Lara Smith is Managing Director of Dad's Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta, GA.
In 2014, Smith led the Dad's Garage Theatre Company in a capital campaign to raise funds to purchase a new theatre in Atlanta. The Kickstarter campaign for Dad's Garage was an overwhelming success, raising $169,985 from more than 1,000 donors, which was at that time the most money raised by a live theatre on Kickstarter. [1]
Smith was named one of the "40 under 40" for 2015 by the Atlanta Business Chronicle . [2] This award recognizes "the next generation of Atlanta business leaders... 40 people under age 40 who make significant career achievements and have demonstrated social responsibility." [3]
inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studio produced the fantasy games The Bard's Tale and Hunted: The Demon's Forge, along with various games for Flash and iOS such as Fantastic Contraption in its first decade of development. In 2014, inXile released the post-apocalyptic game Wasteland 2, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Following the game's critical success, the studio went on to raise a then-record US$4 million on Kickstarter to develop Torment: Tides of Numenera, a spiritual successor to Interplay's Planescape: Torment. The studio was purchased by Microsoft and became part of Xbox Game Studios in 2018, just as they were developing Wasteland 3, which they released in 2020. The studio is currently developing Clockwork Revolution for Windows and Xbox Series X/S.
Rapid Fire Theatre (RFT) is an improvisational theatre company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle is a weekly newspaper covering business news in Atlanta, Georgia, published by American City Business Journals. The paper has both a weekly print edition and an online edition.
Fan-funded music is crowdfunding for music. Often, fan-funded music occurs in conjunction with direct-to-fan marketing. Fans of music have the option to donate and collectively raise money with the goal of jump-starting the career of a given musical artist. The fan-funding of music occurs primarily through web-based services using a business model for crowdfunding. Fans are typically given rewards based on their monetary contributions.
Shanti Das is an American music industry executive, marketing consultant, entrepreneur, philanthropist and author. She was most recently Executive Vice President of Urban Marketing and Artist Development at Universal Motown Records, where she managed the marketing campaigns for artists such as Akon, Erykah Badu, and Ashanti.
Mike Schatz is an American creative director, copywriter, actor, and comedian. He is best known as the voice of Emory the Plutonian on the Adult Swim series Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the film; Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. In addition, he worked on creative direction for the Atlanta Braves, the Up TV station, and other clients from the Blue Sky Agency, an advertising agency based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kickstarter, PBC is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of February 2023, Kickstarter has received US$7 billion in pledges from 21.7 million backers to fund 233,626 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects.
Kevin Gillese is a Canadian actor, writer and improvisor from Edmonton, Alberta.
Amber Nash is an American actress and improvisational comedian. She is known as the voice actress for Pam Poovey in the animated TV series Archer. She was also featured in the animated TV series Frisky Dingo.
Dad's Garage Theatre Company, located at 569 Ezzard St. in the Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1995 by Chris Blair, Marc Cram, Sean Daniels, George Faughnan, John Gregorio, David Keeton, Joseph Limbaugh, Matt Stanton, and Matt Young. A second wave of people in the founding summer soon followed, and the theatre company spent the next five years establishing itself in the Atlanta improv and theatre communities. The small theater company has since achieved international recognition for original stage productions and Improvisational comedy. Former Second City company member, Tim Stoltenberg is the current Artistic Director. Stacey Sharer is the current managing director.
Matt "Lucky" Yates is an American actor, voice actor, puppeteer and comedian. He is known for his voice roles as Dr. Krieger on Archer and the Xtacles on Frisky Dingo. He was also a recurring actor on the Food Network series Good Eats. He studied theater at Wayne State University and regularly performs at Dad's Garage in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bohemian Guitars is an Atlanta-based guitar manufacturer that makes custom electric guitars, basses, and ukuleles using unconventional materials.
Raymond B. King is an American executive. Since 2010, he has been the president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia.
King of Pops is an Atlanta-based popsicle company. It was established by brothers Steven and Nick Carse, and is based out of the Atlanta neighborhood of Inman Park. The business operates 40 pushcarts and two customized ice cream trucks, and has retail branches in Athens, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, Greenville, South Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, among other places. The company plans to expand to Alpharetta, Georgia in the near future.
New Brooklyn Theatre is a theatre company based in Brooklyn, NY that specializes in producing socially relevant work in New York City and internationally. It was founded in 2012 by Artistic Director Jonathan Solari, Jeff Strabone, and Sarah Wolff. The New York Times has called it "a flash point for the fusion of theatre and politics." It is now under the artistic leadership of Raja Feather Kelly.
DRUM Agency was an independently owned marketing agency with operations in Atlanta, New York City and Chicago. It shut down without notice on April 15, 2020. It was the result of the merger of BKV, unified.agency, Hiccup and Umarketing firms. The oldest agency, BKV, originally specialized in direct response marketing, then later expanded into traditional media, followed by digital media. Clients included both for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations.
Meyer Optik Görlitz, originally Hugo Meyer & Co., was a former optical company from Görlitz in Germany. It was founded in 1896 by optician Hugo Meyer and businessman Heinrich Schätze. The company got off to a successful start with the development of the wide-angle Aristostigmat lens and the subsequent acquisition of Optical Institute Schulze and Billerbeck, the manufacturers of “Euryplan lenses”, as they were called at the time.
The Brainwashing of My Dad is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Jen Senko about her father's transformation from a nonpolitical Democrat into a political Republican. The film was mostly funded by a Kickstarter campaign.
Aaron Shapiro is an American entrepreneur, marketing executive, and investor based in New York City.