Torsted Advisors

Focused Management
Of Strategy Implementation

Our Services:

  • Provide strategic and financial advice for companies in “high change” situations especially in technology industries.
  • Work with Senior Management and Board of Directors to improve company performance globally.
  • Blend financial understanding of revenue models to the value propositions of products and technologies.
  • Excel at working in dynamic environments that require fast and frequent reassessments of conditions to leverage opportunities and to minimize any negative impact
  • Achieve these objectives through aggressive evaluation, strategic marketing, business development, operational excellence and technological innovation
  • Maintain a long-standing network of relationships, affiliations and business partners that enables us to solve complex problems around the world.
  • Advise on new funding alternatives

Our Clients are dealing with disruptive challenges to their business:

  • Corporate Senior management to improve performance
  • Board of Directors to consider business plan revision and review management execution of approved strategy
  • Investors from Venture Capital firms, Private Equity firms, Hedge Funds and Private Investors to assess the viability of potential new investments and review current portfolios.

Our approach balances:

  • Assessing company's initial situation
  • Recognizing gaps between a company's business plans and the market's needs
  • Maintaining Integrity in open communications with all stakeholders
  • Understanding the Company Culture
  • Aligning resources needed to achieve objectives
  • Negotiating the relationships needed to succeed.

Let your advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. - Winston Churchill

Torsted on Tech

Which Way Did They Go?

As we remember from history Lewis and Clark made the first map of the then recent Louisiana Purchase.  In all they created 140 maps.  Google’s Street View project is underway to create a pictorial map of the entire world and add data and links to it.  They have filmed 6 million miles of road and expect that it will take a trillion photos to cover the world.  That is a lot of storage even for Google.  There are some other people working on this type of project so there is competition.

The proximity and research services that could be offered based on this core data would be world changing.  The combination of the pictures and the location based data offers essential organization of the world.  The growing amount of geographically related data will create depth of what the world knows about any place where you stand or drive.  So Google will be able to drive you home in your car and the new Google Robots can chase after you.  Also the Google Robots can fight the Amazon Drones.  Would that be Skynet global domination?

Google Global Domination

More Torsted on Tech Blog Posts

Approach

Our 3 Focuses

1. Leadership and Management

 Torsted Advisors:

  • Work with clients, to provide strategic leadership—locally and globally
  • Identifies the right questions to solve the right problems
  • Prepare the organization for high growth
  • Develop and implement restructuring/re-engineering strategies
  • Utilize different approaches across a broad range of company sizes, styles and business models.
  • Professionalize management structures of private companies for growth or sale
  • Board participation and leadership

Our Competencies

  • Interim Operating Management
  • Industry Competitive Assessment
  • Business Risk Assessment
  • Assessing/Changing Business and Revenue Models
  • Organization Analysis to achieve goals
  • Review of Operating Process
  • Client Profitability Assessment
  • Implement Marketing Plans
  • Negotiation Representation
  • New Fund Raising Alternatives for Equity and Debt
  • Restructure of Liabilities and Assets
  • U.S. Representation for Foreign Firms
  • Assess new investments for private investors for suitability and probable success

2. Technological

Technology Changes The Speed of Business

New technologies improve older business platforms to create innovation and corporate growth. These disruptive changes cause us to constantly re-assess what we think we know.

Our steps include:

  • Evaluating and exploiting technological innovation
  • Leveraging an extensive network of subject matter expertise, affiliations and business partnerships from around the world
  • Anticipating technology change and how it affects the market and competitors.

Areas of Past Focus

  • Digital Media and its delivery through the Internet, broadcasting, mobile, satellite and podcasting
  • Entertainment IP technology, content distribution, interactive broadband entertainment, IPTV, media-on-demand, advanced advertising and digital media development worldwide
  • Video conferencing cost-effective alternatives to travel-- The transition from hardware-based products to cloud-based products on BYOD devices.
  • Biotechnology Startups

 

 

 

 

You can’t look at the competition and say you’re going to do it better.  You have to look at the competition and say you’re going to do it differently. – Steve Jobs

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.  - Albert Einstein

3. Global Financial Perspective

Torsted has a high-level international business experience including Europe and Asia.

  • See the global picture and understand the local ones.
  • Appreciate how technologies change the world differently in parts of the world.
  • Evaluate international fund raising and currency risks that come with the global arena.
  • Understand that business decisions and financial reporting from the company’s beginning are key to Venture Capital Fund Raising.
  • Assess new investments for private investors for suitability and risk.

Talk does not cook rice.– Chinese proverb

Global Exposure

Amsterdam, Holland
Beijing, China
Berlin, Germany
Brussels, Belgium
Calgary, Canada
Copenhagen, Denmark
Cologne, Germany
Lisbon, Portugal
London, United Kingdom
Madrid, Spain
Melbourne, Australia
Milan, Italy
Munich, Germany
Stockholm, Sweden
Sydney, Australia
Tokyo, Japan
Taipei, Taiwan
Vienna, Austria
Warsaw, Poland
Zurich, Switzerland

 

 

Services and Clients

Actionable problem solving for Current Torsted Advisors clients

 Current roles are:

  • President (Co-Founder)/Board of Director of a pet technology company
  • Board of Directors for a video conferencing company
  • Advisory Board Member of a software service company
  • Advisor to a Cyber-security company for a quantum computer world

 Current activities include:

  • Overseeing a crowd funding campaign to raising additional funds and demonstrate market acceptance of a new product
  • Helping an ICO utility token funding to support future technology development, Negotiating an Angel funding round
  • Evaluating client acquisitions
  • Analyzing product and market planning

Examples of actionable problem solving from previous clients

Chief Executive Officer of an Interactive Television company

Managed five corporate reorganizations over six years with transitions from internet-based products to software products to mobile-based products.



President of the U.S. subsidiary of a Swedish Video Streaming company

Established offices, recruited staff, negotiated content rights and hardware partnerships as well as public representation of the company at industry conferences and presentations.



Advisor to a private New York software company

Led the company through a transition from a shrink-wrapped software sales model to a service as a service(SaaS) model with higher cash flow, customer satisfaction and faster feature additions.



Interim President of a Start-up Internet Appliance company

Stabilized Pennsylvanian company after it lost 40% of the staff (Including the President, CTO and half of the software development team), settled legal issue/lawsuits and revised Asian manufacturer relationship and oversaw development of a new product line.



Group Head of an Investment Bank

Improved performance by eliminating unprofitable clients (44 out of 180), reducing the use of capital (from $400MM to $250MM) with increased fee income (from $20MM to $58MM) and overall revenues increased (38% to $86MM)



Advisor to the Polish Privatization Minister

Managed the sale process and financing for the two largest glass companies in Poland dealing with our partners (for contributed assets valuations and a synthetic equity private market sale mechanism ), negotiation with the unions for labor reductions/transitions and funding negotiations with the World Bank/EBRD/private domestic Polish Banks.



Chief Operating Officer of a Start-up Biotechnology Firm

Organized approximately 30 scientists, medical specialists, and production engineers involved in the development of gene-based therapeutics. Led the strategic development of business plans that were compatible with business partners, medical advisory broad and market requirements to become a dominant gene-therapy company.



Advisor to International Biopharmaceutical Firm

Established and implemented business objectives and strategies for the consumer, nutritional and pharmaceutical businesses in the Asian(Hong Kong) and Australian / New Zealand markets.



Advisor to International Pharmaceutical and Consumer Product Firm

Developed positioning and message strategies, and organized the product launch plans for the bio-engineered product portfolio and directed the commercialization efforts for the first bio-engineered product – Interferon. Successfully implemented a business development/acquisition plans to acquire several new technologies in the biotech arena.



Interim President of a software-based Video Conferencing Company

Pushed development of Web RTC based products, acted as an evangelist to map out the strategic market development for the new direction of the company based on its disruptive technology for video conferencing.

Management

Management

Well done is better than well said.  - Benjamin Franklin

Jim Cantalini, Founder and CEO, is a senior executive with broad experience in technology and investment banking, providing strategic and financial leadership for companies in both industries.  Jim has been advising clients in the technology sphere since 1999.  Most prominently, he served for six years as CEO of Gist Communications where he led a cross-functional team of designers and software engineers to spearhead the conceptualization and development of advanced interactive television products.

Jim’s global financial perspective has been shaped by more than two decades as an investment banker, working in partnership with colleagues in Europe and Asia to develop new business opportunities. At Lehman Brothers, he worked on a broad range of corporate finance transactions with a focus on highly structured debt transactions.  Later at First Boston (Credit Suisse), he founded a new business for International Mortgage Finance with customers across the world and in all types of capital markets. He served as Head of Industrial Investment Banking at UBS, where he introduced new products and reshaped the client business to increase integration of product delivery and assessment of profitability.

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Management

A prudent question is one half of wisdom.  - Sir Francis Bacon

Dean Rock, Senior Partner, is an experienced C-level Executive with broad-based expertise in Operations, General and P&L Management, Manufacturing Process Improvement, Product Development, Strategy Development, and Implementation. Over 40 years of experience creating, managing, transforming, and restructuring business strategies and operational processes in the Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, Medical Device, Biotech and R&D areas. Recognized as a skillful leader in product development, optimizing operational performance, identifying core business strengthens and implementing effective plans to achieve objectives. A keen analytical mindset and strong business focus combine to deliver strong operational performance in highly competitive markets.

As an independent advisor for healthcare/technology-based companies, Dean contributed to the board discussions’ involving developing strategic responds to evolving technology, financial and political/regulatory environments. He also assisted in the evaluations of M&A opportunities, including the sources of capital. Open to Board opportunities on a national basis. With his achievements and background, Dean can identify critical business/development issues, business drivers, and requirements to recommend a practical implementation plan.

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Torsted on Tech Blog

 

Which Way Did They Go?

As we remember from history Lewis and Clark made the first map of the then recent Louisiana Purchase.  In all they created 140 maps.  Google’s Street View project is underway to create a pictorial map of the entire world and add data and links to it.  They have filmed 6 million miles of road and expect that it will take a trillion photos to cover the world.  That is a lot of storage even for Google.  There are some other people working on this type of project so there is competition.

The proximity and research services that could be offered based on this core data would be world changing.  The combination of the pictures and the location based data offers essential organization of the world.  The growing amount of geographically related data will create depth of what the world knows about any place where you stand or drive.  So Google will be able to drive you home in your car and the new Google Robots can chase after you.  Also the Google Robots can fight the Amazon Drones.  Would that be Skynet global domination?

Google Global Domination

Hey Kids, what time is it?

It is not Howdy Doody time.  I still wear a watch out of habit but my kids almost never wear one.  The difference between the time that I take to turn my wrist versus taking out my phone to check time, email, texts or calls is what? – a couple seconds.  There are over a dozen players in the market or planning to be.  Samsung seemed determined to have product in the market ahead of Apple on anything to show how “cool” it is.  The device only works with a few new Samsung products and nothing else.  Oh, and it is big, bulky and does not do much.  It appears that anyone can fill the product category but is it a better user experience?  Apple would call that a Beta product.

Making a watch because you have the technology only makes sense if there is a market demand.  So far there are smart watches, health monitors and sleep measurement devices (like Lark).  I doubt that I will ever buy another watch so what will motivate me to cover my wrist with something else?  I have not seen it yet.

The War for Your Wrist!

 

 

Pay Attention, Every Day!

“Plan your work, work your plan.” is a problem when management does not track performance against plan.  The bigger the gap between performance/plan creates a greater need for change.  So the longer there is denial or inattention to that gap, the bigger the crisis will be.  Strategy needs to be created with broad input from and broad communication to all stakeholders. Consistent strategy requires constant performance assessment that everyone can see.  Management is supposed to drive that information flow that encourages constant adaptation to market reality.  If the board does not demand that information or causes management to fear delivering it, the gap between the board and management will grow.  This applies to this story’s three companies’ succession approaches.  The faster rate of change in an industry requires faster company responses to it.

CEO Secession Comparison Story

How many riders have survived the Citibike program beside me?

…Apparently, all of us, so far!

I think that the reason for so much surprise is the struggle in the street among the drivers, the cyclists and the pedestrians.  As I am all three, I see the difference in the perspectives.  When I am walking, I fear getting taken out by a cab or bus.  Vehicles have always dominated the streets, and sometimes the sidewalks.  Buses go over curbs when going around the corners.  Cabs can be anywhere.  When driving in the city I am constantly aware of bikes around me.  I need to check for them before I turn at a corner or drive in either the right or left lanes.

Vehicle domination is being threatened by the increase in bike riders, both Citibikes and private bikes.  They are being given or are taking lanes on the roads but not consistently.  Construction and double-parked cars prevent smooth travel down the street.  This forces bikers into lanes further to the middle of the street.  The role of bikes has greatly increased in the city transportation with the Citibike rollout. This change may be permanent for a full role for bikes on city roads.

But the bikers will need to become responsible and follow the laws of the road.  One near death experience for me was in Amsterdam when I was walking across a bike path.  I was nearly run down.  How many pedestrians will survive the Citibike program?

Citibike Related Story

Dr. Google, I presume?

Is the medical industry about to learn what Microsoft is learning about competing with Google?  Selling a service regulated by state governments limits new competitors and ways of doing things.  However, what can you do when you have a competitor who can and will provide the service much cheaper or free across state lines?  Especially when it can still make a great deal of money with advertising surrounding it.  Letting the market bid down the service to low prices is the Affordable Healthcare Act dream and probably everyone else’s.  Google only impacts Telemedicine now, but where does it end?

Google Healthcare Related Story

Bones, Where did you put the tongue depressers?

Can anyone be a great technologist if they did not watch Star Trek? When you listen to everyone’s vision for the future, it always goes back to Gene Roddenberry. We already have the tablets replacing books. I read about the development of Bone’s Tricorder in the near future. Getting warp drives will take a while but what are we going to do when we run out of Gene’s vision field?

Tricorder Related Story

Tricorder Related Story

Well, I guess we will not be fighting over the remote control anymore

If TV sales are dropping globally, what are people doing with their time?  Use of video is not dropping.  My kids have not been allowed to have televisions in their rooms but this has not stunted their video fascination.  My first clue came from seeing my son with the first iPad curled up on the floor watching Netflix while in front of a 50” television.  Now my kids have their own computers so they stream whatever they want to watch and it is not often on a television.  The alternative screens are now from 30 inches down to 3.  This is a problem for more people than TV makers including…?

TV Sales Decline Related Story

 

Hello, 2010 Calling

Three and a half years, 900,000 apps and 300+ million tablets sold later, it has occurred to Microsoft that their business model of a PC centric world may not be appropriate.  So whatever part of the PC market tablets do not cannibalize, the Chromebooks will go after.  Today HP brought out the HP Chromebook 11 for $279.  So if there is little money in tablet operating systems and no money in Chromebook operating system competition, where does Microsoft go from here?

Microsoft Related Story

Blog Archive

Contact

Direct all inquiries to:

Jim Cantalini
Phone: 1.917.400.5623

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