Rаfаеl Sоu1tаnоv

I am a(n):

Entrepreneur

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I want to invent something cool.

My favorite startups:

twitter, facebook

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

unknown outcome, that's a lot of andrenalin

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

not killing baby early, some ideas simple don't work out

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

plan, check and reward

Full bio

Director Project Management, VP of Professional Service

Solve IT Labs

Privately Held; Computer Software industry

December 2001 – Present (9 years 2 months)

SolveITLabs is an outsourcing IT consulting with office in Foster City, CA and offshore engineering centers in Russia and Ukraine.
In the last 10 years was responsible for:
- Set up project management office, guidelines and procedures.
- Set up Agile project development approach to delivery projects on time, within the budget and with good quality. Used Scrum Methodology to delivery Internet and Wireless Solutions.
- Personally signed over 105 enterprise clients (2004-2010) (Fortune 1000 and startups);
- Managed development of over 50 Enterprise Systems for USA, European, Mid East clients in 9 years;
- Worked onsite and remotely to gather business rules and create System/Software requirements, Wireframes, Use Cases, Project Plans. Provided weekly Status Reports for the clients, conducted daily conference calls with the offshore engineering team. Created feature Comparison Matrix and managed product development;
- Managed offshore vendors: scope, quality, timeframe, budget, milestones, weekly reports, conf calls, meetings, remote desktop presentation, milestone releases and acceptance criteria;
- Set up and managed client expectations (scope, timeframe, resources, proposed delivery methodology, selected technology, implementation approach, acceptance criteria, milestones, reporting, communication channels, level of documentation -formal/informal;
- Have hands-on knowledge in building Java and Microsoft, Open Source and Internet Solutions. Have good understanding of Social Networking software and feature development, Audio/Video Streaming and Mobile applications (architecture design, integration with 3rd party, customizations, ongoing maintenance, extensions development..).

Rafael has 5 recommendations (1 report, 1 co-worker, 3 partners) including:

Pamela Pimental, Owner, Forsome Enterprises
Ivan Petruv, Managing Director, AdHoc Ltd.

Developer, CTO

MigMarket

Internet industry

January 2000 – December 2001 (2 years)

Focused on server-side engineering and architecture while interfacing with front-end design teams to create E-Commerce hub.
• Built web services and applications for the account management, commerce, affiliate network and community elements of e-commerce.
• Managed development high performance, secure and scalable web store and API's that supported the demands of multiple skins.
Ensured we had just the right amount of process and tools to optimize productivity. Established the release and continuous integration process.

Co-Founder & President

Contact Service

Information Technology and Services industry

December 1997 – August 1999 (1 year 9 months)

· Created startup to tap into a B2B hub for industrial software and hardware commerce designed for $40M market (Russia, regional hub).
· Developed operational and marketing plans, overseen the software product development.
· Was the first product manager on the functional level, programmed some of the features in C language.

CEO and Co-Founder

Studio Solo

Entertainment industry

October 1993 – January 1998 (4 years 4 months)

· Launched the company as a new player in Music industry.
· Expanded it into Video recording, distribution and author rights area.
· Led the marketing and business development efforts. Obtained Angel Investment in order to develop this startup into a real leader in state Bashkortostan (Russia). The company had more than 50% of the music and video market in the region (1997-1998 years).
· Identified and developed strategic partnerships with other music labels.
· 1997- Studio Solo won the First Place in Sales and Development among 500 start up companies in Russian Project.

Tactical Unit: Sergeant

Military Service

Military industry

May 1989 – June 1991 (2 years 2 months)

Managed a small unit of troops to secure perimeter of russian ballistic missiles. Used Electronic Controls in discovering potential threats and neutralizing them.
Received multiple awards for excellence in using machine guns.

Electronic Technician

Chemical Plant

Chemicals industry

June 1988 – May 1989 (1 year)

Worked as a maintenance technician to troubleshoot and fix electronic devices in Measurement and Control Department. Obtained 3rd class qualification (6th was the top). Performed daily onsite checking of the electronic devices in the plant (over 200 devices).

University of California, Berkeley

Certificate, PMP

2009 – 2011 (expected)

UC Berkeley Extension “Project Management” courses (2009-current):
X470 (A grade), X471.9 (2009-current)

City College of San Francisco

classes, Programming

2002 – 2008

J2EE Advanced/J2EE Internet, J2ME, Perl Basic/Advanced, Shell Scripting, Web Development (Java Script/AJAX), Oracle Databases, Database Design, C# (MS VS 2005), Web Services