We bring the Internet to you.

Jeff Fernandez, Cofounder & CEO

Jeff Fernandez is the Cofounder & CEO of Grovo, your trusted source of real-time, high quality updates to the websites, mobile apps and online tools you use most.

Before Grovo, Jeff was a Product Manager at Clickable (acquired by Syncapse), a web service that brings simplicity to online advertising. He worked on Clickable's flagship product, Clickable Pro, and helped integrate Facebook advertising and launch the American Express OPEN partnership.

From 2006 until 2009, Jeff worked for Doostang (acquired by Universum Global). As the company's second employee, Jeff worked with the founding team to raise its venture financing from Shasta Ventures and launch Doostang's New York office. Jeff headed business development and sales until February 2009, when he joined the company's Advisory Board.

Jeff graduated from Harvard College with Highest Honors and published his senior thesis, “Coaches Motivational Techniques and Individual Athletic Performance,” with the International Institute for Sport and Human Performance in the Kinesiology Publications.

Jeff played semi-pro football for the New York Rebels during the 2008 season.

Surag Mungekar, Cofounder & CTO

Surag Mungekar oversees engineering and development processes at Grovo. Surag is the architect of Grovo's extensive, scalable back-end infrastructure, which enables fast iteration and reliable content delivery.

Before Grovo, Surag worked at Viecore, a mid-staged startup, which was acquired by Nuance Communications in 2007. As a Senior Engineer at Nuance, Surag led development teams in building voice, web and desktop software solutions for companies including OnStar, BlueCross BlueShield, and Highmark.

Surag graduated from Columbia University in 2005 with a degree in Computer Engineering. His main interests lay in Web technologies and a desire to build innovative products.

When he's not at his computer, Surag's penchant for cars gets the best of him: his favorite pastime is pushing sports cars' speedometers into triple-digit territory.

Nick Narodny, Cofounder

Cofounder Nick Narodny oversees the data warehousing and finances of Grovo. He built the content team from the ground up, and works with Jeff to execute a number of high priority items ranging from SEO to data analysis.

Before Grovo, Nick worked as a Sales Lead at Clickable (acquired by Syncapse), where he helped grow the team from 5 to 18 sales people. Fatefully, Nick sat next to Jeff on his first day.

Prior to his work in online advertising, Nick was an aerospace and defense investment banker at Jefferies Quarterdeck, where he worked on deals with L3, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and SpaceX.

Nick graduated from Boston College cum laude with a degree in business management. He was an avid basketball player until he tore his Achilles playing for the champion Grovo Llamas.

Jordan Franklin, Growth Hacker & VP of Marketing

Jordan Franklin leads the growth team at Grovo. He coordinates and enables his team to help people discover and share the Grovo experience, bringing the enrichment and fulfillment of learning new skills and mastering the web to the masses.

Jordan's generalist skill set reflects his experience in a variety of roles. He honed his craft as a digital marketing expert at Efficient Frontier (acquired by Adobe) and Clickable (acquired by Syncapse), where he specialized in PPC advertising, social media marketing, and conversion optimization. His contributions to those organizations included account strategy, marketing, product management, sales, business development and thought leadership.

Prior to joining Grovo full-time, Jordan was featured in a pair of Grovo Expert Series interviews focusing on the science and theory of effective Facebook advertising.

Jordan graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in American Studies and a concentration in Mass Culture. At age 11 Jordan said when he grew up he wanted to optimize casino floor layouts to maximize dollars-per-hour per ft2. He has maintained that interest in psychology and science - its application towards Grovo's nobler ambitions is the most rewarding part of his job.

Clint Mario Cleetus, Director of Engineering

Clint Mario Cleetus has over ten years of experience working for startups and multinationals in the United States and India. He was a part of the core technology teams at Oracle and at Siebel, where he won the Exceptional Performance Award for his contributions to workflows.

Clint has an avid interest in entrepreneurship and poetry. Among other achievements, he was selected to the elite National Defense Academy with an All India Rank of 25 for the Indian Air Force.

Clint graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Science & Engineering, and earned a graduate degree in Computer Science from Yale University.

Tom Samph, Director of Content

As the Director of Content at Grovo, Tom Samph is responsible for leading the demand-driven coverage and real-time speed of the Content Team.

Tom graduated from Boston University in 2010 with a degree in Journalism, then moved to France where he spent a year teaching English, working in a bakery, eating at lots of other bakeries and writing. After that, he found his way back to New York, where we worked at FindTheBest, a data-driven comparison website, and a literary agency—before joining Grovo as a "Writing Ninja."

Outside of work, Tom rides bikes, makes popcorn on the stove, and writes for Forbes Travel Guide, The Improper Bostonian, Inventors Digest and GlobalPost.

Alex Collins, Art Director

In January 2011, AC bought a one-way Bolt Bus ticket to New York City, where he was searching for an exciting new beginning. He quickly found it. Today, AC leads Grovo's team of designers as a young, hungry art director.

Growing up with an extraordinarily talented painter for a grandfather and traveling the world as a diplomat's son, AC soon discovered his true calling as a creative. He attended the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where he developed his keen eye for all things visual.

Since joining Grovo, AC has laid the foundation for a strong in-house design department, including compelling motion graphics, illustration and front-end design. Aside from designing kickass products at Grovo, AC thoroughly enjoys sporting events, epic adventures and —when the budget allows—fine dining.

Donna Lichaw, Mobile Product Manager

Donna is the mobile product manager at Grovo where she leads iPhone, iPad, mobile web, and mobile first initiatives. She specializes in getting people to think big by thinking small.

When she's not changing the world through educational technology, she's educating technologists at places like Parsons and General Assembly in New York City.

She graduated from Northwestern University with an MFA in Radio, TV, and Film and The University of Michigan with a BA in Film and Video Studies and sees digital product design as the new Film. Just different. Only a little bit.

PJ Bruno, Senior Production Manager

PJ started shooting and editing his own video projects at the age of 14, and began working for Grovo as an intern in August of 2010. Today, PJ plays a critical role on Grovo's Content Team, where he oversees the production of all video content, edits lessons, records voiceover, and maps out the standards and guidelines for the process of creating our web tutorials.

After graduating from the University of Delaware with a bachelor's degree in English and Film and a minor in Women's Studies, PJ travelled through Europe, where he spent 4 months and $6,000 "soul searching" in a manner not unlike that of Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine (i.e., "Kung Fu" star David Carradine). After depleting his savings, PJ decided that he needed a new gameplan, and decided to apply for grad school in New York City.

PJ graduated from the University of Delaware with a bachelors degree in English/Film and a minor in Women's Studies, and received a master's degree in Media Studies from The New School in New York. He is also a musician and professional Spikeball player.

David Kowarsky, Senior Video Editor

David Kowarsky supervises Grovo's on-site and remote producers and ensures that all video content complies with Grovo's rigorously maintained standard.

Since 2005, David has operated Khyros Multimedia, an end-to-end production service. Khyros' clients have included PR firms and Internet broadcasting companies. In 2009 David worked on production and quality control with the team of Project Insider, Thomson Reuters' financial news broadband video offering, and has since produced video pieces for Reuters' consumer journalism and product training departments. The "Road To Recovery" series, to which he contributed extensively, was honored with a 2009 "Best-in-Business" Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

David graduated from Harvard University in 2005 with a degree in Folklore and Mythology with High Honors in field.

Alesandro Ortiz, Web Developer & DevOps

Alesandro Ortiz has contributed to Grovo's platform since its early days in September 2010. In that time, he's focused on third-party integrations, internal automation and monitoring tools.

Computer-savvy since age two, Alesandro has been increasing user efficiency via reliable, intuitive, and secure Web applications for nearly a decade. He's passionate about the Internet, and loves educating the world about its utility.

When Alesandro's not finding new things to automate, he dabbles in audio-visual music experiments and split-tests his commute from Queens for maximimum efficiency.

Avishkar Autar, Software Engineer

Hacker of code and master of llamas, Avishkar Autar tackles a number of development tasks at Grovo, all with the goal of providing users with an amazing web experience. He frequently delves into the UX code, data processes and algorithms looking for ways to improve.

Prior to Grovo, Avishkar worked as a freelance programmer for a number of small businesses and early-stage startups, as well as bootstrapping his own file sync and cloud storage venture. He's always been attracted to the passion, energy, and challenges of startups.

Always looking for ways to experiment with new technologies and explore new ideas, Avishkar works on a number of open-source projects, including firesync, a peer-to-peer file sync solution, and BTObex, a library for Bluetooth file transfers. His code, ideas, challenges, and solutions can usually be found on his tech blog.

Avishkar holds a B.S. in Computer Science from NYU Polytechnic.

Caroline Phillips Rodin, SEO Manager

Caroline Phillips Rodin is responsible for the organic growth of Grovo's website. She focuses on ensuring that Grovo is visible in search results and throughout the web, wherever our users want to find us.

Caroline fell in love with SEO while working for the largest seller of parking and traffic signs in America. After helping FireSigns.com and DogPoopSigns.com rank in the top 3 natural search positions in Google, Caroline worked at a top digital agency helping Fortune 500 financial and fashion companies improve their online visibility and increase their natural search traffic.

Caroline graduated from Wellesley College cum laude in 2010 with a degree in sociology. She is an avid reader who spends her free time hunting for NYC's best chocolate chip cookie.

Alex Khurgin, Quiz Manager & Content Strategist

Alex Khurgin, The Quizmaster, has written every quiz question on the Grovo site. He earned an unofficial doctorate in "asking things" after years of writing questions and curricula to help students prepare for the GMAT and LSAT exams. He knows exactly where the question mark is located on any keyboard; give him a pen and a scrap of paper and he can even write one by hand. In addition to writing questions, Alex helps guide Grovo's content strategy.

Prior to joining Grovo, Alex worked for two years as a content developer at the adaptive learning company Knewton. In his spare time, Alex makes comedy videos and performs in improv and variety shows throughout New York.

Alex was born in Belarus in the former Soviet Union, and grew up in Brooklyn and Northern New Jersey. He graduated with a degree in philosophy from Amherst College, where he spent his Freshman year in David Foster Wallace's old dorm room.*

*Maybe.

Matt Convente, Lead Front-end Developer

Matt Convente leads all front-end development for Grovo, from product and marketing pages to email templates. In addition to his development role, Matt offers a helping hand with design and project management.

Before Grovo, Matt worked at Clickable, where he was a print and web designer.

Always on the lookout for emerging web technologies, Matt immerses himself in the NYC tech scene by attending lectures, perusing blogs, and scanning through a lengthy Twitter feed of top designers and entrepreneurs. Continuing education is one of Matt's strongest passions, and he loves turning his newfound knowledge into actionable enhancements throughout Grovo's products.

Matt graduated from Boston University with a BFA in Graphic Design and minor in Linguistics.

Besides loving web development and design, Matt is an identical twin and aspiring linguist. Words cannot describe his excitement to be working one block from Beecher's Cheese.

Lance Hopenwasser, Database Architect

Lance has worked with Grovo since the early days of the company to ensure an efficient scalable database to power Grovo's website. He started as a part-time contractor, and joined the Grovo team full-time to meet the challenges of Grovo's increasing data and business intelligence needs.

Lance established his expertise in data systems developing solutions for a multitude of domains, including GIS, document management systems, program management models, and large-scale requirements analysis. In 2008, he and his family moved to the beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley, and he started work at Clickable, where he met Grovo cofounders Jeff and Nick.

Lance Hopenwasser graduated with Honors from the University of Alabama in 1995, where he participated in their highly acclaimed Computer-Based Honors Program, going on to earn his Master of Computer Science degree from the University of Virginia.

Spencer Okada, Lead Animator

Spencer Okada has been animating ever since he saw Toy Story for the first time. He plastered his wall with movie posters, fantasizing about rainmaking on the reg and all the babes he would pull as a full time animator. Filled to the brim with delusions of grandeur, he left Reno and graduated from The Art Institute of California - San Francisco with a bachelor's degree in Media Arts and Animation. Moving from contract to contract without a solid salary and no babes in sight, he decided to move back to Reno.

On the brink of quitting the animation game for good, he decided to do one last craigslist search. He didn't believe what he saw. An animation position available in New York at a small internet startup named Grovo. He instantly perked up with visions of champagne bottles, bugattis, and water gun fights with celebs. He applied. To make a long story short, Spencer is now the Lead Animator at Grovo and also engineers the in-house voice overs.

Spencer makes beats and writes rhymes under the alias "KoalaT" and hopes to write and co-produce the very first original kidz-bop album with Kanye West.

Emily Sinsheimer, Lifecycle Marketing Analyst

Emily Sinsheimer is Grovo's Lifecycle Marketing Analyst. She works with the Growth and Product teams to drive user engagement and off-site awareness.

In 2009, after four years of women's studies, postmodern literature and social theory, Emily graduated Agnes Scott College with the most logical next step in mind: a career in marketing. Prior to joining Grovo, Emily spent time at two award-winning agencies, 360i and NetX, executing digital strategies for leading brands in the Entertainment, Travel and Financial Services verticals.

When not digging through data and writing copy, Emily enjoys bike riding, urban hiking and live music.

Ben Contillo, Assets Manager

Benjamin Contillo is an assets manager for the Grovo Content Team, as well as a contributor to the Grovo Blog. You'll probably see his name appear at least once in each course, as he's responsible for most of the screen captures in Grovo's video lessons.

Benjamin graduated in 2011 from The George Washington University with a BA in English. While attending college he served as a Congressional intern for Virginia's 5th district, had a few articles on the uses of popular technology in hospitals published in Oncology Nursing News, and learned to tango while studying in Argentina.

He currently lives in Haworth, New Jersey with parents whom he loves dearly—and he's eager to move out. When not at the office Benjamin loves to read, write, and watch baseball. He's very happy to have found a home at Grovo with such talented and motivated people.

Dan Levine, Product Analyst & Video Producer

Daniel Levine is a product analyst and video producer who works with Grovo's SEO team, records voiceover talent and writes for the Grovo blog. As a social media and tech enthusiast, Daniel loves diving into websites, finding their most interesting and useful features and conveying them to the hungry Grovolians looking to master the Web.

In 2011 Daniel graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.A. in English and has been finding excuses to write ever since. While he lends his talents primarily to tech blogs around the Internet, his creative writing has appeared in UD's literary magazine and other small publications.

Daniel lives in Maplewood, NJ and spends his time reading, writing and obsessively checking Reddit. His passions include teaching others and spreading the word about this "Internet" fad. He is very proud to be part of the Grovo family and unnaturally excited about its bright future.

Han Lee, Animator

Han Lee is an animator at Grovo, taking responsibility for every animated video lesson produced for the site.

Growing up in the "Golden Age of Animation" and inspired by Hayao Miyazaki and Takehiko Inoue, Han has dreamed of being an animator since the age of nine. In 2008, He attended the School of Visual Arts with a Silas H. Rhodes Merit Scholarship, where he studied Fine Arts, Graphic Design, as well as Motion Graphic design. In his senior year, his animation thesis film was nominated for Outstanding Achievement.

After graduating, Han set out to find work that wouldn't limit his creativity. He found Grovo: a place where he can follow his dreams, improve his skills, and help grow a company with his creativity.

Edwin Iskandar, Lead iOS Developer

Edwin leads the development of Grovo's iOS app. He is responsible for ensuring that learning with Grovo is a killer experience on the go.

Prior to Grovo he worked on the social dating app "Are You Interested?", helping them take their native iOS app to the next level, making it a Top 10 Grossing Social Networking app in the iTunes charts with over 4 million installed users.

He is also a part-time game developer with a slew of hit games and educational apps in the AppStore published under his company Iskandar, Inc. Many of his apps have been featured by Apple and written up in numerous blogs and publications.

In a previous life he provided consultation services around Java/J2EE web technologies and has worked with numerous companies including IBM, Walt Disney, American Express, Condé Nast and Time Inc.

When he's not on a Macbook he can usually be found being attacked by his 2 small children.

Matt Timmons, Junior Product Analyst

It's Matt's job as a product analyst to keep his finger on the pulse of the web. He's the one who knows and writes about the newest updates to your favorite sites before you even wake up in the morning. He spends most of his time at Grovo writing, and spends the rest of it thinking about writing.

A Minnesotan by birth, Matt came to Grovo and New York after having attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he studied Philosophy and East Asian Studies. He wrote his thesis on a comparison of Japanese-style landscape gardens and environmental aesthetics.

When he's outside of Grovo, Matt finds himself seeking out new foods, and doing his best to read things that aren't blogs. He has known how to ride a bike for over fifteen years, and has nearly mastered the art of cracking an egg into a pan without breaking the yolk.

Drew Hudson, Junior Product Analyst

As a Product Analyst, Drew is responsible for keeping updated on what's going on with the web and writing the scripts for the videos you see released to Grovo every day.

Drew is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, and graduated from Wesleyan University in 2012 with a degree in History.

Soon after, Drew joined Grovo, bringing his love for sports, passion for music and traveling, and wonder at the thrilling future of technology to the team.

He has written and edited for BleacherReport.com and Wesleyan's student-run newspaper. When he's not writing or following tech news, you can find him playing basketball and chess and exploring the streets of New York.

Missy Fernandez, QA Analyst & Community Manager

Missy Fernandez is Grovo's Quality Assurance Analyst and Community Manager. She is responsible for ensuring that content and product releases meet our standards here at Grovo, as well as managing customer relations.

Missy earned a B.A in Philosophy from Lafayette College in 2012. During her time at Lafayette, she spent her summers interning at Grovo and fell in love with our mission and team.

When Missy is not testing on Grovo, she enjoys playing sports and spending time with her family and friends.