I'm a big fan of Khris Loux's Echo, which has a fascinating real-time media technology that will only become more important as large media and brand companies try to get their heads, and hands, around their distributed content and their communities.

The Internet is still the platform.

Here are Echo's recent key hires:

Ron Bouganim has joined Echo as their new vice president of corporate development and partnerships and Kristin Hersant has joined Echo as their new vice president of marketing.

Ron Bouganim is a serial entrepreneur in the telecommunications and consumer Internet sectors, having co-founded or been a member of the senior management of startups including CCI (sold to British Telecom), Trymedia (sold to Macrovision), and Razz. Bouganim has raised over $300 Million in venture capital and vendor financing and completed 7 M&A transactions.

Kristin Hersant joins Echo with more than 15 years of experience managing successful integrated marketing programs to build brands, raise awareness and generate demand. Most recently, Kristin served as the VP of corporate marketing for StrongMail where she successfully grew the company from a start-up to one of the top providers of interactive marketing solutions for email and social media in a crowded marketplace. Kristin's experience also spans key corporate marketing and creative services positions at Mindjet, L90, Better Brand Management, FeatureCast and Buzz Magazine.

Echi is very much a dark horse and one I'll be watching closely this year.