CEO & co-Founder of Rrripple, Heather Hiles

Heather Hiles is the CEO and Co-Founder of Silicon valley based media sharing site called Rrripple.  Before you think of it as another social network don’t.  In our interview with Heather she explains how her platform is used to share digital media to groups privately.  The service also boasts touch screen capability and already has an iPhone App.  You get about 3GB of space with a free account.

What is Rrripple and how did you start it?
rrripple is a lifeflow™ (digtial media) sharing platform that provides people full control over curating and sharing. I started it with my co-Founder, Andres when he asked me what site I use to share all of my photos, files, videos with groups privately and selectively. I told him I was using Sharepoint to manage a group called Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2) and it did not serve my personal needs well at all. I had been an advisor to Andres’ first tech company and have known him for 10 years. Andres was at Palm at the time and he said “let’s build the perfect private group sharing web app together,” and I agreed.

What did you do before launching Rrripple?
I ran my own consultancy managing the philanthropy of many technologists, and improving the philanthropic performance of other large foundations. I have organized groups throughout my life. I served as the Communications Director for Gavin Newsom when he first ran for Mayor. I served as a School Board Commissioner in San Fransisco. As an example, I now serve on the boards of Leadership Public Schools, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Social Venture Network and I need to communicate and share all types of media privately within these groups.

How did you all come up with the name?
rrripple is a symbol of sharing and spreading, like the multiplier effect. The 3 rrr’s is a way of expressing that notion in a word.

How is Rrripple different from what is out there now?
Currently, there is no place to go and create various groups/networks that you proactively create and share with privately in a user-friendly, group-oriented way. For example, on Facebook (which we love) people are constantly asking us to be be friends with people we do not know, and this is dangerous. On LinkedIn (which we also adore) algorithms recommend people to me to the point of distraction.

At rrripple you only invite friends you know to join groups that you create and this preserves the safety, security, and privacy of each group you create. It also means you are only sharing relevant media to each group/person. So, what I send to my mom is very different than what I share with my girlfriends, and now it is easy to share with both groups. This provides 100% signal, 0% noise.

Also, we are built on a timeline that allows for each user and each group to chronicle all of their media and sharing automatically. Moreover, the interface is built for touch screens so that you have the entire cloud of activities at your fingertips.

Finally, with the iPhone and other mobile device apps, you can take a photo or a video from anywhere and send it safely to your groups.

Are you all Bootstrapping or have you raised venture investment?
We have been bootstrapping and raised a small amount via angels (under $200k) to get to the point of releasing our beta (www.rrripple.com, please check it out). And we are now in the process of raising a seed round of funding so that we can implement all of the engineering we have planned to make the site awesome!

What growth strategies are you all using?
We are seeding ourselves in various networks–including high schools, non-profits, governmental agencies– as well as the early adopter community. We are also relying on press to get the word out about us and we are optimizing our site for searches by people who need our solution.

What does the future look like for Rrripple?
Looking to 2010, we will be releasing many new features that will make importing contacts (from your address books, Plaxo, gmail, etc) and importing content (e.g. photos, videos) from sites like Picasa, Flickr, etc, easy and fun. We will also offer new functions like filter and search that will make it extremely fun to view all videos from your family group, for example, on the timeline.

We look forward to having many partnerships with companies that print photos, produce albums and more and we also think we will make the ideal interface for a large media management company and will explore such opportunities. Don’t be surprised to see celebrities using rrripple to share their media privately with the people and groups in their lives.

The Resumator helps you save time and money on hiring by instantly replacing the inefficiency of your HR inbox with an online recruiting platform for promoting jobs and reviewing resumes. It returns the time you waste managing a cluttered inbox full of resumes by providing Web-based tools that make hiring paper-free and collaborative. And by driving free traffic to your jobs, The Resumator virtually eliminates the need to purchase expensive listings on job sites. Don Charlton, CEO of The Resumator, founded the Pittsburgh based site just this year (2009).  He took some time out of his schedule to tell us more about his background, how he started The Resumator, and how he attracted an impressive client list of some of the hottest startups out.

You design, develop, and run the business side; give us an overview of your background?  How did you develop your skill set?

Well, I was a fine artist as a kid/teenager, but I also like to write software (in BASIC). I was the jock in high school who secretly sneaked down to the library in the morning to make games on the Apple IIc computers there. In 1995, I went off to Rochester Institute of Technology to do “commercial art”, which I was told meant, “graphic design”. While studying how to be a traditional print graphic designer, I was learning how to build Web sites for this new thing called “The World Wide Web”.

After graduation in 1999, I landed a job at a local design (Thoughtform Design) firm back home in Pittsburgh, and because I was the young techie, I was molded to learn about this new thing now just called “The Web”. I could design nice-looking websites, and write
HTML, but I had not yet learned server-side development, and that bugged me. I had ideas but could not execute.

At my next job I was responsible for managing and designing interfaces for large scale web projects at Wall-to-Wall Studios, interfacing with clients constantly about their “online strategy”. I learned a lot about business, and I read a lot about marketing, branding, positioning—all the things you need to understand in order to create engaging solutions for clients. I was winning regional, national and international acclaim for my design work, and it was also during this time I started learning PHP and how to develop database-driven Web applications on my own and through a few small projects for W|W.

In 2008, I realized after 10 years I had developed the ability to design great websites, build dynamic web applications, had management experience, and understood business. This was a great skill mix for an internet entrepreneur because I knew I could get a prototype out for anything I wanted without relying on anyone else. So I started looking at different business problems to solve through Web applications, and thus The Resumator was my first brainchild.
When did you 1st get the bug to strike out on your own?

Definitely in 2008. Like many entrepreneurs, I don’t find stability in working for someone else. I wanted to go for it one time and see if I could make something that mattered. I also wanted to show that you don’t need to be white, geeky and a Stanford or Babson graduate in order to make great online products. I’m a kid from the housing projects who used to eat crackers and butter for dinner, and we didn’t have a home phone until I was 17. Surviving that life makes you kind of fearless.

I had a friend—Jim Jen—at Innovation Works (our regional economic development organization) who encouraged me to apply to the AlphaLab program, which IW’s program for accelerating Web-based startups. When I was accepted, I gained great advisors, capital, and a good peer group. I was a lone wolf, so in order to convince them I could do The Resumator on my own, I announced I was launching the product the first day of AlphaLab (usually you launch at the end).

So I launched. One month later I had paying customers. That was a motivator for me right there.
No you are running The Resumator, tell more about the application and how it is best used?

For small businesses and startups, hiring is extra work, and no one’s expertise. Someone is usually “deputized” to manage the hiring
process, and this person (the CEO, office manager, or “unlucky stiff”) usually has no formal experience in recruiting. As a result, the
hiring practices used by these “deputized HR managers” are usually ad-hoc and inefficient.  The vast majority of these “deputized” HR managers are simply using a job description and an HR email address to attempt to recruit top talent. Between hiring costly  recruiters, paying for job postings, and printing, sorting, and distributing resumes, recruitment in small organizations is not as efficient, nor as effective as it could be.

The Resumator helps these deputized HR managers save time and money on hiring by instantly replacing the inefficiency of their HR inbox with an entire online recruiting platform for promoting jobs and reviewing resumes. It returns the time they waste managing a cluttered inbox full of resumes by providing Web-based tools that make hiring paper-free and collaborative. And by driving free traffic to job listings, The Resumator virtually eliminates the need to purchase expensive listings on job sites.

The Resumator automatically posts jobs to a business’ website and free job boards, as well as helps HR managers find inexpensive boards that source great applicants. Once submitted, The Resumator converts all incoming resumes into a searchable database and makes each one viewable right in the browser. The deputy HR manager and her team can then simply sign in to collaborate and discuss, rank and track pre-sorted applicants.

Simply put, if you manage resumes through email, and pay Monster or Career Builder a lot of money to source candidates, you should switch to The Resumator.
What triggered the idea to start The Resumator?

At my last job I was a “deputized” HR manager. I had no idea how to source candidates, and I was getting zipped up files full or resumes in my inbox. I had no process, and often I would lose track of applicants (or even their resume). When I went out on my own, I asked a simple question: “Why is email the most ubiquitous way businesses collect resumes?” The answer should have been, “Because it’s the best way.” But that’s not true. There were no solutions out there that did an effective job of targeting the “deputized” HR manager in business with less than 100 people.
You have some great customers!  What is the best marketing decision you made?  The biggest marketing mistake?

The best marketing decision I made was to offer our service to startups for free or at a reduced cost. Startups are full of deputized
HR managers, and by partnering with startup programs like TechStars, Founders Institute and AlphaLab, I was able to get some well-known startups to use the service and give it credibility. We’re just riding that wave now, with a customer-base including Inc 500 companies and some of the hottest Silicon Valley startups.

The worst mistake I made was paying for display advertising at premium prices. Some ad networks just charge way too much for ad placement, and I wish I could get back those few thousand dollars.