we're the magoosh team.
nice to meet you!

eric allen
eric allen general manager of b2b
adeney zo
adeney zo content marketing manager
andrea montoya
andrea montoya senior access program manager
bhavin parikh
bhavin parikh ceo & founder
desiree morton
desiree morton director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
iris olsen
iris olsen director, people operations
hansoo lee
hansoo lee founding ceo & visionary leader
pejman pour-moezzi
pejman pour-moezzi co-founder
jeff derrenberger
jeff derrenberger content production and project manager
linnea newman
linnea newman content creator
sara garcia
sara garcia people operations specialist
starrann ferguson
starrann ferguson sr. student services manager
tanya sanchez
tanya sanchez b2b sales manager
victoria van horsen
victoria van horsen senior b2b sales and customer success manager

think you'd be a good fit for magoosh?

find out why we were named the happiest company in education

our culture
2008

april: dreams of better test prep

while studying for the gmat, pejman pour-moezzi and vikram shenoy work on an idea called magoosh: test prep with crowd-sourced questions and answers.

september: 2 + 2 + business school = 4 founders

bhavin and hansoo meet pejman at the haas school of business. together with vikram, they flesh out this new test prep idea.

2009

february: change in plans

feedback from potential customers steers them in a new direction, from people-powered prep to expert-powered prep.

may 18: it gets real

magoosh becomes magoosh, inc. and is officially a real company.

june: gmat product release

gmat math practice questions with video explanations hit the web. verbal questions and lesson videos are in the works.

august: our first paying customer!

a business school hopeful is the first student to put his trust in magoosh gmat.

october: a shift in leadership

vikram leaves magoosh for new opportunities. magoosh adds verbal content!

2010

may: happy grads and an intern

bhavin, pejman, and hansoo graduate from haas. pejman leaves magoosh but stays on the board. zach millman interns at magoosh to rebuild and improve the product.

2011

march: magoosh takes on the gre

after raising $500k in funding, the team releases its first gre product.

may: expansion

chris lele and zach come on as our first full-time employees. the team moves into an office space they share with easyesi (now everlaw).

december: tough times

hansoo is diagnosed with non-smoker’s lung cancer and steps away from daily operations.

2012

march: funding v2

magoosh struggles and bhavin begins to raise $250k in additional funding.

may: sales > expenses

the company hurdles the positive cash-flow barrier, with record sales each month and a strong team of 8 in-office! sales grow 30% month over month.

2013

march 4: difficult loss

hansoo loses his battle with cancer and passes away at 35. bhavin, pejman, and hansoo’s fiancée start the hansoo lee fellowship to support aspiring entrepreneurs at haas.

march 18: moving forward

still growing, magoosh and everlaw move to a more expansive office in downtown berkeley.

2014

march: toefl success

we make our first toefl sale and meet our first toefl student!

july: vocabulary builder launch

we release an app to help sat and gre students broaden their vocabularies (and have fun doing it!)

2015

january: the happiest company in education

now with 23 in-office and 3 remote employees, magoosh receives the happiest company in education award from tinypulse.

june: big website redesign

the magoosh team works with santa cruz-based design firm cosmic to do a giant overhaul of the main magoosh website and its product pages. (trust us, it was a big improvement!)

2016

august: ranked on inc. 5000 for the first time!

magoosh ranks no. 186 on the prestigious inc. 5000, a list of the 5000 fastest-growing companies in the u.s. the company's ranking places it in the top 4% of fastest-growing companies in the nation. (for a team of only 25 at the time, it was a huge deal!)

2017

april: one of the best places to work in the bay area

magoosh receives an award from the san francisco business times and is named one of the best places to work in the bay area.

may: the team continues to grow

magoosh is now a happy group of 33 full-time, education nerds who are always on the lookout for more friendly and stoked people to join the team!

2018

jan: the happiest company in education (again)

magoosh receives the happiest company in education award from tinypulse for a second year.

2019

april: one of the best places to work in the bay area (again)

for the second time, magoosh is named one of the best places to work in the bay area by the san francisco business times.

may: magoosh celebrates 10 years!

magoosh has now been in business for ten years, helping millions of students along the way.

september: bhavin wins 2019 berkeley visionary award

magoosh ceo bhavin parikh is named one of three berkeley visionaries by the berkeley chamber of commerce.

november: introducing paid sabbaticals at magoosh

we roll out paid sabbaticals to eligible full-time and part-time magooshers who have been at the company for five years or longer.

2020

march: covid-19 pandemic sends magooshers home

as with the rest of the world, in response to the pandemic, magoosh transforms into a fully remote and distributed company.

june: 100 magooshers!

this month, the team officially grows to 100 part-time and full-time magooshers.

december: magoosh hires director of deib

magoosh furthers its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging by hiring a director of deib.