Get to Know the Betabound Team!
As many of you know, Centercode is the company behind Betabound. We’ve shared lots of interviews with the Centercode team from Tester Leads, Product Designers, Test Managers, and more. Although everyone at Centercode helps develop some aspect of Betabound, there’s a core Betabound team consisting of Conrad Neill (Recruitment Lead), Brad Day (Director of Betabound), and myself (Betabound Community Manager). Our team is responsible for growing and improving the Betabound community; be it new blog posts, interesting testing opportunities, platform updates, cool giveaways — you name it! We wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves, and put faces to our names within the Betabound community.
Conrad Neill
Recruitment Lead
My name is Conrad. I was born and raised down the street from our office here in Orange County. As a lover of both food and sunshine, I’m extremely blessed to call this place my home. But lately, I’ve spent my weekdays neglecting my need for Vitamin D while playing Nintendo Switch (hunting Koroks in Zelda and getting bombarded with shells in Mario Kart). Once traffic clears up on the weekend, you can find me lurking on the outskirts of LA, enjoying the zany jazz band at Laguna Coffee Company, or petting all the pooches that trot up and down Pacific Coast Highway (sooo many pooches).
I began working at Centercode thanks to my Dad who instilled a strong love of technology in me. He’s an electronics engineer who, throughout my childhood, would subscribe to computer magazines to anticipate (and acquire) the next big thing in the computer industry. This intrigue led me to develop hobbies such as sound engineering, graphic design, and 3D modeling.
Naturally, I wanted to channel the passion and knowledge I had into my career. Without a solid plan, I spent a few years slinging lattes from behind an espresso machine and making friends out of strangers at a local coffee shop. As I became well acquainted with our frequent visitors, one particular individual recognized the passion that I had for technology. Luke (Centercode’s CEO) graciously offered me the opportunity to be a part of his team to help improve the tech products of today’s companies by the means of customer validation. After meeting the team and discovering the potential of the Centercode platform, I had to accept the offer. Long story short, it was our CEO’s love for iced americanos that brought me here.
My role now includes outlining strategies for reaching target testers, creating a refined application process for each test, and ultimately connecting people like you and me with companies and products so that we can help make these products better!
I’m exceedingly grateful to be surrounded by others that share a similar passion for what’s coming in the tech industry — both testers and colleagues alike. As technology rapidly progresses, I’m excited to be on the front line of introducing new audiences across the world to emerging technology before anyone else.
Brad Day
Betabound Director
My name is Brad and I’m a tech lover that couldn’t be happier to be involved with a project like Betabound. I grew up surrounded by technology and have always had a passion for it. Working at Centercode is incredibly exciting because we’re constantly surrounded by new and upcoming products in the tech space, and it’s really great to be able to hear from the product developers themselves about their passions and goals.
Part of my role as Betabound Director is to facilitate the growth and maintenance of the Betabound community. I love finding new ways for Betabounders to get engaged, and prove themselves as impactful community members. I’m consistently surprised by the amazing amount of effort some testers put in during testing projects, and it’s really great to watch the interaction between the tester and the product developer.
When I’m not at work, you’ll catch me rock climbing, surfing in Orange County, or at home catching up on my giant video game backlog. Feel free to connect if you’re interested in talking more about Betabound or just swapping game recommendations.
Jennifer Bakos
Betabound Community Manager
Hello Betabounders! My name is Jennifer, and I’m the Betabound Community Manager. I’m responsible for managing and promoting Betabound’s community of over 170,000 international beta testers. My day-to-day includes answering emails from testers and product developers, writing for the Betabound Blog, organizing new public Betabound Exclusives, sharing new testing opportunities on our homepage, managing Betabound’s social media accounts, scouting advertising/partnership opportunities for our community, and more.
I moved to Orange County to start working on Centercode’s marketing team while simultaneously earning my M.A. Since Centercode works with some awesome clients, I thought it was a great environment to discover the latest in emerging technologies, as well as learn about product development. I eventually migrated to the Betabound team, and have enjoyed working with our testers and product developers ever since!
I love how creative and diverse the Betabound community is, and I enjoy playing matchmaker between developers and our testers. Finding a beta test and playing with a new tech product are all about discovery, and our testers really embody that adventurous spirit.
On a more personal note, I’m originally from the Bay Area where my family owns three rambunctious corgis (yes — they have an Instagram). I love podcasts, Game of Thrones, reading, and learning about emerging tech (VR is especially on my radar). Feel free to connect if you’re ever wanting to nerd out about beta!
We hope this blog post helped you get to know the team directly responsible for Betabound a bit better. As always, send us any community-related questions at hello@betabound.com.