Simply I’m awesome, if you need more, read on…

This blog is my personal entries on the following topics.

I hope what I have to say can help others stay clear of the mistakes I’ve made and learn from my many successes too. I am a true believer that the internet is a social marketplace of people, people who want to share, who want to learn,  and just enjoy all that life has to offer. It’s hard for me to imagine what life was like before the internet, seems like a hazy memory.

Johnny Negretti

My Story

From Tech Support to Engineer — Ecommerce, Ecommerce, Ecommerce

For the past twelve years I’ve been fortunate to have a steady career in web development and interactive marketing. When I first discovered the internet I was instantly memorized by the ability to interact with others throughout the world with no limitations. It was like discovering a new world, a new world of new possibilities. I grew up as one of those kids you broke things to simply learn how to fix them, of course the type of kid that got into lots of trouble due to this curiosity of how things work. Back in 1996, there weren’t really any books on how to create a webpage (HTML) or classes in college, so I learned HTML by where else, the internet.

My first paying web job was fixing some HTML frames for a retail website which they game me store credit which was a-ok with me. One day my girlfriend told me that Miva was hiring which at the time I was a big Miva Script (scripting language) enthusiast and Miva was the company that made Miva Script. She bumped into Miva at a job fair that was on her campus (UCSD) which she brought me back a Miva t-shirt. I was so crazy about Miva that I wore that shirt just about everyday. After several pep-talks I gathered the courage to call Miva get an interview. I had no idea they were in San Diego and thought I had no chance of getting a job there. I went in and learned that there were few Miva Script developers like myself which easily got me the job and started off in tech support.

Only after a few months I became an Engineer on Miva’s flagship product Miva Merchant. While an Engineer on Miva Merchant, I worked on version 3, 4, and 5. At this time their product was weak in scalability so we completely revamped the infrastructure, I even rebuilt the module API for version 5. I later became the lead engineer for just about every new Miva product, including Miva Now and TemplateUI. I think it was because of my utter devotion to the language that I was involved with so many projects. Working on Miva Merchant gave me some strong experience working with large enterprise systems which many large companies used Miva Merchant, like Yahoo, eBay, Mapquest, Dell, and Honeywell.

From Engineer to Management — Pushing Innovation

Throughout the years I formed a successful career in web development then moved into management which gave me a better ability to push new and emerging web technologies.

After Miva, I had the opportunity to manage a software development team for a marketing startup, then create a web department from the ground up. It seems like most of my jobs were either starting a department (or team) from the ground up or tasked to push new innovations in existing technologies and infrastructures.

  • Hitachi – Create a new Enterprise Web group of consolidated departments commissioned by the COO, CIO & other VPs.
  • Interactivate – Streamline processes and infrastructure and consolidate local and global web teams.
  • Modern Postcard – Create a new eBusiness group of consolidated depts of web developers, web designers & engineers.
  • ViaSat – Create a web department from the ground up for a telecommunications company
  • KFKI – Manage a global software engineering team for a marketing startup company

Just about every place I worked there was a critical need to revamp existing infrastructures to support growth though too much of daily operations were on infrastructures that could not budge. Most IT projects are designed and are budgeted to support a current need. Even the Executives that support most IT projects there are usually too many pieces to make any significant changes. I’ve always seemed to have a knack to look beyond the limited walls and see innovative solutions that can improve production and reduce operational costs. Pushing innovation is more than having a plan, it’s getting people to believe in you, in your passion for a solution, and make them feel confident in your abilities to execute. The biggest part of pushing innovation and streamlining systems in careful planning (Project Management) and dedication to the execution of a timely delivery. Once you start pushing dates is when you start to weaken the legs you project stands on!

From Management to CEO — The Reluctant Entrepreneur

For years I’ve been pushing social media projects on deaf ears or ears that just did not understand the social (non-commercial) aspects of the web. Most places approved bits of social media integrations, it took allot just to get people to by into RSS feeds and even though some had blogs and wikis, they weren’t used right. Too much focus was on the customer buying a widget, just get them to buy buy buy. While at Modern Postcard, Blake Miller, the Marketing & Sales VP said “you have to know each customer, know if they like to golf or not, or if they like to…” Although this comment was regarding VDP (Variable Data Printing) campaigns, this comment still resonated with me and helped me understand that each customer is unique and each customer does NOT want to be mass marketed to, they want personalized content, content that is relevant to them in a specific way. From then on it was my mission to preach this idea.

While at Hitachi, I got the support of my team, my managers and other Executives to streamline the support portals to offer personalized content. Since Hitachi has so many products, the plan was for the support portal to only show information that is specific to each user. Ok, the plan was in motion (Enterprise Portal Project), though finding user specific data for each customer and mining through the mountain data was a bit harder than originally planned, we needed information beyond their name, email, and purchase history. I need to know if they golfed, what food they like, what car they drive, etc. I’m a web junkie, so at the time I had a social media profile on just about every social networking website. While on my own time playing with various social media APIs I realized, whoah, these APIs give me access to a user’s personal traits, their habits, their like, their dislikes. While at a Mixergy event I spoke with an investor about an idea to use social media API data to personalize web content on the fly, in real-time, before a webpage loads. Well, the rest is history. That investor loved the idea and in May 2009 started Ideablue Networks to create the idea, the product SocialSimple.

I considered myself a reluctant entrepreneur because I love working in corporate America, though was disheartened by seeing a stale internet, seeing an internet that is catered to everyone. I wanted to see an internet that was catered to me, me as an individual, as a unique person and not a number. Even though our product was small compared to other startups, it was rewarding to work on a project with others that shared the passion to help the internet be personalized, one step at a time.

Before the product SocialSimple launched publicly it was aquired in August 2009 for another social media product idea by another company. Starting a company from the ground up is not as easy as it seems and being a CEO is not as glamorous and free-spirited as many see it as. Being a CEO you wear many hats, you are the company, your passion and belief in the company is the fuel that drives you company mission and drives the enthusiasm of your employees.

Career Highlights

  • Founding executive and Chairman of a $2.4 million investor based startup company in social media targeted advertising.
    • Product SocialSimple acquired August 2009.
  • Extensive career in eBusiness (corporate) and interactive web (Agency) – Developer, Engineer, Architect, Marketing, Sales, Manager, Director, CEO.
  • Core API Architect and Product Evangelist for Miva Merchant (industry leading/award winning e-commerce platform) and Miva Now (e-commerce SaaS).
  • Contributing member on several social media advisory boards, community groups, and round-tables.

Also, just to clarify, this blog is…

  • NOT sponsored by any company, product, or service.
  • NO claims of being an “expert”, simply just a blog of my professional career in the web industry, opinions, and my random thoughts of my personal life.
© 2010 Johnny Negretti
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