The members of the OCA Ventures team have a passion for building
early-stage companies into market leaders, have long histories working
with one another, and share common core personal and professional
beliefs, while at the same time contributing different skills and
perspectives.
This cohesive group has close business and personal relationships
dating back more than 25 years. John Dugan, Peter Ianello and Marc
Berman were partners in the 1980s when they led O’Connor &
Associates. Jim Dugan is John Dugan’s third son and Eddie Lou and Jason
Heltzer both joined the team in 2001.
S. Christopher Gladwin -
Cleversafe was founded by Chris Gladwin and has created a newtechnology called Dispersed Storage that is changing how the worldstores data. Cleversafe Dispersed Storage uses Information DispersalAlgorithms to separate data into a large number of pieces or sliceswhich are stored in separate locations. Each individual slice ismathematically useless which makes slice storage inherently secure andprivate. In addition, only a portion of the slices are required toperfectly recreate all the original data which enables effectivelyinfinitely reliable data storage.
Prior to Cleversafe, Chris Gladwin created and managed a series ofsuccessful new technology companies. As the founding Chairman,President and CEO of MusicNow (initially known as FullAudio), Chrisbuilt the company to 100,000 customers before its acquisition byCircuit City. MusicNow, whose venture financing was led by NewEnterprise Associates, provided digital music services that weremarketed by distribution partners that included Best Buy, ClearChannel, Microsoft, SBC, Charter Communications and Earthlink.
Prior to MusicNow, Chris invented the wireless thin client and then wasthe founding Chairman, President and CEO of Cruise Technologies whichbecame the dominant supplier of wireless thin client technology. CruiseTechnologies, whose venture financing was led by Battery Ventures,provided wireless thin clients that were marketed by distributionpartners that included Motorola, IBM, Wyse, Telos and Zenith DataSystems.
Chris is an inventor on over 30 issued and pending patents related towireless remote interface and Internet service technology. Chris’s workhas been consistently recognized by 20 industry awards for theproducts, services and companies he has created.