Farhad loves people and creates things. In addition to founding Cheerful, inc., Farhad founded DotSpots in 2008, Shopzilla in 2004 and BizRate.com in 1996. He led BizRate.com and Shopzilla from launch to profitability and through a successful $562 million sale.

Farhad is a TED Patron. He sits on the board of several non-profits including Soliya.net and as a founding trustee of the Farhang Foundation.

Farhad holds an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Mathematics/Applied Science and a BA in Economics with a specialization in Computing from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Cheers to… People of all kinds. Iranian poetry, culture, art, TED, burning man.

Matt lives to pursue challenging technical problems and push the envelope of computing. He served as CTO of DotSpots, and previously worked on building scalable and fast solutions for energy companies, both as desktop and web applications.

Along with Ryan Perry, he worked with StumbleUpon to build a newest generation of IE Toolbar prior to their acquisition by EBay.

Matt has a BSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Calgary.

Cheers to… Spending time with my family, playing with my son, making devices do things they couldn't and reading.

Gary likes to create and promote products which are emotionally engaging, helpful and flat out fun.

Prior, Gary consulted several early stage Internet companies in marketing and motivational design, and before this he served as Senior Vice President for BizRate and Shopzilla, overseeing business development, online marketing and content operations.

Gary holds an MBA in Finance/Information Systems from the USC Marshall School of Business, and a BS in Marketing from the Walter A. Hass School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Cheers to… Family, Travel, Adventure Seeking, Inspiration, and Real People Fully Expressing Themselves.

Navid likes to take part in initiatives that in some way help humanity. He started his career at GE and spend his first two years in their Information Management Leadership Program. After leading and delivering multiple business critical projects in Europe and the States, he left GE as an Operations Leader in 2006 to pursue the startup world.

Navid has a BS in Business - Computer Science concentration, and an emphasis in Information Systems from the University of Kansas.

Cheers to… Earth, music, meditation, the outdoors, reading, art/painting, psychology, people who inspire me, balance, cosmos, nature.

Ryan likes to develop high quality software and to be part of something that will improve the way people use technology. He originally developed risk analysis and economic software for the oil and gas industry. Gripe is his fourth internet start-up. His other internet experience incudes DotSpots where he's specialized in front-end development. He also worked with Matt Mastracci to build the Internet Explorer toolbar for StumbleUpon which was integral for their acquisition by Ebay.

Ryan has a Bachelor of Science in electrical and computer engineering.

Cheers to… Hockey, family and the outdoors. Enjoys games and game development in his spare time.

Kai likes to create solutions that are functional, emotional and fun to use.

Prior, Kai worked as Senior Designer at Google where he was responsible for the design of Google Desktop, Toolbar and other client products.

In addition, Kai lead the R&D efforts at MetaCreations Corp. for new interface concepts in cooperation with the LEGO Group and Apple Computer.

Notable among Kai's many achievements is the design and execution of the award-winning project for Professor Stephen Hawking, entitled Life In The Universe.

Kai has a background in physics and mechanical engineering, and a BA in typography and design.

Cheers to… Arts, Music, Burning Man, Travel, Cafe Racer, Typography & Yoga.

Arash likes to create tools and services that enable and promote awareness and transparency in order to empower the masses. Gripe and DotSpots are Arash's first foray into internet world.

Always a tech and internet enthusiast, Arash finished his studies in Film and Audio Engineering.

Cheers to… Music, Art, Soccer (Hala Madrid!), Justice and Equality, and of course: Love!