About

Before co-founding Polyvore, Pasha was a principal software engineer at Yahoo, where he built several products from scratch, including Yahoo Pipes and Yahoo Trip Planner. Pasha has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC San Diego.

Fun fact: Polyvore was one of Pasha's many ideas for a startup (the others included dirt pills for city kids, tomato-scented vegetable spray, and hydroponic restaurants). The team is glad he chose Polyvore over those ideas.

Jianing was most recently a software engineer at Yahoo, where he worked on Yahoo Trip Planner. Jianing has a degree in Computer Science from Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is unsure if he will ever finish the Ph.D he started at Carnegie Mellon, because working at Polyvore is too much fun.

Fun fact: Jianing is an avid rock climber.

After getting his B.S. and Masters in Computer Science from Tsinghua University and Duke University, Guangwei worked at Oracle for 4 years. He joined Yahoo in 2005 and left in 2007 to co-found Polyvore together with Pasha and Jianing.

Fun fact: Guangwei is Polyvore's reigning ping pong champion and has the superhuman ability to eat enormous quantities of food without gaining any weight.

Prior to Polyvore, Jess was a product manager at Google, where she worked on Google Maps and launched features like My Maps and draggable driving directions. After 4 years at Google, Jess became hopelessly addicted to making Polyvore sets and decided the only cure was to join the Polyvore team. Jess has a degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Fun fact: Jess enjoys drawing and owns over 1000 comic books.

Kenson was most recently a software engineer for Google, where he worked on search quality for Google Maps. Prior to that, he studied Computer Science at the University of Waterloo.

Fun fact: Kenson loves all manner of video games and ethnic food

After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Communications, Nadia worked at Nordstrom and Google. As a Google AdWords Account Manager, she managed key retail accounts and helped grow the Online Sales & Operations team from 50 people in Mountain View to hundreds of people around the world.

Fun fact: Nadia is currently looking for a storage space large enough to hold her shoe collection.

Katherine grew up in the south and hightailed it to New York immediately after graduating from the University of Georgia. She used to work for The New York Times selling advertising to beauty and fashion accounts. She prides herself on finding the best places to shop and eat in the city.

Fun fact: Katherine is mildly obsessed with crossword puzzles, French Bulldogs, and world travel.

Melanie graduated from University of Illinois with a B.A. in English. She worked for University of Chicago in Alumni Relations and Development where she set up their Downtown Chicago and Western & Asia-Pacific Regional offices.

Fun fact: Melanie wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up.

Jonathan is a reforming research scientist. He started out working at GMD, Germany, then Fuji-Xerox's laboratory in Palo Alto, CA. Most recently he worked on a lot of things at Yahoo, including Yahoo! Pipes (where he worked with Pasha) and creating YQL. Jonathan received his PhD and BSc from Lancaster University, UK a long time ago.

Fun fact: Although Jonathan is British he appreciates the distinct lack of noteworthy weather in California.

Prior to Polyvore, Bhaskar was a founding engineer of a startup called Turiya Media, that analyzed gamer behavior in social games. Before that, he worked at Hi5 Networks and Wize. Bhaskar's specialties are data mining and gourmet food hunting

Fun fact: Bhaskar can bowl a doosra.

Despite receiving an Economics degree from UVa, Eric's love of puzzles and computers has kept him solving computer problems ever since.

Fun fact: Eric enjoys soccer, curling, and great food.

Prior to Polyvore, Grace was at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, during which she interned as a toys division buyer for Target.com. Before that, she led marketing campaigns at Clorox and analyzed investment portfolios at Goldman Sachs. Grace also holds a BA in Economics from Stanford.

Fun fact: Grace can eat more dumplings than you.

Cindy grew up in California and never wants to move away. She studied Computer Science at Stanford University before working on mobile web sites and search at Yahoo.

Fun fact: Cindy works out so she can eat more ice cream.

Lydia has a B.A. in History and a M.A. in Museum Studies. She put her researching, examining, categorizing, and cataloging skills to good use working in various museums and archive centers throughout the Bay Area before transferring those skills to the online world, first at Yahoo! and now at Polyvore.

Fun fact: Lydia is obsessed with Medieval culture so much so that she decorated her daughter's nursery in a Medieval theme, has been known to buy clothes at Renaissance Faires, and hopes to one day live in a Medieval castle.

Jocelyn likes to sew, draw, and eat desserts. Before Polyvore, she was a lead designer at Google in areas such as search, maps, consumer, and Asia-Pacific products. She holds a degree in computer science from MIT.

Fun fact: Red pandas are ridiculously cute.

Prior to joining Polyvore, Eugenia blogged for Yahoo and wrote about search trends from holiday red lipstick to camouflage prom dresses. She also launched the blog Muni Diaries in San Francisco. Eugenia has a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from U.C. Berkeley.

Fun fact: Eugenia is the unofficial personal shopper for her friends.

Nicole has lived in her favorite city of San Francisco for 15 years. She grew up in rural Indiana and graduated from Indiana University. Before joining Polyvore, Nicole spent ten years in the affiliate marketing space managing key advertiser accounts and performance-based marketing campaigns. She credits her Barbie dolls for her early obsession with fashion.

Fun fact: Nicole plays bass in the notorious all-gal AC/DC tribute band AC/DShe.

Alan graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Immediately after graduation, he married his wife Gaoder and moved to Japan for a year, while she taught English with the JET program. Prior to Polyvore, Alan was a developer at SmartyPig.

Fun fact: Alan enjoys anime and Japanese culture and loves tinkering with anything electronic.

Simon has been working on Internet stuff since its commercialization. Before Polyvore broke the cycle, he had a habit of joining and leaving Yahoo every few years. He has a dual B.A. in English and Computer Science from back east.

Fun fact: Simon is an avid zombie murderer, mostly fictional.

Prior to joining Polyvore, Lester held senior sales roles at Huddler, Federated Media and CNET. He enjoys working closely with clients to create innovative and engaging advertising campaigns. Lester was born and raised in the bay area and earned a degree in Business Administration from UC Berkeley.

Fun fact: Lester has a BBQ smoker, dry ages his own beef and has a dog named Brisket.

Lauren earned her undergraduate degree in Communications from Purdue University, and launched her corporate retail career in Louis Vuitton’s San Francisco offices. She has worked as an assistant buyer in a small boutique, which led her to New York’s Fashion Week and an insider’s view of French and American designers.

Fun fact: Lauren started organizing her wardrobe at age 3 and found it ironic that her elementary and high schools required her to wear uniforms every day.

Joshua studied Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He joined Microsoft in Seattle upon graduation, where he helped to deliver Microsoft Office. He later returned to Canada and joined Oanda, an online foreign exchange company working on hedging algorithms.

Fun fact: Joshua went back to Canada for his soulmate. After they were married, he got her to move to the US with him.

Jessie joins with 7+ years experience in online social media- from representing site specific niche websites like Fodors.com and Zagat.com to value exchange advertising at SocialVibe. She has always been obsessed with fashion and style- so Polyvore is the perfect marriage of her passions. She is active in her community in Manhattan- trying to make her city and world a better place.

Fun fact: Jessie is obsessed with acquiring miles, new stamps in her passport, the UK, and traveling in general. She feels the unnatural need to purchase fine leather goods online (especially purses). Her favorite TV show is 90210.

Rachel holds a degree in Computer Science, but has found it best to leave the coding to the professionals. Her product management roles, including previous positions at PayPal, Plaxo, and Yahoo, have centered around building great user experiences. In her free time, Rachel practices her photography, and whether at work or at play, loves making people smile.

Fun fact: Rachel's iPod contains more songs by Weird Al Yankovic than any other artist.

Brittany graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. in Communication. Prior to Polyvore, she managed digital advertising campaigns for San Diego Magazine and launched The Bride Suite blog for Exquisite Weddings magazine. She is thrilled to be back in Northern California and can't wait to start exploring the Bay Area.

Fun fact: Brittany loves mini dauchshunds, hot yoga and Cypress Grove's Midnight Moon cheese.

Jennifer previously worked in the Oracle Text group and at the startup Sawteeth. She graduated from MIT with a degree in Computer Science.

Fun fact: My favorite leisure time activities include reading, watching reality TV, and puzzle hunting.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Kat explored different career paths, experimenting with corporate tech, streetwear, and magazines before finally landing her spot at Polyvore. Kat is in love with Polyvore’s endless outfit ideas, especially since her Fashion Plates have long since run out of new combinations.

Fun fact: Kat loves rap music and potlucks, and is always down for an adventure. Her spirit animal is Hello Kitty.

Emily was born and raised in San Francisco and graduated from the California College of the Arts with a degree in Graphic Design. She worked most recently at Chronicle Books in the Marketing/Communications department.

Fun fact: Emily has a vast repository of hip-hop lyrics stored in her brain. She enjoys stretching, rabbits, and dancing.

Belinda spent the last 6 years at Vogue magazine where she most recently served as the Executive Promotion Director. Prior to Vogue, Belinda worked at Playboy Enterprises where she created both digital and print programs, launched ELLEgirl magazine and spent her first year in the media industry at Mademoiselle magazine. A confessed fashion addict, designing Polyvore sets has become one of her favorite pastimes.

Fun fact: Belinda's lifelong dream is to write romance novels and become the 21st century Jackie Collins (but with better fashion sense!).

Chrystal was born and raised in the Bay Area and went to UC Irvine to study International Studies. Even with its beautiful beaches and weather, Southern California couldn't keep Chrystal from returning to the Bay Area after graduation. Since her return to the Bay Area, Chrystal has put her passion for working hard and making awesome dreams into reality at start-ups like Ning, Bread, and now Polyvore.

Fun fact: Chrystal is surprisingly good at go-karting. Take Chrystal karting and be prepared to eat gravel and smoke.

This Bay Area girl gave the south end of our state a shot while at UCLA getting her BS in Sociology but it was a quick return to the amazing food, beautiful architecture and hills of San Francisco. There she acquired a taste for Belgian beer, Bar method and start-ups.  Having worked for an apparel manufacturer, Friendster, Sportgenic and most recently, Digital Broadcasting Group she joins Polyvore with eight years of digital sales experience and a passion for interior design.

Fun fact: Rebecca has circumnavigated the globe on a ship.

Michaela is new to the West Coast after growing up in New Jersey and living in New York. While in New York Michaela studied at Columbia University, and called Greenpoint Brooklyn home. Michaela comes to Polyvore from Buddy Media where she managed many key accounts. She’s been a Polyvore user since first reading about the site in The New Yorker in 2009, and she can’t think of a better place for her to be!

Fun fact: Many people are surprised to learn that Michaela loves science fiction and fantasy.

Daniel was born in Detroit, and though he's lived in Chicago and Seattle before coming to San Francisco, he'll always be loyal to the Motor City. Prior to joining Polyvore he worked in trafficking and account coordination at Clear Channel. He's easily charmed by hoppy IPAs, chubby cats, medium rare burgers and brunettes who answer to Katie (that'd be his wife). He loves to travel and counts Iceland and Colombia among his favorite places in the world.

Fun fact: Daniel cannot touch his shoulders...and doesn't foresee an occasion when that would be required of him.

Julia has created content for a wide range of clients and media outlets including AOL, Entertainment Weekly, In Style, E! and others. She has been an editor, a writer, a social media guru, and (surprise!) a strategic planning/financial analyst. Julia graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in economics, Georgetown with an MSFS, and was a Fulbright Scholar specializing in international finance.

Fun fact: Julia’s first job out of graduate school was designing sets for a straight-to-video action-adventure film. Because of this, she knows how to use a gun. Disclaimer: a prop gun.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Ashley graduated from Penn State with a B.A. in Advertising then quickly ran to the one city she never thought she would live, New York. It didn't take long for her to fall head over heels with the city and it has kept her there for the past 6 years, working first in Sales at Redbook magazine, then Marketing and Events at Seventeen magazine, and most recently in Promotions at Vogue magazine. New York has made Ashley even more obsessed with stylish fashion, diverse culture, and delicious food and doesn't foresee the love affair ending anytime soon.

Fun fact: For a period of time Ashley lived in Australia where she went skydiving, bungee jumping and whitewater rafting on boogie boards- yet she is deathly afraid of cotton balls.

Justine graduated from UCSD with a degree in Molecular Biology, is an avid cyclist, runner & yogi and has developed a ‘thing’ for online shopping. Prior to working at Polyvore, Justine was the Southwest Sales Director at Involver, a SaaS social marketing platform. Born and raised in San Francisco, she has a passion for travelling somewhere new every year.

Fun fact: When she was 10, Justine won a nationwide AAA poster contest urging people to “Use Water Wisely.” She’s pretty sure they made stamps out of the drawing too.

Years ago, Greg fled the ferocious geese of the Venice Los Angeles canals to move north. He has since studied Economics at UC Davis and City Planning at UC Berkeley. He has also spent the past 6+ years on the publisher side in the affiliate marketing space developing and growing mutually beneficial relationships. Greg is a true people person who enjoys drawing animals and any activity that involves running, jumping, or climbing.

Fun fact: Greg's dad built the 2nd biggest catamaran on the west coast on a vacant Venice lot in the early 50s. His father and mother met on that boat. Aptly named 'Dreamer', it sails today thanks to lots of love...and duct tape, and glue, fiberglass, etc.

Mandy joins Polyvore from The Huffington Post where she was a Product Marketing Manager – strategizing on ways to monetize editorial and custom content. She was also pivotal in the integration of HuffPo programs into the AOL structure. Prior to that, Mandy worked at The New York Times where she was in Product Marketing and Advertising Sales.

Fun fact: Mandy is mildly addicted to Tasti-D-lite, desperately wants a dog and often refers to the day before the first college football game as 'the real Christmas Eve.'