Ryan McKillen, Uber's Third Hire, Joins The Wanderlust Group's Board of Directors
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and NEWPORT, R.I., May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wanderlust Group (TWG), a technology leader in the marine and outdoor lifestyle industries that connects marinas and campground owners to boat and RV users, today announced that it has appointed Ryan McKillen to The Wanderlust Group's board of directors. The third employee to be hired at Uber, McKillen is an accomplished engineer of consumer products and marketplaces with experience steeped in Silicon Valley.
With a unique focus on scaling engineering organizations, McKillen joins TWG's board during a critical time of growth as the company aims to size up its engineering and product team, amid a boating and outdoor boom as Americans look for socially distanced activities. TWG's Dockwa brand alone saw bookings this March up by 313 percent over last year.
During his nearly seven year tenure at Uber, McKillen grew from software engineer to site director of NYC engineering, finishing with a tour in product in Uber's autonomous vehicle ops. He impressively scaled Uber's New York City engineering center from 0-80+ employees within 18 months, with responsibility for teams who built the Uber EATS platform, as well as the infrastructure for Uber's metrics and monitoring used by engineering globally. Uber's M3 time series database was open-sourced and is now relied upon by leading tech and Fortune 500 companies.
"As we look to make significant investments in our product software, Ryan's deep well of knowledge as an engineer, specifically when it comes to scaling a team, is truly an asset," said Mike Melillo, Co-Founder and CEO of The Wanderlust Group. "His love for the water as an avid boater and self-proclaimed 'obsessed' sailboat racer aligns perfectly with our company's mission to help people connect and spend more time outdoors."
"I'm thrilled that The Wanderlust Group chose me to serve on its board, and I'm looking forward to working in the trenches with the team," said McKillen. "Mike is a fiery entrepreneur and working with him gives me flashbacks to Uber. We've found a great match of my experiences in engineering and consumer marketplaces, with TWG's disruption of the boating industry by connecting marinas with boaters."
McKillen currently serves on the board of directors for Chronosphere, a scalable, reliable and customizable monitoring service for cloud-native applications, built on M3. He was also one of the first investors in the company. Passionate about advising start-ups, McKillen has made over 50 angel investments within the last four years.
The Wanderlust Group is a two-sided marketplace connecting marina and campground owners to boat and RV users. Since launching, TWG has connected more than 250,000 boaters with more than 15,000 marinas to search, explore, reserve, and pay for reservations digitally, within a matter of minutes. To learn more visit, https://wanderlustgroup.com/.
About The Wanderlust Group
Founded in 2014, The Wanderlust Group is a technology leader in the marine and outdoor travel industries made up of subsidiaries Dockwa and Marinas.com. We believe that the world is a better place when people are able to spend time outdoors, connected to nature and each other. To support this mission, we make technology that enables accessibility, enjoyment, and affordability to outdoor experiences for all. With offices in Newport, RI, and Cambridge, MA, the company has expanded to more than 30 countries, 15,000 marinas, and 250,000 boaters worldwide.
For more information, visit https://wanderlustgroup.com/ and follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
SOURCE The Wanderlust Group
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