Veterans Business Incubator

Sarasota Tech CEO

Erin Cigich

Erin Cigich is the CEO of Perform[cb], premier global performance marketing marketplace

Perform[cb] has experienced tremendous revenue growth and received numerous awards. The company has made Florida Trend magazines “Best Florida Companies to Work For” list seven straight years. Perform[cb] has also been awarded mThink’s Blue Ribbon panel “Best CPA Network” in the world four consecutive years.

Erin has previously held titles of President, Vice President of Marketing and Director of Sales & Account Management. Erin joined Perform[cb] as the 10th employee when it was a bootstrapped start-up. Erin moved the company to its own proprietary software, hired a CTO and scaled the development team from 0 to 30. She executed a successful sale of the company and completed two subsequent acquisitions.

Erin is a Florida native serves on the board of directors for the Sarasota Economic Development Corporation. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Florida with a BS in Advertising and donates her time to the local Girls Inc and AMI Kids. Erin has been a guest speaker at University of Florida’s Becoming a Woman of Influence event and a guest lecturer at both USF and UF.

Serial Entrepreneur, Navy Veteran

Amy Entress

Amy was born and raised in West Virginia and has resided in Tampa since 2009. Previously, she served as a naval officer after graduating from Miami University of Ohio. Amy has broad-ranging experience raising capital through investor pitches and fundraising drives.

Amy’s entrepreneurial journey began while on active duty in Hawaii. She owned and operated a sole proprietorship that provided equipment and training related to research and recovery in extreme conditions. She co-founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to explore and preserve undersea environments. She served as the Chief Financial Officer. Amy earned her Master of Business Administration from the University of Tampa. She promptly co-founded the next two companies focused on project management and food processing after finishing the program.

Amy works for Veterans Florida, a nonprofit created by the state of Florida to help military veterans transition to civilian life make Florida their home through career services, entrepreneurship, agriculture educational programs, and access to resources.

Serial Entrepreneur, President, Navy Veteran

Hal Perdew

Hal Perdew is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Patriot Self Storage. The company opened in 2006, having raising $100 million to develop self-storage facilities in high-growth markets. Patriot Self Storage developed, built, operated and sold two self-storage facilities in Southwest Florida. 

Hal was a partner at The DuMont Project, a leading consulting firm in the direct marketing and advertising space. The company has grown into one of the premiere direct marketing consultant companies in the U.S. He is a former director of both ZipKord Solutions and EZ Prints, Inc. ZipKord Solutions is a leading importer and distributor of mobile accessories that grew from $1 million in revenue to over $17 million annually. EZ Prints, Inc. is a privately held venture-backed light manufacturing company.

Hal holds a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy and an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies from UCLA. 

Founder, Director

Dr. Richard Munassi MD MBA

Dr. Munassi is the co-founder of Blackfin Technology Partners and Blackfin Venture Partners, Director at the Tampa Bay Wave Accelerator program, and an advisor for multiple national and regional entrepreneurship programs, including MassChallenge, Guidewell/Florida Blue, NSF I-Corps and more. 

He also sits on the advisory board for SXSW Pitch, is an executive in residence at the University of Florida’s UF Innovate program and is part of the NASA iTech team (specializing in helping identify commercial technologies for utilization in the space program).

Dr. Munassi has coached dozens of companies across multiple verticals, and specializes in CEO coaching, high level strategic planning, growth and scaling, marketing and messaging, and investor relations. 

Marketer, Entrepreneur, Educator

Kim Richmond

Ms. Richmond is a senior marketing executive with extensive marketing and branding experience. She was Executive Vice President, Marketing at FAO Inc. and helped to successfully reposition and relaunch the brand after sale of the company. Ms. Richmond has held senior positions at Zany Brainy, The Right Start, Charming Shoppes, Sears and Kraft Foods.

Ms. Richmond is principal at richmondmarketing+communications. Her specialty is multi-channel and digital marketing and branding. She is a full-time faculty member at State College of Florida and is the Program Manager of the Entrepreneurship Program. Ms. Richmond is a recognized authority in sales and marketing and is the author of two books: The Power of Selling and Brand You. She is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events.

Ms. Richmond holds an MBA from Loyola Chicago and Bachelor of Arts from Northern Illinois University.

Founder, Entrepreneur, Visionary

Kurling Robinson

Kurling is a co-founder, musician and startup visionary with over 25 years of expertise in software development and entrepreneurship. Kurling has been co-founder of several companies, including NetZero and Internet Productions.

Kurling’s unique path was woven by the arts (Getty), automotive (Toyota), technology (NetZero), energy (IFS) and the drive to help his fellow man. Through a formative internship at Toyota, he was exposed to their unique approach to continuous improvement. With his first startup at age 19, he learned very early that information and responsibility go hand and hand.

Leveraging the University of Southern California, where he studied Computer Science, Robinson has facilitated many successful companies. He is most proud of his work with the Code For America project, bringing the Family Assessment Form (FAF) to the cloud. FAF allows governments to analyze big data on how individual states/provinces are dealing with teen pregnancy, suicide and other social issues, providing insight into applying successes in other states to “help children, families, and make the world a better place.”

Robinson was selected as one of the top mentors for SCORE nationally. With the incubator through USC Viterbi, he acted as an advisor and served on the board for several companies that were funded. He is a Venture Consultant at the USC Blackstone Launchpad. In collaboration with key partners like Apple, Blackstone, Google and Universities, he is leading a team to create the Fōkcus platform, which uses machine learning to quickly assess entrepreneurs and match them with screened, certified business mentors. 

Serial Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker

Rich Swier Jr.

Rich is a serial entrepreneur based in Sarasota, Florida.

Rich was founder of Offrs.com (recently acquired by Constellation Software) and founder of the HuB, his previous ventures include Sarasota Online and Backsoft.

In 1996 Rich graduated from the University of Florida as a mathematician and computer scientist. He soon developed the core architecture used for broadband internet service in over 60 cities. At the age of 24, Rich sold his first venture (Sarasota Online) to Comcast. He became the first employee of a new division which is now called Xfinity. In 1997, Rich led a team of engineers that launched the first cable modem. In 1998, Rich started a new venture called Backsoft that built software to connect Fortune 500 companies to the web. In 2000, Backsoft was acquired by SAP, the 2nd largest software company in the world.

Rich is also an author and speaker. His focus including broadband development, predictive analytics and building startup ecosystems. Rich has numerous industry awards and accolades in his work with startups. He continues to promote entrepreneurship in schools and communities.

In 2000, Rich launched the first angel fund and private-sector incubator in the State of Florida. That fund has since launched multiple successful ventures including Clinipace, Movo Mobile (acquired by Neighborhood America), BioLucid (acquired by ShareCare), DealersUnited.com and over 20 other companies. In 2009, Rich expanded his incubator into becoming the first coworking space in Florida.