HOST: Brian Tsuchiya

Founder of Startup Guru

Brian Tsuchiya is an authority on crowdfunding, after spending the last 8 years researching a variety of methods he has unique experiences with crowds. Including having a company entirely funded with "sweat equity" from over one hundred people. Managing that many shareholders is unique for a privately held startup. Brian also has raised over $2M of private equity.

Brian is the founder of StartUp Guru and started his entrepreneurial journey 18 years ago and has since launched ten startups. Startup Guru is the culmination of this extraordinary journey. He has openly shared for the first 40 years of his life he primarily served himself and lived a life without purpose.  Then in June of 2006 he read a book that would change his life forever.  He embarked on a journey that connected his life purpose with his entrepreneurial career.  Through this work he understood his patterns and defined his life in a way that revealed his purpose.  Forged in him was the way of the entrepreneur.

HOST: Deb Frey

Mayor of the DaVinci Vault

Named Vice President of the popular counter-culture think tank, DaVinci Institute in 2003, Montana native Deb Frey has transitioned from Director of Social Media to Mayor of The Vault, the Institute’s new coworking facility headquartered in Louisville, Colorado.

Coworking is the popular new trend in social workplaces designed for people who work from home, independent corporate staffers, telecommuting professionals, freelancers, consultants, coaches, and  entrepreneurs.

The Vault is a facility that caters to both the working and social needs of this kind of community.

“I’m well versed in the types of relationships that can be built through social media, and it’s hard to replace the face-to-face interactions that happen inside a coworking space,” says Deb.

Deb is a “shirt sleeves” administrator at the Institute, referring to herself on occasion as the “chief, cook and bottle washer.”

In addition to being Mayor of The Vault, her responsibilities include: Member Relations, Marketing, Online Networking, Event Planning and Project Scheduling.

Deb richly enjoys working with the Institute’s many members and meeting the diverse professionals who attend speaker’s events that have featured talks by such science luminaries as Robert Zubrin (author of Energy Victory); journalists including the Denver Business Journal’s editor Neil Westergaard; and pioneering entrepreneurs Dave Lester of Treeless Systems LLC and Scott Tibbits, CEO of Starsys Research Corp, as well as many others. “Their enthusiasm for what they do is contagious,” Deb said.

When she can steal time away from other duties, Deb also serves as a contributing editor to the Impact Lab, the DaVinci Institute blog billed as “a laboratory of the future human experience.” Through her work, Deb is evolving as an expert in the latest trends in research, news reviews, topical studies, and all the “crazy stuff” ignored by mainstream media.

HOST: Thomas Frey

Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute

Thomas Frey is Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute as well as Google top rated futurist speaker.

As part of the celebrity speaking circuit, Tom continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come.  His keynote talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high level government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies including NASA, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies, First Data, Boeing, Capital One, Bell Canada, Visa, Ford Motor Company, Qwest, Allied Signal, Hunter Douglas, Direct TV, International Council of Shopping Centers, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Times of India, Leaders in Dubai, and many more.

Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, Tom has been referred to as the modern "Father of Invention" and the "Dean of Futurists."  Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer.