Mike Stachowiak

Current

• Co-founder at Lift Media Inc

Past

• Founding Engineer, Search Specialist at 4INFO
• Sr. Software Engineer at QuinStreet

Education

• University of Michigan

Recommended

2 people have recommended Mike

Connections

237 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Mike Stachowiak’s Summary

I'm an entrepreneur, technologist, and active member of the start-up community.

I most recently co-founded Lift Media. Inc., which delivers innovative revenue solutions to retail merchants. Lift Media was acquired by Webloyalty Inc. in 2008, where I currently serves as Director of Technology.

Previously, I was the founding engineer in charge of search technology at 4INFO. 4INFO is the leading mobile search company, delivering instant local directory, entertainment, and real-time information to mobile devices. As the founding engineer, I helped grow 4INFO from 3 to 35 employees over a two year period that included two prominent venture rounds. I played a pivotal role building 4INFO's scalable infrastructure and high-talent engineering team. 4INFO is backed by US Venture Partners, DFJ, Gannett Corporation, and NBC's Peacock Equity.

I have extensive experience in the following areas:
* Growing companies from the ground up, building teams
* Translating ideas into practical implementations
* Building scalable web platforms
* Artificial intelligence, natural language processing, localized search, and information retrieval

I have a BSE from the University of Michigan School of Engineering, where I was an honored EECS Departmental Scholar. I'm considered an expert in natural language processing with multiple patents for my inventions.

I'm also an active angel investor and advisor in the start-up community.

Mike Stachowiak’s Specialties:

entrepreneurship, start-ups, web platforms, software development, engineering, localized search, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, information retrieval, financial market analysis

Mike Stachowiak’s Experience

• Co-founder

  Lift Media Inc

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  October 2006 — Present (3 years 5 months)

• Founding Engineer, Search Specialist

  4INFO

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Wireless industry)

  August 2004 — October 2006 (2 years 3 months)

  * Founding engineer, initial system architect of large scale mobile search engine
  * Developer of patented natural language parsing technique for deriving semantic interpretations of search queries to aid in content retrieval
  * Lead engineer in charge of search technology, responsible for developing techniques to improve result quality and accuracy
  * Expert in localized search techniques

• Sr. Software Engineer

  QuinStreet

  (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Computer Software industry)

  May 2003 — July 2004 (1 year 3 months)

  * Integral development role on the company's largest software project, contributing both design insights and code implementation on the delivery of a complex, internationalized web property for a Fortune 500 company.
  * Successfully managed a team of production support engineers through a rapid weekly release schedule - from initial specification with the client to final code push – contributing more professional services revenue than any other group within the company.
  * Drafted the initial specification and design documentation for an internationalized online distributor ordering system for the direct selling industry. Initial implementation of the system was utilized by one of the largest worldwide direct selling companies, reaching over 1 million distributors in 7 languages.

Mike Stachowiak’s Education

• University of Michigan

  BSE , Computer Engineering , 1998 — 2002

  EECS Scholar (top 5 class ranking), Angell Scholar

  Activities and Societies:

  Eta Kappa Nu, University of Michigan Entrepreneurs, University Housing Judicial Board, Dormitory Council, Dance Marathon Marketing Committee, Intramural Sports

Mike Stachowiak’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch