Who we are Democrasoft® is a leading provider of social collaboration and voting platforms for building effective online communities.
Build better relationships, facilitate innovation, foster collaboration, and harness collective intelligence and imagination. Democrasoft provides everything you need to leverage the Wisdom Of We™.
We currently offer four online collaboration and voting applications developed on a common proprietary platform called Collaborize®. Our flagship online collaborative education platform, Collaborize Classroom, provides atomized curriculum and content delivery to students and teachers around the world.
Why Democrasoft At Democrasoft, we help people to better engage, identify, refine and react to important issues and ideas with their community. Students, employees, associations, or club members, customers, and partners can use Collaborize, an online group collaboration and voting platform.
Collaborize offers flexibility and reliability with enhanced self-service capabilities including built-in wizards and branding templates for rapid deployment. Democrasoft ensures that you have the tools and architecture you need to achieve collaboration success easily and quickly.
Richard Lang is the Chairman & CEO of Democrasoft. He is also co-founder of the 20 year-old public company, Burst.com, Inc. that in 2010 transformed itself into Democrasoft. Richard is a pioneer in the technology industry, having been the co-inventor of the world’s first, patented, dual-deck VCR in 1983 and co-founder of his first public company, Go-Video, Inc. In 1987, Richard invented (and later patented) a revolutionary solution for delivering video and audio programs over electronic networks, in “burst” mode, which created a foundation for today’s video-on-demand and audio-on-demand systems. He co-founded Explore Technology in 1990, which later became Burst.com, to develop and license this technology. Over the past 10 years, Burst has licensed this technology to the biggest names in the industry and continues to monetize these patents today. Richard’s passion for using technology to empower people is foremost in Democrasoft’s mission and is the realization of Richard’s long-time vision for the evolution of democracy and the empowerment of individuals. Richard resides in the North Bay with his family and, in his spare time, is a prolific composer and musician.
Colt Briner is the vice-president and general manager of Democrasoft. Founded in 1991, Democrasoft is a leading provider of innovation in social collaboration and voting platforms for building successful online communities. He is co-creator of Collaborize Classroom, a free online learning platform which has been named one of the top social media tools for teachers by Mashable. As a former ESL teacher, Colt combines the perspectives of an educator and social media specialist to find solutions to help schools meet today's challenges. He is a frequent speaker about education, technology and innovation at conferences and online webinars all over the nation.
Colt graduated from Willamette University with degrees in business economics and Japanese. Before joining Democrasoft, he worked as owner and president of an electronics company, which he grew and later sold in 2003. He also serves as a director at the Virtual Country Foundation, a California-based nonprofit exploring and developing technologies to improve democratic participation in businesses and institutions.
Kyle Faulkner is the Chief Technical Officer of Democrasoft. He is a seasoned architect, engineer, and consultant with more than 20 years of success propelling continual growth and profitability through tactical solution development and visionary leadership. Kyle is a motivational leader combining exceptional hands-on engineering knowledge with big-picture vision, and a proven record of designing solutions to bridge gaps between technical capabilities and business goals. He is an affable and results-focused internal consultant and subject matter expert, dedicated to positive and collaborative corporate culture.
Bill Takacs is a 15 year Product Management veteran with extensive experience in Product Management and Product Marketing. His product experience is diverse and includes hardware, software, media, and service products. Bill has successfully built and delivered products to consumers, small business and large enterprises. He holds a BS in Business and Information Technology from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
Eric H. Walters has served as the Vice-President of Operations for Democrasoft since October 2001. He is responsible for the administrative operations as well as intellectual property management. From March 1999 to March 2000, he was the Manager of Inside Sales, shifting to Director of Corporate Communications during 1991 and 1992. Prior to joining us in 1990 and again in 1999, Eric worked at Intel Corporation in Press Relations for the Digital Imaging and Video Division. He is the co-inventor of record for several of our patents and pending patent applications.
Mark Kithcart serves as the company's Marketing Director and joined the Democrasoft team in 2009. Mark has over 17 years in leadership, management and marketing for major public companies such as Agilent Technologies and Bechtel Corporation, as well as multiple start-up companies. Most recently, Mark was the Director of Marketing for an Internet start-up that became one of the most trafficked online sites in the world within 12 months. At Democrasoft, Mark oversees and is responsible for all online and offline marketing efforts and building solid relationships with users of Democrasoft's premier product, Collaborize. Mark has a degree in Engineering from Cal Poly and is a graduate of USF's MBA program and can be found online creating communities and conversations that enable the creation of value and progress.
With 15 years of experience in the software industry, Sara has learned what it takes to design software that people love to use. As Democrasoft’s Director of User Experience, she’s working to apply those lessons to our products. In Sara’s view, good software design goes far beyond creating screens that look good. Rather, it’s a problem-solving exercise that starts with gaining an understanding of why users want (or need) to use a product. The exercise is completed successfully when those users are able to meet their goals without having to stop and think about how to “use” the software. Instead, they’re able to stay focused on the reason they’re using it in the first place. Sara has a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania, and when she’s not busy thinking about how to make software that’s easy to use, she’s usually enjoying time with her husband, their son, and their dog Lego.
Cal Kawahara is the Quality Assurance Manager of Democrasoft. He has been in quality assurance and software development for over 20 years with a strong passion for high quality software product releases. His experience covers social media web sites, large corporate intranets, email, POS and human resource applications. Industries that he has worked in vary from banking to retail to social media (SaaS) companies. For relaxation, Cal and his wife Natalie enjoy taking nature and historical travels, as well as interacting with the people that live there.
Natalia Jaramillo is the Marketing Manager at Democrasoft. She graduated from Sonoma State University in 2006 with a
Bachelor of Arts in International Media and Communications with an emphasis in Radio Broadcasting, one year of which she spent living in
Sweden and traveling throughout Europe. Natalia’s background includes extensive experience in marketing and promotions, having worked seven
years in radio broadcasting. During that time, she also worked as an on-air personality for active rock, country and Top 40 formats. Natalia has a passion for languages and also speaks Spanish, Swedish and French. In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her family and
friends, see live music, and be a tourist in her own community. She lives in Sonoma County with her dog Luna.
Shana Ray is the Digital Media/PR Manager and joined Democrasoft in mid 2010. Shana has over 10 years of marketing experience. She's worked for marketing and public relations agencies for large brands like Hewlett-Packard, Clos du Bois, Snapfish, Wacom and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Company, as well as her own social media consulting agency. In addition to working full time at Democrasoft, she teaches social media classes, speaks about social media and helps Wine Country brands promote themselves online. She is an active part of the Sonoma County community and, in her spare time, can be found at any local wine or food event.
Hired on as part of the Teacher Success Team, Monicka joined Democrasoft in January 2011 to help develop Collaborize Classroom and expand the library of quality resources for teachers to use online with their students. She heads our teacher advisory board, regularly meeting with them to gain valuable feedback for the development of Collaborize Classroom. She also facilitates our How-To Support Community for teachers. Her background involves managing various aspects of small businesses, providing support and initiative to executive teams and employees. Monicka graduated from the Hutchins School of Liberal Arts at Sonoma State University. She aspires to work in the field of education and hopes to return to the Hutchins School as a teacher. In her free time, Monicka enjoys yoga, cooking and being part of a writing group she co-founded.
Anna DesRoches joined the Democrasoft team in early 2010 to ensure that customers are able to build successful communities within Collaborize™. Through market specific advising and objective targeting, Anna’s goal is to make sure that users are implementing the product to its highest capacity and permitting users to gain valuable knowledge and results, further allowing their organizations to flourish. Anna’s prior experience includes Account Management, Customer Service, and Marketing in the retail construction and automotive industries. Her education includes schooling at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with a concentration in Psychology. In her free time, Anna enjoys spending time mentoring children in the autistic community, coaching youth soccer teams, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.
Patrick Donohue has been in the software and educational technology arena for over 12 years. His most rewarding work prior to Democrasoft was expanding the Oracle Academy, a program that prepares students for 21st century careers in business and technology. His passion in life is helping others achieve their full potential and have fun, be it school systems, corporations, or his kids' sports teams. When he's not at work, he can be found enjoying the outdoors with this family, reading books or making pasta.
Will Schneider is helping to spearhead the Business Development for Democrasoft. His values after 30 years experience can be boiled down into a simple premise: Represent something extraordinary and bring it to the attention of those who can benefit the most. Being a part of the Democrasoft team offers him this exact opportunity. Will is primarily focusing his efforts on working with non-profits and those organizations attempting to “make a difference” in the world, and in particular, introducing them to Democrasoft’s new online group decision-making tool, Collaborize™. An adventurer at heart, Will has always been drawn to the edge, which explains his love of exploring the wild Sonoma Coast by kayak. Other interests have led down the path to more inward explorations, where various avenues of the human potential movement are high on his list. Will has yet to meet a dog he didn’t like.
Kristen Feuz brings over 14 years of combined experience in Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Advertising and Management. She is an accomplished solution oriented sales strategist who thrives in a challenging fast-paced environment, where performance impacts the bottom line. For three consecutive years, Kristen was the winner of the President’s Club award and the Circle of Excellence award while she was the President and Owner of her Sacramento based company, a franchise of ITEX Corporation. The internet became a big part of Kristen’s success, but Building B2B relationships while networking and connecting with small to mid-sized business owners became her forte. Kristen enjoys great company with friends, family and has an extreme passion to see and travel the world.
Kristin Arteaga serves as the Office Manager for Democrasoft and joined the team in 2009. She is in charge of everything from reception and travel arrangements to accounts payable and assisting with shareholder relations. Kristin is currently enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College with plans to transfer to Sonoma State University to acquire her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. In her spare time, she likes to spend time with her friends and family, bake, take jogs with her Yorkie, Buster, and visit the local farmers’ market.
