Meet the Team
We’re entrepreneurs and designers. Dreamers and makers. Hucksters and hackers.
Janice Fraser
Founder & CEO
Janice is an entrepreneur and interaction designer for web and mobile products. During her 15 years in Silicon Valley, she has raised capital, founded both successful and failed startups, consulted to both large enterprises and early stage firms.
Janice was cofounder of design firm Adaptive Path and served as the company’s first CEO. During her tenure, Adaptive Path tripled in staff and revenues, developed and sold a product to Google, coined the term Ajax, and transformed Adaptive Path from a lifestyle partnership to a high-growth firm.
Janice has been a guest speaker at many conferences and universities, including Haas, Kellogg, Stanford, and the Presidio Graduate School of Management.
Janice serves as an adviser to many startups, including TaskRabbit, Mingly, PopVox, and Diaspora.
Jason Fraser
Founder & International Business Development Lead
Jason is an ops guy and has done everything from managing the phone systems for Citibank’s west-coast branches and office towers, to running production, fulfillment, and customer service for 20x200 (a venture funded startup).
At LUXr, Jason leads the global business development strategy and works closely with accelerators and partners to ensure that LUXr products and distribution partners support the growing ranks of entrepreneurs worldwide.
Jeana Alayaay
Growth and Strategy Manager
Jeana is a pragmatic daydreamer who was grown in SF and aged in LA. After studying Middle Eastern Political Economy and Legal Studies at UCSC and UCLA, she has returned to the Bay as a passionate believer in customer-centric product design, social entrepreneurship, and Gen Y.
At LUXr, Jeana is having a blast learning about Lean UX and cultivating her critical thinking skills with the goal of knowing each and every customer personally. Other goals include: walking El Camino Santiago, meeting Prince and breeding unicorns.
Kate Rutter
Co-Founder and Principal
Kate is a strategist and designer with a talent for bringing companies and customers closer together through lean strategies, inventive design and participatory practices. Before joining LUXr, Kate was with Adaptive Path where she specialized in user research and design for complex and emerging digital systems. She's brought customer empathy and collaborative design practices to companies such as Nokia, Travel+Leisure Publishing, Globo Networks, and Greenpeace.
Kate speaks and leads workshops regularly at conferences and universities, including SXSW, UX Week, the iSchool at UC California and Haas School of Business.
Kate serves as an adviser to startups, including Foodspotting, MileSense, and Pickie. She serves as a mentor at Startup Monthly.
Tristan Kromer
Lean Startup Coach
Tristan pokes, prods, and questions startups. He’s spent 10 years in the music industry, worked 5 years in IT security, lived in 5 different countries, studied philosophy and business (separately), and generally made a nuisance of himself for the past 3 years in Silicon Valley as a lean startup advocate. He blogs about lean startups, customer development, and user experience.
Tristan runs Lean Startup Circle, leads workshops in Lean Startup and UX, and speaks at conferences and Meetups worldwide.
Melissa Sparkes
Customer Happiness & Office Manager
Melissa is a Florida transplant who came to LUXr for a summer internship. In Florida she founded and served as President of an active political organization on her college campus, and became a Fellow at Organizing for America, for whom she coordinated volunteer efforts and managed events. Melissa returned to LUXr as Customer Happiness Manager and is eager to explore new heights in customer care and happiness.
Originally seeking degrees in Environmental Biology and Construction Management, Melissa never thought she would be working in Silicon Valley along side such innovative minds. She enjoys watching entrepreneurs turn their ideas and passion into real products and is pleased to be a part of the process by helping them learn along the way.
But wait, there’s more...
The LUXr family includes our mighty interns and contributors who are leaders in the Lean Startup community.