Bob Young
Founder & CEO, Lulu.com
Co-founder & former CEO Red Hat

Bob is a true technology entrepreneur and open-source visionary with four successful multi-million dollar start-up companies on his resume. In 2002, Bob founded Lulu.com which in turn has become home to a new economy based on user-generated content. With users in more than 80 countries, Lulu is a top 2500 website world wide and a winner of the 2007 Web 2.0 Award for best websites (SEOMoz.com), boasting one of the largest online worldwide creative communities and a premiere global marketplace for new digital content on the Internet. In 1993, Young co-founded Red Hat, a Fortune 500 company and chief rival to Microsoft, where he served as CEO until 1999.

Gian Fulgoni
Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, comScore

Gian is the executive chairman and co-founder of comScore, a global Internet information provider offering consumer behavior insight based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes delivering seamlessly integrated behavioral and attitudinal research. Gian has long been involved with the growth of hugely successful technology businesses, previously serving on the boards of U.S. Robotics, Platinum Technology and YesMail.com prior to their respective acquisitions by 3Com, Computer Associates and CMGI in multi-billion dollar transactions.

Divya Narendra & Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
Founders of ConnectU and the faces behind the Facebook lawsuit

The faces behind the well publicized lawsuit with Facebook, Harvard classmates, Divya, Cameron and Tyler founded and developed the college based online network, ConnectU. Divya's latest brainchild is SumZero.com, a growing community of professional investors spanning the hedge fund, mutual fund and private equity industries, where analysts can network and exchange investment ideas. Before founding SumZero this year, Divya spent time with multi billion dollar hedge fund, Sowood Capital Management, and Credit Suisse Securities. Brothers Cameron and Tyler have been steadily preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where they will be representing the US rowing team. Following an NCAA rowing championship in college, they went on to win gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games.

Chad Brooks
Architect Evangelist, Microsoft

Chad is an Architect Evangelist with Microsoft Corporation. He works with the Microsoft developer and architect communities across the Southeast, driving an understanding around Microsoft products and how those products can fit into today's heterogeneous environments. Chad joined Microsoft in 2000 in the Healthcare and Life Sciences Services Group, where he was responsible for architecting solutions for some of Microsoft's largest pharmaceutical and hospital customers.

Thomas Jacobik
Operations Manager, Google

The top web property in all major global markets, Google has evolved from the leading US search engine to one of the world’s top brands. From enhancing the overall user web experience to targeted advertising programs... maps, applications, analytics, mobile, video, and more... Google must have reliable access to its data. Tom is the Operations Manager for Google's Datacenter in Lenior, ensuring the accessibility of critical infrastructure systems. Prior to joining Google, Tom served the United States Airforce and has also spent time with Cisco and Oracle among others.

Tim Schigel
CEO, ShareThis

Tim leads ShareThis, a viral sharing tool that makes it simple and easy to share any online content. After launching less than a year ago, ShareThis can now be found on 50,000 websites with a 40% monthly growth rate reaching over 100 million monthly unique visitors. Previously, Tim led technology investing at Blue Chip Venture Company, an early stage venture firm with $600 million under management, investing in leading companies such as Advertising.com, Nielsen Buzzmetrics and Third Screen Media.

Scot Wingo
President & CEO, ChannelAdvisor

A serial innovator, Wingo co-founded ChannelAdvisor which helps retailers maximize their profits across multiple Ecommerce channels – including marketplaces like eBay, Amazon.com and Overstock.com; comparison shopping sites like Shopping.com, Shopzilla and Pricegrabber.com; and across all the major search engines.

Reggie Bradford
Founder & CEO, Vitrue

A rapidly growing social media firm, Vitrue already boasts a growing roster of customers that represent some of the world's leading media companies and consumer brands. Bradford, a serial entrepreneur, also served as President at Tandberg Television, President & CEO of N2 Broadband, and CMO at WebMD.

Jud Bowman
President & CEO, PocketGear

Jud recently led the acquisition of PocketGear after co-founding Motricity and growing it to more than $100 million in annual revenues and 500 employees globally. As Motricity's Chief Technology Officer, Jud was the chief architect of one of the industry's leading mobile content delivery platforms that delivers more than $1 billion of content to mobile phones per year. Jud has been named as one of the world's "Top 100 Young Innovators" by MIT's Technology Review and one of "Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs" by BusinessWeek in 2007.

Don Kosak
CTO, Lycos

Don is responsible for software engineering, integration, operation, and new product development at Lycos, one of the original and most widely-known Internet brands in the world. Lycos is consistently ranked a top 25 Internet destination worldwide, reaching nearly 60 million unique visitors globally with its award-winning products and services including tools for video viewing and sharing, blogging, web publishing and hosting, online games, e-mail and search. The Lycos Network includes Lycos.com, Tripod, Angelfire, HotBot, The Lycos 50™, Gamesville, Lycos Mail, and its newest first-to-market proprietary platforms, Lycos Cinema and Webon.

Henry Kaestner
Co-founder and Executive Chairman, Bandwidth.com

As Executive Chairman, Henry presides over the strategy, financing and marketing functions of Bandwidth.com, and has overseen the growth of the company from a startup to what INC Magazine rated as the 4th fastest growing privately held company in the country over the last 5 years. Bandwidth.com is a nationwide provider of voice, data and business applications to businesses across the country.

Brooks Bell
Founder and President, Brooks Bell Interactive

Brooks Bell Interactive's work has been seen by millions of unique users around the world through such brands as AOL, The Wall Street Journal, Nickelodeon, and XM Radio. Their focus on direct response strategy, design, testing, and conversion path optimization has become a vital part of these brands' online marketing strategies as they search for ways to adapt to the changing market and reach today's consumer. Previously, Brooks co-founded novelProjects, a web design firm.

Brad Hill
Director, Weblogs/AOL

Brad is the director of Weblogs, the world's largest blog publisher and operator of some of the most reputable new-media brands: Engadget, Joystiq, Autoblog, Cinematical, BloggingStocks, etc. It's been said that Brad knows more about professional blogging than anyone in the world, and has authored over 20 books about the Internet and online media including "Blogging for Dummies" and "Google for Dummies".

Stephen Wiehe
President and CEO, SciQuest

Since joining SciQuest as president and CEO in 2001, Steve has taken the company from an e-market exchange to the leading provider of on-demand eprocurement solutions for academic, healthcare and research-centric organizations. His vision for SciQuest's future led him to take the company private in 2004 and focus on creating a business-driven culture that provides organizations with a proven solution to achieve significant cost savings and advance their mission.

Mark Hopkins
Project Manager, Lenovo

First and foremost, Mark works for his customers. As the community manager for Lenovo's online discussion forum, a corporate blogger, and lead in online monitoring & proactive support, Mark often has his finger on the pulse of Lenovo's online communities and customers. He draws upon years of experience in customer satisfaction management, product development, and technical service & support to advance Lenovo's relationship with its customers.

Brian Handly
Sr VP, Atlas/Microsoft Advertising

Brian manages client sales and service for Atlas, a division of Microsoft advertising providing digital media technologies for agencies, advertisers and publishers. Previously, Brian was CEO and Co-founder of Accipiter which was acquired by Atlas.

Henry Copeland
CEO, Blogads.com

Henry Copeland runs Blogads.com. Based in Carrboro, NC, Blogads.com represents leading blogs like PerezHilton, DailyKos and CuteOverload to advertisers. Launched in 2002, Blogads.com was one of the first services to focus on advertising in social media, and pioneered many of the technologies and attitudes that make social media advertising work. Today Blogads.com represents over 1500 bloggers.

Michael Cristinziano
VP Strategic Development, Citrix Systems

Michael's leadership has helped Citrix to become a global leader in Application Delivery Infrastructure, with $1.4 billion in revenue and over 215,000 clients worldwide, including 100 percent of the Fortune 100 companies and 99 percent of the Fortune Global 500. Prior to Citrix, Michael was a top investment banker, leading M&A and financing transactions totaling over $2 billion in cumulative deal value since 1995.

Duke Chung
CEO and President, Parature

Duke Chung co-founded Parature in 2000 with a vision to provide superior customer support software accessible via the Internet. Today, Parature's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product suite supports more than 10 Million registered users in hundreds of organizations, including national associations, leading educational institutions, technology companies, and other diverse industries worldwide.

Ryan Allis
CEO and Co-founder, iContact

Ryan co-founded iContact in 2003 and with over 18,000 customers and $10 million in revenue, has built the company into one of the largest providers of email marketing tools for small businesses. Author of the book Zero to One Million: How I Built a Company To $1 Million in Sales and How You Can Too, Ryan was named by BusinessWeek as one of the "Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25".

Andy Beal
Founder, Trackur/Internet Marketing Pilgrim

Andy is one of the world's most respected online marketing experts and is founder of the online reputation monitoring tool Trackur. His expertise in online reputation management, search engine marketing, and business blogging are regularly called upon by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, CNBC, NPR, and Entrepreneur magazine. He is author of the top search marketing blog, Internet Marketing Pilgrim and the book Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online.

Jason Caplain
General Partner and Co-founder, Southern Capitol Ventures

One of the faces of the internet economy in the southeast, Jason is a general partner and co-founder of Southern Capitol Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. A frequent speaker at industry events and conferences, Jason is very active in the technology scene of the southeast and mid-atlantic. His blog can be read here.

Ben Weinberger
CEO, Digitalsmiths Corporation

Ben co-founded Digitalsmiths in 1998, since growing the company from a two-person college business into a market-leader in digital video search. DigitalSmith's VideoSense is the first broadband video ad-matching system to integrate seamlessly with existing online ad networks.

Igor Jablokov
CEO and Co-founder, Yap

Igor serves as CEO of Yap, a quickly growing automated platform that instantly converts anything you say on your cell into text. Prior to Yap, Igor led the team at IBM that created the world’s first ever speech enabled mobile web browser.

Joan Siefert Rose
President, Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED)

Joan is President of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, a non-profit organization whose mission is to identify, enable and promote high-growth, high-impact companies and accelerate the region's entrepreneurial culture. Joan joined the CED in August of 2008. Prior to this position, Joan was the GM of North Carolina Public Radio. Under her leadership, the staff and annual budget doubled in size and was the station was honored with the DuPont-Columbia Journalism award, the broadcasting equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

Troy McConnell
President and COO, Batanga

Co-founding Batanga in 1999, Troy serves as President and COO for the first online community focused on the latino lifestyle, entertainment, and latin music. One of the top 100 fastest growing websites with over 5.5 million unique visitors a month, Batanga boasts the largest inventory of streaming media.

Tim O’Shaughnessy
CEO & Co-founder, LivingSocial.com

Tim is CEO of LivingSocial.com, a social discovery and cataloging network that allows people to review and share their favorite movies, books, games, music, restaurants and beer. As the most comprehensive interest-based online community, LivingSocial is now helping more than 6.4 million users catalogue their interests, seamlessly integrating with Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, hi5, and Orkut.

Chris McGill
Founder & CEO, Mixx

Chris founded Mixx, a user-driven social media website that serves to help users submit or find content by peers based on interest and location. It combines social networking and bookmarking with web syndication, blogging, and personalization tools. Previously Chris was head of strategy at USA TODAY and general manager of Yahoo! News where he saw the transformation of that site into the world’s largest online news outlet.

Kevin Bertram
CEO, Distributive Networks

Kevin leads Distributive Networks, one of the most successful and esteemed mobile technology companies in the US, enabling its clients to reach and interact with millions of mobile device users via text alerts, coupons, content downloads, real-time polling, in-venue engagement, WAP services and more. Distributive Networks serves a growing portfolio of prestigious clients including Obama for America, AT&T, BET, CBS, Disney, Johnson & Johnson, MTV, and Viacom among others.

Greg Foster
Noro-Moseley Partners

Greg focuses his investment activities with Noro Moseley in technology with an empahsis on digital media. Prior to joining NMP, Greg served as VP of Corporate Development for Turner Broadcasting where he was responsible for new media investments, the company's early stage strategic investment arm.

Lee Prevost
President and Co-Founder, SchoolDude.com

Lee Prevost co-founded SchoolDude.com in 1999 and today with more than 3,700 clients, SchoolDude is the nation's leading provider of on-demand support services solutions designed exclusively for educational professionals. Using the power of the Internet, SchoolDude's mission is to create more than $1 billion in savings for America's educational institutions by 2010.

Travis Janovich
CEO, eTix

Founded in 1999, eTix is a top international provider of internet based ticketing solutions to a wide variety of venues, from theaters and arenas to resorts and travel sites. eTix software managed the sale of more than 30 million tickets at some 2,000 venues worldwide in 2007.

Kevin McFall
VP of Product, Rushmore Drive

Kevin serves as VP of Product for RushmoreDrive.com, IAC's newly launched programming business unit serving the online needs of this country's Black community. A passionate digital media executive, prior to joining IAC, Kevin led the product development and affiliate network for the Zap2it.com TV and Movie guidance service.

Jordan Glogau
Search Marketing Director, 1-800-Flowers.com

Jordan Glogau handles and coordinates search marketing and optimization efforts for 1-800-Flowers.com, one of the perennial top Internet Retailers ranking in at number 34 in the most recent Internet Retailer list. Jordan Glogau will discuss top search marketing and optimization strategies that help companies like 1-800-Flowers.com maintain their edge in the search rankings. Jordan has been involved with Internet marketing since 1995, working with companies including DEC, Sharp and IDT.

John Yates
Partner, Morris Manning & Martin

John is the Partner in charge of the technology group at Morris, Manning & Martin. A pioneer in the technology law field, John has exclusively been practicing in this area for over 26 years. John was instrumental in founding numerous technology organizations across the southeast including the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), CEO Council, Technology Tax and Finance Forum, and the Southeast Medical Device Association (SEMDA).

Carter Griffin
Partner, Updata Partners

Carter is a partner at Updata Partners, a growth stage venture capital firm having invested in over 60 software and technology-driven business services companies with nearly $500 million under management. Prior to joining Updata, Carter co-founded and served as CEO of Brivo Systems, bringing the software-as-a-service model to the physical security market.

Mike Doernberg
CEO, Reverb Nation

Mike Doernberg, a successful serial internet entrepreneur, is leading the charge for venture capital backed eMinor. eMinor is the leading social networking community for independent musicians, providing a platform with the hopes of creating a new paradigm in the music business.

Jason Trevisan
Polaris Ventures

Jason focuses on growth equity and buyouts in the internet, technology, media, and consumer spaces for Polaris Ventures, a venture fund with over $3 billion under management and current investments in more than 90 companies. Prior to Polaris, Jason was an executive at aQuantive, a digital media and marketing company, and earlier was a consultant at Bain & Company.

Jack Whitley
SVP Ecommerce, Replacements.com

Jack serves as Senior VP in charge of Ecommerce at Replacements.com, which has grown its online presence to 2.5 million customer visits per months and over $85 million in annual sales. While Replacements.com does occupy a narrow niche in e-commerce (hard-to-find china, crystal, and silver), they currently rank 166th overall in the Internet Retailer U.S. e-commerce sales ranking. Jack is currently responsible for planning and execution of all online efforts.

Jim Tobin
President, Ignite Social Media

Jim is president of Ignite Social Media, which helps companies understand and utilize social media marketing to drive business results, helping clients such as NatureMade, The Body Shop, Comcast and the United Auto Workers, to name a few. Jim is the co-founder of the Triangle Social Media Club, is one of the most read authors on Social Media Today, and was named one of the most influential bloggers in the business in January 2008. Jim is also the author of the upcoming book, "Social Media is a Cocktail Party."

Joel Book
eMarketing Education, ExactTarget

Joel is director of eMarketing education at ExactTarget, a leading provider of email marketing software solutions powering thousands of organizations including Careerbuilder.com, Expedia.com, USA TODAY, Home Depot, and Papa John's. An industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in database marketing, Joel teaches organizations how to get more from their marketing expenditures by leveraging digital media and marketing technologies to attract, engage, and retain customers.

Mitesh Patel
COO, Global Value Commerce

Mitesh serves as COO for Global Value Commerce (GVC), a leading ecommerce solutions provider for the golf industry. GVC provides specialized solutions in golf retailing, supply chain management, ecommerce website development, and internet marketing to golf’s leading manufacturers, retailers, and media companies. GVC currently operates three online websites - GlobalGolf.com, GolfShoesOnly.com, and TaylorMadeGolfPreowned.com providing new and preowned golf equipment, golf shoes and accessories directly to the golf consumer. Previously, Mitesh served in executive positions with Compaq, Motorola, Avesair and Art.com.

Scott W. Devitt
Managing Director, Stifel Nicolaus

Serving as Stifel Nicolaus' Internet consumer services research analyst, Scott Devitt works with companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, and Overstock.com. Prior to his previous role, Scott was a member of Legg Mason's Capital Markets Group serving in a similar role.

John Willmoth
Venture Partner, Chrysalis Ventures

John evaluates investment opportunities and assists current portfolio companies in the media and communications sector for Chrysalis Ventures. John has over 20 years of business development, strategic planning, and financial experience, most recently as VP of Sprint Nextel Corporation.

Michael Guptan
Managing Director, Stanford Group

Michael is a Managing Director and head of Technology, Media and Telecom investment banking at Stanford Group. Michael possesses 20 years of experience in working in financial and strategic advisory roles with companies in the Technology sector, having worked on transactions aggregating approximately $10 billion in value.

Lior Leser
Partner, Leser, Hunter, Taubman & Taubman

Lior practices corporate counsel to high-growth technology and web 2.0 companies as a Partner in the Miami office of Leser, Hunter, Taubman & Taubman. His practice is focused on technology, corporate, cyberlaw and international law. Lior has a J.D. from Stanford Law School and an M.A. in International Economics and Finance.

Paul Penny
CTO, Consonus Technologies

Paul serves as CTO and Client Solutions Architect for Consonus Technologies, a leading provider of IT infrastructure, data center, and managed services solutions. Paul possesses over 20 years of IT experience, spanning many platforms, industries and application areas.

Scott Gardner
VP Search, Triangle Direct Media

Scott is Vice President of Search with Triangle Direct Media, a New Media Marketing firm based in Cary, NC. For the past 8 years, Scott has been involved in the search marketing industry and worked with hundreds of clients including start-ups, national retailers and multinational corporations. Prior to TDM, Scott served as Vice President and Director at two other high-growth, Internet Marketing agencies.

Ajay Kaul
Director, Business Intelligence and Worldwide Direct Marketing, Lenovo

Ajay directs the email marketing efforts of Lenovo, one of the world's largest makers of personal computers. Operating in more than 60 countries and providing services to consumers in more than 160 countries around the world, Ajay is well versed in messaging across multiple mediums.

John Conley
Attorney, Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson

John practices law with Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, specializing in intellectual property, complex litigation and civil trial work. John is also a William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is published widely on a number of topics including law of intellectual property as applied to emerging technologies. He received his BA from Harvard and JD, PhD from Duke University.

Randall Whitmeyer
Member, Hutchison Law Group

With more than 20 years of experience working in and providing legal counsel to technology companies, Randy concentrates his practice at Hutchison Law Group around legal issues impacting the use and commercialization of intellectual property, especially related to software and information technology.

Greg Rollet
Regional VP, Peak 10

Greg is the Regional VP of Market Operations for Peak 10, the leading independent data center operator in the southeast. Greg is the general manager of all Raleigh operations. Peak 10 operates facilities throughout the southeast in Jacksonville and Tampa, FL, Atlanta, GA, Louisville, KY, Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, Cincinnati, OH, Nashville, TN and Richmond, VA.

Kip Frey
Partner, Intersouth Partners

Kip Frey specializes in information technology companies at the largest venture fund in North Carolina. Having previously served as CEO at several firms and guiding them to exits, Frey brings a range of experience in the entrepreneurial world.

Elaine O'Gorman
Senior VP, Marketing and Product Strategy, Silverpop

Elaine is responsible for both the delivery of products to Silverpop's clients and the creation of compelling go-to-market strategies that attract quality customers to those products. Named among BtoB Magazine's "Who's Who," O'Gorman is widely recognized as a subject matter expert in marketing services. She has appeared in an array of diverse publications and is a frequent speaker at marketing-centric conferences.

Michael Marshall
Co-founder & CTO, PointMetrix

Michael Marshall is one of the most respected and well regarded technologists in the search engine marketing community. Michael has used his 19 years experience in artificial intelligence, web development, software engineering, and search marketing to architect the underlying technology platform of PointMetrix. Having helped craft and execute advanced SEO strategies for many of the Internet's top brands over the years, Michael and his technologies have been featured in numerous media outlets such as Direct Magazine, WebPro News, DM News, Forbes, LA Times, Investor's Business Daily, PRWeek, SearchNewz and eWeek.

Tony Jeffs
Director of Marketing, Cisco

Tony is responsible for the Service Provider Voice, Session Boarder Control (SBC), IP Signaling, and IP Radio Access Network (RAN) solutions in Cisco's Services & Mobility Business Unit (SMBU). Tony helps lead a team of over 300 global employees that last fiscal year generated $350+ million in annual revenue. During his 13 year career at Cisco, Tony has been involved in various marketing and business development activities including the diligence and integration of over 40 of Cisco's acquisitions.

Tony Bombacino
Chief Marketing Officer, Restaurant.com

Tony serves as CMO at Restaurant.com where he leads a team that is responsible for all marketing, branding, PR and corporate communications across channels and business lines. Restaurant.com is the trusted and valued source for restaurant information and savings. Through savings on gift certificates at more than 8,500 restaurants nationwide, Restaurant.com customers have saved more than $75 million since 1999.

Andrew Konia
Partner, McGuire Woods

Andrew’s practice focuses on general corporate matters, complex commercial contracts, M&A, and private equity for McGuire Woods. With his consulting and educational background, Mr. Konia has a keen understanding of the operational, financial and strategic needs of clients, enabling him to take a practical business approach to serving their needs. He has experience representing clients in numerous industries, including a specific emphasis on technology.

Gregory Hunt
Member, Jenkins Wilson Talylor & Hunt

Greg possesses a diversity of experience in patent preparation and prosecution before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and before foreign patent offices in the areas of computer hardware, software, firmware, business methods and electrical engineering inventions. Jenkins, Wilson, Taylor & Hunt, P.A. is a specialized law practice limited exclusively to providing intellectual property counseling and services to clients with respect to patent, trademark, and copyright law.

David Jones
Partner, Southern Capitol Ventures

David is a Partner with Southern Capitol Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm serving technology companies in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Prior to joining Southern Capitol, David served as a senior information technology consultant for Deloitte Consulting and served as a Naval Aviator flying over 1900 hours in the P-3C Orion.

David Steinberg
VP Online Storage Business, Symantec

David served as CEO of SwapDrive until its 2008 acquisition by Symantec. The first company to provide web-based software and services for online data backup and storage, SwapDrive was guided to a $123M exit. An experienced internet entrepreneur, David previously served in the early management teams of startups Check Point Software and SynOptics (became Bay networks).

Mark Rostick
Managing Director, Intel Capital

Mark Rostik directs all of Intel Capital's investment activities for the east coast across all areas of investment, focusing on such areas as wireless and digital media. Mark worked in Intel’s strategic software licensing group and with Turner Broadcasting prior to joining Intel Capital in 1998.

Colin Carr
Chief Architect, Smart Online

Colin serves as Chief Architect for Smart Online, the nation's premier provider of private label applications for small business customers. He possesses extensive experience with highly available mobile/web and enterprise technologies for both infrastructure and software, enterprise integrations, and security. Previously, Colin spent time with companies such as Warner Brothers and Universal Studios with entrepreneurial efforts including FBBA, Commflash, and FreeSurfin' which were acquired by DoubleClick, Falk, and Google.

Keith Moore
Senior VP, Lending Tree

Keith is the Senior VP and General Manager for the Emerging Business group at Tree.com. He leads the company's innovation engine that is responsible for researching and developing new areas where Tree.com can provide consumers choice when shopping financial services. Since joining LendingTree, the company has ranked as the #1 media advertiser online. Since inception, LendingTree has facilitated more than 24 million loan requests and $160 billion in closed loan transactions.