Senior Advisor

The Future of TV, Video Apps, Mobile Video
FORMERLY
General Counsel and Vice President of Strategy, PacketVideo

Joel Espelien is an accomplished strategist and mobile entrepreneur, with a long track record of being ahead of the curve. His consulting practice focuses on corporate strategy and positioning for companies across the OTT landscape. Joel regularly advises companies on new business initiatives, growth strategies, buy-side and sell-side M&A, corporate partnerships and VC financing, ecosystems and developer programs, standards initiatives and value-chain positioning.

Prior to TDG, Joel was a senior executive at PacketVideo Corporation (PV), the first company to publicly demonstrate live video streaming to a mobile phone. Joel joined PV as one of its first employees in 1999. Until his departure in December 2012, held senior executive positions at PV in business development, corporate strategy, legal affairs and general management. He led numerous strategic initiatives including raising over $100m in corporate venture financing, technology licensing, multiple buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions, consumer service launches in North America and Europe, PV’s agreement with Google in 2006 to contribute source code to the Android operating system, and the sale of PV to NTT DoCoMo in October 2010 at an enterprise valuation of $171m.

In addition to his work as a TDG analyst, Joel is an active entrepreneur, angel investor, mentor and advisor in the start-up community (TechStars, Founders Co-op, and Founders Institute). Joel is also licensed as an attorney in California and Washington and regularly advises technology companies on international, M&A, and intellectual property issues.

Joel graduated from St. Olaf College with degrees in Political Science, Spanish and German and holds a JD/LLM in International and Comparative Law from Duke University School of Law. Joel is bilingual in English and Spanish and lives on Mercer Island, Washington with his wife and three sons.

Areas of Expertise

  • TV apps
  • Mobile video
  • Smart TV platforms
  • Social TV
  • Multiscreen services
  • New product launches
  • Product strategy
  • Ecosystem Partnerships