Wim: Co-Founder
Now: Living the dream, trying to become a developer
Before: Wim spent a couple of years as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, co-founded an internet start-up in DVD Rental, and spent a year in Shanghai with a Chinese rapid prototyping startup. Before all this, Wim got a MSc. in Aerospace Engineering (all pretty useful these days..) and took a gap year to travel the world.
Enjoys: Start-up life, jumping out of airplanes, adrenalin, daring his friends
Bertrand: Co-Founder
Now: Getting a new business off the ground, there's nothing more exciting...
Before: Bertrand started more conventionally as a strategy guy at The Boston Consultant Group, and a Harvard MBA. But the blood from his entrepreneurial dad started boiling. After reaching the final of the MIT Business Plan contest with Agrivida (a biotech company), he joined Amazon.com in Seattle before coming back to London to launch and run the DVD rental group across EU.
Enjoys: All sports that involve a ball, marathons
Peter: VP of Development
Now: No Peter, no bragster.com - it's that simple. It would still be a powerpoint slideshow. Peter, or PVDB, is a worldwide Ruby on Rails guru. Oh, and a proud Belgian too, with all the good things that come with it.
Before: Peter experienced the big American corporations (AT&T Wireless, Walt Disney, Fannie Mae). After declining to join a tiny start-up called Amazon.com in 1995, he found his entrepreneurial side, as a consultant and with start-ups like Flutter.com (acquired by Betfair).
Enjoys: Shiner and Stella
Chris: Senior Developer
Now: Chris wrangles ruby in the back end. Not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.
Before: Chris worked on the delights of billing systems for the Man.
Enjoys: footy, not being at work late, in theory being married - not that he's seen her since he got back!!
Andy: Web & Flash Developer
Now: Andy creates our flash applications as well as doing lots of web development. His epic front-end skills also include XHTML, JavaScript and CSS.
Before: Andy has a degree in English, which led seamlessly into a career in web design.
Enjoys: West Ham United, quitting smoking and then starting again
Luke: Lead Designer
Now: Luke was brought on board to design the new bragster. He also makes sure the bragster merch’ is up to scratch and occasionally edits as well.
Before: His best brags are graduating from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication with a first class honors degree and having lived in Brooklyn, New York for 7 months.
Enjoys: Effective information hierarchy, alignment, chunking, consistency and function-specific constraint. A big fan of the principle of affordance. He also "likes to party".
Ash: Token Female Employee
Now: Ash makes sure the Bragster community (you guys) are happy and heard. She is also drawing up plans to build a fountain that spurts Dr Pepper and skittles at Bragster HQ, which she will build with her bare hands.
Before: Ash discovered green tea noodle salad for sale at uni, and it got her back there every day for 3 years. Graduation saw her set out into the big bad world, and head from her home of Melbourne, Australia to London…which is a lot colder.
Enjoys: Jimmy Stewart movies, cider, karaoke, her nephew Leroy, playing snake on old Nokia phones, World Tour with the Gazal Family Band, and staring at the guy on the tube everyday who looks like Sloan from Grey's Anatomy.
Dan: Community Manager
Now: Dan makes sure everyone has a great time on Bragster, and a lot more besides! He is also attempting to convert everyone at HQ to the ways of the plaid shirt.
Before: Dan spent 3 years in Oxford, running a bar, organising social things for Rock music fans, and getting a tattoo of a mustache on his finger. Oh, and he studied a bit of physics too.
Enjoys: Energy drinks, Nine Inch Nails, liqourice, writing novels under ridiculous time constraints, and plays a bit too much M:tG...
Adam: Content and Creative Manager
Now: Joined the team with Dan on national plaid day, but forgot to tell anyone else. Responsible for a mash-up of bragster type goodies surrounding content, and creativity! (This stuff writes itself...)
Before: Originally hailing from Northamptonshire, Middle Earth. Graduated with a first in Special Effects Design without blowing anything up. Bonus.
Enjoys: Attempting to ride a beachcruiser and survive in London, slapping, popping, muting and generally hammering on, getting 'inked' yo, alter egos...