Founder of Davison Ventures and DVmobile.io. Former CTO @ StorePerform, acquired by RedPrairie--now JDA. Former CTO @ eToys Direct (KBToys.com, KBkids.com, eToys.com)--acquired by ToysRus.
7+ years in Mobile, expert in developing iOS and Android Apps, plug-ins and SDKs. I have a great team and fantastic customers, including Toyota, Conde Nast, VISA, Loreal USA, Nuiku, and others.
I value your request for help. However, my experience is that a straight barter of design services for development services is not necessarily equitable, as design is most often a fraction of overall development effort and cost, albeit, design is critical and sets the stage for success in a project. At DVmobile, we believe that the first 15% of a project (including design) is what make the remaining 85% of a project successful.
Bartering often implies very low revenue potential in the relationship. It begs for similar circumstances in your partner, a willingness to work for services vs. cash payment.
My recommendation would be for you to attract multiple partners that can leverage your services on a part-time contract basis. If you are attracting customers with your design skills, many development firms, including mine, are willing to do subcontract or partner based work. It’s usually easier to market great design skills in today’s market, than coding skills.
Shawn is one of the best managers I've had the opportunity to work with. He is engaging, intelligent and thoughtful. Shawn works with you to resolve key issues and achieve significant results. Shawn cares about those he works with and it shows in his interactions. Shawn is hard working and he is not afraid to get involved.
Shawn is a gifted technologist with natural leadership talents. He can manage expectations at the "C" and to Boards of Directors and can also manage expectations to his direct reports. Shawn looks at technology as a means to enable businesses to succeed. Even though he is business focused he can be hands on too and has an excellent understanding on how technologies can be used together to achieve the company goals.
I reported directly to Shawn for two years when he was CTO at KBkids.com. He built the technology organization of that company from the ground up and guided it through a critical start up phase during the Internet/e-commerce heyday of 1999-2000. I worked directly with Shawn on some of the most challenging technology and personnel issues that I’ve encountered in my professional career, and during those times I was consistently impressed with Shawn’s ability to remain calm and poised in the face of adversity, and his ability and willingness to make tough decisions without losing sight of the “big picture” and without compromising integrity. Shawn met every challenge head on and never shied away from dealing with difficult situations. He was a great mentor to me and what I learned from him has helped me tremendously as I’ve advanced my own career.
Shawn is an entrepreneur at heart and he is outstanding at matching a technology vision to a business plan or scenario, and then executing the implementation of that vision in the way of solid, scalable technology solutions. He is also a great leader with an excellent moral compass, and he has shown an ability to attract, develop and retain exceptional technology resources. I hope to one day work again with Shawn and I highly recommend him for any technology leadership position, especially as part of a technology dependent business startup.
I worked for Shawn, as a technical consultant, at eToys Direct.
Shawn showed excellent leadership skills, providing a clear vision for the company with sound ideas and direction on how to increase traffic and attract new business. He displayed an exceptional grasp of the technology needed to keep the company's competitive edge and to challenge the technical staff [to produce at their very best level].
Shawn is the best systems person I have ever met. His ability to understand multiple technologies and provide clarity in a sea on confusion is second to none. His calm persona serves all well around him, including customers, and sales people. Shawn is a guy when the biggest problems are present requiring a calm, methodical approach to solving them. In addition, he is extremely credible in front of CIOs. Finally Shawn's personal integrity and objectively is to be admired.
After having worked with Shawn in two successful startups, I can confidently say that Shawn is the ideal CTO for an early stage company. He has a "can-do" attitude, is hands-on, not religiously tied to any one technology, genuinely cares for the people around him, and has the vision that every technology startup needs. In addition, Shawn strikes the right balance between the constraints that every technology organization faces and the needs of the business side. Overall, you can't go wrong with Shawn in the CTO role of an early stage company!
"I had the pleasure of working with Shawn Davison for 2 years when he was the CTO at StorePerform. He possesses strong entrepreneur/leadership skills and the ability to remain calm and focused even during trying situations. That leadership gained him the utmost respect from all of the employees and enabled him to build excellent teams of employees for the company. "
I have worked with Shawn at three different companies and hope to continue working with him in the future. He has exceptional ability as an entrepreneur to identify business opportunities, develop a vision and strategy, and to build an organization that delivers the right solution at the right time. He has great communication skills and has led the way in forging strong ties with key technology partners such as Microsoft.
Shawn has all the qualities of a great CTO and then some. The ability to see the big picture and to go deep on the technical side while having a firm grasp of the business and strategic implications of technology-oriented decisions are just some of his skills.
I have seen Shawn navigate successfully through impossibly challenging situations with great aplomb. His personality is very pleasant and even keeled, his smooth demeanor unshakable.
Beyond the work front, I can assure you that a kinder, more generous and more principled person you will not have the pleasure of meeting.
I've known Shawn as an employee of his at StorePerform and more recently via a client relationship where my company, Kelsus, does quite a bit of subcontracting work for DV-mobile.
At StorePerform Shawn trusted me to take on greater and greater responsibility through my early career and I credit him for mentoring me and providing the opportunity to gain the breadth of experience that I claim to be one of my strengths in the software industry.
It's now years later and we have a business relationship that requires a lot of trust. My consulting company depends on consistency of work availability and we don't spend much time in sales and business development. DV-mobile depends on consistency of software delivery and quality. And this works perfectly. We continue to grow our companies in parallel because of the long term trust we've built. This is true for all of Shawn's business relationships, so by way of recommendation, I'd say don't work with Shawn unless you're prepared to be in it for the long haul and to see your own company thrive in the process.
Shawn was a delight to work with. He has a great combination of intelligence, enthusiasm, and work ethic. He shares what he knows with others and learns from the people around him. We got many projects done quicker and better because of his contributions and insights.
