About Gazaro
What we stand for
Honest recommendations to help shoppers get the best value for their money.
Gazaro Overview
Gazaro tracks prices and analyzes price trends on computer and electronics products in real-time to certify amazing deals and buying opportunities. The Gazaro website lists recently uncovered deals and product price trends on electronics products. The Gazaro iPhone application adds scanning product barcodes (UPCs) to get price trends and analytics on products from nearby retailers.
| Founded in 2008. Privately held. |
Seed funded by Apption Corporation. |
Offices in San Francisco, CA and Ottawa, Canada |
| Team of kick ass software developers and artificial intelligence gurus. | Websites (www.gazaro.com) launched in March 2009, (www.gazaro.ca) in November 2009. | iPhone app (www.gazaro.com/iphone) launched in December 2009. |
The team
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Alexander Rink, CEO twitter.com/alexrink Alexander Rink is a serial entrepreneur and frugal shopper who gets genuinely excited by great deals on products he wants to buy. His wife says he has “champagne taste and a beer budget”, but his general formula for buying is really value-based, roughly equating to functionality times quality divided by price. Alexander brings his strategy, operations and entrepreneurial experience to drive the Gazaro business, and leverage Gazaro’s data to help both shoppers and retailers. |
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Dominic Plouffe, Head of Development twitter.com/dplouffe Dominic is an all around geek who loves learning new stuff everyday and is always looking for a challenge - that’s where Gazaro fits the bill! Dominic joined Gazaro to lead the development efforts in 2007 after having sold his previous start-up, FuseTalk, which he co-founded in 1998. When he’s not working on Gazaro, Dominic is a dedicated family man who loves to spend time with his wife and two children. |
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Sam Zaid, Co-founder & Advisor twitter.com/samzaid Entrepreneur and all around nerd. Spent summer ‘09 at Singularity University and NASA studying artificial intelligence, genetics, nanotechnology and other cool stuff. Geek cred: 2008 Microsoft Code Award Winner. E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2009. Google Scholarship recipient and graduate of Singularity University 2009. |
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The Gazaro Team A group of self-proclaimed nerds, the Gazaro team are the ones who keep things running whenever they aren’t perfecting their darts game. Coming from various backgrounds with a wide range of skills, they work hard to bring Gazaro to the next level. |
Advisors
Brian Joe, CEO, Apption Corporation
Brian Joe is the CEO of Apption, a boutique firm specializing in modernizing government and enterprise infrastructures using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Apption has garnered strong industry recognition, including being named to Profit Magazine’s Hot 50 list of the fastest growing companies by revenue for both 2008 and 2009. Brian has over 20 years of successful experience in software product development, marketing, leadership, and entrepreneurial roles for numerous high tech companies. Brian has held senior executive positions with Nortel, Newbridge, March Networks, and has successfully led several technology startups. As a principal with Infopreneur Inc, an industry-leading Internet software application company, he helped grow the company and led its acquisition by March Networks in 2001. Brian was also the founder and CEO of NewStep Networks, an IP telephony company that develops carrier-grade software platforms now deployed in major service provider networks. He holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Queen’s University, and an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York University.
Luc Levesque, Founder / GM, TravelPod.com (A TripAdvisor / Expedia company)
Luc Levesque is a web entrepreneur from Ottawa who founded the Web’s first travel blogging platform in 1997, TravelPod.com. TravelPod was acquired by Expedia in Dec 2006. Luc is currently working for Expedia as TravelPod’s General Manager. In 2008 Luc was a recipient of the Ottawa Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 award. Luc has lead the creation of several award winning products such as the Traveler IQ Challenge (Canadian New Media Award for Excellent in Social Media) and TravelPod (“Top 100 sites you can’t live without” - PC Magazine). Luc stays involved with the startup community by coaching young startups, presenting, hosting and attending startup events and blogging on StartupOttawa.com. When he’s not working Luc stays busy thinking up new ideas, traveling (or dreaming about travel) and being a new dad.
Laurence Gutcher, CFO, Infobright
As Infobright’s CFO, Laurence leads the development and implementation of financial best practices throughout company operations and manages important administrative functions such as human resources. Laurence joined Infobright from PriceMetrix, Inc., a privately held company specializing in advisor productivity solutions for the full-service brokerage industry. During his tenure there, he successfully drove the annual strategic and business planning process. Prior to PriceMetrix, Laurence served as CFO and corporate secretary at Necho Systems Corp., Nevex Software Technologies Inc., and INEX Corporation where, among other duties, he led successful exit strategies for these companies, as well as various debt and equity financings.He started his career at Bell Canada where he held a variety of management positions. Laurence is a certified management accountant (CMA) and holds an M.B.A. from the Richard Ivey School of Business and a B.A.Sc. from University of Toronto. He also studied at Handelshogskolan, the Stockholm School of Economics.
