The Pitch

Today I was approached for a very special project, here's what I came up with. I think it came out pretty good, what do you think?

I am an ideal fit for your project. Not only do I possess the creative and technical skills vital in handling the challenges of a large-scale, enterprise-class system, but I've also exhibited a proven track record of success leveraging those skills to address real business problems and create an advantage in the online world. Most importantly, I harbor an unparalleled drive and passion for the Web and technology that leads me on an eternal search for the optimal tool, framework or mashup to solve any given challenge and, ultimately, best serve the business.

My fascination for the Web and technology began when I was a little kid growing up in São Paulo, Brazil. At the age of 13, I was able to start my career as one of the first web developers in the country; I developed static websites for large corporations based in São Paulo. Two years later, I began working for Zeek, a Brazilian company established by a Brigham Young University graduate, my first mentor, who had just moved back to São Paulo; I was the company's first employee. The company's owner was neither looking for help nor was he hiring but I offered to pay him $100 per month and get him as much coffee as he wanted; all I asked for in return was that he teach me about his business. Luckily for me, he agreed to the deal. A few months later, I was building dynamic websites, talking to databases-I was living my dream. Shortly after, Zeek took off, evolving into the second largest search engine in Brazil, and I was their main developer.

It was not long before Zeek was acquired by StarMedia.com, the first Latin American Web company to have an IPO (NASDAQ), in the first multi-million dollar acquisition in the region. StarMedia moved me to their headquarters in New York at the end of 1999. At 17 years old, Manhattan was hard to endure but I was able to successfully deploy a company-wide content management solution used by 11 different countries in three different languages; this solution was key for StarMedia's success-its transformation into the most popular Latin American portal at the time and its eventual sale to BellSouth.

These past few years I've been focusing on large-scale, data-intensive applications for Foreclosure.com. I was repeatedly recognized for top performance through fast-track promotions-paralleled with the company's growth-and played an integral role in shaping Foreclosure.com from a local foreclosure listing site into the lead portal for distressed properties nationwide. One of the key factors of its success was the adoption of an event-driven architecture running on top of a document-based NoSQL datastore and data crawl, process and aggregation on a Grid solution, which was very innovative at the time. This decision allowed a very small company to obtain a substantial advantage over its competition; it gave the company the flexibility to aggregate and process data from thousands of different data providers, and-unlike its competition-allowed the business to use that data to employ a cost-effective and efficient, completely online marketing strategy.

The success of Foreclosure.com's backend systems granted us incredible opportunities such as developing and running Fannie Mae's main portal HomePath.com, soon-to-be-launched Freddie Mac's HomeSteps.com and the broker network for HUD in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and New York. Just recently, Foreclosure.com started receiving online offers on Fannie Mae homes in a highly successful multilingual soft launch that has already generated more than one billion dollars in offers in just over a month.

Altogether, I believe my successful track record on large-scale applications, my spirit for the Web and technology and my experience using technology to leverage businesses qualify me for your project. I will be extremely excited about the opportunity. Please don't hesitate to contact me.

You can also find more information about me on:
http://geeks.aretotally.in/pages/my-american-dream
http://www.linkedin.com/in/felipera
http://about.me/felipera

Sincerely,
Felipe Oliveira