Converge Labs

Converge Labs exists to: 

  • Connect brands, advertisers and merchants to social, location & mobile technologies in ways that spur increased marketing spend on SoLoMo services
  • Bring disruptive technologies (big & small) together with the VC community and monetize the value to brands
  • Be the meeting place for the people in the SoLoMo industry
  • Provide thought leadership in the use and application of social and location technologies to the mobile marketplace
  • Offer value added services to that community around research, strategy & business development

 

The Team

Mark Evans, Founder and Managing Director, Converge Labs

Mark founded Converge Labs in 2010 to bring brands and the tech community together around market innovation and ideation to accelerate the process of experimentation and implementation of new products and services for marketers, entrepreneurs, investors and the rest of the business ecosystem. I.e., bringing the buyers and sellers together.

Over the last two years Converge has produced successful conferences and events across the spectrum of SoLoMo, including: Geo-Loco, Social-Loco, and the 2012 global launches of Mobile-Loco and BrandConnect in Barcelona, Spain. And most recently,  The Big Brand Hackathon with Kraft Foods and The Home Depot in San Francisco.

 

Marc Prioleau
Managing Director of Prioleau Advisors and Content Director, Converge Labs

Marc is the Managing Director of Prioleau Advisors. Whether through brilliant foresight or lack of imagination, he has worked in the location and local services market for over 15 years. He enjoys the recent surge in interest in LBS because it makes him more interesting at parties. Prioleau Advisors provides strategic and M&A advisory services for the location and local search markets. The core tenet of Prioleau Advisors is that successful M&A is rooted in deep understanding of the market dynamics, strategies and people involved. We are surprised to find these elements frequently lacking in M&A and try to fix that in our space. Prior employers have included Trimble Navigation, SiRF, deCarta and CloudMade.

Converge Labs’ Advisors

 

Cheryl Cheng
Operating Partner of BlueRun Ventures

Cheryl drives marketing strategy, messaging and business development for BlueRun Ventures. Cheryl works closely with the entrepreneur community to identify investment opportunities that are a strategic fit for both BlueRun and the entrepreneur. She also supports BRV portfolio companies in their marketing strategy, execution and business development needs and focuses primarily on the mobile and consumer internet ecosystems. Cheryl brings new products and brand marketing experience from Clorox and Sharper Image to help entrepreneurs develop their go to market strategy and plans. Cheryl has a B.A. from Stanford University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

Di-Ann Eisnor
VP of Partnerships and Platform of  Waze

Di-Ann Eisnor, VP of Partnerships & Platform, runs US operations and is crafting the cartography of “live mapping” for the crowd-sourced navigation and real-time traffic start-up, Waze. Diann is also founder and chairman of Platial, and founded Eisnor Interactive which was bought by Omnicom back in 2001. Di-Ann is a neogeography pioneer and serial entrepreneur employing all means to increase the world’s citizen mappers.

Victoria Ransom
Founder and CEO of Wildfire Interactive

As founder & CEO of Wildfire (www.wildfireapp.com), Victoria led the company to profitability in just one year and has built the company to tens of thousands of customers and eight offices worldwide. Clients include brands and agencies such as Facebook, Pepsi, Unilever, Sony, AT&T, Ogilvy, Publicis, and Digitas. Wildfire is a two-time winner of the fbFund; investors include Summit, Facebook, Accel Partners, and the Founder’s Fund. Victoria has been featured in several publications and was named one of the ’25 Women to Watch in Tech’ for 2011 & 2010 and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for New Zealand.

 

Dana Oshiro
Senior Analyst and Publishing Strategist of NetShelter

Dana Oshiro is the Senior Analyst and Publishing Strategist for NetShelter Technology Media – a publishing group with more than 150 million unique visitors and more than 200 publisher partners in the IT, mobile and consumer electronics space. In her spare time she writes for ReadWriteWeb as the former startup channel writer and her personal blog VillagersWithPitchforks.