JOHN DOFFING | founder

For well over a decade, serial entrepreneur John Doffing has pursued two parallel passions: technology and art.

Throughout his career, John has worked in sales, marketing and business development capacities with cutting-edge hardware, software, and Internet startups. Immediately following graduate school, John worked at Virtual i-O and VictorMaxx Technologies, two pioneering Virtual Reality companies that created head-mounted displays for consumer gaming applications. He then joined Virtual Technologies, a Stanford University startup that created haptic interfaces for human-computer interaction, as Director of Sales and Marketing; the company was later acquired by the Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ: IMMR). Next, John was Director of Marketing at Paraform, a 3D visualization + NURBS modeling startup. Paraform was a Stanford University OTL startup backed by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures, TechFund Capital Management, and Chase Capital Partners. John joined the company while they were still being incubated by The Enterprise Network, the NASA technology incubator, as one of the first 5 employees. Paraform was later acquired by Metris, a 3D software company headquartered in Belgium. John then took a position as Vice President of Marketing with @hoc, an Internet marketing company that created branded desktop toolbars, an antecedent to today's 'widgets'. In an article that appeared in the Red Herring on @hoc’s business model, Editor Rafe Needlemen wrote: ‘To survive in this market, you need a John Doffing’. Most recently, John founded START, INC. a recruiting company that built teams for startup technology companies in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles.

John curated his first art show in a small San Francisco art gallery in 2002. The show was called PROPAGANDA, and featured the artwork of Shepard Fairey, Winston Smith, and Aidan Hughes. PROPAGANDA grew into a global series of traveling art exhibitions, featuring hundreds of artists from around the world. John then founded START SOMA, an upstart art gallery showcasing the work of emerging artists from around the world. In 2004, he created the first in an ongoing series of PAINTED ROOMS art shows at the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco. In 2007, John’s technology and art worlds collided when he was selected as the only gallerist on the global selection committee for INTO THE PIXEL – the world’s premier juried video game art exhibition – alongside curators from the Getty and Hammer Museums. Today, John is taking START SOMA into new territory with the creation of limited prints under the imprimatur START MOVING PICTURES. His most exciting project is START MOBILE, the company he founded to bring cutting-edge new art to mobile phones and revolutionize the way people interact with art on a daily basis.

John earned his BA from Marquette University (Phi Beta Kappa - Triple Major in History, Political Science, and Philosophy, Minor in Psychology), along with a graduate BA/MA with Honours from St. John’s College, Cambridge University, where he was a Davies-Jackson Scholar. At Cambridge, John was the recipient of the Mansergh Prize in History, was appointed to the President's Committee at the Cambridge Union Society, played rugby and rowed crew for his college, and played American Football for the University.




CHRISTINA M. SAMALA | co-founder & creative director

Christina, known as simply Samala, is a modern-day Renaissance woman, unfettered by the antiquated notion of a "career path". She is an artist by nature, brand architect and designer by day and accomplished DJ by night, with a dose of seasoned event producer and righteous community developer on the side. A young force in the creative world, Samala’s greatest visions are yet to be realized.

Early in her career, Samala was Logistics Manager at blue chip stealth marketing firm Tattoo Brand Consulting. While building and extending identities for powerful brands like Chanel, Boyd Gaming, Yahoo!, and Condé Nast, she gained tremendous knowledge in marketing and branding. The luster of luxury brands soon wore off, however, and she returned to her grassy (and more fulfilling!) roots.

Today, Samala is a one-stop ad hoc creative department for social impact organizations, working as a brand & design consultant on behalf of non-profit and for-benefit organizations. Her clients include the Tides Center, National Association of Independent Schools, Level Playing Field Institute, Henley Centre HeadlightVision, and inResonance. She sits on the Board of Hearth Homes, a nonprofit developer committed to providing inclusive, affordable, accessible, green housing in the Bay Area. In 2008, Samala collaborated with Seneca Price-Kern and Sean Boyle to produce Alamo Square Movie Nights – a monthly community-building event featuring movies in the park and local talent.

In her spare time – ha! – Samala spin bass heavy, funky, hip-swaying beats in clubs, lounges, bars, and house parties in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Unconfirmed sightings of dj SAMALA have been reported in London, Vail, Manila, Miami, and Winnipeg. In addition to holding down monthlies and weeklies with the Heartist Crew, Heist Crew and the Burn it Down Sound at San Francisco's Project One, 111 Minna, Double Dutch, Madrone, Tunnel Top, John Colins, and Otis, she has helped throw rocking parties and raise "hella" money for The Vagina Monologues, V-Day, New Global Citizens, Alarm Magazine, Juxtapoz, and ArtNowSF. Off the decks, Samala is on the field, coaching Tamalpais High School's girls varsity team or playing for BayLax or Merrill Lynch's ReLaxers.

Samala received her Bachelor of Science in Economics with a concentration in Marketing from the Wharton School, and earned a Major in Communications and a Minor in Fine Arts with a concentration in Design from the College of Arts & Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania. As a nationally recognized lacrosse player, Samala was recruited to be a member of UPENN's Women's Lacrosse team. While attending Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania, Samala co-founded two companies, Afro Blew Media, Inc. and Metropolis Inc. Metropolis was an event marketing collective started by Samala, Liz Chernett, and Paul Farber with the help of Doctors James Peterson and Michael Eric Dyson. The trio produced What's Good Wednesdays, a bi-monthly event at the hip hop landmark, The Five Spot, in Philadelphia's Olde City. The Five Spot was home and birthplace to the groundbreaking Black Lily movement before the historic venue burned down in 2007.

Nutshell: Samala CREATES.





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