COLLECTIVE

The Collective.

Experts across design, engineering, product, and more — ready to help you level up.

Dean Kroker

Founder · Outpost

Serial builder with 15 years shipping products and managing design, engineering, and product teams. Four startups — two exits. Led product at Microsoft. Personally hired 100+ engineers and designers, reviewed 10,000+ resumes. I build AI-first workflows and agentic systems that make small teams punch way above their weight. B.S. in Computer Science & Business from Lehigh University. Board member at multiple non-profits. Guitarist, gymnast, cyclist, competitive tennis player.

Michael Green

AI Researcher · NYU

Engineering591 happy customers

Michael holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from New York University. His research uses video games as one domain with which to study A.I, and how A.I. systems can be applied to teaching things. He has experience as in both software engineering and product management in a varitey of companies, from startups to enterprise software teams.

Don Scott

GM, AI Marketing · Microsoft

Engineering464 happy customers

General Manager of AI Product Marketing at Microsoft. Deep expertise in data platforms, AI strategy, and bringing technical products to market. Helps teams navigate the intersection of engineering and business.

Ahmed Khalifa

AI Researcher · University of Malta

Engineering43 happy customers

Ahmed Khalifa is an AI researcher/lecturer at the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta. They got their PhD from New York University back in 2020. They have published more than 60 papers between workshops, conferences, and journals. Their work focused on exploring different methods and techniques for generating game content. They are known for their research on PCGRL, PCG with Quality Diversity, and Deep Tingle. They are also an independent game designer/developer with more than 40 released games/prototypes. Some of their games were nominated for multiple awards in different conferences such IndiePrize, Melbourne Queer Games Festival, Queer Games Conference, and International Mobile Game Awards.

Abhay Sawney

Product Manager · Microsoft

Product40 happy customers

Product Manager at Microsoft Azure Portal focused on building customer-facing features and driving product growth.

Claire Goetschel

UX Designer · Google

Design37 happy customers

UX Designer at Google specializing in design systems, UX strategy, and interaction design. Passionate about understanding the full scope of a project to deliver targeted, high-impact feedback.

Scott Lusk

Software Engineer · GitHub

Engineering33 happy customers

Experienced Senior Software Engineer with over 16 years of experience. Have worn many different hats across different positions (Principal Solution Architect, Principal Software Engineer, etc.). Have a proven track record building APIs and Modern Web Applications and specializing in Microsoft Azure and solution architecture. Expert in leading teams to deliver client-centric solutions, leveraging DevOps practices, understands full stack development well and follows software development patterns and best practices. Demonstrates exceptional technical leadership and a commitment to driving client and team success through innovative software solutions. Has a continuous learning and continuous improvement attitude, highly collaborative with others.

Matthew Gotteiner

Product Manager · Microsoft

Product32 happy customers

I am an engineer-turned product manager with a passion for building products that delight customers and drive growth. Currently working on an AI-enhanced search platform, Azure AI Search.

Hiyo Shin

UX Designer · Microsoft

Design31 happy customers

Senior UX Designer at Microsoft with 13+ years of experience, specializing in CLI tools and Azure design. Former UX Engineer with strong technical background in frontend development. Passionate about accessibility and inclusive design, with expertise in bridging the gap between development and design.

Samantha Fernandez

Product Manager · Microsoft

Product26 happy customers

As a Product Manager at Microsoft, I specialize in generative AI and front-end UX for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Virtual Machines. I lead cross-functional teams to deliver enterprise-requested features that enhance user engagement and efficiency. My expertise in UX design methods, including customer interviews, usability testing, Figma prototyping, and A/B testing, has led to significant improvements in user satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores across Azure. Before joining Microsoft, I honed my skills at The Walt Disney companies and American Express, where I led quality assurance and UI design projects, streamlining processes and advocating for accessibility. I am dedicated to serving customers, leveraging user feedback and data analysis to continually optimize the user experience and ensure product-market fit. My extensive background in the technology industry highlights my commitment to delivering top-notch products and driving customer success. Outside of work, I love Pilates, Zumba, rock concerts, glitch art, the Fallout and Witcher video game series, and Linkin Park!

Joseph A. Scaravilli

Cloud Solution Architect · Microsoft

Engineering12 happy customers

Since 2014, I have focused on implementing highly secure and performant Azure solutions. I specialize in Azure adoption readiness and planning, hybrid-Cloud networking, workload migrations, and applying Well-Architected principles to critical applications. Prior to 2014, I spent a decade supporting various on-premises Enterprise systems.

Philip Bontrager

ML Engineer · Meta

Engineering9 happy customers

AI researcher & ML engineer working on PyTorch torchtune at Meta. Worked in the past on production-level diffusion models, semantic search, and physics simulations.; PhD from NYU in generative models, RL, and evolutionary strategies.

Adrian Perez

Software Engineer · Microsoft

Engineering7 happy customers

Second generation, Cuban-American software engineer passionate about enriching the lives of others through meaningful system design. From the very beginning of my computer science and mathematics journey, I have regarded artificial intelligence as the prime way of impacting people; enabling any person or group to engage in spaces once thought to be out of reach. This shows through my current work at Xbox as well as prior research in natural language processing, AI for weather systems, underwater robotics. \n \n I received my B.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Mathematics from Florida International University (FIU). At FIU I engaged in active research for AI across several fields: meterology, NLP, and robotics. I also was heavily engaged in the hackathon community where I bridged the gap between research and production in short-time frames. I am proud to say that I was also heavily involved with the INIT organization as a student leader and contributor.

Aimee Wu

UX Designer · Microsoft

Design5 happy customers

I'm UX/Product Designer passionate about incorporating great interaction designs to improve user experiences. I have a dual background in informatics and accounting management. I position myself as a designer that greatly values user research and branding strategies to help problem solve the target audience's day-to-day challenges! More at https://www.aimeeijouwu.com

Munad Mahinoor

Engineering Director · PayPal

Engineering4 happy customers

I've been working at PayPal for 8+ years going from the ground up as a college hire to now the director of credit engineering.\n\nI'm passionate to share how you can build sustainable growth in your career, breaking down the context you need to gain along the way.\n\nHave worked on planetary scale based products like PayPal checkout, venmo but also led multiple internal facing tools so can talk about the different facets of being customer focused\n\nOutside of work I like hanging out with my dogs, playing games and rooting for Liverpool FC.

Bryan Oubaita

Security Lead · Amazon

Engineering4 happy customers

Bryan has a breadth of technical experiences spanning various industries and projects. His experiences include working with large multi-national corporations, universities, professional service firms and financial institution clients on operational, governance and cyber security strategy projects. Bryan has experience working on SailPoint deployment, enterprise security architecture assessments, data protection strategy and war dialing. Having taken part in various phases; from ensuring compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to the development of implementation plan and high-level architecture for end-to-end encryption, as well as the design of a future state enterprise security roadmap; for Fortune 500 companies, Bryan brings an informed perspective to any cybersecurity engagement.

Aviva LeShaw

Marketing Manager · Square

Marketing4 happy customers

I am a Partner Marketing Manager at Square, specializing in driving growth for retail sellers through innovative marketing strategies. Over my six years with Square, I've held various roles in content, partner marketing, and recruiting. (I've pivoted from recruiting to marketing, so can help advise there). In my current role, I manage co-marketing campaigns with retail partners.

Abhishek Bhombore

Software Engineer · Microsoft

Engineering3 happy customers

Abhishek is a Senior Software Engineer working on AI experiences for the Azure Portal. Perviously, he worked on building and scaling Infra-as-a-Service offerings on Azure, including Azure virtual machines, Azure Kubernetes Service, and more. Talk to him about building 0 to 1 products, get his input on your resume, and more.

Todd Rosenbaum

Account Executive · Salesforce

Sales2 happy customers

I am passionate about working with businesses to meet/exceed their respective growth goals and engage with their customers through innovative and personalized, results-oriented solutions. I enjoy working with a diverse and collaborative team that strives to create and demonstrate value and impact on a daily basis.