Getting to Know our Neighbors: Jason Gavris

 Continuing our series "Getting to Know Our Neighbors," we want to introduce you to Jason Gavris who moved into the Esplanade in the Spring of 2023. Jason was first introduced to the Esplanade when he was a student at MIT. He walked by often on the river loop up to Lechmere and the Science Museum and was “fascinated by the brick architecture, clean lines, and ample windows.” During that time, he was looking to purchase a second-hand item and found one advertised by a resident in the building. After stopping by to pick it up and seeing the building from inside, he thought it would be great sometime to live in the Esplanade with its views, garage, pool, and exercise room.  Flash forward two decades and he lives here now!

In the 14 years since graduating with an electrical engineering and computer science degree, Jason has had a busy and successful life.  Right after graduating, he applied to the startup incubator Y Combinator, moved out to California, and began his own company creating software for the iPhone and web. Following that he moved to New York City, and he and his colleagues obtained shared office space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, “one of the first co-working spaces in the city,” making many friends and contacts. While doing some consulting work, Jason joined a small but rapidly growing software company, Handshake. They had outgrown the co-working space they were in and the opportunity presented itself to take over the lease on  an office space in NoHo that at one time belonged to Jim Henson’s studios. It was an exciting few years and “many months of seeing many new faces walk through the door each week.”

He was then recruited by Spotify which gave Jason an opportunity to learn how the music industry works. Life was good there: “You could be having lunch at the cafeteria and a famous artist or band would show up and play a short set on the stage there.” An opportunity arose for him to join Butterfly Network, a medical device company, that became the “meat of his career.” Jason joined Butterfly in 2016 as Principal Software Engineer. The company developed the first ever FDA- approved ultrasound probe using semiconductor manufacturing processes, allowing more versatility and lower cost than predecessors on the market, and plugs directly into an iOS or Android device. The iOS application he worked on won an Apple Design Award in 2019, is used all around the world, and even made its way aboard the International Space Station. He also hired a team of engineers to bring Butterfly iQ to Android. Butterfly received some funding from the Gates Foundation to support their “fetal and maternal health machine learning initiative,” leading to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and a deployment of 1,000 units of the system and software to healthcare practitioners in Sub-Saharan Africa. Butterfly went public in 2021 during the pandemic. It was during this time that Jason moved from New York to Palm Beach, Florida.

Recently Jason has worked with Reddit, Inc., as a Staff Software Engineer. His brother got married on Nantucket in July and Jason helped him a bit with the decorations and logistics. “It took quite a while but was fun to do together,” and he was happy to help his brother.  He has also been helping his mother—who is a dentist in Wellesley—improve her golf game and get her on the course as much as possible. When I asked him about a walk away from here, he said that he sometimes prefers to get away from the city and the noise (“especially the sirens since we’re close to hospitals”). He mentioned that he grew up in Wellesley and although he enjoys the convenience of the city, misses the sounds of birds and the quietness of the forests and countryside.

He enjoys the Esplanade and thinks the staff are excellent and the building is well-run. One thing he hopes will change is getting automatic door openers in the front, back, and garage. Jason also helped organize the initial Cambridge Parkway Cleanup Day with the Esplanade Cambridge Service Group. (Thank you, Jason!)

Jason is a bright, friendly, successful man who has already contributed much to our community. Say “hello” when you see him walking, swimming. or picking up litter in our parks!

--Jane Hilburt-Davis