Adam “College Boy” Zais graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in Political Science. He brings over 25 years of sales, marketing, and general management experience to Wistia. Most recently, he was with Brainshark, a leading SaaS vendor in the area of on-demand business communications. Adam has also had the odd job or two, including pumping gas in Watertown Square, ski instructing (no, not Brendan), and unloading an entire boxcar full of frozen artichokes.
Adam now spends 23 hours per day on the phone, helping our customers and helping his family with directions. He likes bean curd, Wistia t-shirts, and ping-pong. Adam doesn’t like lobster or beets.
You can bribe Adam with: anything from nearby vegan restaurant True Bistro (except beets!)
Ben “Benbot 9000” Ruedlinger was Employee #1 at Wistia when he joined Chris and Brendan in January of 2008. Along with his job title, Ben also helps with marketing, customer support, and beer acquisition.
Ben has a Bachelors in Physics and a Masters in Computer Engineering, both from Case Western Reserve University. He has a Ph.D. from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. So it’s no surprise that before Wistia, Ben ran a 20 person software research and development group that worked for DARPA and other government agencies. Ben spends his free time hanging out with his overly precocious 3 year old daughter.
You can bribe Ben with: Cambridge Brewing Company’s Cambridge Amber.
A year after graduating from Brown University with a degree in filmmaking, Chris set off with Brendan to start Wistia. Chris was named a Best Young Entrepreneur by BusinessWeek in 2009. He spends his free time honing his racquet skills (mastering the art of tennis, racquetball, and ping pong), and bouncing around New England.
Before Wistia, Chris worked as an independent filmmaker. He directed and edited a slew of short films, and he helped produce and bring to theaters an Emmy award winning film, “Buddy”.
You can get Chris heavily buzzed with: Sink the Bizmark
Brendan founded Wistia with Chris in 2006. Brendan was named a Best Young Entrepreneur by BusinessWeek in 2009. Before earning fame and glory at Wistia, Brendan graduated from Brown University in 2005 with a degree in Computer Engineering. At a pre-Wistia job, he not only won the Brendan Schwartz award, it was created for him. Now, he is Wistia’s design maniac.
Brendan just took up downhill skiing. He is still very bad, but he claims that he is improving rapidly.
Brendan cannot be bribed. Just kidding, get him something from his Svpply.
You can easily spot Jeff around the office because of his traffic-cone-orange colored hat and neon green sunglasses. Jeff graduated Ithaca College in 2007 with a degree in Marketing Communications and will have an MBA from BC this spring. Prior to Wistia, Jeff was at Teach for America, where he worked on their proprietary intranet, TFANet.
Jeff’s laser focus on customer experience is only eclipsed by his love for tasty snacks. When he is not trying to make every customer’s life more awesome, Jeff likes to ski, sail, and "own" on the ping pong table (a boy can dream). You can always find him listening to good beats.
You can bribe Jeff with: PBR and chocolate milk (he drinks them exclusively).
Jim is a big fan of living free or dying. A New Hampshire native, he now writes code at Wistia. Jim graduated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 2006 with a degree in Computer Science. During college, Jim had an internship in defense construction, writing calibration software for sensors for space-based defense satellites.
In his spare time, Jim uses his Eagle Scout skills and watches ski races. He can also be found playing ping pong or cheering on the Pats (New England Patriots).
You can bribe Jim with: Red Bull.
