About Propane Digital Marketing company in San Francisco, United States
Our mission has always been to explore the limitless ways digital technology can improve lives business and society. Lets work together to improve your business outcomes processes and your relationship with your audiences.
Neil Chaudhari
Chief Operating Officer
Tom DeSpain
Co-Founder / Operations Director
Lilu Odedra
Director of Strategy
Kim-Minh Huberwald-Leung
Director of User Experience
Alec Ditonto
Director of Technology
Olga Saunin
Director of Product Management
Irina Korik
Co-Founder / Chief Experience Officer
Neil Chaudhari
Read articles by NeilOver the past few decades of growth and transformation Neil has helped define the term ’digital agility.’ During that time Propane has become a trusted partner leading emerging brands in the automotive fashion financial hospitality health-care and tech industries. And weve earned a reputation for solving difficult communication challenges in todays modern landscape.
Neil has helped globally recognized clients that include Audi Hitachi Intel Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health. Having worked for companies of all sizes Neil possesses a deep strategic vision for brands that extends well beyond the digital space. His greater focus is human behavior and as a result user experience content strategy and platform architecture.
When hes not working Neil travels the world with his pug his daughter and his life and business partner Lilu.
Tom DeSpain
Read articles by TomThis money man is responsible for managing agency finances including fiscal reporting and long-range business planning. He also brings a supportive leadership that instills loyalty and comfort in the rest of us. Tom is also responsible for overseeing operational innovations that give Propane a competitive advantage allowing us to practice what we preach to our clients.
Before joining Propane in 2012 Tom gained deep experience in retail eCommerce technology and other industries. His impressive list of companies and clients includes Vinfolio Gap Sega and Amoco.
Outside the office Tom enjoys traveling family friends good food and good wine. His creative pursuits include writing painting cooking and gardening.
Lilu Odedra
As our Director of Digital Resources Lilu handles our digital resourcing and agency partnerships. If that werent enough shes also the driving force behind the agencys dedicated product-design group.
Before helping found Propane Lilu was the design director at allbusiness.com where she oversaw brand identity and site design for major companies including American Express and First Union. Prior to that Lilu worked as a freelance designer servicing brands that included Bank of America Dun amp; Bradstreet and Sempra Energy.
When shes not fueling Propanes creative tank Lilu enjoys reading cooking and traveling with her daughter.
Kim-Minh Huberwald-Leung
Read articles by Kim-MinhKim-Minh excels at collecting insights and crafting cohesive brand experiences across multiple touchpoints that include products platforms and campaigns. She specializes in orchestrating behavioral changes and identifying human-centered solutions that live at the intersection of culture technology message and design.
Before Propane Kim-Minh was in the entertainment industry working in television and film. After launching her own production company she expanded into brand consulting and began doing design and strategy work. Kim-Minh has worked both in-house and in-agency with notable clients that include Coca-Cola Sony PlayStation Carnival Cruises and Walmart.
Kim-Minh lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughter. She has a serious travel addiction a growing sneaker collection and an oft-indulged board game habit.
Alec Ditonto
Read articles by AlecAlec uses experience-driven human-centered design to lead the UX team here at Propane. Hes usually focused on work things like user emotion architect intention and bottom-line value and trying to figure out how to incorporate those into a brands digital ecosystem.
For 15+ years Alec has helped agencies start-ups and other companies research design and develop digital experiences that impact users lives. He has the unique combination of direction and contribution skills that provides empathy and experience for every job we tackle.
When hes not crushing his UX duties at work hes probably annoying his wife with his nonstop curiosity—or playing the banjo.
Olga Saunin
Olga is a technology professional with close to two decades of experience in the development of web and software applications. She has worked in the web innovation space for both multimillion dollar brands and startups. Prior to joining Propane Studio Olga held the position of the Director of Engineering and Product at Ticketmasters Artist Services Division where she led product and engineering teams in the development of a variety of innovative tools and services. Her work has won numerous awards including a 2016 Lovie Award and multiple Webby Awards.
Outside work Olga enjoys tending to her urban farm trying to achieve full sustainability.
Irina Korik
Irina has spend the last two decades in in quality engineering and product/project management. She has enjoyed working with cross-functional teams on a variety of software projects across software startups and established companies like Intuit and Xero. In her past role as a product manager at Xero she lead a team of 16 engineers using Agile methodologies and Scrum framework to create an award-winning product across multiple feature deliveries and integrations including core accounting projects reporting and visualization.
A majority part of her professional experience is in fin-tech which is known for highly transformative digital product solutions. Here at Propane she is leading the charge ongoing evolution of product development process systems and QA teams as well as being the resident scrum master.
Business Development Director
See Job Openings2003
Getting Started
We were three people with a dream of building digital experiences but not just run-of-the-mill stuff. We wanted to craft experiences that captivated audiences and drove business value all at once. In our first year we cut our teeth building websites and creating brand identities for tech startups. Our OG clients had limited budgets but they believed in us and nearly three quarters of them sold years later for millions of dollars.
In 2004 Flash and rich Internet applications dominated the digital landscape. Websites were known for rich motion and animation. At Propane we took on huge conference signage projects. And we built interactive demos using green screens and 3D animation. Between web video and outdoor we helped clients tell stories across mediums while keeping digital at the core.
To help marketers squeeze more from digital we turned to building custom content management systems. Using Ruby on Rails we could turn websites into marketing and operation hubs. Shortly thereafter we incorporated Drupal and Wordpress. Then we shifted our CMS skills towards SaaS-based custom applications. Weve never been afraid to adapt. Its always been about whats best for us—and our clients.
In 2006 we started building application prototypes for new business concepts. We did major work for nonprofits including the Academy of Friends. During that time we also diversified our client industries. We moved outside of tech and landed major projects for Mens Warehouse Intuit 7 for all Mankind and Sega Mobile.
After diversifying into retail gaming and financial our relationships evolved and we evolved too. We began adding value to our clients by articulating the benefits of ’Pull’ vs. ’Push.’ The former favored long-term retention over short-term results. And with that we realized we had the power to change how clients viewed marketing challenges. We began building custom marketing applications that offered intrinsic value to a brands audience.
Propane was the first digital agency to prototype concept cars using web technologies. This included the navigation units for Volkswagen and Audi A4s. By doing that we shortened a four-year concept cycle to only 12 months. And we (literally) brought Google Earth Pandora and YouTube onto the navigation screen for the first time.
Sensing an industry slowdown we created an agency incubator called Propane Labs. At the time Propane Labs helped several start-ups on their paths to success so we explored how this agency incubator model could work which favored equity over capital. The experiment provided a more holistic view of digital. We began building entire platforms similarly complex to early-stage eBay and Alibaba. But we werent just building applications; we were building workflows that impacted every facet of a company.
During an exciting period of growth Propane landed a host of new high-profile clients including Intel Kaiser Permanente and Hitachi. During that time we basically put all our time and energy into doing great things for those clients producing work at a higher rate than ever.
In 2011 we reshaped our internal talent and processes. We installed a more formal internship program created our PMOs process and staffed our account team.
During that time we built SaaS-based marketing tools that integrated together as a whole. The goal was to build connected marketing systems that blurred the line between marketing and value for customers. Marketing automation along with data exchange between companies and applications was hot and we were in the thick of it working our magic to improve efficacy and ROI for marketing engines.
In 2013 we solved a major challenge for Kaiser Permanente. With the mandated health-care deadline fast approaching we helped KP deliver its Affordable Care Act project just in time. Between that massive overhaul and a new application for Covidien we gained the confidence to call ourselves one of the few tech-enabled digital agencies in San Francisco.
We moved on to design and develop responsive mobile sites for Ocean Mist Grocery Outlet and Blurb. Then we launched multiple eCommerce sites for major CPG brands in Magento. We also finished a massive UX/UI overhaul for Sutter Health where we consolidated its entire website ecosystem into one main site. At the end of the year more than 50 projects went out the door.
2015 was the year of major platform and product designs. That was the year we successfully launched the Sutter Health linkAges Community. The dynamic platform combined the features of Facebook Craigslist NextDoor and TaskRabbit. Overall we committed ourselves to performance-based services with analytics and optimization built into every project.
Equinix a global data warehouse leader selected Propane to build one of the coolest applications out there. Complete with 3D graphics and game-like interfaces we redefined a once-dry diagram flow into a rich and immersive experience. We also teamed with Telltale Games to launch a new online presence. And we rounded out the year showing off our full-service chops for Absorb crafting projects for brand digital and tradeshows.
In 2017 we made another strong push toward improving talent. We built a rock-star team capable of stronger solutions across the board including campaigns websites and applications. On the client front we had an interesting mix that included an IoT company in CPG telematics in automotive a new product launch in skincare and a major health-care provider in Arizona. And we finally settled into our new space where we felt right at home.
After 15 years we took a deep look at ourselves reassessed our values and launched this website to celebrate our newfound identity. In short weve embraced who we truly are: an experienced agency that champions platform thinking. We were also proud to land a new client the esteemed San Francisco Symphony. And were looking forward to helping it solve its brand and experience challenges. In addition were also moving on a new project with Banner Health helping it reimagine its overall content strategy and digital experience.
