The Namesake Team
The Namesake team is dedicated to building a live and immersive experience for our customers.
Namesake is comprised of eight positive and curious people. We all write code, enjoy attempting to solve impossible problems and are continually searching for new ways to improve the Namesake experience.
We're not your typical team. Everyone operates like an entrepreneur and has ownership of key aspects of the product and technology. If you have a deep technical background and want to work with the Namesake team, please apply here.
Team
Dan Gould
FounderDan is a founder of Namesake and leads the technology team. Dan also founded Newroo (acquired by Fox Interactive Media), Ad.ly (the world's largest celeb endorsement network) and Corridor. At Fox Audience Network Dan served as Vice President of Technology. Dan previously was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health and at the Brown University Computer Graphics Group and has won a number of Computer Science awards.
Brian Norgard
FounderBrian is a founder of Namesake and leads the product team. Brian also founded Newroo (acquired by Fox Interactive Media when he was 25) and Ad.ly (the world's largest celeb endorsement network). Brian graduated from Santa Fe Montessori and Brown University (with honors) where he won a National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance grant. He likes to surf and fish in The Sea of Cortez with his dad. Brian is from Del Mar and his personal site is briannorgard.com.
Michael Cyrulnik
Founding EngineerMichael handles deep infrastructure tech at Namesake. Previously, he worked at ZoomInfo where he created one of the company's early algorithms. He graduated from MIT in 3 years with a degree in Computer Science and is a real rockstar. His band toured on and off for over 2 years.
Scott Hurff
Director of User Experience, member of founding teamScott was the youngest EIR in the history of Kodiak Venture Partners. Scott founded Groupvine (acquired by DailyJolt) and graduated from Wake Forest University with honors, where he won the John Chambers Grant. When not designing and building product, Scott runs marathons, watches James Bond films obsessively and plays the guitar and piano. Scott can be found at scotthurff.com.
Michael Viamari
Engineer & Technical Manager, member of founding teamMike attended Brown University where he graduated with Honors in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. Mike last worked as a Product Development Engineer at Analog Devices. More recently, he was accepted to Standford's Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering, but declined to attend so he could work on Namesake.
Jeff Potter
Software EngineerJeff studied computer science and visual art at Brown University. He's been involved in solving huge scaling problems for the better part of a decade. Jeff is the author of the bestselling unconventional cookbook "Cooking for Geeks."
Andrew Skotzko
Director of GrowthAndrew graduated from the USC Entrepreneur Program and previously led customer development for an ad technology startup. When not thinking about marketing and growth problems, Andrew enjoys riding motorcycles, snowboarding, brunch and coding. He grew up internationally and occasionally blogs at The Curious Entrepreneur.
Minnie
Mascot, member of founding teamMinnie dropped out of CalTech after being implicated in the 'Popcorn Incident'. She designed and built a high powered laser that destroyed the home of famed professor Dr. Hathaway. In her spare time she likes to sleep and eat.
