About Us

In 2016, Becky and Ted Catino co-founded GigSmart. Prior to starting GigSmart, the Catino’s started and sold a Cincinnati, Ohio, based automotive finance company to a New York based private equity firm that managed an $85 billion portfolio. In addition, Ted and Becky also co-founded 625 Investments LLC, an opportunistic fund for the buying and selling of strategic investments related to venture, private equity, and real estate; and they co-founded the Catino Family Foundation. Ted and Becky grew up in Cincinnati and both graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Ted and Becky also serve on the boards of several other companies.

Rich joined GigSmart in March of 2017 and currently serves as its President. Prior to joining GigSmart, Rich spent 11 years managing a national auto finance company where he grew the receivables balance from $100 million to over $500 million. Before that, Rich ran a national sales team at Cintas Corporation, launching and growing an emerging business unit to over $20 million in revenue in just four years. Rich has 23 years of experience in sales, marketing, product development, project management, and operations, all while directly managing a salesforce. Rich is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati.

Mitch Catino co-founded GigSmart and serves as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer. Mitch is responsible for cross-departmental integration of data, product and processes and oversees product ownership regarding functional, design, and testing requirements as well as user data analytics and customer support. Prior to joining GigSmart, Mitch worked in Mergers & Acquisitions and Valuations & Opinions at Lincoln International Investment Bank in Chicago. Mitch graduated cum laude, with a dual degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Notre Dame and was a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon Honor Society for Economics.

Vince Catino joined GigSmart in October 2017 as its Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining GigSmart, Vince managed the Financial Planning and Analysis of Clorox’s Emerging Brands department working to improve profitability and performance for the Fortune 500 Company’s high growth brand incubator. Previously, Vince worked as a Capital Markets and Investment Banking Analyst at Credit Suisse in their Healthcare and Biotech group. Vince was the lead analyst on multiple IPOs and facilitated the issuance of debt and other capital instruments for pre-clinical and early-stage biotech companies. Vince started his career with Deloitte in their TMT (Technology, Media & Telecommunications) Group. Vince attended Miami University where he studied Accounting and Entrepreneurship.

Jason joined GigSmart in March 2018 as its Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining GigSmart, Jason spent 13 years at several startups including iTriage, Brandfolder, CommercialTribe, and KickApps, holding executive, developer, and product management roles. Jason has experience successfully leading teams to drive the development of product and software, resulting in increased company profitability. Jason is an active member of the development and startup community; he runs multiple Denver tech meetups and also regularly contributes to open source initiatives.

Chris Downard is the VP of Engineering at GigSmart. That’s his official title, but if you ask Chris what he does, he’ll say, “I build better, more engaged engineering teams.” Chris took a circuitous route into software development – only falling in love with coding after receiving a poly-sci degree and nearly enrolling in law school. Previously, Chris was the Director of Engineering for a GovTech company, where he was responsible for running a globally distributed engineering team.

Tara joined GigSmart in January 2019 and is GigSmart’s Director of Product. Tara brings a mix of strategic, technical, and analytical experience to the GigSmart Product Development Team. She is passionate about building products that optimize the experience for GigSmart’s Workers and Requesters. Tara focuses on creating a collaborative, efficient, and innovative environment for the Product Development Team. Prior to joining GigSmart Tara spent over five years building products for the financial services industry. Tara is a Colorado native and studied economics at the University of Colorado Boulder.