Founded in 2001 and backed by Clearstone Venture Partners and Leapfrog Ventures, Vast.com has brought together a team of experienced Internet executives from Epinions, Trilogy, Paypal, CoreMetrics, Orbitz and Google. Vast.com is in San Francisco.

1. 

   John Price

   Chief Executive Officer & President

   John is the CEO of Vast.com. Prior to Vast, John served as vice president of marketing and business development at Between Markets, which was sold to Inovis. Before BetweenMarkets, John spent 11 years as vice president of marketing and business development at enterprise software company Trilogy, Inc, where he was critical to the company’s growth from $0 to $250 million in revenue. Previously, John was a director of technical marketing at Neuron Data and an AI associate at Shell Oil. John holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

2. 

   David Franke, PhD

   Chief Scientist

   Dr. David Franke is Vast’s Chief Scientist. Prior to Vast, David managed a team in the Search Quality Evaluation group at Google responsible for determining user intent based on search query patterns. Before Google, David founded Refactor Labs, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in Data Mining solutions, and was an Assistant Professor at St. Edwards University in Austin, where he taught Computer Science at New College and the Graduate School of Management and Business. David previously worked for Trilogy Software as Chief Scientist, where he was the principal developer of Trilogy’s flagship product, SalesBUILDER, and was involved in sales, product and technology research, as well as interviewing, recruiting, and mentoring Trilogy’s senior technical contributors. He also managed Trilogy’s IP portfolio and defined and developed Trilogy’s development methodology. David has also been a Senior Member, Technical Staff at MCC, and a Senior Member, Technical Staff at Texas Instruments, Inc. He received his doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin. David holds seven issued patents and has two more pending in configuration, rule mining, and thin-client web interfaces.

3. 

   Ben Cohen

   Vice President of Business Development and General Manager, Automotive

   Ben Cohen is general manager for the automotive business at Vast. As general manager, Ben
   is responsible for strategic publisher partnerships, the growing advertiser marketplace, and continuous enhancement of Vast’s white label auto search solution. Prior to Vast, Ben Cohen was head of Trilogy’s Automotive Business Unit. In this capacity, Ben helped increase earnings for his OEM and dealer clients by working with them to redefine and implement new retail and product development processes. Throughout his tenure, Ben was also responsible for sales and product management across Trilogy’s largest initiatives. Ben holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.

4. 

   Bryan Koontz

   General Manager, Real Estate

   Bryan Koontz is general manager of the Real Estate vertical for Vast. Prior to Vast, Bryan was senior vice president and general manager of the software division of Tripos, Inc., a publicly-traded life sciences company, which was later acquired by Vector Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm. Bryan previously held roles as vice president of marketing and vice president of corporate development at Tripos. Prior to Tripos, Bryan was CEO of Optive Research, Inc., a software spinout from the University of Texas at Austin, which was acquired by Tripos, Inc. Prior to co-founding Optive, Bryan was co-founder of Contextual, Inc., a venture-backed enterprise software company, and held various sales and product roles at Trilogy Software, Inc., based in Austin, TX. Bryan holds a BS degree from Penn State University and a MS degree from MIT.