About

I am a technologist and software entrepreneur, with a focus on search engines and applied machine learning.

During the 2000′s I worked as an engineer, manager, and scientist at three large search companies (Excite@Home, Yahoo!, and Microsoft), as well as two search startups (Inktomi (acquired by Yahoo!) and Powerset (acquired by Microsoft)).  I ran the anti-webspam program for Yahoo!, the relevance and ranking group for Powerset, and the search-engine summaries group at Bing. My specialty is taking early prototypes of science projects and making them real.

I quit Microsoft in October 2010, and since then have been building a stealth-mode startup (Jybe, Inc.) with my friend Arnab Bhattacharjee.

I have a side interest in science journalism, which may or may not turn into a late-life career (I recently attended the amazing Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop).  I also love playing poker (Tournament Texas Hold ‘Em) – on a random Sunday afternoon you can usually find me at the Oaks Card Club in Emerville, CA.