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.
I seek to live my life in a way that makes a positive lasting difference on people and my environment. I support my friends and family with my time and finances. I live with the full expectation of succeeding and excelling in all I do. I understand that the value of life is not in what I own, but who I love, and what I experience. I make my life count by being a man of integrity that accomplishes greatness by reaching out to help others, being passionate about what I do, and fully developing my mind. I don't have the right to be ordinary. Therefore, I lead, I lift the human spirit, and I will create a legacy and an empire: an empire of both inner and outer wealth, and a legacy of love.
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.
As the VP of Technology for TakeLessons, Chuck is responsible for the software development and IT infrastructure that comprise the company's service delivery platform. Since joining the company in April of 2006, he has emphasized quality code, ongoing innovation, and collaboration as keys for creating successful software products. Chuck has over a decade of experience building scalable and high-performance web, database, and scientific applications.
Prior to joining TakeLessons, Chuck spent several years developing software projects in the life sciences industry. At Celera (1998-2002), he was technical lead for several bioinformatics analysis applications: EST clustering, genome assembly, genotyping, and fast genomic search algorithms.
These products played a critical role in the ongoing human genome projects, allowing scientists to analyze the massive amounts of data being generated by worldwide sequencing efforts.
From 2002 to 2006, Chuck worked in the Life Sciences group at Accelrys as technical manager. He worked to strengthen the marketshare of the company's marquis products through infrastructure modernization, and by integrating them in to the next-generation Discovery Studio / Pipeline Pilot platform.
Chuck graduated with honors from the California Institute of Technology, earning Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Literature.
Tom Siegel, a Managing Director and co-founder of Shepherd Ventures, has over 25 years experience as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and management consultant. He focuses on investments in software, mobile/wireless, and the internet/digital media. With Shepherd Ventures, Tom has served on the boards of and/or managed investments in portfolio companies including SpecificMedia, Quickoffice, LTI Lighting, Planet ATE, Voyager Systems, and WiSpry.
Earlier in his career, Tom was Senior Vice President of Advantage Capital Partners, a large early stage venture fund. His investments resulted in several public offerings. While with Advantage Capital, the US Small Business Administration selected him as a Financial Services Advocate of the Year.
Prior to Advantage Capital, Tom founded and/or served as President and Chief Executive Officer of various companies, primarily in the software and publishing industries. Previously, Tom was a Management Consultant with KPMG Peat Marwick, where he served as a member of the firm’s M&A Group.
Tom received a BA in Economics and an MBA from the University of Illinois. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and also holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He is a member of the CFA Institute and is a past Chairman and President of the CFA Society of San Diego. Also, Tom has been an advisor for numerous privately-held companies and serves on the board of the San Diego Software Industries Council (SDSIC).
Contribute positively to the world and society.
Be productive.
Love and support my family and friends.
Be helpful and patient.
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.
An accomplished senior marketing executive with experience leading entrepreneurial marketing, business development and ecommerce teams for 20+ years for entertainment, lifestyle, ticketing, sport and personalization brands including SKECHERS, adidas, Ticketmaster NBA's Miami Heat, Skin it, Scoreboard Entertainment and Team Impact, Laura Christine is experienced in overseeing up to $120 million in revenue, managing 72+ employees, administering a $25 million budget, and owning P&L responsibility.
She is accomplished in executing team-driven strategic plans to increase ecommerce and multichannel sales while creating and executing an evolving marketing mix of internet retailing, digital, direct, traditional, international and social strategies as a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or Executive Vice President (EVP).
After serving six years as the Vice President of Direct Marketing and Ecommerce at SKECHERS, where Christine increased ecommerce sales by 1329% - by pioneering digital focused ecommerce/direct marketing departments, and building in-house and partnered infrastructure, Christine lead Skinit, the industry leader in on-demand personalization for electronic devices, allowing users to create personalized covers, or skins, as the Executive Vice President of the Consumer Group. She increased YTD gross profit dollars 67% and cut costs 30% after a strategic reorganization to increase ecommerce sales 26% through web redesign, usability, analytics, SEM, SEO, TV advertising, mobile, international, live chat, social and display media.