Our Team

What do we do?

PostRank is focused on the development of tools and information that make sense of social engagement data on the web. Founded in the spring of 2007, PostRank launched its first filtering and ranking service in July 2007 to tremendous market reception. The PostRank feed management service offers free, easy-to-use tools to enhance personal productivity for users, and provides audience engagement information for publishers.

Our company

Based in Waterloo, Canada, PostRank Inc. is a privately held company founded in early 2007 by Ilya Grigorik, Francis Lau, and Kevin Thomason to deal with daily information overload and our overflowing feed readers. Utilizing the latest cloud computing technologies and distributed algorithms we created the PostRank™ filtering process to better measure social engagement online. With a great mix of strong technical and creative talents, our team continues to innovate by developing new information management solutions.

As of July 2009, AideRSS, Inc. has officially become PostRank Inc. PostRank™ remains the name of our core technology as well, and we’re looking forward to growing and bringing a number of exciting new products to market!

Our team

Ilya Grigorik – CTO
E: ilya [at] postrank.com P: x220 Blog: igvita.com Twitter: @igrigorik Ilya’s friends got tired of him explaining the finer points of how he invented the hyperdrive and flux capacitor — after all, they were only in Kindergarten at the time. So off he went to do other things, and eventually get a B.Sc. in Computer Science from University of Waterloo. Then one day Ilya narrowly avoided certain death beneath an avalanche of unread RSS feeds. He knew that something must be done to protect future generations from the menace of information overload. And voila — PostRank was born. In his spare time, Ilya dreams of one day being able to travel again, armed with a backpack and a camera. In the mean time he spends his spare time catching up on podcasts and tinkering around the house with DIY projects like cupcake-icing robots and artificially intelligent picture frames.

Carol Leaman – CEO
E: carol [at] postrank.com P: x221 Twitter: @carolleamanIt’s rumoured that Carol has overthrown hostile governments and climbed Everest single-handedly, but she doesn’t like to talk about it. She has worked in the management consulting, virtual reality, and software industries, but identifying great opportunities and helping companies achieve their potential is where she really works her magic. (We like to think we fit both categories.) Despite having a Masters in Accounting, Carol is no mere bean counter. Whether it’s building up new companies or helping turn around those experiencing struggles, Carol’s unique blend of strategic skills and hands-on operations management is pure alchemy.

Jim Murphy – VP Development
E: jim [at] postrank.com P: x223 Blog: wattf.com Twitter: @jimmurphyWhat’s new? Jim knows. And he can build it for you, too. New markets and early stage companies are Jim’s specialty. (Whew, good thing he’s on our side…) Jim has led, strategized, architected, and developed both from inside corporate walls and as a consultant. His experience spans the petrochemical, finance, and software industries, and Jim thinks there may just be something to this whole internet thing. When not turning acronyms into software, Jim can be found tearin’ up the road on his hog, rediscovering what Waterloo Region’s been up to in the last decade or so.

Cheri Doherty – Director of Operations
E: cheri [at] postrank.com P: x229 Twitter: @cddoherty Cheri has been known to leap tall buildings in a single bound, just because she can. More often, though, she uses her superpowers to keep people and operations running like a well-oiled machine. Prior to joining PostRank, Cheri’s tactical-fu kept TD Bank, Bell Canada, and Quarry Integrated Communications ship shape. Outside of the office, Cheri occasionally applies her research tenacity to hunting down fabulous shoes, and she can often be found out on the links using her laser-like focus to lower her handicap.

Andrew Baldwin – Developer
E: andrew [at] postrank.com Twitter: @thebaldwinAndrew’s story begins on a dark and stormy day in 1982, when a doctor handed him a keyboard and away he went. After spending some time in Silicon Valley, Andrew realized how much he enjoyed the joys of four seasons, and an opportunity to redefine RSS – nowadays he spends his time plumbing the depths of virtual intertubes of Amazon’s AWS services to make PostRank tick. Andrew is an intrepid adventurer and someday he dreams of travelling as far east as Toronto.

Dan Sinclair – Developer
E: dan [at] postrank.com Blog: everburning.com Twitter: @dj2sinclDan emerged from the ocean some 2 million years ago, covered in primordial ooze. After developing opposable thumbs, he started poking around at anything and everything these new-fangled computers had to offer. Dan holds a bachelors of Mathematics in Honours Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. He has spent the last 5 years in Toronto building, speeding up and breaking things while longing for Campus Pizza. He works on Ruby, Java and various other technologies with a bent on breaking things. Dan feels most at home in his natural habitat, coding in a room lined with books, video games and Grateful Dead albums.

Michael Amygdalidis – Developer
E: michael [at] postrank.com Blog: maplealmond.blogspot.com Twitter: @maplealmondMichael started his programming career when his dad asked him for some help with printing envelopes and he wrote an application to handle the company’s financial records. Since then he’s walked a path precipitously close to the dark side of large enterprise, almost turning into a glassy-eyed automaton, drinking the Kool-Aid while droning on about “synergy between core competencies” and “value-added turnkey solutions”. Fortunately, Ruby’s shining light reactivated his latent love of making awesome things that matter, and he’s been writing Ruby ever since. When not coding, he runs pen and paper RPGs, tries to improve his game at the company foosball table, and spends 20 minutes a day repeating the spelling of his last name to outsourced customer service agents.

Ryan Caught – Developer
E: ryan [at] postrank.com
Ryan wandered in off the street one day, and by the time we noticed, he’d already set up a workstation and checked in some code. It seemed to work pretty well, so we decided to let him stay. Like Michael, Ryan comes to PostRank from the consulting world, so he brings an invigorating combination of “ideas” and “free will” to the table. (We’re keeping a close eye on that…) While he has worked in any number of languages, Ryan’s our Python guru, which would be way cooler if he was a herpetologist. (I am strenuously avoiding making a Crocodile Hunter joke here.) Originally from Australia, like many of his countrypersons, Ryan enjoys complaining about Canadian weather and the quirks of retail (seriously, mention our sales tax to an Australian – good times). In his spare time he is passionate about ultimate frisbee and doling out smackdowns to people who reference shrimps on barbies. You have been warned.

James Stewart – UX/UI Designer
E: james [at] postrank.com Twitter: @majormustardJames is such a good designer that his picture doesn’t even need colour. No newb to the startup space, James’ working background includes both the corporate and agency sides of design work. He also has mad foosball skillz. Educated in Toronto, James is a native of this area, and came back to embark on his career (he also likes it here). While his personal interests mostly include design… and more design, James is also a fan of classic cars and unique aircraft, though fortunately for us his lack of independent wealth means he has to work for us rather than jetsetting about, at least for now. Apparently, Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun is also based on James, but then again he did admit he might lie on his Get To Know You questionnaire…

Jeff Weber – UX/UI Designer E: jeff [at] postrank.com
When James’ non-stop complaining about being chained to his desk 24/7 got too annoying, We decided it was probably time to find him a some help, a Watson to his Holmes, so to speak. The result was Jeff, who is far hotter than Jude law any day. Jeff comes to us from several years in the agency world, so we hope he finds it soothing to just have one client. We promise not to have too much “vision”. Like any typical designer, Jeff’s chief hobby is more design, however, that extends off the browser page into home renovations and creating Escher reproductions whilst shovelling snow on his driveway, too. He claims levitation skills, but we have yet to see evidence of them… Perhaps once his foozball game improves. In his spare time he also pursues an interest in bikes (like fixed gear or X-Country, not Harleys) and heavy metal music, though we have not yet carried out our threats to sculpt his flowing locks into an epic mullet.

Stephen Weber – Developer
E: stephen [at] postrank.com Blog: singpolyma.net Twitter: @singpolymaStephen is a self-trained JavaScript ninja trained in the arts of XUL, DOM-manipulation, and many other secret trades. A co-op student from the University of Waterloo, Stephen brings years of web-development experience – he has been an instigator behind dozens of API’s, plugins, and extensions on Ning, Blogger, WordPress, and other platforms. When not trying to validate his latest contraption at W3C feed validator, Stephen likes to explore what small companies and projects can do with the newest technologies cropping up on the web.

Joey Robert – Developer
E: joey [at] postrank.com Blog: joeyrobert.org Twitter: @joeyrobertIt’s a brand spankin’ new co-op! Expanding the range of esoteric conversations we can have around here, Joey’s an Honours Physics student at U of W, and don’t let the fancy French pronunciation of his surname fool you — he’s regular folks like us. Tech-wise, he claims to be a fan of Ruby, C#, computer chess, emulators and web development. We don’t know who he’s emulating. Since he’s redheaded, we really hope it’s not Carrot Top. *shudder* He’s a big hacky sack fan (though we find his “foot poet” description a bit creepy), and claims to suck at charades. Fortunately we don’t truck with that kinda mime action around here… There are also rumours about Vegas, but hey, what happens there, stays there… unless it ends up on Facebook.

Melanie Baker – Community Manager
E: melanie [at] postrank.com P: x224 Blog: melle.ca Twitter: @melleMelle is the Technology Triangle’s longest-serving community manager… as far as she knows. (That mostly just means that sometimes people buy her coffee to get her to tell them how to hire one.) Her parents still don’t really understand what she does for a living. After starting her career at a startup, during the dot-com no less, Melle spent a few ill-fitting years in the insurance industry before returning to the tech fold. Those jobs did make for some good stories, though, and were actually more professionally useful than theatre school. She is also co-founder of Communitech’s Community Management Peer 2 Peer Group, and in her spare time reads a lot, writes a little, makes sockmonkeys, and bakes things. She rules the dev pit with an iron fist and a delicious apple crisp, and is a dead shot with a Nerf gun. She finds it a bit weird when people other than her Mom call her Melanie.

PostRank Bear – Mascot
E: bear [at] postrank.com Blog: blog.postrank.com Twitter: @postrankThe PostRank Bear (BooBoo to his friends), ended up at the company by accident. He was in the process of learning French, and thought the original company name was AideOurs. An honest mistake. Now that he’s here, though, he’s having a great time, keeping the feed filters clear of dead links and restocking the beverage fridge. In his free time, BooBoo enjoys bubble baths, moonlit walks on the beach, string cheese, and UFC.

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