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Home My WebLink AboutDS.2-THE BLUE DOTS LABSExpression of Interest and Statement of Qualifications County of Hawai'i Notice to Providers of Professional Services (HRS 103D-304) Fiscal Year 2024-2025 June 25, 2024 Submitted by: The Blue Dot Labs LLC 2. Statement of Qualifications The Blue Dot Labs LLC (Blue Dot) is pleased to submit this Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) in response to the County of Hawai'i's Notice to Providers of Professional Services for the fiscal year 2024-2025. We are specifically interested in providing services in the following categories: Category Number and Title: ●Department of Information Technology (DS): ○DS.1) Computer Engineering (Computer Sciences - Custom Software Development) ○DS.2) Computer Engineering (Computer Sciences - Web Development and Administration) ○DS.4) Computer Engineering (GIS Mapping/Programming Services) 2.1 Firm Information ●Firm Name: The Blue Dot Labs LLC ●Contact Information: Alireza Ali, Co-Founder & Managing Partner (Hawaii resident) ali@theblue.earth ●Principal Place of Business: Maui, Hawaii ●Office Locations: Maui, Hawaii; New York, NY; Sunnyvale, CA ●Average Number of Employees (Past 5 Years): 4 (Established in August 2023) 1 of 4 2.2 Firm Overview The Blue Dot Labs is a technology and management consulting firm dedicated to empowering organizations in Hawaii and beyond to thrive in the digital age. Our team brings over 30 years of combined experience in technology leadership, software development, and management consulting from industry leaders like Google and Deloitte. We are passionate about leveraging this expertise to deliver impactful solutions that drive efficiency, innovation, and positive change. 2.3 Areas of Expertise Blue Dot's expertise aligns with the County of Hawai'i's needs in the following areas: 2.3.1 Technology & Management Consulting ●Strategic Planning and Business Transformation: We guide organizations in defining clear visions, setting realistic goals, and implementing impactful changes to achieve them. Our expertise includes strategic planning, process improvement, organizational design, change management, and budget optimization. ●Product Strategy & Development: We help clients bring innovative technology products to market, from concept to launch. Our services include ideation, market research, product roadmapping, user experience (UX) design, software development, and go-to-market strategy. ●AI Strategy & Implementation: We assist organizations in developing and implementing AI strategies, identifying high-impact use cases, building custom AI solutions, and integrating AI seamlessly into existing workflows. ●Grant Writing: We have a proven track record of securing grant funding for our clients. Our team can assist with all phases of the grant process, from identifying opportunities to writing compelling proposals, managing awards, and ensuring compliance. 2.4 Key Personnel Qualifications Our team comprises experienced technology leaders and consultants with proven track records of success: ●Extensive experience in software engineering, product management, technical leadership, and consulting at Google and Deloitte. ●Deep expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data analytics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, software development methodologies, strategic planning, and business transformation. ●Proven ability to develop and execute successful technology strategies, manage complex projects, and drive digital transformation across various industries. ●Strong understanding of the Hawaiian business landscape and a commitment to serving the local community. 2 of 4 Brief summary of our managing partners: Alireza Ali Ali is a seasoned technology leader with over 12 years of experience in software engineering, product development, and technical management at Google, where he led initiatives for Google Maps and Search. He has co-founded two successful technology startups, demonstrating his expertise in building high-performing teams and delivering innovative solutions. Alireza's deep knowledge of AI, machine learning, and data analytics allows him to develop cutting-edge solutions for clients. His passion for using technology to benefit the Hawaiian community is exemplified by his leadership in providing internet connectivity to West Maui residents following the 2023 wildfires. Alireza is dedicated to leveraging his skills to solve complex technical challenges and drive positive change. Sanjeet Arora Sanjeet is a technology executive with over 18 years of experience in product development, strategic partnerships, and business growth. He led key initiatives at Google, including Google Fiber, Apps, Earth, and Enterprise Maps, showcasing his expertise in scaling products and expanding into new markets. Sanjeet has co-founded three successful startups, demonstrating his ability to transform visionary ideas into thriving businesses. He possesses a strong understanding of the technology landscape, particularly in B2B markets, and a proven track record of building strategic partnerships to drive growth. Sanjeet's leadership and expertise are essential to guiding The Blue Dot Labs' mission of empowering organizations through technology. Amit Kela Amit is a seasoned management consultant with over 15 years of experience in strategy consulting, business transformation, and operational efficiency. He led complex global programs for Fortune 500 companies at Deloitte Consulting, delivering multi-million dollar cost savings and optimizing performance. Amit holds an MBA from The Wharton School of Business, specializing in finance and management, providing him with a deep understanding of financial modeling, strategic planning, and organizational change. He is an expert in managing large-scale technology implementations, process re-engineering, and post-merger integrations. Amit's analytical approach and strategic thinking help organizations align their technology investments with their broader business goals. Chris Tar Chris is a leading AI researcher with extensive experience managing research teams at Google Research. His focus on applied and fundamental language understanding has led to significant contributions to the advancement of AI technologies, including work on Gmail Smart Reply, PaLM, and Gemini text embeddings APIs. Chris played a key role in the transition to Deep Learning for language and image understanding at Google, 3 of 4 demonstrating his ability to drive innovation in cutting-edge fields. His expertise in managing technical teams, fostering innovation, and bridging the gap between research and practical applications is invaluable to The Blue Dot Labs. Chris holds an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas, combining his technical expertise with a strong understanding of business strategy and product development. 2.5 Recent Projects and Client References 1.Kristie Wrigglesworth , Executive Director, Pacific Whale Foundation, Maui, Hawaii (808) 208-3211 kristie@pacificwhale.org 2.Parth Patil , CTO , Credibl ESG, +91 8412884422 , parth@crediblesg.com 3.Yogi Barman, Managing Partner, CelerityHat, (510) 673-1502, yogi@celerityhat.com 2.6 Promotional/Descriptive Literature Please visit our website at theblue.earth to learn more about our services and team. 2.7 Attachments Please find our managing partners’ resumes attached below. 3. Conclusion The Blue Dot Labs LLC is confident that our unique blend of technology and management expertise, combined with our deep commitment to serving the Hawaiian community, makes us a valuable partner for the County of Hawai’i. We are eager to contribute our skills to support your initiatives and help you achieve your strategic goals. 4 of 4 Built a platform for connecting content creators and their fans over messaging. Provided product vision, strategy and the execution plan for a team of 10. Built a culture on data driven experimentation inspired by lean startup practices. Launched and experimented with 3 apps (iOS, Android and Web). Built partnerships with 25+ online content creators / bloggers. Grew the product to three thousands MAs. alireza.ali@gmail.com Founded an effort with the vision of unifying access to personal data across Google. Deﬁned a number of cross team projects and staffed up the missing pieces with new teams. Acted as the TL and provided technical guidance across various projects. Managed 2 of teams of 4 in Mountain View and Chicago Google - Personal Search Infra. - Technical Lead & Manager Google - AR Location Services - Technical Lead & Manager Pallet, Google Area 120 - CEO Led cloud-based visual spatial location services using smart phones based on Tango technology. Developed the initial milestone and productionization plans. Identiﬁed and provided solutions to cross team management challenges affecting engineering the execution velocity across a 20+ member team r5 ALIREZA ALI The Blue Dot Labs Co-Founder, Managing Partner Cofounded a technology consulting ﬁrm specializing in providing strategic insights, technology advice, and AI-driven transformations to organizations in Hawaii. Assist nonproﬁt organizations optimizing their business processes, organizational structure to achieve their goals and maximize their impact. Aug. 2023 - Present Sep. 2016 - Dec. 2017 Jun. 2016 - Aug. 2016 Feb. 2015 - Jun. 2016 Google - Societal Context - Co-Founder Co-Founded a project for systematically modeling and understanding of societal issues such as poverty, child abuse. Acquired funding from leadership to expand the project and made it one of the organization goals. Established the engineering team, hired 3 engineers and set up engineering best practices for the project. Designed and implemented initial version of the technical infrastructure. Jun. 2018 - Sep. 2019 Co-Founder & Managing Partner, üNiFund Capital Co-founded and led a quantitative investment ﬁrm specializing in automated cryptocurrency trading. Architected and deployed a proprietary high-frequency trading system, processing over $100 million in transaction volume. Developed sophisticated algorithms and predictive models to identify and capitalize on market opportunities. Managed all aspects of technology infrastructure, including server deployments, security protocols, and data pipelines. Apr. 2020 - Jun. 2022 Seasoned leader and entrepreneur with over 15 years of leadership experience at Google and multiple startups. Specializing in complex project execution, passionate about leveraging technology to drive positive change, particularly within the Hawaiian community. linkedin.com/in/alirezaali Technical: C++, Java, Javascript Pubsub, MapReduce, Stubby, ProtoBuffs GCloud, Git, Node Product Engineering Execution: Productionization of large scale web services Hiring and staffing new teams Managing execution and priorities across multiple teams Product vision and roadmap planning Customer discovery and validation Leadership: Building teams with strong sense of ownership Developing new leaders Coaching and growing strong individual contributors Skills and CompetencesEducation Sep. 2004 - May. 2008 Bachelor of Software Engineering University of British Columbia Oversaw the Google Maps Frontend [Web + Server] Infrastructure. Managed 25+ engineers across 5+ teams (server, web, Android). Responsible for APIs and server stack powering desktop and mobile Google Maps with >550 million MAs. Led the performance effort focusing on reducing key perf. metrics across mobile and desktop maps. Founding member of Google Maps re-write effort responsible for architecting and implementing the serving stack. Founding member and lead for Google Maps for mobile web which ultimately grew to 100M+ MAs Google Maps - Technical Lead & Manager (FE Infra.)Jul. 2008 - Feb. 2015 Location Based Notiﬁcations: US20150038170A1 Predictive Generation of Search Suggestions: US11301501B2 Patents Dean's List, University of British Columbia Google Founders’ Award for outstanding technical innovation Awards & Recognition Page 1 of 2 Sanjeet Arora Entrepreneurial leader with 20+ years of experience in strategic execution, product and program management. Excel in high-paced, growth-oriented environments and possesses a strong ability to collaborate with stakeholders across various business units. Strong passion for growing talent, developing leaders and building cohesive & high performing teams. sanjeet@gmail.com +1 323-620-2982 Sunnyvale, United States linkedin.com/in/sanjeetarora SKILLS Strategic Vision & Execution Product & Program Management Cross-functional Collaboration Negotiations Product Strategy & Roadmapping Partnership Development Leadership & Mentoring WORK EXPERIENCE Co-founder/ Product Lead Blue Dot Labs 06/2023 - Present, Sunnyvale, CA The Blue Dot Labs provides comprehensive consulting services spanning AI strategy, product development and business transformation Set vision and strategy for an AI consulting business to scale Defined and designed prototype for an AI based grant lifecycle management platform - GrantCentral.AI Founder led sales and business developement efforts Head of Program Management: Cross Product Safety YouTube 10/2022 - 09/2023, San Bruno, CA Resolved complex operational and product challenges, driving solutions across YouTube Trust & Safety Product/Engineering teams. Enabling YouTube’s innovation with safe launches of 200+ new features, running a xfn team operating in a 1500 people organization. Led new solutions across YT Trust & Safety teams, engaging with diverse cross-functional product teams and scaling product safety initiatives by 10x. Built new scaleable product solutions to enable innovation around LLM and Gen AI content. Co-founder and COO üNiFund Capital 04/2021 - 12/2022, Sunnyvale, CA üNiFund is a quantitative based investment manager which specializes in blockchain investments Launched a quantitative trading platform for high frequency trading on digital markets. Successfully launched two funds with $8M investments, reflecting strategic partnership skills. Led business development efforts, demonstrating exceptional stakeholder communication, negotiation and strategic collaboration. Global Head of Product and Technical Program Management - Trust & Safety Google Inc 01/2018 - 02/2022, Sunnyvale CA Built a global team composed of 3 pillars: Product, Technical Programs and Strategy & Operations. Defined product strategy for a team of 80+ engineers, UX researchers, designers to improve efficiency, quality and operating rigor of our content reviewer workforce. Led a global team of TPMs managing a diverse portfolio of products ensuring policy enforcement across Google products.(10,000+ reviewers, 160+ workflows). Established and owned strong X-org relationships with senior executives. Page 2 of 2 WORK EXPERIENCE Co-Founder and GM: Yondo (Area 120) Google Inc 02/2017 - 02/2018, Palo Alto, CA Area 120 is Google’s Incubator, where my team built a corporate travel product: Yondo. Yondo helps companies reduce their travel spend by upto 30% Led a startup team in Google's Incubator, delivering a corporate travel product: Yondo. (3 SWE, 2UX, 1 Ops) . Owned the strategy, product vision and business development functions. Successfully transformed Yondo's customer base, growing from MVP to 52 customers within a year. Showcased adeptness in strategic collaboration by negotiating partnerships with key stakeholders like Marriott and Hotel Engine and reduced CAC by 80%. Head of Technical Program Management: Google Fiber Google Inc 06/2012 - 02/2017, Mountain View, CA Built the technical program management team for Google Fiber. Managed the TPM portfolio across both Software and Hardware verticals . (Products include: OSS/BSS, Billing, in-home consumer experiences covering set top devices, WiFi, TV apps, IoT). Driving product & operational excellence through large scale program - to enable scaling Google Fiber from its first market (Kansas city) and grow the business into multiple markets. Owned the launch of an industry first: new version of the Cloud based Fiber TV UI resulting in a direct $15 saving per household. Technical Partnerships Lead - Google Apps Google inc 06/2007 - 06/2012, Mountain View, CA Instrumented and launched Google Apps Reseller product at the first Telco partnership (Singtel) Played a crucial role in market opportunity identification, leading to the launch of Google Apps Reseller Business across APAC. Grew Telco Reseller business 400% in two years, demonstrating expertise in enterprise strategy and stakeholder management. Sales Engineer, Geospatial - Google Enterprise Google Inc 06/2005 - 06/2007, Mountain View CA Led Sales Engineering for Google’s Geo Products :Earth Enterprise and Maps Enterprise. Launch team member for Google Earth and Maps for Enterprise . Onboarded early reference customers, demonstrating skills in strategic content creation and stakeholder management. EDUCATION Masters in Electrical Engineering University of Southern California 2005, Bachelors in Electrical Engineering Mumbai University 2001, INTERESTS Mountain Biking Road biking CONTACT 347.237.6621 amit.kela@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/amitkela SKILLS Full-Cycle Program Management Digital Strategy & Transformation Executive Relationships Governance & Planning Operations Optimization Lean Six Sigma Process & Operating Models Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Program Plans & Roadmap Stakeholder Management Budgeting & Financial Planning Customer Experience Executive Reporting / Presenting Cross-Functional Collaboration Continuous Improvement EDUCATION Master of Business Administration Finance and Management Wharton School University of Pennsylvania Master of Science Interdisciplinary Telecommunications University of Colorado Bachelor of Engineering Electronics Engineering University of Mumbai CERTIFICATIONS Project Management Professional Scrum Master Lean Six Sigma LANGUAGES Native: English; Hindi Beginner: French AMIT KELA Global Program Management ▪ Transformation ▪ Cross-Functional Team Leadership Full-cycle analytics-driven program manager and certified PMP with over 18-year career optimizing operations and tech transformation for Fortune 50 Financial Services companies by leading complex, large-scale cross-functional initiatives and global teams, from program vision and roadmap to delivery ® Experience heading global strategy, transformation, and operations programs from end to end. Built and led large global teams from the ground up (hiring, performance management, and mentoring) ® Agile and adaptive navigating ambiguous settings. Leverage deeply analytical mindset with ability to synthesize multi-source data and translate into executive-ready insights and actionable solutions EXPERIENCE THE BLUE DOT LABS | Partner/Principal, Operations and Transformation | 2024 § Led the review and update of operations and strategy for a Maui-based non-profit and tour operator including review of budget, tour operations, marketing, and overall organizational structure UBER | Senior Program Manager, Channels & Automation, Community Operations | 2022–2023 § Built out digital service capabilities across all 5 customer-facing channels and improved customer experience consistency by leading global digital transformation program and service channel strategy ― Orchestrated product rollout program across Uber’s 4 mega-regions: built multidisciplinary tech/ business team collaboration, defined product roadmap, and facilitated multi-region product launch § Accelerated time-to-resolution rates, reduced costs, and enabled scalability by resolving need for Uber drivers to physically visit brick-and-mortar appointment centers to resolve driving-related issues ― Enabled virtual driver appointments by developing video and screen share products in partnership with engineering teams and regional operations teams reducing in-person appointments by 25% METLIFE | AVP, Transformation Programs, Global Customer Solutions | 2018–2022 § Captured 10M+/yr in savings and exceeded target 100% by heading 3 global transformation programs to define operating model, launch digital capabilities, and optimize contact center organization § Led Site & Sourcing program for Metlife US contact centers comprising of new captive site selection/buildout, captive site closure, vendor site consolidation, and overall strategy development, ― Streamlined customer contact center footprint 29% for captive sites and 33% for vendor sites ― Decreased phone call volume 15% by migrating volumes to chat and self-service channels § Oversaw governance, sourcing, process improvement, employee engagement, and budgeting for 2,000+ FTE service organization DELOITTE CONSULTING | Manager, Technology Strategy, Financial Services | 2012–2017 § Led a detailed review and root cause analysis post-outage at a global retail bank. Key activities included rebuilding the incident and response timeline, identifying contributing causes and root causes, and providing detailed learnings, recommendations and implementation roadmap § Integrated two divisions and defined digital priorities for global financial standards company with ~$12M portfolio. Led strategy and governance models, business case analysis, and implementation. § Consolidated 6 operating models into a single (best practice) global operating model using Lean Six Sigma principles for a global financial institution for multiple capabilities including client onboarding § Realized ~$10.5M in synergy savings from FI merger by defining 12+ short/long-term global initiatives, including digital transformation, location strategy, organization redesign, and process reengineering. § Conceptualized and led development of Deloitte’s first mobile application for C-level dashboard reporting with $2M expected annual revenue from application licensing and deployment § Defined post-merger integration strategy with financial institution executives for migration of ~600 clients with ~$1.2B in revenue, globally onto new platform over two conversion streams DELOITTE CONSULTING | Senior Consultant | 2008–2012 § Secured ~$4.5M in savings by creating contract renegotiation strategy for Canada’s leading company § Developed five-year digital strategy for top Canadian bank based on US market growth strategy § Led competitive assessment team for credit card issuer/bank’s website and digital self-service capabilities Previous: Consultant / Systems Analyst, DELOITTE CONSULTING Chris Tar >Applied Machine Learning>Engineering Manager 650-248-2625 | christophertar@gmail.com | Los Altos, CA (currently Kyoto, Japan) Professional Experience 2014 – Present | Software Engineering Mgr Google Research, Mountain View, CA > Managing team of software engineers & research scientists working on applied & fundamental NLU & ML > Drove public model development & Cloud/Enterprise applications: Neural Semantic Search, hosted embeddings APIs > Managed teams working on NLU for write assist & ads (Gmail Smart Reply, Smart Ctrl-K, Maps Smart Answers, ... ) > Showcasing early neural NLU including 'Talk to Books' public demo - 2007 – 2013 | Network Reliability Eng Mgr Google Inc, Mountain View, Sydney > Managed teams responsible for global datacenter networking health & uptime > Helped scale YouTube cache solution > Proprietary networking hardware/software - 2000 – 2007 | Network Engineering Mgr Bloomberg LP, New York, Tokyo > Managed teams, process & client solutions for network uptime, throughput University of California, Berkeley MBA - University of Vermont B.A. - Arts & Sciences Education > Languages: C++, Python, TF, Pytorch > Language modeling & applied NLU > Evaluation methods & validation > Neural NLU and Language repesentation learning (text/word embeddings, task formulation, evaluation) > Self-supervised methods, data, eval Skills Available upon request References Statement 9 years managing applied & fundamental ML and NLU (Language Modeling) teams in Google Research during the birth and transition to self-supervised neural NLU. Team management, product definition and management, strategy & user-oriented applied ML practitioner. Seeking an applied-ML leadership role with opportunities for strategy, product definition and eng management publications see p. 2 Select Publications https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.03214 Evaluation and compensation methods for stale conent in LLMs reshLLMsV Refreshing Large Language Models with Search Engine ugmentation https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.04307 Multilingual variant of 2098's Universal Sentence Encoder (see below) Multilingual ni3ersal Sentence Encoder for Semantic Retrie3al https://arxiv.org/abs/9908.99828 Multilingual extension to PAS: adversarial paraphrasesW paper and dataset PSaV Crossalingual d3ersarial ataset for Paraphrase IdentiɆcation https://arxiv.org/abs/980;.999?5 General-purpose sentence-length text embeddingsW paper and pretrained models ni3ersal Sentence Encoder EMNLP 201@ https://blog.research.google/2098/05/advances-in-semantic-textual-similarity.html Google Research Blog postW pretrained USE models and demo appliations Talk-to-Books d3ances in Semantic Textual Similarity Chris Tar >Applied Machine Learning>Engineering Manager 650-248-2625 | christophertar@gmail.com | Los Altos, CA (currently Kyoto, Japan) d3isory Board Roles H olunteering 2022 – Present | olunteer yoto International School a Advise on technology curriculum, tech skills readiness 2023 – Present | d3isory Board Member S ly h ri3e a Advise on AI strategy, data & platform