"Teamwork makes the dream work."

John Maxwell

"I would say raising capital is one of the weakest things for most entrepreneurs."

Robert Kiyosaki

“Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” –Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

“It’s almost always harder to raise capital than you thought it would be, and it always takes longer. So plan for that.” –Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist and Author

“Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.” –Seth Godin, Author

Frank Stokes founded and created both the nationally-recognized El Camino College Business Entrepreneurial Success Training Program (BEST) and the West Los Angeles College Business Entrepreneurial Stewardship Training Genesis Program (G-BEST); which has assisted hundreds of dislocated and laid-off workers who have chosen successful business ownership. He is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Stokes Pacifique Associates; which is an entrepreneurial consulting and training firm based in Los Angeles, California. Their primary objective is to promote successful business start-up opportunities, through coaching, training and job creation for new business owners. Stokes Pacifique Associates has assisted in the launching of over six hundred start-ups. Mr. Stokes has frequently contributed to the Small Business Section of the Los Angeles Times, the Bloomberg BusinessWeek "Smart Answers" columns and other publications.

Dr. Paul M. Wendee is the Managing Director of Paul M. Wendee & Associates, LLC, a corporate finance, private equity, and management consulting firm. The firm is also an investment adviser registered with the State of California. In addition to corporate finance and management consulting, the firm’s consulting activities have included fundamental equity analysis and research, quantitative research, convertible securities research and analysis, technical research, investment management, due diligence and valuation services to securities broker/dealers, hedge funds, money managers and investment banking firms. Paul was the President and majority owner of South Lake Avenue Securities Corporation, a boutique investment banking, management consulting, mergers & acquisitions (M&A), business appraisal, investment management firm and FINRA registered broker-dealer headquartered in Pasadena, California. Paul was the founding project manager and the Vice President of Administration of Evergreen Realty REIT, Inc. Paul was Director of Equity Research for Skye Investment Advisors, LLC, where he was responsible for fundamental equity analysis, research and valuation. Paul was the Director of Research and the Director of Corporate Finance at Brookstreet Securities Corporation.

Shealeen "Shea" O'Neal is an ex-bank financial and compliance officer, who founded Accounting Therapy for clients because she understands the need and value of accounting systems with integrity. Shea says, "she also understands that chasing pennies with quarters should only happen when those pennies can grow into dollars either positively or negatively." Shea started using QuickBooks back when it was DOS (she still has her original QuickBooks 51/4″ floppies). Shea customized QuickBooks for use in the banking industry; something it was not supposed to be able to do, but managed and the end result was a quality tracking system for the bank’s real estate owned. So yes, Shea and Accounting Therapy have been customizing QuickBooks for a very long time (over fifteen years) only Intuit has made it a lot easier through the years. Shea is an Intuit ProAdvisor, QuickBooks Certified and continues to Beta test QuickBooks each year and try to help implement changes that they think their clients will benefit from. Shea is a 1998 graduate of the El Camino College BEST Program.

Dr. Moses McCutcheon Jr. is an Author, Educator, Trainer, Life and Career Guidance Consultant / Coach, Entrepreneur, and Seminar Leader with a Doctor of Education Degree in Organizational Leadership and Master’s Degree in Education Administration from Pepperdine University. He is a pioneer in the fields of career/technical education and life/work planning. He develops custom-made and personalized career planning tools, materials and programs for youth and adults with emphasis on entrepreneurship. He is Founder and President of McCutcheon Research and Founder and CEO of the School-To-Success Foundation, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit community-outreach project. His specialty is human potential research specializing in organizational leadership, career guidance, entrepreneurship, creative goal-setting and planning. Dr. McCutcheon is author of the book: “Planning Today for Success Tomorrow” was published as a tool for career guidance success! Dr. McCutcheon is an Entrepreneurship Instructor at Webster University and Consultant / Coach for the West Los Angeles College BEST Genesis Program; and a Certified ActionCoach for Business and Executive mentoring.

AnGèle M. Cade is a Consulting Expert, who over the last decade has created a niche market by developing effective corporate structures. Armed with an education in Business Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) she quickly built Executive On The Go, Inc., a consulting firm for today’s entrepreneur. Executive On the Go, Inc. can be trusted to “Empower Your Business One Step at a Time.” As a member of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), they are advocates for the latest economic trends and a pacesetter within regional forums amongst other business professionals.

Walter L. Smith, III, is the CEO of WS-3 Enterprises & Associates, LLC (www.WS-3.com). As an organizational development consultant, futurist and “guerrilla entrepreneur”, with over twenty years of national and international consulting experience in the areas of: urban planning, community-economic development, philanthropic administration, public-private partnerships, and land development projects, his consultancy concentrates on providing management consulting, business development, and branding expertise to his national clientele. His heart for empowering and positively impacting communities of color, is a major part of the expressive energy and tireless passion that’s often been credited to his work. By infusing innovative thinking and change literacy into all his projects, Walter believes that harnessing the collective energies of transformative leaders in the midst of disruptive innovations and change — will help to shorten learning curves in the “new” marketplace, that is now heavily influenced by emerging technologies, globalization and the rapid movements - across industries; towards artificial intelligence and “change”. Walter is also the executive director of Everybody In, Inc. (www.EverybodyInMN.org), as well as the interim executive director of ReConnect Rondo, Inc. (www.ReconnectRondo.org).

Mr. Smith is also an author, blogger, fourth-sector ("Guerrilla") entrepreneur, and served as a Co-Facilitator and Consultant for the West Los Angeles College BEST Genesis Program.