HOPR Angel Employees
Let’s talk about our most valuable asset: our team!
They say you’re only as good as the team around you — and a company is only as successful as their individuals — so every single team member is extraordinarily important. A great team is like a Masterpiece, a Swiss watch for example, where we all mutually motivate each other. Here at HOPR, we aim to create an environment of trust, while surrounding ourselves with the best — those who are independent, self-starters, and aren’t satisfied with the status quo. This can clash with the fact that we need to stay speedy and lean ahead of our mainnet launch later this year, so we have honed in on very talented individuals who are capable of handling an ambitious work load. Yet, we still want everyone to have fun while achieving our data privacy project goals!
Although we are a very early startup, we already have a professional recruitment platform to perfect the HR processes while looking for talent. This allows us to scale while looking for the right fit. An elementary part of this process is a very special questionnaire, which checks on the cultural match. Qualifications and experiences are not everything. Plus, it gives small initial insights into the potential of candidates.
Although most of our team came by way of trusted recommendations or personal relationships, which helped our comfort level considerably, everybody was asked to go through the same process as other applicants. We also may happen to have the most international team of any Swiss startup around, which we believe strengthens our core product because of the diverse personalities, influences, and perspectives represented. Like any good partnership, we are equally thankful they chose to be part of the HOPR team. Without further ado, let me present our team…
José Aguinaga
Head of Engineering
Originally from Mexico, but based in Switzerland for the last seven years, José is a cryptography enthusiast and a privacy advocate. Back in 2017, Jose was already speaking at various conferences about the surreal nature of how users willingly give away their privacy. It’s no wonder he has been involved in the Blockchain industry since then and hasn’t looked back!
With over 10 years experience in high-growth startups, José has built and led engineering teams from inception to profitability while researching the possibilities of cryptography in the tech industry. His desire to chase and solve problems has taken him from México City to San Francisco, Bali to Vancouver, all the way to Zürich. José crossed paths with HOPR Founder, Dr. Sebastian Bürgel, at Validity Labs, where José was a technical lead in charge of the development of Blockchain end-to-end solutions for enterprise customers.
José joined HOPR and accepted the challenge of building up our engineering task force and ecosystem from the ground floor. He’s excited about the possibilities of creating a more private-friendly world leveraging decentralised technologies. Also, José is just a great guy to work with! Well-liked by everyone, he has been hosting our hour-long testnet gaming sessions as a one-man band! He has a diverse array of interests, including drawing, writing, traveling, and being the chief photographer for his wife in random places!
Kevin Leu
Head of Marketing
Based out of San Francisco, Kevin began his career as a television news reporter, working out of several markets in Idaho, Ohio, and California. He left news to work for a startup (MerchantCircle) in 2006, leading PR and Community, which was acquired for $60M in 2011. Since then, he has founded his own travel startup (which failed after two years, but provided him with invaluable insight), led PR for the international non-profit Girls in Tech (advocating and empowering women entering — and working in — technology fields), and led the Marketing and PR efforts for Tubi TV, which was acquired by Fox Corp. earlier this year for $440M.
In the blockchain space, Kevin was Head of Marketing for a smart contracts company (Mobius) that was the first to have a token sale on Stellar. That company sold out of their token at $39M, while also raising $3M in venture capital. Most recently, Kevin led the Communications and PR team for Huobi’s US operations.
Kevin has been to 82 countries and was hoping to make it to 100 this year, before the pandemic and Trump decided to take over. He now spends his free time staring out of his window and wondering how many more subscribers he can get before he finishes writing the second HOPR newsletter!
Steven Noni
Software Engineer
As self-starters go, Steven, the youngest member of our team, taught himself how to code. We’re not just talking about rudimentary skills — he won several hackathons, which led to Sebastian taking notice. Steven even won a bounty offered by Sebastian, which pretty much solidified their mutual interest in wanting to one day work together. And when Sebastian, Robert, and I started HOPR, looking for talented individuals, we were able to convince Steven to bring his hacker spirit to HOPR!
Based out of Cyprus (I told you we have the most diverse, international team!), Steven works remotely, but joins the team each month in Zürich. Steven’s previous work focused on security and identity, as he was the lead software engineer at Alcaeus Labs and GlobalStar. He was also previously CIO for GamingForGood, a platform that allows gamers to donate a portion of money sent from fans to charities. So far, the platform has raised $23M for Save the Children, dedicated to newborn survival programs around the world.
In his spare time, Steven likes to go on long hiking trips and… you guessed it… participate in hackathons!
Rich McDowell
Content Creator
You may catch yourself in a deep, philosophical discussion with Rich on any number of topics, which makes sense, since he has a degree in Philosophy from Cambridge University. Normally a full-time digital nomad, but currently hunkered down in the U.K. waiting for the pandemic to pass, Rich has been working with blockchain/crypto organizations since 2016. Mostly focused on privacy technology, Rich has also recently been working on the Marshallese sovereign (SOV), the world’s first crypto legal tender.
Rich began working with Sebastian after being introduced through a mutual friend. What appealed to Rich about HOPR was the company’s pragmatic approach, focusing on business collaborations, while also having a working product before launch.
In Rich’s spare time, he is an avid game designer and crime writer, and was nominated for the UK’s prestigious Debut Dagger crime writing award for both his writing and editing in the same year. On top of HOPR content, he is now handling game strategy for our weekly testnet sessions.
While the core team is based in Switzerland, HOPR is committed to working with the best minds in their respective fields, no matter their location. Our team is continuing to grow, and we’re still hiring! We recently moved into bigger office space at the same location in Zürich, Switzerland, where we will always be headquartered.
On behalf of Sebastian, Robert, and myself, we’d like to thank these early team members for joining us and for wanting to change data privacy for good. (You can read the founder story here!)
Sincerely,
Rik Krieger
Co-Founder HOPR
*#AngelEmployee
These very special first team members, which are the extended core of a startup, are known as outstanding personalities. They support the Founders with their extraordinary engagement and great motivation, but also know-how and trust, in order to get the company up and running. They build the fundamentals of each enterprise and often act as true “angels” towards the founding team.
