Deborah Perry Piscione – Commentator – Silicon Valley, Technology, Entrepreneurship

Description

Deborah Perry Piscione is a seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur in digital and traditional media whose experience spans the operations, content and e-commerce sides of digital media. Deborah co-founded Chump Genius™, an educational gaming company, and Desha Productions, Inc. the parent company of BettyConfidential®, a leading content and e-commerce site, and Alley to the Valley®, a community of the world’s most influential female entrepreneurs, investors, an corporate executives for deal flow.

Prior to her move to Silicon Valley in 2006, Deborah spent 18 years in Washington, DC as a staffer in the U.S. Congress and The White House in addition to serving as a lobbyist. Deborah is also a bestselling author, on-air commentator, and public speaker and guest lecturer on topics including the Silicon Valley ecosystem and culture in addition to growing regional economies through innovation, entrepreneurship, and public policy issues.

In 2012, Deborah created and co-founded Chump Genius™, an educational gaming company that will teach 21st century science and math education to kids, ages 8 and up. Co-founded with 3D illustrators Mark and Lee Fullerton, the Chump Genius™ brand franchise is based
on humorous, time travel adventures of twin boy characters, Drake and Dominick (Deborah’s real life sons). The brothers take kid users on an interactive, story-driven journey and educate them through assessing and solving challenges, deciphering puzzles, constructing gadgets, utilizing tools, and exploring tactics as the kids strive for “Supremius Genius” status. In the process, kids will be taught subjects such as biology, physics, chemistry, robotics, nanotechnology artificial intelligence (AI) and aeronautics. In addition, the software will monitor the children’s progress for parents. Chump Genius’™ first product will be a video game for cross-platform applications, expanding into an app series, traditional and comic books, merchandise, and treatments for television.

Deborah is also the co-founder and CEO of Desha Productions, Inc., a company that owns and operates BettyConfidential.com® and Alley to the Valley®. Under her leadership, BettyConfidential® has become one of most recognizable lifestyle brands on the web for women (ages 18-49). Since 2007, Deborah has managed the operations (P&L), strategic planning and corporate development, and has worked with strategic partners across multimedia platforms including companies such as Electus (IAC), Yahoo!, Huffington Post, and Meredith Corporation, among others. Built on a proprietary content management system, BettyConfidential® was designed for easy usability for non-technical users, moving content rapidly in a 24/7 news cycle. The site reached #7 in comScore’s Beauty & Fashion category, and has received awards including AlwaysOn’s OnHollywood 100 list of World’s Top Private Companies in Digital Entertainment, Forbes Top 100 Women’s web sites, and min’s Editorial Excellence award in 2010. In early 2012, Deborah worked to diversify revenue streams and drove the expansion of the BettyConfidential® brand into e-commerce flash sales of style and beauty products, and a soon-to-be launched social platform for designers and style and beauty bloggers.​

In November 2010, Deborah created Alley to the Valley® for the purposes of deal flow among ​leading women in entrepreneurship, venture capital, corporate executives and government officials. Alley to the Valley® is often described by many of the country’s leading women as the most powerful networking group ever and “summer camp for smart women.” After a move to Silicon Valley from the East Coast, Deborah found the need to bridge highly accomplished women across the country, and provide a platform for dealmaking. In doing so, she trains highly-accomplished women in the Alley to the Valley® method to act upon their “asks” and simultaneously bring their “offers” to the table so that their businesses have an opportunity to rise to the next level. Organized around the country and expanding globally in 2013, Alley to the Valley® offers intimate in-person summits (50 women per summit), and continues dealmaking methods through its online community, making Alley to the Valley® the most productive ROI time spent outside of the office. Alley to the Valley® participants include entrepreneurs such as Jean Chatzky, Christina Brodbeck and Dr. Taryn Rose; venture capitalists such as Heidi Roizen, Nanon de Gaspe Beaubien-Mattrick, Amy Banse (Comcast Ventures), Rachel Lam (Time Warner Investments) and Barbara Corcoran (cohost and investor, NBC’s Shark Tank); corporate executives such as Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook) and Robin Pringle (Liberty Media); and other leading women such as U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios.

In 2012, Deborah received a book contract on the Silicon Valley ecosystem and culture. The book, tentatively titled Secrets of Silicon Valley: W