People often ask us about the Any.do team and who we are. We get it, you want to know the people behind the product you use in your personal and professional life every day. We have the pleasure of meeting our users through Facebook, G+ Communities, Twitter and this blog. Now we want to return the favor by letting you know a little more about who we are as individuals. Cue the music!
The Founders
Omer Perchik’s grandfather trying Any.do for the first time.
Omer Perchik
Title: Founder & CEO
Founded Any.do: 2010
One sentence describing your responsibilities: General generalist
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Go to Japan
- Have 3 kids
- Fly to the moon
- Learn philosophy
- Change the world
Personal Motto: Be the change you want to see in the world (Ghandi)
A secret: I never graduated university
Itay and Genie
Itay Kahana
Title: Co-Founder & CTO
Founded Any.do: 2010
One sentence describing your responsibilities: Do whatever is needed to make Any.do grow and succeed; these days I’m focused on our premium version.
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Build a car from scratch
- Learn to kite surf
- Travel to every continent
- Design my dream house
- Create a happy family
Personal Motto: There is nothing impossible to him who will try (Alexander the Great)
A secret: I don’t have a high school diploma but I got my BA at age 18.
Yoni Lindenfeld
Title: Co-Founder & VP of Engineering
Founded Any.do: 2010
One sentence describing your responsibilities:
Well – I think I’ve come to touch almost every aspect of the company. From writing Android code to balancing the bank account. That’s basically the reason I like my job so much
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Visit all 7 wonders of the world – still have 6 to go
- Open my own brick-and-mortar business (I am imagining maybe a bakery in a small village in france)
- Have a big family
- Live abroad for a while
- Learn Chinese
Personal Motto: Keep calm and carry on.
A secret, or something not too many people know about you: I haven’t seen a single episode of “Game of thrones”… I know.. planning to catch up soon
My message to everyone reading this: Follow your dreams. I know it sounds like a bit of a cliche, but since we were all given a single life, we don’t have time to waste.
The Makers
Adam Siton
Title: iOS Team leader
Year joined Any.do: 2011
One sentence describing your responsibilities: The iOS team and I build to bring the Any.do and Cal experience to iOS.
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Travel to as many countries as I can
- Have a drink with Leonard Cohen (It’s more something to do before he dies..)
- Rent an RV and take a long trip in the USA with my family
- Live in a cool city outside of Israel (New York, San Francisco, Berlin)
- Help a scientific research study that will improve the world
Personal Motto: Don’t trust people who have a motto. A sentence can’t summarize a person.
A secret: I’m a freaking psycho for gummy bears.
Idan Ratzabi
Title: Senior iOS Developer
Year joined Any.do: 2012
One sentence describing your responsibilities: Building Any.Do’s suite of iOS Apps and making sure we maintain the level of perfection we strive for.
Top items on your bucket list:
- Travel to all 6 continents
- Have children
- Speak Spanish fluently
- Have my own business
Personal Motto: One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself
Something not too many people know about you: I really like shoes. I have around 15 pairs and I replace them quite often.
Anything else you’d like to tell us: To all y’all lazy developers out there: go outside a few days a week and do some sport. You have no idea how beneficial that’ll be to your life, health and general feeling.
Guy Griv
Title: Senior Android Developer
Year joined Any.do: 2013
One sentence describing your responsibilities: Make our Android apps delightful.
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Learn how to play guitar
- Have a cameo in a Tarantino movie
- Attend a World Cup final
- Travel to Alaska
- Invent something groundbreaking
Personal Motto: Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man. (The Dude – The Big Lebowski)
Something not too many people know about you: I love singing karaoke.
Anything else you’d like to tell us: You always have the freedom to choose what to think.
Ben Lev
Title: Product Designer
Year joined Any.do: 2013
One sentence describing your responsibilities: I use my brain and Adobe creative suite to design the Any.do experience.
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Learn French and live in Paris for a year
- Learn to play the drums
- Own a DeLorean
- Make the winning shot in a game seven of the NBA finals
- Watch ‘The Goonies’ sequel
Personal Motto: Do good.
A secret, or something not too many people know about you: I’m color blind.
Anything else you’d like to tell us: Take it slow… https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/59749737
Gil Ochayon
Title: Director of Web Development
Year joined Any.do: 2014
One sentence describing your responsibilities: Anything that is web related – web app, website, browser extensions, desktop apps.
Top items on your bucket list:
- Complete an Iron Man Triathlon
- Start my own company
- Climb Kilimanjaro
Personal Motto: Find your passion… then it is no longer work!
A secret: I used to sing in a Russian choir as a child (seriously).
Anything else you’d like to tell us: : Before joining Any.do I worked on multiple consumer related products including Wix HTML5 Editor and Amazon Kindle, bootstrapping multiple successful products from scratch to reach millions. I joined Any.do to help take it to the next level – 100M users here we come.
Favorite hobbies: Reading tech/ history/ fantasy/ business books and magazines, as well as sports like soccer, MMA, running. I recently completed my first half marathon in Jerusalem.
Eran is the guy with the balloon on his head.
Eran Shirazi
Title: VP of Research
Year joined Any.do: 2011
One sentence describing your responsibilities:
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Learn Spanish
- Run a marathon
- Go for a trip in the far east
- Learn more mathematics
- Decide what the fifth thing is..
Personal Motto: With great power comes great responsibility (Spiderman’s uncle)
A secret, or something not too many people know about you: Hmm… I hate cilantro! But I’m ok with parsley…
Igor Budi
Title: Android Team Leader
Year joined Any.do: 2013
One sentence describing your responsibilities: Responsible for the Android side of Any.do (and the initiator of our happy hour tradition)
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Present on TED
- Visit South and Central America
- Learn some sort of martial art
- Do at least 30 of these 44 gym exercises: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POdzasJklxw
- Go on a cross European motorcycle trip.
Personal Motto: Why stop when you can go a little bit more? (Igor Budilovsky)
A secret, or something not too many people know about you: Its not really a secret, but I ride a badass motorcycle, a 2011 Kawasaki Z1000. (Can I say badass?)
Anything else you’d like to tell us: The greatest career achievement one can want is a career that is also a hobby. Don’t go after money, good benefits or a job close to work. Once you have that, the career possibilities are limitless! I believe I have found that in my current occupation (pro basketball player didn’t work out for me…).
The Facilitators
Merav Shalev
Title: QA, support, whatever is needed :))
Year joined Any.do: 2013
One sentence describing your responsibilities: I harass the R&D guys with annoying bugs.
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- Travel to as many places as possible
- Live in Manhattan
- Go bungee jumping in New Zealand
- Have a big loving family +2 dogs at least
- Be happy
Personal Motto: Every day is a good day if you’re having a cupcake
A secret, or something not too many people know about you: I LOVE trash TV.
Anything else you’d like to tell us: I’m always hungry.
Keren Vaknin
Title: QA
Year joined Any.do: 2013
One sentence describing your responsibilities: No bug slips away from my hands.
Top 5 on your bucket list:
- See the northern lights
- Go to Japan
- Go diving
- Run a marathon
- Dye my hair
Personal Motto: If you can dream it, you can do it!
Something not too many people know about you: I don’t know how to ride a bicycle.
Anything else you’d like to tell us: Other than working at this wonderful company, I’m also a med student. So 7 years from now, you can call me Dr. Keren