About Us

What is Zeer?

Zeer is a grocery product community that helps people "believe in what they buy." We connect people to product information, communities full of like-minded people, and buying advice.

Modern Life Can Be Overwhelming. Zeer can Help!

Today, modern technology has given you hundreds of thousands of food and beverage products. While having an abundance of choices can be nice, it's still hard to discover what's best after figuring in all of your needs plus seemingly endless amounts of information. When faced with so many details, it's easy to feel completely overwhelmed and unorganized.



Imagine instead that you could whittle the world down to a store section build just for you, with all of your friends hanging out, experts available to answer your questions, and all of the products you like and need in one place. Instead of feeling lost in a sea of self-doubt, you are a vessel of strength: confident, admired, and in-touch with your needs.

Be a Zeer, and See Your Choices Clearly

That's what living in the Zeer world is all about. Get the scoop before you buy. Join product communities and meet people who share like interests (whether it's a food allergy, lifestyle choice, or health condition). Read unbiased reviews from people like you, tap into communities where you can discuss products frankly with friendly people that care, and help grow the communities you love by sharing your wisdom with anyone on the web.

Hey, who's in charge here?

The Zeer team combines applied experience in the best of the web, eCommerce, Social Media, development and design. With our super hero powers, you can look forward to the Zeer Team bringing creativity, (truth, justice) and innovation to the Web for years to come.

Michael Putnam, President and Founder

Like Zeer itself, Mike Putnam really "brings it" when it comes to the web, eCommerce, product information and using new media to better serve customers. Prior to founding Zeer, Mike worked at Forrester Research as an eCommerce analyst, at MARKEM Corporation as eCommerce director and leader of RFID product development and marketing, and as an MBA intern in the algorithms group at Amazon.com. Mike holds degrees in engineering, business and government from Stanford, Dartmouth and Harvard, respectively.

Keith Wright, Software Engineer

Behind every great website, there is a very tired software engineer. That tired man is Keith Wright. When he's not juggling the engineering responsibilities of a hot new website, he's literally juggling, playing with his spankin' new Wii (damn that tennis elbow), and giving Mike Manning a hard time. He finds it his duty as a Boston resident to inform you that he is a Patriots and Red Sox fan. Keith is one case of senioritis away from holding an MS in Computer Science from Northeastern University.

Shannon Bullard, Community Manager

At the heart of the Zeer Community is Shannon Bullard, who voraciously studies and incorporates all aspects of Social Media into her life. You'll find her throughout Boston with her face obscured by her laptop or enjoying the perks of city life. She plays Rock Band only in secret, hearts Haruki Murakami's work, and is a proud member of the Emerson Mafia. An avid fan of travel, food, and great beer, Shannon loves Carmen San Diego, snapping photos, reading hungrily, tinkering with Social Media sites, or nursing a Belgian Beer in one of Boston's many fine establishments. She's also been reported as having thrown a Back to the Future party complete with Clock Tower and Delorean cake. Just sayin'

Mike Manning, Web Designer

Mike Manning is responsible for the front-end of Zeer and lets face it, thats fun to say out loud. He's fresh off 3 years in Atlanta where he laid claim to organicidentity.com (a one man web design sweatshop). Mike has since moved back to B-right-on, Ma. in September and joined Zeer full-time. Mike enjoys playing no-defense in pick-up basketball games, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, CSS and writing standards-based mark-up. He has a management degree from Babson College and a high-five with your name on it.

Jon Oakes, Software Architect

Known to the team as "the Wizard of Surrey," Jon brings deep experience in large-scale distributed software systems to the Zeer team. Jon worked at MARKEM Corporation for twenty-five years, bringing many product identification systems to market. Most recently Jon was a business development manager responsible for finding and implementing new technologies at MARKEM. In this role, Jon single-handedly wrote key enterprise-level software systems for the MARKEM RFID initiative, including a patented system for allocating Electronic Product Codes enterprise-wide that was used by SUN Microsystems. Jon also does punch card programming for fun and plays a "punchy" bass guitar. He was going to tell you what school he went to, but it was so long ago that he forgot.

Bob Marchildon, Infrastructure Architect

Bob is the infrastructure guru for Zeer, bringing to the table a proven track record in delivering a wide range of high performance enterprise and web architectures. Prior to working with Zeer, Bob was the Enterprise Technical Architect for MARKEM Corporation, leading infrastructure development and maintenance for its global IT and Web operations. If it listens on a port, Bob's got it covered. Bob holds an MS and BS in Computer Science, and his favorite T-shirt reads "Don't mess with me or I WILL replace you with a very small shell script!"