Ascendify’s talent acquisition platform is built by an incredibly passionate and talented team. We’re dedicated to reinventing the hiring process with a vision that is more social.
Matt Hendrickson
Founder & CEO
Matt is a 20-year Silicon Valley veteran that’s helped take four technology companies to the next level. He’s dedicated to bringing hiring managers and candidates together in the hiring process. Matt brings technology leadership, product vision and strategy to Ascendify. He graduated from UCSB with business economics degree, is an avid runner, and enjoys golf and snowboarding.
Lauren Smith
Founder & VP Marketing
Former marketing executive at DDB Worldwide and SolutionSet, Lauren’s launched global campaigns for Dell, Johnson & Johnson, and Comcast. Lauren leads product marketing and partnerships for Ascendify. When she’s not driving leadgen and awareness, you’ll find her wine tasting in Sonoma. Her alma mater is Sonoma State University with a degree in business marketing.
Jon Bennett
VP Enterprise Sales
Jon brings over 15 years of leadership experience to Ascendify’s founding team; having sold enterprise SaaS solutions for Salesforce, E*TRADE, PwC, and Dell Cloud Applications. He has a double BS in Business and Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. In his free time he loves sailing, snowboarding, everything the Bay Area has to offer, and most importantly being a dad.
Jason Ball
Director, Engineering
Part of founding team at Ascendify, Jason brings over 10 years of technical experience. As the Lead Developer at Sungevity, he built the engineering team and technical foundation to raise over $100 million and generate millions in new revenue. Challenged to take business ideas from white board to functional product, he’s delivered services for EMC, McAfee, Kaiser & Wells Fargo.
Advisory Board
Tom Spengler
Tom is co-founder and CEO of Granicus, the recognized technology leader in government transparency. Granicus has ranked on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and Inc Magazine’s 500 list. Tom heads the executive team and drives product innovation and growth strategies. Prior to Granicus, Tom helped with strategy and development at Accenture for Q-pass, E-trade, and the US Post Office. Prior to Accenture, Tom worked at Hewlett Packard and still serves as an advisor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
Jeff Dickey-Chasins
Jeff is a veteran of the HR and e-learning industries. Jeff was the original marketing director for Dice.com, growing it from $7 million to $65+ million in three years. He has worked with 100+ job boards and HR-related sites over the past 20 years, in almost every sector, including finance, technology, education, health care, sales and marketing, energy, and specific geographic regions.
Nick Bhatt
Nick is a repeat technology entrepreneur with four successful IPOs/acquisitions. Nick’s worked with startups, billion dollar companies and everything in between. He’s a proven executive with more than 20 years experience developing technical solutions for Granicus, IMNET Systems, Dynamic Healthcare, VideoTek, AutoVista, ADP CSG, and others. Nick has been the principal architect for several major applications and has a master’s degree in Computer Science and Business Management.
