What is Burner

Burner is an iOS application and service that enables users to obtain temporary, disposable numbers for voice and SMS communication. Fast, safe, and private, Burner lets you get as many numbers as you want, use each as a private line within your iPhone, and "burn" a number whenever you're done with it.

We think of it as a privacy layer for your phone.

Burner is made by Ad Hoc Labs, Inc., a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California. Our team is passionate about the idea that real-time communications should be more socially aware and privacy oriented, and we believe Burner is just the beginning.

Team

Greg Cohn, Co-founder and CEO

Prior to Ad Hoc Labs, Greg led strategy and business development for social and developer platforms at Yahoo!, where he worked on identity (OpenID, oAuth), Yahoo's Brickhouse incubator, and partnerships with Facebook, Google, Twitter, Zynga, and other industry leaders. Before Yahoo!, Greg was a founder or key executive at several startups, including Away.com (sold to Orbitz) and Everyday Health. He began his career in book publishing and holds degrees from Penn and Oxford.

William Carter, Co-founder and Head of Product

Will is a developer and a designer focusing on mobile experience, interaction, and product. Before Ad Hoc Labs, Will worked as the lead developer and designer at Protohaus, prototyping mobile UI and UX for clients such as Samsung, Google, and Sony. Will was a Senior UX Researcher at Nokia, where he engineered next-generation products focused on Augmented Reality and new kinds of mobile interaction. After leaving Nokia, Will started Nodesnoop Labs, building iPhone apps for such clients as Sony, Disney, and Coke. He is a graduate of Brown University and USC's School of Cinema-Television, where he studied Interactive Media.

Ted Timmons, Head of Technology

A frequent Wikipedia editor, Ted is interested in cloud computing, data-driven decisionmaking, and the art of software engineering. After beginning his career at MP3.com pre-IPO, he worked as an engineer at Amazon and various startups, learning how to balance business problems with pragmatic engineering – and how to use an eigenvector. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Portland State University, spent six months motorcycling through Latin America, and enjoys cats, tattoos, and tattoos of cats.

Will Chang, Head of Growth

Will’s most recent startup was People Media, a group of online dating sites, where he ran sales and business development through an acquisition by Match.com/IAC. A recovering investment banker, he also previously led business development for several key verticals at Yahoo! Will graduated Johns Hopkins University with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Computer Science and a master’s in Economics.

Jessica Marquez, Community & Marketing Lead

Prior to joining Ad Hoc Labs, Jessica was the community ninja who helped lead NeighborGoods, a platform for neighbors to exchange goods and services, to critical success and multiple awards. She also helped organize LA Startup Club, a collaborative work group for local entrepreneurs. Jessica holds a BA in Communication Studies from CSULB and an MCM from USC’s Annenberg Program on Online Communities.

Michael Parker, Lead Developer

Mike previously co-founded ReadyUp, a mobile app for discovering and organizing impromptu plans with your friends. Before that he was a software engineer at Google, where he worked on search quality for the Search Appliance and the backend for Google Docs. He has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering and a master's degree in Computer Science, both from UCLA.

For more info, feel free to reach out to us on twitter or facebook.