Paul Gross - CEO

Paul joined Sampa in 2006 to help formulate the company's business and strategic direction. He joined Sampa as a logical progression from his role as an executive-in-residence at Ignition Partners where he evaluated business opportunities in the blogosphere. He has more than 25 years of experience in the software industry and has shipped dozens of products that range from consumer devices to enterprise servers. Paul was previously a senior vice president with Microsoft Corporation where he owned the end-to-end business for mobile devices. Prior to Microsoft, Paul was a senior vice president at Borland International. He is married and has two young children. When he isn't working at Sampa or playing with his children, Paul is an active venture philanthropist who raises money for children's hospitals and sits on the board of directors of the Hydrocephalus Association. He rarely finds time for surfing, motocross, Ultimate Frisbee and squash.

Marcelo Calbucci - Founder and CTO

Marcelo founded Sampa in 2005 after almost a decade of frustrations in building websites for friends and family, using tools that most would find too difficult to use. Before Sampa, Marcelo was a development manager at Microsoft where he worked in the MSN division. Marcelo has been developing software professionally and for fun for more than 20 years. He is passionate about using technology to solve people's problems, big or small. Prior to Microsoft, he worked at NEC and before that he was studying Computer Science which he got a degree for. In his spare time, Marcelo is an "almost famous" blogger with a personal blog, an entrepreneurship blog, a cooking blog, and a family blog. He also likes to cook, play soccer with friends, and spend time with his wife and two-year-old son.

Dave Sampson - Vice President of Marketing

Dave Sampson helps bring emerging technologies to market. He has over fifteen years' experience developing market strategies, managing products and building brands for early-stage technology companies. Prior to joining Sampa, Dave led product development and marketing for several startups and established software companies. He and his wife have a daughter who asks why there aren't any "boys-cheese sandwiches," and a son who doesn't like "soil and vinegar" salad dressing. Dave serves as an advisor to startups and teaches marketing for the University of Washington's Software Product Management Certificate Program. He holds a BA in Social Philosophy from Marquette University and an MBA from the University of Washington.

Roy Leban - Director of User Experience

Roy's mission at Sampa is to enable millions of people to share their lives in ways they couldn't before, by providing them with a web service that is both easy to use and powerful. An expert at both usability and software development, Roy came to Sampa from DreamBox Learning, where he was instrumental in building an innovative educational content development and delivery platform from the ground up. Roy has shipped more than twenty commercial products and services, including groundbreaking products in desktop productivity, early tablet computers, and web publishing. Roy spent five years at Microsoft, where he worked on Microsoft Access, Microsoft Office, and the bCentral web service. Roy has played a leadership role in a half-dozen startup companies, including ones sold to Ashton-Tate and AT&T. He has three issued patents and fourteen patents pending. Roy's spare time is filled with photography, puzzle construction, pizza making, writing and blogging, plus his wife, two kids, and a Parakeet.

Parag Vaish - Director of Business Development

Parag is responsible for developing new distribution partnerships for Sampa. He has held Marketing, Finance and Business Development positions at The Walt Disney Company and Microsoft. Parag successfully launched the marketing efforts for Disney Auctions presented by eBay, the ESPNStore.com, and various B2B marketing efforts for Microsoft (Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions). In his most recent position, Parag was responsible for the go-to-market strategies for all advertising properties of Microsoft, including the advertising offerings of Hotmail, MSNBC, Xbox, Windows Live, MSN, Digg, and Facebook. He holds an MBA and an MS in Information Systems from Boston University, and a BS in Finance from California State University, Northridge. Parag enjoys snowboarding, movies, traveling in Asia with his wife, and playing video games with his nephews.