RE Log Fall 2016

FALL 2016 Ransom Everglades LOG 23 ANA ALBIR’S senior year did not get off to a smooth start. As she settled into classes and prepared to take her SATs, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It turned out to be benign, but she missed nearly four months of school preparing for and recov- ering from surgery. Adding to the challenge: Albir was new to Ransom Everglades; her family had moved from Colombia the previous summer. Thanks to the cooperation and support of her teachers and counselor, Albir man- aged to complete her work for a host of difficult classes – sometimes from home or the hospital – while winning acceptance to the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy and graduating on time. What she learned that year influenced her approach as chief executive officer and founder of Moondrop Entertainment, a technology company that develops and distributes the increasingly popular children’s design and delivery app known as Drawp. “I had to work from home – I couldn’ t go to school,” Albir said. “That level of sup- port I received from Ransom as the new student was incredible. To get all that help for somebody who hadn’t even been there throughout high school, to me, that was extremely lucky. That’s why I love Ransom Everglades.” Albir tries hard to provide similar support to her employees at Moondrop. Though she employs a staff of just 10 employees – one of whom is her sister, Manuela Albir ’10 – they literally span the globe. She prefers to tap into commitment and talent where ever she can find it, rather than demanding her employees work in the same building, or even the same country. Albir is based in San Francisco. Her sister works from New York. The company’s director of marketing lives in Atlanta. Engineers are based in Puerto Rico, Macedo- nia, Nepal and Pakistan. The company’s designer is in Colombia. Its quality assur- ance tester is in California. ANA ALBIR ’00 That level of support I received fromRansom Everglades as the new student was incredible. Founder and CEO of Moondrop Entertainment Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA Massachusetts Institute of Technology, BS Physics Memorable teacher, class: Caroline Mathis, AP Physics technology “That’s my favorite part of this company,” she said. As they create technology, they stay in touch with technology. There are video confer- ences once a week. Albir’s employees share code via the latest apps such as Github. They exchange ideas and updates using Hipchat. She’s also proud of this: Her company is 50-percent female. “That’s rare with a technology company,” she said. Albir conceived of Drawp as the federal government began to regulate the internet to protect children’s data in the 2000s. She wanted to create a safe and easy platform for children to share their designs, drawings and other works with family members and teachers. Drawp does that. Some 400,000 families have accessed Drawp for their children, and the teaching version of the app is available in 17 languages and used by 35,000 schools. Albir’s passion for technology is rooted in her love for scientific theory. She majored in physics at MIT before getting her MBA at Stanford. “I remember thinking it was very beauti- ful understanding why a rainbow is certain colors, why a lightbulb turns on, why certain cords in music go together – that is science,” she said. “My interest was aesthetic, really. I just thought it was beautiful…. I do think an equation is more beautiful than a program.” Yet there is something beautiful about using programming to allow children to use tech- nology safely. “I love planning,” she said. “I love strategy… I like making and growing things. What is in- credibly encouraging is to see [our compa- ny’s] progress. There’s been a lot of growth.”