CEO for growth-stage start-up in Denver focused on pixel OS

Clark Waterfall — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:46:23 +0000

Our client is tearing down the walls of the pixel landscape. The Company has developed proprietary breakthrough software that functions as a pixels operating system, moving video display from one source projecting one visual, to infinite sources projecting virtually unlimited visuals. And all of this is at a pixel-density that can go beyond high-definition quality, at commodity projection device cost, with no manual calibration or image “stitching” required. The Company’’s technology is used in various applications ranging from simulation and training to museum displays and digital signage. The company serves corporate, government, and academic organizations.

Market Opportunity

Industry Outlook (software-enabled displays):

• Visual simulation and Large Venue Display – $1.4B and $22.2B
• Growing rapidly – 14.1% and 23.3% CAGR
• Incumbent companies expensive, inflexible, and manually aligned – the bottleneck to widespread use of advanced display
• Commercial public venue display increased from $16.5B to $22.2B from 2005-2007
• iSuppli (major research firm) predicts $51B by 2011
• Multiple options for use: API for large, seamless displays and computing clusters with over 6xHD resolutions displays; or seamless displays up to 6xHD with no application integration.

A single Company server can calibrate multiple displays and is not limited by projection hardware type or resolution.

The Position

The CEO’s core responsibilities will include:

Marketing direction:

Marketing strategy & product marketing– Establishing a short and long-term business direction the drives the company to become an industry leader and maximize the penetration of the markets served.

Business development, including channel sales, OEM & relationships, and all distribution agreements

Operations– Product delivery, deployment, fulfillment and post-sales customer relationship management.

Manufacturing & Operations:

Oversight of manufacturing and production teams responsible for commercializing the technology, establishing build/buy/outsource decisions, etcetera. Working with the rest of the team, oversight of quality assurance, working with the CTO to ensure that product development meets various international multi-regional market-driven specifications and is “rolled out” smoothly and on schedule.

Staff- team building, development, mentorship: The CEO is responsible for human capital planning and hiring. As important, the position will actively be responsible for developing new and existing staff to help prepare them for company growth and increased leadership responsibilities at all levels. Finally, the new CEO will serve as leader and mentor to the founding team and as a complement to their existing skills.

Investors/shareholders & board - milestone management, follow-on fundraising, liquidity strategy: The new CEO is primary liaison to the board and will aggressively manage milestone deliverables, be a key contributor at board meetings and to board/investor communications. The CEO will be responsible for developing and managing against an annual operating plan and in addition to possible follow-on fundraising, will be accountable for optimizing the harvest for all shareholders.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The diagram below illustrates the intersection of competencies critical in the new CEO:

Compensation

Compensation is competitive with the position’s requirements. In a performance-based environment, this will include base salary, milestone/incentive bonus structure, and a stakeholder position in the company.

Good showing at NREL Growth Forum’s 22nd Conference in Denver

Clark Waterfall — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:40:53 +0000

I had the opportunity to be out in Denver for the 22^nd Annual National Renewable Energy Lab’s (NREL) Growth Forum. As many know, the U.S. has more than half a dozen national labs, some of the best known being Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia. These labs are scattered across the U.S., and each often has a specific focus (nuclear research for instance is what has kept the National Labs in the public eye most often).

Given the Obama Administration’s commitment to renewable energy and innovation, it was an upbeat gathering. The attendee list was well-balanced between entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and academics. Geographically, the majority of attendees either hailed from the Colorado area (with Boulder as the epicenter for cleantech in CO despite the NREL lab being located in Golden, CO), the West Coast (Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture investors), and New England (Boston-skewed).

What was surprising is how small the renewable energy community truly is. It’s still a very close knit group. And the community tends to shift from one location to another to pursue the next opportunity to contribute to the national cleantech ecosystem. Two notable examples are Tod Perry, who now is the Program Manager of the Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Center for NREL. Tod had originally started as a cleantech entrepreneur 5 years ago in Boston, pioneering a water purification technology, and a contestant in the first Ignite Clean Energy Competition in 2005. Another Bostonian who’s moved out to Colorado recently is Trent Yang, formerly a principal at Globespan Venture Partners, now Director, Entrepreneurship and Business Development at RASEI in Boulder (Renewable and Sustainable energy institute), part of the University of Colorado commitment to innovation in the renewable energy sector in the Rocky Mountain region. Other notable Bostonians sited at the conference included Peter Rothstein of New England Clean Energy Council, Bob Metcalfe of Polaris, and Chris Hobson, CEO of BandGap Engineering.

While out there, stopped by the Finals for the Cleantech Open’s Rocky Mountain Finals. New Sky Energy, Rivertop Renewables, and SunTrac Solar were the winners, now headed to the Cleantech Open Finals for all 3 regions up in Silicon Valley.