Rick Bray Email and Phone Number

I've given little attention to my LinkedIn profile until now (May 2023). I did not see a need to make my work history and skills public. Until recently, the focus has been on my businesses and products, not me.What's changed? I'm co-founder of Stages.Live. With proper funding, it could be a regularly used go-to app globally. It just might replace Facebook Events, and possibly Yelp. We're in the process of raising capital, so people are checking me out on LinkedIn. Investors are often more interested in the people behind the company than the product itself.Therefore, a short summary: I started out in accounting, passed the CPA exam, but quickly moved into computers and software. The first company I founded sold business accounting software and computer hardware. Later, I learned to code, and personally designed and wrote software for the Title Insurance Industry that was used by title insurance companies in 18 states. While on vacation on Lake Michigan with family, we were watching E.T. with our two kids and nieces. After being surprised by a few cuss words in the movie, I was inspired to do something about it. I came up with a way to mute the objectionable language on the fly. I sold my business to start my next venture.I'm the award winning inventor of the patented technology called TVGuardian that automatically mutes offensive language from TV shows and movies. TVGuardian received an Innovations Award and won Best of Show at the 1999 CES, the world's largest consumer elections show in Las Vegas. I was the founder and CEO of the company that manufactured a stand-alone TVGuardian product sold in Walmart, and other major retailers, and licensed the technology into 20 million DVD Players from brands that included Sanyo, RCA, Magnavox, Memorex and others. TVGuardian was licensed in DISH Network's Hopper DVR in the later years. Over a 20-year product life, technology changed and laws changed, TVGuardian had run its course. On to my next venture...Stages.Live is a community events app designed to be a global app that's local everywhere. It brings community, artist and venues together. It has a patent pending booking method, which automatically feeds the community events side. It has a one-of-a-kind local musician streaming player. Our launch strategy is similar to the methods used by Uber, Lyft and Yelp. The focus is on NW Arkansas now, then we'll add 4-5 more cities, then 25+ more, then everywhere.Funds and Investors are needed to scale. Those investors need to know me. So, it's time for me to give my LinkedIn profile a bit more care.