Team Bios

Steve Nilan

Steve drives the strategic vision of Fundability as CEO which combines his 25+ years of experience as a corporate executive, entrepreneur and investor. In addition to leading the company, Steve is a Venture Partner with Velocity Venture Capital, a Northern California venture capital firm and Fundability’s lead investor. Over the last 10 years, Steve has worked with more than thirty early-stage technology companies in strategic advisory roles including KhiMetrics (acquired by SAP, NYSE: SAP), PPIMedia (acquired by MAN Roland), Varatouch (acquired by Atrua Technologies), WebRaiser (acquired by Flextronics, Nasdaq: FLEX) and Atone Software (acquired by Core Logic). Prior to that, he spent nearly 20 years in marketing and strategic planning with a focus on cross-media and enterprise software deployment for companies in Europe, Asia, and North America. Steve was also a co-founder of CampusEngine.com and Vice President of Marketing at System Integrators, Inc. where he formed MediaBridge where he pioneered online classifieds at the Chicago Tribune and other major publishers. He holds a BA from Villanova University and an MBA from Iona College.

Lynn Liss

As Fundability Chief Operating Officer, Lynn is charged with the execution and operations of the company vision and goals. Lynn brings significant experience in the operations, strategy and financial aspects of proliferating innovative web technology and service offerings; through her 10+ years providing consulting services to industry leaders such as Microsoft, Live Nation, Toyota, JPMorgan Chase and many others. Lynn’s background with executing technology innovations range from web CRM, SaaS web services, e-commerce and image exchange solutions, digital content management and global outsourcing. Lynn began her career launching and managing the operations department for a startup financial organization and deploying a cutting edge e-commerce product suite, thus seeding her passion for corporate and product entrepreneurialism. She also earned a Masters degree in Strategy and Finance from the University of Chicago, further fueling her quest for corporate excellence and innovation. As part of the Fundability management team, Lynn combines all of her passions, from Innovation to Execution to Operations.

Leland Smith

Leland brings more than 25 years of technical and business experience to the team. After honing his technical knowledge with IBM, Leland's management and leadership skills were further developed when he joined Sega as a Senior Vice President in charge of Dreamcast Network product development. Leland was one of the early employees of Infoseek (IPO on NASDAQ, later acquired by Disney (NYSE: DIS)) and Women.com (IPO on NASDAQ, later acquired by iVillage Inc. (NASDAQ: IVIL)). During Leland's career, he defined, developed, refined and adapted business models used to identify business opportunities and acquisition targets. Most recently while at Babcock and Brown (merchant & investment bank), Leland headed business development that spanned three continents, with a focus on M&A opportunities.

Brian Ostrovsky

Brian is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for using the web to bring efficiencies and solutions to real-world problems. Brian wears the Product Management hat at Fundability where, he leads the product evolution and the creation of a private equity platform. As Entrepreneur-in-Residence he is responsible for acting as the “eyes, ears and voice” of our startup customers to improve the fundraising process while maximizing security and the value of the workflow processes. Way back in pre-YouTube days, Brian led the development of a software platform that facilitates the acceptance and optimization of user generated video by small and medium sized websites. The UGC video solution arose out of an internal need by Brian’s startup which had recently launched a reality TV casting solution that simplified and automated the casting process. Previously, Brian was with Digital View (now EnQii) where he led the direct B2B initiative and worked directly with decision makers at Circuit City, Semantic, Bed Bath and Beyond and others. Brian holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Azusa Pacific University and a Masters of Science in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota.

Key Advisors

Jack Crawford, Jr.

Jack’s career as a company-builder has evolved from CPA to entrepreneur to venture capitalist. As a CPA with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Jack saw a wide range of businesses and was inspired to start his own – including one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Sacramento region. Through the 1990’s, Jack earned a reputation as a serial entrepreneur in founding three more software companies. His efforts were recognized in 2000 when he was chosen as the Entrepreneur of the Year by The Money Hunt television show which was also an inspiration behind the founding of Fundability several years later. Since 2000, Jack has focused his energy on venture capital as the critical component of company building. Jack launched Velocity Venture Capital in 2005 to provide capital for entrepreneurs in the greater Sacramento area. Jack is now combining his front-line entrepreneurial operating experience with venture capital investments to help drive the success of the most promising companies in the region. In addition to being the Chairman of the Board at Fundability, he currently serves as a Board member with Jadoo Power, emTRAiN, Freepath, JobSight Solutions, Marquiss Wind Power, Razor Audio, and Riavo Systems. Jack is an alumnus of Harvard Business School's "Private Equity & Venture Capital" executive program and a graduate of the Venture Capital Institute. He earned a B.S. degree in Accounting from Arizona State University and is a Certified Public Accountant in California.

Victor Kearney

Victor is an active angel investor whose background includes a unique blend of operating and management experience across real estate development, entertainment and technology. Among others, he co-founded and invested in Atone Software, a mortgage workflow optimization company which was acquired by Core Logic. At Atone, Victor experienced firsthand the challenges for both entrepreneurs and angel investors in executing on promising early stage deals. The insight gained from his Atone experience was one of the inspirations for the creation of Start-Up TV Network and Fundability.com.