Dave Mathews’ company NewAer, or “new air,” created a software-based evolution of location-based services called a proximity platform in 2010. Built for Android, iOS, OSX, and Windows, this SDK gets wrapped inside of other applications to make them aware of radios like Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, and cellular towers with no need for authentication. This platform for machine-to-machine discovery enables any smartphone application or network to be automated from the presence of radio signals received on a device. It is a better-than-iBeacon software engine for machine discovery and can turn devices and wearables into beacons as well. Dave is a consumer-focused inventor specializing in mobile, convergence, and digital media. He helped drive product at the startup stages of Boxee and Slingbox, and is inventor of the CueCat consumer bar code reader. As a co-founder at parent company Digital Convergence, he helped raise $205 million from strategic investors for the first Internet of Things device. Launched in 2000, it was later named the worst invention of the decade by Time Magazine, yet it remains the most “hacked” device and can still be bought 15 years later. Always tinkering, Dave has more than 72 U.S. patents granted and many pending, and has appeared as a technology expert or host on 300 television shows. Dave has written for PC Mag, is a founding contributor of O’Reilly’s MAKE, and provided coverage to other consumer-tech outlets and industry publications. After the dot-com bubble burst, Dave was tapped by the chairman of RadioShack to help rekindle the spirit of innovation within the retail giant. Through his efforts, several connected products made it to market and many technologies were created with the help of his Asian and U.S.-based teams. Dave began connecting computers to cellular phones in the early 1990s and created some of the first mobile data solutions for carriers all over the nation. The first person Dave hired at age 14 to build software for his Osborne 01 computer was later inspired to change his then hobby into a career and went on to co-found Salesforce.com as CTO. Dave sits on the advisory boards of several early-stage companies.