Full-stack entrepreneur with proven P&L responsibility, product specification (team management and hands-on), product marketing (team management and hands-on), software product development (team management and hands-on), app architecture (team management and hands-on), database design (team management and hands-on), website design (team management and hands-on), UX and UI (team management and hands-on), project management.

TextingGenie.com – Loyalmobs.com – Lumify.com – Mondoflyers.com – Befluent.com - TeamTell.com – Zelephone.com

  • As primary developer, CTO, and designer, developed a feature-rich, robust, innovative suite of mobile, customer experience management, reputation management, and VIP customer marketing tools for local+SMB market. Top 5% at StackOverflow. Adept with with Ruby, Rails 3 thru Rails 5, CSS using Heroku, Postgres, Twilio, Voxeo, Sendgrid, Socketlabs, Amazon S3, Recurly.

  • Developed a suite of “Yellowpages 2.0” local lead-gen services, test-marketed by local TV station. Ruby, Rails, Voxeo CALLXML, VoiceXML.

  • As CTO and marketer, lead team of six to design and build and market a comprehensive group-notification platform used by coat-to-coast school districts and large youth-sports organizations. Built using .NET, SQL Server, Voxeo CALLXMl and VoiceXML technologies. mentor & angel investor, US and China

After the Docent IPO (below) I spent the next several years mentoring startups, making angel investments individually and as a screening committee member of a local angel fund, and mentoring founder of a Beijing-based educational company.

Founder > President > CTO, Docent, Inc.
(renamed to SumTotal Systems after IPO)
Mt. View, California

  • After conceiving, designing, self-funding, developing, and launching the world’s first e-learning product in 1995-96, raised go-to-market venture capital in 1997 and served initially as President then as CTO and Chairman. Prior to the company’s successful IPO, my team and I raised over $90 million in venture capital for the company. After recruiting a great CEO in 4Q98 to run day-to-day operations at the California-based headquarters, I led the company’s strategic and tactical marketing and development efforts, commuting between our Spokane, WA office and the California headquarters. Resigned from the Board shortly after the IPO in order to ‘pursue personal liquidity,’ angel investing, and a children’s charitable foundation.

  • Marketing highlights: extensive press and articles on the first web- based learning solution; one of only thirty innovators nationwide invited to present onstage at the prestigious Demo ’98 conference in Palm Springs; organized and presented ASTD’s first nation-wide satellite conference on internet-based learning, and authored their first whitepaper on the subject. N.B. Company was renamed SumTotal Systems as it initiated a series of mergers, beginning with a Paul Allen company (Click2Learn, formerly Asymetrix).

Founder and President, Stanford Testing Systems (Testprep.com)
San Jose, California and Spokane, Washington

  • Conceived, sole-designed, sole-developed, self-funded, and self-marketed what emerged as the leading school-based SAT preparation software for students, the Stanford Studyguide. Adopted by thousands of schools and millions of students nation-wide and adopted for state-wide use in Georgia in 1997, the product was widely praised by educators, parents, and students as exceptionally user- friendly and easy to support, yet markedly more effective than any other SAT product. (A study by the Georgia DOE of 50 schools using the software documented average student increases exceeding 150 points.)

  • Technical highlights: Innovative solution was the first to incorporate networkability, a general-purpose platform-independent “browser” architecture coupled with a flexible HTML-like hypertext language (a year or two before web browsers), learning modules, and a robust skill assessment and remediation methodology. Sold the company as a requirement for accepting venture capital investment in Docent in 1997.

  • Marketing highlights: In 1995 my innovative first use of internet for large-scale learning as TestPrep.com was featured in the first edition of PC Magazine’s “Top 50 Websites in the World” and in the NY Times, as well as the Wall Street Journal Smart Money Magazine, the Boston Globe, and PCTV. Became a very capable copywriter who wrote/designed/mailed/split-tested hundreds of thousands of direct mail pieces ranging from postcards to multi-fold tabbed marketing brochures. Wrote an extremely effective pre-sales demo video.

Product Line Manager, Xilinx, Inc.
San Jose, California

  • As one of the first 50 employees, assumed product line marketing management responsibility at Xilinx (XLNX) from first revenue through its IPO; responsible for manufacturing forecasts for IC and software CAD products, identifying all new software products, creating detailed manufacturing and assembly specifications, negotiating multiple third-party and OEM agreements (each worth millions of dollars), and managing teams in on-time, on-budget development of complex new software products.

  • Highlights: Although a marketing employee, listed as co-inventor on two patent applications (one was awarded) after prototyping the solution at home for a CAD user interface problem that was deemed “unsolvable” by engineering team. Original creator of the “best of both worlds” marketing graphic that was used in virtually all Xilinx marketing presentations for the first 10 years to communicate at-a-glance a potent product positioning.

Applications Engineer, VLSI Technology
San Jose, California

Design Engineer, Unity Systems, Inc.
Palo Alto, California

Design Engineer (part-time while student), ROD-L Electronics
Palo Alto, California

Marketing Intern (summer job), Motorola Microprocessor Group
Austin, Texas

Education

Stanford University, Stanford, California
MS/EE and BS/EE (with distinction)

  • Accepted into PhD program while an undergraduate. I was self-supporting without loans thanks to combined outside consulting, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships where I graded 250 to 300 papers weekly, leaving just enough extra time for varsity fencing team athletics (I was ranked 8th in saber in western US).

U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland

  • Mathematics and engineering major; top 10% of class while also doing extensive independent study projects in addition to coursework (including a working microprocessor-based IR laser communication link). I was one of precisely 2 midshipmen who had a microcomputer at that time. Junior varsity fencing team both years. Left USNA when accepted by Stanford as transfer student.

Rice University, Houston, Texas
Freshman coursework; left to attend USNA.

New Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, New Mexico

  • Graduated high school in 3 years, followed by 1 year at NMMI junior college. Won two trips to International Science Fair (home-built laser and holography setup). Top 10% of class. During my last 2 years I was given my own set of keys to the science building and standing permission to leave the barracks at night to work on my projects, unprecedented latitude at a very strict military boarding school that was earned by unusual diligence and responsibility.

Personal

Excellent health. Avid traveler and photographer, casual kayaker, and mediocre golfer.