MESA is pleased to announce the addition of John Tedesco to an already stellar team of Mentors.
John is an entrepreneur, chief executive and company director with 15 years’ experience building and running venture-backed technology businesses. He is the founder of three SaaS companies providing information services, financial services and location-based services to both businesses and consumers. He has an established track record in identifying market opportunities, building world-class teams and delivering award winning products and services to market.
John started his first company while at GE Capital’s real estate division where, at the age of 25, he was named General Manager of an Internet-based, commercial real multiple listing service he founded. John went on to incubate the consumer payments company PayMyBills.com at Idealab in Pasadena, California. He led this 200+ person company as CEO from concept stage to revenue generation and market leadership, growing the subscriber base to 40,000 and negotiating the company’s sale for $70 million. John then co-founded Vancouver-based Contigo Systems Inc., a provider of GPS tracking applications that was twice named one of the 50 Fastest Growing Companies in Canada and one of the Top Places to Work in the IT sector in British Columbia. John currently is a Partner at Ovative/Group, a strategic advisory firm that works with retailers and consumer brands as they redefine commerce in a digitally connected world.
John graduated from Fairfield University in Connecticut with a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting and from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with an MBA in entrepreneurship and information strategy. He serves as a board director and adviser to a number of early stage technology companies, an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota, a mentor to the Minnesota Cup and Project Skyway – Minnesota’s first technology accelerator.
