This week WiredLatinos took a new approach in the interviewing process.  We decided to interview the founding members of an up and coming technology company, Sieena.  Sieena is a builder of quality Microsoft-based technology and nearshore development services including rich Internet applications and custom SharePoint deployments.  As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Sieena is also a 2009 winner of the Microsoft “Innovate on the Web” award for the exceptional design of a Web 2.0 solution based upon the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
Serving businesses across North America, Sieena is headquartered in Los Angeles and maintains a state-of-the-art development facility in Monterrey, Mexico.  With a corporate culture that attracts top talent from both the business and technology sectors, Sieena’s strongest asset is its multi-disciplined team, which is fully committed to customer success. Their team has built and maintained business-critical Web platforms for small-to-medium business up through large multi-national corporations.

For true success, you need to build a solid, goal oriented, dedicated and sometimes sleepless team.  Sieena’s all star team includes:

• Mauricio Duran (MD) As president of Sieena, Mauricio Duran brings over a decade of experience with the latest technology to bear on today’s most pressing business issues.  He has worked with such leading organizations as Microsoft, General Electric, Merrill Lynch, HP and Boeing.  Duran earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in computer systems from the prestigious Tecnologico de Monterrey.  He is also co-author of the book “Expert Service-Oriented Architecture in C# 2005, Second Edition.”

• Fernando Gutierrez (FG) As Director of Nearshore Technology of Sieena, Fernando Gutierrez brings over more a decade of experience in new technologies, with specialization in Microsoft’s Platform.  Prior to co-fouding Sieena, Mr. Gutierrez career started on General Electric’s Power Systems Development area where he was part of team that focused on building highly scalable enterprise-applications. Later in his career he worked for HP and Boeing.  Fernando earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in Computer Systems from the Tecnologico de Monterrey.

• Omar del Rio (ODR) As Vice President of Operations for Sieena,Omar Del Rio brings a wealth of experience.  For 10 years her worked in process improvement and management, operations management, technical architecture and solution design.  His career began at General Electric, and is built upon a strong academic foundation.  Del Rio earned a bachelor’s degree in computer systems with honors from the Tecnologico de Monterrey, along with a master’s degree in business administration, earned with the highest honors from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

WiredLatinos (WL) Where are each of you originally from?  What is your cultural background?  Where do you live now?
MD: I was born in Mexico City and went to school in Torreon, Coahuila, where I met my partners.   Now we all live in Monterrey, where we started the business.

WL:  What is Sieena?  When was it founded and by whom?
MD: Sieena is a Nearshore software development company specializing in Microsoft technologies. It was founded by Fernando Gutierrez and Mauricio Duran in 2004.  Omar Del Rio joined us right after he finished his master’s degree in Illinois.

WL:  What is Sieena’s business model?
ODR: We build software solutions for U.S. organizations in our development center located in Monterrey, Mexico.  We leverage our location, proximity and cultural similarities to run successful projects.  Our clients enjoy working with our talented staff, communication is very open, challenges get identified early in the project and they tackled working as a single team.

WL:  When did you start working for Sieena?
FG: We started working at Sieena in February 2004, after quitting our jobs and deciding to chase our dream of starting our own company.

WL:  Where did you work before starting work at Sieena?
MD: Fernando and I worked for Softtek, a place where we learned a lot of things and where we made very good friends.  Omar worked for General Electric in Connecticut.

WL:  What are some of the strengths a person must possess to lead a company like Sieena?
ODR: We need a lot of discipline, passion for technology, a great network and the commitment to getting things done right for our clients.  We are lucky to have a well balanced team and we combine our skills to lead the business.

WL:  What makes Sieena a good company to work for?
FG: We are a company where you will find challenging and exciting work.  We are surrounded by really smart engineers that are the best in their field.  We take very good care of our people and we make sure they are happy and productive.

WL:  What are some of the best projects Sieena has produced?
MD: There are many projects that we are really proud of.  The latest projects we have built are in the area of business intelligence and we have delivered them for innovative companies located in southern California.  These companies are Dial800, Political Data and MaintenanceNet.  We are really proud of these solutions because they combine design and technology to provide the best possible user experience.

WL:  What are some Sieena’s projects which you are most excited about?
ODR: We have many new initiatives at Sieena; one of them is the creation of our formal marketing department.  We have grown our business using our network but now it is time to take it to the next level.  We are positioning our brand and reaching out to new prospects using inbound marketing and targeted campaigns.

WL:  Who is Sieena’s biggest competitor?  And how is Sieena different and better than its competitors?
MD: Our biggest competitor is not another consulting company.  It is the internal IT staff at prospect organizations.  We have to demonstrate our prospective clients that we have a multi-disciplinary team that can get help them meet their aggressive go-to-market strategies.

WL:  What are some of the biggest challenges an executive position, like the one you hold, faces in a company?
MD: We are software engineers and one of the biggest challenges has been to identify and implement best practices in areas like finance, marketing, legal and human resources.  We have worked really hard to learn about these topics.

WL:  What percentage of your company’s market share is Latino?
MD: Roughly 30% of our business comes from the Latin market.

WL:  How are you reaching out to the Latino market?
ODR: This happens naturally for us, because of our background and our involvement in Hispanic events.

WL:  Things move and change so quickly on the internet, where is the online business going?
FG: We are seeing a big shift towards mobile devices.  Our clients are asking more and more about solutions for smart phones.  Some of the systems that we built 3 or 4 years ago are now being adapted for mobile interfaces.

WL:  There is a saying that the Internet never sleeps, how do you unplug/disconnect/unwire?
MD: We don’t.  We are connected 24/7 and we are always ready to assist our clients if one of their mission critical applications needs attention.