About us
Meet the people behind Squirl.
We're building real-time ASL translation with the Deaf community, for the moments when no interpreter is in the room.
Leadership
The team.
-
Shehriyar Nasri
Co-Founder and CEO
Commerce - Finance Specialist at the University of Toronto. Founded The Citizen Foundation UTM, which raised more than $28,000 for charity, and SnL Media Marketing, and worked in risk and advisory at PwC.
LinkedIn profile for Shehriyar Nasri -
Fiona Hanasavha
Co-Founder and COO
Biology for Health Science and Psychology at the University of Toronto. Researcher with UofT Child Language and Speech Studies and research analyst at MINTZ.
LinkedIn profile for Fiona Hanasavha -
Kangdi Shi
Lead Engineer and CTO
PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from McMaster University. Postdoctoral researcher at Unity Health Toronto in computer vision for medical imaging, with more than five years of machine learning experience.
LinkedIn profile for Kangdi Shi -
Sai Sridyuthi
Machine Learning Engineer
Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) at Saveetha School of Engineering. Data science internships with Unified Mentor and AND Intern, and Python development with MotionCut.
LinkedIn profile for Sai Sridyuthi -
Oliver Osborne
CMO
King's College London. More than twenty years scaling businesses, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Yojee, W Hotels and Earthtrack.
LinkedIn profile for Oliver Osborne -
Gabby Weaver
Research Director
Master of Science in User Experience and Human Systems Engineering from Arizona State University. Former UX researcher at Cisco, the Nevada State Museum and the CIA.
LinkedIn profile for Gabby Weaver -
Yi Tjuhanda
Primary Deaf Advisor
Head of our Deaf Advisory Board, a group of three Deaf community members with oversight of every product decision.
Deaf Advisory Board
Nothing ships without the Deaf community's say.
Every product decision goes through our Deaf Advisory Board: three Deaf community members, led by Yi Tjuhanda, who review what we build before it reaches anyone else.
Our principles
What we hold ourselves to.
-
Accessibility first
Every decision starts with one question: does this make the conversation easier for the person signing?
-
Community-led design
We build alongside Deaf signers, interpreters and educators, and they tell us when we get it wrong.
-
Respect and equity
ASL is a complete language with its own grammar and culture. We treat it that way, and we don't replace interpreters where a person belongs.
-
Responsible innovation
Your signing belongs to you. We only keep recordings you choose to share, and we say so plainly.
Want to work with us?
Questions, partnership ideas or feedback? We'd love to hear from you.