Hello There.

I’m Mike Seidle. I like to build software, and build companies on that software. I’ve done it six times, and love every minute of it.

I’ve been coding since age 12. I learned on a TRS-80 Models III, TI-99/4a, and Apple IIe.  One day my dad brought home a PC clone, and that was it. I finally had a machine that could run languages like C, Pascal, and Prolog. Ever since, I’ve been building software and occasionally trying to make companies around that software. I’ve also spent about ten years as an enterprise sales representative and sales manager at Vanstar, Inacom, and Expanse. I’m currently working on PivotCX – a startup helping companies transform hiring to compete in 2024’s crazy talent market.

Best: Mastodon

So… why no Facebook? Even though I build apps with Meta’s APIs, I just don’t have time to keep up with it.

PivotCX

My current company. Our software is making life better for recruiters and the experience of being an applicant positive for candidates.

Learn More:  https://pivotcx.io

Virtual Payment Systems

A niche credit card and its payment processor specializing in card payments for law firms and extensive ticket services. VPS lets you shift fees to the payer, is a trust account secure, and ensures you are paid 100% of the amount due (which is required for payments to a law firm’s trust account).

ProBlog Service

Started in 2006, ProBlog was a social media agency that helped companies tackle executive blogging and establish a presence on new at the time social networks like “the Facebook”, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, and then market leader Friendster. I ProBlog to the employees in 2009.

IndyAssociaties

In 2002, I started a digital marketing company. We started with SEO and SEM, then started building e-commerce and marketing websites. We were unabashedly proud of using open-source software – WordPress, Joomla (when we started, it was called Mambo), Django, and even a few Zope/Plone projects.

FocalPoint Consulting

In 2001, After three years in the CRM business selling GoldMine and HEAT software, I started my own CRM consulting company with several people who left the CRM ISV with me. It was short-lived and a great lesson about choosing your co-founders wisely.

WRT Technologies

My first company was a small networking integrator in Muncie, Indiana, that I started with a couple of friends in 1990 as a student at Ball State. We wired offices with ethernet and installed their first-ever network servers using Novell Netware.

I also developed some software – one of my favorites was a system that let medical transcriptionists upload their work using WordPerfect Macros to a server with multiple modems running a custom REXX-based server.

In Between Startups

Between startups, I’ve worked in sales, marketing, and software engineering roles at companies like Vanstar, Inacom, Expanse, AutoNation, and DirectEmployers Association. When I started, I just wanted to be a programmer. I never thought I would be in sales or marketing, but in the 90s and 00’s, the money was better in sales, and frankly, learning to sell has been priceless.

Software Development

My favorite languages are Python, Go, and C.

I love Python’s expressiveness and readability. I’ve been building with Go for a couple of years, and it fills a niche for a safe language that goes fast, like C.  I learned how to “program for real” in C, and it’s been my go-to for close-to-the hardware, high-performance code. I’m hoping that Rust, Zig, or Nim can eventually unseat C as my preferred systems programming language… it’s just too easy to make big security mistakes in C.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to get to work with a lot of different platforms (Vax, PC, AWS, Google Cloud, Windows, Mac, Unix, and Linux) and languages, including Java, Kotlin, C++, C#, Objective-C, REXX, Prolog, Lisp, and Javascript. I’ve had a chance to do embedded systems, GUI programs, mobile apps, and tons and tons of web software. It’s all fun.