Todd Vatalaro works as a Director of Sales at Splice Machine. He has experience as a Sales Executive, with achievements selling Cloud, SaaS, BI, CRM, Social & Mobile, and ERP solutions. In 1992, he joined Apple, Inc.

He went to American River College and Sacramento City College where he received his AS degree. Also during this time, he attended UC Davis and completed a Network Admin Certificate. This took him roughly 1 ½ years. He continued working at Apple and going to school. He worked many jobs at Apple Inc. and advanced and took on the title as World Wide Test Engineer. He was one of the youngest Test Engineers ever at Apple Inc. His first project was the iMac. He traveled the world and helped to make the iMac one of the most successful computers ever! Todd went on to work as a Systems Engineer, at Apple Inc., and then as a Sales Account Manager. At Apple he learned to sell the “Steve Jobs, way.”

He Left Apple after 10 years to join Oracle to leverage his success and experience in the enterprise space. After 5 years at Oracle with 20 successful quarters and sales achievements, he got the start-up bug. He assisted start-ups like Inspironix, Taptera, BookItGlobal, DivingGlobal and MobileNation.

Todd now has a BS Degree from the University of San Francisco in Organizational Behavior a Certificate at the University of California Davis, in Computer Network Administration & Management and multiple Sales Force Certificates. He has completed several classes working towards his MBA, from Saint Mary’s College of California.

His professional background also includes works as a Sports Agent, Actor, and charity work. In his spare time, Todd enjoys golfing, sailing, hunting, fishing, and snowboarding.

What do you do?

Sales Consulting/ Business development. Startup adviser in High Tech and renewable energy.

How long have you been doing it?

Since 1993.

What inspired you to do this kind of work?

I love people. I love helping people out and learning about their stories, pain points and how I can help them.

How do you earn money?

Sales. I sell a solution, idea, or a product and get a margin on it.

Who is your target client/customer?

Mostly, B2B. SMB, Enterprise, and Consumer. I have also sold to Government, State & Local SLED.

What does a typical day look like?

Touch points. I try to contact as many people as I can in any given day. Checking in, returning calls, setting up meetings, meeting commitments.

Do you have employees, contractors, or outsourced help? Tell us a bit about your company structure, however big or small.

We have outsourced some programming and business development.

Is there a trend in your industry that particularly excites you right now?

I’m in the renewable energy and mobile, cloud and SaaS space. All of these trends are very exciting and we are just on the beginning stages of all of them.

Tell our community about one of the biggest business challenges you’ve faced and how you overcame it?

One of any company’s challenge is the ability to scale. Growing your company is very challenging and you cannot do it without partnerships. Also with regards to the solar renewable space, it will be out fight with the utilities. The are the old guards and do not want us to cut ion their monopoly they have. This will be come personal to the consumer and very political in our coot systems. The “gloves have come off.”

Could you share a funny story or something quirky about your work?

Informing a client that by going Solar they can save up to $200.00 a month for no cost to them, and them saying “No it’s just not worth it.” That makes me laugh every time. Or when you work with an IT department and the security team, informs the decision makers that they are not comfortable with the new mobile technology with out even giving us a chance to address their security concerns. It’s actually not funny, but if you don’t laugh you will certainly cry!

What motivates you – being your own boss, making a lot of money, helping others, or some other reason?

Helping other is always cool. Sure, I’m here to make money, but helping others is intrinsic motivation. Being your own boss is great, but it can at times be a de-motivator.

What frustrates you? How do you deal with it?

Negativity. People making decisions based on emotion and not facts. I deal with this by listening and educating. At times you have to ask yourself, “Is it time to walk and not associate or do business with this person?”

What makes you laugh?

Satire. I also like making fun of my faults.

How do you maintain your/your employees’ morale when things are not going so great?

With 100% transparency. Understanding that at times we will need to pivot, change course. It’s about the journey; at time you have to go through the “bad” to get to the “good.”

Entrepreneurs tend to work a lot of hours on their ideas. How do you keep yourself balanced?

My ideas are my life. But I do have to land at times and just check out. My wife appreciates that!

When you need guidance, where do you find it? Who do go to? Feel free to name more than one source.

My good friend, Cary Parkins, CEO at Inspironix. Cary is also an entrepreneur and has set out on a spiritual journey. He shares what he has discovered along the way with me. At times we will spend long hours talking about life, family, love and business I also watch old videos of Steve Jobs. I also read a lot.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I hope I am in a place in my life where I’m surrounded by fun, smart people. I want to stay in high tech and grow and learn as the industry does.

What technology will dominate the next decade?

Renewable energy, Cloud based technology, Software as a service (SaaS), and mobility.

Are you willing to be a mentor to others who might want to reach out to you for guidance? If yes, how would you like to be contacted?

Yes! (916) 947-2736. Email me at thevatalaros@mac.com.

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