BSG Team Ventures » greentech

CTO/VP Software Engineering for VC-funded Cleantech Start-up Changing Consumer Behavior

Clark Waterfall — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:05:14 +0000

Measuring & Delivering Energy Savings

Our client is a leading energy software company founded in 2007. Based in Boston, MA and privately held, The Company has developed patent-pending technology that enables them to retrieve utility data on behalf of virtually any household in America. Utilizing that technology, the company is the richest residential energy efficiency platform available today, and serves both customers and a variety of institutions that care about energy efficiency with its platform and the technology that underlies it. Its platform helps people to understand their energy use and be incentivized to save, as well as enables individuals to interact with and track their electric, gas, and water usage online.

The Position

The CTO/VP Engineering’s role is to oversee day to day activities of the software product development team for all of Company offerings. The role will build out and directly supervise a team of architects, software developers, quality assurance, and business analysts; identify risk and opportunity areas; and coordinate all software development activities.

This role will also work closely with Product Strategy and manage the Lead Technical Architect to envision and define features in the product roadmap and be accountable for the features development, deployment and support. In addition to the technical leadership of the team, this role will have full management responsibility and oversight for a cross-functional group of engineering and quality assurance personnel.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the VP Engineering shall:

Be chief in charge of translating business goals and objectives into technical framework

Manage software architecture, design, development, procurement, and integration. Also manage tier-2 and higher support with business-to-business partners including utilities, etc…

Manage short- and long-term staff planning, recruitment, performance management, work assignments, training, mentoring, career development, and recognition or disciplinary action.

Achieve cost, schedule, technical and quality performance for delivered software. Compile, maintain, schedule, resource, execute prioritized lists of development projects, including planning and managing the budget and scheduling personnel and vendor contracts to meet project needs. Collect metrics on development performance and report on them.

Collaborate with other functional managers (customer facing business units, systems engineering, QA, and operations) to ensure architectural integrity, effective integration and test, and ongoing system stability.

Direct any technical subcontractor management including contract negotiation, technical support, budgetary management and program management of various contracts and associated budgets. Coordinate vendor contracts, deliveries and schedule with affected company parties. Contract with vendors for services to support engineering while addressing Intellectual Property, Non-Disclosures and Statements of Work.

The successful candidate must also have the ability and experience to lead a multi-disciplined organization in a multi-location environment.

Qualifications

Senior-level or leadership experience in a web-based software development environment with 10 or more direct reports.

Experience working with product managers and other business stakeholders to set timelines, budget resources, and manage expectations and quality of the development process

Advanced understanding of web application programming architectures, including standards for security, scalability and configurability

Expertise and experience in implementing and overseeing measures for data security, business continuity, disaster recovery

Deep understanding of load balancing and performance optimization principals for cloud-based high volume/transaction web applications

Experience leading development efforts using a variety of different SDLC approaches (RAD, Agile, Scrum, etc.)

Experience developing service-oriented architectures for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer customer sets.

Outstanding collaboration skills, excellent communication skills, an ability to look at the big picture

Essential Job Functions/Responsibilities

Lead software and front-end engineers in the specification, design and development and support of all our applications, including websites/products, our core services and our internal and external tools

Provide hands-on technical management leadership and support to software development team soon to grow to 12 – 15 engineers

Identify skill and performance gaps in current organization and provide improvement plans

Improve existing processes and establish new processes for efficient development and high quality output

Evaluate and enhance overall development environment, release practices and Quality Assurance methodology

Instate and maintain development standards, code reviews, unit testing and integration testing frameworks

Maintain overall ownership / accountability for data security, business continuity, disaster recovery

Work in tandem with Technical architect and development team to identify and implement new measures for system performance optimization under high load using cloud backbone

Lead, recruit, develop and supervise the development team members

Evaluate and take accountability for decisions on key technologies adopted

Ensure proper development of technical specifications and documentation.

Estimate resource usage and timelines for development team

Review team members’ detailed design of components/modules/code

Provide a good balance of experience and skills in several front-end and/or back-end technologies

Strong relational database skills

Knowledge of latest web technologies with particular understanding of browser behavior when automating data scraping, open source development platforms like Ruby on Rails, etc.

Ability to translate technology choices into business implications

Ideal Candidate Profile

The diagram below illustrates the intersection of competencies critical in the position:

An Insider’s look at UK innovation in cleantech / greentech & sustainability

Clark Waterfall — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:44:31 +0000

The UK’s sustainable energy program is a public-private partnership at work. And thus far, working well.

I recently had the opportunity to participate in what has become an annual “Cleantech Trade Mission” of Boston and New York cleantechers to the United Kingdom. Our hosts? The UK Trade & Investment team based here in the Northeast, part of the large mandate of the British Consulate here in the U.S. to continue to put planks in the bridge between our two countries, especially when it comes to cleantech and sustainable energy solutions.

Although I joined midweek as was over there for a European-based executive search we were interviewing on, the group moved from North to South, starting on Monday up in Edinburgh, Scotland, then down through Newcastle, Cambridge, and ending with two days in London.

It was a comprehensive gathering of the UK cleantech ecosystem for an exchange of ideas and “show-and-tell” around the UK of their commitment to sustainability and cleantech thought leadership. Our US band of cleantech brethren among others included investors from Rockport Capital and Kleiner Perkins.

There were three notable differences between the UK and US surrounding renewable energy & cleantech:

1) Government superstructure like the Carbon Trust (keep in mind, the UK has cap-and-trade and the U.S. doesn’t) Cap & trade drives a true dynamic market in the UK while the US version is still mired in politics on Capitol Hill. The UK succeeded in passing sweeping energy-related legislation in 2008 (http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/about-carbon-trust/pages/default.aspx ), and the result has been a fueling of the entrepreneurial engine in Britain to come up with new technologies, sciences, and Internet-driven efficiency and monitoring solutions to help drive adoption and integration of the new laws.

2) Landfills and methane is another interesting difference again brought about by the UK’s progressive legislation. Britain is an island, and a small one at that compared to the U.S. (60+ million citizens, one fifth the size of the U.S.) There is limited real estate for landfills, and one of the big offenders from landfill is methane gas. A host of science-driven entrepreneurs have tackled what is referred to as anaerobic digesters (http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/anaerobic_digestion.pdf )

3) Massive investment in offshore wind generation capacity is the third area. It was truly remarkable the detail behind Britain’s likely ascendance to global leadership in offshore wind generation. Historically, Scandinavia has held that claim. However, with Britain’s aggressive 2020 goals, they’re going to no doubt lead in offshore wind expertise and GW installed base.

Some quick numbers related to the 2020 initiative:

* Capital expenditures: £14 billion already spent in the last 5 years.

* £5.6 billion more in cap-ex planned for the next 5 years (keep in mind, this is a country with a population of ~ 62 million, about one fifth the size of the United States)

* Closure of 25% of traditional power stations (coal or other non-renewable sources)

* 25% of natural gas generated from UK sources

* Addition of 44GW of offshore wind power at distances up to 200km from shore, and in water depths down to 80m

Something like 40% of energy capacity is going to be wind, with a vast majority of that coming from offshore wind. However, UK power generators like NationalGrid recognize that there needs to be a large redundancy due to the intermittent nature of wind as a resource. NationalGrid is planning primary failover in the form of LNG and CCS capacity to power conventional generation, replacing virtually 100% of existing coal-fired plants with carbon-capture versions. The best hope to reduce this reliance on traditional energy sources is to innovate a wind power storage solution that can be commercialized between now and the completion of the 2020 UK offshore wind initiative.

Britain is pioneering a number of other innovations, including a CO2 transportation network that transports CO2 for storage (think CO2 “pipeline”), taking a chunk of the industrial complex’s CO2 emissions and capturing, storing and or repurposing it.

After all that cleantech knowledge transfer, what did the UK serve for dessert? A cocktail party with London-based cleantech entrepreneurs and investors at Taylor Wessing’s offices on the top floor wrap-around patio on a gorgeous London summer evening (below was the mis en scene).

In addition, we had an opportunity to take a sneak peek from “The View, ” an official viewing site of the 2012 Summer Olympic Park, at the top of an adjacent apartment building in East London that has impressively grown from a former area challenged by urban decay. And the London Olympics stand to be the greenest one yet from what we were told, with prolific and cool sustainable innovation even built right into the very steps of the stadiums that use spectator energy expended in climbing up and down the stadium to power an LED lighting system. One of their sustainability goals is to try to construct the Olympic venue with a net-zero carbon footprint.

Footnote: Rob Dietel, Vice Consul, who heads the cleantech vertical for the British Consulate’s UK Trade & Investment New England office, is a terrific resource along with his colleague, Kevin McCarthy, also out of the Boston office. Rebecca Lewis is Rob’s New York-region counterpart. All three are bringing a select group of UK cleantech entrepreneurs to Boston and New York this Fall. In addition, they’re planning on putting on a one-day “master class” of sorts showcasing UK offshore wind expertise here in the U.S. Invitation-only, and for those who are lucky enough to get the invite, it should prove to be great content. For more detail, Rob is at rob.dietel@fco.gov.uk.

2009 Green Tie Gala Brings Together Cleantech Community at JFK Library

Clark Waterfall — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:18:47 +0000

Senator Markey addresses the formal-wear only crowd at the JFK Library during Clean Energy Week in November.

An annual event in Boston punches up the fact that we have an incredible cleantech cluster-New England Clean Energy Council’s annual Green Tie Gala.

Although this event took place back during Clean Energy Week in November, I was reminded of it when out in Denver recently. Denver has some great stuff going for it. NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab), University of Colorado with multiple campuses in Denver and Boulder that have significant funding from both Federal and State agencies, and a history of technology oriented companies, albeit with a heavy emphasis on telecom (Qwest, Level 3).

However, what there isn’t as much of in Denver is what some call the “ecosystem.” Others call it the “cluster.” This is a body of people who hold different but overlapping responsibilities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and whose fusion is its wellspring–

Academics: These are those most often with the new disruptive technology or science breakthrough that serves as the seed of a new company
Business entrepreneurs: those who have experience taking the seed of an idea, and building a company around it
Investors: The first friends & family, then angel investors, and often venture capitalists or corporate strategic investors who pour money into these new ideas to fund the business entrepreneurs scale the disruptive idea
Professional services providers: These are often the “connectors” in the ecosystem. They’re comprised of lawyers, accountants, executive search consultants, and start-up advisors. They act as the glue between the prior three categories, more often than not introducing one to another, supporting the growth of these companies with their area of specialty

[Footnote: If you compare Boston to Silicon Valley however, Boston is shallower in large technology and sciences companies that serve to spawn "runners" to new start-up companies. The biotech industry is perhaps better in Boston at doing this than the pure technology industry in the last decade, with a growing base of larger biotech and pharma companies including Genzyme, Cubist, Biogen and Sepracor. Medical devices companies also fair better in many ways to large tech, with Boston Scientific, ThermoFisher, and Perkin Elmer. In technology hardware and software, beyond EMC, there are precious few large technology companies left in Massachusetts. ]

Details on the Gala? This year’s Green Tie Gala was held at the JFK Memorial Library in Boston (last year was held at the Museum of Science). There are many organizations in the innovation sector here in Massachusetts that have done a good job at galvanizing a broad cross section of constituents, including the Mass Biotech Council, as well as MITX (formerly MIMC), and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, or TiE Boston (Indus Entrepreneurs). However, we’ve had yet to participate in a gathering of any that approaches that of the cleantech cluster here in New England.

Senator Markey gave the opening address to punctuate the cocktail hour. To a person it seemed, everyone knew everyone. Yes there were a few outsiders (a small contingent from the UK had come over as part of a trade mission coordinated with Clean Energy Week in Massachusetts because of its target rich calendar), yet all of these were welcomed by the larger fold, and the gathering seemed to virtually breathe together as some sort of larger unified body, a cluster with so few degrees of separation that walking from group to group or table to table was akin to going back to your high school reunion…. You knew at least half those sitting at every table. For those who have experienced the annual Nantucket Conference, it is this atmosphere if intimacy and familiarity that presides.

To cap the night off, venture capitalist Chuck McDermott of Rockport Capital led his band in an after-hours session that continued the beat of familiarity both given its leader as well as in its musical selection (Chuck stating that the band only plays “songs popularized before 1960″).

Chuck McDermott, leading cleantech venture capitalist at Rockport, moonlighting as 50's music band leader

CEO Peer Survey, August 2009 — Preparing for Recovery?

Clark Waterfall — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:05:36 +0000

Below is the hyperlink to our latest CEO peers “speed-survey,” exclusively for growth-stage CEOs. Topic– “Preparing for Recovery?”

http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/D3642F14267CCC14/

We at BSG Team Ventures periodically take the temperature of the markets we serve. This speed survey is no more than 10 questions, simple multiple-choice.

Knowledge is power. Aggregated peer-provided knowledge is “actionable power.”

We make an effort to survey only those who fit the category (in this case, sitting CEOs or board member/founders of technology/science-driven growth-stage companies). [Note, if you don't fit the aforementioned description, please refrain from responding.]

Feel free to forward to the qualified CEOs in your sphere of influence. The more data generated, the more accurate the trend lines.

All responses are anonymous due to the web-based survey technology employed.

We will forward the survey results within the next two weeks to the email address on file. Please let us know if there is another email address you wish us to send the results to as well.