Our Team
Fereydoun Taslimi
FOUNDER, DESIGN & GO TO MARKET
Fereydoun has founded over 10 companies in various areas of technologies including multilingual computer systems and integration, smart switches, voice processing, interactive voice response systems, fax servers, Java development tools, knowledge management, information discovery and network monitoring and security.
Fereydoun holds honors bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from King’s College London and a master’s degree in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Anand Krishnan
CO-FOUNDER, PLATFORM ENGINEERING
Anand is an entrepreneur and technologist with over 20 years of experience building and leading high-performing technology teams in North America, Europe, and Asia. He has founded a technology services company, a renewable energy company and a AI talent platform company. His experience includes business and technology strategy, software product development, marketing and business development, program management and leadership coaching.
Anand holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Bangalore University and an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
Mitch Kapa
CO-FOUNDER, HARDWARE ENGINEERING
Mitch’s focus for the past 16 years at Echostar was leading multiple hardware projects with designs focused on low cost, reliability, and manufacturability. In addition to being responsible for the electronic design and testing, he worked closely with the software development, mechanical, manufacturing and quality assurance teams as well as contract manufacturers and component vendors.
Mitch graduated magna cum laude in electrical engineering from Auburn University.
Payman Arabshahi
CO-FOUNDER, R&D
Payman is a principal research scientist with the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory. His previous experience includes holding a senior technical staff position in the Communications Architectures and Research Section of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research interests inlcude wireless communications and networking, sensor networks and signal processing.
Payman obtained his bachelor’s degree (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Alabama and his doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Washington.
Lili Varzi (& Bijoux)
CO-FOUNDER, CRM
Lili has 25+ years experience in the consumer goods industry with heavy emphasis on customer relationship management (CRM) with companies including Coca Cola, Colgate Palmolive, PepsiCo, P&G, Dole Foods and McKesson Pharmaceutical. Her expertise includes design of sales and marketing strategies and processes as well as decision support platform architecture and solutions.
Lili holds a Master of Science degree in technology management and studied for her doctorate at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Shimona Manjunath
SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Xiaochen Wang
Sensor System Engineer
Robert Kuramshin
Intern
Advisors
Rubina Ohanian Ph.D
Dr. Ohanian is the IoT and Cognitive Solutions lead in the FSS Center of Competency at IBM Dr. Ohanian is recognized by her colleagues for thought leadership, data acumen and distinctive and instinctive skills in utilizing Advanced Cognitive and Predictive Analytics and Strategic Insight as well as market positioning, IoE/IoT opportunities, and data monetization strategies. Dr. Ohanian has published numerous refereed journal articles and is a frequent speaker at domestic and international events.
Tom Boyle
Mr. Boyle is the Founder of Boyle Ventures, which provides funding, advice and incubation of consumer startups driven by technology. Tom led the worldwide Coca-Cola system for commercial execution, led brands for both Colgate-Palmolive and Heinz, and co-founded and sold Tradeout.com, an $85 million VC-backed startup. Tom holds a BA from Syracuse University (’83) and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (’89).
Mallie Sharafat
Ms. Sharafat attended Georgia Tech School of nuclear engineering with minor in electrical Engineering and has started multiple successful businesses since 1987 from import to manufacturing serving US and international suppliers, In 2006 she founded Homestead Hospice after an unpleasant experience with a hospice serving a love one. She has created a care model that is highly patient centered incorporating cutting edge technology which has resulted her organization to become one of the largest hospices in Ga and fastest growing care provider in 3 other states employing a 1000 patient’s care staff.
Rameen Ghoraishi MD, MPH
Dr. Ghorieshi, MD,MPH is a physician, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He was an early broadcaster and founder during the new-media revolution. More recently, Dr. Ghorieshi founded both the Palo Alto Center for Mind Body Health, a Silicon Valley whole-body wellness clinic, and Ketamine.MD, an organization which promotes cutting-edge mental health treatments. He invests in early stage tech companies in a variety of industries and advises healthcare startups. He lives and works in Palo Alto, CA. Rameen is a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine.
Jan Barker, R.N., F.N.P, M.S.
Ms. Barker has broad experience in the healthcare arena domestically and internationally including venture capital investing and fundraising, board of director participation, company growth and exits, and C level leadership over the last 25 years.
She is currently a Managing Director with Match Point Partners, LLC an investment bank headquartered in Manhattan. Additionally, she provides consulting services to start-up companies. Ms. Barker was a partner with the healthcare focused venture fund MedVenture Associates from 2000 to 20017. Prior to that she was a founder and managing member of The Crucible Group, LLC, a venture development organization. In both partnerships, she participated in private equity-related investments in the device, biotech, services and information technology segments of healthcare.
Michael Mittel, JD
Mr. Mittel is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years’ experience in starting and growing software companies. He is currently CEO of RapidFire Tools, a SaaS based company that builds IT software tools for managed service providers. Michael has a BA degree from University of Connecticut and a JD from New England School of Law.
Faramarz Fekri Ph.D
Faramarz Fekri Ph.D is a faculty member of Georgia Tech Machine learning Center and founder of the SPC Research Lab that is involved in research in three intertwined areas of Sensing, Processing, and Communications. In particular, he applies signal processing, statistics and information theory to fundamental research problems in biology for anomaly detection. Dr. Fekri has received several prestigious awards from professional organizations.
