Columbus Ventures, LLC is a Limited Liability Corporation owned by its management. As such, we spend significant time and effort to nurture our portfolio companies. We invest in only a few select companies each year to ensure entrepreneurs access to our people.

Yale assists our portfolio companies with overall strategy, marketing and sales development. Yale has over 25 years of experience in marketing, strategic planning and information technology. Yale is also President of IMS Ventures, a sister company that invests in more developed entrapreneurial enterprises. Yale also founded Intelligent Interactions Corporation in 1995, an Internet direct marketing technology company. He was the President and CEO until Intelligent Interactions was merged with 24/7 Media in 1998. After the merger, Yale served as Executive Vice President of Operations for 24/7 Media and was a member of the board of directors. Prior to founding Intelligent Interactions, Yale held several senior executive positions at Oracle Corporation. Most recently, he served as vice president of Oracle's Emerging Technologies Group, where he was responsible for systems integration and implementation of Oracle's interactive media technologies worldwide.

Prior to joining Oracle, Yale held senior positions at Price Waterhouse Coopers, and Booz·Allen & Hamilton Inc. and was appointed a Federal Reserve Examiner for the Federal Reserve System. He holds a Masters in Business Administration and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, both from the George Washington University.

Yale is the co-inventor of U.S. Patent No. 6,026,368, "An On-Line Interactive System and Method for Providing Content and Advertising Information to a Targeted Set of Viewers."

Rob is responsible for assisting our portfolio companies in all areas of information technology including hands-on assistance in product development. He has over 10 years of experience in information technology in a wide variety of industries including Internet Advertising, Interactive Television, Financial Services, Biotechnology, Construction, and Mortgage Banking. His involvement covers the entire systems life-cycle: initial strategy development and analysis, development of customized applications, and final deployment and operation. Rob is also a Vice President of IMS Ventures. Prior to joining IMS in 1999, Rob was the Director of Technology and Chief Architect at Intelligent Interactions Corporation. Rob has also held several technical positions at Oracle Corporation. Most recently he was a senior developer and designed and developed Oracle Interactive Application Objects, a client/server based toolkit for developing object oriented CORBA compliant Oracle Media Server based applications. Prior to joining Oracle, Rob was an Applications Developer, System Administrator and Data Base Analyst for Empbanque Capital Corporation.

Rob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Science (concentrations in Accounting and Management Systems, minor in Computer Science) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.

Rob is the co-inventor of US Patent No. 5,826,085, "An Object-Oriented Computer Interface Supporting Interactive Networked Applications."

Alison is responsible for assisting our portfolio companies with organizational development, human resources, and legal issues. Alison has over seven years of experience in dealing with the intricacies of administrative management of start-up technology companies. Alison is also a Vice President of IMS Ventures, our sister company focused on more established enterprises. Prior to joining IMS, Alison was the director of administration for Intelligent Interactions Corporation. Prior to Intelligent Interactions, Alison held positions in administration at Oracle Corporation.

Alison has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Longwood College.