Team

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

Daryn Nakhuda | Chief Technology Officer

Daryn manages the team of technical geniuses building the TeachStreet experience.

Daryn has been involved in the development and operations of highly-trafficked and highly-visible internet companies since the web 1.0 days. Prior to TeachStreet, Daryn was the CTO and lead developer of Spam Arrest, and the CTO and Co-Founder of video messaging startup, Eyejot. Daryn graduated from the University of Washington, where he received a BA in Communications.

Daryn's passion for cooking is trumpted only by his passion for eating, and he has a homemade leg of prosciutto hanging in his basement.

For more about Daryn, check out his personal blog: http://blog.daryn.net or his LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/darynnakhuda.

Natala Menezes | Director, Product Management

Natala manages the Product, UX and Marketing team and often spends her time creating her famous timeline "tubes" and updating gorgeous powerpoint strategy decks. She also has a tendency to come up with crazy new ideas which keep our engineers happily up to their eyeballs in work.

Prior to TeachStreet, Natala spent many years deep in the online advertising and search space. Most recently at Microsoft where, as a Lead Product Manager, she helped launch and develop their self-service search advertising and contextual ad platform, adCenter. Natala was previously at Google, in their Web Search & Syndication business development group, where she managed key strategic partnerships.

Natala splits her time between the foggy airports of San Francisco and Seattle. In her spare time, she's learning how to do faster triathlons and grow vegetables more complex than radishes.

For more about Natala, check out her LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/natala

Greg | User Experience Wookiee

Greg makes things usable, useful and pretty. You might call that a designer. But most of all, he emits the character defining Chewbacca growl.

Have no fear; he's a friendly creature that enjoys a cup of tea a little too often.

Harold | Data King

As the data-focused member of the Community Development team, Harold is responsible for ensuring all the teacher and school info on TeachStreet is spick and span and up to snuff. Harold enjoys spending the several sunny days in Seattle on the barbecue and plans to take some cooking classes on TeachStreet to one day become the next Iron Chef Seattle!

Jenn | Frequent Question Answerer

Jenn helps coordinate TeachStreet's bountiful contests, pitching prizes out left and right and she is responsible for office plant survival. Most importantly, though, she is your go-to gal for TeachStreet support. Most of those pressing questions, constructive criticisms, and high praises are fielded by Jenn. Outside of the TeachStreet office she gets her kicks cooking a delectable meal, reading novels and the newspaper, enjoying live music or a movie and has very recently fallen in love with sailing.

Joseph | Community Developer and Problem Solver

Joseph is the dude who works like mad to connect everyone in the TeachStreet community, teachers and students alike. Born and raised in Seattle, he's an avid sports fan (we're quite jealous of his Seahawks season tickets), aspiring comic strip artist, and a jazz aficionado. Currently, Joseph's trying to perfect his softball swing and also follow in Scott's footsteps by crafting his own microbrew. Thankfully, he's not trying to do both concurrently.

Julie | Intern-dot-pptx

Julie has joined TeachStreet for Summer 2009, focusing on go-to-market planning, product management, and market analysis. Julie is currently pursuing her MBA at Harvard Business School. Prior to business school, Julie spent a number of years with Accenture as a business consultant. She holds dual Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology from Stanford University, and loves musical theatre, tennis, TV, food, travel, learning new languages, and teaching tricks to her awesome dog, Quigley.

Phil | Devious Debugger

Phil spends his time at TeachStreet building out the new and refactoring the old. When he's not at work tapping away the the keyboard, you are likely to find him finger-tapping on his fretboard. Phil is crazy about Scrum, weight lifting, beat-making, gaming, and many a television series.

Scott | Ruby on Rails Junkie

Scott is responsible for building the software backbone for TeachStreet and, like Phil, 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!)

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

Zach | Security Officer

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.

Cuba

TeachStreet's most cuddly and exuberant fan, is now looking down on us from that Great Dog Park in the Sky. While here with us, she spent her time frolicking among the many laps that loved to hold her and bringing her joyful spark to an otherwise quiet office. We love and miss you Cuba!

Kekrops | Field Research

Kekrops manages field research, and takes his job quite literally. On any given Sunday, Kekrops can be found actively testing the grasses of Seattle dog parks for 'runability', 'digability', and ball bounce dynamics.

Check him out in action here.

Quigley | Special Ops

Quigley is passionate about his role in Special Ops at TeachStreet, a role that demands a diverse and highly versatile skill-set. Quigley rises to the challenge, taking on duties ranging from reception to custodial services, reliably removing traces of food from every surface at TeachStreet World Headquarters.

Abbey Road | Puppy 3.0

Abbey Road is Natala's new "morkie" puppy. She is still in private-beta.