Erik is a visionary inventor who has worked for multiple Fortune 500 tech companies. His accomplishments include seven patents, two paper publications, 13 years engineering experience and was an AfroTech Pitch Competition top three finalist in 2019. As an inventor and engineer, so far, he has been granted a total of seven patents. Erik averaged one patent per year for the past eight years. Five of these patents were for his work with HP. Two of these are with Audios.
On his playlist: Outkast, Goodie Mob, This Will Destroy You, and Samuel Barber. But if you ask him this same question while he’s snowboarding, you get a totally different playlist.
Hobbies: Working out, farming, and snowboarding.
Dan is a 30 year industry veteran and currently the founder and CEO of Periodic Audio. He was also the principal transducer engineer at SONOS, and has designed transducers for many other prosound products for many brands, including the Monitor of the Decade, and Event Opal monitors. Dan has 27 issued patents to date and has leveraged his decades of experience to ensure the audio quality of Audios equipment is unrivaled.
On his playlist: a lot of classic and prog rock.
Hobbies: Motorcycle riding and cooking.
Sherrie Perkovich heads up our marketing, communication and PR efforts. With her 25+ years of experience in marketing, branding and advertising, we are confident in our strategy to move Audios forward. A Chicago native with roots in the SF Bay Area and France.
On her playlist: everything from Rock n’ Roll, to the Blues, Classic Jazz, Classical, Opera, Hip-Hop and Chicago House. A few in constant rotation are The Rolling Stones, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Keb Mo, Beethoven, Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper, Jacques Dutronc, Mötley Crüe, Duran Duran, Sam Cooke, The Animals, Justin Timberlake, Morphine, Stromae, Todd Terry and anything Jack White touches.
Hobbies: Tennis, hiking, general sports junkie, music junkie, travel junkie and a sophisticated wino and foodie (eating, not cooking).
Gauthier leads our operations and project management efforts. A native of France, with expertise in international project management and operations from China, EU and now in the US. With deep experience in business development and project management working with both startups and large enterprises. We’re also confident that his art history major will help us a great deal.
On his playlist: David Bowie, Muse, Beethoven, U2, Arcade Fire, Daft Punk, French79 and Miossec.
Hobbies: Golf, travel, skiing, fine art and whisky.
CFO Wealthfront, co-founder of Benchmark [Capital]
Benchmark were early investors in marquee companies such as eBay and Uber, but he’s more known for being the current CFO of Wealthfront and creating the concept of product-market-fit. So who better to teach Audios about product-market-fit than the master himself. He advises us on how to best grow Audios into a billion-dollar company. He is our Yoda and Mr. Miagi. We are his Skywalker and Daniel-son.
Charles was one of the co-creators of Guitar Hero, one of the top selling video game franchises of all time, having grossed over $4 billion dollars. He’s been teaching us how to deliver our products. He also provides design input and has given us access to his entire network of manufacturing partners and supply chain into stores like Best Buy and Sam Nash.
Venture Partner, Waterman Ventures
Jonathan might be the busiest man in the Bay Area. Between his role at Waterman Ventures and donating his time with Bay Scholars or his own company 1790 Media, Jonathan understands the value of a business and financial education. His experience advising the best up and coming startups is invaluable. A graduate of Brown University, he has been integral in Audios’ development on the business and finance side of things. A native of Ohio, but with long standing roots in San Francisco.
On his playlist: incredibly eclectic but always have the tried and true old school in the line up
Hobbies: military history, sports nut, learning Italian for the past 5 years and as most of California, a bit of a wine connoisseur.
CFO & COO, Planet
Ashley is chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer (COO) of Planet, a geospatial imaging company that images the entire earth every day to make global change visible, accessible, and actionable. Before joining Planet, Ashley was both the CFO and COO at Wealthfront, a nextgen banking service that helps young professionals manage their savings. Ashley has extensive leadership expertise across a wide range of areas, from corporate strategy, business development and finance to building and leading executive teams in the technology space. Needless to say Ashley is a beast in business and finance and has been mentoring us on the business side of things.
A recent grad from CU Boulder in Creative Technology & Design, EO initially joined the Audios team as an intern and through his creativity, design, and work ethic, now has a permanent place on the Audios team. His experience with compositing and motion graphics are integral to the Audios brand look and feel. We feel fortunate that we’ve found him early in his career and plan for him to be with us for a long time.
On his playlist: Psychedelic bass artists like Tipper, CharlestheFirst, and KOAN sound & jam bands like The Grateful Dead, Marcus King Band, The California Honeydrops, and Billy Strings.
Hobbies: Snowboarding, climbing, hiking and most things outdoors. He’s not just an outdoors fanatic, he also enjoys a good dose of relaxation with all of the foods and drinks, kaleidoscopes, and a good game of Chess or cards. Check out some of his other work at eorafelson.com