Meet The Judges For The Seattle TC Pitch-Off (And Get Tickets!)

In one week, TechCrunch will invade Seattle. Matt will climb the Space Needle. I’ll sip a latte at the original Starbucks. Maybe we’ll squeeze in a stroll around Pike Place Market. And still, none of it will compare to the magic of the TechCrunch Meetup and Pitch-Off going down on June 12 at 6 p.m.

We’ll have good drinks, good conversation, and some awesome startups that will compete in a rapid-fire pitch-off competition to be judged by an amazing audience (yes, you!) and… well, judges. Tickets are still available but going quickly, so pick one up here. 21+ please.

The winners will receive tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt SF, and first place even gets a table in our Startup Alley, which translates into the chance to get into the Battlefield and win the Disrupt Cup and $50,000.

So who will decide the fate of these Washingtonian entrepreneurs?

James Maiocco, Director at Microsoft Ventures

James Maiocco -Microsoft VenturesJames Maiocco is a Director at Microsoft Ventures, managing the Seed Fund and high potential startup enablement. Maiocco leads efforts to source, qualify and enable select startups globally and manages relationships with venture capitalists, angels and corporate partners in the startup ecosystem. Microsoft Ventures empowers entrepreneurship on a global scale through community programs, Microsoft Ventures Accelerators and growth programs that provide startups with unparalleled routes to customers.

Previously, Maiocco was General Counsel and Vice President of Corporate Development at Gomez, Inc. (acquired by Compuware). Earlier, he was Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Klir Technologies, Inc. (acquired by Gomez, Inc.), and worked as a corporate technology attorney with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

Maiocco holds a Juris Doctorate, a Master of Planning and a Bachelor of Arts and is an alumnus of the University of Virginia and the University of Washington. He holds 3 patents and serves as a board member, advisor and mentor for several entities in the United States.

Greg Gottesman, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group

greggottesmanGreg joined Madrona Venture Group in 1997 and became a Managing Director in 1999. He is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs at the earliest stage, backing seed-stage startups at Madrona, serving on the board of Startup Weekend, mentoring at TechStars, and teaching entrepreneurship at the University of Washington Computer Science Department. Greg founded and was the initial CEO of Rover.com. In addition to Rover, Greg sits on the boards of Buddy TV, Cheezburger, Jobaline, and WildTangent.

Previously, Greg served on the boards of Decide (acquired by eBay), ThisLife (acquired by Shutterfly), Rendition Networks (acquired by EMC), Livebid (acquired by Amazon), and AdRevelance (acquired by Media Metrix). Greg also is a member of the investment committee of the W Fund, the venture fund based out of the University of Washington. When not starting or investing in companies, Greg regularly injures himself playing non-contact sports and is unusually obsessed with Game of Thrones and all superhero movies.

Julie Sandler, Principal at Madrona Venture Group

juliesandler

Julie joined in Madrona in 2011 and is a Principal on the investment team. Julie pursues new investment opportunities for Madrona, and is actively involved in Madrona’s portfolio companies and the firm’s activity in the startup community. She led Madrona’s investment in Julep, and is also a board observer for several of Madrona’s portfolio companies, including buuteeq, Evocalize, Jintronix, Maxpoint, Rover.com, and SNUPI Technologies.

Julie was named Geek of the year by Geekwire and was a featured speaker at the international WE Day event held in Seattle to inspire youth to action. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Washington where she teaches a course on Entrepreneurship at the Foster School of Business.

Prior to joining Madrona, Julie was a senior product manager at Amazon on the Kindle team, where she managed digital marketing and traffic channels for Kindle’s ebook business, both in the US and internationally.

David Shim, founder and CEO of Placed.com

davidshimDavid Shim is the Founder and CEO of Placed. Placed is the leader in location-driven insights and mobile ad intelligence. Measuring billions of locations across the world’s largest opt-in mobile location panel, Placed provides the most complete understanding of consumers offline behaviors.

Previously David held the roles of Director of Product and Operations at Quantcast. As Director of Product he drove Quantcast Marketer from idea to an audience platform used by over 300+ advertisers across 6 billion actions a month. Prior to Quantcast, David held leadership roles at WebTrends, and Farecast (acquired by Microsoft in 2008). Early in his career, David was the youngest licensed investment advisor in the nation at 17.