Raed Malhas is the co-founder the Seattle-based software startup MiNeeds, a new way to shop local services. MiNeeds.com aims at redefining online search for local services while creating a sense of community. Malhas, an 8-year Microsoft veteran, is leading the business and product development along with his partner, Deniz Erkan.

Prior to MiNeeds, Malhas worked at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington for eight years as a program manager and a software development lead. He delivered several products, such as: multiple versions of BizTalk Server, Commerce Server, Windows Workflow Foundation, also Microsoft’s Payment Abstraction Layer. Mr. Malhas earned several patents for software inventions.

In 2005, Malhas founded “Dream College”, a charity company mandated on a single premise: “Innovate to Educate”, aiming at creating fun inventions to fund children’s education in developing countries. One of the products he created for it is called SOS (Save Our Socks! ©) ,a product that pairs socks in laundry. The product was patented and manufactured in China. The majority of the sale proceeds are donated to educational charities.

In 1999, Malhas interned at Microsoft joining their E-Commerce division, where he created Microsoft’s first internal online auction ‘giving’ website where employees can post, bid, and purchase items for Microsoft charity donations. The website raised tens of thousands of dollars that year.

Malhas started his college education in the field of pre-medicine majoring in biology and bio-medical engineering at the American University of Beirut, then Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. In 1997, Mr. Malhas switched track to computer software, where he transferred to Purdue University earning a computer engineering degree in 2000. At Purdue, Mr. Malhas' early software inventions comprised of designing several educational projects for a local disabled children’s clinic.

Co-founder