Our Story
Founded in 2010, Seabourne was the first to make a U.S. Federal Agency's content available to consumers and practitioners via an API platform (the FCC). What began as a simple project revealed a large need for tools that make information better, more available, and more useful. Today, Seabourne is one of the fastest growing providers of information management tools and expertise.
Seabourne helps companies get new value from old data and innovate with new information, with clients including the FCC, US Department of Commerce, the World Resources Institute, NBC Sports, United Nations/ReliefWeb, CogState, and RFK Legacy in Action. Seabourne uses APIs and a unique set of information processing tools to attract new users and customers, speed time-to-market, and spur innovation. A core aspect of Seabourne's unique, architectural approach to API management is the focus on working with clients to craft profitable platform strategies, ensuring fast, reliable information access, and anticipate long-term requirements.
Managament Team
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Mike Reich is the founder and CEO of Seabourne, with more than 10 years of experience designing, building and growing enterprise information management solutions. At Seabourne, Mike leads technical strategy and architecture planning for customers. A skilled technical architect and facilitator, he has developed innovative information solutions and strategies for US Federal Communications Commission, US General Services Administration, US Department of Commerce, United Nations ReliefWeb, NBC Sports, World Resources Institute and others. Before starting Seabourne, Mike was an Associate with Ross & Associates Environmental Consulting where he developed innovative strategies for information publishing for the US Environmental Protection Agency, US Centers for Disease Control, and the Cascade Land Conservancy. Mike lives in Washington, DC with his wife, dog and cat.
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Jay Contonio brings over 11 years of interaction design and front-end development experience. Prior to Seabourne, Jay worked on the design teams for Home Front Communications, Cisco Systems, Intel, U-Haul Inc, and created the interactive department at Berlin Cameron United in New York City. At Berlin Cameron, Jay worked on interactive campaigns for clients such as Hennessy, Boost Mobile, Heineken Premium Light, Vitamin Water, and the Wall Street Journal. While attending UMass Lowell in the late 90's, Jay became interested in web design, often creating sites for bands in the punk rock and hardcore scene. Jay spends his time rock climbing, riding motorcycles, playing the drums, and neglecting his saxophone.
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Luke Opperman _Development
Luke Opperman leads Seabourne's development teams, ensuring our projects have great technical underpinnings. While at Leapfrog Online he lead development teams working with Comcast, Charter, and AutoNation to build flexible data management services for automating lead acquisition and marketing integrations. At Textura he built innovative web application platforms connecting business partners across the construction industry, and for Threadless he rebuilt their core crowd-sourcing platform for reuse by media partners such as Disney and non-profits including the American Red Cross. Luke's passion is to distill complex technical problems into comprehensible, measurable results for clients, and to foster great development team practices for delivering quality web software.
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Ron has extensive experience in developing technology and business solutions for government, non-profit, and private sector organizations. Most recently, he has advised organizations on open source software adoption, website and web application development, data migration strategy, and technology modernization plans. Other experience includes work with U.S. government agencies where he provided support for the federal performance accountability requirements, including: Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), Services Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) program, and Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA). Ron has the leadership experience to understand “what” needs to happen – and the practical hands-on skills to know “how” to get it done. It’s generally his role to help define the optimal strategy, develop the key resources, and take the necessary actions to deliver desired results. Ron’s overall philosophy is rooted in the belief that the best solutions are those that successfully align people, leverage technology, prioritize investment, and optimize strategy.
Advisors
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David Billstrom
_AdvisorDavid runs Flashing Red Light, an executive coaching practice focused on helping entrepreneurs launch, grow, transition, and sell their businesses. His clients span a variety of industries across the U.S. David takes an unconventional approach: combining mindfulness and the principles of conscious living… with pragmatic tricks-of-the-trade and proven tactics for “lean startups”. His style is candid and direct. He is less the cheerleader, and more about challenging the athlete; a savvy co-founder who has done it before. He draws on his own experience as an entrepreneur and founder, as well as his work as a venture capitalist and Fortune 100 corporate executive (Intel, Disney). He has invested in, advised, founded, and/or served on the board of directors for more than 27 companies in his 30 year career, including Brightworks Northwest, Coffee Equipment Company (now Starbucks), MeasureCast (now Nielsen NetRatings), National Interop, Ofoto (now Kodak), WetPaint, and Wolfram Alpha. He began his career in software products and supercomputer hardware, transitioned into CD-ROM publishing and search engines, and has acquired both success and bruises from early market introductions of innovative products in a host of industries including retail, manufacturing, and e-commerce. David and his wife spend much of their time in the outdoors, and he also works as a Firefighter/EMT, where he acquires context for the “emergencies” that entrepreneurs face. He is an instructor and public speaker, and supports several non-profit causes.
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David Chamberlain
_AdvisorDavid was most recently CIO of Cardiac Science, a non-invasive cardiovascular medical device manufacturer. He has experience across a diverse set of public, private, and non-profit company leadership, including medical devices, public safety (National Interop), global health (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), sports & entertainment (ESPN.com, Disney) and government (State of Florida). He has over 30 years of industry experience, enjoying success and occasional scrapes while managing technology across a variety of industries and disciplines, including information technology, data center infrastructure & operations, enterprise architecture, and software development. He excels at working with leadership teams in driving operational excellence, providing expertise and pragmatic guidance in information and communication technologies while fostering collaboration across organizations to integrate technology investments that maximize short and long term value. David lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and two children, where he can be found enjoying the natural splendor on some form of two-wheeled transportation (bicycle or Vespa).
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Merrill Brown
_AdvisorMerrill Brown, the newly appointed Director of the School of Communication at Montclair State, has joined the board of directors at Seabourne. Merrill brings extensive experience in traditional and digital media to his role as advisor and board member. A former business reporter for The Washington Post, he was the founding editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com. Merrill was also instrumental in the launch of Court TV, for which he managed programming, marketing and business development. As first national editorial director of news for the 21st Century, a Carnegie Corp-Knight Foundation initiative on the future of journalism, he helped expand a five-school pilot program into a twelve-school program based at Arizona State University.