Christopher Carfi

Click here to view my Haystack profile.

I've had the opportunity to work on a bunch of cool things over the years. These have included:

• Heading up a killer team that developed information management and data visualization systems for the Indy Car circuit
• Developing advanced underwriting systems to help financial institutions better manage their financial risk
• Being one of the original members of the board of directors for RosettaNet, the premier standards body for process integration across the electronics industry

Currently, I'm a co-founder of Cerado, Inc.

We work with companies to help them to understand what their customers are thinking (by doing crazy things like going out and having conversations with those customers). We also help our clients understand what their competitors are doing, so they can thwart them at every turn. Most of our customers turn to us for services such as Win/Loss Analysis and Competitive Intelligence*.

I've spent the last six or so years working with organizations to help them better connect with their customers at a real, non-synthetic level. Hence the interests in things like blogs, wikis, and social networks.

Although I've been on the west coast since 1998 or so, I hold my Chicago roots dear. Grew up in that great city by the lake and went to school there (Evanston, actually), and took a detour to gather another degree in Pittsburgh before making my way west.

On the full-disclosure side of things, it's probably relevant to note that my partner in matters both on- and off-line is the talented and lovely Lisa Stone. I promise we'll try and keep the public displays of whuffie to a minimum.

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* - aka "competitive analysis" or "corporate intelligence"