Walter Smith has an extensive background in Sales working in the telecommunications and payment processing industry for the past 15 years. While working at Verizon, he became the youngest Outside Account Executive. In 2002, he decided to go back to graduate school at Georgia State University to pursue Master of International Business. From 2004-2009 Walter went to work for First Data Corporation as an Account Executive under the Suntrust Merchant Services alliance. In 2006, he took a furlough with First Data spending 6 months in Buenos Aires, Argentina becoming fluent in Spanish and working for a Search Engine Optimization company to complete his MIB degree. In 2009 upon seeing the Pay at the Table solution, he started Ascendant Restaurant Solutions taking on the challenge of expanding Pay at the Table to the US marketplace which has been lagging behind the world in the security and efficiency curve in the hospitality market.

Jim Beach’s first book, School for Startups, was published by McGraw-Hill in June 2011. Jim has started businesses and has taught entrepreneurship around the world. At the age of 25, Jim founded American Computer Experience. From 1993 to 2000, Jim grew the company with no capital infusion to $12 million in annual revenue and to over 60 permanent and 700 temporary employees, operating in 39 states and in three countries. Jim taught entrepreneurship at Georgia State University for nine years and in 2009, Jim founded the School for Startups, a web resource devoted to teaching his philosophy of low risk entrepreneurship. Jim has presented in Japan, Korea, India, Dubai, and Egypt and for or on behalf of Wells Fargo, Toshiba, UPS, SunTrust and others on topics as diverse as the “Future of Oil Scarcity,” “How to Export in a Down Economy,” and “Getting to Number One on Google.”