About us

Meet the team behind SignalRadar

Doug-Grimsted

Doug Grimsted // CEO


Since his first job out of college at Micro Database Systems (MDBS), which sold the world’s first client/server relational data base.Doug’s entire career has been spent pioneering the use of data and analytics to change how companies compete. In the 90’s, Doug worked with a group of industry veterans to found and run an ANSI committee to standardize Xbase, the language of Foxpro, Clipper, and Dbase III. As CEO of Geneer his team developed and managed the software delivery analytics tools for many of Nielsen’s data products. As CEO of Aginity his team built the demand signal system that Kroger uses to forecast their entire inventory and collaborate with their suppliers (DemandView). Aginity went on to pioneer the exciting new field of Enterprise Analytics Management with their Analytics Management Platform, AMP, which is sold by IBM globally and used by large enterprises like Kroger, Catalina Marketing, Kohl’s, and Coca-Cola to manage all their analytics across the enterprise.
Lary-Burns

Larry Burns // COO


Larry’s experience lies within the CPG world at the intersection of Marketing Technology, Data Science, Human Behavior, and Practical PromotionsHe legitimately played the role of “Marketing Technologist” and “Data Scientist” in the last century … long before these terms were popular. Larry served as long term CEO (’99 – ’15) of the pioneering digital marketing firm StartSampling, Inc., a company that enjoyed several years on Inc.Magazine’s fastest growing companies list. Project engagements required intimate knowledge of client and retailer data systems as embedding data within various customer, agency and data provider platforms was a standard activity for StartSampling.

Larry also created and maintained the first cross-retailer platform for online sample request activities which included Walmart and many other retailers.

Mike Cacicio

Mike Cacicio // President Business Development

Mike serves as Nitrogen.ai’s business development and marketing lead, as well as providing analytic mission design guidance for clients.Mike spent over 17 years at Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) where he held managerial and executive positions in operations, client services, and new business development and served on the executive management committee for Advanced Analytics and Testing Services. He was instrumental in helping to grow IRI from a startup to the world’s leader in providing innovative new product and brand management research services. During his career, Mike has consulted with virtually every major consumer packaged goods manufacturer and retailer, as well as several of the world’s largest business-to-business marketers and consulting firms. After leaving IRI Mike founded Make It Happen Now in 2003 to help startup and established organizations address immediate mission-critical issues in marketing and sales.Prior to Make It Happen Now, Mike was a Partner at Slack and Company, a global B2B integrated marketing communications agency. His responsibilities included leading research activities, the expansion of the agency via new business development programs and establishing strategic partnerships with allied businesses.
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Wayne Levy // Advisor


The Wayne Levy story has many chapters and continues a path that has been deeply engaged with big data and analytics since last century.Wayne’s story includes many roles over time – at the University of Chicago he specialized in quantitative methods and Just In Time supply chains (in Japanese Companies).   At Needham Harper and Steers (later DDB Needham) developed media tracking, market allocation and media optimization models.  At Heinz USA developed on-line sales and marketing reporting system and for the rollout of a new product, developed the first space allocation models for a nationwide planogram allocation program that became the Apollo Space Management system   At Nielsen developed their first PC product and more importantly introduced the first baseline and incremental sales algorithm.  This algorithm became a major part of the Nielsen product line.

 

Co-Founded efficient market services (ems) and  served as CTO and later CEO.  ems created the first daily reporting system for sales, expected sales, incremental sales and sales drivers (advertising, displays, pricing and regular pricing) for over 4,000 grocery stores across the US.  Annual revenue from CPG customers reached $24 million and the system was imported into Japan via a partnership with Mitsubishi Trading Company.

Acting as an independent consultant, developed a store level sales forecasting system for PepsiCo, Pepsi Bottling and Anheuser-Busch.  This system was used to determine requirements for distribution centers and for transportation logistics.

Co-founded Market6 which became the exchange for store, division, and chain sales and sales driver information for Kroger across 1,500 suppliers as well as for Kroger Category Managers and Kroger Supply Chain Coordinators.   Market6 used the system created for Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch to create daily updated forecasts and actuals for all 2,600+ stores every day for 31 days forward.  Held CTO and CEO positions at Market6 which was acquired by Kroger.

Board member at SwiftIQ (a convenience store data hub) that underwent a successful acquisition.

Beyond his work with Nitrogen.ai, Wayne currently serves as advisor to Talinity (an AI driven talent acquisition firm currently in beta with a few customers).

Recently, Wayne has been working on a new grocery store concept to serve the underserved urban low-income market.  This approach to the store re-defines physical stores as hubs in a larger grocery delivery network.  Stores are much smaller with only some inventory customer facing and the remainder is mini warehouses in the back.  This approach combines the best of in-store and on-line and is affordable in urban environments.

Doug-Bryan

Doug Bryan // Senior Data Science Advisor


Doug started out developing software for Trident subs, Milstar satellites and the Space Shuttle but quickly switched to academia..He was on the research staff and a lecturer in computer science at Stanford University where he was tech lead for a 20-person team and published dozens of papers and three textbooks. After seeing Yahoo! for the first time, it was clear that there were more interesting things happening on the other side of El Camino Real. Since then he’s served in various leadership roles, including R&D manager at Accenture, leading the product recommendations team at Amazon.com (generating $1b in revenue per year), acting as practice lead at Rich Relevance (served personalized product recommendations to 600m shoppers a month), solutions engineer at KXEN (the first regularized regression software), co-founder of a paid search auto-bidder startup, VP of analytics at iCrossing and SVP of data science products at Merkle (Dentsu Aegis Network; reduced modeling costs 88% and time-to-market 95%).
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Michael P. Curran // Senior Advisor

Michael has 25+ years of technology commercialization experience as an operating executive, corporate strategist and venture capital investor.inside the insurance sector. He is the former Director of Strategic Development for the Allstate Corporation (NYSE:ALL) where he ran its $90 million corporate venture capital portfolio and negotiated strategic alliances. Michael was President and a member of the Board of Directors of a series of analytics, software and services companies serving the P&C and Life & Health industries, including CPS Holdings LLC ($400M portfolio of med mal runoff), Quantitative Data Solutions which was acquired by Aegon (NYSE:AEG) and Magnify Financial Services which was acquired by Choicepoint (NYSE:CPS). Michael holds a BA in political science from Wittenberg University, an MBA in finance and marketing from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and is a frequent industry lecturer.
PaulHsu

Paul Hsu // Growth and Product Advisor

Paul Hsu is an investor and growth entrepreneur, systematically growing companies building a better tomorrow, faster.Paul is currently the CEO and Founder of Decasonic, a venture operating company building the next generation consumer, data/ AI and blockchain businesses, with purpose, in Chicago. Decasonic partners with technology innovators, passionate about achieving strong product market fit and executing those business models with venture growth and purpose. Prior to Decasonic, over two decades, he scaled companies in consumer technologies from early traction to IPO – a decade as a venture capitalist in the Bay Area and another decade as an executive operator in venture backed companies in SF and NYC.
mikehimmelfarb

Michael Himmelfarb // Advisor

Michael, Principal of HG Partners, is an executive-level operating expert with over 25 years of experience in strategy, innovation and product marketing.

Over the years he’s worked with dozens of technology, data and analytics B2B startups to accelerate growth, many with successful exits. Because he’s been an operator in both large and small companies, he brings a unique perspective on the interaction and cultural challenges these relationships face. Since founding HGP in 2017, over 90% of his clients extend their engagements and 90% of his business comes from positive referrals. Before founding HG Partners, Michael led various $200M+ global data & analytics businesses at Nielsen. He turned a struggling global shopper panel business into the company’s fastest growing product line. At Nielsen he was also was active with innovation, running startup incubators in Africa, India and China, starting Nielsen’s internal “Shark Tank,” and serving on the boards of Nielsen-incubated startups. Before Nielsen he held various senior product and business development positions in both startups and large enterprises. He received his BS from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from University of Chicago.