Our Team

Raj Lahoti
CEO, Co-Founder
A high-spirited forward thinker and visionary, Raj has developed his knack for the Net since his first endeavor that drew in more than 100,000 visitors a year about a dozen years ago. By 2003, Raj decided to join his brother, Ravi, helping him grow a directory-style site Ravi launched in 1999. That site was DMV.ORG.

Early on, Raj recognized the needs of the driving public and the potential of such a site. By focusing on quality, accuracy and breadth, he expanded the directory to a 4,000-plus-page, info-packed Web site. Today, DMV.ORG ranks as one of the Top 400 Web sites in the U.S and among the Top 5 online automotive destinations to the tune of 65 million visitors annually.

In 2007, Inc.com named Raj No. 9 in its 30 Under 30: America's Coolest, Young Entrepreneurs. Earlier that year, Raj earned honors in San Diego, Calif. as a finalist for the Ernst and Young prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and as the winner of the Association for Corporate Growth San Diego (ACGSD) 2007 Deal Makers Awards in the High Growth category.

Although his online marketing and e-business experience have led to a successful track record of developing high-traffic Web sites, it's Raj's positive outlook that has earned him the greatest success. His integrity and generosity are refreshing; his enthusiasm and passion, contagious. What started out a few years ago as a small group of contractors has now grown into the family of Gurus who share Raj's vision and his hopes for the future.

Raj is also a member of Young Presidents' Organization, Entrepreneurs' Organization and the Association for Corporate Growth.

David Gray
Director, Technology
The egghead behind the company's rapidly growing IT department, David has a hand in all things technology at the office: Everything from development/technological planning and support to network systems and applications; IT hardware and software to licensing and subscriptions. In other words, he keeps us live and alive.

A graduate of Purdue University, David earned a Bachelors of Science in electrical engineering technology, focusing on hardware applications. His concentration included micro-controller programming and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) applications.

Soon after he graduated, David caught the attention of Cummins Engine Company. In search of a highly skilled developer, Cummins hired him to work on the development of C++ and Visual Basic client server applications. During this stint he received his Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) certification. Thereafter, he made the move to San Diego, writing network MPEG analysis tools (including Web administration portals) during the two years he spent working for Acterna Corporation.

Then David joined Active.com as a senior developer. Here he focused on e-commerce, content management applications and consumer portals. Impressed by his skills, and only after three years, the company promoted him to Director of Technology. As such, he managed six teams and 25 developers in six global offices for the next two years. Today, he takes pride in building his very own development team at OnlineGURU.

Kathe Nielsen
Director, Content
Kathe earned her Bachelors of Science degree in technical journalism at Oregon State University in 1993 where she was named to Kappa Tau Alpha, the national journalism society. Although she's written and edited for a number of publications, both in print and online, Kathe credits her understanding of writing for the Internet from her stint as a regional editor for Wcities.com, where she oversaw 103 cities worldwide.

Kathe started with the company as a freelance editor when DMV.ORG was still just a directory. She cleaned up its content, eventually trading her cozy home-office for a seat as the company's first, full-time employee.

One year later, she built a team of 20 freelance writers and editors to take on the site's greatest expansion to date. From scraps of paper and hours of brainstorming sessions came the plan to develop approximately 4,000 pages of content. Seven months later, the site redesign and new content was launched.

Since that early fall of 2006, Kathe and her content team have polished, updated and expanded the flagship site. She's kept pace with the automotive world, the driving public and the needs of DMV.ORG's visitors-all with an eye toward accurate, comprehensive, useful information. With her never-ending wish list always close at hand, she strives to continuously improve the content and grow her department of crack writers and editors.