Team Heardable is comprised of experienced and proven technologists, start-up investors, and digital marketers who saw a great need for actionable analytics that could tie together all the components of online outreach into a single framework.

CEO & Co-Founder: Jon Samsel

Heardable's CEO, Jon Samsel, is a successful entrepreneur and Internet marketing executive with two decades of experience working with leading brands, including Apple, Bank of America, Countrywide, and Ford. Most recently, Jon served as Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing for Bank of America.

Prior to his work with Bank of America, Jon was Founder and Managing Director of RoadLoans.com, which became a highly-successful, direct-to-consumer online finance division of Ford Motor Company, and he was a Senior eCommerce Consultant for Cognitiative, with client brands that included Cisco, Sun, Oracle, PreviewTravel, Saratoga Systems and Personic. Prior to working at Cognitiative, Jon led the design and production of numerous projects for Apple's Worldwide Developer Program. Jon holds a B.A. from California State University, Fullerton, and is a published author, blogger, speaker, and instructor at UCLA and UC Irvine. Recent speaking engagements: "Integrated Brand Marketing Strategies Based on Consumer Engagement" - Marketing Forum 2010 at the Doral Resort in Miami FL, April, 2010, sponsored by Richmond Events. "Social Search Marketing" - UCLA, December, 2009. "Mastering Your Online Marketing Strategy" - The Digital Symposium at The Harvard Club in NYC, October, 2009, sponsored by Richmond Events. "I am thrilled to be working with the Heardable team on such an innovative and unique platform. Heardable's determination to demystify and simplify brand analytics is what brought me to the company. The Heardable Score is like a FICO score for brands, and provides a fast, easy-to-understand guide to how successfully a brand is performing online. I think Heardable has the potential to become an industry standard for how brand effectiveness is measured online, which makes this a great opportunity." Contact: samsel@heardable.com

CTO & Co-Founder: John Sharp

John Sharp is a veteran entrepreneur and angel investor, and has co-founded several technology startups, including Heardable, social venture finance network DealHorizon.com, nationwide online lending platform LenderExchange.com, and virtual desktop security leader, SafeCentral.

John has worked with international telecommunications, aerospace, media and technology brands on five continents, including Alcatel, British Aerospace, British Telecom, Comcast, Cox, CyberDefender, Earthlink, ESA, Gateway Communications, Google, IAC, IBM, Microsoft, Muvee, Naspers, Qwest, Sony, Telstra, Vodacom and Worldspace. John is an inventor and co-author of several technology patents, including three patents related to secure web browsing and secure DNS networking technology, and an adviser to several other early-stage media and technoogy start-ups, including ICE technology leader Yan Engines, and VIREO Broadband, a low-cost broadband service launching in 2012. He has acted as a program supervisor for development projects for the National Computer Board of Singapore and the Singapore University technology annex, A*Star. While in Singapore, he conceived and produced the best-selling Heart of Asia digital music anthology - a post-production library staple for over a decade, and one of the most successful products in its class. "I've literally seen hundreds of technology and media offerings over the last 25 years, and this is one of the very few that successfully deals with an urgent need in the marketplace. At a time when the media business is transforming, and social technologies are converging, Heardable allows online marketing companies to build more successful brands and achieve their core business objectives. This is a great service." Contact: sharp@heardable.com

Co-Founder & Strategic Adviser: Gunther Sonnenfeld

Gunther is a long-time serial entrepreneur and social technologist whose last executive position was as a global ad agency strategist (Omnicom Group). In addition to his role at Heardable, he now advises and works with several leading-edge companies in the digital media and Big Data spaces, including Coincident TV, MomentFeed, eCairn, Mynd and TruEffect.

Gunther is an active angel investor, a mentor in the K5 Ventures accelerator program, and speaks frequently around the world on the intersections of branding, early stage investment and emerging markets. He has also built award-winning content and analytics platforms for brands such as Toyota, Kraft, The Annenberg Foundation, NRDC, WB Music and the US Army. Widely regarded as a thought leader advancing the notions of digital convergence and transmedia storytelling, he has keynoted alongside the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Guy Kawasaki, Arianna Huffington, Mitch Joel, Lance Weiler and Jonathan Harris. You can find Gunther sharing his provocations here, or on his blog, and through his Twitter stream. "Brands have a dizzying array of monitoring tools and analytics platforms at their disposal, not to mention the fact that they are awash with reams of data, most of which don't lead them to the insights they need, or provide them with quick, actionable steps to improve their position. The Heardable product is literally a response to the needs and stringent demands of marketers who are not only under tremendous pressure to deliver results, but who must do so in relatively narrow windows of time. We've also had the luxury of testing our tool inside the walls of some of the most innovative strategic agencies and media companies in the world, and we will continue to improve upon our offering with their qualitative and quantitative input." Contact: sonnenfeld@heardable.com