Open Garden Expands Executive Team in Preparation for Network Launch
Thursday, June 21st, 2018
Written by Open Garden staff.
With plans to disrupt a trillion-dollar industry, Open Garden appoints two new executive team members to deploy its breakthrough people-powered Internet service.
Chander Chawla is Open Garden’s new Vice President of Product. He joins the company from EVER, a consumer app that made TV shows discoverable and purchasable, where he was the CEO & Co-Founder.
“Open Garden is creating a people-to-people connectivity marketplace just like Airbnb and Lyft created people-to-people marketplaces for lodging and ridesharing, respectively,” said Chawla. “I am very excited to be working on a product that will be used by millions of people worldwide, leveraging blockchain and new connectivity technologies.” he added.
Justin Ried also joins Open Garden as Vice President of Marketing, with more than 15 years of experience in the wireless industry at companies including Helio, Palm and HTC. Justin previously led marketing for HTC Creative Labs — the company’s innovation hub and new business incubator. Justin and his team were instrumental in the launch of several new product categories for the company, including virtual reality with the acclaimed HTC Vive.
“We’re going to make Internet access faster, cheaper, and more private for people all over the world. We’re enabling everyone to fully utilize the bandwidth they’re already paying for, reclaim their privacy from snooping ISPs, and ensuring they can access the content and services they want without fear of government censorship.” said Ried. “We don’t need huge ISPs consolidating their power by buying up content providers. What we need is an entirely new service model that puts people first, and that’s what Open Garden is building.” he added.
Open Garden CEO, Paul Hainsworth, concurred. “This is how the Internet was originally envisioned. A network of billions of people, facilitating the free flow of information. Open Garden’s network protocols enable people to share their Internet connections with each other in a safe and secure way.” he said. “Chander and Justin have already hit the ground running, and we’re excited to have their expertise on tap as we deliver the benefits of Open Garden to millions of people.” added Hainsworth.
Open Garden’s network protocol is functionally complete, as the development team completes its Android client beta this month. The company’s cryptocurrency token, OG, uses the Stellar Network to facilitate the buying and selling of Internet access through Open Garden WiFi hotspots. Open Garden plans to give away millions of dollars’ worth Internet access by gifting to participants. This will enable a kind of try-and-buy program for several hundred thousand people to kick the tires on this new way of connecting to the Internet.
Find us on #Telegram, #Twitter and #Facebook, or sign up for email updates on opengarden.com. Open Garden is changing the way people connect to the Internet. By enabling anyone to securely share their own Internet connection and earn money, the Open Garden protocol empowers millions of people to create their own networks in their own communities, while making Internet access more affordable, faster and private.
