There's
growth and then there's hypergrowth, which is growth measured
in the thousands of percents. Ask any CEO who has gone through
this and you'll hear the most amazing stories of hard work,
skill, perseverance, intelligence and luck. Yes, good ol' luck.
So we carefully
chose four hyper-growth software CEOs from Deloitte & Touche's
2003 Technology Fast 50 list of the fastest-growing 50 technology
companies in Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino,
and Ventura Counties to tell us their stories.
These "been
there and done that" software executives will candidly
share everything -- from what they did right to what they'd
rather not admit they did -- in an entertaining, informative
and highly-interactive format where the audience's active participation
is the key to a successful program.
Panelists:
Moderator:
Goran Eriksson, President, ESI
Techtrans, Inc.
About
the Panelists
Kevin
Klingler, President & CEO, SmartSound
Software
SmartSound Software was founded in January of 1995 with the
purpose of bringing easy to use yet professional audio tools
to the burgeoning universe of digital content creators. Based
on an initial idea and concept by Kevin Klingler the three founders
of SmartSound went on to make what is now the video industry's
leading soundtrack creation tool. The SmartSound® product
line was launched in June of 1996, 6 months after the company's
initial seed VC financing was exhausted, and the product launch
was essentially done with no capital resources.
Now, a multi-million
dollar a year company with exponential revenue growth four years
in a row, SmartSound has established itself as an international
leader in the creative video industry. With over 50,000 registered
users and millions more through it's various OEM (Original Equipment
Manufacturer) licenses, the company shows no sign of slowing
down and continues to expand. It has won two patents for it's
unique software technology.
Prior to
founding SmartSound Software, Mr. Klingler was operations manager
of Dimensional Impressions, a CAD software company based in
Encino, CA. Mr. Klingler was brought on board just as sales
began as the third employee. The three person team built the
company to gross revenues of $2 million by the end of its second
year.
Prior to
joining Dimensional Impressions, Mr. Klingler was a successful
film and TV composer, and music producer working in Hollywood
for 10 years. His resume as a composer, producer and studio
musician included dozens of films, televisions shows, commercials
and many other projects. It was this combination of experience
as a professional composer and music producer with his experience
managing a successful start-up CAD software company that formed
the genesis for SmartSound Software.
Gale
Wilson-Steele, CEO, MedSeek
Gale Wilson-Steel is the Chief Executive Officer for MedSeek,
Inc., a company specializing on Intranet and Internet technology
for the healthcare industry. Gale founded MedSeek in early 1996,
at which time the company offered a national Internet directory
of 275,000 physicians and webpage publishing services. The business
has evolved to provide full web development solutions, including
SiteMaker, a proprietary content management software.
By utilizing
web technology to advance communications, MedSeek has enabled
over 350 hospitals to effectively connect patients, providers
and employees through websites and Intranets. Leading clients
such as the Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit, MedStar in
Baltimore, Alegent Health and Advocate Health Systems in the
Midwest, and the Children's Hospitals of San Diego, Los Angeles
and Oakland are working with MedSeek to build health portals
that will drive their e-health initiatives.
Currently
in its third year of profitability, MedSeek has 54 employees
working from offices located in Solvang, California and Birmingham,
Alabama. Recognized as #3 in the 2002 Technology Fast 50 Awards
and #16 in the 2003 Fast 50 for the Los Angeles area, MedSeek
has earned a place as one of the top 500 fastest growing technology
companies in the US for the past two years.
Gale first
entered cyberspace when she helped establish Mortgage Online,
a branch of Wilson Lewis, Inc. designed to quote interest rates
and provide home loans on America Online. Prior to going online,
Gale spent 10 years as the Marketing Manager for Wilson Lewis,
Inc. where she developed direct marketing campaigns, including
ad design and production, media buying, Realtor promotions and
direct mail advertising. Her own "Internet career"
began in early 1995 when she contracted American Online to publish
Fine Foods a la Modem, her "virtual farmer's market"
of gourmet foods featuring over 30 food producers. MedSeek was
built on her concept that the Internet puts computers to work
doing what they do best: storing, sorting and delivering information;
and can be used to answer the universal need of all people to
confidently obtain competent medical care.
A graduate
of Stanford University, Gale is married and has five children,
ages 9 to 28.
Neel
Master, Principal, TL Ventures
Neel Master
is a Principal in TL Ventures' Los Angeles office, where he
works closely with Atrenta, Sonics and OE Waves. Immediately
prior to
joining TL Ventures, Neel was an associate at STV where he was
responsible for their investment in Atrenta, and worked closely
with
their portfolio companies in semiconductor, wireless and software
sectors.
Neel has
held operational and engineering roles at several startups in
storage (Permabit), enterprise (Xavient) and secure commerce
(Enterprise
Integration Technologies/HP).
He was a
research scientist at the Lab for Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence Lab at M.I.T for five years, where his
research
interests spanned machine learning, computer vision. computer
graphics
and distributed systems.
He has several publications in leading international conferences
and
journals.
At Microsoft,
Neel worked in the SQL Server Product group where his work
shipped in several versions of Microsoft's flagship database.
He was
also a visitor at Microsoft Research's Vision Technology Group,
where he
developed software architecture and algorithms for optical flow
and
motion estimation.
Neel has
a B.S from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
