The Founding Team

The people behind MatchBeat.

MatchBeat is built by a founding team that has run national-scale automated retail, scaled enterprise businesses to billions in revenue, built and scaled companies of their own, and shipped technology that the world's largest companies cite as foundational.

Dr. Lucas Root, Founder and CEO of MatchBeat

Dr. Lucas Root, Founder and CEO.

Founder & CEO

Dr. Lucas Root, Ph.D.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Lucas built a national network of 1,800 automated retail machines, generating half a billion dollars in annual revenue, for one of the most recognized franchise brands in the world. He spent more than a decade as the business strategy consultant behind that build. The work covered machine engineering, manufacturing, vendor networks, field service, placement strategy, internal systems, and the leadership structure required to run a national automated retail business at scale, every day.

MatchBeat is the redeployment of that capability into live sport. The category that earned the playbook is not the category that needs it most. Live sport is.

Lucas holds a Ph.D. in Consciousness and Human Potential from Gateway University, with undergraduate degrees in Physics, Mechanical Engineering, and Mathematics. He is the author of The AI-Ready Leader book series and The AI Strategist newsletter. World Economic Forum Davos delegate. Mentor at Founders Institute Bay Area.

Founding Team

An operating team built to ship.

Each member of the founding team has built before. Companies scaled to billions. Companies founded and run. Patents shipped and cited by the largest enterprises in the world. The work is the resume.

Peter Ebert, Co-Founder and CTO of MatchBeat

Peter Ebert

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Peter leads engineering and product. He owns the architecture of the MatchBeat platform end-to-end, from the unit on the concourse to the systems that run the business behind it. At MatchBeat he is building the AI-native technology layer that reimagines stadium-native commerce.

Peter is a Silicon Valley investor, mentor, and entrepreneur with a track record across startups and Fortune 50 companies. He has led major revenue turnarounds, forged strategic partnerships with iconic global enterprises, deployed next-generation technologies, and built globally recognized intellectual property. His leadership combines deep business and technical acumen with empathy for the teams that ship.

Peter holds a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Munich. He is the named inventor on 20+ issued patents worldwide, with 1,840+ forward citations from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and GE. He serves on the Georgetown University Supply Chain Management Advisory Board and has mentored 50+ startups through the Start2 Group.

Sherri Thiringer-Richards

Founding Member and Chief Financial Officer

Sherri leads financial strategy and operating discipline across the business. She owns the financial model, capital planning, and the decision cadence required to scale a national commerce platform in environments that are demanding and dynamic.

Her background is rooted in building for scale and long-term durability. Sherri spent more than a decade as an intrapreneur on a startup team inside Freightliner Truck Company (Daimler-Benz), where she helped build a new international business to $2 billion in annual revenue.

That work transitioned into a 17-year track record as an independent founder and financial operator. Sherri has built two companies, a business consulting firm and a media company, both still in operation today. Over nearly two decades, she has served as CFO and strategic partner to nearly 1,000 small businesses, building the foundational financial structures, controls, and growth models that allow leadership teams to scale exponentially and predictably.

Sherri is a Ph.D. candidate in Conscious Entrepreneurship and a University Professor of Leadership and Entrepreneurship at Cleary University.

Payam Rodd

Founding Member and Chief Operating Officer

Payam leads operations. He owns the operational backbone of the MatchBeat platform, including retail deployment logistics, real-time performance monitoring, partner coordination, vendor management, inventory systems, and venue readiness standards.

Payam is an operations executive with a focus on scaling infrastructure-driven businesses at the intersection of technology, commerce, and live event operations. He specializes in designing and building scalable systems for high-volume, high-pressure environments where speed, reliability, and customer experience are mission-critical.

At MatchBeat, Payam plays a central role in ensuring the automated retail infrastructure delivers seamless consumer experiences while meeting the operational requirements of leagues, venues, sponsors, and enterprise partners. He brings a pragmatic operator's mindset to every aspect of the business, balancing strategic vision with disciplined delivery.

Katherine Carpenter, Esq.

Founding Member and General Counsel

Katherine leads legal. She owns corporate governance, securities compliance, partner contracting, and the regulatory architecture that keeps the company clean and the partnerships durable.

Full bio forthcoming.

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