Michelle Fischer brings extensive leadership experience in the software and integrated payments sectors, with a strong track record of scaling businesses and leading through transformation. Most recently, she served as CEO of Vehlo, where she guided the company through significant growth and strategic acquisitions. Earlier in her career, she held executive roles across marketing, customer operations, and general management at Vista Equity Partners portfolio companies, including Aptean, Kibo, and Lanyon. She began her career in product and strategy roles at Sabre and NCR.

Michelle earned her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michelle is a native Chicagoan, now living in Knoxville, Tennessee. She enjoys spending time with her husband of 21 years, her teenage son and tweenage daughter. They can be found cheering on the Dallas Stars and Chicago Bears – or planning their next Disney trip.

Kevin is just a regular dude who writes a lot of code and strives to build a great company. He enjoys having a fun work environment, creating software that simplifies peoples lives, typing furious on his keyboard, and eating sandwiches.

He really enjoys working on home improvement projects and fixing things around the house. When asked for random facts, he told us he didn’t consume an “adult beverage” until 22 years of age. He described it as “unfortunate.” When not working on Tripleseat things, Kevin competes fiercely in several online video games (current titles include: Overwatch, Rocket League).

Rick Russo is a strategic finance executive with a passion for scaling software companies, bringing deep experience guiding high‑growth organizations through transformation and operational excellence. Throughout his career, he has partnered closely with CEOs, boards, and private equity sponsors to modernize financial operations, strengthen performance management, and set companies up for long‑term success.

Before joining Tripleseat, Rick served as CFO of CentralReach and ETQ, where he rebuilt FP&A and accounting teams, introduced strategic planning and KPI frameworks, and helped both organizations evolve into high‑performing SaaS businesses with strong recurring revenue. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly a decade at Epicor Software in senior global finance and accounting roles, leading large international teams and supporting major M&A, integration, and capital markets initiatives.

Rick holds a B.S. in Accounting from the State University of New York at Brockport. Originally from Buffalo, he now lives in New Jersey with his wife. When he’s not working, he loves traveling with his wife and two children—and he remains a devoted Bills fan (Go Bills!).

Kristen has worked within the People Function for the past 25+ years. Prior to Tripleseat, she served as Chief People Officer at EngageSmart. Kristen previously held senior-level HR leadership roles at CarGurus, HubSpot and Endeca. Throughout her career, Kristen has focused her efforts on high-growth and start-up companies to build infrastructure around HR/recruiting operations and business expansion. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Westfield State University.

Kristen grew up and currently lives in the Boston area. When she is not working, Kristen enjoys spending time with her daughter and taking trips to Cape Cod.

Phil brings extensive experience in the software sector and a strong track record of transforming and leading high-performance go-to-market teams at hyper-growth startups, including Akamai Technologies and HubSpot—both of which achieved successful IPOs. 

Prior to joining Tripleseat, Phil was the CRO at JW Player, where he transformed marketing, sales, partnerships, customer success, and support, contributing to the company’s acquisition. He also held the position of Vice President and Group Director of Sales Research at Forrester-joining through its acquisition of SiriusDecisions-leading a team of veteran go-to-market leaders who advised sales, marketing, and product executives on building modern revenue engines.

Phil enjoys spending time with his wife, Brooke, and their four children. He has been an active angel investor for two decades, with numerous successful exits, and served on the board of directors for Read to a Child, an education nonprofit supporting at-risk elementary students.

Phil holds a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and is a graduate of MIT Sloan’s Greater Boston Executive program.

With a career defined by scaling high-growth technology platforms, Alex previously served as Senior Vice President of Product & Design at Dutchie and was a founding member of Toast Capital, where he helped scale fintech products into a multi-billion-dollar public company. By combining his deep technical expertise with a decade of firsthand experience working in restaurants, Alex focuses on developing operator-first solutions that streamline event management and help our customers drive revenue.

Beyond his professional achievements, Alex’s leadership is rooted in a lifelong passion for the hospitality industry. Having spent nearly ten years working in the trenches of restaurant operations before transitioning into tech, he maintains a deep appreciation for the guest experience and the hard work of service professionals. When he isn’t focused on building the next generation of hospitality tools, Alex enjoys staying connected to the culinary world.

Chap has been a computer nerd since before it was cool. His career started out working on cell phones before they had cameras and broadcast hardware before it was HD. Before joining Tripleseat, he led development for a real-estate search engine and helped with development in the early stages of a couple of startups.

Chap grew up in a small town in south Georgia and now lives in Atlanta with his wife and three dogs. When he’s not working or fixing things around the house he enjoys woodworking, landscape photography, and generally anything outdoors.

Sam’s first job was in hospitality at Figlio restaurant in Columbus, OH. He was the longest-tenured bus/disher to NOT get a raise. On his sendoff to College of Charleston, he mentioned this to the owner and the owner responded, “I had no idea, why didn’t you ask for one!?” Lesson learned. In 2012, after graduating from Columbia Business School, he joined a growing software company, Relias, where he led mergers & acquisitions and client care. He’s been evaluating and managing software companies ever since.

Sam currently lives in Denver, CO with his pup, Louie Dewey. If you catch him on the weekend, you may find him in the park with Lou, watching an Ohio State game, or on the shuffleboard courts (the 52-foot variety), where he’s working on improving his international ranking. Sam enjoys traveling and meeting new people. Nothing fills his heart more than bringing people together, so he’s happy Tripleseat helps customers do just that.