The Team
Iqram and Kortina joined forces in early 2009 to launch Venmo. Together, they saw an inefficiency in the way offline transactions took place, so they decided to offer a solution that eliminated the need for cash and took advantage of how people use their cell phones nowadays.
In the past, Iqram and Kortina have worked together and separately at a number of start-ups that deal with large-scale transactional systems. They met as freshman year roommates while studying at the University of Pennsylvania.
Andrew Kortina
Andrew Kortina writes python code and provides customer support at Venmo.
Prior to co-founding Venmo, Kortina has worked with Betaworks to help build bit.ly, a tool for shortening and sharing links. Previously, he worked at iminlikewithyou.com (a Y-combinator company, now omgpop.com) and Carrot Creative. He has consulted on social media strategy for brands such as MLB, Colbert Report, NBC, and The Onion.
Kortina holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Philosophy and English from the University of Pennsylvania, where he met Iqram during their freshman year. When he’s not standing at his desk writing software, Kortina crossfits and enjoys the lovely NYC.
Iqram Magdon-Ismail
Iqram specializes in user interfaces and is well versed in building elegant and scalable web platforms.
Most recently Iqram was VP of Technology at TicketLeap, where he headed all technology efforts and strategy, responsible for product development, user interface design, network & data architecture, and information management & security.
Prior to joining TicketLeap, Iqram was a developer with ImInLikeWithYou.com, a social flirting and gaming startup incubated through Y-Combinator, and backed by Betaworks, Baseline Ventures, and Spark Capital, among others. He also co-founded WeMusicStore.com, a site that matches independent musicians with fans everywhere, enabling grassroots music distribution though a low-cost eCommerce platform.
Iqram holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in Computer and Information Science. He currently lives in Center City Philadelphia, but was born in Zimbabwe, and has ties everywhere from Sri Lanka to New York, Morocco to Washington DC. He could represent many countries in the Olympics, if they created an event for “water cooler polo”.