AppFolio Executive Team
Headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, AppFolio, Inc. was founded by a team of technology leaders with proven backgrounds in creating revolutionary software that businesses love to use. AppFolio creates complete, easy-to-use, software-as-a-service business solutions for multiple vertical markets. With investors including Cisco Systems, BV Capital and the Investment Group of Santa Barbara, AppFolio has secured $30 million in funding to date.
Brian Donahoo, President and CEO
The buck stops with Brian. He is a hands-on CEO and really enjoys building teams and growing a successful company. When he isn’t working you’ll find him running in a marathon, stand-up paddling or mountain biking in Santa Barbara.
Brian was the Sr. Vice President for Products and Services at Expertcity/CitrixOnline from 1999 to 2007. He was part of the original team, growing the company from early startup to $240 million in annual revenue. He led the planning and launch of GoToMyPC, GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, and GoToWebinar and these successful SaaS products are now used by millions of people around the world. Prior to joining Expertcity/Citrix Online, Brian held senior positions at Stream International and Viacom/Blockbuster.
Klaus Schauser, Chief Strategist and Founder
Klaus is one of the original founders of AppFolio and brings his enthusiasm, leadership and experience to the team. When he’s not sharing his vision, validating new product offers or setting the strategy you can find him outdoors hiking or stand-up paddleboarding, enjoying the beauty of Santa Barbara.
Klaus was the Founder and CTO of Expertcity/CitrixOnline from 1999 through 2006 and was the visionary behind GoToMyPC, GoToAssist, and GoToMeeting. He led the teams responsible for building the products and their secure, reliable Software as a Service (SaaS) infrastructure. As a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Klaus is a widely published research scientist with extensive experience developing scalable, highly parallel computing environments. Klaus holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and has received numerous academic awards.
Jon Walker, CTO and Founder
Jon is one of the original founders of AppFolio and is responsible for technology and engineering. He is an entrepreneur at heart and is passionate about building and leading great engineering teams. He is a competitor off the computer as well. He played basketball in college and still finds time to play in his free time.
Prior to AppFolio, Jon was the CTO of Versora (sold to Kaseya in 2006), providers of open source Windows to Linux migration software. Before working at Versora, Jon was the CTO for Miramar Systems (sold to Computer Associates in 2004) where he led the development and quality assurance teams. The software developed under his direction has been deployed to over 20 million computers worldwide. Jon has also been a senior technologist for Nortel Networks and Xing Technology Inc. (sold to Real Networks), a Contributing Editor to LinuxWorld Magazine and he is the inventor of multiple patents. Jon also teaches Software Engineering as an adjunct professor at Westmont College in the Computer Science department.
Karen Anne Platt, CFO - CPA
Karen Anne’s first love is to play golf but a close second is accounting and finance. She manages all of the money and contracts as well as all of AppFolio’s Human Resources functions. Most importantly, Karen Anne also makes sure the team has some fun along the way.
Karen Anne was CFO at Network Hardware Resale, a company recognized by INC 500 for four years in a row as one of the fastest growing privately held businesses in America. At Network Hardware, Karen Anne was responsible for all areas of Finance and Strategic Planning as well as Human Resources, IT, Sales Administration, Legal, Facilities, Customized Computer Software, and Operations. Under Karen Anne's leadership, the company's growth rate was more than thirty percent year over year while maintaining EBITDA in excess of 12% and annual revenues of $175 million. Prior to Network Hardware, Karen Anne was CFO at Sansum Medical Foundation and Clinic.
Jerry Zheng, VP Web Operations
Jerry has more than 15 years of experience designing and managing web-based services and helping SaaS companies scale successfully. At AppFolio, he is responsible for making sure that the AppFolio service has extremely high availability, performance, security and scalability. He takes advantage of the beautiful weather and enjoys swimming and hiking in the Santa Barbara mountains.
Prior to his role with AppFolio, Jerry was the Director of Database Development and Operations at FastClick/ValueClick where he was responsible for a large number of high traffic Internet advertising network servers in Data Centers throughout the world. From 2000 to 2005, he held key engineering positions at Expertcity/Citrix Online, leading the effort to create secure, reliable and fast database services and business intelligence systems. His work there formed the foundation for the GoToMyPC, GoToAssist, and GoToMeeting product lines. Jerry has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was a Professor of Computer Science at the Lamar University in Texas.
Albert Oaten, VP Market Development
Albert spends his time educating property managers, mentoring the sales team and leading AppFolio’s rapid expansion into new markets. Albert is a surprisingly good athlete and plays a mean game of tennis. And (lucky for us) as a former actor, he is always prepared for an entertaining company skit.
Before joining AppFolio, Albert held a number of senior sales positions at Expertcity/Citrix Online, one of the fastest growing divisions of Citrix Systems, Inc. At Citrix Online, Albert helped define and sell remote access and support products that now have annual sales revenues exceeding $240 million dollars. He managed a mid-market sales team and then became the Senior Director of Inside Sales. In this role, Albert grew the Inside Sales organization from five team members to over fifty, with managers in multiple locations. Prior to Citrix Online, Albert held finance and field marketing positions at American Express. Albert graduated from Stanford University and has an MBA with honors from the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University.
Michael Randolph, VP Client Services
Mike focuses on keeping our clients happy. His team manages all of the implementations, training and provides ongoing service for AppFolio customers. Mike is a Santa Barbara native and loves spending his free time surfing and paddleboarding along the Santa Barbara coast.
Before joining AppFolio, Mike held a number of senior services management positions at Expertcity/Citrix Online. Mike was responsible for creating a global services organization that managed implementations and provided ongoing service to more than 40,000 business users. His team focused on building innovative programs to ensure that business users saw real value and success from their software implementations. Prior to Citrix Online, Mike held service management positions at MetaCreations.
Jason Randall, VP Product Management
Jason is responsible for setting the product and market entry strategy for AppFolio products. He spends his time listening to customers and working closely with the engineering team to define the business problems AppFolio’s products will solve. After hours, Jason brews his own beer (he drinks it too) and is a self-acknowledged technology nerd.
Jason was the Senior Director of Product Management at Expertcity/Citrix Online from 2003 to 2008, where he was responsible for managing the product lifecycle, including long-range product strategy, positioning and new product development for Citrix Online's Software as a Service (SaaS) access and collaboration solutions. He led the product team during fifteen major existing product releases, and oversaw go-to-market planning for all new product initiatives. Previously, Jason was the Director of Product Development at SupplySolution, Inc. where he was instrumental in developing and launching the company's web-based supply chain management service.
Aimee Miller, VP Marketing
Aimee focuses on building awareness for AppFolio and is responsible for all of the marketing strategy and execution. Aimee creates marketing programs that enable our customers to share how their businesses are more successful with AppFolio. She is a California native and a reluctant runner and enjoys spending time outside in the beautiful Santa Barbara climate.
Aimee Miller most recently was Sr. Director of Field Marketing at Citrix Online, leading the team responsible for the planning and implementation of all corporate demand generation activities for the global sales organization. At Citrix Online she was also the Director of Key Account Management. In this role she created the customized marketing and management program for strategic customers. Previously, Aimee was the Director of Product Management for Vistera where she was responsible for the launch and marketing of the company's flagship product. She was one of the first 20 members of Digital Island (purchased by Cable and Wireless) holding product management, marketing and services roles throughout the company's high-growth years.
Kim Coalson, VP Value Added Services
Kim is responsible for the success of AppFolio's value added services: websites, online applications and resident screening. Kim is an aspiring (and humble) equestrian, she rides dressage and dotes on horses Madison and Tracker in her free time.
Kim was Vice President of Marketing for Mindflash.com from 2008 to 2010, as part of the team that launched the company's award winning online training software. Kim was responsible for customer acquisition, web presence and customer research. Before joining Mindflash.com, Kim founded the Customer Insights group at Citrix Online and in this role she led customer listening programs that included the first Net Promoter survey and introduced initiatives to increase revenue from returning customers. Previously, Kim was Director of Business Analysis for Expertcity / Citrix Online where she led a cross functional team responsible for developing insights to increase sales and business efficiency. Kim began her career in the financial services industry, holding positions at several investment and retirement planning firms.
Julie Bergeron, VP Sales
Julie leads the sales teams responsible for all new customer acquisitions for AppFolio. She spends her time in both Santa Barbara and Texas mentoring, training and listening to the team. A true Texan, she enjoys hunting in the great outdoors, home cooking and is an avid sports fan.
Prior to joining AppFolio, Julie was with Woot where she managed the wholesale team responsible for selling to the top 100 retailers/etailers. She was also instrumental in developing and implementing the sales strategy, reporting and forecasting tools, processes and policies for the team. At Voyager Expanded Learning she grew the inside sales team across three different companies ramping sales 38% to $32M in revenue. In addition to leading the sales team she was also responsible for sales operations and account management efforts. During her 20 years of sales experience Julie has worked in various channels of business: technology, education, fulfillment solutions and government.
