Pass the Plate Announces Advisor Team

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Oct. 21, 2016 - PRLog -- There are many moving parts to starting a successful startup, one of them is assembling the advisory team.  Do you try to find big names, or do you find people that really believe in your product and can help you grow?  With Pass the Plate, we were patient, worked hard and were rewarded with the best of both worlds.

Bob Schmidt is a seasoned entrepreneur with beginnings in Washington, D.C. working for Kennedy then later co-founding CSPAN.  Bob has a law degree from Georgetown University and played football at the University of Southern California.  He currently serves as Executive Director for the Pro Football Retired Players Association (PFRPA) as well as many other things.  We are extremely fortunate to have Bob's support and experience in this endeavor.

John Usedom is the Managing Partner of Original Strength Systems and is an entrepreneurial minded leader with a servant leadership focused mindset and progressive background in developing and growing B2B organizations, teams and relationships.  We look forward to leaning on John's experience in customer retention, rewards programs and branding. (http://originalstrength.net )

COO Graham Treakle states, "It has been a pleasure to work with John over the past 18 months. Initially we worked with John through a local incubator called Entredot (https://entredot.org ), and as the relationship grew, we learned how much we valued John's point of view and advice." In early September 2016 we asked John to formally join our team and participate in our success. For John's advisor project, he is helping Pass the Plate to craft a clean message to prospective investors.

Andy Bowersox has been an advocate of Pass the Plate from the very beginning. Andy runs a nonprofit called Energize Ministries (http://energizeministries.com ) and has a strong business acumen. CFO Ross Treakle takes refuge in knowing one of the team will ask the difficult questions. "The tough questions, the ones beyond the normal "Why would my nonprofit switch over? or How are you going to make things easier for my donors?" are the ones that help us in our pursuit to make giving easier." Andy is helping Pass the Plate craft and run its first live event donation platform.

Nick Kovacic has been advising Pass the Plate for nearly 2 years.  Nick brings over 20 years experience in leading technology companies; with extensive business development, marketing and sales experience in the telecommunications and Internet marketplace. In addition to Co-Founding Defywire, a WDC based Mobile Software Company, he was responsible for overseeing and building the OEM Market and responsible for Federal and Commercial Marketing functions. Prior to Defywire, Nick was a founding Partner in The Techtrend Group (TTG), a Washington, D.C. based consulting firm.   In addition to being a long time advisor to Pass the Plate, Nick will become the first Pass the Plate Chairman of the Board when the conversion to a C Corp is complete.

Peter Marsh joined the Pass the Plate advisory team in August 2016. Peter is a co-founder of Flywheel (a 10,000 square foot co-working facility), founder of New Ventures an incubator program launched in Winston Salem NC in 2016 and has funded 4 startups with over $250,000.  Peter will be helping Pass the Plate with local investors and investment groups.

"We started working out of Flywheel in August 2015. Shortly there after, I started to participate in a few of Flywheel's programs, hosted by Peter, a Venture Capital class taught by Wake Forest Law (http://law.wfu.edu/), a TechStars program (http://www.techstars.com), and then Startup Weekend (https://startupweekend.org). Peter's passion for the local startup community, his connectedness to the business community and through leaders who could assist Pass the Plate in many different ways made our decision to ask Peter to join the advisory team easy," stated Graham.

We look forward to working with each of our advisors as we turn the chapter in the Pass the Plate business.