Guys behind $30 billion giant ServiceNow launch tech startup
Courtesy San Diego Tribune –
Some of the earliest employees and original architects of the $30 billion tech giant ServiceNow have launched a stealthy tech startup in Solana Beach, and the team is onto something interesting.
The company, called Dreamtsoft, makes an online tool that allows businesses to create their own custom software without writing code. It works by essentially dragging and dropping pre-built parts, kind of like the popular website builder Weebly. But instead of constructing websites, Dreamtsoft users can build business applications for things like logging expense reports, managing human resources, and yes, managing IT services (ServiceNow’s bread and butter). The builder can also turn around business-grade software prototypes in days rather than months, customers said, and full-fledged programs in weeks.
The founders are two guys — Bow Ruggeri and Jerrod Bennett — who’ve become close friends over the past 15 years, first as roommates and later as colleagues at ServiceNow. For those who don’t know local tech history, ServiceNow was San Diego’s one that got away. Founded in Solana Beach, the company grew into a public behemoth, eventually moving its headquarters to Silicon Valley — breaking the hearts of software enthusiasts who wanted the company to call San Diego home.
Ruggeri, now 36, was employee No. 2 at ServiceNow, brought on as a youngster by the company’s founder Fred Luddy in 2005. The engineer was a bit of a wunderkind, Bennett said. Although a high school dropout, Ruggeri learned how to code by treating his local BookStar like a library, studying technical manuals in the aisles and on the floors.
“Bow was the youngest at the time, but became more and more strategically important to Fred and soon was promoted to chief architect at ServiceNow,” said Bennett, who joined the company in 2006.
Together, the duo watched as ServiceNow transformed from a couple of dudes with laptops to a 5,000-employee enterprise. As one of the earliest companies to deliver IT management as a service, ServiceNow’s ascension was quick. For Ruggeri, the growth came as a shock. “I never expected ServiceNow to rocket ship the way it did,” he said.