About Us

Every company has a story. Here’s ours.

About Chargify

In 2009, the founders of Grasshopper saw the need for a modern Software-as-a-Service offering to meet the needs of businesses that need to manage subscriptions and bill customers. The market seemed to be filled with clunky, off-the-shelf systems and enterprise solutions that charged huge set up and transaction fees. So, they decided to build an intelligent billing application system themselves, and Chargify was born.

Developed by a team with more than twenty years of combined experience, Chargify is a reliable web-based service (Ruby on Rails framework, simple API, self-service business model) operated within a solid corporate structure (experienced staff and solid financials). We know the unique demands a business can face when it comes to billing and that’s why we’re committed to providing a truly outstanding recurring billing application engineered for the long-haul.

The team was joined by Lance Walley in 2009, co-founder and former CEO of Engine Yard, a well-known company in the Ruby on Rails hosting market.

Who We Are

The videos and images to the right show our Boston office, Support Center and our Kansas City data center.

Our data center is literally one of the most respected in the U.S. for businesses that care about financial data and PCI requirements. They are experts in the field, which benefits Chargify and our merchants.

Meet The Team

@lancewalley

Lance Walley, Co-Founder & CEO

Before joining Chargify in 2009, Lance co-founded Engine Yard in 2006, which grew into a key player in the Ruby on Rails space. As the company grew toward 100 employees, Lance and his co-founders recruited someone more experienced to take on the CEO role. Before Engine Yard, Lance founded Quality Humans in 2001 to provide Perl consulting services, and before that he co-founded Parallax in 1987, which makes tiny computers that can still be purchased worldwide. Personal time: motorcycles, cowboy boots, inde coffeehouses, The Economist.

@moklett

Michael Klett, Co-Founder & Technical Lead

Michael is a former hardware engineer who designed circuit boards for Alcatel, and parts of the XBOX 360 CPU for IBM. After his adoption of Ruby on Rails, Michael left the hardware world in 2007 to pursue web development full-time. He launched his own company, Web Advocate, to create custom e-commerce sites and content management systems, and ran it for two years. Now, as co-founder & Technical Lead of Chargify, Michael leads all of Chargify's development. He derives particular enjoyment from working on applications that help entrepreneurs. Michael holds a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Engineering from NC State University. In his free time, Michael enjoys playing soccer, snowboarding, and putting together puzzles with his daughter.

@npverni

Nathan Verni, Applications Engineer

Nathan Verni is a NYC based web developer who has been working with Rails since early 2006. Nathan led the open source development team at Blenderbox, an award winning interactive agency in Brooklyn, where he learned the value of working with small, passionate teams and the meaning of the term “pixel-perfect”. He believes in lower-case ‘a’ agile development and iteratively building useful products. Though Ruby is his primary language, he also keeps up with the Django, Scala and .NET MVC communities. When not coding, Nathan enjoys discovering new music, reading the classics, and hanging out with his wife and cat. He has a B.S. in Information Systems from Syracuse University.

@shayfrendt

Shay Frendt, Applications Engineer

Before joining Chargify, Shay took a week-long road trip with a couple friends where he tried to come up with a witty bio for this page. Instead, he ended up on a casino cruise boat winning some money. Thus, about us pages have been very profitable for Shay lately. Also, he's a Ruby developer with a business degree, which has left him wondering if he cares more about accounting or counting arrays.

@brentmc79

Brent Collier, Applications Engineer

After stumbling upon Ruby in 2007 Brent went on to co-found and develop Yappd, a microblogging social network built on Rails and has since continued to hone his Rails skills, concentrating on social content and collaboration. When he's not writing Ruby code, Brent enjoys spending time with his wife and kids and homebrewing beer.

@drewzhrodague

Drew Zhrodague, Systems Administrator

Drew from Zhrodague is a 300 ft tall fire-breathing dotcom monster. While not toppling buildings and elevated railways, he brings a wealth of experience with systems administration and large-scale sites on the Internet. Drew is also known for creating WiFiMaps.com and Pittsburgh's Wireless Community, contributor for O'Reilly's Mapping Hacks and Google Maps Hacks, as organizer for dorkbotpgh, and once fixed a diesel-powered robot with a penny and scotch tape.

@chargify

Ed L'Italien, Head of Support

Ed leads our 24/7 support teams. He's responsible for providing great customer support through proper staffing & training of our Tier 1 & Tier 2 support teams.

@djbyter

Kori Francis, Support

Based in Kingston, Ontario - Kori is a web developer who's been working with .NET since he graduated in 2006. Kori found his niche with small teams working on Medical Information Management Systems. When not developing, Kori enjoys playing drums, running [The Kingston Meistersingers](http://www.meistersingers.ca) and helping out the regional/national improvisation scene.

@rcrusha

Riki Crusha, Staff Accountant

Riki has been involved in accounting for the past 20+ years and has been an integral part of some recent startups. Engine Yard with Lance Walley is listed among these. When not buried in the books, she enjoys her kids, boating, shooting, and golfing.

@siamak

Siamak Taghaddos, Co-Founder & Advisor

Siamak Taghaddos is co-founder & CEO of Grasshopper. A lifelong student of marketing & branding, Siamak is one of the youngest CEOs to have lead a company to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in U.S., has been named to BusinessWeek's Top 5 Under 25 entrepreneurs list, Inc. Magazine's 30 Under 30 list, and was named as the Massachusetts Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the SBA. He has been featured in various publications including the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, CNN, FOX News, and other media.

@dh

David Hauser, Co-Founder & Advisor

David Hauser is co-founder of Grasshopper. A passionate technologist, he is one of the youngest co-founders to have lead a company to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in U.S. He was also co-founder of Return Path, an e-mail performance management company, and founder of WebAds360, an ad-serving technology provider for small and mid-sized businesses. David has been featured on CNN, named one of Boston Business Journal’s “40 Under 40,” and has been featured in the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal and many other publications.

@mcuban

Mark Cuban, Investor

Mark Cuban is the highly successful entrepreneur and investor who founded HDNet, Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions. In July 2011, Mark invested in Chargify. Mark’s experience and wisdom building great companies gets us even more excited for the future of Chargify.