Meet The Team

Brian Tran

Founder, CEO
Brian has over 10 years of leadership experience across technology, product design, and community building. At Serif, he built a community of over 5,000 influential industry leaders and executives, while leading the company as CEO and Founder through strategic pivots amidst challenging market conditions like COVID. Previously, Brian was a product leader at Teapot, an identity API startup acquired by Stripe, and Handshake, now a $3.5B career platform. He was also the first Designer in Residence at Kleiner Perkins. He holds a B.S. in Film from the University of Texas.

Shane Hantman

Director of Operations
Shane brings over a decade of experience scaling early-stage to growth startups. He began as a keyholder at SoulCycle and is now a fractional operations leader for companies backed by Lerer Hippeau, Founders Fund, and Meritech Capital. He’s opened 27 retail locations across national markets, hired hundreds of employees, and implemented operating models that generated over $1M in cost savings. Shane specializes in streamlining systems, aligning teams, and turning early chaos into scalable structure.

Carl Johnson

Director of Events
Carl brings over 15 years of experience executing transformative programming that drives measurable ROI—spanning product sales, press coverage, and social media virality. During his eight-year tenure at Bottega Veneta, he led global experiential events for celebrity, influencer, and ultra/high net worth audiences, generating over $15 million in revenue through his event and activation strategies. His work ranges from intimate six-person dinners to large-scale, 500-guest experiences across New York, Los Angeles, São Paulo, London, Paris, Venice, and Lake Como.