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 awards 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. 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.
In 2021 ASI, the makers of iMIS Association Software, acquired OpenWater. As a member of the ASI family of products, OpenWater benefits from the increased investment into its product, customer support team and global reach that ASI is able to leverage for us. In many ways the story of OpenWater is only just beginning.
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.
Our core values
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
Timothy Spell
Co – Founder
Tim is a Co-Founder of OpenWater and possesses an innate ability to translate and break down complex technical information to non-technical people. While focused on the marketing and sales side of the business, Tim is also an avid powerlifter, Jiu Jitsu practitioner, dad and dog lover.
Kunal Johar
Co – Founder
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
CTO
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.