Team
Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO
Matt Douglas is the Founder & CEO of Punchbowl, and has guided the company through all stages of growth. Matt has raised three rounds of capital from Intel Capital, Contour Ventures, and prominent angel investors. Matt has 15+ years in product management and marketing with expertise in software product development. At Adobe Systems, Matt was responsible for Premiere where he grew revenue from $15M to $50M in four years. At Bose Corporation, he was a senior manager in the professional division where he led a hardware and software product team. Matt has a degree in music from the University of Rochester and an M.B.A. from UNC Chapel Hill. Matt's favorite reason to celebrate is Groundhog Day – he and his wife held their 16th annual Groundhog Day party in 2012. Follow Matt Douglas on Twitter (@mattdouglas) or read his startup CEO blog, Startup Swami.
Sean Conta, Founder & CXO
Sean Conta has an engineering background with a focus towards user experience. He has developed software user interfaces and written technical documentation for products ranging from Siebel CRM applications to professional acoustic software for Bose Corporation. He also has expertise in web design and interaction including content and interface development for Zildjian Cymbals. Sean holds a music business degree from the Berklee College of Music and an engineering degree from Brown University. His favorite reason to celebrate is New Years Eve.
Blake Carlson, CTO
As Punchbowl’s CTO, Blake Carlson puts his passion for Ruby on Rails to use to develop innovative web technology. Prior to leading the development effort on Punchbowl, Blake worked at TotalView Technologies creating software tools for multi-threaded/multi-process high performance computing applications. He has a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Iowa, and hails from West Des Moines. Blake’s favorite reason to celebrate is the Super Bowl, although he also loves Groundhog Day (it’s his birthday!).
Eric Peden, VP Performance Marketing
Eric is the numbers guy at Punchbowl, responsible for operations and analytics. With 12 years experience in finance and operations, Eric previously worked as a business planning manager for Hewlett-Packard and as the founder of Peden Consulting, LLC. He has an International Business degree from Mississippi State and an M.B.A. from The University of North Carolina. Every Christmas Eve, Eric's extended family gathers for a night of caroling and revelry, making Christmas his favorite reason to party.
Josh Verrill, VP Sales
Prior to joining Punchbowl, Josh Verrill was an integral member of the team that helped build RueLaLa and Rue Local into a multi-million dollar business. In his most recent position as National Sales Director for Rue Local, Josh was personally responsible for National Accounts that drove in excess of $5M. Josh has a B.S. in business administration from the University of Missouri. His favorite reason to celebrate is Labor Day, which kicks off his favorite month of the year and typically falls around his birthday.