William Grosso
Send email to wgrosso at thiswebsite.com
William Grosso
Send email to wgrosso at thiswebsite.com
Professional Bio
I work in software, usually in software startups as the CTO or the Vice President of Engineering. Currently, I'm the CTO and the VP of Engineering at Twofish, the world's premier provider of economic solutions for the online entertainment industry.
Until recently, I ran engineering at Engage.com, a small startup focused on Social Dating (roughly, the intersection of online dating and social networking). During my 20 months there, I completely overhauled the product and engineering processes, culminating in the release of Engage 2.0 at a Techcrunch party.
I also occasionally consult (either to evaluate an engineering organization / project or occasionally to help iron out some scalability or architectural wrinkles) and serve on the advisory boards of several companies (currently Five 9's and Ecofactor).
Selected References
John Steinberg is the CEO of Ecofactor
Bill has been extremely valuable as an advisor to our startup.. He's scary smart, and has a wealth of insight and relevant experience on the technical side, of course, but he also adds significant value in unexpected ways -- he has a strong business sense, and understands the competing priorities we face. And he manages to challenge us, but in a supportive way -- no easy task. We are lucky to have Bill on our team.”
Susan Mernit is the CEO of People's Software Company.
Bill has worked with me on several consulting projects as the senior technical brain or engineering resource. In each case, he's provided solid analysis and feedback, and excellent documentation of his work and assessments. Bill is easy to work with, but extremely bright and incisive, quick to grasp issues and tactful at broaching problems. These were GREAT consultant skills and made him a highly valued partner in crime while I was running 5ive. I would work with Bill again in a heartbeat and still rely on him for insights and advice. He is a true talent--results oriented but also capable of seeing the bigger picture.Joelle Gropper Kaufman was Engage's VP of Marketing
Bill is the rare combination of a pragmatic and execution focused technical executive with strong business acumen and user insight. In our time working together, he re-constituted almost an entire engineering team and led the reconstruction of virtually the entire (undocumented) code base. He is a strong leader who inspires confidence from his team and colleagues. He is well versed in many different technology approaches and is pragmatic in his choices of how to apply technology to achieve business goals. I was very impressed by both his ability to execute and to anticipate issues and proactively avoid them.
Dave Balmer ran client-side development for me at Engage
Bill is amazing. Not only is he the best Vice President of Engineering I've worked for, but he's truly a visionary. He's extremely intelligent, cool under fire, and very responsive. As a leader, his deep understanding of architecture coupled with excellent communication skills make him tough to beat. Bill also has a savvy business mind, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him running product management or sitting in the CEO chair at his next company.
To see more references, view my LinkedIn Profile.