The Robert G. Hisaoka Speaker Series continues with a Founders Panel on Tuesday, February 19 from 4:30-6:00 p.m. Panelists Paul Capriolo ’06, Kristen McClellan and Jeff Grass are all successful entrepreneurs who started their businesses as students. In a panel moderated by Robert Hisaoka ’79, students, staff, faculty and alumni will hear about the experiences and challenges each founder faced transforming their ideas into lucrative businesses. Register now to attend, and stay tuned to our blog to learn more about each of the panelists.
HUNGRY – Jeff Grass
In 1998 while pursuing his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Jeff Grass co founded PayMyBills.com, which he led until it’s eventual sale for $67 million in 2001. Since then, Jeff has emerged as a serial entrepreneur and proven leader with a track record of building great teams and successful businesses, including: LiveSafe, Inc., buySAFE, Inc., and HUNGRY.
As the Chairman & co-Founder of LiveSafe, Inc., he’s helped develop a mobile safety and anonymous communications platform which crowdsources safety insights and actionable intelligence that safety and security professionals can leverage for better situational awareness, evidence gathering and emergency response.
Serving as the Chairman & Founder of buySAFE, Inc., Jeff has built a $40 million venture-capital backed ecommerce conversion optimization company that builds trust to make online shopping safer and more confident for buyers and more profitable for online merchants.
Now, as the Chairman & CEO of HUNGRY, Jeff has changed the way offices cater, developing the first ever platform that connects offices to top local chefs in an ultra-reliable and super cost efficient way.
In 2015, Jeff was appointed to serve on the Board of Visitors at James Madison University and has served as the Chair of the Audit Committee since 2017. In addition, he serves on the Board of James Madison Innovations, Inc., on the Executive Committee for the Washington, DC YPO Chapter, as a NexGen Investment Partner and advises a number of emerging companies in the Washington, DC area.
Jeff earned his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 1999 and in 2012-13 served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at The Wharton School. In 1992, he earned a BBA in Finance and Economics from James Madison University, where in 2002 he was the youngest person in the school’s history to win James Madison University’s Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.
Jeff now lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife Michelle and two young children, Grayson and Riley. He is an avid international traveler and has a history of running marathons barefoot, though lately he’s mostly just an Orange Theory fanatic and loves spending time with his family.