Mr. Steven M. Elefant is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and led successful businesses for over 25 years in Silicon Valley. Mr. Elefant has extensive technical, marketing, sales and business management experience in enterprise and client software, distribution and the retail marketplace. He was an early pioneer in the creation of Electronic Commerce and has been a frequent industry speaker.
Mr. Elefant was the former Chairman, President, CEO and Co-Founder of ICVerify Inc., the develope
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of ICVerify software, the worldwide leader in PC Credit / Debit card, check authorization and payment processing software. While running ICVerify Mr. Elefant founded Payment Processing Inc. (PPI), which was subsequently spun out into a separate company and is now one of the nation’s top 25 Bankcard processors.
Mr. Elefant completed a $75 million dollar successful merger with CyberCash Inc. (NASDAQ: CYCH) in May 1998 where he then became Vice-Chairman. During that time he forged strategic partnerships with companies including American Express, Intel, Visa International, IBM, JDA, First Data Corp. and others.
PriceRadar, Inc. was Mr. Elefant’s next successful venture was where he was Executive Vice President and Co-Founder. PriceRadar was the leader in merchant and consumer services for online Consumer Auctions. During his tenure at PriceRadar he formed strategic partnerships with companies including eBay, Ask Jeeves, Andale, Twentieth Century Fox and Gary Burghoff (Radar O’Reiley), The Sharper Image, West Marine, Readers Digest / Good Catalog / Gifts.com, Celebration Fantastic, iGo and others. PriceRadar’s technology was sold to eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) in March of 2001.
Mr. Elefant is the former President and Chief Operating Officer of Yaga, Inc, the leading provider of an ASP service for Internet publishers and merchants to manage, merchandise and process payments for both digital content and physical goods. Mr. Elefant formed strategic relationships for Yaga with companies including Time Magazine, CNN, NASCAR, Knight Ridder, Gannett, Conde Nast, Ziff Davis and strategic partners such as PaymentTech, Wells Fargo, Authorizenet and others.
Mr. Elefant’s latest venture is a startup company called AircraftFuel.com This first of its kind company provides quick and easy access to pilots and airplane owners where to find the absolute best prices for Jet-A aircraft fuel. The company is bringing internet technology and efficiency to bear on a market that has seen prices rise over 120% in a very short period of time.
Mr. Elefant is the founder and Managing General Partner of Soaring Ventures (http://www.soaringvc.com ) and is a limited partner in several other Venture Capital firms. Mr. Elefant has been personally investing for many years and he is currently a member of the Keiretsu Forum, the largest North American angel investment network with 750 accredited private equity investors, venture capitalists and corporate/institutional investors. Mr. Elefant currently serves on several technology company Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards as well as the Secret Service and FBI Electronic Crimes Task Forces.
Mr. Elefant holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science and Business from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has been a licensed private pilot for 30 years and currently holds Single, Multi Engine, Seaplane and Instrument ratings. In his spare time he enjoys flying, tennis golf, scuba, wine tasting and international travel. He lives in Lafayette, CA with his wife of 24 years, Debbie, and their twin children who attend UCSD a