Nathan has worked with startups on strategy, finance, business development, and venture / exit issues for over ten years. He has consulted to more than 100 startups across multiple industries-- from software, SaaS, and social media, to mobile, entertainment, and consumer products-- and he has been an advisor or investor in 13 funded startups with 5 exits.

He has also served in interim Corporate / Business Development and CFO roles, and helped several firms develop key strategic partnerships with F500 firms. Nathan has co-founded three technology companies and is currently on the Advisory Boards of five startups.

Nathan is an active speaker and moderator on startup panels, and together with Pivotal Labs, he co-produced the popular 'Project Startup' series of events. He is an annual judge at the Venture Labs Investment Competition, held in Austin, Texas. He is currently preparing for his next event, on Startup Exits -- Early Stage M&A.

On the content side, he authors the blog Seed Stage Capital and maintains the VA Facebook Page, which is a curated collection of resources for startup founders. He is an advisor and contributor at Founders Space and is (very slowly) working on a book project titled "Startup: An Owner's Manual" scheduled to be published in 2011.

Previously, Nathan worked for JP Morgan, Access Ventures, and Piper Jaffrey. He has been involved in three technology IPOs and nearly 40 acquisitions, in addition to numerous private investments and business development deals. Nathan has an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Texas at Austin and a BSC from Santa Clara University. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Nathan is an avid sailor and has logged more than 10,000 coastal and offshore nautical miles, including a 22-day Pacific Ocean crossing to French Polynesia. He has also climbed 19,340-ft. Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, trekked in Peru, Chile, New Zealand and the Himalayas of Nepal, and toured by motorcycle in the U.S., Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

He currently enjoys racing sailboats on the San Francisco Bay and riding 'boxer motor' BMW motorcycles.

Eric M. Jackson, is the CEO and co-founder of CapLinked, a Los Angeles-based startup that makes investing into private companies easy, secure, and social. CapLinked provides companies, investors, and their advisors with tools to network, manage a capital raise or asset sale, and exchange updates.

Jackson previously ran the marketing team at PayPal, where he was responsible for the campaign to monetize the online payment service. Following PayPal’s acquisition by eBay, Jackson founded World Ahead Media, a publisher that was acquired by WorldNetDaily in 2008.

His book, The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth, won the Writers Notes Book Award and was hailed by Tom Peters as “”the best description of ‘business strategy’ unfolding in a world changing at warp speed. Jackson advises startups on their strategy, product marketing, and funding. He is an entrepreneur-in-residence at LBTEC and the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship.

An outspoken advocate of personal liberty, Jackson has appeared on Fox News, CNN, ABC News, MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” and numerous other TV and radio programs. He has been quoted in publications such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, The New York Times, and BusinessWeek. Jackson has lectured for the Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation, and has been a featured speaker at Freedom Fest and the National Federation of Republican Assemblies. He earned a degree in economics with honors from Stanford University.

Kevin Vela is a founding partner at Vela | Keller P.C., and focuses his practice in the areas of startups, corporate law, social media law, capital raises, and commercial real estate.  Kevin represents a number of small and mid-sized businesses as their general counsel, and provides day-to-day guidance on legal and operational issues. Kevin’s growing practice currently has clients in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, Kansas City, Seattle, San Francisco and India.  Kevin’s current startup clients include:

• A San Francisco based mobile-app developer in the business services field.
• A Dallas based social media and brand advocacy firm.
• TweetTV – A real time and Twitter based social guide.
• A Dallas based mobile deal aggregator targeting this Hispanic market.
• A North Texas mobile app in the restaurant/bar space.

Kevin is a graduate of the University of Texas where he earned his Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Juris Doctorate degree with honors.  Prior to law school, Kevin spent seven years in Dallas working in finance and marketing.  Starting his career with Fortune 500 companies, an entrepreneurial spirit led Kevin to roles in several start-up companies and later to developing his own test preparation company.  Kevin scored in the top 5% on the GMAT, LSAT, and GRE, and has used his expertise to help hundreds of students increase their test scores to gain admission to graduate school.  Kevin speaks, reads and writes fluent Spanish.

Kevin is an accomplished and experienced speaker, having spoken in front of large audiences on topics covering Real Estate Law, Texas Securities Exemptions, and Grad School Admissions.

Kevin is an entrepreneur himself with a few “learning experiences” under his belt and is currently working on FanBaby.com as a way to make sure that college fanaticism starts from day 1.

Kevin is a board member of the Texas Wranglers Alumni Association.  Kevin is also a founding member of The Dallas Angel Network (the “DAN”), a non-profit dedicated to connecting entrepreneurs with Angel investors in Dallas.  You can follow the DAN on Twitter @DalAngelNetwork.