About us
Overview
Factal is a breaking news technology company that helps the world's largest organizations protect people, avoid disruptions and expedite disaster relief when global events put them at immediate risk.
Founded in 2018, Factal is the only company that combines instant social media discovery with trusted verification in a single platform. From outbreaks and active shootings to wildfires and severe weather, Factal blends AI technology with a 24/7 newsroom of experienced journalists to enable global organizations to see precisely where and how they're at risk in real time. Learn how Factal works.
Factal is trusted by many of the world's largest companies, technology platforms, newsrooms and NGOs for security, crisis management, communications, disaster response and content verification. We provide our service for free for humanitarian aid NGOs and fact checkers.
Based in Seattle with a London office, Factal was created by the founders of BreakingNews.com at NBC News. Scroll down to learn about our mission, team and investors. Interesting in learning more? We'd love to hear from you.
Mission
Factal is a news organization founded on a public service mission to protect people from imminent harm and help those in immediate need. We work hard to earn your trust through high standards in our code of ethics.
Our Story
Most startup stories begin with an idea. Factal's story begins with another organization called Breaking News.
Team
Charlie Tillinghast, co-founder and CEO
charlie@factal.com
Charlie was the President & CEO of MSNBC Interactive, LLC. where he chartered the formation of Breaking News as an internal startup under a separate brand. During Charlie’s 13-year tenure, msnbc.com was consistently the #1 news site, as measured by unique users. Following Microsoft’s 2012 divesture of its stake in the MSNBC joint venture, Charlie served as CEO of a video content security company in England; and later as CEO of Seattle-based Mixpo, Inc., a digital advertising platform that was acquired by Netsertive. Charlie is the 2015 recipient of Geekwire’s Hire of the Year award. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Brown University.
Ben Tesch, co-founder and VP of technology
ben@factal.com
Ben was the co-founder, technical director and creative director of Breaking News, leading the technology and design teams. Earlier at NBC News, he was the manager of the Labs Group, an R&D group of developers and designers tasked with conceptualizing new products and businesses. Prior to NBC, Ben led the design and front-end development of Minnesota Public Radio and its network of websites for stations and programs, which won multiple Edward R. Murrow awards during his tenure. He also led the initial design and front-end development of American Public Media and its network of programs websites, one of which received a George Foster Peabody Award.
Cory Bergman, co-founder and VP of product
cory@factal.com
Cory was the co-founder and general manager of Breaking News. Earlier at MSNBC Interactive (msnbc.com), he worked as the director of new product development, identifying and fostering innovative product efforts. Prior to msnbc.com, Cory led the digital team at KING TV in Seattle, winning the highest national awards for a local TV site. Separately, he co-founded and built hyperlocal site MyBallard.com, which won a national Online Journalism Award; and Lost Remote, a popular media blog acquired by AdWeek. Prior to his work in digital, Cory covered breaking news for NBC News as an assignment editor and field producer. He has an MBA from the University of the Pacific.
Tyler Adams, senior marketing manager
Tyler is an experienced B2B marketer and public relations practitioner. He began his career in community management for Newsvine. Later, he served as Director of Community for NBC News Digital's family of websites. He's an alumnus of Goucher College - but graduating from Garfield High School comes up a lot more in Seattle.
Rebecca Bratek, senior editor
Rebecca was most recently a producer on CBS News’ social team, where she managed the network’s flagship accounts, produced videos and wrote on a variety of topics. Prior to that, she was an editor for Breaking News, where she focused on politics and helped plan coverage of the 2016 election. She has an MA from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in New York and a BA in English from the University at Buffalo.
Zira Cook, developer
Zira is a software developer and native Seattleite. She holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington, and worked as a game developer before joining Factal. Her interests include backpacking, mechanical keyboards, and video game collecting.
Jessica Fino, editor
Jessica is a journalist who has worked for financial newswires and trade publications in the financial and educational sectors for the past five years. More recently, she was a reporter at Press Association's local data unit, covering health and government policy stories. She graduated from London Metropolitan University in 2011 after moving from Portugal, where she is from originally.
Imana Gunawan, editor
Imana is a Texas-born Indonesian multimedia journalist and dance artist. She was most recently a manager at Dataminr, where she led nightly coverage of Asia-Pacific news and regularly oversaw global coverage. Prior, she was an editor at Breaking News and producer for Humanosphere reporting on the humanitarian aid and development sectors. Her works have been published by NBC News, The Jordan Times, ColorBloc Magazine, and more. In her art, she creates surreal dance-based worlds that center stories of marginalized peoples, their ancestry, and their futures. She has performed and choreographed dance works across the US and internationally in Indonesia, Italy, and Jordan.
Jeff Landset, editor
Jeff is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who has worked as a television news producer at stations in Massachusetts, Las Vegas and Seattle. He produced the coverage of a deadly Amtrak derailment that won a 2018 Murrow Award for best Newscast in the Pacific Northwest region. He has a master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University.
Corwin Light-Williams, developer
Corwin is a developer in Seattle, Washington. He has worked on everything from video games to biochemistry software, as well as the original Breaking News. His favorite drink is an Arnold Palmer.
Jimmy Lovaas, senior editor
Jimmy was most recently a manager at Dataminr, where he oversaw a team of domestic news domain experts and regularly supervised global coverage. Prior to that, he was an editor at Breaking News and a freelance reporter for Reuters, McClatchy, and The Seattle Times covering state and local politics, music events and crime. He’s covered virtually every type of major breaking news story. Jimmy came to journalism after graduating from the University of Washington with a BA in Journalism following more than 20 years of jobs ranging from flight attendant to retail manager. He loves cats.
Alex Moore, editor
Alex was most recently a part of the Domain Experts team at Dataminr where he oversaw coverage of breaking news from regions ranging from Eastern Europe to Latin America. Prior to moving to Seattle, he worked in the policy world in Washington, D.C., studying arms control and non-proliferation. He holds a master's degree in International Conflict and Security from the Brussels School of International Studies.
Ryan Nagle, senior developer
Ryan builds software to help others better understand and get along with the world around them. Before joining Factal, he spent time in the federal healthcare space, contributing to a variety of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects, including HealthCare.gov. Going farther back, Ryan's also worked at several news organizations, including Breaking News.
Ahmed Namatalla, editor
Ahmed is a reporter and editor who relocated to the US in 2017 after spending more than 13 years in the Middle East, based in Cairo and Dubai. He was a member of the Bloomberg News team that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath across the region, writing extensively about economic crises that broke out in North Africa and the rising political and economic influence of Persian Gulf countries. He is fluent in Arabic and a graduate of Washington State University.
Ryan Ockuly, director of sales
ryan@factal.com
Ryan is a sales executive with startup, growth and management experience in security, unified communication, life safety and emergency communication. Ryan has designed, sold and managed successful delivery of technology solutions and service at the enterprise level for Fortune 1000, healthcare, education and government organizations. Prior to joining Factal, Ryan worked nine years at Alertus Technologies where he was an integral part of growth in sales, product development, partnerships and OEM channel relationships.
Sophie Perryer, editor
Sophie has written for the Press Association, the Independent, the Sunday Times and Condé Nast, covering global politics, economics, technology and travel. She completed her journalism training with the Press Association following her graduation from King's College London. Sophie speaks fluent French and previously lived in Paris.
Jacob Quinn Sanders, developer
A versatile reporter and editor for more than a decade before becoming a software developer, Jacob is intimately familiar with covering, supervising and building technology around breaking news events. He began covering law-enforcement on both coasts and in the South before reimagining crucial real-time workflows and content strategies at Western Pennsylvania's largest news operation. After a jump into tech, he wrote software relied on during statewide emergencies.
Jillian Stampher, head of news
jillian@factal.com
Jillian is a journalist with a focus on news editing and mobile platforms. Most recently at HuffPost, she worked as a front page editor, assigning and editing evening news coverage, often as the only editor on the site. While there, Jillian helped redevelop HuffPost’s editorial mobile initiatives, tracking alert analytics and coordinating the launch of push categories. Prior to HuffPost, Jillian was an editor at Breaking News, where she covered major stories from the aftermath of the Boston bombing to the Nice terrorist attack while also growing Breaking News’ social platforms.
Lucy Swinnen, editor
Lucy began her journalism career in 2012 in Sydney, Australia with Fairfax Media and has worked for the company across Australia and New Zealand. Most recently she worked for New Zealand's most visited national news website: Stuff.co.nz and Wellington's main daily newspaper The Dominion Post. She has lived and researched in Egypt and Turkey and has an interest in religion, politics and social issues in MENA. She is passionate about the great outdoors and has done some combination of hiking, kayaking and climbing trips in Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Mary Taft, sales development manager
mary@factal.com
Mary was a Project Manager at MSNBC.com in the sales group where she managed client sponsorship and advertising campaigns, oversaw the 2002 Olympic schedules, worked closely with the Editorial team and interfaced with such NBC programming as the Today Show, Dateline and Meet the Press. Before that, Mary worked in sales at King5, Redhat and Visio (acquired by Microsoft). Mary attended the University of Washington and currently resides in Bend, Oregon.
Joe Veyera, editor
Joe was the editor of the Queen Anne & Magnolia News, managing the news operation of a hyperlocal weekly paper in Seattle. During his tenure, the paper won the Small Business Award from the Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce. Before becoming editor, he briefly served as staff reporter for the full chain of neighborhood papers operated by Pacific Publishing. He graduated from the journalism program at the University of Washington, and served as editor of the campus newspaper, The Daily.
Vivian Wang, editor
Before joining Factal, Vivian led news coverage of the Asia-Pacific as part of the Domain Expert team at Dataminr. Her area of expertise is East Asia, and she is proficient in Japanese, Mandarin, and Cantonese. She has a BS in International Relations from Carnegie Mellon University. She grew up in Southern California and is now based in Seattle.
David Wyllie, editorial development manager
david@factal.com
Most recently a senior journalist for BBC News, David was one of the first employees of Breaking News and a London-based editor for six years. While at Breaking News at NBC News, he was on the Emmy-winning team covering the downing of MH17. David also served as notifications editor for Sky News.
Investors
Factal's seed investment round was led by SeaChange Fund in Seattle with additional funding by Grubstakes, Frontier Angels, Sierra Angels, OF Partners and Dave Smith.
Press
Breaking News founders launch Factal, delivering real-time news and incident alerts to companies
GeekWire (August 2018)
This Startup Wants To Sell Verified Breaking News Alerts To Companies
BuzzFeed (August 2018)
I want bad news and I want it fast: That’s the business model for Factal, a business-focused company from the founders of Breaking News
NiemanLab (August 2018)
For press inquiries, email us at hello@factal.com
Jobs
We're always on the lookout for news editors, developers and sales execs. Factal is headquartered in downtown Seattle with offices in New York and London. Interested in learning more? Email us at jobs@factal.com
Managing Editor (London)
Factal is looking for an experienced and forward-thinking managing editor who believes in our unique mission to help protect people through comprehensive breaking news coverage. In addition to leading our UK newsroom, this editor would collaborate frequently with our team in Seattle to plan coverage and build out our product, staff, strategies and goals for our UK team.
Responsibilities:
- Manage a London-based news team, defining editorial strategy and working with Seattle to ensure quality is consistent across teams
- Inspire editorial staff on projects and coverage, leading editors through challenging news stories and helping editors find their role within a larger team
- Attract and develop new editors, helping build a diverse, ambitious and dynamic newsroom, both in London and potentially abroad
- Run the logistical side of the London office, building schedules, setting staff meetings and ensuring the team is set up to succeed
The ideal candidate:
- Is a motivated and efficient leader, having worked as a manager or editorial lead in the past
- Is unafraid to take on challenges in a rapidly-growing newsroom
- Excels at real-time news judgment in a high-pressure environment
- Is organized and can juggle staff scheduling, meetings, brainstorms and news coverage
- Has a knack for finding and making sense of news events from social media
- Has experience using tools and techniques for verifying information
- Thrives in breaking news situations and can cope with stressful online content
- Will be available to work a flexible schedule in terms of days and hours
- Can understand more than one language (preferred but not required)
- Is a self-starter who works well with others in a startup environment
- Can communicate effectively with the product team
Factal pays competitively, and we offer equal employment opportunities to all candidates. Factal does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service or other non-merit factor.
Interested? We'd love to hear from you! Send your resume to jillian@factal.com.
Front-end Designer / Developer
Factal is looking for an experienced front-end designer / developer to join our Seattle-based technology team (remote candidates welcome). Factal is a quickly-growing news and technology startup that provides real-time coverage and data to help protect people from harm and help those in need. We think of breaking news in a fundamentally new way, applying journalists and technologists together to solve new information problems in an increasingly volatile world.
We're primarily looking for a strong visual and functional design sense, but the ability to code Javascript or Python/Django at least an intermediate level is pretty important. We have client web and mobile applications (a blend of features akin to working on Twitter, Facebook, Maps, and News apps), as well as administrative interfaces that need good design thinking and execution. Your role would also be to help build out our brand and design patterns across our applications, web site, and sales & marketing materials.
The ideal candidate:
- Has 3+ years experience designing consumer software
- Has a diverse portfolio of shipped work
- Doesn't need complex instructions/specs/workflows to get things done
- Has experience working on high-use, large-scale applications
- Prefers to work for a small company, one with a mission, and wants to contribute
Factal pays competitively, and we offer equal employment opportunities to all candidates. Factal does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service or other non-merit factor.
Interested? Apply here!
Customer Success Associate (US)
Factal is seeking a Customer Success Associate to focus on adoption, growth, and customer satisfaction. This role works in concert with Marketing, Sales, and Product to shape the Factal platform and advocate for customers’ priorities.
You will serve as the primary point of contact for key member organizations. This means working with the most innovative security teams in the world. You’ll consult professionals at Fortune 500 companies and global NGOs, helping them use Factal to get the breaking news they need - in all the places they need it.
Responsibilities include:
- Product expertise - you’ll be as knowledgeable about the Factal platform and its various integrations as anyone in the company. As you help customers succeed, you translate the lessons learned to accelerate the success of your other accounts.
- Training - from onboarding to explaining new features, you’ll be presenting Factal in videoconferences, through documentation, and (eventually) in-person to users of all skill and familiarity levels. Factal launches new features regularly, and this role is critical in educating the customer base.
- Relationship-building - Customer success drives not only renewals but expansion and new business at Factal. You’ll be the face of the company to decision-makers responsible for Factal’s progress and growth.
- Problem-solving - You’ll proactively resolve issues customers have, whether technical, editorial, or in user management.
- Advocacy - You’ll provide insight and represent customers’ interest to internal teams, including Sales, Marketing, Product, and Engineering.
The ideal candidate will:
- Have account management experience with enterprise clients
- Embrace a growth mindset, working to improve the experience of customers even when they’re satisfied with their current settings
- Effectively communicate through all mediums (verbal, listening, written), including video walkthroughs for members
- Know how to use CRM tools like Marketo, Salesforce, or HubSpot, and recognize the value in recording detailed notes on customer conversations
- Be passionate about Factal’s technology and mission - to protect people from imminent harm and help those in immediate need
If you’re a news junkie who enjoys software tools and interacting with people, this could be a rewarding role for you.
Factal pays competitively, and we offer equal employment opportunities to all candidates. Factal does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service or other non-merit factor.
Interested? We'd love to hear from you! Send your resume to tyler@factal.com.
