Terry Hsiao, Co-Founder and CEO

Hsiao, is a recognized entrepreneur with an impressive track record for developing companies in the mobile telecom industry.

Prior to founding Hook Mobile, he was chief operating officer and general manager of International markets for Way Systems, taking the company from pre-revenue to more than $10M.

He also co-founded InphoMatch, the pioneer in mobile messaging, with annual revenue of $100M, which was acquired by Sybase for $425 million. In addition, he managed the founding and operations of Nextel Partners' wireless venture (acquired by Sprint), from the creation of the business plan, raising capital, development of operating structures, to IPO within 18 months.

Hsiao has been appointed by Virginia Governor of Bob McDonnell to serve on the state's Board of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority (IEIA). He also serves on the Board of Governors at MIT Sloan School of Management, Monte Jade D.C. Chapter, and on the Business Advisory Boards of Rutgers University College of Engineering and the Confucius Institute at George Mason University (GMU).

Hsiao holds an S.M. degree from MIT Sloan School of Management with a concentration on growth strategy and entrepreneurship, and an Honors B.S.E.E. degree from Rutgers University.

Kirk Tsai, Co-Founder and CTO

Tsai brings more than 14 years of experience in software engineering and in designing complex, highly scalable transaction processing platforms. Prior to Hook Mobile, he co-founded InphoMatch (Sybase), serving as chief architect for six years. He was the architect for the messaging platform that handles more than 1.5 billion SMS & MMS message per month.

Earlier in his career, Tsai was a senior technology consultant at Compaq (formerly Digital Equipment Corporation). Tsai holds an M.S. degree in Information Systems and B.S. degree in Computer Science, both from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Soren Schafft, Corporate Development

Schafft sent the first commercial psms message in the United States and thus started the mCommerce market (premium sms) that has subsequently gone on to process billions of dollars in revenue for media companies, content providers and social networks. Schafft launched many of the first premium services including interactive television, voting, chat, wallpaper, ringtones, mobile video, live text-to-screen, etc. Schafft was a co-founder of the first the first B2B aggregator where he managed mobile campaigns for NewsCorp, Disney, ABC, NBC, Telemundo, Endemol, The Weather Channel, Fuse, and Hearst, as well as, with carriers such as Verizon, AT&T (Cingular), Sprint, T Mobile, and Alltel.

Schafft managed 70% of the traffic for Deal or No Deal -- the most successful premium mobile voting campaign ever. Schafft has been active with industry groups setting the standards for mobile commerce and services including Board positions with the Mobile Marketing Association (2005, 2006, 2007), Mobile Entertainment Forum (2009) and work on numerous committees (Consumer Best Practices 2004-2010; CTIA / MMA Advocacy Committee 2007, MEF Studio Outreach 2009-2010, MEF Carrier Relations 2009-2010).

Schafft was the CEO for a direct to consumer content provider (QMobile; 2006-2008) and General Manager, Americas for Fox Mobile Group (2008-2010) where he managed the Jamster business (personalization) and prepared the launch of the Mobizzo (mobile quizzes and prizes) and Bitbop (advanced, full length, on-demand video) businesses.

Bill Peters, Corporate Finance

Peters brings over 15 years of experience in finance ranging from building startups to large public company finance. As a co-founder of InphoMatch (now Sybase 365), he served as V.P. of Finance from initial startup through acquisition by Sybase in 2006. At Sybase365, he raised $40M of debt and equity, completed two acquisitions, and built the systems that handled S365's $1B of cash flows annually.

Before InphoMatch, Peters held several executive level finance and operational positions within General Electric (GE) Energy, including finance manager for GE's current high-efficiency "Green" gas turbine program and Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He served over ten years as a combat pilot in the United States Air Force. Peters holds a B.S. in Avionics Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.B.A. from Colorado State University, and a M.S. from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Ric Rodriguez, Product Management

Rodriguez has over 13 years of experience in taking software products to market. At Hook Mobile, Rodriguez is responsible for managing the Rich Media platform products and services as well as establishing the strategic roadmap by leveraging his diverse mobile background. Prior to Hook Mobile, he was the Product Manager at WeatherBug Mobile where he led the development of the entire mobile suite of products.

His responsibilities included managing mobile application catalog across multiple platforms, maintaining carrier & device manufacturer relations and supervised out sourced development. Earlier, Rodriguez held various technical positions launching software products at EMC, Legato Systems and Micros Systems. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University.