Svein Willassen
Founder & CEO
Svein has the somewhat rare combination of deep technical knowledge and product vision. He has the first PhD in Digital Forensics in Scandinavia and used to work with restoring deleted text messages and hard drives, and solving data crimes as a Special Investigator for the police. After selling his JavaME messaging startup a bit too soon to be acquired by Facebook, he has been working with developing software communication products for all platforms. He is obsessed with development speed and thinks every day is a good day to deploy code (preferably several times). As an avid beer-lover he makes sure all team dinners take place in an establishment with a beer menu of no less than 10 pages, and also brings the team on glacier trips.
Ingrid Ødegaard
Co-founder & Marketing Manager
Ingrid never knew what she wanted to become in school, which was good since she has only had jobs that didn’t exist when she started studying. But her studies in entrepreneurship and work experience from startup companies, the media sector and volunteer organizations sure come in handy often in the appear.in team. Whether it’s making silly illustrations for our blog, tweeting in foreign languages, testing designs and iterating on them, she attacks the task with humor and drive. To avoid becoming too comfortable she has taken up kitesurfing as a new hobby, and during winter time she can frequently be seen coming into the office with a ski bag on Fridays.
Thomas Bruun
Software Engineer
Thomas started playing with WebRTC while working on his master thesis at NTNU in 2013, where he managed to use the technology to perform phone calls from the browser. When the appear.in project was handed over from the interns, Thomas was quick to secure a place on the team. Originally a Python guy in university, he has moved on to embrace JavaScript. He once attended a talk on TypeScript, and has since tried to make up for that lost time.
Dag-Inge Aas
Software Engineer
Dag-Inge is the youngest and most enthusiastic member of the team. He is an idealist at heart, and has previously been the Head of IT for the biggest international student festival in the world (ISFiT). He enjoys talking (sometimes perhaps a bit too much), and especially in front of a willing crowd. Currently the resident Angular.JS expert on the team, always trying to make sense of the weirdness. When asked to come up with a random word, "cake" always comes to mind first.
Bradley T. Hughes
Senior Software Engineer
Brad is obsessed with code and anything that can run code, both professionally and privately. He considers himself a humble and modest person, always looking for ways to better himself and the code he and the team produces. He firmly believes that everything should “just work,” and that “good enough” is anything but…
Stig-Erland Hansen
Software Engineer
Stig-Erland is one of the old timers in Telenor Digital, having worked on many different projects requiring skills both on the frontend and backend. Originally a java guy, he was at one point known as "mr Payment", but has since then converted to the world of javascript by embarking on a rollercoaster ride, as so many before him, filled with joy and pain. Luckily it ended well and he is currently the "Chrome extension" guy on the team. He is probably the only guy on the team being remotely interested in football, and he is a passionate Sarpsborg 08 supporter.
Trond-Kjetil Bremnes
Software Engineer
TK was born at a very young age, and was raised up north beyond the reach of the sun. He still can't handle temperatures above 25 centigrades. In the appear.in party he's the CSS bard – he gets a design and makes it happen. With animations. Other interests include traveling and beer, something that’s often done in a jolly combination. He will kick your butt in Towerfall if given the chance.
Svein Halvor Halvorsen
The iOS guy
Svein is the iOS developer on the team. He has made apps for the iPhone since before there even was an App Store, back when SSH-ing in and running GCC directly on the bare aluminum was the only way around. Since then, things have gotten a lot easier, but he still pushes the limits with what the Cupertino devices can do, this time getting WebRTC to work. When not programming, he enjoys travelling the world and chillaxing to some good music on festivals. He also has a continuously ongoing battle with Svein Yngvar (CEO) about who gets the handle/username “svein” on new services.
Paul Holliday
Senior Designer
Paul is the new boy on the team. He is a mix breed with a background in digital design/ UI/ UX. He has been known to submerge himself in code for fun and visual experiments. His work background is from Advertising and IT consultancies, where he worked with many known Norwegian brands. When not creating digital toys, he can be found shrink wrapped in neoprene windsurfing on the Oslo Fjord.
Jonas Myrlund
Maker of Internet Things
Jonas is one of the veterans, even though he is a fairly fresh full-time addition to the team. Through his internship of 2.5 years before starting full time he has played around with all kinds of modern web stuff like WebSockets, AngularJS and Node.js, and he is now finally working full-time as a software engineer on appear.in. He refuses to confine himself to the sole title of "software engineer" since he also likes to design things and explore analytics to understand how the product REALLY should work.
Ane Sande
User Experience Researcher
Ane loves to talk, but now spends most of her day listening to what our users have to say about appear.in. Her experience with qualitative methodology is truly valuable when interviewing test users, and the fact that she started her research career in a refugee camp means she is ready for anything. No challenge is too big, though learning Hindi has proven to be difficult. She travels every chance she gets, and can often be heard talking about her latest and greatest gastronomical adventure.
Nils Christian Willie Kaisen
The Marketing Guy
Nils is the guy who creates and manages the digital advertising of appear.in. Being at the helm of conquering the world through high-end ads, this bearded puppet master combines rhetorical skills with creativity, making all potential users his targets. Nils is passionate about music, and can frequently be seen nodding along to sweet tunes while he works. If not at his desk, you'll probably find him in the office table tennis room, or hitchhiking through a foreign country.
Colin Dodd
The Android Guy
Responsible for bringing appear.in to as many Android phones as possible, Colin has also doubled the number of British people in the team. He's had a varied career which has seen him developing karoke video games, bringing internet TV to the masses, and trying to get startups off the ground. He's happiest learning something new and can easily lose a weekend to coding. He once spontaneously invented a dance move he called 'The Lighthouse' which mostly gets performed at weddings, and his kitchen.
Lisa Long
Product Manager
Lisa likes snow and building products people love to use. Most recently coming from Skype, Lisa brings her systems thinking and data-driven analysis to get the biggest bang for the product buck. When she's not spending time baselining metrics or reviewing user test results for the next item on the backlog, she can be found answering your support queries and smuggling biscuits into Norway. To get your order in for the next biscuit run, please send her a sample biscuit so she can determine if it's worth the carryon space.