Artistic Wall

You want talent and experience.

We let the numbers speak for themselves.

Lab Zero Logo Sketch Lz logo sketch

Values that drive us.

People who come to work at Lab Zero tend to stay at Lab Zero because we believe in the power of great digital products and in the power of an intelligent approach to building them.

Collaboration
We trust and respect each other to work together.
Results
We focus on outcomes based on evidence from the real world.
Transparency
We share ideas as well as data, and acknowledge the truth even when it’s hard.
Experience
We show the way, and we’re always raising standards.
Service
We commit to make things that benefit people.
Purple Post It Develop Design Product Triangle

Team

  • Chris Greacen

    CEO

    Chris enjoys solving problems.

    Prior to coming to Lab Zero, Chris was Director of Engineering at Betawave (formerly GoFish Corporation), Chris steered the technology strategy supporting ad targeting, content syndication, and partner integration. Before joining GoFish, he defined and led the quality program for Donnerwood Media's launch of Meez.com, a 3D avatar site that scaled to handle over a million members within 1 year. Prior to Donnerwood, Chris was the Sr. QA Manager at Kodak Gallery, where he hired, trained, and managed onsite and offshore QA teams responsible for Kodakgallery's services in US, EU, and China. Chris earned his degree from Boston University.

  • Dean Baker

    Head of Design

    Dean enjoys bringing together talented engineers, product strategists, writers and designers to create delightful experiences. He currently focuses on design thinking and strategy.

    Prior to Lab Zero, Dean's work included leading development for DNA Ancestry, managing front-end development for Kodakgallery's mobile and premium services in the US and EU, and designing and developing enterprise apps for BroadVision. Dean earned his degree from UC Santa Barbara.

  • Matt Wilson

    CTO

    Matt is an enthused agile developer, architect, and consultant. He enjoys building elegant web services in Ruby. He believes that high-fives are underrated and measures the success of his day by how many he's seen.

    Prior to joining Lab Zero, Matt's work history includes: Co-founder/Architect at Earfl.com, Architect at Kodak Gallery, Developer at Westwave Communications, Engineer at Motorola, and Developer at Coldwell Banker.

  • Kate Bennet

    Director of Product

    Kate is a product leader who enjoys bringing teams together to solve complex problems and ship user-focused software.

    She has developed products across industries and platforms, from governments to startups and web to mobile. She previously led growth and retention projects at Imgur, headed up Product at Mindjet and managed innovation in the UK government. She enjoys speaking at Product meetups and mentors aspiring PMs.

    Outside of Lab Zero you can find Kate paddle boarding in the bay, providing kayak support for San Francisco’s Dolphin Club swimmers, hiking and tinkering.

  • Ned Holets

    Director of Engineering

    Ned has a passion for development be it web, iOS, kiosk or microcontroller. When he's not at the pier, he enjoys backcountry backpacking, making blinking things and fly fishing.

    Prior to joining Lab Zero, Ned was a published chemist, led development for Wondermill Webworks and worked at a custom crush winery. He holds a degree in Chemistry from Reed College.

  • Brien Wankel

    Principal Engineer

    Brien is a seasoned software architect with a passion for elegant code. He has over 15 years of internet-related software development experience. Prior to joining Lab Zero he has most notably been a Platform Web Services Architect at Outspark, Inc, a platform engineer at Yahoo, and Co-Founder of Sureshot Hosting.

    A transplant to Arizona, Brien calls Tucson home along with his wife and their two sons. When not writing code, he is an amateur athlete, a part-time printer, an aspiring mechanic, and a lover of music. He is confident that the next wave is the one that will finally gain him a coveted spot on the unofficial Lab Zero surf team.

  • Shiun Hwang

    Software Engineer

    Shiun has over 12 years of software development experience.  His current passion is iOS development and mobile development in general. He is a strong advocate for balance between design and function. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and experiencing new cultures, learning to cook newly discovered recipes, and being a weekend warrior playing softball.

    Prior to joining Lab Zero, he worked at Spirent Communications as a Protocol Engineer developing web traffic generators for testing appliances. He also worked at Blue Coat Systems as a Proxy Engineer. He has multiple applications published in the Apple App Store. He also has a Bachelors and Master of Science Degree from UCLA. 

  • Tracey Thompson

    Director of Design

    Design leadership affords Tracey an opportunity to focus on the things she’s passionate about with design: solving problems, visualizing systems, and helping others get what they need to achieve their goals. She uses her skills in service design, user experience, and design operations to help design organizations and cross-functional teams perform and scale. She sees design’s role as improving experiences not only for our clients and their customers but for our product and engineering teammates as well.

    Tracey values partnership and collaboration. In her 20+ years of experience designing for fintech, health, education, technology, and infrastructure spaces, she’s found the best design work is informed by the needs of our customers, industry best practices, and the expertise of our stakeholders and cross-functional partners. Prior to joining Lab Zero, Tracey worked for IDEO, McGraw-Hill, and as an independent design consultant for companies ranging from startup to enterprise scale.

  • Jim Ochsenreiter

    Senior Product Designer

    Throughout his career, Jim has witnessed the transformative power good design has on small and large organizations, individuals and cultures. While technology and trends continue to evolve, the classic elements of type, form, color, image, and the written word have combined with his curiosity about history and culture for a constant source of inspiration and growth.

    Jim's experience includes brand identity, corporate communications, strategic marketing, web, mobile and UI design, large scale business and publishing systems, print management and production.

  • Michael Jelks

    Software Engineer

    Michael is a software engineer with over 10 years of experience in full-stack web development. Prior to Lab Zero, Michael has been involved in the direct development at multiple startup environments, where he was responsible for planning, implementation, and operations management.

    In his spare time, Michael enjoys photography and is an avid cyclist. You can typically find him doing both somewhere in the hills along the peninsula.

  • Nicole Scherm

    Software Engineer

    Nicole is a software engineer with a focus on front-end web development. They have a passion for making information meaningful and relatable, developed while earning an undergraduate degree focused on cognitive neuroscience. As a generalist, Nicole enjoys jumping into projects where they can pick up new skills. Prior to working at Lab Zero, Nicole designed and developed websites and web apps as a freelancer, and previously built and maintained an internationalized web app at Samsung.

    Outside of work, Nicole can often be found dancing, making stuff (everything from art to clothes to food), doing circus things, and volunteering in the local community. Nicole tried surfing years ago and is admittedly not very good at it.

  • Abe Barakat

    Financial Analyst

    Abe is a Financial Analyst and Senior Manager of Operations with over 15 years of experience in small to medium sized companies.

  • Nyka Kwon

    Office Ops Manager

    From the land of camel milk, baobab honey, and non-profit international development, Nyka has found a soft landing in the Bay Area and Lab Zero as she explores how high tech clouds can complement low connectivity desert sands to solve solutions towards employment innovation, youth empowerment, and sustainability for the Sahel region. She puts her detail-oriented DNA to use to manage smooth operations for Lab Zero, championing rockstardom for team members' success.

    And, if the cradle of modern music as we know it interests you, Nyka can connect you to some of the most bad-arse musicians who luckily pass through the Bay Area.

  • Travis Gaff

    Software Engineer

    Travis is a full-stack software engineer with experience from the hardware level on up to the front-end.  He is an advocate for unit and integration testing throughout software systems and believes that automated testing is a cornerstone of building long-lasting, maintainable applications.

    When not working on software Travis mixes travel and the great outdoors, through activities such as camping, hiking, scuba, snowboarding, and landscape photography.  While Travis has attempted surfing, he doesn't feel he's ever quite gotten the hang of it.

  • Annah Amici

    Product Designer

    Annah is a digital designer who loves the equally important challenges of creating logical information structures and beautiful front-end designs. After 5 years in Hong Kong working with clients like Cathay Pacific, thyssenkrupp, and smaller ethical start-ups, she’s since returned to the US to see what this ‘tech scene’ in San Francisco is all about.

    When not out scouring the Bay Area for good Hong Kong restaurants, Annah can be found doing some illustration, playing (or occasionally working on her own) indie games, or spending time with her world-traveling rabbits Mochi and Joey.