OkCupid Labs Team
The OkCupid Labs team is a collection of intellectually curious engineers, math geeks, designers and acrobats. Yes, acrobats. No, we're not sure how that happened, either. We're here to push the edge of innovation in the art and science of bringing people together, working on new product prototypes and data systems to help people in their search for connections both on and offline.
Sam Yagan Mastermind
Sam has spent six years as an entrepreneur, first as Co-founder and CEO of TheSpark.com, Inc., maker of SparkNotes, the world’s leading brand of educational study aids. More recently, he has served as President of MetaMachine, Inc., developer and distributor of the world’s leading P2P file-sharing application, eDonkey.
Sam has also served as Vice-President and General Manager at Delias, Corp., and Vice-President and Publisher at Barnes & Noble, Inc. Sam has a BA in Applied Mathematics & Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Nick Abramovic Asst. (to the) Suit
Nick has been involved with dating startups for the better part of a decade. Before joining OkCupid, Nick was most known for being the Resident Scientist at Zoosk and growing the company to over 50M singles. Nick comes from the world of Naval Intelligence and uses his background to analyze huge amounts of data and figure out how people interact with each other.
Nick wants to be a Jedi Knight when he grows up.
Nick Coelius Ruby Doobie Doo
Nick is a recent Berkeley grad diving into his first job in the real world. Stoked to actually apply the theory he slaved over for 4 years, Nick is trying to learn and have as much fun as possible at OKCupid Labs. He's thrilled to be part of a dynamic team, and is looking forward to the exciting times ahead as part of an incubator.
Tim Connor Head Tech Guy
Tim has been building data-driven web-apps for a decade and working with ruby for six years of that. He's a rubyconf speaker, has taught classes at EngineYard, organized a panel of SoMa notables on hiring rubyists, built his own contracting firm, and stays heavily involved in the SF ruby community. He's passionate about agile and lean business practices, such as MVP and rapid iteration for proper customer development, and as such he's ecstatic to be building an awesome team to do incubator-style work for OKCupid in SF.
Rand Fitzpatrick Product Monster
Rand is a technical product manager with a background in computational linguistics, search/discovery and human computer interaction. He's been working with Ruby since 2001, and can often be found diving headfirst into new languages and tech. Rand has built products and teams for startups, large companies and open source efforts, shipping products across web, mobile, desktop and hardware domains. He's dedicated to creating truly awesome innovations with the team here at Labs.
Brian Golatka Pixel Pusher
Brian is a graphic and user experience designer focused on conversion optimization. His love of computer art started in the early 90s, when he designed and hosted bulletin board systems. When he is not searching the internet for great design, he spends his free time golfing, cooking, and dancing.
Stella Huh Problem Solver
Stella is a Ruby and dog lover who is passionate about terseness and elegance, different ways of solving problems, and connecting people through OkCupid Labs. She likes the fast and iterative environment at incubators.
Brian Luerssen Director of Etc.
Brian has been starting and running new companies since he turned 18. Playing in mobile, advertising, search, SMS, and analytics, he is always learning something new. Prior to joining OKCupid, Brian co-founded a company that used machine learning and quantitative imaging techniques to help Radiologists diagnose breast cancer. Brian holds a BS from Indiana University, where he studied Economics, Psychology, and Entrepreneurship, and an MBA from The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Jason Zhao Code Wrestler
Jason is a software developer who recently escaped from the corporate world to pursue his passion for startups and ruby. He likes to move fast, write clean code, and think about user experience. He is currently glued to the book Rails AntiPatterns. He advocates for good presentation and simplicity in everything he lays his hands on. He thinks of his employment with OKCupid Labs as love at first sight.
Elea Chang Designasaur
Elea is a user experience designer who's also handy with front-end development. She thrives off the energy of fast-paced startups and enjoys the challenges behind identifying the right problems, then implementing solutions accordingly. Having met her spouse via OkCupid, Elea is enthusiastic about helping people connect via the internet.
Shawn Drost Tells Computers What To Do
Shawn recently moved from Hawaii to take part in the golden age of SF. He hates when things are broken or dumb, and thinks walnuts taste like poison.