SPEAKER: Carol Frank

Author and Investment Banker

Carol Frank is a rare bird.

Having developed three multi-million dollar companies, Carol Frank combines her insider’s expertise in all aspects of businesses to help entrepreneurs, business owners and executives shorten the learning curve and increase profits, while reducing headaches.

Carol is passionate about business, networking, animals and the intersection of the three. As a one-time auditor for a large CPA firm, she gained an inside-out understanding of how companies operate. Her first business was a pet shop in Dallas called The Animal Kingdom. Through this retail endeavor, she discovered her passion for the pet industry, which fueled her next business: Avian Kingdom Supply, Inc. From 1990 to 1998, Carol owned and operated what grew to be a multimillion distributor of 2,100-plus pet products. In 1996, she launched Avian Adventures, one of the world’s largest designers and importers of exclusive birdcages and accessories, which she operated for 11 years before selling to Midwest Homes for Pets in 2007.

She then leveraged her significant experience and passion for entrepreneurship to start BirdsEye Consulting. BEC helps companies develop business plans, connect with the right people, launch new products, identify key market opportunities, and better utilize their resources so they can reach their highest profit potential.

She recently formed a strategic alliance with SDR Ventures, a boutique investment bank, as the managing director in charge of their pet industry vertical. 

Carol is the author of the highly-acclaimed book, Do As I Say, Not As I Did!  Gaining Wisdom in Business Through The Mistakes of Highly Successful People ( translated into four languages ).  The success of her book, combined with her extensive experience as an entrepreneur, has made Carol a sought-after speaker and interview subject.  Her television appearances include Oprah, MSNBC, Good Morning Texas, NBC News and she has co-hosted the nationally syndicated television show “Great Pets”.

Her professional blog “Business Savvy” appears every other week on www.petproductnews.com 

She has been featured in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, USA Today, Business Week, The Dallas Morning News, among others.

Carol began her career as a CPA with Ernst & Young and also spent three years as an executive recruiter for Robert Half International. She has a BBA in accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

MODERATOR: Dave Taylor

Senior Fellow at the DaVinci Institute; Blogger, Speaker, Workshop Facilitator and Radio Guest

Dave Taylor is a Senior Fellow at the DaVinci Institute and has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written eighteen business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains three weblogs, one focused on business and industry analysis, the eponymously named Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and APparenting.com, discussing topics of interest to parents. Dave is a highly-rated speaker, sought after workshop facilitator and frequent radio guest.

PANELIST: Steve Baker

Senior Fellow, Business Advisor and Author

In addition to being a Senior Fellow at DaVinci Institute, Steve Baker is President and co-founder of International Wellness Resorts Inc., serenely located in Placencia, Belize.

Steve has been a founder of successful businesses, a corporate executive and a business advisor to startups. With proven leadership in every phase of business cycle from startup to exit, Steve has the unique ability to generate immediate and sustainable improvements in business. He directs strategic marketing and business development and has taken companies from startup to millions of dollars in revenues in such diverse industries as international travel, financial software, casinos, manufacturing, cosmetic surgery, and ergonomics.

In a former corporate life, he was co-founder and Executive Vice President of WorldGroup Inc. and developed 300 franchise travel agencies with revenues of $500 Million.

Always the entrepreneur and Startup Junkie, Steve is a well known speaker and author of the award winning book PUSHING WATER UPHILL With A Rake, as well as being an avid poor golfer.

PANELIST: Steve Kregstein

Founder of Kregstein Legal Strategies

Steve Kregstein, founder of Kregstein Legal Strategies, is an attorney, entrepreneur and business executive with many years’ experience providing clients with practical business expertise and perspective not found in most law firms. He guides his early stage/growth clients through critical strategic issues and serves as a trusted advisor through all stages of their operations.  Steve has been a speaker for the Angel Capital Summit and a mentor for the CleanTech Open and the Investor Pitch Academy of the Rockies Venture Club.  He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Harvard Law School. 

HOST: Brian Tsuchiya

Founder of Startup Guru

Brian Tsuchiya is the founder of StartUp Guru and started his entrepreneurial journey 18 years ago and has since launched ten startups. Startup Guru is the culmination of this extraordinary journey. He has openly shared for the first 40 years of his life he primarily served himself and lived a life without purpose.  Then in June of 2006 he read a book that would change his life forever.  He embarked on a journey that connected his life purpose with his entrepreneurial career.  Through this work he understood his patterns and defined his life in a way that revealed his purpose.  Forged in him was the way of the entrepreneur.