Bez moved from Iran to the United States at the age of two. He pursued a degree in business administration from UC Berkeley while working for a startup that grew gourmet oyster mushrooms on used coffee grounds. Drawn to human-centered design, Bez joined the product design group on campus, building all kinds of things, from barefoot running shoes to donation incentives. After college, Bez spent two years in Israel studying philosophy, law, and ethics. He returned to the U.S. and learned how to code so he could marry his passion for building products with his interest in computer science. He found Gem through mutual friends and instantly knew it was a company he wanted to be a part of.

Bez’s Road to Gem:

UC Berkeley –> Gem

Matt was born and raised in St. Regis Falls, a little known village in the frozen tundra of Northern New York, where he was weaned on Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, and a 28 kbps modem. Matt graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in Computer Science and Acting. During a brief stint as a gunfighter at the now-defunct Buckskin Joe’s Frontier Town & Railway, Matt learned many useful tips such as how to manage a horse-drawn trolley and that some people in Colorado bury ammunition in their yards. He then moved on to work primarily as an independent software contractor while traveling abroad. After several years of projects that varied between interesting (interactive micro-location-awareness systems; high speed data transfer & transformation) and dull (CRUD web apps), Matt was looking for something consistently exciting and revolutionary to throw all his energy and verve into. Enter Gem.

Matt’s Road to Gem:

Clarkson University –> Syracuse University –> Freelance life in: Los Angeles –> NYC –> London –> Gem

Pankaj was born and raised in Mumbai, India, a country where cricket is religion and Bollywood is a lifestyle. He wanted to be a cricketer some days, a doctor on other days, and an engineer only rarely. Pankaj earned a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from the University of Mumbai and worked for two years. He moved to the United States to join Boston’s Northeastern University for a graduate degree in Computer Science, which he earned while listening to hard rock and heavy metal. Searching for an opportunity to work on exciting projects with a great team of engineers and redemption from Boston’s frigid weather, Pankaj checked all those boxes with Gem.

Pankaj’s Road to Gem:

University of Mumbai –> Accenture –> Northeastern University –> Gem  

Xiaoyu, known as X, was born in Shanghai, China, and moved to the United States when he was three. He became interested in technology in fourth grade through a popular MMORPG — Runescape. His skills grew from a simple middle school chat application and email client in TrueBASIC to high school contractor work building Android applications and simple web development. X later dropped out of the University of Maryland and moved to Los Angeles to pursue software engineering full time. His hobbies include: hip hop dancing and choreography, piano, tennis, and wushu martial arts.  X came to Gem to learn about distributed systems and the new systems programming language, Rust.

Xiaoyu’s Path to Gem:

Science / Math / Computer Science MAGNET program in middle and high school –> University of Maryland –> Skurt –> Gem