FreelanceCTO.com

My new company, ultralivetv, is looking for an experienced Ruby on Rails developer with top-notch software design and coding skills to lead our development efforts. Our stack includes Ruby, Rails, Cassandra/hbase/Riak, Varnish, nginx, Flash, and HTML/jquery. This position will also be responsible for assisting in the design, implementation, and ongoing care of the company’s infrastructure in both Staging and Production.

Who we are:
ultralivetv is an angel-funded, Los Angeles-based startup. We are building a distributed contextual entertainment business that revolutionizes the community viewing experience by integrating predictive games and social interaction into live video and on-demand viewing. If you know what Convergence means to the set-top box, then you have an idea on what we are trying to do.

Who you are:

• You like internet startups and building Entertainment-oriented companies
• You like learning and exploring new technologies
• You have a passion for software development
• You want to work on software that will make a difference
• You value working on small teams

Responsibilities:

• Act as the lead developer
• Validate the technical architecture
• Build our 1.0 product offering with us
• Build, test and refine new products and services
• Develop and expand infrastructure to process many millions of page views and transactions with fault-tolerance and predictability
• Tackle a wide variety of coding problems throughout the stack – we all work on everything
• Brainstorm and prototype new concepts and approaches fast. Turn prototypes into real things
• Maintain a high level of flexibility with regards to job responsibilities

Required Skills:

• Strong knowledge of Ruby on Rails and strength in all the Rails fundamentals
• Demonstrable track record building distributed, clustered, high-throughput applications that can really scale
• Background in building highly scalable applications designing for n+1 clustering with zero downtime
• Ambitious, driven, and talented individual who wants to work on significant, game-changing problems
• Able to design and write well-structured, easily maintainable, well-documented code
• Demonstrable knowledge of Javascript and CSS (preferably leveraging jQuery)
• Solid SQL skills, preferable with MySQL
• Experience with Cassandra/hbase/Riak strongly preferred
• Ability to create well-designed API’s
• Experience with user-centered interaction design
• Familiarity with Amazon Web Services (EC2, S3, EBS, etc.) preferred

This is a contract position with the opportunity for permanent employment in the future. You will report to the CTO. We strongly prefer candidates reside in the Los Angeles region.

Please send your resume, LinkedIn profile, ancode samples to technology@ultralivetv.com.

Greetings,

Tony Karrer and I have been discussing ways in which we can get the community more engaged with the rest of Los Angeles. As part of that effort, I have put together a list of suggested networking events and why they might be of interest to you. This list is by no means complete, and has a definite Los Angeles slant to it, so please point out any interesting events that we may have missed

Here is the list of interesting technology-related events in Los Angeles for the month of April:

Digital LA – Digital Drinks @ La Vida – 4/6/2010 (Tuesday)
7-10pm Hollywood
If you are into video and entertainment, this could be good. Digital LA has a rep for being more marketing oriented, so be prepared.

LA Tech April Meetup – 4/6/2010 (1st Tuesday of month)
7pm Location TBD
It’s like a miniature, regular TechCrunch50 or Twiistup.

http://newtech.meetup.com/25/calendar/12765900/

Thursday Lunch on the Promenade – 4/8/2010
12-1:30pm Santa Monica
This is a fantastic meetup. Informal gathering of some super smart people. Highly recommended.

OCTANe/FIRSTY – OC Networking Event – 4/8/2010 (Thursday)
5:30 – 7:30pm Aliso Viejo
OC members, don’t miss it! Though I’ve never been…this event sounds great…especially as this is the big kick-off for the merger of 2 big OC networking groups.

http://www.octaneoc.org/calendar/view_event.asp?CalendarID=659

DigitalLA – Digital Music Panel: Artists Go Social – 4/12/2010 (Monday)
7-10pm Beverly Center
If you or your company are into music and social media, this looks to be good.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=377946387339

Los Angeles High Scalability Group April Meetup – 4/13/2010 (Tuesday)
7pm in Santa Monica
Also known as “the hadoop meetup”. High signal to noise ratio. Highly recommended.

http://www.meetup.com/scalela/

Los Angeles PHP Developers – 4/13/2010
7pm @ CoLoft in Santa Monica
Check out the new co-working space at CoLoft. I haven’t been, but Oleg is a new member to the group, and I have heard good things. Recommended.

Social Media Club LA – 4/14/2010 (Wednesday)
Left, Right and Twitter: Social Media and Its Impact on Politics
7-9pm Santa Monica
Network with the Social Media crowd. Be warned: saying you are a technologist is like throwing chum in shark infested waters. I like this event, have gotten work out of it, but you have to have some good people filters to make it a good use of time.

http://www.socialmediaclub.la/

Copyrights and Design Patents – Filling the Gaps in Your IP Strategy – 4/13/2010 (Tuesday)
7:30-9:30am San Diego
Purely educational.

http://www.commnexus.org/programs/special-interest-groups/event_20100315.php

Mindshare – 4/15/2010 (Thursday)
7pm+
Where art meets science. I still haven’t been…but this is #1 on my list of new events to attend.

http://www.mindshare.la/

CalTech/MIT Enterprise Forum – 4/17/2010 (Friday)
8am – noon Pasadena
The Business of Social Attraction and Aggregation – How Do Fast Growth and Fads Become Successful Ventures?
Still haven’t been yet (Pasadena, eh?), but the CalTech/MIT forum is great.

http://www.entforum.caltech.edu/

LAMPsig – 4/17/2010 (Saturday)
1-3pm mid-Wilshire
Haven’t been. Any feedback from the group?

http://lampsig.org/new/

LA C# – 4/20/2010 (Tuesday)
7-9pm Manhattan Beach
Haven’t been. Any feedback from the group?

http://lacsharp.org/

Los Angeles Web Application Developers – 4/20/2010 (Tuesday)
7pm Location TBD
Will Jessup’s meetup. Very popular. Haven’t been yet, but will check it out soon. Any feedback from the group?

http://web.meetup.com/34/

From CTO to CEO – 4/22/2010 (Tuesday)
Irvine
Self-explanatory!

http://www.tcvn.org

StartUp Venture Summit – 4/22/2010 (Thursday)
9-5pm Los Angeles
For Entrepreneurs and Investors to Grow a Successful Venture. Tech Supper Club/Tech Cost Angels – $195

http://techsupperclub.com/Startup_Venture_Home.html

LA Flash Users Group – 4/22/2010 (Tuesday)
7-9pm
Haven’t been. Any feedback from the group?

http://laflash.org

LA Games Conference – 4/29/2010 (Thursday)
9-5pm Hollywood
A conference on gaming…pretty obvious choice for gaming companies and technologists. I may be there.

http://www.lagamesconference.com/

LA CTO Forum – 4/9/2010 (Friday)
8-10am Santa Monica
Content Categorization

http://lactoforum.org/

The Israel Conference – 6/3/2010 (Thursday)
9-5pm Los Angeles
This is a couple months away, but I went last year and it was a great event. Currently $180, soon to $210 ($295 at door)

http://www.theisraelconference.org/

Here are a couple other events with no confirmed dates for April or May. These are fantastic events that I look forward to going back to.

Startups Uncensored – http://www.jasonnazar.com/
Dorkbot – http://dorkbot.org/
LA Web/Mobile Software Entrepreneurs – http://lawebmo.com

Happy networking!

-=John

I am helping OpenColony look for an Interaction Design Manager. Do you know of anyone who fits the bill? This is a great gig. Here is the job description:

We seek an interaction design manager with agile design and technology experience, a leader with vision and the ability to execute and productize their ideas. Can you make an impact in a smart, culturally diverse environment? Do you enjoy dynamic interactions, services and systems? If you have been successful at integrating interaction design into an agile development environment, this is an opportunity to significantly impact our organization’s products and product development processes. You can make an impact on the overall culture and processes here. If you care about being socially responsible and working for justice, we share your values. Sound good? Then email us: contact@opencolony.com

Responsibilities
• Participate in cross‐disciplinary round table discussions.
• Design for rapid product and service development in global, innovative Web Product and Services Company.
• Help hire, manage and develop a team of product‐specific interaction designers with strong programming and rapid prototyping skills in San Francisco and Bangalore.
• Help hire and introduce a graphic designer to organization in order to design across products and services offerings.
• Design and Deliver flexible, consistent, collaborative interaction guidelines/tools for products and services organizations.
• Provide vision and leadership for Studios and Professional Services teams.
• Interact with the customers and in‐house stakeholders to conduct Customer Research (contextual inquiry, interviews, exploratory sketching, card sorting, etc) and effectively translate it into actionable experiences
• Design and build solutions for complex applications, including analysis of workflow, creation of Lo and Hi‐Fi wireframes and functional prototypes for content‐driven web sites and applications
• Manage workflow and deliverables for the Interaction design team.
• Impact existing products and services offerings as well and new product and service offerings in the pipeline.

Qualifications
• 7‐10 years interaction design experience.
• Demonstrable experience designing and implementing flexible customer experiences and products.
• Experience hiring, training and managing interaction designers.
• Experience managing or peer‐peer with technical, design and UXD functions.
• Demonstrable technical and interaction design innovation experience.
• Degree in human computer interaction, digital arts, social science or computer science.
• Rapid prototyping and coding experience in HTML/CSS and JavaScript a must.
• Business Strategy and Organizational Design Experience a plus.
• UXD, Research and Visual Design experience a major plus.
• International management experience and/or experience managing teams in different countries a must. Multiple languages a plus.
• Excellent communication, collaborative and presentation skills.
• Portfolio of work to demonstrate conceptual, research and implementation processes and skills.
• Expert in interaction design and industry best practices.
• Experience in client facing role in an agency, management consultancy or professional services firm a plus.
• Passion for complex web applications, process and system design.
• Strong attention to detail.
Sound good? Then email us: contact@opencolony.com

Fast Company has a great article on why you should start a company in Los Angeles.

Since 1994, I have spent about half of my time in the Bay Area and the other half in Los Angeles. LA beats the Bay for a lot of reasons, but the biggest reason is that Los Angeles focuses on building viable businesses, whereas the Bay Area largely focuses solely on technology…for the sake of technology. Los Angeles has a lot more opportunities in a number of very large-scale verticals, which means a wider variety of work and types of work for tech workers than the Bay Area. Speaking of industry verticals – Entertainment, Advertising, Automotive, and Lead Generation (to name a mere few) are all based in the Southern California area. And of course, there is the weather!

REGARD Ventures Solutions start-up portfolio company KooDooZ.com has an immediate opening for KDZ Project Manager. Candidate must first and foremost have a passion for youth and entrepreneurship!

The primary job responsible will be to fully understand the off-line requirements of the business and assure the online product planning functionally supports the business model from the website. Further, execution throughout the product lifecycle, including: gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, capturing and defining the product vision, managing offshore development of the product, and working
closely with engineering, sales, marketing and support to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. Testing and regression testing of requirements against delivery from offshore team will be critical to the
success of this position and the KooDooZ business as a whole!

The Project Manager’s job also includes ensuring that the product supportsthe company’s overall strategy and goals.

The Project Manager is expected to:

1. Along with the CEO, to define the product strategy and roadmap.
2. Deliver simple PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding justification
3. Manage offshore development team in India via corresponding Project Manager in India
4. Manage the feature specification process
5. Manage the quality of the offshore team’s deliverables
6. Manage User Acceptance Testing
7. Stay abreast of company competition
8. Take the vision and be a leader within the company

Required experience and knowledge

1. Minimum of 2 years experience as a Project Manager
2. Must have offshore/remote group management experience.
3. Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products
4. Demonstrated understanding of SEO tactic and the ability to leverage those skills with available tools
5. 2+ years of experience in a job in the technology market
6. Excellent written and verbal communication skills
7. Bachelor’s degree (MBA preferred)
8. Technical background, with experience in Microsoft, web and/or mobile technologies
9. Excellent teamwork skills
10. Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
11. Examples and at least one sample of an effective document delivered in the past
12. Solid references

KooDooZ.com is a youth empowerment website designed as a “virtual meets
virtuous world” to gives kids a safe place online to channel their passions
into actions for social change.

Our mission is two-fold:

1. Empower kids (ages 9 thru 15) to couple their passions with service learning, volunteerism and personal growth opportunities.
2. Enable non-profits and brands to engage families through collaborative real-world events and social impact campaigns for the purpose of driving higher awareness to the causes they support and the communities they serve.

In consideration of the first goal, KooDooZ became a Certifying Organization for President Obama’s Volunteer Service Award, a national program recognizing Americans who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to volunteer service. Additionally, KooDooZ debuted a program of youth social-entrepreneurship, teaching students ways to address issues in their local and global communities.

For the benefit of our non-profit and corporate partners, KooDooZ serves as strategists, co-creating and co-marketing signature cause programs (and KDZ challenges) to nurture new engagements and build brand trust in local and national markets.

At a time when most youth properties dumb-it down with cartoon caricatures, KooDooZ empowers kids to build character, have fun and get rewarded for turning everyday challenges into real-world achievements.

I just came across a compelling position – Vice President of Digital and Social Development/Networking. After learning more about the opportunity, a more accurate title for this position might be  Chief Strategist, Web Presence.

Sears Holdings Company (SHC) is seeking a qualified executive (visionary) to lead in the development of a company wide strategy in the digital and social development.

This is a newly created role and grounded in the following:

1. SHC’s transformation away from being a primary brick and mortar retailer to a significantly larger E-Retailer (* currently nearly $2 billion in online sales revenue in 2009)
2. SHC’s  strategy – over “X” number of years, we will divert historical media budgets (print & TV advertising) toward creation and management of content on the web – focusing on attracting and developing the online customer and customer relationships
3. Introduce SHC to a younger and demographic
4. Continued and more effective branding, product placement, brand awareness strategies – what do we need to be doing 3, 5 10 yrs from now, where do we need to be (in an electronic sense)
5. The further development and branding of Delver.com (social search engine),  MyGofer.com, Marketplace at Sears.com and ServiceLive.com
6. Sears has multiple groups /resources developing digital and social media strategies, we working with several agencies with a significant budget

Ideal profile should have the following characteristics and experiences:

• a strong understanding of the technical aspects of digital and social networking/advertising/ content management/ e-Commerce
• demonstrated ability to create such strategies and launch successful programs (digital/social)
• part visionary/ evangelist/ technologist —- but grounded in sound business principals and able deliver real world results
• retail experience is fantastic/ e-Commerce experience preferred, if not required
• academic and professional pedigree

This position will report to the Chief Marketing Office for Sears Holdings and work directly in collaboration with the CMO’s of the Sears and Kmart platforms (as well as those business units) and the SVP/President of Sears Online-Business unit. This position will also have a great deal of exposure and collaboration (to some extent) with the Chairman of the Board at Sears Holdings Co. – Edward (Eddie) Lampert. **  The interest level that Mr Lampert has in the scope and responsibilities of this role can not be understated – AND – It is my understanding that this position, as much as any position in SHC, will drive the continued transformation of Sears Holdings over the next 3-5 yrs.

Contact me if you are interested, and I’ll connect you with the recruiter, Tim Thennes.

My friend Patrick has made *substantial* progress on his startup Neerg this year. I am excited to let people that know that he needs a technology lead and partner to help him knock the business concept out of the park.

NEERG: Head of Product and Engineering

We are looking for an individual to lead product and engineering.

Neerg is a specialized / niche ecommerce destination where producers of all sizes of green goods sell directly to consumers. A “marketplace”. Neerg does not participate in the transaction itself. Neerg will focus on driving traffic, engagement, and purchases through a modern and socially engaging interface while providing transparency and industry knowledge to consumers. In addition to ecommerce, neerg will have a strong editorial play by aggregating the best online and offline editorial content about the green space in one space.

The green and eco-friendly sector is a $200 billion dollar industry and growing rapidly. There is no current leading ecommerce site for the green space…until now.

We are currently located in Los Angeles.

The opportunity, depending on timing and availability, would first involve a ramp up period (can be located outside of LA) as the initial build is finalized and tested, which is being completed by an outside design and development shop, with a late December release. It would then require greater part-time involvement through beta and or full time once the site is in Alpha/Beta and the next round of financing is finalized (most likely require move to LA).

A substantial equity component will be offered along with the ability to be part of the original team to transition to salaried full-time positions.

The production and management to date has been done with a small amount of raised seed capital and funding provided by the founders. The founders have significant experience in operations, business development, and fundraising. Additional details can be provided.

The ideal candidate will have the following:

• Experience creating a product roadmap and build process, especially as it relates to building out a site with initial minimal features, but significant feature and expansion options going forward
• User interface and product integration experience
• Ability to manage a team of engineers and designers to build the site up from initial alpha launch. The Candidate would then be responsible for hiring a team to expand and manage the design, product and technical part of the site going forward
  o Programming experience, across common languages of LAMP, HTML/Javascript/CSS, and possibly open-source content management systems
  o Direct experience building web properties and expanding products on existing sites, including sites with robust content management systems
  o Front-end experience on projects relating to ecommerce, social networking and community, content, leading web 2.0 products
• Back-end experience on projects with custom and or sophisticated content management systems and API creation
• Ability to do analysis of technical operating costs (hosting, etc) upon launch and ongoing, including fixed and variable, along with ability to plan out and budget respective operating costs
• Information architecture and documentation
• Experience with ecommerce a huge plus and payment systems (credit cards and Paypal)
• Ability to analyze “build vs buy / outsource” decisions, including infrastructure buys and cloud computing
• Strong network of designers, programmers, and outside vendor relationships
• Strong communication skills and ability to meet deadlines
• Preferably, experience with offsite applications, such as Facebook, or the ability to manage an outside development firm and integrate into the site

Please email jobs@neerg.com a brief background of work experience, profile link to linkedin, or other pertinent information.

My friend and former boss Rich Rygg (yep, the two of us brought pop-up ads to the Internet) has a really cool startup in the works. He is looking for a producer and a developer. Drop me a line if you think you can help out.

Senior Game Producer

Our southern California based stealth start up is looking for a Senior Game Producer who can drive the creation and management of new web and mobile-based social, multi-player games. The Senior Game Producer will add creativity, talent, experience, leadership, direction, measurable performance, and magic to the game design process.

Responsibilities:

This Senior Game Producer will carry the ultimate responsibility for creating the story line, the list of features, and the overall game dynamic. This person will work both independently and in collaboration to provide a roadmap for the development, launch, and success of the games. The process should include designing, executing, and optimizing the game to meet membership, activity, and revenue goals.  They’ll own the outcome of the games by working with a talented team of in-house developers, and outside resources.

Required Skills:

• 5+ years of experience game development in consumer web or other multi-user games with proven success
• Passion for creating addictive, fun, social, and compelling user experiences
• A passion for games
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills with a passion for product specifications
• Strong organizational and analytical skills & attention to detail
• Ability to create wire-frames and give interface direction to UI team
• Performance-driven self-starter and team player
• Ability to evolve and improve UI design and features based on usage reports and feedback, and manage multivariate testing
• Experience managing web based applications
• Ability to drive strategy and gain consensus
• A talent for determining the optimal way to position products
• Previous start-up experience and/or new product launch experience
• Social networking experience is optimal
• Loves music
• BA/BS degree
• Special Opportunity

This is a special opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an exciting, groundbreaking line of social games with proven executives in a fun, rewarding start-up offering generous stock options with lots of responsibility.

Mark Suster has a great perspective on the use of social networks to connect with potential partners, peers, friends, and more. I must admit that I’m lazier than I should be, using the default network greetings. I’ll change! I swear it!

Cobalt Health CTO

Company

Cobalt Health provides back office outsourcing (aka medical billing) for physician groups, hospitals, laboratories, imaging centers and other healthcare providers.  The medical billing outsourcing sector is a multi-billion dollar market experiencing rapid growth.  The company was founded in 2007, is privately held, growing rapidly, and cash flow positive.

Opportunity

Cobalt Health is developing its own main software application to replace an off-the-shelf product.  This is the main mission-critical application that all employees use that drives the success of the business.  In order to continue to grow and outperform the competition, Cobalt Health must develop its own application.  Cobalt Health is seeking a part time CTO for the high level strategic aspects of the development.

Responsibilities

• Evaluation and implementation of “make vs. buy” decision on software development, i.e. hire developers or hire company
  • If “buy” route chosen: Vendor qualification, negotiation, selection, especially terms and conditions, penalties, confidence in capability to deliver
  • If “make” route chosen: Hiring/negotiating developers & team structure and staffing levels
• Technology strategy
  • Selection of platform & architecture; e.g., .net/java/php, etc.; possibly also hosting/server strategy for app and BI
• Ongoing responsibilities
  • Managing turnover in developers or major issues with vendor
  • Dealing with high-level technology issues that arise
  • Adjustment of IT strategy

Requirements

• High level strategic experience with platform and technology selection
• Buy v. build decision experience, including vendor selection
• Experience building and managing development teams
• The candidate need not have health care experience

Drop my a line if you are interested.