Aaron and Brian
We are the founders of This Life, Inc. and HowAboutWe.com. We run the business together.
We met over the crayon jar in kindergarten, had a lengthy discussion about the relative merits of gold v. silver crayons, and decided to become best friends forever.
We've been creating things ever since: fourth grade boy-girl dance parties, a make-your-own-pizza party in Guatemala during college (this was riding the glory of a marginally successful spaghetti business at a hippie festival the summer after high school), wild project-based curricula in urban charter schools in our twenties, long silent meditation retreats, political campaigns, a play in Berlin, the occasional 3am omelet, and so on.
Each in our own way, we've always been finding ways to go for it, 1000%. Our philosophic modus operandi basically involves combining a few Platonic ideals (the good, the true and the beautiful), a plentiful dose of Nietzschean irony (philosophize with the nose), a pinch of enlightenment fervor (being, consciousness and bliss) and some Dorian Gray hedonism (I want the very best, always, forever).
Upon turning 30, we were like, let's start a business. Let's start an internet dating site that we would actually want to use.
(Our full names: Aaron Schildkrout and Brian Schechter.)
The Team
- Michelle Dozois - Community Manager
- Sanjay Kapoor - Lead Developer
- E.J. Coughlin - Front-End Developer
- Jenny Mashberg - Online Marketing Coordinator
- Rachel Hochhauser - Editorial Team
- Amanda Munoz - Editorial Team
Advisors
Bob Schechter
Brian's dad. Our key and ever-available business advisor. Also an old-school accountant and Quick Books wizard. Brightsighted and clear. His perennial advice: "Don't f%#k it up." The official record: Bob has over 30 years of leadership and management experience in technology and international business. He's served as an executive at NMS Communications, Lotus, and Coopers & Lybrand. He has held Board positions at Parametric Tech., Unica, Mapinfo, Soapstone, and others.
Dave Brown
Our true check on all major technology decisions. A quasi-semi-pro tennis player, pool shark, chess king, and so forth. Doesn't suffer fools lightly. The most critical of our ideas (except for Aaron's grandmother). Official record: Founder & CTO at Sun River System and Level 9 Technology. Was the Chief Architect at Yahoo! Music.
Meredith and Kimberly Liu
They say things like this to us, "Um, guys, your blog is like way too intellectual. Who do you think your audience is? And then they provide masterful guidance in the land of the Date Report and all things public facing. More coming soon here...
John Landry
Our first meeting with John was at a little Wayland, MA diner. We were bright-eyed with big ideas about our first business. "Forget the other ideas, boys. The dating one sounds good. Here's how this game really works..." and so began a very fruitful relationship from mentor, to investor, to Director. The official record: John brings over 30 years of experience as an executive in the software and technology space. He has served as an executive for Lotus Development, Dun & Bradstreet Software, Cullinet Software, and McCormack & Dodge, et. al. He is currently the Managing Director of Lead Dog Ventures.
David Rokoff
We meet with David, a fully 'recovered' lawyer, at the Boston Public Library and he tells us stuff we need to know about new ventures, the size of the pie and various ways to divide it, the NROOC rule, the necessity of having fun and taking time to rejuvenate. David advises, "If you spend all your time wrestling alligators, you'll never have time to drain the swamp." We think he likes that we now live in Chinatown; his two best investments and most profitable client were conceived on placemats at Chinese restaurants in Boston. While retired as a lawyer, he still knows where the legal time bombs are hidden, and coaches us on how to try and avoid them. When he is not spending time with us, David serves as a trusted advisor to several Boston area non-profit organizations, where he helps in their strategic planning, organizational development, and fundraising efforts. He is counting on us being successful: he wants to continue doing his volunteer work...
Michael Rudokas
Our artistic conscience. Brian met Michael freshman year of college. Brian's favorite experience of art ever was Michael's senior thesis project: think smashed concrete, long syringes and iron crucifixes actually looking beautiful, without need for interpretation. Michael now studies sculpture as a grad student at Hunter College. He's the photographer for "How about we..." and our main creative advisor.
John Werner
John is an activist, change agent, connector, idea generator, photographer, social entrepreneur, movement builder, geek (Star Trek guy), and founding member and Chief Mobilizing Officer of Citizen Schools. John has helped build a thriving national program with over 500 employees; one Brian's favorite bosses, ever. John is passionate about creating new ways to harness the power of networking to expand the meaning of education in this country. John was a Loeb Fellow in residence at Harvard Graduate School of Design. John grew up in NYC and many 4th of July’s ran the length of Manhattan and loved experiencing all the neighborhoods. John knows a whole lot of people from many walks of life. His interests include photography, maps, social networking, fruit, informal settlements in Brazil, India Food, Central Park, rubik's cube, and triathlons (he raced at the World Championship). John proposed to his wife on a run at the mid-point she said yes after he said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. (How about we...go on a matrimonial jogging date.) They now have 3 kids. His biggest regret is not meditating once when he had the chance with Brian and Aaron.
Web Development
Intridea
We interviewed about 150 different developers before settling on Intridea. They are highly skilled and incredibly hard working. Not to mention patient (you've gotta be if you're building a new kind of dating site and working with two off-the-charts perfectionists). Special shoutouts to David Potsiadlo who has created his first website that will be extensively written about and to Flip Sasser who manifests calm precision itself.