About Us

Derek Canton has successfully launched and received funding for multiple ventures and founded paerpay after being awarded as a winner of the world’s largest financial technology hack-a-thon, Money 20/20. At this event, he and his team competed against 400 of the world’s best developers to build a financial technology product.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, with a minor in Economics and Communications from Worcester State University.

Derek currently serves on the Framingham State University Foundation board.

Seasoned entrepreneur and restaurateur, Mike Covino has been the lead on numerous entrepreneurial efforts. Since 2005, he has helped build up a collection of restaurants and a training center in the MetroWest area as the President and CEO of Niche Hospitality and co-owner of Peak Fitness. 

David Crouch founded ten24 Digital Solutions in 2008 and has built the business around honest communication, strong support and a focus on delivering solutions that fundamentally change a client's business.

David has assembled a team of experts with decades of experience building and managing eCommerce solutions. This experience has resulted in the development of a next generation platform, Slatwall Commerce. Slatwall is used by B2B and B2C companies like Sotheby's, Total Wine & More and Inc. Magazine to manage the sale of products through online and offline channels.

Bob is the Vice President of Embedded Software at Silicon Labs. He is responsible for managing the company’s embedded software for both MCU and wireless software. This includes the range of wireless stacks from proprietary through ZigBee, Thread, and Bluetooth. Bob has been at Silicon Labs, including the Ember acquisition, for 14 years. Previously, Bob was a co-foundering Director of Software at Invento Networks, a VC backed wireless base station company. Before that, Bob was a VP of Engineering at Lucent Technologies, which he joined through the acquisition of Springtide Networks where Bob was a founding Director of Software. Prior to Springtide, Bob was a software engineer and engineering manager at several Boston area companies where he worked on various networking and fault tolerant products.  Outside of work, Bob is on the Foundation Board at Framingham State University and serves as an advisor to several area startups. Bob is a road cyclist and captains a cycling team which has raised over $500,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Bob holds degrees from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MS Management and Framingham State University BS in Computer Science.  

Bob Mason is a Managing Director at Project 11 Ventures, leading early stage startup investments, built upon his experience being part of great founding teams that created new markets and successful, global businesses. 

Bob was the co-founder and CTO of Brightcove (NASDAQ:BCOV), a leading provider of online video services that are used by thousands of customers across the world. Previously, he was a founding member of the product team at ATG, an industry leading e-commerce platform. ATG went public in 1999 and was acquired by Oracle in 2011. In both roles, he provided technical and product leadership for the company’s vision, strategy, and design.

Bob received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1994 and currently sits on the WPI Department of Computer Science Board of Advisors and mentors founders through the WPI Tech Advisor Network.

Mike is a passionate entrepreneur, engineer, and CTO of Blustream Corporation. He can build anything though his talents lie in blending business and market needs with delivering scalable tech. Continually customer-centric, driving behavior through IoT, Big Data, and unique software experiences. 

Micah Chase has been a founder and CEO for over 25 years. Beginning with Checkerboard Ltd., a leader in the design and manufacturing of fine social stationery. Chase grew the company from startup to one of the top two brands in the US. Checkerboard was twice recognized by Inc magazine as one of the 5000 fastest growing companies. Checkerboard was sold to Stationery Works in 2017.

He founded eInvite LLC in 1997, a company that allows users to customize, preview and order personalized social stationery online.

He is the founder CEO of CheckMate Technologies, a research and development technology company. He developed patented online proofing technology that allows users to view products online and see a proof prior to placing an order.

Micah is an adjunct professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Foisie School of Business.

Prior to Checkerboard, Mr. Chase was in charge of business development for Telepresence research, a Silicon Valley startup company founded by a past director of NASA’s Virtual Reality lab. He also served as a Management Consultant for Andersen Consulting in San Francisco, California. 

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Rochester and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting from the William E. Simon School of Business. Executive Education at Harvard Business School and Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Micah currently serves on the Bancroft School board of trustees. He is the past President of the Worcester Jewish Community Center. He is a past president of the Invitation and Stationery Alliance. 

Tom has a BSEE from WPI and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He is a co-founder and CEO of Con-Conn, an online marketplace for the heavy construction industry and is also a member of the LaunchPad Angel Group. Prior to that, was CEO of Axis semiconductor and SVP/GM of several business units at Mindspeed Technologies, a public Communications IC business based in Orange County. Tom was also VP Marketing at Maker Communications, a Comm IC startup that IPO'd and then was acquired for $1.3B in 2000. He also was director of Marketing for Synernetics, a LAN switching startup that was acquired by 3Com in 1994.