Learn about our team

Our team

We’re a diverse team with decades of experience in financial services and the tech industry.

We think education is awesome, but shouldn’t come with student debt. If that sounds like you, check out our open roles.

Meet Backer’s leadership

Inspired by our own journeys through college, our leadership is laser-focused on transforming the way we save for education so the next generation will not inherit a crushing student debt crisis.

Jordan Lee

Founder & CEO

Show bioJordan went from mediocre high school student to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, all because an English teacher believed in him. He is a startup veteran, public policy nerd, and Y Combinator alum who has lived and breathed Apple products since the early 90s.

Artom Konovalov

Head of Product

Show bioArtom was the first product leader at Chime and then senior director of product at Skyscanner. He was a professional swimmer for 15 years and was homeschooled while he trained. His weak spot is guac and chips.

Katya Skorobogatova

Head of Growth

Show bioKatya was a growth leader at WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram and was educated in St Petersburg, Russia and New York. She reads large-tome books faster than anyone on the team and loves fruit.

Mathieu Lajugie

Head of Engineering

Show bioMathieu has built engineering teams for decades, most recently as VP of Engineering at Caring.com. He studied computer engineering at Paris-Sud University in France and loves a crisp lemon drop at Backer happy hours.

Jeremy Feit

Head of Operations

Show bioJeremy helped scale Home Chef from eight people to more than 600 and a large exit. He’s done stints in finance and consulting, and recently entered the school of parenting with a baby boy.

Alexander Artsvuni

Head of Design

Show bioAlex is a former Meta product designer and lead product designer at Farfetch and Hive. Armenian by birth, he received a BA and Master’s in graphic design in the UK and studied graphic design and illustration in Russia. Once a year, Alex runs a mobile design lab for young teenagers in Armenia.

Board & Advisors

From backing unicorn fintech and edtech startups when they were just a few people to operating some of the most innovative public companies, our advisors know what it takes to build an enduring company.

Jim Feuille

Board Member

Venture Partner at Crosslink Capital. Investor and board member of Chime, Pandora, Personal Capital.

Jennifer Carolan

Investor & Advisor

General Partner at Reach Capital. Investor in Outschool, Replit, ClassDojo.

Dan Macklin

Investor & Advisor

Co-founder of SoFi. CEO, US at Salary Finance.

Miriam Rivera

Investor & Advisor

Co-founder and Managing Director at Ulu Ventures. Investor in SoFi, Palantir, Guild.

Bharat Mediratta

Investor & Advisor

Former CTO at Dropbox. First Coinbase Engineering Fellow.

Bechir Pierre

Director, Backer.org

Founding Director of the Backer Foundation. Bain, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Stanford MBA.

Investors

We’re partnered with some of the smartest money in Silicon Valley, but that’s not all – three top universities have invested because they believe in our mission.