Team

debbie

Debbie Landa, CEO and Founder

Debbie Landa has been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years. She is the founder and CEO of Dealmaker Media which was launched in the fall of 2000. Her conferences bring together leading executives looking to discover the next great startup and partners that can accelerate their growth. Over 500 emerging startups from Linkedin, Admob, Rightscale to Box.net have presented at her conferences. She is considered a curator of innovation and has become one of the most influential connectors in Silicon Valley. Before starting Dealmaker Media, she ran business development for a venture "catalyst" firm focused on accelerating growth for emerging startups. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in the fashion industry working with various clothing manufacturers, designing and developing private-label programs for major retailers. She is Canadian and grew up in the tundra, or as we call it, Saskatoon. Find her on Twitter @deblanda.
heidi

Heidi Isern, Director

Heidi serves as the Director of Dealmaker Media, bringing over ten years of strategy, marketing, and operational experience to the team.  Prior to joining Dealmaker Media, she founded Chameleon Endeavors, a strategic advisory firm where she designed growth strategies and product roadmaps for a breadth of online and offline retailers from Fortune 500 firms to start-ups.  Previous to that, Heidi drove business development efforts at Kurt Salmon Associates, landing and managing multi-million dollar product development initiatives for North American and Japanese retail clients.  Heidi is also a free-lance writer with work featured with Women 2.0, shine.yahoo.com and Business Week. Heidi holds a BA in Business Economics and a MBA, both from the University of Washington.  She speaks conversant Spanish, German, and French. Find her on Twitter @hisern.
giselle

Giselle Umland, Director of Events and Operations

Giselle Umland is the Director of Events and Operations at Dealmaker Media. Her event and meeting planning experience spans the business development, human resource, and finance fields. Prior to joining Dealmaker Media, Giselle was an Event Manager at Agencia Um, a leading event production company in Sao Paulo, where she served clients such as Citibank, Bank of Boston and ABN AMRO Bank. She holds a B.A. degree in Tourism from Anhembi Morumbi University and completed the San Francisco State University Event and Meeting Planning Program.
Clare

Clare Jacobson, Community Manager and Startup Curator

Clare can be described as a technology trend-hunter, a media specialist and a super connector. At DealmakerMedia, she is responsible for filling events with interesting startups and conducting comprehensive research into the startup/VC market to define what trends are ahead. Clare heads up the Under the Radar blog, media partnerships and all social media outreach. Clare recently moved from San Francisco to Portland and has since begun organizing influencer dinners to connect Portland business leaders from various sectors for the purpose of strengthening economic growth of Portland. Clare was raised on a farm in the California Foothills and has mad skills when it comes to goat milking. Clare graduated from UC Berkeley and loves traveling, writing, blogging, and thinking of innovative, out of the box partnerships. Find her on Twitter @clarejacobson.

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Conferences & Roundtables

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Jeff Clavier

Founder, SoftTechVC

Dealmaker Media brings together some of the most interesting and innovative minds in the Silicon Valley. The network is one of the best in Silicon Valley, and it takes a lot for me not to attend one of their events.

Peter Pham

CEO, BillShrink

Surviving and succeeding in both LA and Silicon Valley has a lot to do with your network and support base. Learning from peers, mentors, and other successful individuals is all part of personal growth and Dealmaker Media is an essential part of that network.

Ravi Simhambhatla

VP and CIO, Virgin America

Dealmaker Media has clearly succeeded in filtering out the noise around technology and innovations, and in highlighting meaningful, relevant and sustainable technologies and technology companies. This is an invaluable and highly recommended partnership for technology executives who are constantly besieged by fiction rather than fact.

Tim Chang

Principal, Norwest Venture Partners

"Dealmaker Media has a been a terrific partner to work with in terms of seeking out the best-of-breed emerging startups - unlike many "flavor of the year" conferences, Dealmaker's Under the Radar conference goes to great lengths to truly source qualified and compelling next-generation founders."

Andy Kleitsch

Startup CEO, Billing Revolution

"Dealmaker Media's events are top notch. The level of exposure and credibility we now enjoy has exceeded our wildest expectations."

Kent Goldman

Principal, First Round Capital

"Dealmaker's community and conversations stand out for their quality and depth. Through it, I've developed relationships with both entrepreneurs and VCs whom I otherwise wouldn't have met."

Sunil Dhaliwal

General Partner, Battery Ventures

Under the Radar always attract the best investors, IT visionaries and elite startups. It continues to be the single best event for networking.

Luke Kanies

CEO, Puppet Labs

"Under the Radar was a great show to highlight Puppet Labs, and especially our strength in the cloud. The meetings I had with industry peers, investors and press as were extremely valuable. I would definitely recommend this show to any early stage startup." Luke,

Andreea Enache-Thüne

VP Games & Digital Distribution, Marvel Entertainment

Unplugged was by far one of the best industry events I have attended in a long time.

Daniel Rosen

Head of AKQA Mobile

“I thoroughly enjoyed Under the Radar, it was brilliant. This really does set the benchmark for mobile technology events. There was a great selection of companies taking part, which of course makes or breaks such an event. Both the caliber of companies and diversity of offering was well chosen.”

Richard Ting

VP & ECD, R/GA

“Under the Radar is an excellent event. I tell everyone that it is probably one of the most valuable and interesting mobile events in the U.S.”

Joe Weinman

Strategy and Emerging Service, AT&T

“Wouldn't it have been nice to know about eBay or Google just as they were getting started? Under the Radar gives you that opportunity, bringing together a thoughtful mix of CIOs, investors, business development and other industry execs, analysts, and media into an entertaining and insightful high-speed short-form blitzkrieg of information and ideas. As these startups finish coming in Under the Radar, it means that they'll either soon be shot down, or accelerate to new heights."

Spencer Hunt

VP, Sony Pictures Television

"I can't say enough good things about how well constructed the Unplugged event was to effectively break up the natural clicks that can easily form. It was great seeing some old colleagues, and even better meeting new ones, who I already have follow-up calls planned, and hopes for some lucrative relationships."

Margita Labhard

Strategy and Business Development, New Business Customer Solutions Group, Best Buy

“The Under the Radar conference is one of the best sources to identify and network with emerging digital companies outside of the direct VC network. I’ve gone to the UTR event two years in a row and this has been time well spent with actionable follow ups. The quality of companies is very high thanks to Deal Maker Media’s scoping efforts. This is definitely a great source for emerging digital business leads.”

Jevon MacDonald

Co-Founder at GoInstant

"Under the Radar was 2 days of intense networking with customers, partners and other startups. No other conference even comes close in quality or quantity of opportunities."

Marko Kovac

CEO and Founder, Salespod

The level of networking on the conference was wonderful, but coaching calls were something extra. We participated in the Seedcamp and StartupWeek workshops, which were both very good, but this was even better. [The Dealmaker Team] did great job helping us shape our message.

John Quinn

VP Engineering, Gilt Groupe

"The under the Radar conference is a great way to quickly come up to speed with the latest activities of the companies floating in the stratosphere of the cloud computing revolution, and connect with their key players."

Paul Payton

Chief Systems Engineer, Visa

"A clever mixture of ‘speed dating’ and ‘American Idol’ meets ‘Shark Tank’, Under the Radar offers a rare, up-close, privileged opportunity to feel the pulse of innovation and ideation in the technology field and pluck product offerings (in their most succulent stage) from a veritable garden of opportunity."

Rand Fitzpatrick

Chief Product Officer, OkCupid Labs SF

"...Was an excellent opportunity to get a close look at emerging technical and business talent - the Dealmaker team did a great job of curating a fascinating set of companies working at the leading edges of their fields..."

Jay H Lee

VP, Business Development, American Express

UTR is by far, one of the more unique conferences I've attended. I've been able to meet a group of qualified, innovative companies in an collaborative and fun setting and squeeze a month's worth of meetings into two days. Great ROI on time spent. Well done.

Tom Peck

SVP & CIO, Levi Strauss & Company

“A great event. A great way for us to see where technology is heading and meet face-to-face with innovators and thought leaders.”

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