Starting at age 8 with Leo’s Lemonade Stand, Jon became addicted to creating and building. While earning his BSBA in Entrepreneurship at Elon University, he and two partners were inspired to create DC Entrepreneurship Week to bring interested capital and resources in front of entrepreneurs. Past Entrepreneurship Weeks have successfully funded half of the presenting companies and Jon has reproduced the event model for over thousands of attendees across 8 cities, under the new brand Forward City.

His passion for connecting people and creating experiences lead him to create The TanZ Group in late 2013 with Sam Krichevsky and Aron Schoenfeld. As CBDO, Jon focuses on exploring new opportunities and partners to help create unique experiences and content to connect artists with their audiences.

Jon currently serves on the board for Elon University’s Doherty Center for Entrepreneurship, Dream Artist Music, and interim director for the Charity Lacrosse Foundation. As a philanthropist, he helps raise money and support for local charities in North Carolina and villages in Guatemala, Jamaica and Costa Rica. From Boston, Jon recently moved to Washington D.C. and enjoys playing guitar, practicing yoga, and feeding his addiction to gummy bears.

Joel Goobich is a big-picture guy with sharp insight into how the individual parts of a business work together to make a strong company. He’s tireless in pursuit of solutions to boost the growth and success of businesses small and large, helping them adapt to the changing business environment and, ultimately, putting them on track to a profitable transition and exit. From Service to Success Joel’s drive to solve problems and create positive change is evident from his background beginning with service in the Israeli army and his advanced degree in Applied Chemistry. His technical background and product development and innovation skills have resulted in multiple patents and trademarks. With this start, Joel has gone on to success in every type of business function from executive management, business development, operations and product development. A Born Entrepreneur He founded Colorations, Inc. in 1991 and built the company to a leading international brand of children’s art products. Using the first-hand knowledge gained from a rewarding and well planned sale of the company, he continued his entrepreneurial path. He now focuses his considerable business experience and knowledge on working with business owners to strengthen their businesses through his consulting and marketing firms, Big Picture Advisors and i3 Marketing. A Passion for Mentoring & Podcasting Over the course of his wide ranging career, Joel has devoted a considerable amount of his time to mentoring young adults and entrepreneurs, including his recent activities as a mentor at the Citadel College School of Business. Having dipped his feet in the world of radio and podcasting with his first podcast – Don’t Get Stuck in Your Business, Joel has recently dived head first into the unlimited potential that podcasting offers to impart knowledge to others. His most recent podcast BizBuzzCharleston provides behind the scene stories and context to what’s going on in the local business community of Charleston SC. His newest podcast project, Build Business Muscle explore the skills, assets and resources that business owners, executives and professionals need to grow a strong business core. A Fresh Perspective Armed with the knowledge that quality content marketing is a powerful tool, Joel has partnered with The Better You Network to create the BizBuzz Radio network which will host and curate leading business podcasts from around the country. Joel can be contacted through LinkedIn or via email at joel@bigpictureadvisors.com

After 25 years of Corporate America, Denise Cardin is now following her dream of owning her own business. It started in 2008 with a metro-Atlanta hiking group called Mongrels Mania. Denise knew shortly after creating the group that she was surrounded by some pretty awesome folks who wanted to be active with their dogs, with others, and have fun...to socialize their dogs in a positive way. So, upon losing her corporate job, she jumped at the opportunity to follow a dream. Inspired by and through the love of dogs, on 1/11/14, Bark Parc was launched with an entirely new concept in mind -- to address pet ownership as a whole. To uphold the ideals of that little neighborhood shop...to offer both friendly and caring service and the most wholesome quality foods and treats from the U.S. & Canada; to offer unique and different products made, whenever possible, by local cottage industries. And finally, to offer an outlet for the interactive dog lover...by incorporating her hiking group into the business plan and it's been further expanded to even urban and historic town walks. Bark Parc is approaching 600 members.