Serial Entrepreneur and 5x Founder with a passion for helping fellow entrepreneurs, bringing innovation to Healthcare and growing the Tampa Bay Tech ecosystem.Rich sold his growing chain of Family Entertainment and Recreation Centers, AirHeadsTrampoline Arena, to a Holding Company of Entertainment Brands. AirHeads’ was the largestCorporate Owned Company in the Southeast at the time. Under Rich’s leadership, AirHeads’patented it’s Aircraft Cable Trampoline System which provided a safer jumping experience andwas recognized with the prestigious TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence which awards the top10% of Hospitality Brands worldwide. AirHeads’ was also honored as the 2nd Fastest GrowingCompany at the 2014 University of South Florida Fast 56 Awards Dinner.Most recently, Rich served as the Accelerator Director at the Tampa Bay Wave, a TechnologyAccelerator. Rich lead a portfolio of 70 companies and worked with 300 members of the Mentor& Investor networks. Rich lead the Program to be the first in Florida accepted to the GlobalAccelerator Network and secured its first Corporate backed Accelerator creating theTechDiversity Accelerator, powered by the Nielsen Foundation. Rich has also created strategicpartnerships with many tech organizations in the area to foster a more robust tech community.Prior to founding AirHeads, Rich was the Co-Founder and COO of Home Discovery Real Estatewhich he helped grow from a 3 person mortgage firm to a 300 person real estate technologycompany producing over $15million in Annual Revenues with five separate divisions. HomeDiscovery disrupted the Traditional Real Estate marketplace and created it’s own technologyplatform that transformed the customer experience. Rich lead the efforts to raise Five MillionDollars which valued the company at $50Million and the company was recognized with severalprominent accolades during Rich’s tenure, including the Governor’s Entrepreneurship Awardand numerous Best Places to Work and Fastest Growing Company awards.Active in the Community, Rich currently serves on the TiE Tampa Bay and Synapse ImpactBoard. Rich previously served as President of the USF Alumni Association, Two-Term AdvisoryBoard Chair for Best Buddies, Tampa Bay Host Committee for Rise of the Rest and BoardMember for the USF Foundation. Rich was recognized with the Gulf Coast Business Reviews’“40 under 40” and the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “30 under 30” award. Rich and his wife, Laura, established the Heruska Family Endowed Scholarship for Entrepreneurship at USF.