Erik Ralston
Co-Founder at Fuse Accelerator
Welcome!
Erik Ralston
Chief Architect, LiveTiles
TC Native, Graduated WSU Pullman, Formerly PNNL
Co-Founder of Fuse SPC
Head of Tri-Cities office for Australian-based web startup
Overview
What is LiveTiles?
What does a software team do?
Do you need to "get a job"?
What is Fuse?
What is LiveTiles?
The only drag & drop Digital Experience Platform (DXP) for creating enterprise and education
Microsoft Platforms: SharePoint, Office 365, Azure
What is LiveTiles?
An international software startup with more than 70 employees in 8 cities across 4 continents
Was a privately held 22 million AUD LLC
Publicly-listed company in Australia (ASX:LVT) current valuation of 75 million AUD
What is LiveTiles?
LiveTiles is a Software Product Startup selling B2B
Software vs. Other - Software is value, not cost
Product vs. Service - Selling software, not selling hours
Startup vs. Company - Likely equity, not just salary
B2B vs. B2C - Customers with money, not eyeballs
Who is in LiveDev?
Chief Architect <= ME!
Web Developer (Front-End vs. Back-End)
Chief Product Officer (Chief Technology Officer)
UX Lead (Designer)
Quality Assurance Analyst
Chief Architect?
Lead the software development team, set the direction for problem-solving and team process
Use technology to meet customer needs - Visual Studio, Typescript (JavaScript), LESS (CSS), HTML, C#, ASP.Net MVC, SQL, SharePoint and Microsoft Azure
Use tools to organize the team - Visual Studio Team Services, Aha, FreshDesk, Office 365
How Did I Get Here?
BS Computer Science from WSU, Winter 2006
Seagull Scientific, Inc 2007-2009
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 2009-2013
Addisolv 2013-2013
Flex Rental Solution 2013-2015
LiveTiles 2015-Present
Never "Go Get a Job"
Go Get a Career!
Job + Groups + Side Projects = Skillset = Career
Groups - Interest-driven groups where you can meet potential coworkers/employers/customers and grow what you know and who you know
Side Projects - Technical challengers to cultivate and demonstrates skills you want in your current or next job
Web
Microsoft
Cloud
I am Here
Software
UI
via Valve
Thank You!
LiveTiles is a cool place that makes software
LiveTiles has many roles and skillsets
A career is built on skillset, not jobs
Fuse is making Tri-Cities a world-class place for startups
Introduction to the Software Industry
By Erik Ralston
Introduction to the Software Industry
A brief introduction to the software industry by Erik Ralston
