Company Background
BookPig is a San Francisco-based company founded in 2009 by the Witchel and Pigoski Families. Book Pig was created to provide a convenient and inexpensive method for busy working parents to get kids the books they need, but along the way transformed into a service to get kids excited about reading. With parents reporting back that not only was the service a great idea, but that they never knew how much their kids liked reading, a new mission was born.
Our Mission:
Get kids excited about reading by helping parents surround kids with books they love.
Our Team:
- Tom Pigoski, Founder & CEO. Tom is responsible for strategic direction,
performance, and team management at BookPig. Prior to founding BookPig, Tom held
executive roles on the founding team for several successful internet services companies
including Proper Marketplace and Ecast, Inc. where he oversaw a diverse set of activities
including technology, development, technical operations, information security, and customer service.
In addition, Tom was founder and served as COO/CFO for View Interactive Entertainment (acquired by Rowe International in 2006).
Tom holds a BS in Engineering from Stanford University and MS from University of Florida.
- John Witchel, Founder & CTO. Prior to founding BookPig,
John co-founded, served as CTO and sat on the board for Prosper Marketplace, the
first people-to-people lending marketplace and the company that launched the P2P
lending industry. An active software designer, Mr. Witchel was the architect and
lead developer of Prosper. Prosper raised over $40M from such top venture firms
as Benchmark, Accel, and Fidelity Ventures. Prior to Prosper, Mr Witchel founded
and led Browsercam (acquired by Gomex in 2007), EmailReach, and XCOM (acquired
by USWEB/CKS). He holds an MS in Computer Science from the University of San
Francisco and a B.A. from Stanford University
- Gaby Chapman, Librarian. Gaby is a retired English teacher who specialized in getting kids to love reading. She implemented an independent reading program at a charter school for middle and high school kids that raised the English test scores nearly 20 percentage points in the first year and remained one of the top two schools in reading in the county during her 7 year tenure. The secret to that success was providing unlimited access to the books kids actually wanted to read and plenty of time and space to read. She counted it a success whenever she caught a student trying to sneak a chance to read his or her own book in class.
- Jessica Wheeler, Librarian
- Charlotte Pigoski, Director of Marketing
- Tamara Rivera, Operations
Our Board:
- John Witchel, Founder
- Tom Pigoski, Founder
- Brian Elliot, President and CEO of Alibris Books. Alibris Books is the premier online marketplace for independent sellers of new and used books, music, and movies, as well as rare and collectible titles.