Executive Team

Steve Skrzyniarz

Founder and CEO

Steve is a technologist and entrepreneur, with a passion for supporting independent musicians. He is a nine-year veteran of Microsoft, shipping over 50 products as both software developer and senior product manager. Steve provided pivotal leadership in transforming Microsoft's Visual C++ development suite into a highly-profitable, industry-leading product. As Group Program Manager of the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), he spearheaded successful initiatives to evangelize key technologies including ActiveX, DirectX, and Internet Explorer.

As for music, Steve was active in the Seattle-area scene of the late 80's and early 90's. He operated three independent record labels, handling A&R, production, packaging, marketing, distribution, and tour support for his bands. As a distributor of indie music in the early 90's, Steve authored a do-it-yourself guide to help artists to release their own records, which formed the basis of the now-legendary Mechanics Guide To Putting Out Records. In 1999, he founded a multi-year research project with the goal of using technology to help music fans quickly find great music, from the universe of music available, based on their personal tastes. This research formed the basis of Soundflavor's current products.

Pete Budlong

Founder and VP of Business Development

Pete was the first employee of a pioneer in the online classifieds space - Classifieds2000, which was acquired by Excite@Home in 1998. Pete developed and managed the company's distribution network, which at the time of the acquisition was the largest of its kind with over 14 of the top 25 most visited sites on the Internet. Pete also created and managed Excite's Personals business, which had a larger reach than both Yahoo Personals and Match.com at its height when he left Excite@Home in 1999.

During his career, Pete has worked in sales and marketing at companies including Hewlett-Packard, Anthem Electronics and Recognition Systems. Pete received a BSEE with honors from the University of the Pacific.

Rick Francis

Vice President of Engineering

Rick has twenty years of experience in software and network engineering. He was VP of Engineering of @Work, Excite@Home's commercial division where he led the design and implementation of the company's commercial network and hosting products and infrastructure. Prior to Excite@Home, Rick was CTO and VP of Engineering at Netcom Online Communications where he led the development of NetCruiser, the first turn-key dial-up Internet access product for personal computers. NetCruiser and its associated Internet access service grew Netcom’s revenues from $2M to more than $150M annually in the three years following its release.

Prior to Netcom, Rick held software and network engineering positions with Amdahl Corporation and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Oklahoma. Rick received a BS in Computer Science, cum laude, from the University of Tulsa.