I spent the first 17 years of my career working in the New York area. In 2003 my wife and I quit our jobs and moved to Rhode Island for the quality of life. My career evolved into working with startups in the data and SaaS space. This led to nearly a decade of commuting from Narragansett to the Bay Area working for technology companies.
I never had the itch to be an entrepreneur. But in 2009 I had an idea. And as SaaS adoption grew, the concept became more feasible.
In July 2015 I officially incorporated Datarista and become a first-time CEO. There were many challenges. I didn't have much experience in HR, finance or other disciplines. I had never raised money for a business. But the first decision I had to tackle was location.
At first I expected to be based in Silicon Valley. I knew talent was there. I knew funding was there. It was the default choice for a cloud computing startup.
But I had a change of heart. I became convinced that Rhode Island had all the pieces to make my business work. I networked with the Providence Geeks and at the Founders League. I hired Brown University computer science interns. The Slater Technology Fund led a funding round. And as of this writing I have hired my ninth employee.
Rhode Island is ripe for a wave of innovative startups. I look forward to speaking with others ready to take that next step. •
Thank you PBN for the wonderful piece. I have never regretted the choice to #MakeITinRI and look forward to continuing to add jobs to the local economy!