Meet the Team
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Michael Ortner
Co-Founder and Seminar Leader
Dissatisfied with his business degree from Georgetown University, Mike later followed it up with a philosophy degree University of London. “I learned more in any month on the job than I did in my entire four years as a finance/business major,” he says. “So, if you’re going to spend four years of your life on a formal education, study something great that
would be difficult to achieve in any other way.” He was the Founder and CEO of Capterra, one of the largest B2B websites of all time and winner of numerous awards ranging from the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies in the US to the Washington Business Journal's Best Places to Work. After selling Capterra to Gartner in 2015, Mike has helped start several other new businesses and sits on the board of a handful of nonprofits.
Michael McGrath
Co-Founder and Seminar Leader
Mike is a living, breathing example of how the liberal arts can be utilized in the business world. After graduating from Magdalen College of Liberal Arts, he found his way into the software business, where he moved quickly from inside sales to field sales, to management, and finally to senior leadership. He has successfully
navigated the world of startups and large corporations alike and has worked at companies as varied as BMC, CA, IBM, and AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco), and now Cribl. Mike attributes his ability to listen intently to his liberal arts education. “Employers need talented candidates who know how to listen to various points of view, to think critically, learn how to work within and lead a team, are strong communicators (written and verbal), can delegate and grow organically in their career.”