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.

VP of Marketing

Allison Mac is VP of Marketing at Demand.io. Allison leads marketing strategy and execution across the company's portfolio of consumer e-commerce products.

A seasoned marketing executive and brand builder, Allison brings over 15 years of experience ranging from early stage startups to publicly traded tech companies. Prior to joining Demand.io, Allison served as VP of Marketing at TrueCar (NASDAQ: TRUE) where she led brand marketing, B2B marketing, product marketing, and creative for the $250M auto e-commerce company. Previously, Allison was Head of Brand Marketing & Communications for GasBuddy, where she played an instrumental role in growing the app to over 100 million downloads through innovative brand campaigns, strategic partnerships, and creative PR initiatives. Earlier in her career, Allison was Director of Marketing & Growth at VC-backed social news startup Inside.com, and held communications roles at software companies iolo Technologies and Autobytel. Allison began her career as a broadcast news journalist and PR executive.

Allison holds a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science from Syracuse University.

Senior Director of Engineering

As Senior Director of Engineering at Demand.io, Chetan Kemkar leads our engineering, AI, and data science teams, driving the development of our core AI platform, LLM capabilities, and data infrastructure. Chetan brings over 13 years of experience as an engineering leader, data scientist, and AI researcher.

Prior to joining Demand.io, Chetan served as Director of Data & AI Platforms at Michael’s, the nation’s largest arts & crafts retailer, where he led a 60+ person organization spanning data engineering, data science, and analytics. In this role, Chetan spearheaded the development and execution of a forward-looking data and AI platform strategy aligned with business objectives. He provided visionary leadership to data engineering and architecture teams, guiding the design, implementation, and optimization of solutions on public cloud platforms including GCP, AWS and Azure. Previously, Chetan held engineering and AI leadership roles at GoDaddy, American Express, PetSmart, and CGI, where he built and optimized machine learning platforms and data ecosystems at scale.

Chetan previously worked as a Machine Learning Researcher at Google, developing machine learning and data mining tools for the Google Earth Engine team and analyzing terabytes of climate and weather data to uncover insights. Earlier, Chetan began his career as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at NASA, focusing on machine learning and geospatial analytics while working on the NASA Landsat 9 satellite program.

Chetan holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and dual Master's degrees in Space Science and Engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. He also holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Engineering from the College of Engineering in India.

Head of AI Engineering

Jason Toy is Head of AI Engineering 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.

Principal Software Engineer

Brian Stanback is a Principal Software Engineer 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 Engagement Marketing

Emily Green is Director of Engagement Marketing at Demand.io. Emily brings over 15 years of experience as a digital marketer, with an emphasis on B2B marketing, product marketing, and full lifecycle marketing. At Demand.io, Emily focuses on building engagement with our core communities and users, managing customer experience, and product marketing.

Previously, Emily served as Marketing Director at TrueCar, where she managed a $2M annual marketing budget across all B2B initiatives. She owned and executed lead generation strategy, growing the lead pipeline 50% YoY from 2022 to 2023 and driving over $2.5M in annualized revenue. Emily oversaw all content and advertising, including strategy, campaign development, budget, and calendar. She also strategized and oversaw product marketing, serving as a key stakeholder in go-to-market planning for B2B-facing products. Prior to TrueCar, Emily was Marketing Director at Cartrack USA, a leading telematics company. There she managed and executed all digital lead generation campaigns, supported the sales team with qualified leads and collateral, and developed training and support materials.

Earlier in her career, Emily held marketing roles at SyncOnSet Technologies, an Emmy Award-winning entertainment tech startup, where she created and led content and marketing strategies spanning email, web, social, and print. She also served as Product Owner for ShopOnSet, a collaborative online shopping platform. Emily began her career at Octagon, implementing nationwide sampling and promotion programs.

Emily earned her BA in Anthropology from Haverford College. She was recognized in AutoRemarketing's 40 Under 40: Industry, Class of 2022.

Director of Revenue Operations

Jimmy Doheny is a Demand.io Partner and serves as Director of Revenue 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 Product Designer

Brett Benner is a Demand.io Partner and Senior Product Designer. Brett currently leads strategic design projects across our portfolio.

Brett previously spearheaded Product Design at Byte, an innovative leader in the dental alignment space, serving users via mobile app. In his role at Byte, Brett led the design, build, and launch of the company’s flagship MyByte mobile app through rapid prototyping, user interviews, testing, and journeys. Brett’s work in shaping MyByte included designing and shipping a best-in-class mobile app camera, an interactive mobile education experience, a mobile celebration photo tool, and a custom dentist web app. Brett also founded Byte's user research, user testing, design demo, and feedback processes, as well as founding their Figma design system.

Prior to Byte, Brett served as Product Designer at Pacific Life, where he led the design of the company’s life insurance dashboard serving millions of customers. Brett also founded Pacific Life’s Figma design system and spearheaded the development of their overall design system. Previously, Brett served as Product Designer at CuraPatient, an AI-powered healthcare system enabling patient self-care. At CuraPatient, Brett led the design and launch of the company’s core SaaS platform leading to the company’s initial $10M funding. Brett also prototyped innovative AI-based patient care tools and mobile applications for physicians.

Brett holds a BS in Informatics from UC Irvine.

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 Director of Web Products at Demand.io. 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).

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 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.

Sr. Marketing Manager of Growth

Terry Choe is a Senior Growth Marketing Manager at Demand.io. Terry leads growth initiatives across paid media channels including paid search, paid social, ASO, and affiliate marketing to drive user acquisition, retention, and engagement across Demand.io's network of consumer shopping platforms.

Terry brings over 8 years of experience in digital marketing, product marketing, and creative design. Prior to joining Demand.io, Terry served as Senior Product Marketing and Digital Marketing Specialist at Rakuten Viki, a global OTT streaming service, where he led go-to-market strategies, digital marketing campaigns, ASO, and PR to drive growth of both subscription video on demand (SVOD) and ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) products. Previously, Terry worked at Fullscreen Media managing social media strategy and operations for major media clients including A+E Networks, National Geographic, and Amazon Video.

Terry holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He also completed the User Experience Design Immersive program at General Assembly.

Senior Taxonomist & Information Architect

Kelli Schall is a Senior Taxonomist & Information Architect 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.

Executive Administrative Partner

Christine Shon is an Executive Administrative Partner at Demand.io where she leads the company’s core administrative, HR, and recruitment operations.

Christine brings over 10 years of experience as a talent and people operations leader, joining us from Google where she served as a Recruiting Partner. At Google, Christine was a Talent Advisor and Business Partner to Hiring Managers, leading hiring strategy for 4 different product areas.

Prior to Google, Christine served as Manager of Talent & People Ops at Olaplex, where she optimized HR & Talent Acquisition processes for the pre-IPO startup. She created scalable practices including system implementation and standardized HR processes and procedures. Christine also served as an Executive Search Recruiter at Hulu, managing recruitment for Director-level and above positions.

Earlier in her career, Christine held recruiting and HR roles at Tri Star Sports & Entertainment and Robert Half. She started her career as an Accountant after receiving her BBA in Accounting from Georgia State University. Christine is SHRM-CP certified.

Growth Analyst

Zach Sidwell is a Demand.io Partner and serves as Growth Analyst. Zach works at the intersection of SEO, growth product management, data analysis, and AI prompt engineering to improve the SEO performance and usability of our websites and drive revenue growth across our e-commerce properties.

Zach brings a strong analytical background, having previously served as an Associate at private equity firm Kingfish Group where he created financial models and conducted due diligence to assess middle market investment opportunities. Prior to that, Zach was an Analyst at Valuation Research Corporation, performing comprehensive valuation analyses for institutional clients. Earlier in his career, Zach held marketing and business development roles at software startups FundView and Fund Accounting Solution Technologies.

Zach holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Texas Tech University and studied abroad at John Cabot University in Rome. He is skilled in financial modeling, data analysis, and tools like Excel, SQL, and Alteryx.

User Insights Data Analyst

Cansu Kaya is a User Insights Data Analyst at Demand.io. 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

Jessica Ho is a Demand.io Partner and Marketing Specialist. 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.