About us
Online product recommendations are broken. We're fixing that.
We are PerfectRec
It's harder than ever to find the right product online. Spammy search results, fake reviews and paid affiliate sites make it nearly impossible to get an honest and smart recommendation. We're solving that problem by combining actual human subject-area experts with machine learning to help everyone — regardless of their expertise — find their perfect product, quickly.
Online shopping doesn't have to be a daunting time-suck, hours spent combing through impenetrable specs and questionable reviews.Getting good recommendations at the right price point is possible. At PerfectRec, we help people to find the right stuff, faster — and make their lives better, easier and a little more perfect.
How we provide perfect recs
Our goal is to provide the perfect recommendation for you — not just another list of the "49 Options You Might Consider." In order to do that, we guide users through a series of questions about what they're looking for. After each answer, we share updated recommendations with you; the more questions you answer, the more precise our recs get.
When Google or Amazon recommends a product for you, they're using data gathered from your browsing history to guide you toward what other people like you tend to buy. But we're not interested in people like you — we're interested in you, specifically. And ultimately, we get more information about what you need by going straight to the source: you. With a few quick multiple-choice questions, we can make better recommendations, tailored to your individual needs.
Phones and Beyond
We are starting with phones, TVs and laptops. After that, we'll evaluate other product categories such as cars, home appliances, e-bikes and credit cards. When the time comes to monetize, we will do it with targeted auction-based shopping ads, not affiliate links.
The leadership team
We're a group led by experienced entrepreneurs who aren't dependent on funding. That's why we can hit the ground running on day one.
Joe was co-founder/CEO of Collage.com, the site for personalized photo products. He has an economics Ph.D from the University of Michigan, worked as a software engineer at Microsoft, and was the economist at Upwork. Joe and team bootstrapped Collage into a profitable, 100% remote e-commerce company with more than 50 employees and nearly $100m in annual revenue before selling it in 2021. A lifelong computer enthusiast, Joe has spent decades advising friends and family on their electronics purchases.
Lindsey has a JD from the University of Michigan Law School. She has worked as legal counsel for a number of Indian tribes and as general counsel for Collage, where she focused on supplier contracts, employment law and building a strong employee benefits package. She lives in Seattle with Joe and Spike, their Shih Tzu rescue dog.
Josh was the Chief Technology officer of Resonance Companies and previously served as the Head of Machine Learning and Data Science at Etsy and the real estate firm Compass. In 2016, he founded the AI financial investigations company Detectica, which was later acquired by Compass. In 2008, Josh was part of the founding team at Integral Ad Science. Josh has a PhD in Computer Science from New York University where his research focused on the application of machine learning and natural language processing to online advertising. He is an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business.
Wally ran digital and direct mail marketing efforts for Democratic U.S. House and Senate campaigns after graduating from the University of Michigan. An early employee at Collage, he led the company's marketing and also focused on merchandising and supply chain management. He has a lot of strong opinions and has been cited as an “area man” in over two dozen different news articles, including a Fortune magazine story about his troubles buying toilet paper during the pandemic.
Josh is a professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, where he also earned his Ph.D. His primary research and teaching interests are in introductory computer science, generative art, the social implications of computing, data science, and machine learning. He has taught over 15,000 students in his decade-long career, which includes teaching at Berkeley, Princeton, and Peking University. Outside of his Machine Learning work at PerfectRec and Berkeley, Josh spends his time satisfying the tyrannical whims of two young kids, while occasionally sneaking out to sneak rides on waves of energy in the Pacific ocean.
Our values
What sets us apart
Every company has seemingly the same set of generic corporate values. These are a few we believe set us apart.
True Honesty
Honesty isn't just the absence of lying; it's saying what you actually think. If an idea is bad, we say so. If we aren't certain about something, we don't pretend we are.
Open Debate
Solving hard problems requires raising issues, sharing evidence and thoroughly debating potential solutions. We believe respectful and constructive argument is part of the job.
Curiosity and Skepticism
We're curious about the world and skeptical of incumbents, gatekeepers and other defenders of the status quo.
Fun Working Together
We believe a fun workplace is one where people have fun working on hard problems together — not a place with semi-mandatory happy hours.
Problem-First Thinking
We're obsessive about learning everything we can and gathering as much relevant evidence as possible about the problems we're solving. We want to know what's wrong with everything, because that's the only way to solve everything.
No Powerpoint
Powerpoint and other presentation tools discourage actual thinking. We don't use them. Instead, we explain our assumptions and reasoning in writing, using shared documents to allow collaboration and asynchronous feedback.
We Are Maximizers, Not Satisficers
We aim to build the best possible product recommendation service possible, period. We will never stop improving and our mission will never be complete.