Our team includes you.

Great products aren’t created in a vacuum.

At Carbon Five, collaboration is a base assumption about how we work. Because it’s so intrinsic to who we are, we integrate your input at every stage of a project. While we always strive to go to market quickly, we never sacrifice quality for speed.

We like to stay flexible.

Our experience has shown that short, user-tested design and development cycles are a key ingredient in creating innovative products. A focused process makes it easier to integrate client and customer feedback and allows us to quickly course correct and build on new information. This also means you won’t burn piles of cash creating an overly-complicated product only to discover that you made some incorrect assumptions or missed some opportunities along the way.

Always keeping the future in mind.

Product growth and maintenance is an ongoing reality in an evolving marketplace. As our time with you comes to a close, we help train new and existing team members to carry the process forward.

We’re pretty handy.*

Development

  • Ruby on Rails
  • Elixir/Phoenix
  • iOS (Obj C & Swift)
  • Java & Android
  • React/React Native
  • Node.js, Python & Scala
  • Technical Leadership

Design

  • Product Design
  • Visual Design
  • Brand Identity
  • User Experience
  • Prototyping
  • User Testing
  • Content Strategy

Product

  • Agile Team Management
  • Process Coaching
  • Experiment Design
  • Product Validation
  • Data Strategy
  • Product Research
  • Roadmapping

*Not on the list? Give us a shout. We’ve probably already given it a spin.

Work with us

Meet the masterminds behind Carbon Five.

Mike Wynholds

CEO

Mike is one of the founding partners and the CEO of Carbon Five. He does much of the strategic planning for the company and runs all aspects of the Los Angeles office. During his 17 years at the company, Mike has led dozens of projects, opened offices and helped develop the core Carbon Five process and practice groups.

In his free time, Mike enjoys drinking fine wine and constructing elaborate Magna-Tile structures with his two young daughters (ideally at the same time).

Don Thompson

COO

As one of the original Carbon Five, Don has worn just about every hat at the company — CFO, Accountant, Counsel, HR Director, Client Services Rep, Ops Manager, Barista, Fridge Stocker, Waiter, Driver, Event Planner — before finally settling on COO. Don cut his teeth in the startup world during the Dotcom era, when he scaled the technology for an ecommerce website.

If you can't reach him on his mobile, Don's likely biking, hiking, hanging with his kids or traveling overseas (where he's too cheap to pay for a SIM card).

Courtney Hemphill

VP Product

Courtney is the head of the Product Management practice at Carbon Five, where she utilizes her more than ten years of software development experience. Courtney frequently shares her passion for lean and agile development at conferences and events worldwide. She also supports a variety of initiatives from Railsbridge and Women Who Code to Balanced Team and The Sum of the Parts speaker series.

Courtney takes time to unplug by traveling to some of the best rock climbing spots in Europe, Cuba, South Africa and beyond, always returning to her primary stomping ground in Yosemite Valley with her dog, Lilli.

Christian Nelson

VP Engineering

Christian is the VP of Engineering for the San Francisco office, where he serves as a manager and mentor. Over the past 11 years, he is proud to have helped Carbon Five mature into a design and development powerhouse.

Outside of work, Christian can be found playing in the mountains or constructing multi-storied clubhouses for his children.

David Hendee

VP Design

David sets the creative vision and manages the design team for Carbon Five. Prior to joining the company in 2004, David served as a Creative Director at IDG and as a founder of Fire Engine Red. Cultivating collaborative teams and the integration of design and engineering are two of David’s passions. David has also done numerous speaking engagements, including Distill, Lean UX SF and Sum of the Parts, among others.

In his free time, David enjoys cooking and building things to delight and annoy his wife and children.

Erik Ingenito

VP Client Services

Erik came to Carbon Five 14 years ago from Fire Engine Red, a software development consultancy, where he was a founder and partner. He currently serves as the Team Lead for multiple projects across the company.

When he’s not leading teams at Carbon Five, Erik can usually be found with his head in a science (or science fiction) book, or at Gordo Taqueria enjoying his favorite burrito with family.