Dean McCall

Current

Venture Advisor at DFJ Mercury
President and CEO at Podcast Ready, Inc.
Co-Founder at Ideagin

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Past

Founder/ Board Member at Digital Convergence Initiative
President/CEO at Salsa.Net
Technical Evangelist at Mind Science Foundation

Director of Buisness Development at First Dominion Financial, Ltd
Director of Network Services at JonRuCo

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2 more...

Education

Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University

Recommended

13 people have recommended Dean

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Think Tanks

Websites

Dean McCall’s Summary

Dean McCall is a catalyst in the technology community of the San Antonio area. His technical capability has naturally combined with his interpersonal skills to yield a record of creativity, entrepreneurialism, and successful collaborative ventures.

McCall is a consultant to regional private equity organizations, advising clients on technological innovation and commercialization, product analysis, and marketing, as they develop funding strategies. He understands both local and global technology climates, which helps him devise and develop business and economic opportunities in new sectors and potential high-growth areas. Furthermore, his vision and ability to plan and execute initiatives have resulted in projects with benefits not only to business, but also to the community as a whole.

A board member of South by Southwest (SXSW), McCall added a digital convergence and mobile technology dimension to the international event. In association with the SXSW Interactive Festival and the DCI in 2006, McCall coordinated a prototype high-definition two-way broadcast between Austin and San Antonio to demonstrate an adaptive web services model. The project included Grande Communications, Rackspace, Neopolitan Networks, IBM, the City of Austin, and LifeSize Networks. At SXSW in 2008, McCall was responsible for ten panels on mobile technologies, as well as keynote speakers.

McCall’s engagement in leading-edge regional initiatives positions him to be a resource and a collaborator in a wide range of technological ventures. His leadership capabilities are proven in the success of multiple efforts he has started, contributed to, and advanced.

Dean McCall’s Specialties:

Business Development
Community Relations
Community Network Formation
Web
Web Development
SEO
Branding
Podcasting
Blogging
New Media
Technology Consulting

Dean McCall’s Experience

Venture Advisor

DFJ Mercury

(Privately Held; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

July 2009 — Present (5 months)

DFJ Mercury’s Venture Advisors extend the Investment Team’s reach by assisting in deal sourcing, due diligence, and executive roles. Each of our Venture Advisors brings a unique skill set to the Firm. Many of these individuals have been successful entrepreneurs and/or C-level technology executives. Others are preeminent scientific researchers in their respective fields. All have worked extensively with start-ups and provide DFJ Mercury with additional “bench strength” as it evaluates opportunities throughout Texas and the Mid- and Southwest.
President and CEO

Podcast Ready, Inc.

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

August 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)

I am the new head of one of the largest aggregators of audio and video podcasts. Our current offerings includes our directory in addition to the device agnostic software "myPodder" for subscribing, via RSS, to your favorite content.

We are currently working on our newest offerings which are focused on providing the infrastructure to the community of people who are making content. To allow them to be able to afford to make, market, and distribute the content they love creating.

We want to hear from the independent content producers of the world about how we can make what we are doing more useful to you. What are the tools you are looking for? What do we do right what do we do wrong? How do you distribute content now? Get in touch with me dean(at)podcastready.com
Co-Founder

Ideagin

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

October 2007 — Present (2 years 2 months)

IdeaGin was started with one very simple premise…create dynamic,engaging websites like the ones we love. It morphed into something entirely different and we have to say the direction is more in line with our hearts. It’s so simple to create great sites for people but creating great sites that allow people an easy way to manage content is something else. This is were we are spending a large amount of our development time. Creating the platform for website management that we wanted. All this using some very powerful and openly available tools on the web. We decided to take the best of what was already available out on the web and take the complexity out of it for our clients. Keep your eyes on the site to see developments as they progress.
Founder/ Board Member

Digital Convergence Initiative

(Information Technology and Services industry)

July 2005 — January 2009 (3 years 7 months)

The Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI) is a project of the Greater Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council.

It was started at the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin as part of that Institute's continuing effort to create wealth through expanded uses of capitalism for the purpose of maintaining a stable and civil society. This activity involved both the leadership of IC2 and its Fellows network.

Since this was clearly a regional activity, other organizations from the Waco-Austin-San Antonio corridor collaborated with IC2. These first partners were the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI), Salsa.Net, Baylor University Department of Communications, and a few key individuals who believed in the mission and goals of the DCI.

This group of organizations and individuals formed the Digital Convergence Initiative Task Force whose purpose was to form the DCI as a regional entity to promote economic growth of the Waco-Austin-San Antonio corridor.
President/CEO

Salsa.Net

(Privately Held; Retail industry)

October 2004 — December 2008 (4 years 3 months)

-Working to develop a regional “Super-cluster” within the South Central Texas/I35 corridor around digital convergence (DCI)
-Building a wireless infrastructure in Downtown San Antonio for economically challenged residents
-Educating the community on the values and particulars of telecommunications
-Encouraging and enabling area residents to use telecommunications
-Expanding the means of educational and governmental access
-Working to provide a forum for the discussion of public policy related to information access
-Helping to provide a stimulus for economic development
-Providing vision and leadership to develop a regional information environment
Technical Evangelist

Mind Science Foundation

(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

May 2007 — August 2008 (1 year 4 months)

Founded in 1958 by Tom Slick the Mind Science Foundation is engaged with solving one of the major questions of science, the puzzle of human consciousness, by funding leading-edge scientific research and education focus on the mind/brain.

I have been charged with building the organizations online presence and helping to tell the Mind Science story to the world. This includes implementation of an ASP based fund raising and CMS solution, design of a researchers wiki, a blog, and integration of archival video and audio from leading researchers into the site.
Director of Buisness Development

First Dominion Financial, Ltd

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

May 2004 — January 2005 (9 months)

-Preformed technical due diligence on prospective companies and presented findings to board to help frame funding decisions.
-Handled information processes analysis for corporation.
-Sought out and identified emerging trends in the industry and advised the company accordingly.
-Point of contact for IT decisions for the entire organization.
-Recruited by the CEO to lead brand strategy and business development for established financial service organization.
Director of Network Services

JonRuCo

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

June 2003 — May 2004 (1 year )

-Identified and implemented strategic direction for corporation outsourcing project management, software solutions, and multi-platform and new systems architecture implementation.
-Recruited, trained and promoted professional development of IS managers and staff.
-Identified disaster planning and recovery procedures for country and critical application systems.
-Successfully performed vendor negotiations reducing company debt by $1.5M.

Dean McCall’s Education

Texas Tech University

Post Graduate CS December 1995 — June 1997
Texas Tech University

BA , English/ Photocommunications , December 1989 — December 1995