About UpDown

Michael Reich is the Chief Financial Officer of UpDown. As CFO, Michael oversees the financial side of the business, including forecasting and budgeting and investor and banking relations. Before joining UpDown, Michael was one of four owners and managing directors at German digital agency Spirit Link. During his tenure at the company, Michael was responsible for significantly building Spirit Link's finances and sales initiatives, helping the company to grow to 70 people in four years. Prior to joining Spirit Link Michael served as an associate at the Boston Consulting Group, where he provided business strategy expertise to clients in the enterprise software sector. Michael holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and hold a BA degree in Business Administration from the ESB Reutlingen in Germany.

Georg is a co-founder at UpDown and was responsible for product management at UpDown. He has over tens years of experience as an IT entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Meniga.com, the leading Personal Finance Management (PFM) Solution for Financial Institutions. In 1998 he co-founded Dimon Software, an Icelandic enterprise mobility company, which he helped guide to profitability as a major software provider to Nokia. From 2004 to 2006, he was the VP of Sales for Men & Mice, a provider of specialized network management software to many of the world’s largest organizations. Georg holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a BS degree in software engineering from the University of Iceland.

Phuc Truong is a co-founder at UpDown and was responsible for implementation and operations for the technology infrastructure of the company. Phuc is the founder and CEO of Massrealty.com, a real estate site. In 1997 Phuc co-founded Crimson Solutions Inc (eRecruiting.com) and served as CTO leading the technology efforts in developing eRecruiting.com into the largest online recruiting destination for colleges and universities today. Crimson Solutions received over $22M of venture capital from Polaris Ventures and grew to over 100 employees. Crimson Solutions eventually become Experience.com and now serves over 3 million students and thousands of universities and is profitable. Phuc holds a BA degree in Economics from Harvard University.

UpDown was built upon the angel investment and financial expertise of Mr. Joachim Schoss, one of the most successful Internet entrepreneurs in Europe. From the beginning, UpDown has benefited from his experiences both in the alternative investment industry, and as a leading business strategist. Mr. Schoss has a history of founding successful companies, including TellSell Consulting and Telcare, which merged with Sykes Enterprises. In 2004 his latest company, Scout24, was acquired by T-Online for $221 million. He was named 2002’s “Business Angel of the Year” in Switzerland. In addition to his entrepreneurial endeavors, Mr. Schoss also has extensive investment experience, going back to the 1990s. From 2000-2003, he was the Chief Executive for Beisheim Holding Schweiz, and is currently the cornerstone investor of 6S Capital, a quantitative hedge fund firm. Mr.Schoss is President of the charitable foundation MyHandicap.com, and the Chapter Chair of the Young Presidents Organisation in Zurich.