San Jose, California Entrepreneurs, Small Business, and Start ups

Jan24

“Technology is taking outplacement to the next level.”

Sanjay Sathe

RiseSmart

Founder

http://www.RiseSmart.com

Sanjay Sathe founded RiseSmart in 2006 to make finding a new job and hiring new employees more efficient. To achieve this, he conceived a proprietary technology and service platform specifically designed to match jobseekers with opportunities and to help companies fill open positions.

RiseSmart provides next-generation outplacement solutions by leveraging a cloud-based technology platform, proven methodologies, and one-on-one support to help employers with their workforce strategies and displaced employees with their career strategies. RiseSmart drives significant ROI to organizations by offering affordable pricing and reducing severance costs and unemployment taxes for outplacement services. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with a wholly owned subsidiary in Pune, India, RiseSmart is the fastest-growing outplacement solutions provider in the United States.

MO: Can you talk a bit about the process behind the development of a platform designed to match jobseekers with opportunities and some of the challenges you encountered along the way?

May30

“GetHired.com eliminates the pain points of a lengthy hiring process by reinventing the way that employers and job seekers connect in today’s digital world.”

Suki Shah

GetHired.com

Co-Founder

https://gethired.com/employers

Suki Shah is a serial entrepreneur who understands from experience that the hiring process is often the biggest hurdle in growing a company. Posting open positions on job boards like Monster.com or Craigslist is time-consuming and expensive – and may elicit hundreds of email inquiries per post.

GetHired.com is reinventing the way that employers and job seekers connect in today’s digital world. It combines the visibility of a job board with the functionality of an applicant tracking system – allowing employers to find and pre-screen candidates using audio and video, conduct real-time virtual interviews and manage the entire onboarding process. GetHired.com produces better-quality candidates, in less time, at no cost.

MO: What problem is GetHired solving? Can you talk about the development process behind the site?

Mar23

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Corny, but true.”

Mike Smithwick

First Light Design, LLC

Founder

http://www.distantsuns.com/

Years and years ago, somewhere in the middle of 1985, Mike Smithwick got a great idea for a little astronomy program for his new Commodore Amiga 1000. He prototyped it first as a 22 line basic program, and then proceeded to spend the next two decades “polishing it up a little.”

It has won the hearts of many users, and he still gets email from time to time saying that Distant Suns was someone’s favorite program when they were in a) High School b) on their honeymoon, c) in prison.

First Light Design provides high quality iPhone software for the whole family to help unleash their inner astronaut.

MO: First Light Design has only been around a few years now. However, it’s a business idea that you’ve been working on since 1985. What convinced you to finally take the plunge and launch the business you have been dreaming about for over 20 years?

Nov4

“Companies and individual users alike are trying to get the biggest bang for the buck—maximizing the speed and storage capacity of their machines at the lowest possible cost.”

Ryan Petersen

OCZ Technology

Founder

http://www.OCZTechnology.com/

Ryan Petersen is the 35-year-old founder and CEO of OCZ, which was started in 2002 with two partners and $80,000 of his own money. Aside from being the CEO, Ryan is also the inventor or co-inventor of many of the proprietary products that OCZ offers. Prior to OCZ, Ryan was engaged in other entrepreneurial activities. He is one of the pioneering members of the Semiconductor Enhancement field and an active member of the engineering community.

OCZ Technology pulls it’s name from the term “overclockers,” slang for computer gaming enthusiasts who tune their machines to operate faster than originally specified by manufacturers. The company emerged from a garage and had $2 million in revenue in its first year, $8 million the next, and $36 million the year after that. It now earns $150 million in annual revenue and employs about 325 people, including 100 in San Jose. Staff is located around the world including San Diego, Toronto, Taipei and the Netherlands.

Spotlight: San Jose, California

Spotlight Interview: Gordon Logan

Spotlight Interview: David Allen

Spotlight Interview: Chris Babel

“Technology is taking outplacement to the next level.”

“GetHired.com eliminates the pain points of a lengthy hiring process by reinventing the way that employers and job seekers connect in today’s digital world.”

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Corny, but true.”

“Companies and individual users alike are trying to get the biggest bang for the buck—maximizing the speed and storage capacity of their machines at the lowest possible cost.”

MO Partners

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