Brett Hudson

Director

You Start Us Operations and Strategy

Although born in the only island state surrounded by water (Honolulu, HI), a cruel twist of fate caused Brett to be raised in the ever-sunny, hot and dry state of Arizona. He escaped the heat while attending Stanford University in California, where he earned a B.A. with honors. Brett became a business strategy consultant in Washington, D.C. before returning to start his own practice in Arizona.

Brett enjoys the good things in life. Good music, good people and good times keep his life moving forward. He considers himself an audiophile and is passionate about quality hip-hop. He enjoys traveling, has spent time in most parts of the country, and is always up for a trip to Vegas.

Brett began to realize the power of the Youstart.us idea when he saw how difficult raising money was for some of the ventures he tried to get off the ground. He is passionate about empowering businesses and helping them adapt to and understand the power of the innovative, entrepreneurial, and collaborative nature of the up-and-coming younger generations.

For those old, tired business models that refuse to change, his philosophy is, “get on board, or get out of the way!”

Caige Nichols

Director of Engineering

You Start Us Platform Develoment

Caige Nichols, organically grown in Sacramento, California, has extensive experience in systems engineering and web application development. He is currently the Lead Web Developer for the New Media Innovation Lab for the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He has a strong background designing and implementing modern, scalable, and interactive web applications. Caige studied computer science and mathematics at the University of Arizona before returning to Phoenix, Arizona to work for Pearson Education as Lead Web Developer for Solutions Engineering.

Caige aspires to be a Jedi Knight when he grows up and never turns down an opportunity to face off against the dark side. Translated, he fears not the red tape of bureaucracy and indecision and takes technical challenges that most enterprises play up to be impossible. His love for language design and cryptography are only matched by that of professional foosball players. Active in the open source community, Caige is an advocate of transparency and free collaboration. His experiences with open source initiatives has only fueled his passion for You Start Us and the opportunities it will create.

Scott Seligman

Chief Designer

You Start Us Arts & Social Media

A graphic designer by day ... and by night. He takes solace in his ability to design circles around his foes, he's also known for his wit and cunning, and his propensity to utilize the run-on sentence. Scott is a third-year graphic design student at Arizona State University and Design Editor of ASU's campus newspaper and Web site. Proficient in all the pertinent computer software, he has a keen eye for design. He has six years of design experience, which equates to over 25 percent of his life. Scott oft spends inordinate amounts of time examining letter and numbers; he finds the number 5 and the capital Q particularly beautiful. He is without a doubt the right person for the job -- regardless of the job.

Sophia Fuka

Director of Communications

You Start Us Marketing Executive

Sophia Fuka, communications director for You Start Us, grew up in rural North Dakota with a graduating class of 20 students. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota, this Sioux fan moved south to thaw out. She is currently attending the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and is in her final semester in the Masters of Mass Communication program, specializing in public relations and digital media.

While Sophia’s favorite word may be “focus,” she claims, “My second favorite word really should be hypocrite. When it comes to what I love most about public relations, I really can’t decide!” If she had to choose however, her interests lie most in research, campaign planning, digital media and internal communications.

To quell her professional hunger for all things public relations, Sophia independently contracts for a variety of Valley businesses and services, such as the City of Phoenix and Green Street Development, crafting web content, social media and doing media relations; is on the Gannett New Media Innovation Lab's content team; and is also an active member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

What this soon-to-be graduate loves most about Youstart.us is it’s fresh approach to a very daunting task. “Young entrepreneurs have more to offer now, than ever. Not only is Youstart.us an outlet for them to be heard and supported by their own generation, it also allows for their unbridled creativity to thrive in ways that past bureaucracy wouldn’t have allowed.”

In her free time (also known as sleep), Sophia dreams about beach vacations; her bunny, River, (who is litter box trained); a job with health insurance; knitting; a trip back to her alma matter, for a grinder from the Red Pepper restaurant and renowned hole-in-the-wall; re-reading her favorite book, The Giver; and finding the ever elusive, perfect pair of black wedges.

Shawn Casher

Promotions Executive

You Start Us Product Promotion

Crushawn “Shawn” J. Casher is the Founder, President, of Okonom Corporation (An Arizona Corporation) d/b/a Service-Connected. He is also the Executive Assistant for the CAZ Foundation. Prior to this, he served four years in the United States Air Force. He has graduated from Arizona State University in 2008 and will go on to complete his master’s degree.