Team

A veteran of the tech industry, Carla Thompson has counseled startups around the globe on creating, launching, and sustaining smart businesses. As CEO and founder of Sharp Skirts, Carla is working to create a network for women entrepreneurs, and a new voice for women in the 21st century. Her newest program, Tech for the Rest of Us, counsels individuals and companies on the basics of online tools and how to use them at minimum effort for maximum impact. She also continues to keep a finger on the pulse of emerging tech as an Affiliate Analyst for Guidewire Group.

In her previous role as VP of Community Strategy & Engagement at Guidewire Group, Carla provided advisory services and strategic counsel to startups and helmed the company’s community initiatives, overseeing marketing and social media strategy. She also assisted Executive Producer Chris Shipley in screening and selecting demonstrators for the renowned DEMO conference.

She previously founded MC2 Communications and served as senior account executive at Ketchum Silicon Valley. In her work in communications and PR, Carla counseled companies such as Visa, Intuit, and Chase Capital Partners, and was publicist for Linus Torvalds, inventor of the Linux operating system. She currently serves on the advisory board of SXSW Interactive’s Accelerator program and GenAustin.

Amanda Krauss is new to the world of business but has plenty of experience sharing knowledge: for over ten years, she taught history, humor theory, and gender studies at the University of Texas (Austin), then Vanderbilt University. Having left the classroom for edu-preneurship, she is now a web developer with a keen interest in how technology facilitates (or doesn't) information distribution. Her blog, Worst Professor Ever, has been pinged as a rising influence on the education reform debate and continues to raise questions about how best to communicate and test knowledge. When not coordinating the information highway for Sharp Skirts, Amanda enjoys developing sites for small businesses and individual creatives, and hanging out at the Alamo Drafthouse.

Laura Kilcrease is founder and managing director of Triton Ventures, LLC, a venture capital fund investing in spinout and early-stage technology companies. With more than 25 years of hands-on experience in commercializing technology, Ms. Kilcrease has a deep understanding of how to cultivate new opportunities to “grow businesses around businesses” as well as how to deconstruct and reconstruct business models to achieve significant results.

Chris Shipley is a leading technology and product analyst. Best known as the executive producer of the DEMO Conferences for IDG Executive Forums, Chris has helped technology companies bring over 1,000 new products to market since 1996. As a founding partner, chairman and CEO of Guidewire Group, she analyzes emerging technology companies around the world to identify market opportunities and accelerate products to market. Fortune Small Business Magazine placed Chris on its "Top 10 Minds in Small Business," and the San Jose Business Journal named her a "Woman of Distinction." She has often been cited as a leading influencer by Marketing Computers magazine. Chris has covered personal technology since 1984 and has worked as a writer and editor for a variety of technology and consumer media. She is currently working on a book on the social impact of technology-driven change.

Mark Johnson is a seasoned product leader who cut his teeth at SAP and then progressed to a series of start ups: SideStep (acquired by Kayak Software for $180M), Kosmix, and Powerset (acquired by Microsoft). He currently leads a program management team at Bing and works to improve the relevance of summaries (title, snippet, URL, and Preview) for every Bing search result. In addition to advising and investing in Sharp Skirts, he also advises Worio.com. His blog is at http://deliberateambiguity.typepad.com and you can find him on Twitter @philosophygeek.