
Dan Flanegan is a seasoned product and business leader with a track record of driving growth in XR, AI, gaming, and social tech. A three-time venture-backed entrepreneur, he specializes in product strategy, execution, and partner management for high-growth startups. Dan has held leadership roles at Qualcomm, ClayAIR, and Butter, and he currently advises and invests in emerging tech companies. As Product Lead at ClayAIR (acquired by Qualcomm), Dan built platform-agnostic hand tracking and gesture recognition solutions leveraging breakthrough computer vision, machine learning, and advanced cognitive science. The technology enabled hand interactions with XR virtual content, smart devices, and digital interfaces—no controller, no touch. As CEO & Co-founder of Butter, he led the development of a mobile app designed to help people make new friends anywhere in the world. Butter built a graph of people users wanted to connect with through photos and chat, generating over a billion mobile page views. Previously, Dan was Co-Founder & CEO of Soapbox Mobile, a mobile marketing platform provider. As CEO, he was responsible for the company’s vision and mission of helping brands enhance customer engagement through mobile. He played a key role in developing a next-generation mobile marketing and CRM platform that powered campaigns for major brands, including Levi’s, Guinness, Vans Warped Tour, Procter & Gamble, W Hotels, and General Motors. Soapbox was acquired in 2007. Dan is a Product Hunt Golden Kitty Winner and has been a featured speaker at The UC Irvine Graduate Computer Science Program, The Rady School of Management at UCSD, The MIT Enterprise Forum, and Dow Jones VentureWire. Specialties: Entrepreneurship, Lean Startup, growth, product management, marketing, advertising, virtual reality, mobile & wireless, mobile marketing, public relations, public speaking.
gem.co
brandanywhere.com
thevrara.com
connect.org
qualcomm.com
semasoftware.com
mucker.com
San Diego, California, United States
Board Member
IVRSTAR Foundation
• www.linkedin.com/company/ivrstar-foundation
Apr 2025 - Present
San Diego, California, United States
Founder & Managing Partner
That XR Company
• www.linkedin.com/company/that-xr-company
Jan 2024 - Present
San Diego, California, United States
Co-Founder & CEO
Lot2
• www.linkedin.com/company/enterlot2
Jan 2024 - Present
San Diego, California, United States
Chapter President - San Diego
VR/AR Association (VRARA)
• www.linkedin.com/company/vr-ar-association
May 2024 - Present
San Diego, California, United States
Strategic Advisor
Tap Systems Inc. (#TapWithUs)
• www.linkedin.com/company/tap-with-us
Jun 2024 - Present
San Diego, California, United States
Product Management, XR Ecosystem
Qualcomm
• www.linkedin.com/company/qualcomm
Nov 2021 - Dec 2023
San Diego, California, United States
Director, Product Management
ClickAction Inc.
Jan 1999 - Dec 2002
Palo Alto, California, United States
bitscale.co
snowball.money
bittorrent.com
builder.ai