RAZ YALOV

• Oversight of the end-to-end development of the platform supporting the company's business operations, including backend systems, mobile applications, and web interfaces.
• Supervision and guidance of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives to enhance platform functionality and innovation.
• Integrated advanced AI automation and AI agents into our core product and workflows
• Collaboration and leading of the product group to ensure alignment between engineering efforts, product vision, and overarching business objectives.
• Coordination of cross-functional teams to deliver scalable, efficient, and user-centric solutions across all technology layers.
• Strategic planning and execution of development projects to meet company goals while adhering to timelines and resource constraints.
• Implementation of best practices in software design, architecture, and quality assurance to maintain high standards across platforms.

I joined the founder and CEO of the company in its early days.

In this role, I owned all aspects of product development and dev-ops. I built a product team from scratch and implemented a state-of-the-art LMS platform that served our top customers.

• Marquee customers: GoDaddy, the State of Arizona's Board of Education, McDonald's, DutchBros, and the Scouts.
• Technical achievements: Architected the SaaS platform, designed the hosting platforms, and maintained 100% uptime, with a fully automated CI/CD process keeping a 98% test coverage.
• Built a lean product team from the ground up
• Stack: Java (Spring-Boot) RESTful back-end over MySQL, Elastic Search, and front-end based on Vue/Nuxt; Deployment was fully AWS-based.
• Agile development following the ShapeUp methodology.

In this role, I helped the company's founder establish and automate the data engineering pipeline required to run an AI-driven digital marketing agency.

• Key customers: Blue Apron, LifeStorage and BetterHelp
• Technical achievements: automated over 80% of the AI pipeline and data engineering. Reduced analysis cycles from days to minutes.
• Stack: Python, Hadoop, Jupiter, Java, AWS

Founded and built a live podcasting, streaming, and recording platform for non-technical users.
The company was a pivot/spin-off from Zula (see below). In this company, I ran point on all
aspects of the business: technical leadership, building the product's entire back-end platform,
leading the company's teams, handling VC fundraising, and more.

• Product achievements: #2 product of the day on ProductHunt, made it to the 1000-club, and maintained its viral state for a few months. ZCast was used by "Barstool Sports" to run multiple podcasts. Was host for a top 100 podcasts list show, "Missing Alissa" (mentioned on ABC 2020 show)
• Technical stack: The front-end was native iOS and angular for the web; The back-end was Java + MySQL, real-time WebSocket messaging. Audio streaming combined VoIP and homegrown audio compression and streaming services; Hosting was on AWS stack.
• Raised $250k in seed funding
• Was an integral part of the marketing campaigns

Zula's board hired me to take over the company's management halfway through burning their series C funds to help them get back on track. The company was the first to market with a Slack-like solution but failed to execute against Slack. By the time I joined, Slack had hit its hockey-stick growth, and we had to pivot (see ZCast above).

During the first phase of my tenure as CEO at Zula, while we were still competing head-to-head with Slack, I was responsible for rebuilding the back-end of the platform using the proper tech stack for the needs of the product rather than the original POC platform that was built by a contracting team that didn't understand the needs of the company. After a few successful releases, we understood that Slack had already dominated the market, and we needed more fuel to give them a proper fight.

That's when I helped the company pivot into ZCast (see above) to take advantage of the company's existing knowledge in the VoIP space.

• Key achievements: Regaied board trust for the company, a complete restructuring of the company from an Israeli to a US-based company, reduced burn rate by 60% (reducing headcount and optimizing hosting costs)
• Technology stack: native iOS, Java, MySQL, WebSockets, VoIP, AWS, Google Cloud
• Managed a company of about 20 employees
• Global legal entity with a US C-Corp headquarters and an Israeli LTD subdivision.
• Investors relationship (board meetings, investors updates, PNL financial reporting)

I was part of the core founding team that joined the company's founder in 2005.

My responsibilities included building the engineering team that oversaw three different product lines. I architected the transition from an on-premise solution to a hosted SaaS product.

The company was sold to Experian (for $324M) in late 2013. I built the entire engineering team from the ground up and supported the creation of 3 individual product verticals.

• VC-backed company: I was instrumental in the B through D series' fundraising from Top VCs: KPCB, JAFCO, and Georgian Partners.
• I was also instrumental in the company's M&A activities that we ran to grow the company before the Experian acquisition.
• Built an R&D organization of ~60 engineers (about 1/3 of the company size) using Scrum agile development methodologies
• Marquee customers: Apple, Bank of America, United Airlines, Visa UK, Yahoo Japan
• Key roles: Fraud dark-web research, system architecture, UI/UX, 0-1 of new products,
• Technology stack: Java, Oracle, Linux, jQuery, JSP, MSSQL, Windows NT
• DevOps: Build and design the company's data centers, SOC compliance, firewalls, intranet, and the transition towards hosted clouds at the later stages of the company.

I joined Mercury Interactive as an early employee in the newly formed Application Performance Management (APM) division in 1999.
I was a key contributor in converting its flagship LoadRunner testing platform into an online application monitoring SaaS platform. I re-architected the software from on-premise to an API-based online service, managing hosted servers remotely a few years before virtual machines and cloud-based services became a standard. The APM  product by Mercury was referred to in the software industry as the first SaaS solution that Silicon Valley has ever seen. It was a key driver in HP's decision to acquire the company for $4.5B in 2006.

• Key achievements: Adopting Java to a C++ organization, building a web-first interface using JSP and HTML, migrating MSSQL to Oracle, forming a customer-oriented R&D team, and managing key accounts such as Nationwide Insurance, EA sports, and more.
• First software company to offer a hosted SaaS solution based on virtualization and hosted multi-tenant implementations.
• Lead dev teams of 10-15 developers, owning code quality, architecture, and code reviews.
• Managed customers across the globe
• Responsible for technical training of the technical sales teams across the US
• Managed the DevOps organization (~50 people working operating a 24/7 NOC around the globe)

Early in my career, between my army service in Israel (IDF) and my first few jobs, I covered multiple areas of expertise, including electrical engineering, optics, lasers, and software engineering, all while earning my B.Sc in Computer Science and Mathematics.

1997-1999: Moon Multimedia: Sr. software engineer for a software agency and studio focused on custom innovative projects ranging from games to advanced multimedia marketing campaigns. Key customers included Orange Mobile, the open university of Israel, and Bank Hapoalim (the largest bank in Israel).

1992-1997: Edunetics LTD: Sr. software engineer at an EdTech company that produced computer-based training in mathematics and science for K-12 schools in the US and licensed It around the world. I led the development of advanced and innovative educational games and systems for the US market. I was also responsible for deploying our software worldwide, and I was part of the due diligence when the company was acquired by Steck-Vaughn Publishing in 1995.

1991-1992: Electro Music LTD: Electric engineer at a boutique musical instruments lab that served all leading artists in Israel. I was entrusted with fixing the latest electronic instruments of the A-list musicians in the country, from keyboards to high-power amplifiers and sound systems.

1987-1991: Israeli Defence Forces (IDF): I served in the Israeli Army as an electrical engineer and optics+lasers technician and trainer for new soldiers. I was also part of a limited group of soldiers trained to repair and maintain military equipment and systems of lasers and other military-grade equipment.

Earned my Computer Science & Mathematics degree with a 4.0 GPA (score of 99%)