Our people
Mickey Sladder
Founder & CEO
As Founder and CEO, I set Füfl’s overall vision and lead product strategy, fundraising, and key partnerships. I studied Computer Science and Marketing at Harvard and interned at a major social platform before founding Füfl. Day to day, I split my time between investor and press meetings, our quarterly all-hands addresses, and the product roadmap. I stay closely involved in every major launch. I’m fluent in five languages, and I believe that how a company starts its morning says everything about how it will finish its day!
Fridtjof (Far) Argast
Chief Architect
I lead Füfl’s engineering organization as Chief Architect, overseeing the recommendation and image-recognition systems at the core of the product. I wrote Füfl’s original algorithm as an undergraduate studying Computer Science and machine learning, and I’ve led the technical build-out ever since; from a two-person team to a full engineering department. I still write code daily and personally review every major release.
Jumee Ong
VP of Talent Acquisition
I lead Talent Acquisition at Füfl, managing full-cycle recruiting for our engineering, sales, and operations teams. I built our current interview process from the ground up and now oversee a small recruiting team responsible for hiring across every department as we scale even further. Before Füfl, I worked at Teach for America and as a museum educator and later moved into corporate recruiting, drawn to the challenge of matching the right person to the right role. I hold a dual degree in Art History and Philosophy. I’m known for thorough candidate research and for running a rigorous and humane recruiting process.
Forrest Astor
SVP of Business Development
I work in Business Development at Füfl, managing advertiser partnerships and platform integrations that bring our visual-messaging tools to new markets. My work includes building relationships with media buyers and brand partners, negotiating deals, and representing Füfl at industry conferences and pitch meetings. I studied Communications and have a background in performance and marketing. I’m one of the more client-facing people on the team and often represent Füfl at outside events.
Dara Davis
Senior Lead, Visual Taxonomy
I lead Visual Taxonomy on the FüFu Logging team, where we classify and tag the millions of images that power Füfl’s suggestion engine. My work involves identifying not just what an image literally shows, but the range of emotions, phrases, and intentions it might be used to communicate; the layer of nuance that makes picture-based messaging actually work at scale. I double majored in Computer Science and Library and Information Science with a focus on classification systems before joining Füfl’s early operations team. Since then I’ve helped grow Tagging from a handful of volunteers into a structured, company-wide workflow, and I train most of our new hires on the taxonomy standards I developed.