I'm thrilled to announce that Wendy Lea has joined the Firebrand team as Advisor and Maranda Manning has joined as fund Associate.

Having delivered business solutions in 30 countries, Wendy Lea brings a worldly point of view to digital innovation and her entrepreneurial pursuits. OnTarget, Stratify and Get Satisfaction are three of her many leadership successes.  She is currently the CEO of Cintrifuse, a public private partnership designed to build a tech-based economy in the Greater Cincinnati Region, and a member of C200 and Cincinnati Women’s Executive Forum.

In 2012 and 2013, Wendy was recognized as a Women of Influence in both Silicon Valley and San Francisco. She currently serves on the board of The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, The Health Collaborative, INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati, and on the board of Techstars in Boulder, Colorado and Xyleme in Denver, Colorado.

Maranda Manning worked with me during the 2015 and 2016 Techstars Kansas City accelerator programs. Her role there included running the day to day operations of the program as well as reviewing applications, participating in the selection process, and helping the companies. This invaluable experience, and her passion for startups, will add great value to Firebrand. She'll be directly involved with deal sourcing, diligence, and various high priority projects. Previous to Firebrand Maranda served as Director of Marketing for SquareOffs, a venture-backed tech company in Kansas City.

I'm very excited to be working with Maranda again and to welcome Wendy to our stellar advisory team. I look forward to the great things I know both will bring to the fund's mission of investing in exceptional founders!