We’re a smart, passionate team out to make a difference!

We’re a smart, passionate team out to make a difference! After years of building custom web development projects for associations and nonprofits in the Washington, DC area, our company (then called nonprofitCMS), created a custom system for a trade association. We built a system to collect thousands of applications and perform online review with hundreds of reviewers. Little did we know at the time but this online entry/review system would become the backbone of our future.

Our company officially renamed and re-branded to OpenWater in 2014. Interest in our awards product exploded. Based on the feedback and interest from our customer base we launched our abstract management software (called Armada) in 2015. Armada evolved into a robust Abstract Management platform with thousands of users all over the world.

In 2020 we launched our Virtual Conference product based on the needs of an association conference with 1000s of concurrent sessions that needed to go virtual. The response to our product within our client base has been overwhelming.

Today, we’ve incorporated all of this functionality into our robust software platform. Clients use our platform to manage awards, grants, scholarships, fellowships, and more along with their virtual meetings. Contact us today to discuss the specifics of your program or event.

OpenWater was ranked at #2056 on the list
of America’s best ‘Small’ Businesses!

The OpenWater Name

In rowing, there’s a concept called “open water.”

It’s used to describe the distance between two boats at the finish line. In close races, the front of the trailing boat overlaps with the leading boat. That’s normal. But sometimes, when one crew has truly pulled away from the competition, there’s no overlap at all between the boats.
There’s just open water.

Our name conjures up our commitment to advancing our solutions and ourselves. One that evokes limitless possibilities and unbroken horizons. And one that reflects upon the people with whom we do business – the visionaries, the go-getters, the people doing everything they can to get ahead of the pack … and stay there.

That’s OpenWater.

Meet Our Team!

We are thinkers, doers, visionaries, planners, engineers, artists, technologists,
developers, designers, and more! We believe in what we do.

We are OpenWater.

Our Leaders

Kunal Johar

Kunal, co-founder of OpenWater, manages the direction and delivery of our platform. He enjoys most the challenge that comes with innovating our platform without alienating long time users of it. In his free time he loves to tinker with things, most recently, Amazon’s Alexa.

Zack Schwartz

I focus on running operations, building integrations, and ensuring OpenWater customers are well-supported. I enjoy tackling a wide array of business challenges ranging from front line product support and operations to sales and marketing efforts. My core expertise is in software development, building enterprise-level web applications. My hobbies include programming and powerlifting.