AV

Ari Valtanen

CTO @ Sfara | Big Data, SW Development and Engineering Physics

Cupertino, California

Invests in

  • Min Investment:

    $100,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $5,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $1,500,000.00

Work Experience

2018

  • Chief Technology Officer

    2018

    Sfara focuses on sensor based Situational Awareness(tm) of mobile devices and its applications in the transportation and consumer service industry. I am responsible for the Sfara technology platform and App development, productization and delivery to Enterprise and OEM clients.

  • Global Venture Partner

    2014

    As a venture partner, I mentor founders of companies in BootstrapLabs' portfolio.

Low Latency Consulting LLC

2014 - 2018

  • Principal

    2014 - 2018

    Advisory and consulting services. - Executive Coach/Mentor/Advisor - Organizational change management - Interim CTO, VP SW Engineering and similar operational roles - Board of Directors

2015 - 2017

  • Sr. Director, vCloud Availability Engineering CPSBU

    2015 - 2017

    Here, I functioned as a founding member of a small cross-functional team of intrapreneurs that kicked off a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) project; oversaw engineering and release management, documentation, quality engineering, and technical support. Key accomplishments included: ▸ Helping to establish new BU, Cloud Service Provider BU; selected to oversee development of new products, with a focus on data safety and disaster recovery to complement the existing portfolio. ▸ Being recognized for reaching funding goals and growing (assigning, hiring, and training) the global development organization from 4 to 40 developers, and delivering two initial product releases in 12 months. Product was branded as vCloud Availability Suite.

2014 - 2015

  • Board Member & VP Products Continuent

    2014 - 2015

    Prior to VMware acquiring Continuent in 10/2014, I served as a Board Member at Continuent. I was invited by major shareholders to bring in industry experience and aid company in reaching successful exit strategy. I took on product management and engineering tasks, from definition of requirements to delivery of releases to customers. I advised in positioning of the company and its technology and harmonized product offerings. Key accomplishments included: ▸ Supporting M&A process during Continuent’s acquisition by VMware; played a key role in negotiating term sheet and completing due diligence to ensure shareholders accepted M&A deal. ▸ Functioning as an instrumental force after the acquisition in seamless transition while integrating company and products to VMware, including Continuent product development and Data Services development for vCloud Air R&D.

2013 - 2014

  • Co-Founder, CEO & CTO

    2013 - 2014

    In concurrent roles, I leveraged technology and product development expertise to create and deploy minimum viable product (MVP) concepts through use of mobile and web-based applications. Built music-focused social media platforms for artists to fully engage their top fans. Rebuilt team and used Lean methodology to deliver MVP in three months. Key accomplishments included: ▸ Transforming Finland-based Mobile Backstage to US-based Common Tribes corporation over six months; mobile and web-based fan engagement platform has attracted “A-List” acts including Mumford & Sons, Jessie J, and others. ▸ Completing entirely new web application, robust reporting, and sentiment analysis with significant fan engagement results: 17.3% participation increase, 490% content contribution increase, and 24.5% merchandise sales conversion.

2012 - 2013

  • Artist and explorer

    2012 - 2013

    I took some time off to pursue interests in photography and music while engaging in industry conferences, events and start-up consulting.

2008 - 2012

  • Director, Big Data Customer Enablement & Technical Evangelism

    2011 - 2012

    Director, Big Data Customer Enablement & Technical Evangelism Through progressive roles, I led a worldwide technical team working with all Big Data customers and strategic partners, building investments in Hadoop-based InfoSphere BigInsights and Streams products. I developed sales pipeline and relationships with companies ranging from Global Fortune 100 firms to start-ups. Key accomplishments included: ▸ Creating BigDataUniversity.com in technical evangelism role; enrollment grew to 130,000+ in two years (today Cognitiveclass.ai). ▸ Taking on a strategy consultant role for IBM Software Group Architecture Board and Product Management on Enterprise Mobility. ▸ Identifying $100M+ revenue potential over five years which led to launch and delivery of Mobile DB and Synchronization as integrated elements of Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP).

  • Director, Information Management Best Practices and Evangelism

    2010 - 2011

    I managed three global teams to transition from single-product to cross-portfolio focus. Here, I built processes among product management, marketing, and sales teams. I maintained relationships with industry analysts, including Gartner, Forrester, and Boulder Group, etc. Key accomplishments included: ▸ Increasing win rates with improved products, positioning, and integration through use of feedback data from PoCs, benchmarks, and competitive bake-offs; engaged in 161 post-sales customer engagements with key customers including Visa, Target, BMO, etc.

  • Director & Chief Technology Officer, IBM solidDB

    2008 - 2010

    I served as a leader and cross-functional contributor, spanning development, product management, and sales to create technology vision for solidDB’s alignment with other IBM Information Management Products. Key accomplishments included: ▸ Creating industry’s first Universal Database Cache product, as well as business case for product through development of cross-industry references and integration with heterogeneous database back-ends. ▸ Inspiring embrace of change to realize 100% employee retention in technical roles, far surpassing 80% goal.

Solid Information Technology (acquired by IBM)

1992 - 2008

  • Co-Founder, Senior VP Engineering & Chief Technology Officer

    1992 - 2008

    As a member of the founding team; I worked in a range of roles including SW architect, sales engineer, product manager, VP of engineering, and CTO during 15-year tenure, which served as the technical foundation for all subsequent roles. Key accomplishments included: ▸ Seeking out funders and secured approximately $80M in three rounds of VC funding, achieving profitability in early years and successful sale of company to IBM in 2008. ▸ Winning patents as leader of R&D and restructured organization to facilitate effective use of resources on a global scale. ▸ Leading transformation of solidDB from ‘vanilla embedded RDBMS’ to global leader in In-Memory and High Availability technologies and contender in MySQL ecosystem.

Contex Information Oy

1990 - 1992

  • Co-owner & Systems Analyst

    1990 - 1992

    Database software development and consulting. Various customer projects related to client/server architecture and platform portability.