Team
Management
Dave Schappell | Founder & CEO
Dave focuses on developing the product vision, building the team and making TeachStreet an inspirational place to accomplish great things.
Dave developed his experience creating customer-focused marketplace initiatives at Amazon.com, JibJab and Unitus. He has deep experience in online marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), affiliate marketing, and high-impact public relations– yes, he spends a LOT of time online. As a Director at Amazon.com from '98-'04, he was a driving force in the emergence of the marketplace platform (used and new product sales by third-party merchants) that grew from 0% to more than 24% of Amazon's unit sales today.
Prior to joining Amazon, Dave was a CPA and consultant with Arthur Andersen LLP. Dave attended the MBA program at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and has a BS from the Pennsylvania State University.
Dave's recently taken a motorcycle safety training class at Evergreen Safety Council in Seattle, WA (motorists in Seattle are very grateful). In the past, he's taken evening photography classes at Seattle Central Community College and various evening HTML courses at the University of Washington. Dave has a long list of learning experiences he can't wait to discover on TeachStreet – next is to finally learn some French!
For more about Dave, visit his personal blog: http://www.NoSnivelling.com or his LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/daveschappell
Fred Sadaghiani | Chief Technology Officer
Fred manages the team of mad technical geniuses building the TeachStreet experience.
Fred has extensive experience building large-scale, consumer-facing web applications at both Zillow (where he was Product Team Lead) and Amazon.com (where he was a software engineer). In addition to his experiences building user-friendly Web 2.0 products, his background includes years of experience developing real-time marketplace systems, including services and applications for information retrieval, knowledge representation and data mining.
Fred graduated from the University of Toronto with a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics.
Fred's currently taking guitar lessons (a friend referred him to the instructor) and has taken photography lessons in the past. He's also WAY into Bikram yoga. In addition to being a lifelong learner, Fred's held the teacher role as well! He tutored students in mathematics and taught briefly as a volunteer Assistant Rowing Coach, so he has a few opinions about the tools needed by teachers. The next thing that Fred wants to check out is to finally learn some rock climbing skills!
For more about Fred, check out his LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fredsadaghiani
Zach | Security & Morale Booster
Zach's main focus at TeachStreet is in keeping unwanted riff-raff away from TeachStreet World Headquarters (Actually, Zach, we DO like the postman). Zach's also excellent at getting the TeachStreet team free after-hours beverages due to his unrelenting cuteness.
Zach has deep experience barking, sleeping and eating. He enjoys long walks in the morning, afternoon or evening. Contrary to popular opinion, Zach did not have a cameo with Cesar Millan on The Dog Whisperer.
Zach and Dave did not do well in their Obedience Training Class – we'll have to give that another go!
Those Who Do the Work
Jim | Stealth Mode Web Developer
Jim makes sure the site is looking and acting likes it's supposed to. When he's not pretty-ing up TeachStreet, Jim is a budding actor, podcaster, YouTuber and general mischief maker. In the future, he's hoping to spend his free time learning things like snake handling and amateur cat rocketry.
Jon | Mad Software Genius
Jon helps build software for TeachStreet and fixes things when they break. He's responsible for many of the bells and whistles that you see on the site. Jon's an awesome chef, and is currently hoping to learn how to de-bone a chicken. He also fancies himself an outdoorsman and is hoping to learn wooden boat building and trad climbing one of these days.
Katie | Marketing & Operations Goddess
Katie's job as Teacher Evangelist is to round up all sorts of great teachers, instructors and schools and help make sure that TeachStreet is a place where they want to hang out. She also helps make sure that the lights stay on and the checks don't bounce. As an apartment dweller who loves plants, dirt and growing things, Katie's hoping to find someone on TeachStreet to teach her about organic container gardening.
Leandra | User Experience & Design Diva
Leandra spends her days designing new ways to make TeachStreet a better, easier and more convenient web site for students and teachers to use. As the artist on the team, she's been known to frequent local art schools to take classes on anything from woodworking to collage. She's currently learning karate and how to knit. Leandra's also a wealth of knowledge if you ever want info on making your own biodiesel or using PhotoShop.
Sam | Search Engine Marketing Addict
When Sam's not managing our search engine marketing and analytics, he splits his time between writing for the TeachStreet blog and doing outreach to teachers. Sam's hoping one day to learn how to beat Fred at chess, Jon at Guitar Hero, Dave at poker and Katie at arm wrestling.
Scott | Ruby on Rails Junkie
Scott is responsible for building the software backbone for TeachStreet and, like Jon, he's also quite helpful in fixing things when they break (not that they ever break). In the past, Scott has taken lessons in activities ranging from Aikido to surfing. More recently, Scott has recently taken up brewing his own beer. (HOORAY!)
Board of Directors
Scott Jacobson
Scott's a Principal with Madrona Venture Group. Prior to joining Madrona, Scott worked at Amazon.com, where he held senior product and business management positions in the Digital Media and Seller Platform groups. He led several key initiatives, including the international rollout of Amazon's Merchants@ platform. Earlier in his career, Scott was a Senior Consultant in Accenture's strategy consulting practice, where he worked with clients in enterprise software, retail, and energy sectors. Scott received his MA in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Dave McClure
Dave's been geeking out in Silicon Valley for over fifteen years as a software developer, entrepreneur, startup advisor, angel investor, and Internet marketing nerd. He is currently an advisor or investor for Mint Software, Spock Networks, Mashery, Simply Hired, HealthUnity, and Canopy Financial. Dave is also a board member for microfinance accelerator Unitus, and advisor to non-profit Kiva.org. From '05-‘06, Dave launched & ran marketing for SimplyHired.com. From '01-‘04, Dave worked at PayPal (acquired by eBay in 2002) as Director of Marketing, where he founded & ran the PayPal Developer Network. Prior to PayPal, Dave was a database consultant & programmer for several companies, including Microsoft and Intel. Dave graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Mathematical Sciences Engineering. For more info: http://500hats.typepad.com
