The shopping
knowledge network

CEO

Michael Quoc is the founder and CEO of Demand.io. A seasoned technology executive and entrepreneur, Michael has spent his career at the forefront of innovation in e-commerce, social media, and artificial intelligence.

Prior to founding Demand.io, Michael served as Head of Product Innovation at Yahoo, where he spearheaded the development of pioneering social platforms like Yahoo Live, one of the first live streaming social networks, and Yahoo Mixd, an early mobile-first social app. Many of the innovations and designs Michael led during his Yahoo tenure were granted patents by the USPTO. Previously, Michael held product leadership roles at venture-backed startup Desktop.com and at Pequot Ventures, as well as investment banking firm Jefferies. Michael’s unique blend of product development, entrepreneurial, and strategic advisory skills empowers him to lead Demand.io in its mission to revolutionize e-commerce through AI and community-driven principles.

Michael frequently authors thought leadership articles on artificial intelligence, decentralized commerce, and the creator economy. Michael studied Computer Science and Business Administration at UC Berkeley, earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the Haas School of Business.

Head of AI Engineering

Jason Toy is our Head of AI Engineering and Partner at Demand.io. Jason leads the development and deployment of our large language models, generative AI systems, and machine learning pipelines that power our network of consumer sites and apps.

A hands-on engineering leader and entrepreneur, Jason has built high performance engineering teams and built and scaled machine learning, LLM, and data systems for high-volume production environments. As VP of Engineering for CrewSnap, an AI-enabled recruiting software provider, Jason built and led the engineering team and developed an LLM-based resume parsing engine, scaling it to CrewSnap’s demanding production requirements. As CTO and CPO at CloudApp, a leading collaborative video messaging tool, Jason led a team of 40+ engineers and product managers, leading the product through several critical improvement cycles, driving over 250% revenue growth. Jason also served as Head of Engineering at Somatic Labs, an ambitious startup developing a haptic AI-powered wearable for visually impaired individuals, where he implemented generative AI technologies and built and optimized the company’s MLOps infrastructure.

Earlier in his career, Jason also served as CEO for FilePicker, a YCombinator and a16z backed company and leading file upload management platform. Jason also co-founded and served as CTO of SocMetrics, a Google Ventures backed company creating a data analytics platform for evaluating social media influencers.

Jason regularly publishes ML research work, with recent papers published on large language models (LLMs), simulations, and grounded language learning. Jason is experienced across a wide range of programming languages including Python, Ruby, Clojure, TypeScript and has deep expertise in PyTorch, TensorFlow, LLMs, and generative AI.

Jason holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science with a focus on machine learning from Northeastern University.

Chief Architect

Brian Stanback is the Chief Architect and technical co-founder at Demand.io, leading architecture design and development across apps, platforms, and AI systems. With over 20 years of experience, Brian's expertise spans software architecture, cloud infrastructure, data engineering, and machine learning.

Brian previously served as Lead Software Engineer at Mosaic Labs, architecting the flagship SaaS product, inventing a calculation builder for visually constructing complex formulas that enabled enterprises to track and disclose greenhouse gas emissions across thousands of facilities. At Renewable Choice Energy, Brian built the company's first automated proposal generation and deal execution tools integrated with Salesforce CRM. Brian Co-Founded SkyPhoto, serving as Vice President and Technical Director, spearheading the development of the company's core drone technology and aerial imaging client portal. Brian worked as a Senior Software Engineer at Bracket Labs, designing and developing their first SaaS product as a founding member. In previous roles, Brian served as a Software Engineer at CollabPad and as Director of Technical Engineering at Flare Networks.

A true full-stack polymath, Brian's arsenal spans web development frameworks like Vue.js/Nuxt, NestJS, and React, complimented by proficiency in MySQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, BigQuery, Redis, and Kafka. Brian has deep experience deploying complex systems on both GCP and AWS, leveraging Kubernetes and Docker, integrating CI/CD pipelines, and implementing robust test automation practices. Brian is frequently hands-on building and training machine learning models, working with TensorFlow, PyTorch, XGBoost, Python, SciPy, NumPy, and HuggingFace. Brian has actively contributed to multiple open-source projects, ranging from Nginx to CMS and blockchain technologies.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Colorado State University.

Director of Affiliate & Content Operations

Jimmy Doheny is a Demand.io Partner and serves as Director of Affiliate & Content Operations. Jimmy leads our affiliate partnerships, revenue optimization strategies, and core operations technology. He has played a pivotal role in architecting, scaling, and operating our proprietary affiliate ad management system Nexus, which connects Demand.io's network of sites with over 60,000 retail partners. Under Jimmy's leadership, Nexus has evolved to process millions of real-time optimization decisions, ensuring efficient click monetization.

Prior to Demand.io, Jimmy served as Business Development Manager at Connexity (formerly PriceGrabber), where he drove the adoption of new social influencer tools and formed strategic partnerships with companies like AOL, PMC, and IAC. Previously, Jimmy was a top-performing Business Development Associate at PriceGrabber, exceeding quota to drive over $3 million in new business revenue. Jimmy also founded Computer Placement Project to provide free computers to underprivileged organizations and families in Los Angeles and served as a coding mentor for CoderDojo in Koreatown.

Jimmy holds a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Economics and English-Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Senior AI Engineer

Dylan Ler is a Demand.io Partner and Senior AI Engineer II, where he leads the development and deployment of state-of-the-art large language models (LLMs) and AI systems to power Demand.io's e-commerce platforms.

Dylan brings extensive expertise in natural language processing, deep learning, and data engineering from his previous role as a Senior Data Scientist and AI Engineer at WebMD. There, he spearheaded initiatives to build chatbots, content recommendation engines, and ad optimization systems leveraging new AI techniques. Prior to WebMD, Dylan served as a data science mentor at Udacity, guiding students in deep learning and computer vision. He also worked on AI projects at the UCLA Wireless Health Institute and IEEE, including developing a mobile health app and AI gesture-based sign language devices. Dylan's technical skills span machine learning frameworks including TensorFlow and PyTorch, NLP libraries like BERT and NLTK, big data tools such as Hadoop, and cloud platforms including AWS.

Dylan holds a Master's in Computer Science with specialization in Machine Learning from Georgia Tech, a Master's in Computer Science focused on Technology Management from William Jessup University, and a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from UCLA.

Director of Web Products

Harrison DeSantis is a Demand.io Partner and Director of Web Products. Harrison leads product management for web surfaces across all Demand.io properties, overseeing user experience, technical SEO, SEO strategy, and cross-functional execution.

Harrison brings over 9 years of experience in SEO and 3 years in product leadership roles. Prior to joining Demand.io, Harrison served as Director of Product at TrueCar (NASDAQ: TRUE), where he led the product team responsible for TrueCar's consumer financing products. In this role, Harrison conducted user research to identify key friction points, resulting in product enhancements that improved financing satisfaction by 10%. Previously, Harrison served as SEO Director at TrueCar, growing organic traffic to research pages by 500k UVs/month through content optimizations and technical SEO initiatives that improved site speed and crawlability. Earlier in his career, Harrison was SEO Director at 3Q Digital, a global performance marketing agency, where he oversaw SEO strategy for a portfolio of 12-15 enterprise clients and launched the company's App Store Optimization offering. An experienced people manager, Harrison has hired and mentored SEO and product management talent.

Harrison holds a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO).

Senior AI Editor and Content Strategist

Laira Martin is a Senior AI Editor and Content Strategist at Demand.io. Laira spearheads AI-driven content strategies and editorial initiatives across the company's digital platforms, leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies to optimize content performance and user engagement.

Laira brings over 11 years of experience in digital marketing, e-commerce, and content management. Prior to joining Demand.io, Laira served as Head of SEO & Content at VEGAMOUR, where she played a pivotal role in the beauty startup's growth and launched the brand's premier SEO and content strategy. Previously, Laira held key positions at Seek Business Capital and ConsumerTrack/GOBankingRates, where she consistently drove significant traffic growth and revenue through innovative SEO and content strategies. Her work has been featured in prominent publications such as Forbes, TIME, Entrepreneur, and Yahoo Finance.

Laira's expertise spans technical SEO, content production, affiliate marketing, and team management. She excels at developing comprehensive content strategies that align with business objectives and drive measurable results.

Laira holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication with minors in Literature/Writing and Art History from the University of California, San Diego.

Staff Software Engineer

Isaac Sornborger is a Demand.io Partner and Staff Software Engineer. Isaac currently leads software engineering for Demand.io's core data platform, ShopGraph, spearheading the architecture design and implementation of our custom large language models (LLMs) and AI data pipelines.

Isaac brings extensive experience in software development for complex engineering applications. Prior to joining Demand.io, Isaac served as a Principal Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman, where he led the development of modeling, analysis, and design tools for aerospace engineering. In this role, Isaac owned and delivered critical tool suites for engineers, ensuring near 100% uptime for thousands of users across multiple environments. Previously, as a Software Development Analyst at Northrop Grumman, Isaac developed CAD features, in-house tools, and collaborated on research projects focused on efficient 3D model skinning while maintaining analysis tolerances.

Isaac holds a Master of Science in Computer Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, both from Santa Clara University.

Senior Social Media Manager and Content Creator

Hannah Dron is a Senior Social Media Manager and Content Creator at Demand.io. Hannah leads organic social content strategy, driving brand visibility and user engagement for the company's portfolio of products.

Hannah brings over a decade of experience in social media management, brand marketing, and event production. Prior to joining Demand.io, Hannah was Senior Social Manager at Picsart, where she spearheaded initiatives that significantly expanded the company's social media presence. Previously, Hannah served as Senior Social Media Manager and Events Producer at Later Media, and a Social Media Manager at PicMonkey.

Earlier in her career, Hannah worked as a Social Media Manager in various international locations, including Miami, London, Vietnam, Dubai, and Australia. During this time, she executed global social media strategies for multiple brands and spearheaded impactful campaigns.

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Information Systems from the University of Deakin in Australia and a Diploma in Social Media Marketing from ALISON in Ireland.

Senior Product Manager

Sinthuja Bates is a Senior Product Manager at Demand.io. Sinthuja provides product leadership from running iterative product innovation and development process, shipping features and new products, and aligning resources towards our business goals.

Sinthuja brings a unique blend of technical acumen and product leadership experience. Prior to joining Demand.io, Sinthuja was a Senior Technical Product Manager at Sana Benefits, where she spearheaded the implementation of advanced AI and machine learning models to improve the company's health insurance offerings. Sinthuja also served as Lead Product Manager at PopSQL, an enterprise SaaS startup, and was the Founder and CEO of Tilt Access, an edtech SaaS startup building a college recommendation tool that organically attracted over 10,000 users. Earlier in her career, Sinthuja held product and data engineering roles at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where she designed data analytics tools used by hundreds of school leaders nationwide to track student performance.

Sinthuja holds an MS in Artificial Intelligence from the University of San Diego, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and a BA in Business Economics and Political Science from UCLA, where she graduated magna cum laude. Her technical expertise spans machine learning, natural language processing, data engineering and advanced AI/ML frameworks and tools.

Senior Visual Designer

David Guzman is a Demand.io Partner and Senior Visual Designer. David leads visual design, art direction, and branding design for the company and its properties.

David brings over 10 years of experience in graphic design, art direction, and social content design, working for global clientele including Google, Apple, Amazon, Disney, Netflix, and Walmart. Prior to joining Demand.io, David was a Graphic Designer at NVE Experience Agency where he produced visual content such as social media posts, presentation decks, logos, brand guidelines and website wireframes. Previously, David also served as a Designer & Art Director at the Omelet design agency in Los Angeles for 4 years.

David studied Graphic Information Technology at Arizona State University and Graphic Design at Santa Fe Community College.

Senior Taxonomist & Information Architect

Kelli Schall is a Senior Taxonomist & Information Architect and a Partner at Demand.io. Kelli currently leads information design for ShopGraph, our e-commerce ontology.

Kelli brings over 10 years of experience in taxonomy, research, information science, and medical coding. Prior to joining Demand.io, Kelli served as Senior Taxonomy Analyst at System1 where she collaborated with SEM, SEO, Mapquest, Answers.com, and publishing teams to develop taxonomies supporting their business lines for a $1 billion+ performance search company. Kelli excels at developing taxonomies and ontologies tailored to end user needs. Previously, Kelli held roles as a Library Associate at USC, Reference Library Intern at Los Angeles City College, and as a Senior Medical Coder at Regal Medical Group and Heritage Victor Valley Medical Group.

Kelli holds a Master's in Library & Information Science from San Jose State University and dual Bachelor's degrees in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Feminist Studies from UC Santa Cruz.

Senior SEO Manager

Daniel Pak is a Senior SEO Manager at Demand.io, where he leads the company's global SEO efforts and drives organic growth across its portfolio of e-commerce properties.

Daniel brings over 14 years of experience as an accomplished SEO strategist and digital marketer. Prior to joining Demand.io, Daniel served as the Global SEO Manager at Xe.com (Euronet Worldwide), where he built a global SEO program, developed content strategies for international money transfer segments and spearheaded initiatives that grew traffic and significantly improved first-page ranking visibility.

Previously, Daniel was the Director of SEO at 85Sixty, where he managed high-profile clients such as AMResorts, Alterra Mountain Company, and Amer Sports. He led technical SEO efforts, achieved substantial increases in organic traffic and sales conversions, and coordinated the launch of multiple e-commerce sites on platforms like Shopify, Magento, and WordPress.

Earlier in his career, Daniel held digital leadership roles at MediaCom and GroupM in Seoul, South Korea. Daniel's expertise spans SEO, SEM, content strategy, and social media marketing.

Daniel holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Washington with a dual focus in Management Information Systems and Management. Outside of work, he actively volunteers his digital marketing expertise to various startups and organizations, demonstrating his passion for leveraging his skills to drive growth and success in diverse industries.

User Insights Data Analyst

Cansu Kaya is a User Insights Data Analyst and a Demand.io Partner. Cansu leads data analytics initiatives to uncover actionable user behavior insights that drive strategic business decisions and enhance user experiences across our product portfolio. Bringing over 7 years of experience as an analytics leader, Cansu employs advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and data visualization to inform product development and marketing strategies that deliver measurable results.

Prior to joining Demand.io, Cansu served as Business and Data Analytics Manager at Yummly, where she spearheaded initiatives that increased subscription revenues by 10% and monthly active users by 15% through data-driven enhancements targeting user engagement and retention. Cansu also held impactful analytics leadership roles at Merkle, Hero Digital, Kariyer.net, and N11.com, where as the 10th employee, she played a pivotal role in developing their e-commerce marketplace from the ground up.

Cansu's passion lies in leveraging complex data to tell compelling stories that inform business strategy and optimize the user experience. She is skilled in SQL, Python, data modeling, machine learning, and data visualization tools like Tableau and Looker. Cansu holds a BS in Management Engineering and an MS in Energy Science & Technology from Istanbul Technical University.

Senior Full Stack Engineer

Cutler Simpson is a Senior Full Stack Engineer at Demand.io. Cutler architects and builds strategic software systems, closely collaborating with our AI engineering teams to develop emerging AI-centric products incorporating large language models, conversational interfaces, and complex data systems.

Cutler brings over 7 years of experience as a senior software engineer from Caribou Biosciences, Google, Goldman Sachs and Everee. Prior to joining Demand.io, Cutler served as Senior Scientific Programmer at Caribou Biosciences, where he developed full-stack applications to enable seamless data querying and updates, and architected cloud infrastructure solutions to optimize performance and cost efficiency. Previously, Cutler was a Software Engineer at Everee, where he developed bidirectional APIs and UX for payroll and benefits data synchronization. Cutler also held engineering roles at Google and Goldman Sachs, where he owned critical applications driving multi-million dollar revenue streams and led global engineering teams.

Cutler holds a Master's in Systems Medicine from Georgetown University, where his research earned the "Best Research Poster" award, and a Bachelor's in Biomedical Engineering with minors in Business Administration and Computer Science from the University of Iowa.

Marketing Specialist, Product

Jessica Ho is a Demand.io Partner and Marketing Specialist, Product. Jessica supports brand and digital marketing, as well as retention marketing across the Demand.io network.

Jessica brings experience as a content marketer and copywriter, previously serving as Content Marketing Associate at Crexi where she ideated, audited, and produced blogs, email newsletters, case studies and other content to drive brand awareness, customer acquisition and B2B customer relations. She also managed production operations for podcasts, case studies, and other media. Prior to Crexi, Jessica was a freelance writer for agencies Wicked+ and Digital Revenue Media, composing thought leadership articles, lifestyle content, and website copy for corporate clients. She also served as a copywriter at Evercast software company, producing social content, ad copy and industry forecast articles to engage their creative industry audience.

Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication with a minor in Cinematic Arts from the University of Southern California, where she graduated summa cum laude. She brings strong skills in content marketing, copywriting, and production planning to the Demand.io marketing team.

AI Content Strategist

Sean Fisher is an AI Content Strategist at Demand.io, where he leverages cutting-edge AI technologies to develop and implement innovative content creation across the company's products.

Sean brings over three years of experience in fast-paced digital media environments. Prior to joining Demand.io, Sean served as a Junior AI Editor at GoBankingRates, where he played a pivotal role in launching and developing the company's AI-driven content initiatives. His AI-generated articles reached over five million readers, demonstrating his ability to blend technology with engaging, informative content.

At GoBankingRates, Sean honed his skills in SEO optimization, data analytics, and headline creation, consistently producing content that generated significant online engagement. His expertise in current news trends, particularly in economics and finance, allowed him to create timely and relevant content that resonated with audiences.

Sean's background also includes a tenure as a Medical Editor/Proofreader at WebMD, where he refined his ability to communicate complex information clearly and accurately.