The Blossom Executive Team
Manrique Brenes, CEO and founder
As Blossom’s CEO, Manrique oversees all aspects of the Blossom System, and is
responsible for budget management, legal, sales, and operations (including
manufacturing, third party logistics and customer support). He also oversees investor
relations and VC engagements.
Prior to starting Blossom, Manrique worked at Skype for nine years in various roles. Before leaving Skype
as Senior Director of Skype’s Consumer Electronics Group, he was responsible for developing products
with hardware partners in the consumer electronics industry. Manrique pioneered the development and
launch of Skype’s implementation on HDTVs from all major television manufacturers, Skype’s launch on
the Sony PlayStation Vita, and all embedded applications on residential handsets (WiFi, DECT and ATA).
Manrique was also responsible for managing the Skype Certified Program for all hardware devices, a
large portion of the company's intellectual property licensing and the Skype Developers Program.
Before his tenure at Skype, Manrique was a product line manager for Service Provider products at CiscoLinksys, overseeing all service provider CPE product offerings. Prior to joining Linksys, he was
responsible for leading product management at Cisco Systems for industrial Ethernet, long-reach
Ethernet, and ETSI-based DSLAM products.
Manrique previously spent a decade in the irrigation industry, taking on multiple roles involving
engineering, product development and sales of residential, commercial, and agricultural irrigation
equipment.
Manrique has authored fourteen patents (with 10 more pending) covering home networking, VoIP,
network management, UMA and industrial Ethernet applications. He holds an engineering degree from
the University of Costa Rica, and a Master of Science in Engineering and M.B.A. from the University of
California at Davis.
Kaido Kert, CTO and founder
As CTO for Blossom, Kaido handles both hardware and software architecting for the
company. He has assembled a team of engineers that run Blossom’s backend, firmware
development, testing and QE, data integration and analysis.
Kaido architected the complete technical solution (device hardware and software, cloud application, front
ends) that powers the Blossom System.
Prior to starting Blossom, Kaido worked at Skype for nine years, holding various positions, most recently
as Principal Software Development Engineer for Skype’s Consumer Electronics Group. In this role, he
was responsible for leading the integration of Skype into multiple hardware platforms. Kaido pioneered
the engineering, development and implementation for the majority of Skype’s embedded solutions,
including Smart TVs from manufacturers including Samsung, Panasonic, LGE, Sony, and Vizio. He also
headed up Skype’s client for Sony PlayStation Vita, and all embedded applications on residential
handsets. Kaido’s pioneering work integrating Skype’s stack and A/V engine into embedded platforms
was the basis for Skype’s clients in its initial mobile platforms, including Android and Kindle.
Kaido worked on multiple large-scale information system projects in Estonia prior to his time at Skype.
These projects included developing and implementing multiple aspects of the Estonian electronic identity
project, as well as hosting and managing the infrastructure for some of the largest web properties in the
Baltics.
Kaido began his career in embedded systems and large scale consumer electronics manufacturing while
working as a development and applications engineer for an industrial robotics company. There, he built
solutions for electronics manufacturing facilities for Nokia, Motorola and others.
Kaido holds multiple patents covering gaming, data streaming, device systems optimization, and
communications. He has an engineering degree from Tallinn Polytechnic School.
Matthew McRae, Chairman and founder
In his role as chairman, Matt actively collaborates with the other founders to charter the
company vision and strategy. He also plays an instrumental role in driving investments
and strategic partnerships.
Matt is currently VIZIO's CTO and head of marketing. Matt has been with Vizio for six years, and his
responsibilities range from engineering, product management and advanced technologies to industrial
design, marketing, and communications.
Matt also serves on the Board of Directors for the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business
Ethics at Chapman University.
Matt has over 15 years of experience gained while working in technology and marketing roles at
companies including Fabrik, Cisco Systems, Linksys, and Viking Components. He has over 30 patents
either filed or pending, in the fields of communications, design, networking and displays. He received a
bachelor's degree in Business from The Wharton School of Business and a bachelor's degree in
Computer Science Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied
Science.