--- title: "SpiffWorks — About" description: "SpiffWorkflow was built on the conviction that mission-critical business processes shouldn't be fragile or locked to a single vendor." source_url: https://spiff.works/about/ --- About # Digital transformation by *citizen developers.* SpiffWorkflow was built on the conviction that mission-critical business processes shouldn't be fragile or locked to a single vendor. They should be owned by the teams that run them. Origin ## How we *got here.* Several of us worked together at Rosetta Stone in the early 2000s, leading core infrastructure as the company went public and scaled its online platform. We learned how to build systems that support many teams under pressure. In 2014 the team moved into consulting, working alongside research scientists and graduate students at the University of Virginia. Building with Python every day, for people who weren't engineers, taught us what a real general-purpose language looks like in practice. In 2019 UVA asked us to build a general-purpose workflow engine for a complex approval process. We put it to work immediately during the pandemic, building applications to bring researchers and students back to campus safely. That effort led to a complete rewrite of an existing open source library called SpiffWorkflow. Status, a Web3 company, funded the next phase, which became Spiff Arena: a full end-to-end workflow management system. SpiffWorks launched in 2025 as the hosted, commercially supported version of that platform. ![Members of the Rosetta Stone infrastructure team](https://spiff.works/images/history/2000.png?h=8a687467d45abe4a352e) 2006 Rosetta Stone ![Dan Funk working with the UVA PACT Lab](https://spiff.works/images/history/2014.png?h=84c163e8bef0321e465f) 2014 Consulting ![Kevin Burnett and Elizabeth Esswein presenting SpiffWorkflow](https://spiff.works/images/history/2023.png?h=96e8166d52c06950ea90) 2020 SpiffWorkflow ![Dan Funk participating in the Lighthouse Labs accelerator](https://spiff.works/images/history/2025.png?h=444b7ef57d9164191363) 2025 SpiffWorks Mission Mission-critical processes belong to the teams that run them. Not the platforms that host them. Team ## The people *behind the platform.* SpiffWorks is built by the same team that maintains SpiffWorkflow, Spiff Arena, and the surrounding open source ecosystem. ![Dan Funk photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/Dan.png?h=e779ef476a622a3402c1) Dan Funk CEO Previously a software engineer and manager at Rosetta Stone, lead architect at the University of Virginia, and a co-founder of the non-profit Staunton Makerspace. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/funkdan/) ![Alex Herron photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/Alex.jpg?h=9fe517f49cb61b95e89e) Alex Herron COO Business architect and project manager. Alex is a previous founder of Prime Meridian Software and has managed many multi-million dollar projects. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-herron-b715783/) ![Kevin Burnett photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/KB.jpg?h=eefbe0e9505ab7315631) Kevin Burnett CTO Previously a Principal Engineer and DevOps lead at Rosetta Stone, with deep experience in Ruby, Python, Go, Kubernetes, and production operations. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/burnett/) ![Jason Lantz photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/Jason.jpg?h=0337e78fff6e6cfde071) Jason Lantz DevOps Engineer A senior software engineer who has worked directly with Kevin for over a decade. Deeply gifted in DevOps and a strong general purpose engineer. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-lantz-bb8a7a22/) ![Elizabeth Esswein photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/Elizabeth.jpg?h=6589176e21d9e428b41a) Elizabeth Esswein Data Engineer Elizabeth has rewritten much of the core Python library that drives SpiffWorkflow and brings experience with BigQuery, Snowflake, and Apache Airflow. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-esswein-95087a79/) ![Jon Herron photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/Jon.jpg?h=bd9ebc36afd91ea286cf) Jon Herron Performance Engineer Jon has served as director and principal engineer at companies including Yahoo, T-Mobile, and Northrop Grumman, building systems at tremendous scale. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonherron/) ![Madhurya Liyanage photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/madhurya.jpg?h=1fc7593e369b51676639) Madhurya Liyanage Quality Assurance Lead Madhurya's software development background helps her automate tests and identify issues and root causes quickly. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhurya-liyanage/) ![Usama Ahmad photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/Usama.jpeg?h=988d37f33505e2327049) Usama Ahmad Technical Writer Usama is a top-rated technical writer and an experienced electrical engineer with a master's degree in Engineering Management. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/usama-ahmad-aa983759/) ![Jacob Armstrong photo](https://spiff.works/images/team/jacob.jpeg?h=5dba8d3ee75f783c90cd) Jacob Armstrong Junior Engineer Jacob is a farmer, an airplane pilot, and a certified aviation mechanic who built his own airplane. One of his projects was featured at Claude Code's 2026 Birthday Party. [LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobarm/) Work with us ## See it running on *your* process. Request a live demo or join the community. No sales cycle required to get started. [Try It Now →](/signup/) [Join the Community](/community/)