LISA RUTHERFORD
Lisa is Coliloquy’s co-founder and CEO. She is delighted to be bringing her years of startup experience “home” to her roots in writing. Previously, Lisa founded Elodie Partners and served as the President of virtual economy pioneer, Twofish (acquired by Live Gamer), and as a venture capitalist with In-Q-Tel, Vista Ventures, and Palo Alto Venture Partners. She wrote for and ran her own freelance writing and marketing agency and worked in M&A at Broadview. Outside of Coliloquy, Lisa serves as an advisor to BulletTime Ventures, Boulder Digital Works, and several startups, as well as a mentor for the TechStars program. She was named an AlwaysON Top 25 Women to Watch in Tech. Lisa has an MBA from Stanford University, an MA from the University of Chicago, and a BA from the Penn State University Scholars Program.
Lisa bought her first Sony PRS-500 in 2006 and has read over 700 ebooks across a rotation of devices. She keeps an annotated list on her phone, so if you give her your reading preferences, she can always recommend a book. Waynn never gave her a copy of Consider the Lobster, but she did download it based on his recommendation.
WAYNN LUE
Waynn is Coliloquy’s co-founder, President, and CTO. The engineer in him is deeply proud of Coliloquy’s innovative technology platform, but the avid reader is humbled to support the creativity and imagination of our authors. Prior to Coliloquy, Waynn co-founded unwrap (acquired by Context Optional then Adobe), a social media marketing platform for non-technical businesses, and worked at Google in the billing engineering group. He is an active angel investor and startup advisor. Waynn has a BS and MS in computer science and a BS in economics, all from Stanford University.
Waynn walked into a telephone pole while reading Ender’s Game. He has read *at least* two Babysitter’s Club books. He started writing a fantasy epic when he was 15 after reading The Wheel of Time…he also stopped writing a fantasy epic when he was 15 (seriously, it was a very bad version of The Wheel of Time). He bought copies of Consider the Lobster for at least 6 people’s birthday gifts (sorry, guys).
SHAYAN GUHA
Shayan is Coliloquy’s Founding Engineer. Before joining Coliloquy, Shayan was a Senior UI Engineer at Glyde, a peer-to-peer e-commerce startup, working on everything from developing APIs to implementing advanced user interfaces. He is very excited to be tackling a new space and playing a role in revolutionizing the reading experience. Shayan has a BS and MS in computer science from Stanford University.
Shayan also didn’t get a copy of Consider the Lobster but checked it out of the library in an attempt to fit in. He has been the proud owner of R.L. Stine’s Goosebump 1-30 and Encyclopedia Brown 1-18 since elementary school, embracing the serialized novel well before Coliloquy made it cool.
JENNIFER LOU
Jen is Coliloquy’s Director of Publishing, Ideas, Editing and Storytelling (aka Director of PIES). Prior to joining Coliloquy, Jen worked at Google, twice – once directly and a second time through AdMob. Her career has spanned across localization, product management, advertising, marketing, electronic trading networks and life coaching. In her free time, Jen runs LitUp Writers, a humor storytelling series based in San Francisco and serves on the Board of Youth Speaks. She has also published a short story in the anthology Breakfast on Mars. Jen has a BS in English Literature from Columbia University.
Jen grew up listening to her father read her Chinese folk tales. She abhorred reading until she discovered Sweet Valley High late in high school. Jen had not heard of Consider The Lobster before proof-reading Waynn’s bio (clearly, she didn’t get a copy either), but she is hoping to read the Cliffs Notes.
MELANIE MURRAY DOWNING
Melanie Murray Downing is Coliloquy’s Executive Editor and token East Coast presence. She has over ten years experience editing books both as a freelancer and in-house for Warner Books and Grand Central Publishing. She writes for BN.com, covering primarily romance and women’s fiction, and has also published four of her own novels, including Miss Bubbles Steals the Show and Good Times, Bad Boys. She has a BFA in Drama from New York University, and knows the words to almost any show tune you can name, as long as it was written prior to 2005.
Melanie’s ereader is now among her most treasured possessions, as it allows her to carry all her books in her bag, and her to-be-edited manuscripts, and several pre-schooler apps that were downloaded by her daughters when Melanie wasn’t looking. She is allergic to shellfish, so would never consider lobster.
AIMEE RADMACHER
Aimee is Coliloquy’s Director of Marketing and Publicity. Prior to joining our team, Aimee worked in Human Resources at several startups including Live Gamer, Twofish and Reactrix. When Aimee is not wrangling reviews from bloggers, she is chasing after her precocious one-year-old daughter. She also enjoys spending time in the great outdoors snowboarding, hiking, and camping with her husband, Eric. Aimee has a BS in Human Development and Family Studies from Colorado State University and spent the better part of 20 years in the Mile High City.
Aimee has the Twilight trilogy proudly displayed on her mantel and is only a little bit ashamed to say that she completely loved it and is still on Team Jacob. She hopped briefly on the 50 Shades bandwagon but only for the first book and then was over it! Now she gets to enjoy reading everything from interactive YA to Erotica. And yes, she knows that she has the best gig in the world!
KIERA O’ROURKE
Kiera is Coliloquy’s Marketing and Editorial Manager. A recent college graduate, she has worked across graphic arts, human rights policy, and childhood education. Kiera continues to explore the relationship between art, rhetoric, and innovation at Coliloquy, while also reading for Stanford’s Undergraduate Admissions team. In her spare time, she enjoys regional theatre, yoga, speaking French with her roommate’s five-year-old daughter, and studying for the LSAT on weekends–sometimes. Kiera has BAs in Comparative Literature and History from Stanford University.
Kiera has always loved books and considered herself a literary expert even at a young age; as a six-year-old, she hated Harry Potter and predicted its failure as a series (she didn’t tell us that until after we hired her). Waynn hasn’t given her Consider the Lobster either, but she’s pretty sure he’s just waiting for the perfect moment.
OJ AND BEATRICE THOMAS
OJ and Beatrice joined as Coliloquy’s Chief Kitten Officers in October 2011. Prior to Coliloquy, they were self-employed as feral kittens. Since joining the company, they have become talkative little loves with gigantic purrs and a penchant for belly rubs. In their free time, they enjoy considering lobsters. They are still skeptical of new people but have come to accept our gifts of food, water, and the occasional shellfish. Beatrice is a Luddite, but you can reach OJ via email: OJ@coliloquy.com.