OUR TEAM

A Los Angeles native, Spencer Price co-founded Halla while studying business at USC. Originally expecting the project to be a “side-hustle” to his studies and internship with will.i.am’s recording studio, he chose to leave both when Halla took off. Spencer is the organization’s principal dealmaker, responsible for relationships with grocery and restaurant partners, data providers and investors.

Henry Michaelson co-founded Halla while studying computer science at UC Berkeley. He is responsible for constantly improving Halla’s machine learning algorithm and for internal leadership, especially with respect to technology. Henry’s previous projects include machine learning based classification of supernovae in the UC Berkeley Astrophysics department, a speaking role in the Warner Brothers blockbuster comedy Project X, a three year stint as lead guitarist for Joe Banks, and a patented algorithm that has distributed over $7M in awards to mobile gamers.

A Los Angeles native, Gabriel Nipote co-founded Halla while studying economics at UCLA. He brings to the table a deep belief in the agile value of experimenting to create solutions that users authentically need, and the entrepreneurial value of constant self-education. In Halla's early days, that included rolling up his virtual sleeves and learning to code from scratch; These days, Nipote focuses on operations and business development.

A computer science innovator for many years, Rick brings to the Halla team world-class software architecture and product development, computational and data science, and systems design and UX design expertise. As a computer scientist at Harvard Medical and multiple biotech firms, Wedgeworth has been involved in the intersection of health care and data, and is passionate about educating people about the importance of healthy, delicious food that is right for their needs. As an architect for eBay and Wells Fargo, he is keenly aware of the computational scale of consumer supporting platforms and patterns of product purchase behavior. Wedgeworth, a data science and analytics pro, ensures that Halla’s unique food recommendation engine continues to push the boundaries of exceptional food guidance.

An entrepreneurial tech and advertising industry veteran, Toby brings to the Halla team results-oriented operations and marketing skills as well as strong management and operations experience, after building several startups into successful endeavors, including Will.i.am’s global product range Buttons. Toby is responsible for Halla’s brand identity and go-to-market strategy.

Jasper’s background in sales, business development, and customer support across food and technology industries uniquely positions him to understand the needs of Halla’s client base of grocery and food outlets. His daily responsibilities center around understanding the pain points of Halla clients and always improving the product to meet the challenges of the modern grocery marketplace.

With a background in extracting, categorizing and organizing information from complex legal and intellectual property sources, as well as her education in psychology, Alyssa has spent years immersed in building knowledge bases at the conjunction of human values, behaviors, culture and innovations. At Halla, Palmer leads the charge for capturing the intricate web of relationships between food, people and the supporting ecosystems.