AboutUs’s board members share their experience and advice with us, and give us new ideas to build a better product and better serve our customers.
Ray King is a lifetime entrepreneur. Ray is former CEO of Semaphore, an architectural accounting software company, and of SnapNames, a domain name auction marketplace. Then Ray learned about wiki, a technology that allows for quick editing of web pages. He subsequently founded ICANNWiki and WikiIndex, along with AboutUs.org, a wiki about websites. When he’s not revolutionizing the internet, Ray enjoys building and flying model helicopters, playing Go, and honing his photography skills.
Erik Benson is a Managing Director with Voyager Capital. He focuses on early-stage software, digital media and web-enabled businesses. He is currently on the board of directors of eight companies: AboutUs, Act-On Software, Chirpify, Covario, Elemental Technologies, Kryptiq, Lighter Capital, and Mobile Intelligence Solutions. Erik was previously responsible for Voyager’s investments in two Seattle-based companies, aQuantive and Capital Stream.
Prior to joining Voyager Capital in 1998, Erik was with WRF Capital and held leadership roles at Mimix, a startup in the area of facial motion capture and animation software for the gaming industry. Erik started his career in New York for a predecessor bank to JPMorgan Chase, advising and financing private equity clients. Erik received an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School and a BA in economics from Pacific Lutheran University.
Randall Lucas is the former Vice President of Finance, Principal, and Credit Officer at Lighter Capital. Previously Mr. Lucas was an Associate at Voyager Capital. He joined the firm’s Seattle office in 2005 and was responsible for evaluating new investment opportunities and supporting Voyager’s supervision of the existing portfolio and worked there for five years. Previously, Mr. Lucas was a Founder and Principal of Tercent, Inc., where his work included market research, business planning, incorporation and fundraising, and product engineering leadership.
He brings to the Voyager team a detailed working knowledge of information technology service architecture and delivery, as well as software product design. Mr. Lucas also provides expertise on using open source technologies to leverage capital returns in startup and growth environments. Mr. Lucas is a graduate of Harvard College with a concentration in History and Science.
Paul Stahura is the CEO and Co-Founder of Donuts Inc. Prior, he was the former President and Chief Operating Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, and a member of the board of directors, of Demand Media, Inc. which is the parent company of eNom, Inc. a domain name registrar. Paul launched eNom in 1997 from an ISDN line in his garage in Redmond, Washington, and ran it until it was acquired by Demand Media’s in 2006. Paul held the aforementioned positions at Demand Media until 2009.
Paul has over twenty five years experience in the software development industry, with the most recent fifteen of those years spent in the Internet domain name registrar and registry spaces. Paul earned undergraduate and a master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.