Meet Searchspring
The people and personalities behind our brand.
Our Leadership Team
Peter Messana
CEO
Peter has over 16 years of experience in the retail and technology space. Previously, he co-founded Austin Kayak, and was COO of GroupBy as well as CEO and President of Summit Sports. Additionally, Peter has held leadership roles at Dell and Home Depot, and is regarded as one of the leading retail technology minds in digital commerce.
Fun Fact: When he’s not immersed in all things ecommerce, Peter can be found exploring the great outdoors with his family.
Will Warren
CTO
Will brings 30 years of experience in building software to the Searchspring team. He previously worked at Endeca Technologies and was Co-founder and CTO of GroupBy Inc. – both of which have equipped him with extensive knowledge of ecommerce search, merchandising, and faceted navigation.
Fun Fact: In his spare time, Will is an executive contributor to Battlesnake, a platform that brings developers of all skill levels together to write AI snake bots and do battle online.
Dori Salisbury
SVP of Operations
Dori has extensive Customer Relationship Management experience and a proven track record of process development, revenue growth, and customer satisfaction. Having previously worked with private equity, venture capital, and public companies, she brings a wide range of organizational experience to Searchspring.
Fun Fact: Outside of work, you’ll find Dori on the golf course, or spending as much time as possible on or near the water.
Chantele Gibson
VP of Sales & Partnerships
Chantele has been with Searchspring since its early days, working in roles spanning sales and partnerships. Having led and developed our partner program, she has built strategic alliances with tech, agency, and platform partners across the globe.
Fun Fact: When she’s not in Colorado Springs, you’ll find Chantele in Cabo. She considers it her unofficial second home, and visits every chance she gets.
JoAnn Martin
VP of Marketing
JoAnn has had the pleasure of running marketing strategies for companies from a multinational non-profit to a Fortune 100 tech giant, to the most inspiring SMBs and startups you’ll ever meet. She takes it as her calling in life to remind the world that buyers are also humans, that marketing should be helpful, and our sights lofty.
Fun Fact: JoAnn enjoys reading, mountain biking, and trail running, so send her a recommendation for your favorite book, bike, or trail!
Ten Chu
VP of Product
Ten started his career at the Chicago Tribune Company, as part of the team developing and supporting the very first version of the chicagotribune.com. Since then, his career has spanned across various industries, from media, to location based services, education technology, and high-frequency trading.
Fun Fact: In 2018, Ten pursued his passion for traveling by spending six months on a world adventure across 3 continents and five countries, including China, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and the U.S.
Kate Massey
Head of APAC
Kate brings over 12 years of APAC SaaS experience to our leadership team, and is committed to empowering local merchants to build high-converting shopping journeys. Her successful track record has earned her multiple accolades, including CEO Magazine 2018 Young Executive of the Year and 2018 and 2019 CMO Magazine’s Top CMO50.
Fun fact: Kate has raised $100k for Cure Cancer Australia as part of her annual fundraising challenges, which have included running the New York Marathon and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
Mark Heinkel
VP of Finance
Mark brings over 15 years of financial experience with 10 years in the San Antonio technology space. Having worked in fast-paced, dynamic organizations, he brings a measured approach to achieving business goals. He enjoys the challenge of translating the complex into the relatable and focusing on growing strengths of the team.
Fun Fact: Mark enjoys distance running, traveling, and practicing the outdoor skills he used to possess back when he became an Eagle Scout.
Get to know our teams
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Customer Success
Engineering
Product
Implementations
Marketing
Partnerships
Sales
Customer Success
The sidekicks to your ecommerce team.
A team of dedicated problem-solvers, we spend our days helping customers achieve their goals through training and account optimization. Ask us about the success stories of our clients or our future product ideas - we can talk about both all day. We’re passionate about providing a great customer experience for each client who joins the Searchspring family.
Fun Fact:
We’re a team of dog-lovers! Everyone in Customer Success has a pet pup, and we even bring them to the office every now and then.
Engineering
The folks that give you the "Give" in "Give merchandisers superpowers".
A team of builders and creators that figure out how give you the tools to make your shopper's experience perfect, and your conversion and profit maximized. Ask us about anything tech, from scaling Kafka, to delivering software with Agile and Shape Up.Fun Fact:
83% of the engineering and product team want to go to Mars once it's as safe as air travel.
Product
The masterminds behind your solutions.
The Product team builds the solutions that go on to become our clients’ superpowers. How? We follow a cycle of gathering input on what our customers need, mapping out a way forward, guiding development, measuring success, and sharing our product knowledge with other teams. And repeat. We’re all about turning problems into solutions.Ask us about:
The Betting Process! It’s the methodology we use to pitch new product ideas and get the best of them to market as quickly as possible.
Implementations
The whizzes that get you up and running.
A group of Solutions Engineers and UI/UX Developers, we on the Implementations Team do a whole lot more than just install the pixels. Through product data audits, development of functional mockups, and website integration support, we are responsible for every step of our customer’s journey from time of sign-up to go-live. We take great pride in our work that ultimately gets published to the online world, so rest assured, your on-boarding experience will be a successful one.Fun Fact:
James Bathgate, our VP of Implementations, was the very first hire for Searchspring. Over a decade later, he has grown our team into a well-oiled machine.
Marketing
The story-tellers that can’t wait to showcase your results.
Also known as The Squid (a squad typo that stuck), we’re a team of campaign-creators and media-makers who spend our days fashioning words, pictures, and numbers into a brand. Our favorite thing to talk about is our customers. As hard as we try, nothing showcases Searchspring quite like our epic client websites. We love a good brand story, so we’re here to lend some PR hype and generally proclaim your brilliance to the world.Fun Fact:
Between us, we speak seven languages fluently, and can make broken attempts at about five others.
Partnerships
The finders of the perfect fit for your project.
Looking for an experienced ecommerce UX designer? Need an SEO expert? We can point you in the right direction. Whether it’s teaming up with leading ecommerce platforms or identifying the best technical and creative agencies for our clients’ needs, we’re always on the lookout for opportunities to better serve our customers.Our favorite thing about our job:
We're always planning our next trip. We love visiting partners in different cities, meeting them at trade shows, and catching up over dinner while we're in town.
Sales
The experts in helping you decide if we’re the right fit for your business.
A team of dedicated solution sellers with over 40 years of combined experience in the ecommerce industry, we approach our work from a position of integrity. We pride ourselves on being valuable assets to our clients by exposing and solving specific pain points to accelerate their businesses.Fun Fact:
The Sales team has some of our longest-tenured employees in the company - one rep has 20 years under his belt, by way of Nextopia (shout out to Chris!).
