---
title: Dan Mills
---

Berlin, Germany · [hello@sandmill.org](mailto:hello@sandmill.org) [· Download PDF](https://sandmill.org/files/dan-mills-resume.pdf)

## Experience

### Head of Product, Avail (spun out from Polygon) — 2023–present

### Product Lead, Polygon — 2022–2023

- Built and managed a 10-person cross-functional org spanning product, frontend, integrations, and developer experience; owned roadmap, budget, and hiring.
- Launched the Avail blockchain (Jul 2024), a high-throughput, cryptographically verified data network powering rollup ecosystems.
- Led development of Avail Nexus, enabling apps to access liquidity and functionality across 13+ blockchains via SDKs and widgets.
- Co-led Arcana Network acquisition to strengthen Nexus backend and accelerate mainnet launch (Q4 2025).
- Drove developer adoption through SDKs (Rust, JS, Python, Go) and hundreds of partnerships including Succinct, Sophon, Lens, S+T and zkSync.

### Product Manager, Square — 2020–2022

- Led identity verification platform enabling sellers to onboard and transact across Payments, Banking, and Payroll.
- Launched document-based verification (ID + selfie) and expanded automated onboarding to new markets and entity types.
- Modernized platform architecture, cutting new market-launch integration time from months to days.

### Founder, Tinker Kitchen — 2015–2021

- Founded a cooking makerspace featured by [CNN](https://youtube.com/watch?v=sR6rO1XjczU) and the [San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Tinker-Kitchen-a-maker-space-for-food-13388060.php); launched and grew the business to profitability within a year.

### Director of Product Strategy, Creative Commons — 2013–2014

- Defined and prototyped new tools for content creators through user research with educators and digital communities.

### Product Manager, Identity, Mozilla — 2010–2013

- Launched Mozilla Persona, a decentralized web sign-in system; owned concept, strategy, and roadmap, growing adoption to thousands of sites and expanding the team to 20+.
- Collaborated with Firefox engineering to integrate Firefox Accounts directly into the browser, unifying Sync, services login, and Persona authentication.
- Directed user research, prototypes, and usability testing to define developer and user experiences for secure, privacy-preserving identity across the web.
- Partnered with carriers to integrate IDs and billing into Firefox OS and its Apps Marketplace.

### Senior Software Engineer, Mozilla — 2006–2010

- Founding member of Mozilla Labs, where I designed and led development of Weave, the end-to-end-encrypted sync system that graduated into Firefox Sync.
- Delivered core Firefox improvements, including a full revamp of the bookmarks and history storage system using SQLite, and automation tools for customized builds.

### Software Engineer, Ximian / Novell — 2001–2006

- Developed open-source applications for the Linux desktop ecosystem.

## Education

Duke University — BS Computer Science, 2000