The Santa Barbara Techology Family Tree (1998 - 2009)

It would be interesting to try to calculate the total technology knowledge base that has been developed here in Santa Barbara. Those of us in the local technology industry have been the beneficiaries of knowledge gained from our colleagues who, in turn, learned from their colleagues in other companies. Maybe we should call it the "conservation of local technology knowledge." Or maybe it's the preservation of software heritage? The point is that we all have roots. Even when successful companies grow up and leave town, they always leave behind a few talented folks who refused to leave Santa Barbara and who then join other existing companies or start their own. And when companies fail, those employees often learned a lot of valuable lessons that they take with them to their next company here in town. Much of the knowledge gained stays here in Santa Barbara.

In my experience over the past ten years, I have witnessed first-hand the valuable institutional knowledge and know-how that was passed from one company to another. At CallWave, for example, we benefitted greatly from the collapse of PulsePoint / Digital Sound (which became part of Unisys). We recruited more than twenty engineers from that company as it wound its Santa Barbara operations down. Those engineers had extremely valuable experience in digital signal processing, database management, and telephony -- which was precisely what we needed at CallWave. Our new CallWave engineers had trained in a TQM environment at Pulsepoint and had learned to design and create software for some of the largest telephone companies in the country. Those companies (GTE, Pacific Bell, etc.) required software and equipment that could perform at what they call "5 Nines" of reliability. 5 Nines refers to 99.999% uptime, or roughly only 5 minutes of down time PER YEAR! That expertise enabled us to create an extremely robust Internet 'soft-switch' platform that managed billions and billions of phone calls and served millions of customers. That platform also generated hundreds of millions in revenue.

Fast foward 8 years later . . . As CallWave began to change its business model and shrink its local presence, several new companies formed that were able to take advantage of some great engineering and marketing talent that had now gained valuable new skills. At it's peak, CallWave had nearly 50 engineers. Now, those engineers are contributing their valuable skills at Cogi, RingRevenue, Appfolio, Kaseya, Citrix,  Microsoft's AdECN division in Carpinteria and other local emerging companies. We are very proud to have the former VP of Engineering from CallWave, Dave Giannini, leading our team of engineers at Cogi. Colin Kelley, the former CTO at CallWave, is now doing great things at RingRevenue, where he is joined by three other CallWave alumni, including Jason Spievak, Rob Duva, and Bob Smith.

We are using the latest techniques in software development here at Cogi and combining that with all of the great knowledge gained from our previous lives. When I hear Venture Capitalists say that they only back 2nd or 3rd time entrepreneurs, I now fully understand why.

I am sure I am missing some very important companies in my discussion above. For example, I know Software.com also spawned a few companies, like Sonos, for example. We've also had some innovative advertising companies started here like Commission Junction, ValueClick and Fastclick. Some of the other early technology companies in town included Comdesign, Connected Systems, and D2 technologies. Please chime in with a comment about other companies I am forgetting and how they are connected to the Santa Barbara technogy ecosystem or family tree.