Sha
ne Johnson, Managing Director
Shane is responsible for mentoring the Portfolio Companies and for deal flow development. Shane has been active in the Oregon startup community for more than 15 years. He helped to found three Internet startups and has had two successful exits. Shane’s startups have all been located in Eugene, and he believes strongly in the community and people who have aided his success. He has been a local advisor, mentor, and active angel investor since 2011. Shane has been the Entrepreneur in Residence at Fertilab, an accelerator and co-working space for entrepreneurs in Eugene, since 2013, he serves as the lead mentor in the Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network (RAIN) in Eugene, and he is also an advisor to several local companies. Shane earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology from the University of Oregon and a master’s in neuroscience from the University of Rochester in New York.
Joe Maruschak, Managing Director
Joe is an entrepreneur who founded a video game company, BraveTree, in 2001 BraveTree was acquired by its publisher, GarageGames in 2005. He joined the executive team of GarageGames and managed the games and technology for the company until its acquisition in 2007 by IAC. At IAC he managed the games division and third party game development portfolio. He subsequently acted as a consultant and advisor to early stage and growth stage companies and co-founded FertiLab, a biotech incubator and coworking space. His active work in the startup community led to his selection in 2014 as Chief Startup Officer of RAIN Eugene and the Director of the award winning RAIN Eugene Accelerator, where he has worked with over 30 startup companies. He also serves as a mentor for the Portland based accelerator, PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment). Joe is a frequent speaker at the University of Oregon in the Business, Computer Science, and Design programs and is a sought after judge for hack-a-thons and business plan competitions, including the University of Oregon’s prestigious New Venture Challenge.
Stephen McKeon, Co-Fo
under
Stephen is a Finance professor at the University of Oregon and has been active in the Oregon startup community for many years as a mentor and angel investor. His professional history began in Silicon Valley at a consumer software startup, followed by six years as the CFO/COO of a high production winery in Napa Valley. In 2012, he co-founded Skyward, a venture-backed drone software company that was acquired by Verizon in 2017. His research, which focuses on private equity, mergers & acquisitions, security issuance and blockchain assets, has been published in top finance journals and is regularly cited in major media outlets. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance at UO as well as a masters in economics and a PhD in finance at Purdue University.