About Melodeo
Melodeo, Inc. is dedicated to bringing consumers the best selection of on-demand podcasts, radio and soon video for
PC and mobile phone. Combining social networking, powerful
content and access from any device, Melodeo makes it easy to
keep up with the world and share entertainment, music, news and
views with friends. When away from the PC, use Melodeo Mobilcast and Mobilcast.com
to find and listen to the latest episodes of your favorite shows.
The Melodeo Advantage
Melodeo is the first company to successfully
combine podcasting and social networking on the PC and mobile
phone, the two most popular devices in the world. Play and
manage your favorite podcasts with no effort. Share your play
list with the world or refer an interesting show to a friend.
Shout out your thoughts on the site. Pick up your mobile phone
and listen on the go.
The Melodeo Team
Melodeo was founded in 2003 by the founders
of Tegic Communications. While at Tegic this group developed
T9, one of only two products to be deployed universally on cell
phones. They brought to Melodeo a passion for entertainment on
mobile phones and an approach to building products that puts
the user first. Joined by a diverse team of developers and
business people from media companies such as AOL and Digeo,
Melodeo is united in its vision of combining podcasting, social
networking and mobile to create an excellent entertainment
experience anywhere, anytime.
Jim Billmaier - CEO, board
Jim Billmaier joined became Melodeo's CEO on July 1, 2005. A 24 year technology veteran Billmaier brings a wealth of small and large company leadership experience to Melodeo.
Prior to joining Melodeo, Billmaier was CEO of Digeo, a Seattle-based startup that creates media center software and hardware. Under his leadership Digeo became a market leader, received 375 patents and filings, and won an Emmy Award for technical achievement. Billmaier also served as CEO of Asymetrix and led the company's IPO in 1998.
Before moving to the Seattle area Billmaier held leadership positions at Sun Microsystems and MIPS Computer Systems.
Billmaier holds a BA from Santa Clara University.
Olin Nichols - Chief Financial Officer
An experienced financial executive, Olin's background includes over 20 years in growing and successfully transitioning high technology companies. Most recently, serving as Acting CFO and consultant, he raised multiple rounds of venture capital as well as successfully merged a VC portfolio company with a public corporation. Previous to these assignments he was CFO of GoDigital Networks and Synergy Semiconductor, which reached liquidity by merging with a public company.
Olin holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Washington. He lives in Seattle and enjoys spending time on his ranch in Eastern Washington.
Bill Valenti – Executive Vice President
Bill Valenti is a seasoned entrepreneur and global-business executive, combining more than 20 years of experience in international investment banking and successful technology start-ups.
Valenti spent 17 years in Asia developing commercial and investment banking business for Chemical Bank/Riggs Bank. Returning to the U.S., he launched New Pacific Partners, an investment banking partnership focused on Asian-market strategies.
He later served as CEO of Tegic Communications, a software development/licensing firm that was later acquired by AOL. Valenti also has founded and/or headed a number of innovative companies including World2Market, Hutchison Mediator and HEEDworks, Inc.
Valenti received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Temple University and a Master’s in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management. He remains active on the boards of a number of start-up companies and served as a Trustee of the International Snow Leopard Trust.
Don Davidge - Senior Vice President, Sales
Don Davidge has more than 20 years of experience in the wireless-telecommunications, software and consumer-products industries. Prior to Melodeo, he served as a consultant to wireless companies such as Voice Signal Technologies, Kineto Wireless, Action Engine, UI Evolution and Wildseed.
Davidge was part of the original management team at Tegic, serving as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the T9 Text Input product. He later steered Tegic’s T9 and AOL Mobile Instant Messenger businesses. Prior to Tegic, Davidge served as Director of Marketing for AT&T Wireless Services and spent eight years in brand and product management in the consumer packaged-goods industry.
Davidge is a frequent speaker at conferences such as 3GSM, CTIA, PCS and the Mobile Software Forum. He also is involved in nonprofit work and serves on the corporate board of directors for the King County Boys & Girls Club. Davidge holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington.
Bob Wise - Senior Vice President, Engineering
Bob Wise joined Melodeo in June, 2005, to oversee all aspects of product design, development, operations, and support. He has 20 years of software development experience in the telecommunications industry.
Prior to joining Melodeo Wise was an Entrepreneur in Residence with Ignition Partners, a Seattle-area venture capital firm, where he was doing research in new telecom areas. He joined Ignition after spending 2 years at Continuous Computing, where he managed the engineering organization. Wise also ran the engineering organizations at Oresis Communications and Vsys.
Earlier in his career Wise founded Apex Performance Solutions, an engineering firm focused on the telecommunications market, and FROST, a regional study group focused on object-oriented technology. Wise has also provided systems architecture consulting for various governmental organizations.
Wise holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the College of William and Mary in Virginia and a master's degree in computer science from the University of Virginia. While attending the University of Virginia, Mr. Wise's research on parallel computation was sponsored by both the National Science Foundation and NASA. This research contributed to the International Space Station project.
Ed Flinchem - Vice President, Product Strategy
Ed Flinchem has spent the past eight years leading software development teams in the wireless industry. He was an original member of Tegic’s T9 development team and helped produce technology and innovations in the areas of linguistic databases, data compression, disambiguation algorithms, user interface design and text input methods for Western Languages, Chinese and Japanese.
Flinchem directed all T9 text-input software development activities for Tegic including embedded systems, porting and user-interface design. After Tegic’s acquisition by AOL, he led advanced client-server initiatives for AOL’s wireless division.
A physicist by training, Flinchem is a graduate of Brown University.
Melodeo, Inc. Board of Directors
Bill McAleer – Outside Board Member
A co-founder of Voyager Capital, McAleer has extensive venture and senior executive experience in the technology industry. He has participated on the boards of 15 private and public companies focusing on business software, data-center solutions, digital media and wireless services. In addition to Melodeo, McAleer currently serves on the boards of Verari, SeeCommerce, ClearCommerce and Avocent. He also invested in Tegic Communications, which was founded by several executives of Melodeo and sold AOL.
Prior to Voyager, McAleer was President of e.liance Partners, advising IT companies on strategy, venture financing and corporate partnering. He also served for six years as a senior executive and CFO at Aldus, where he was responsible for global finance, legal, operations and business development activities, as well as the 1994 merger of Adobe. Prior to Aldus, McAleer was a Vice President with Westin Hotels.
McAleer serves on the board of the Washington Software Alliance (WSA). He is an advisory board member for the University of Washington Center for Technology and Entrepreneurship, as well as Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Business. He also served on the executive committee of Big Brothers Big Sisters. McAleer earned a B.S. and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.
Richard Tong – Outside Board Member
Richard Tong is a General Partner and one of the founders of Ignition as well as an investor in telecommunications and wireless companies.
Prior to Ignition, Tong spent 12 years at Microsoft where he most recently served as Vice President of Marketing for MS Office and BackOffice. There he was responsible for business branding, advertising and pricing for the MS Office and BackOffice family of products. Tong also built and led the marketing teams for Windows, NT, Exchange, SQL Server, BackOffice and Internet server.
Tong received his M.B.A. and M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He received his B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.
Kent Thexton – Outside Board Member
Kent Thexton is the President and co-CEO of SEVEN, where he focuses on growing the customer base and subscriber adoption. Thexton has 17 years of experience in wireless telecommunications, including executive appointments with some of the largest mobile operators worldwide.
Thexton joined SEVEN from leading UK operator O2, where he served as Chief Data and Marketing Officer, President of O2 Online and a member of the board of directors.
Prior to joining O2, Thexton spent eight years in the Canadian mobile industry, holding the position of Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Rogers Cantel (now Rogers Wireless). Prior to this, he held management positions at Northern Telecom and Bell Canada.
Thexton has an M.B.A. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. He also is a board member of RedKnee and Photochannel.
Gary Fuhrman – Outside Board Member
Gary Fuhrman is the founder, Chairman and CEO of GF Capital Management & Advisors, LLC, a New York-based merchant-banking firm. GF Capital invests in companies primarily in the real estate, and the media- and consumer-products sectors. The firm also provides financial advice to clients with respect to mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, financings and other strategic issues. GF also is a leading family-office and portfolio-management company through its subsidiary, TAG Associates.
Fuhrman holds a B.S in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
