Advisors

Jeff Williams
E-mail: jwilliams@huntventures.com

Mr. Williams was a partner with Markpoint Venture Partners from 2000 to 2003. Mr. Williams is currently a managing director with Hunt Ventures and has more than 10 years experience investing in early and late stage companies. He brings operational experience to Hunt Ventures as a result of managing and ultimately divesting several companies in the commercial finance, property and casualty insurance and technology industries. Mr. Williams has direct experience in making venture capital and private equity investments in telecommunication, semiconductor, enterprise software and wireless companies. As well as companies active in the insurance, commercial printing, gas distribution, manufacturing and service industries. His most notable investments include SyChip (sold to Murata), Softricity (sold to Microsoft), FastScale, Keibi, RipCode and MetaCarta. He currently serves on the boards of directors for AppTrigger, Keibi, and RipCode.

Mr. Williams served as a Vice President for KBK Capital Corporation and was a founding member of KBK Capital Corporation’s private equity group providing subordinated debt capital to profitable companies with revenues between $10 million and $150 million. While in this position, Mr. Williams was approved by the Small Business Administration to manage a Small Business Investment Company (SBIC). Prior to founding the private equity group, Mr. Williams also managed a $50 million commercial loan portfolio focused on providing working capital, term loans and growth capital to middle market companies.

Prior to KBK Capital Corporation, Mr. Williams served as Vice President for a subsidiary of KeyCorp whose mandate was to divest a portfolio of non-strategic operating companies. Mr. Williams strengthened his operational experience by serving as the CEO, COO and CFO of each company and was instrumental in procuring new business, managing daily operations, raising capital, developing and implementing divestiture strategies and successfully completing several stock and asset sales. Additionally, Mr. Williams successfully worked through several turnaround situations in under-performing companies.

Mr. Williams has actively participated in the management, investment, acquisition, liquidation and sale of over 47 companies and partnerships. Mr. Williams has served as a member of the Board of Directors of over 20 companies. Mr. Williams received his Bachelor of Science with a major in Finance and a minor in Economics from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Pulin Patel
E-mail: pulin@aetherpartners.com

Most recently, Pulin Patel was the President and co-founder of IPmobile, a wireless Internet infrastructure company and a technology leader in the area of packetizing the wireless networks. Mr. Patel founded the company in March of 1999 and secured $6.5 million in venture funding for his company from two of the industry’s leading venture capital firms, Sevin Rosen and North Bridge Venture Partners. IPmobile was acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc. for $425M.

Pulin has in-depth technical and management experience in the field of wireless and telecommunications. Before founding IPmobile, Pulin was with the Wireless Solutions group at Nortel Networks, where he played various management roles in PCS network planning, product management, wireless technology acquisitions and strategic planning. Prior to Nortel Networks, Pulin was one of the pioneering members of the CDMA wireless group at LCC, a wireless telecommunications consulting firm. Pulin's research career at WINLAB (Wireless Information Laboratory) included work in area of enhanced multimedia CDMA systems, and RF engineering.

Pulin holds a BS and MS in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, and an MBA from University of Texas.

Rashad Ali
E-mail: rashad@aetherpartners.com

Rashad Ali was co-founder for IPmobile, Inc., acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc. in August 2000 for $425M, where he oversaw the product management and marketing of IPmobile’s Airscape™ technology. Before founding IPmobile, Rashad worked at Network Access Corporation, Nortel Networks and Ericsson in various roles of software development, network planning and product management.

Rashad has over 10 years of experience in both the technical and business aspects of the wireline and wireless communication networks. Rashad graduated from the University of Kansas with Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering. He also attended N.E.D Engineering and Technology University in Karachi, Pakistan, with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

Jessie Mann
E-mail: jessiemann@yahoo.com

Mr. Mann lends guidance in the areas of Internet portals, exchanges and ASP business models in addition to expert knowledge in database design and software applications. Mr. Mann co-founded Vital Solutions with partner, Rohit Mehrotra. His focus on attracting and keeping some of the finest technical talent in the industry was instrumental to the success and rapid growth of Vital Solutions.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Mann successfully led consulting teams at Sybase, Digital Equipment Corporation and AT&T Software Systems. At Sybase, he honed his operations skills, overseeing the recruiting, operations and ultimately the very successful delivery of IT projects.

Mr. Mann has made significant contributions in the area of database technology application, including the design and development of software tools for applications software development. One highlight was his development of an integrated distribution system for Anheuser Busch. This allowed the company to link the wholesale distribution system across the nation with the organization's other enterprise systems.

Mr. Mann holds a B.S. and a M.S. in computer science, both from the University of Texas in San Antonio.