Executives
Jason Devitt, CEO
Jason is CEO and co-founder of Skydeck. Previously Jason co-founded Vindigo, one of the first companies in the US to publish content and applications for mobile phones. Products included Mapquest Mobile, MovieGoer, and the Vindigo City Guide. Jason led the company from inception to over $12 million in revenue and profitability in 2005. An advocate for open networks, open devices, and open development platforms, Jason has testified on these issues before Congress and the FCC. He holds a US patent related to location-based services.
Prior to Vindigo Jason spent four years working for the investment firm D. E. Shaw & Co. in London and New York, where he structured OTC equity derivatives. Jason grew up in Ireland and has a Master’s Degree in Electronic Engineering and a Diploma in Law from UCD and the King’s Inns in his hometown of Dublin.
Mike Wells, CTO
Mike Wells is CTO and co-founder of Skydeck. Mike began his career at Intuit, pioneering Internet-enabled features in Quicken for Windows. Mike was one of the first engineers to join Vindigo and led development of version 1.0 of the company’s mobile application platform. In 2005 he joined Google, where he was a key member of the team that developed and launched Google Blog Search and technical lead on a team dedicated to Sentiment Analysis.
Mike grew up in the Bay Area and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Tulane.
Board of Directors
Craig Cooper
Craig is a Managing Director at Saban Ventures which he formed in early 2008 to invest in consumer Internet, digital media and mobile.
Craig was the co-founder of Boost Mobile USA, which was sold to Nextel in August 2003 and has invested in or been responsible for a number of early stage companies including PureVideo Networks, GrindTV, Thumbplay, YouMail, V-Enable and Nellymoser. He was also an Observer on the Board of Directors of Insider Pages (until it was acquired by CitySearch in 2007) and a Director of EBT Mobile China PLC, the leading Shanghai based wireless products and services company. He was also a founding partner in the SoftBank Capital Technology Fund where he led the West Coast mobile and digital investment group. He is currently on the Board of Directors of Next New Networks, Youmail and Skydeck.
Chip Austin
Chip is co-founder and General Partner of i-Hatch Ventures, a New York-based venture capital fund investing in emerging technology markets such as mobile data services and broadband technologies. Representative investments include WiderThan, M:Metrics, Vindigo, Equator Technologies and Thumbplay.
Prior to starting i-Hatch, Chip advised and built companies across the Technology and Media industries throughout his career. In addition to founding BOL.com, Bertelsmann’s E-commerce division, Chip was a member of the senior executive team leading the buyout and restructuring of Prodigy, and was a co-founder of McKinsey’s Interactive Practice, where he spent seven years advising Fortune 500 companies on their media and technology strategies. Additionally, Chip’s earlier career included Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division in New York and IBM’s Personal Computer Division in Boca Raton, Florida. Chip has a degree in Computer Science and Economics from Duke University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Co-founders Jason Devitt and Mike Wells also serve on Skydeck’s Board.