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DPO Group Principals click images for biographies Software Development

Our greatest strength is that we are business professionals with distinct personalities and different life experiences. 

Those very differences allow us to synergize a group dynamic that avoids a "one-size-fits-all" approach to client problems or a "corporate line" that squelches envelope-pushing solutions. 

We provide value-adding management services that can turn a company around or redirect its energies into more profitable paths. Specific services include operations, financial analysis, market analysis and electronic marketing strategies, Internet access and NT networking services.

We are especially interested in alliances with companies that see the value of collaboration with strategic partners who can earn their stake through value-added services and results.

Tony Valente

Valente has raised an aggregate of $9.6 million (inflation adjusted) for his three high-tech start-ups. He is also an accomplished network designer, administrator and SQL developer who has architected and lead engineered multiple e-comm businesses.

A global thinker with formidable powers of concentration, Valente is noted for his ability to patiently pursue solutions to knotty technical and organizational problems, then act decisively.

He holds three U.S. patent assignments, products of the three high-tech companies he  founded in the 70s and 80s: Quantum Industries (thin-layer and column chromatographic products); Telesonic Systems (milli-watt output radio devices for museum and national park site tours); American Gem Market System (international network gemstone trading).

When he established American Gem Market System (AGMS) in 1980 in Moraga, CA, Valente became an early pioneer of the possibilities of conducting commercial transactions over computer networks. By the late 1980s, AGMS was recording $100 million a year in trading, a foretaste of the high dollar-volume amounts now being generated by today's e-commerce.

"...but the real news today is that networking, communications and web technologies are more than great business models for small businesses, they are enablers in ways never before imagined—from remotely managed desktop networks to efficient organizing "cloud" applications, which return us to the cost-effectiveness of yesterday's Time Shares."

Reed Guest

In his time away from work and family life, Guest often unwinds on the back of a 4-cylinder motorcycle. "Riding a motorcycle isn't so much a contrast to my professional life as it is a continuation. The law is a very powerful tool, one best managed by someone who is neither intimidated by that power nor tempted to use it unwisely." 

Reed Guest is a San Francisco Bay Area based attorney specializing in general business and business litigation, often performing the general counsel function for his clients. Reed has been practicing in the Bay Area for almost thirty years, representing businesses from sole proprietorships to publicly traded corporations.

During his time in practice, Reed was a founding partner in a Walnut Creek law firm, a Senior Partner in and General Counsel to Equity Pier, LLC, a Boulder, CO based venture capital and consulting business, and has acquired extensive experience in the following areas:

Finance – working with investment bankers, venture capitalists, hedge funds, financial institutions and individuals to provide both debt and equity funding to business

Mergers and Acquisitions – representing both buyers and sellers of businesses, including international operations, in the purchase and sale process, and growing businesses through that process

Governance – advising management and boards of directors on proper governance and compliance

Business Litigation – representing clients in state and federal court in California and overseeing counsel in litigation in non-California courts, including extensive experience in the enforcement of trade marks and copy rights

Reed’s clients have included businesses in the areas of professional practices, both wholesale and retail distributors, real estate brokerage, high tech product and services distribution, an investment firm, and a factoring company, as well as the owners and operators of those businesses.

In addition to his experience practicing law, Reed has an MBA and several years experience prior to entering law school in manufacturing operations and finance. In representing clients, Reed tries to bring this business experience and background to bear on the legal processes and decisions they face.

Patrick Totty

Totty once persuaded a liquor store in an upscale town to begin offering its customers champagne appreciation courses when he noticed that the wealthiest among them were buying by brand name and not taste. "Once people learned that it was OK to buy lesser brands, the store wound up selling much more champagne across the spectrum."

Patrick Totty, DPO Group's Marketing and Editorial Director, is a business writer and former magazine and newsletter editor. "My field is one where you learn how to find information quickly and how to synthesize it into something useful to your readers."

Those skills are at the backbone of DPO Group's ability to conduct thorough, intensive, original market research that lays the groundwork for a successful direct public stock offering.

"Every client has a right to expect solid, intelligent analysis of the marketplace and good advice on how to approach it. That means that each of our market research projects is an original piece of work, done with a specific client in mind."

Totty originated DPO Group's E Mag  concept. He is in charge of  content for CBC web development projects, and edits Provocateur  and CBC's marketing materials.

Totty also owns Larkspirit Editorial Services of Larkspur, CA, a business writing firm he founded in 1986 after a 13-year stint as a trade newspaper and magazine editor. His clients have included the University of San Francisco, University of the Pacific, Pacific Bell, Business Products Industry Association and Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of San Francisco.

Yannick Wets

Yannick is an avid hiker, now having traversed nearly every square mile of Marin and Sonoma Counties. 

Yannick Wets is an accomplished developer who holds a degree in Computer Sciences from the University of Kentucky.

He has driven key projects for companies like Legacy Marketing Group, Hamilton Software and The Fair Isaac Companies. Wets has also managed offshore developer pools.

Recently Wets has enhanced applications for Learning Tools International, gINT Software and at Enterprise Webs where with Valente they advanced that company's travel web businesses with dramatic innovations and its subsequent equity financing developments.

Some of Wets' skills include the use of JavaScript, ASP, XML, Java, Perl, .NET, Cold Fusion, SQL and other MS Suite development skills as well as network administration capabilities.