Our
Team
Spanning industries, disciplines, and cultures, On Spec is a collaborative of creative thinkers and doers who have come together with the common goal of doing things better.
Spanning industries, disciplines, and cultures, On Spec is a collaborative of creative thinkers and doers who have come together with the common goal of doing things better.
Joey Wahba is Co-founder and Co-CEO of On Spec. Joey leads the supply chain, product development, operations, and the venture studio. Joey brings over 25 years of experience in delivering innovative products from categories such as wellness and technology. Before launching On Spec, Joey served as President of DGL Group. In this role, Joey grew the company over twelve years from less than $5M in annual revenue to $250M in revenue and helped to establish distribution channels in over 250,000 individual store locations worldwide in every marketplace. This growth enabled him to build a relationship with Walmart, creating a program to create over $100M in product sales. Through his expertise, Joey has developed deep relationships with manufacturing partners that span the entire supply chain, which allows him to use his expertise to bring quality products rapidly to the US consumer.
David Liniado is Co-founder and Co-CEO of On Spec. David leverages 30 years as a serial entrepreneur, investor, and corporate executive across Mobility, Technology, Marketing Services, and Media. Before joining On Spec, David joined Cox Automotive in 2013, where he led New Ventures. During this period, David developed several ventures, including Flexdrive, which was sold to Lyft in 2020, investments that included board roles at Getaround, Ridecell, and Vinli, along with the acquisition of Ridekleen. This work led to the development of the Cox Automotive Mobility division. David took his first company, Student Advantage, public in 1999 on the NASDAQ and subsequently led several ventures from inception to exit. David is also the Co-Founder of 19Y Advisors, a management consulting company that focuses on disruption.
Marc Liniado is a Co-Founder and President of On Spec. Marc started his first business at 21 years old in the SaaS gift-giving space, creating a tool that automated gift-giving while using AI to recommend gifts. After this venture, Marc developed his first consumer product, a beach chair with built-in speakers and a charging station. While developing and launching this product, he was the head of product development for Quirky, a division of DGL Group. While at Quirky, he developed dozens of products, including Air Audio, the world's first pull apart speaker, as well as the Bolt Smart Lock, winner of the CES Innovation award. With this success, Marc transitioned to the Head of Marketing and Product Development at Hover-1, the number one selling E-mobility brand in the sub-13-year-old category. In 2020, Marc left DGL Group to start OnSpec.
Kate Panek is the CFO of On Spec, bringing a wealth of experience in Financial Management, including FP&A, Financial Operations, and LEAN Process Improvement. Previously, Kate led Digital Transformation at Volt Power LLC, implementing a data strategy to automate daily analytics. Prior to Volt, Kate held multiple leadership roles at General Electric, most recently as the Financial Planning & Analysis manager for GE's IT business, partnering with the operations team to reduce over $1 billion of cost over three years.
Jo Tran is the VP of Production Operations of On Spec, using her 15 years of experience to develop products, manage production, and lead supply chain innovation at On Spec. Previously, she was at DGL Group, where she held multiple critical operational roles. Most recently, Tran was their Director of Production Operations, overseeing an in-house team of 30 and an international team of 40 for all divisions of DGL, including E-Rideables, Consumer Electronics, Housewares, Fitness Accessories, Toys, and more. Before this, she was the Production Art Director, overseeing licensing for cross-category development for Disney/Marvel, NFL, MLB, Crayola, and Coca-Cola. Her expertise allows On Spec to have seamless and efficient production and development execution while keeping all brands compliant for sales. Starting at DGL with 9 SKUs, she grew the product line to over 9,000 models in over ten years across five categories. She became a forefront developer in the e-rideable market while compliance was being written at the national level, pivoting product development to meet consumer and CPSC needs. Over four years at DGL, she helped build a business of rideables with Joey Wahba that net over $800m in sales over top retailers within the US and UK. As an export specialist, Jo has a network of logistics contacts to keep an eye on market costs allowing her to continue to mitigate costs while rising transportation costs while keeping each brand and product line profitable.
