Our co-founders have all worked together in previous ventures and share a common bond and sense of teamwork that provides Market Hardware with the stability and chemistry critical in building and managing a successful company.


Our management team is headed by:

• Brian Kraff, CEO - Prior to founding Market Hardware, Brian was the founder and CEO of eStudentLoan, the world's largest comparison marketplace for student loans, which partnered with national lenders such as Citibank, American Express, and Bank of America to serve over one million users. eStudentLoan won numerous "Best of the Web" awards from Forbes, PC Novice Magazine, and Online Banking Report. eStudentLoan was sold in 2001 to Alloy Online (Nasdaq: ALOY). Brian also served as former Division President of the EDU and ScholarAid divisions of Student Advantage (formerly Nasdaq: STAD). His divisions provided businesses such as Apple, Compaq, and Amtrak with marketing access to over 600,000 consumers in the 18-24 demographic. He was also founder and CEO of Advanced Network Systems, an IT services business headquartered in Washington, DC (sold to American Bankers Association in 1994). Brian was a founder and Chairman of the Board of 13 Colonies Software, Inc. an Austin, TX based enterprise content management provider sold to Interwoven (Nasdaq: IWOV) in 2004. He also serves on the advisory board of Transactis, Inc. Brian has a Bachelors of Arts degree from Cornell University and a Masters in Business Administration in Finance from Columbia Business School, where he focused on Managing New Ventures. At one time he was a member of Costco, but he was not using his club membership frequently enough so he did not renew. He does hold a current Hertz Gold membership.
  
  
• Patrick Smith, COO - Product Development and Operations. Patrick oversees our 'factory floor'- designers, account reps, fulfillment, planning and customer service. Patrick was the Software Development Practice Lead at The Adrenaline Group, where he led new product development for high-profile nationally recognized companies such PetSmart, LinuxCare, and The Motley Fool. At The Adrenaline Group he grew the software development practice to 30+ staff members and $7M in annual revenue. Prior to founding Market Hardware, Patrick was the founder and CEO of AssistMatch, an online eldercare matching service that marketed vacancies in assisted living facilities in California. Patrick previously held positions at SAIC and Sir Speedy.
  
  
• Tom McGarry, CTO - Tom oversees Market Hardware's technology and our software development team. Prior to founding Market Hardware, Tom was the chief software architect for Buildtopia. He was COO/CTO of technology consulting firm Lokitech where he managed operations and established product offerings ranging from Java 2 to enterprise security. He was formerly the senior software group manager at The Adrenaline Group, where he built the software internationalization framework and managed 30 software engineers. Tom was previously a software developer at CareerBuilder and technical team lead for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
  
  
• Heidi Scanlon, Director, Customer Experience - Prior to founding Market Hardware, Heidi was the customer outreach expert for a series of Internet services, including eStudentLoan, Student Advantage, and Alloy Online. Using a customer-driven outlook, she helped these organizations create and manage user-focused tools that help students and their families navigate the complexities of securing financial aid for higher education. She developed her customer-oriented approach while working in membership development, newsletter publishing, and content creation for a number of national health care advocacy organizations, including the National Breast Cancer Coalition and AIDS Action Council.

• James Short, Senior Vice President, Business Development and National Sales - Prior to joining Market Hardware, James was a Senior Account Manager for Dell, Inc.'s Small and Medium Business Group. At Dell, James was consistently recognized as a top performer. As a "sales team leader" in the Emerging Business Division, he helped develop division-wide marketing strategies. James brings from Dell a specialization in inside sales techniques and harnessing Web-based marketing platforms to lower customer acquisition costs. He brings lessons learned from Dell's superior execution in leveraging promotional offers and account management to maximize sales per customer and measure sales performance. Prior to joining Dell, James was the National Sales Manager and business development leader for eStudentLoan. At eStudentLoan, James developed the sales practices and the pricing structures for all revenue initiatives. He established and secured key business relationships and managed internal team members to implement and execute marketing and e-commerce programs.



• Griffin Davis, Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications - Prior to joining Market Hardware, Griffin Davis was VP Marketing at 13 Colonies Software, Inc. an Austin, TX based enterprise content management provider sold to Interwoven (Nasdaq: IWOV) in 2004. He is an Internet marketing and start-up veteran previously with CitySearch - now part of InterActiveCorp (IACI), CollegeClub - now a division of Alloy (ALOY). Griffin was a legislative aide to Senator Alan K. Simpson and is the current Chairman of the Town Lake Trail Foundation. He has an MBA in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin and BA Honors in History from the University of Virginia. He has travelled extensively around the world including Iceland, Argentina, Zaire, Tanzania, Kenya and throughout Europe.

For more information about Market Hardware, Inc. please contact Brian Kraff at 301 652 8921 or email Brian@MarketHardware.com