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Donatello 1: Mentor Sessions
Monday, July 20
4:30pm
Donatello 1: Mentor Sessions
Brian Pullen is a designer and entrepreneur who loves using
technology to be creative and build successful businesses.
Prior to joining The Working Group as design director, he was
co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Playground Inc, an
award winning digital agency based in Toronto. Throughout his
career, he has pushed his clients to do more than just design
great products. He has helped them establish business mod-
els, design philosophies, management structures and creating
forward thinking digital strategies. He is also co-founder and
creative director of an innovative financial product called Big
Terminal. They are reinventing financial data and giving context
to financial news.
Lizzy Newsome is the toy curator at Kappa Toys, and one of the
founding members. Funded by the Downtown Project in the
summer of 2014, the Kappa Toys brand seeks to entice children
and adults with unique and exciting playthings. Picture your
classic childhood favorites coexisting with exciting Japanese
imports. The store is already looking to expand it's reach both
online and nationally. During her ten years in the toy industry,
Newsome has also split her time between social media, brand
consulting and online marketing. In the future, Newsome an-
ticipates entering the manufacturing realm with creation of toys
and items that are well designed and wonderfully weird.
Frank Gruber is an entrepreneur, new media journalist and in-
vestor. He is the author of Startup Mixology: Tech Cocktail's
Guide To Building, Growing and Celebrating Startup Success
published by Wiley. He co-founded Tech.Co, which has grown
into a media company for the creative class, offering tech and
startup focused news, events, and resources. Gruber has built
and launched products for the masses while at AOL, Tribune and
Classified Ventures along with startup efforts like Thankfulfor,
Splog Reporter and more. As a journalist his works have been
featured in a number of top media publications like TechCrunch,
Fortune, HuffPo, etc. Gruber's alma maters include Purdue and
Northwestern respectively.
Brian
Pullen
The Working
Group,
Design Director
Lizzy
Newsome
Kappa Toys,
Toy Curator
Frank
Gruber
Tech.Co,
CEO & Cofounder
MONDAY
