Meet the Knownwell Team.
Hello, World. Meet Knownwell.
At Knownwell, we’re compiling a global team of experts that’s passionate about bringing our next-generation AI platform to the world. We’re bringing the best of the best together, regardless of geography, to build a new kind of company and a best-in-class product. Meet the team, and connect with them on LinkedIn.
David DeWolf
Chief Executive Officer
David DeWolf is the Founder & CEO of Knownwell. David founded and served for 16 years as CEO of 3Pillar Global, a digital product development organization that grew every year under his leadership. 3Pillar was named to the Inc. 5000, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US, ten separate times. David twice oversaw the company’s sale to private equity companies while he served as CEO. David is an angel investor who backs companies and leaders who he believes have visions for companies that can change the world. He’s also an active and sought-after board member for high-growth tech companies and is currently a board member for 2X and Capango. He was a member of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, for more than 12 years. When not building or investing in technology companies, David enjoys traveling and spending quality time with his wife, Teresa, and their 8 children.
Courtney Baker
Chief Marketing Officer
Courtney Baker is the CMO of Knownwell and the host of our AI Knowhow podcast. Courtney spent more than 5 years at Full Focus before joining the Knownwell team. She held the CMO role for nearly 4 years at Full Focus before serving as Chief Revenue Officer for more than a year. During that time, she oversaw a transformation of the business from the personality-led brand of former Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt to the product-led brand of the Full Focus planner and related products. Courtney hosted the wildly successful Focus on This podcast for more than 200 episodes, and she still uses the Full Focus planner every day to ensure she’s driving results for Knownwell.
Mohan Rao
Chief Product & Technology Officer
Mohan Rao is the Chief Product & Technology Officer of Knownwell. He guides Knownwell’s strategic product direction, including driving innovation, defining product offerings, and ensuring Knownwell’s products align with the company’s mission and vision. Mohan has more than three decades of entrepreneurial and executive experience building technology and product development organizations that drive rapid growth and shareholder return and has deep experience managing key customer relationships. Before joining Knownwell, Mohan served as Chief Product Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and President/COO for numerous SaaS technology companies, including Wagestream, StreetShares, Hobsons, Mobile Insight, Wireless Matrix, and Career Rewards. Several of these companies conducted successful exits after scaling growth organically and via successful integration of key acquisitions. Earlier in his career, Mohan was a Management Consultant at Deloitte & Touche and a Project Leader at Verizon Labs. Mohan enjoys playing tennis, biking, traveling, and reading biographies.
Pete Buer
Chief Strategy Officer
Pete Buer is Knownwell’s Chief Strategy Officer. With over three decades of experience crafting strategy, systematizing operations, and scaling culture in fast-growth company settings, Pete has held a variety of senior-most line and administrative leadership roles, and has extensive Executive Committee experience. Pete spent his professional “growing up years” at CEB (now Gartner), where he held such roles as Head of the Sales and Marketing Practice, Chief Administrative Officer, and Chief Culture Officer. After CEB, Pete was Chief of People and Operations with 3Pillar Global; and, prior to joining Knownwell, he was Chief Growth Officer with Brightfield. Pete counts among his greatest loves his family (which includes triplets), all things Norway-related, reading and writing, pinochle, car shows, fishing and the Pittsburgh Steelers (with apologies to friends in New England).
Phillip Merrick
Board Member
Phillip Merrick is a successful entrepreneur, technologist and CEO, specializing in enterprise software and cloud/SaaS markets in the US, Europe, and Asia/Pacific. He’s led a number of high-growth technology companies from the earliest startup stages to IPO and beyond, from zero to more than $200M in revenue. This includes three successful exits in the nine to ten figures and one of the most successful software company IPOs (webMethods) in history. Phillip has extensive public and private board experience and is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of pgEdge, a Postgres-based distributed database platform for modern applications that demand constant availability, global access, and rapid response times.
Andrei Adam
Principal Product Manager
Andrei Adam is the Principal Product Manager of Knownwell. He bridges product strategy with execution to help bring our innovative solutions to market. Andrei has more than two decades of experience in industries such as FinTech, EdTech, Pharma, and Sports. He consistently drives impactful transformations and delivers scalable, user-centric, problem-solving products and solutions across the globe. Before joining Knownwell, he contributed to the successful digital transformation of numerous companies, including PBS LearningMedia, Class, and Silverstone. Outside of work, Andrei is passionate about photography, traveling, writing, and woodworking, fueling his creativity and problem-solving approach.
Paul Axente
Lead UX Designer
Paul Axente
Lead UX Designer
Paul Axente is Knownwell’s Lead UX Designer. He plays an integral part in shaping the future of Knownwell and crafting a forward-looking vision for our platform. Paul was raised in the heart of Transylvania and currently lives in Cluj-Napoca, where he’s an active member of the tech community and the founder of UX City. UX City is a Meetup group for UX designers, developers, QAs, and other product professionals to share their learnings with one another and reshape the UX community in Cluj. When he’s not bringing future visions of Knownwell closer to the present, Paul is a thrill-seeker who’s big into into motorcycle racing and anything that will get his heart racing faster than is probably healthy.
Sayantam Dey
Vice President of Engineering
Sayantam Dey helps product development teams align with product strategy, adopt agile practices, and build end-to-end systems. With over 10 years of leadership experience, he is a hands-on leader skilled in multiple programming languages, frameworks, architecture, and disciplines. Sayantam believes that high-performing teams create the best organizational culture and values lean methodologies, extreme programming (XP) practices, and the DevOps culture.
He delivers and maintains Intellectual Property Management Systems (IPMS) products and works across the IP Technology group on initiatives such as production health monitoring, agile processes, and engineering productivity. Previously, he was responsible for development practices and people management in IP Technology India, with development centers in Bangalore and Noida. In his senior management roles, Sayantam has created engineering goals and strategies for over 1,000 global engineers, built developer communities, and led global practices for Architecture and DevOps.
John Fowler
Chief Science Officer
John Fowler is the Chief Science Officer at Knownwell. Prior to Knownwell, John was the Chief Product Officer and the Chief Science Officer at GravyStack, a banking platform for families that specialized in training kids for financial competency. He was also a co-founder and partner at J&M Rapid Apps, a software development boutique that catered to Fortune 50 CPG companies and fintech startups. Prior to GravyStack, he led the software development of TaliPay, a fintech startup in the energy sector. Over the past 12 years, John has founded or led the software development of numerous start-ups in the fintech space.
Over the first 15 years of his career, John Fowler worked for various consulting companies leading and developing large go-to-market projects for Fortune 50 companies including Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. These projects focused on selling and analytics accessible from mobile devices.
John also has a passion for playing the drums, developing puzzle games, and teaching his kids advanced algorithms and data structures. His latest passion is understanding, explaining and further developing AI/ML platforms.
Tara Fragiacomo
Growth Marketer
Tara Fragiacomo has been in the marketing game for over a decade. From marketing in the entertainment and sports industries, to legal, recruiting, healthcare, and more, she has developed marketing skills of all types. Sometimes referred to as the “Swiss Army knife of marketing,” Tara prides herself on studying up and getting certified in the latest CRM technology and software. She has recently launched a marketing consulting agency to help small companies and startups implement HubSpot, keep their data clean, and set the stage for success. She’s recently come on to Knownwell full-time and is thrilled to continue developing growth marketing strategies.
Ramsri Goutham Golla
Lead Data Scientist
Ramsri Goutham Golla is Knownwell’s Lead Data Scientist. He has over a decade of experience in AI and product development, spanning the domains of natural language processing and computer vision. As a founder, he has scaled two AI MicroSaaS apps, Questgen.ai and Supermeme.ai, from concept to over 700k users and $100k in annual recurring revenue.
Ramsri is an active and influential open-source contributor. He was featured in the Google I/O 2024 Keynote for his contributions to Indic LLMs in developing Navarasa, a fine-tuned LLM he started as a side project that developed into something much more. Ravi and Navarasa’s co-creator, Ravi Theja Desetty, also presented on Navarasa at Google I/O India in 2024. Ramsri enjoys writing about AI and large language models for his 60k+ followers on social media.
Cynthia Lavoie
Commercial Intelligence Consultant
Cynthia Laovie is the Commercial Intelligence Consultant for Knownwell. She is a seasoned technology-focused sales leader who is passionate about driving value through innovative technology investments and fostering connections with people. She has held roles in customer account management and enterprise technology sales, consistently earning recognition for top performance. Outside of her career, Cynthia most enjoys traveling, reading, gastronomy, and board games. She is also passionate about women in technology and being a sales mentor.
Cassi Lup
Lead Software Engineer
Cassi is a dedicated technology professional with extensive experience in product development. His journey began as a developer in Romania, inspired by the limitless possibilities of programming and one of his closest mentors’ enthusiasm for computers in the ’90s. Over the years, Cassi has expanded his horizon from development to managing, forming and leading high-performing teams.
He has directed open-source hackathons and developed tools to enhance code analysis and organizational knowledge discoverability. Cassi thrives on helping individuals and teams grow, unblocking challenges, and fostering craftsmanship in product development. His mission is to create enhanced knowledge discoverability environments, leading to better products and successful businesses.
Outside of work, he is a committed husband and father of three, embracing the joys and challenges of parenthood with his family. He enjoys traveling, driving, cycling through forest trails, and playing various musical instruments.
Cristi Purcaru
Senior Engineer
Cristi Purcaru is a passionate Senior Backend Engineer with over 11 years of experience in the IT field, including about 8 years working with Python and Django. His career began in the Automotive industry, where he spent 3 years as a software engineer at Continental Automotive. He then joined 3PillarGlobal, dedicating 7 years to the company and spending 1 year as a Technical Lead on a team building a platform for PBS Learning Media, serving around 1 million users. Prior to his current role at Knownwell, Cristi worked for a year at the healthcare SOC2-certified company Vitamin Software.
Cristi believes in the power of healthy teams, valuing trust, humbleness, open collaboration, and ownership. These values are integral to his approach, ensuring that you will receive clean and efficient solutions from a great team player, communicator, and gifted mentor. Cristi is not just a problem finder but a problem solver who provides a deep vision of the product or project and its functionality. With Cristi, fewer details are missed, team expertise is significantly expanded, and once the end goal is clear, he ensures that the team does everything possible to move the needle toward that goal.
Brenna Ross is a dedicated Customer Success Manager at Knownwell. With over a decade of customer experience, she has held various roles that focused on enhancing customer support, improving customer experience, and delivering exceptional service, all while building and maintaining strong, lasting relationships with clients. Throughout her career, she has been committed to enhancing client experiences by proactively addressing their challenges and fostering open communication. Her passion for relationship building and customer advocacy drives her to create solutions that empower clients to thrive in their businesses.
Outside of her professional pursuits, Brenna cherishes quality time with her family and loves embracing new adventures. Whether cooking together or traveling to new places, she finds joy and inspiration in creating lasting memories with her loved ones.
Will Sherlin
Content Marketer
Will Sherlin is a Marketing Consultant and Content Marketer for Knownwell. He helps drive content and pull the creative strings for our weekly podcast, AI Knowhow, and manage Knownwell’s web, social, and digital presence. Will has been an independent marketing consultant for 3+ years, having spent more than a decade donning a variety of Marketing hats at technology companies including 3Pillar Global and Celerity. When he’s not at the helm of Knownwell’s online activities, you just might find him on the tennis courts of the greater DC Metro area, spending quality time with his wife and kids, gardening, or taking a nap.
Aakash Sharma
Senior DataOps Engineer
Aakash Sharma is a Senior DataOps Engineer with expertise in data engineering, cloud technologies, and automation. Aakash has a proven track record of designing and implementing scalable data pipelines, optimizing workflows, and driving efficiency through CI/CD processes. His expertise in multi-cloud platforms, particularly Google Cloud Platform (GCP), is backed by professional certifications and hands-on experience delivering impactful solutions to over 13 clients in diverse industries.
Throughout his career, Aakash has been recognized for his ability to solve complex challenges, streamline operations, and consistently deliver high-quality results. Known for his collaborative mindset and problem-solving approach, he strives to build robust and efficient data solutions that align with business goals.
Outside of work, Aakash is a sports enthusiast who enjoys playing cricket and football, as well as staying active at the gym. He believes in the importance of a healthy mind and body to stay focused and motivated in both his personal and professional life.
Paul Szabo
Data Engineer
Paul Szabo is a Senior Data Engineer at Knownwell. His career began as a full-stack developer after graduating from a Computer Science university. Driven by a constant desire to grow and stay updated with technological trends, Paul transitioned to a data scientist and data engineer role. Throughout his career, he has worked with various technologies and solved numerous problems, discovering a passion for fixing bugs and making things work no matter the challenge. In his spare time, Paul enjoys traveling, exploring new places and activities, spending time with family and friends, playing football, and going to the gym. Open to any challenge, he firmly believes that every problem has a solution.
Pat Tew
Commercial Intelligence Advisory Partner
Pat Tew is a Commercial Intelligence Advisory Partner at Knownwell and a passionate advocate for leveraging AI and technology to drive significant, positive business outcomes. Born and raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Pat has over 15 years of sales experience, contributing to the success of both AI startups such as MakinaRocks and industry leaders like Amplitude, Databricks, Oracle, and Cloudera. Known for his commitment to servant leadership and adding value to every client interaction, Pat thrives by ensuring impactful results for Knownwell’s customers. Outside of work, Pat is actively engaged in his community, whether attending live music and theater events, cheering on his kids at sporting events, enjoying date nights with his wife, Mary, or serving at church and nursing homes. He lives by his favorite quote from Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” A proud Michigan native, Pat enthusiastically supports the maize and blue (GO BLUE!) and loves Indian cuisine, especially Chicken Tikka Masala.