Sales, Marketing & Ops
Paulo is an entrepreneur and ad tech expert with a 14 year mixed background of Computing, Web Marketing and Advertising technologies.
He previously held roles at data-centric direct marketing company Acxiom and German start-up wunderloop, where he led its UK technology deployment. Paulo has also consulted for a variety of players in the European display marketplace, such as Glam Media (now Mode), Semasio and Xplosion Interactive, before co-founding ShiftForward in 2011.
Tiago manages the ShiftForward products and is the technical bridge between clients and engineering team. He is also pursuing his PhD thesis in innovative processes for large-scale DevOps and he can still find time for teaching at University of Porto’s Faculty of Engineering.
Vanessa is all about Marketing, Communication and old stuff: Greek tragedies, Latin, dinosaurs, and oxford commas. Despite having a soft spot for Strategy and Planning, Content is the area of expertise where she feels the most at home.
As a recent Communication graduate, Catarina is paving her way into the Marketing world, with a special interest in Public Relations. She is the house expert on everything related to pop culture.
Paulo is an entrepreneur and ad tech expert with a 14 year mixed background of Computing, Web Marketing and Advertising technologies.
He previously held roles at data-centric direct marketing company Acxiom and German start-up wunderloop, where he led
its UK technology deployment. Paulo has also consulted for a variety of players in the European display marketplace,
such as Glam Media (now Mode), Semasio and Xplosion Interactive, before co-founding ShiftForward in 2011.
Tiago manages the ShiftForward products and is the technical bridge between clients and engineering team. He is also pursuing
his PhD thesis in innovative processes for large-scale DevOps and he can still find time for teaching at University of Porto’s Faculty of Engineering.
Vanessa is all about Marketing, Communication and old stuff: Greek tragedies, Latin, dinosaurs, and oxford commas.
Despite having a soft spot for Strategy and Planning, Content is the area of expertise where she feels the most at home.
As a recent Communication graduate, Catarina is paving her way into the Marketing world, with a special interest in Public Relations.
She is also the house expert on everything related to pop culture.
Engineering
André excelled his Masters in Computing Engineering and today leads ShiftForward’s R&D in functional programming development in the Java/Scala/Akka/Play environment and enlightens everyone about the true nature of monads, functors and their Co cousins.
João’s passion for AI, Data Mining and Machine Learning makes him a great lead at ShiftForward’s R&D in applied algorithms, including the brains behind the Ad Forecaster. João also runs ShiftForward’s chess games and stands undefeated at the Wii table tennis challenges.
Rui was handpicked right after finishing among the top students of his master’s degree, and is now a key member of ShiftForward’s R&D in high-performance real-time computing and distributed environments as well as in mastering the Wii Mario Kart skills.
With a dissertation thesis on Patterns for Reactive applications, Bruno is quite fond of asynchronous communications and streaming. In a completely unrelated note, he is ShiftForward’s go-to guy for everything TV series related.
André excelled his Masters in Computing Engineering and today leads ShiftForward’s R&D in functional programming development
in the Java/Scala/Akka/Play environment and enlightens everyone about the true nature of monads, functors and their Co cousins.
João’s passion for AI, Data Mining and Machine Learning makes him a great lead at ShiftForward’s R&D in applied algorithms, including
the brains behind the Ad Forecaster. João also runs ShiftForward’s chess games and stands undefeated at the Wii table tennis challenges.
Rui was handpicked right after finishing among the top students of his master’s degree, and is now a key member of ShiftForward’s R&D
in high-performance real-time computing and distributed environments as well as in mastering the Wii Mario Kart skills.
With a dissertation thesis on Patterns for Reactive applications, Bruno is quite fond of asynchronous communications and streaming.
In a completely unrelated note, he is ShiftForward’s go-to guy for everything TV series related.
João thrives with challenges in artificial intelligence, computer graphics and distributed computing, having created the programming language Wolf while still at University.
André has worked with Web technologies and integrations with 3D creation tools. When he is not shining in functional programming and reactive systems design, he can be seen struggling to keep a 15-year old bonsai alive.
João thrives with challenges in artificial intelligence, computer graphics and distributed computing, having created
the programming language Wolf while still at University.
André has worked with Web technologies and integrations with 3D creation tools. When he is not shining in functional programming
and reactive systems design, he can be seen struggling to keep a 15-year old bonsai alive.
Advisors & Investors
With 17 years experience in the online media industry, Brian began his career at Mediacom in 1997, helping brands take their first steps into online advertising. Following this, Brian and his team took Lycos Europe from square one to Europe’s fourth largest online display network. He was also a crucial player in the merge of 24/7 Media and Xaxis, forming one of the largest programmatic media plat in the world. In his role as European Managing Director at Adap.tv, Brian led the expansion of the European business and managed the transition after the company’s acquisition by AOL in 2013.
Florian Heinemann is co-founder and Managing Director of Project A Ventures and has been an investor/business angel in more than 40 startups. Between 2007 and 2012, he was Managing Director of Rocket Internet and was instrumental in building Zalando, one of the most successful and recognized european e-commerce fashion platforms.
Portugal Ventures is driving the fast growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Portugal, focusing its investments in innovative, scientific and technology-based companies. The firm currently manages approximately €450 million in assets.
Ciaran has worked in digital advertising as a developer, digital marketer, ad operations provider, media monetization specialist, and senior sales executive. Currently the CEO of ExchangeWire, a leading global digital advertising trade publication and research firm that creates content regarding ad tech, marketing tech and programmatic advertising, Ciaran is also an angel investor and advises several digital media companies.
With 17 years experience in the online media industry, Brian began his career at Mediacom in 1997, helping brands take their first steps into online advertising. Following this, Brian and his team took Lycos Europe from square one to Europe’s fourth largest online display network. He was also a crucial player in the merge of 24/7 Media and Xaxis, forming one of the largest programmatic media plat
in the world. In his role as European Managing Director at Adap.tv, Brian led the expansion of the European business and managed
the transition after the company’s acquisition by AOL in 2013.
Florian Heinemann is co-founder and Managing Director of Project A Ventures and has been an investor/business angel in more than
40 startups. Between 2007 and 2012, he was Managing Director of Rocket Internet and was instrumental in building Zalando,
one of the most successful and recognized european e-commerce fashion platforms.
Portugal Ventures is driving the fast growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Portugal, focusing its investments in innovative,
scientific and technology-based companies. The firm currently manages approximately €450 million in assets.
Ciaran has worked in digital advertising as a developer, digital marketer, ad operations provider, media monetization specialist, and
senior sales executive. Currently the CEO of ExchangeWire, a leading global digital advertising trade publication and research firm
that creates content regarding ad tech, marketing tech and programmatic advertising, Ciaran is also an angel investor and advises
several digital media companies.