several Austin-area startups including Convio and Metreos.

Upon moving back to San Diego, Alan joined Active Network and had executive responsibility for the company’s $50M Media + Marketing division for the bulk of his tenure. In this role he was responsible for building and monetizing a consumer audience within the activities space through the flagship property Active.com. While in this role Active had a successful IPO and Alan joined the team on the floor of the NYSE to open the market. Prior to leaving Active, Alan moved into the role of Senior Vice President for Developing markets where he was responsible for Active’s Business Incubator. In this role he was responsible for defining the strategy and accelerating growth within several key business units.

Alan earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Santa Clara University and an MBA from the University of Texas.

Chris has been a part of the TakeLessons Team since 2008, where he uses his passion for learning and helping others learn to build a world-class team of incredible support and sales professionals.

Chris’s musical experience is limited to clarinet lessons in the 8th grade, however, he is committed to helping TakeLessons reach the next generation of artists through music by connecting them with the best lessons experience available.

As VP of Experience, Chris is driven by creating a seamless TakeLessons experience for instructors and students where there is a positive, lasting impact on users through learning, personal growth and financial reward. Working with the entire team, Chris' number one priority is planning, prioritizing and developing a trusted brand.

Before joining TakeLessons, Chris spent 8 years in sales management and corporate development roles honing the sales, leadership and management skills that make him an integral part of the TakeLessons family.

A proud native of Detroit, he graduated with honors with a Business degree from The University of Michigan. He lives in San Diego with his wife Danielle.

Karen has over 23 years of accounting, financial operations and management consulting experience. She has held senior management positions with Ernst & Young, MP3.com, Vivendi Universal, Artes Medical and Online Guru. She began her career at Ernst & Young where she was part of the Entrepreneurial Services Group and worked with many start-up and growth companies in the areas of audit, tax, business consulting, and process improvements. While at MP3.com, she was part of the company’s rapid growth as it grew from 3 to over 400 employees.

She has had significant transactional experience including a number of initial public offerings. Prior to joining TakeLessons she worked for a privately held Internet publishing company with over 45 million unique visitors per year. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania) and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Colleen’s career in Human Resources began with Time Warner Cable in San Diego and progressed to the Vice President position for the Rochester NY Division. She returned to San Diego assuming senior level positions for public and private companies ranging in revenues from 68M to 900M. Her experience spans a number of industries including Media, (Time Warner, Outdoor Channel), Educational Software (CompassLearning), Professional Services (Kelly Staff Leasing) and E-commerce (ProFlowers.com).

Colleen earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and a Masters Degree in Business from the University of San Diego.