We’re growing — and fast! Today, Basket announced that it hired a new head of our shopper community as well as leads in finance, sales, and engineering. That means our start-up has doubled in size in just two months, and is racing to expand its grocery platform, making it even easier and faster to compare in-store and online prices, and put shoppers in control.
CEO and Co-Founder Neil Kataria said that Basket is moving full-speed ahead in, “Bringing in the brightest and the best talent to our Arlington-based headquarters.” With Washington, D.C. or Northern Virginia on the short list of areas for Amazon to establish its second headquarters, Neil also added, “Basket’s goal is to help make the DMV [D.C., Maryland, Virginia] a destination for a high-tech and consumer-focused workforce that thrives on innovative start-up culture.”
Coming onboard our team is Amira El-Gawly, Vice President of Community; Jason Rubinstein, Vice President of Finance; Brian Hoffner, Director of Sales; Kiran Devarakonda, Lead Engineer; and Kyle Caston, Senior Software Engineer Team Lead. Check out our press release here.
Each of these individuals bring a wealth of experience and diverse skills. But, they all share a determination to change how grocery shopping is done, so none of us overpay for groceries again.
Amira will be leading Basket’s community of nearly 750 flex team members: Members who are in the field across every U.S. state and complete missions to make real-time grocery prices accessible and transparent to consumers nationwide. These are our people in the field who want to make an impact on their local community and make money at the same time, at their own convenience.
For Amira, inspiration comes from the dedication and collective knowledge of the Basket community. “I am honored to lead, grow and nurture the community to greater purpose, action and fulfillment,” she says. “Basket has the opportunity to radically improve how Americans buy groceries – a fundamental part of our daily lives.” She has spent the last decade designing experiences and organizations, both cultural and business, aimed to inspire and bring out the best in people. (We love that!)
Our finance head, Jason, started his career as a nuclear submarine officer with the U.S. Navy. He eventually made his way to Google, and then later to Marketo, the marketing automation platform. He says that one of the best parts of working at Basket is having a front seat in the effort to change the grocery industry for the better.
While Brian has worked at a number of start-ups in the Washington, D.C. region, and most recently, Urban Stems flower delivery, he says that Basket is a place, “Where I can learn to become a better leader and businessman.”
For Kiran, who has a background in improving web frameworks, Basket presents the opportunity to participate in interesting technical domains including big data, blockchain, machine learning, and data science.
And, in addition to the technical challenges that are exciting for Kyle, who will be building and leading the engineering team, he says there is the additional draw of working for a company with, “Huge potential to be a household name.” He adds, “This app is made for anyone that buys groceries, and let’s face it… That’s just about everyone!”
Agreed, Kyle! Basket is looking forward to continuous growth the next few months, all in the name of grocery savings. We hope you’ll join us for the ride.
