News
Quora.com
Rome, Italy
San Francisco, CA
Twitter - pmikal
About
My name is Philip Mikal. I am an entrepreneurial executive based in Stockholm, Sweden that brings a founders perspective to technology-driven and customer-focused product companies.
I've seen a lot of enterprises rise and fall. Over the years, I think I've assembled a recipe for the best odds of success.
Mr. T Ate My Startup
What worked ten years ago no longer produces results. Back then, we lived by build it and they'll come. Chase eyeballs. Hire a bunch of newly minted MBAs, throw in 20 million and BAM, Internet riches.
That and a lot of coffee saw a few big deals, but nothing like what investors expected. Billions went down the drain. (You probably read about it).
These days, it's more like, remove a vowel from your domain name and build a viral widget that leverages the social network of dog lovers. Sound familiar? Certainly there's a better way to build a mass-market Internet business.
But how?
Coffee goes great with cake. That's not science. Making the cake is.
Science informs success when we predict the future based on past performance.
What works for cakes works for companies.
Tested recipe = successful formula
I've been around long enough to notice what's gone right, and what's fallen flat. I've tasted the prizes and the outtakes. I've taken lots of notes.
My Two Secret Ingredients:
1) Customer Development
An iterative process. We perfect the path to paying customers.
Method: Begin with the end in mind, and stay focused throughout.
2) Product Development
A vision made real. We leverage a decade and a half of experience developing web-based applications for the world's leading companies.
Method: Build customer-focused, scalable, open-source architectures on time and under budget.
Contact
Please direct email inquiries to:
pmikal [at] LevelAcuity.com
Privacy is the new sharing!(1/1/10)
Executive Roles
- ChargeSmart
ChargeSmart is a web-based e-commerce business allowing credit card funded bill payments to be made through the Internet. ChargeSmart serves as an alternative payment channel for companies in the mortgage, auto, student and utility industries that do not want to directly offer credit card payment as an option to their customers.
Role: Chief Operating Officer
- CardIt
CardIt was an online payment system for monthly mortgage bills using a major credit card. It's provided consumers a method to protect their credit and property by helping them pay on-time when other financial options were not immediately available.
Role: Co-Founder, CEO
- BuyerHunt
BuyerHunt was a web-based Multiple Listing Service that featured Reverse Prospecting. This feature provided consumers the ability to publish their interest in purchasing real property and allowed for Realtors to actively search for potential buyers for their listed properties.
Role: Co-Founder, Vice President, Technology
- LenderInspection
Lenderinspection was a leader in construction inspection services for mortgage lenders. It specialized in fast property inspections by leveraging existing Internet and wireless infrastructures. Inspection professionals reported their findings, including photographs, in real-time using a wireless device connected to the Lender Inspection central database.
Role: Co-Founder, Director of Technology
- Open Source Consulting
Open Source Consulting was a partnership for technical consultants uniquely structured similarly to a law firm. Its practice focused on systems administration, programming, management advisory, database administration and networking. It primarily contracted with an industry-leading network infrastructure equipment manufacturer, a biotech firm and a credit union.
Role: Co-Founder, Managing Partner
- Level Acuity
Level Acuity was a technical staffing and consulting agency. It provided consultants to Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard that built web-based software and engineering productivity tools.
Role: Managing Partner
Skills Summary
Business
- Raised venture funding
- Managed and recruited top engineering talent
- Demonstrated focus on data-driven decision making
- Corporate operations experience; payroll, benefits, insurance, marketing, advertising, incorporation, accounting, vendor relationships, state and federal compliance
Technical Management / Leadership
- Proven technical team leadership and management experience of small to mid-size development teams and technical personnel
- Experience supplying technical direction, guidance, setting of milestones, timelines, mentoring and overall supervision in meeting company objectives in tandem with other business groups
- Expertise in development processes and methodologies
Programming / Architecture
- Comfortable in rapidly learning any technology and its application
- Expert use of Perl, especially within a web environment.
- Very familiar with Linux, Apache, mod_perl, nginx, lighttpd, PHP, Catalyst, MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, DBI, CGI, Tomcat, Java, JSP, HTML, JavaScript, WAP/WML, XML, SOAP & LDAP
- Extensive experience in OOA/D/P, Project Management, software and system architecture, and overall programming leadership skills
Systems / Integration / Operations
- Extensive experience administering, using and developing software for a variety of platforms including Linux, Solaris, and HP-UX
- Complete knowledge of system, network, and application services and their role and integration in enterprise software development - web servers, application servers, database servers, mail servers, file sharing, DNS, etc.
- Expertise in systems integration and n-tier architecture development and deployment.
Industry Focus
- Financial Services
- Real Estate
- Consumer Internet Websites
Product Development
- User Interface Design
- High Scale & Redundant Architectures
- Rapid Development
- Open Source Architectures
- Outsourcing Strategy and Execution
Articles / Presentations / Patents
2007
Inman Connect - Panel Discussion: Panelists: Travis Chow, Founder, Neighboroo; Di-Ann Eisnor, CEO, Platial, Inc.; John Geraci, President & Co-Creator, outside.in; Philip Mikal, Co-Founder & VP, Technology, BuyerHunt; Kurt Weinsheimer, VP of Partner Development, Spot Runner, Inc.
2006
System and Method For Third Party Payment Processing Of Credit Cards, CardIt, LLC [Patent Abandoned]
2002
Performance and Cost Based Routing for a Courier Services Exchange, Ensenda, Inc. [Patent Abandoned]
Spot Exchange For Buyers And Sellers Of Courier Services, Ensenda, Inc. [Patent Abandoned]
2001
Diagnostic Clearing House, Sun Microsystems. Patent No. 6,687,652 (2/03/2004)
An Introduction to WAP Security at the Network Protocol Layer - WTLS, Wireless Technology Advisor
2000
You Are The Brand! A Consultant's Introduction to Personal Marketing, Contract Professional
Configuring Apache for Wireless Browsers, Linux Journal
Press
2010
PYMNTS - 5 Burning Questions: ChargeSmart's COO Philip Mikal
2009
2008
Business Week - Just Charge That Mortgage
Sacramento Bee - Finance industry encourages consumers to pay bills with plastic
American Banker - New Pay Options, Old Criticism
Inside Arm - New Program Allows Consumers to Pay Mortgage with Credit Cards
Banks.com - ChargeSmart Is New Kid On Credit Card Bill Pay Block
American City Business Journals - ChargeSmart lets customers put house payments on plastic
Housing Wire - New Service Touts Mortgage Payments by Credit Card
2007
Now you can charge your mortgage payment with a Visa, Mastercard or Discover card at www.Cardit.com - Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine (2007/12)
CardIt Aims to Profit by Processing Credit Card Payments for Cash-Strapped Mortgage Borrowers - Inside Mortage Profitability (2007/09/21)
Putting house payments on plastic gives new meaning to 'credit crunch' - San Francisco Business Times (2007/09/14)
Is Paying Your Mortgage With a Credit Card a Good Idea? - Housing Wire (2007/09/14)
MoneyGram Deal And Start-up Eye Cards for Housing - American Banker (2007/09/14)
CardIt, LLC launches company operations to give consumers more options to pay their mortgage. (2007/09/07)
Philip Mikal and Alexander Sada announce the only service enabling consumers to pay their mortgage with a Visa or Mastercard - CardIt. (8/4/07)
Philip is a speaker at Real Estate Connect NYC 2007 conference as part of the "New Kids on The Block" session. He spoke about his new company, BuyerHunt. (1/11/07)
2006
SanomaWSOY Education uses Philip's photo, Tokyo skyline ["1213_tokyo_skyline.jpg"], for an online child education class on geography and history in the Finnish language. (11/20/06)
Philip sells his share of Open Source Consulting to co-founder Tony Hansmann. (08/01/06)
2005
Nina Blackwood's New Wave Nation, a syndicated radio program, selects Philip's photo, the Punk Rock Kid, for a promotional postcard. Nina is widely known as the first MTV VJ. (2/22/05)
Lender Inspection Corporation, a leader in construction-inspection services for mortgage lenders, today announced that upper management has completed a buyout of the company. Donald Giebelhausen, the new owner, takes over from Joseph Adams and Philip Mikal, who started the business three years ago. (2/16/05)
2004
LINE, AIA San Francisco's quarterly design journal, will be using one of Philip's photos of the 2002 Bay to Breakers race for their next issue. (7/14/04)
Proud Neighbor Magazine is using a photo Philip took of the kitchen at Hibiki Dynamic Kitchen in Shinjuku-ku Tokyo for an upcoming article on "Are You Thinking of a Culinary Career". (07/12/04)
Sun Microsystems and Philip J. Mikal awarded Patent No. 6,687,652 for Philip's invention, Diagnostic Clearing House. (2/3/04)
2003
A photo from Philip's coverage of a San Francisco peace protest has been selected for publication in Eton College's The Arts Review. (11/10/03)
Level Acuity, LLC revealed it's new market positioning as a leader in Perl Programmer Staffing & Projects. (08/06/03)
2002
Nervepinch, Inc. announced today plans to file a Certificate of Dissolution with the California Secretary of State. President Philip Mikal commented that Nervepinch's board of directors felt the decision was in the best interest of shareholders. When asked about the dissolution, Mr. Mikal joked, "with this announcement, the golden days of the Internet age are officially over." (11/13/2002)
Philip's San Francisco home will be featured in an upcoming article on amazing city views in Northwestern University's Renew Magazine.
Ensenda, Inc. and Philip J. Mikal file for patent protection for their invention, Performance and Cost Based Routing for a Courier Services Exchange.
Philip will be featured in an article on The Sports Club/LA appearing in the November, 2002 issue of Danish fitness magazine iFORM (In Health).
Ensenda, Inc. and Philip J. Mikal file for patent protection for their invention, A Spot Exchange for Buyers and Sellers of Courier Services.
An Introduction to WAP Security at the Network Protocol Layer -- WTLS, has been published at Wireless Technology Advisor.
2001
The title sequence from The C! True Hollywood Story, featuring original music scored by Philip, was profiled on a retrospective edition of E!'s True Hollywood Story.
Sun Microsystems and Philip J. Mikal file patent application for Philip's invention, Diagnostic Clearing House.
Philip will be at the 2001 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, airing on the Fox Network April 11th.
2000
Philip's comments on the adoption of WAP technology were quoted in the Wired News story WAP or I-Mode: Which Is Better?
You Are The Brand!, A Consultant's Introduction to Personal Marketing will be published in the Your Turn column of the October 2000 issue of Contract Professional.
Configuring Apache for Wireless Browsers will be published in the upFRONT section of the July issue of Linux Journal.
Philip will be at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, airing on the Fox Network June 20th, 2000.
Jack's Old School Scratch Break, a song Philip scored for an upcoming short film, hits position 13 on the MP3.com Old School Hip Hop chart. (5/6/2000)
1999
Philip's comments on the use of Linux in the enterprise were videotaped for display at the March 1999 Linux World conference.