Rob Mee,

CEO and Founder

A software engineer by trade, I began my career writing natural language translation systems in Lisp at an artificial intelligence laboratory in Tokyo. I later launched Pivotal Labs, which was acquired in 2019, and has been credited for shaping the software development cultures of some of Silicon Valley’s most influential and valuable companies. Today, I’m tackling what I envision as the last major problem of software; modernizing and future-proofing the critical systems that support the corporations that run our global economies.

Matthew Work,

COO and Co-Founder

I’ve spent my career shaping markets before they were markets: SaaS before it was SaaS, Big Data when it was just data, ML when search was still clunky, and EV before it was popular. While I’m typically responsible for scaling revenue and go-to-market strategies, I’ve also been CSO, COO, CFO, CRO and CEO, taking companies from garage to four exits (Amazon.com via Alexa Internet, Alta Motors, Cognizant, Discovery Mining) and one IPO (Dice.com).

Edward Hieatt,

Chief Customer Officer

I love helping companies improve their business by becoming great at software development. After my experience with startups, I was drawn to consulting, helping to grow Pivotal Labs from a handful of like-minded engineers into a respected business. As Pivotal formed and grew its developer platform product, I oversaw the rapid expansion of the Customer Success organization to thousands of technical staff globally while pioneering techniques with the subscription business model. I oversaw the integration and four subsequent years of operation as VMware Tanzu, following Pivotal’s IPO and acquisition.

Irene Sandler,

CMO

I’m responsible for all things marketing—brand, positioning, product, content, demand gen— at Mechanical Orchard. I began programming on a Commodore 64 and have held product management and senior marketing positions at Cisco Systems and Cognizant Technology Solutions, where I was on the Executive Leadership Team. After nearly two decades in the corporate world building high-performing teams, I’ve returned to startups: Mechanical Orchard is my seventh. 

Roberto Ostinelli,

CTO

I am driven by curiosity and a passion for creation. For two decades, I have focused on developing scalable and fault-tolerant software architectures, drawing from a diverse background spanning engineering, finance, and the arts. I’m fond of agile practices focused on test-driven development, pair programming, short development cycles and continuous verification and integration of code (essentially, Extreme Programming). Mechanical Orchard is my sixth startup.

Joe Militello,

CPO

I’m the Chief People Officer at Mechanical Orchard, where I lead the global People organization. Over a 25 year career, I’ve been the Chief People Officer for two publicly traded companies—PagerDuty and Pivotal—helping scale organizations, build high-performing teams, and achieve major milestones, including Pivotal’s IPO. Earlier, I was a VP at EMC and served as a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. I’m deeply passionate about building mission-drive organizations that deliver real value to customers, while fostering a culture where employees are excited about their work and feel a strong connection to their team.

Roque Versace,

CRO

Mechanical Orchard is my fifth startup, where I lead sales. I began my career as a paratrooper for the U.S. Army, shifting to tech when I joined Accenture as a consultant developing software for clients. Over the past 25 years, I’ve introduced technologies like e-commerce, SaaS, e-signatures, APIs, and now, AI, to enterprises. For fun, I adventure travel. 

Mikey McCormack,

SVP Engineering

A software engineer by trade, I began my career writing natural language translation systems in Lisp at an artificial intelligence laboratory in Tokyo. I later launched Pivotal Labs, which was acquired in 2019, and has been credited for shaping the software development cultures of some of Silicon Valley’s most influential and valuable companies. Today, I’m tackling what I envision as the last major problem of software; modernizing and future-proofing the critical systems that support the corporations that run our global economies.

Dan Podsedly,

VP Research & Development

My first programming job was in Smalltalk, which spoiled me forever, and eventually led me to Extreme Programming and the founding crew of Pivotal Labs. I launched and grew Pivotal Tracker to millions of users, and helped lead the company through two acquisitions and an IPO. Two startups later, I’m now VP Product at Mechanical Orchard, and leading the R&D team focused on accelerating delivery efforts with AI.

Martine Boyer,

VP of Engagement

I'm a passionate organizer with a keen eye for identifying problems and solving them pragmatically and creatively. I’ve rolled three decades of experience in marketing, operations, and administration into fostering a positive community culture that’s inclusive and supportive of doing what’s right, what works, and what makes good change happen. My superpower? An ability to win any thumb war challenge. My current obsession is growing sugar cane so I can make my own rum.

Rachit Awasthi,

VP Strategy & Operations

I have worked across a variety of roles: software engineer, co-founder of a successful SaaS product, management consultant, product manager and sales leader. I’ve also contributed to the industry as a speaker and an advisor to venture leaders at a F150 accelerator. But mostly, I find creative joy in turning ideas into new ventures and scaling them into high-functioning organizations that customers and employees love.