Ari Valtanen
Chief Technology Officer at Sfara
Cupertino, California
Overview
Work Experience
Chief Technology Officer
2018 - Current
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.
A mobile revolution in safety and control.
Raised $21,235,000.00 from Cultivation Capital and Bosch.
Global Venture Partner
2014
As a venture partner, I mentor founders of companies in BootstrapLabs' portfolio.
BootstrapLabs is a venture capital firm specializing in Artificial Intelligence.
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
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.
VMware Cloud allows users to run, manage, connect and secure an entire portfolio on any cloud to any device.
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.
Continuent develops database clustering and replication management software for enterprises and web companies.
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.
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.
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.
IBM is an IT technology and consulting firm providing computer hardware, software, infrastructure, and hosting services.
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.
Co-owner & Systems Analyst
1990 - 1992
Database software development and consulting. Various customer projects related to client/server architecture and platform portability.