— Matt Gamboa, a 10-year veteran of the Seattle tech scene, is leaving Rover, the network for pet sitters and dog walkers, after 2 1/2 years as a product manager and relocating to Austin, Texas, for a job with HomeAway.
Gamboa says he drove several dog owner efforts during his time at Rover, including improving the search experience, launching the RoverGO and Rover Match products, improving the Q&A Community and integrating it better into operations, overseeing the smooth release of the dog owner fee and increasing customer satisfaction by improving Rover’s user experience.
He previously co-founded QThru, which raised $3.5 million in 2012, and Modbox, and was heavily involved in Startup Weekend as a coach, organizer and facilitator. Gamboa also led the organization of Seattle’s first B2B Startup Weekend with 9Mile Labs.
At HomeAway, which was acquired by Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia in 2015, Gamboa will be part of a product management team focused on helping vacation rental owners and managers thrive.
“I’ll be using my knowledge I gained at Rover.com to help grow and retain a homeowner base of over 1 million listings,” Gamboa said, adding that he thinks Rover “is the best company to work for in Seattle and I’m sad to leave at this stage.”
But Gamboa is confident that the Austin tech scene is on the verge of exploding much like Seattle did six years ago.
“It’s 2016’s fastest growing city and a lot of that is due to techies moving in,” Gamboa said. “It’s a bubbling of new startups and entrepreneurs with great ideas. I’m really excited to experience this.”
— Jobaline, the marketplace for hourly workers, has named Douglas Johnson as the new CEO.
With a mobile and voice-enabled bilingual platform, Jobaline makes it easier for people to find and apply for jobs, and Johnson will bring 15 years of experience as CEO, board member and company builder to his role
Johnson was previously CEO of Accessline Communications, before he went on to become CEO of acquiring company Telanetix. At both companies and in his most recent role at Intermedia, which acquired Telanetix, Johnson was focused on creating customer value and building company success.
“Jobaline bridges the technology gap between high volume national employers and the workers they seek to employ,” Miki Mullor, founder and CTO of Jobaline, said in a news release. “We are excited to have Douglas’s management, sales and marketing and product experience on board as we continue to build Jobaline’s leadership position in the hourly worker market.”
— DimensionalMechanics, the Bellevue, Wash.-based enterprise artificial intelligence company, has added Michael Ryder to the company’s board of directors.
Ryder was most recently senior vice president at Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., where he co-led story and franchise development for the developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software.
“I am pleased that Michael will be contributing to the vision and direction of DimensionalMechanics at a time of growth for the company — this is an exceptional milestone for us,” Rajeev Dutt, co-founder and CEO of DimensionalMechanics, said in a news release. “Michael’s highly regarded work at Blizzard proves that he doesn’t just know how to create the blueprint for a successful product, he knows how to execute and adapt it to distinct, challenging and evolving market circumstances.”
Prior to Blizzard Entertainment, Ryder founded SingleTrac and held senior positions at GT Interactive, Sierra Entertainment and the games division of the Walt Disney Company.
— The Amazon board of directors elected Daniel P. Huttenlocher as a director of the company and appointed him to the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee of the board, effective Sept. 7, according to a Form 8-K filing with the SEC.
Huttenlocher has been dean and vice provost of Cornell Tech at Cornell University since 2012 and has worked for Cornell since 1988 in various positions. He has served as a director of Corning Inc. since 2015.
