Meet the Team

Jude Campbell is the founder of Selling Lane, an auction software platform designed for small businesses and entrepreneurs. A Scottish immigrant who began his journey at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Jude combined grit, ambition, and a love for technology to build a solution for the underdogs of the auction world. His career began in Boston's corporate environment, where frustration with rigid workplaces inspired him to create something better. Blending consulting experience, a passion for innovation, and perseverance through personal and financial challenges, Jude transformed a simple idea into a powerful platform. Today, he leads Selling Lane with the belief that accessibility and simplicity can empower business owners everywhere.

Sonia Bazzi is a co-founder of Selling Lane and the technical architect behind its development. Born into a Lebanese family exiled to Portugal, Sonia's resilience and creativity shaped her outlook early in life. A graduate of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), she first pursued ambitions of travel and blogging before applying her engineering expertise to software development. Partnering with her cousin Jude, Sonia helped transform Selling Lane from a spreadsheet workaround into robust auction software. Known for her wit, ingenuity, and passion for leveling the playing field, she is driven by a mission to create tools that empower small business owners to compete in markets dominated by larger players.

Vicky Barry-Mercer joined Selling Lane in 2023, bringing a fresh wave of energy and marketing expertise to the growing company. With a background in digital strategy and small business growth, Vicky embraced the role of CMO with a hands-on approach—diving into customer engagement, product storytelling, and market expansion. Her belief in Selling Lane's mission stems from her own entrepreneurial mindset and appreciation for tools designed "by the underdogs, for the underdogs." Vicky plays a pivotal role in expanding the company's reach, connecting with small business owners worldwide, and ensuring the platform's story resonates as strongly as its functionality.

Alek Chen didn't just study at MIT, he basically lived in the hackathon labs, fueled by late-night ramen and too much bubble tea. While his classmates were stressing about finals, Alek was busy turning half-baked ideas into fully functioning apps (some of which still run, shockingly). At MIT, he bounced between AI research and high-octane coding sprints, juggling projects that ranged from teaching computers how to "think" to making websites run faster than a caffeine-charged squirrel. Now, Alek takes all that MIT magic and channels it into building software that's not just scalable and efficient, but actually fun to use.

Elena Marquez didn't set out to become a UI designer. In fact, legend has it she was once perfectly content doodling layouts on café napkins and reorganizing her Spotify playlists like a digital Marie Kondo. But then she realized: screens are the new canvases, and someone had to save humanity from ugly buttons and clunky dashboards. Elena cut her teeth redesigning apps for friends until one fateful day she stumbled into Selling Lane. Over a coffee-fueled Zoom call, she declared: "If our software is for underdogs, then it deserves an interface that feels like a victory parade, not a tax form."

Daniel Foster isn't your typical CFO, unless your typical CFO happens to juggle spreadsheets like a circus act and still have time to coach hockey on the weekends. Born and raised in Toronto, Daniel earned his BA in Finance from Schulich (York University), where he quickly realized that while theory is great, what really gets him going is solving messy, real-world problems and auctions are messy. After years of whipping operations into shape for startups that looked more like campfires than companies, Daniel found his groove making sure the big ideas actually work in practice. He's the guy who turns "we should totally do this" into "we're already doing it," and somehow makes it look effortless. Without him Selling Lane wouldn't exist.

Alana Smaldina grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, with big dreams of working for NASA and sketching rocket boosters that could pierce the stars. But while she loved equations and engineering, she loved people even more. As she puts it, "rockets don't laugh at your jokes." So instead of rocket science, she earned her BA in Business Administration from Auburn University, where she discovered her true calling: helping people thrive. At Selling Lane, she's the friendly co-pilot every customer wants, making sure no one feels stranded in the digital jungle. Known for her southern warmth, lightning-fast problem solving, and uncanny ability to remember the quirks of every client (and their pets), Alana embodies what customer success is all about: empathy with a dash of rocket fuel.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ethan Reynolds learned early that patience is key (he's a Browns fan, after all). A graduate of Case Western Reserve University, he ditched the safe path of finance for the thrill of fixing messy business problems. Now at Selling Lane, Ethan is the guy who turns chaos into smooth workflows and makes broken processes tap out. Around the office, he's known for his sharp humor, obsession with Cleveland sports, and his golden retriever, Buckeye, who has zero respect for sock drawers.