About SelectHub

About SelectHub

We are an employee-owned start-up that believes information should be democratized, free of gate-keepers, fostering an environment where creativity, ingenuity and hard work determine a company’s future.

We Also Believe:

  • donePlaying fields can be leveled with equal access to data and tools.
  • doneMost frustrations, waste and delays in choosing software are avoidable.
  • doneSelecting software should happen at a fraction of today’s cost and speed.
  • doneSoftware should gain exposure based on relevance & merit.
  • doneVendors should assist in the buying process, not influence it.

Relentless About Data

We stop at nothing to collect and analyze every data point we can about software and then compile that data to share with everyone.

Analyst Reviews

Our team of analysts review over a dozen products every day, ensuring we understand each software’s capabilities, strengths and limitations.

Our Software Selection Platform

With so many people using our free software selection platform, we are in a unique position to know what people want from their software and which products best deliver that.

Software User Reviews

We collect and aggregate reviews from across the internet to understand user sentiment about each and every product we have analyzed.

We layer the insights gained from user reviews atop of what our analysis has already uncovered to achieve a more complete and critical view of the software you are considering.

We work in the beautiful city of Austin, TX.

Austin Office

SelectHub Solutions

Armed with all our data, we tend to cater to SMB and Small and Medium-sized Enterprise companies plus customize our recommendations based on factors such as industry, deployment preference, modules needed, ability of vendors to meet the stated feature / functionality, etc.

We do this through:

Analyst Review

Needs Assessments & Advice for Anyone

Anyone can use our online software or call our Software Selection Experts to review requirements and provide a shortlist of companies that meet them.

Requirement Management

Easy Requirements Management

SelectHub helps you better manage your requirements gathering process for any software or IT purchase. Complete with templates to quickly set requirements, you can pull in your team and get down to what they truly need.

Software Selection

Software Selection

Get access to our online software selection platform to determine requirements, set priorities and compare the best products. Then easily compile it all into an RFx and deliver it the vendors that are best-suited according to data (or anyone you want).

Now you're ready to quickly compile your RFx, send it out to vendors and manage their responses till you're ready to pick your product. All within our platform! (We'll even handle "breaking up" with the vendors you don't pick).

Affordable Services

Shockingly Affordable Services

While we offer all the tools for companies to select their own software, run their own RFx and even run their own Proof of Concepts, we recognize that time is scarce, priorities compete and our experts offer a lot of value, so we also offer disruptive priced consulting services that challenge the software consulting industry.

Rob Meilen

CIO at Hunter Douglas

SelectHub allows us to speed up the procurement of new technology while maintaining the rigour of our evaluation process

{"video_yurl":"true"}

Recognizing the Best Software and People

We recognize the people behind the products.

After years of analyzing, we realized it was time the people behind the best software were recognized. With these awards, we hope to provide end users with a true and accurate perspective of where excellence in software comes from and about the teams that got it there.

Our Awards will be awarded exclusively on merit, using criteria such as user reviews, data from SelectHub’s proprietary technology selection management platform and evaluations from our internal team of analysts.

Best Software and People

Venkat Devraj, CEO

Venkat is responsible for overall business strategy and day-to-day execution at SelectHub. He also serves as the lead functional architect of the SelectHub platform.

Previously, Venkat founded Stratavia, a software company that provided database and application middleware automation. Stratavia was acquired by Hewlett-Packard, where Venkat served as CTO – Application Automation and Chief Architect – Cloud Automation. Prior to Stratavia, Venkat was CEO at ExtraQuest Corp. where he pioneered the industry’s first full service remote database administration offering.

Venkat didn’t launch SelectHub with the goal of revolutionizing the software selection market– but is on the path to doing so anyways. He was inspired by the idea of solving software-selection related challenges and making life easier for enterprise IT buyers and end users. For him, SelectHub represents what occurs when passion and diversity come together into a melting pot of ingenuity. “A good idea can only get you so far,” says Venkat, “it’s what you can do with it that truly makes a company.”

Venkat is the author of “Oracle 24×7 Tips & Techniques” and co-author of “Oracle Web Development” (Osborne / McGraw-Hill). He has written numerous articles, and been featured in publications such as Denver Post and CIO Magazine. He is a passionate speaker at industry events and holds two patents in IT automation.

Hernando Blanco, COO

Hernando is responsible for sales operations, product design, engineering and production operations at SelectHub.

The engineer in Hernando was intrigued when he saw the opportunity of automating a very complex process by developing software and combining it with content. Thus, SelectHub was born with the help of his partners and the combination of experience and ample skill sets in the B2B and B2C environments. For Hernando, SelectHub means an innovative environment that truly cares about the end user 24/7; a place where passion and purpose come alive.

With almost two decades of operational and technology experience, Hernando is relentless about identifying and removing sources of inefficiency and miscommunication. Previously, Hernando was co-founder of Abuyo Media, a social media advertising network and Clan Cupon, a deal-of-the-day website that catered to the Colombian market. Prior to that, he was Director of Operations at Rocky Mountain Cinemas.

Seeking to work on ventures with a deeper meaning, Hernando founded Sentec in Colombia in 1996, a technology company dedicated to research and development in providing accessibility for people with disabilities. During this time, he developed “Digito”, a communication device for deaf-blind people, selling the patent in 1999 to Ver LTDA. He also served as an advisor for the Ministry of Communications of Colombia on implementing technology to make the workplace, schools, and public buildings more accessible for people with physical handicaps. He moved to the USA in 2000.

Steven Sowin, President

Steven’s responsibilities at SelectHub span product management, customer support, community relations and vendor success. Steven’s passion is primarily community development, and he brings to SelectHub a proven ability to develop user-base and customer groundswell via a “bottom-up” model.

Before SelectHub, Steven worked on building the industry’s first crowd-funded real estate investment offering a year prior to US Congress passing the JOBS Act. He also co-founded Abuyo Media, a yield-optimization service provider for mid-market content companies and home of popular social media sites such as 22 Words and 9 Wows.

Prior to that, Steven was a co-founder of Clan Cupon, a deal-of-the-day website that catered to the Colombian market. A consummate serial entrepreneur, Steven also founded Rocky Mountain Cinemas in 1994, pioneering the concept of combined movie theaters and restaurants in Colorado.

Roy Semple, VP of Partnerships

Roy’s role at SelectHub is primarily driving strategic alliances and marketing-related partnerships.

Roy comes to SelectHub from Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC), where he was the Head of Internet Marketing for 6 years and previously, the Head of Sales for 5 years. Since joining SelectHub in 2014, Roy has led strategic initiatives such as RequirementsHub and other discrete product packaging as well as SelectHub’s branding as a “technology selection management” system (a greenfield space with $4.6 billion market potential).

Prior to TEC, Roy was Director of Sales and Marketing at IndustryHub (acquired by TEC) where he worked on launching a new e-procurement software solution for the mid-market. Prior to that, he was in sales at Quest Software.

Marcus Flemming, VP of Marketing

Marcus is responsible for SelectHub’s multi-faceted marketing teams, including content production and promotion, demand generation, and top-of-funnel pipeline creation.

Marcus began creating innovative digital marketing strategies back before there was a Google. He is a proven customer acquisition leader, entrepreneur, and technical/creative SEO expert who pioneered data-driven growth strategies to increase customers, conversions, revenues, and lifetime value (LTV) for 25+ years.

Prior to SelectHub, Marcus worked in both Silicon Valley and Southern California startup communities building collaborative teams across dozens of web destinations and executing high-performance user acquisition campaigns to drive exponential traffic and revenue growth. Co-founder of multiple startups including Savings.com (acquired by Cox Enterprises), Marcus founded a subscription-based community forum that achieved 45 million visits in its first year, leveraged SEO and partnerships with major movie studios to launch a top 3 film website as ranked by PC Computing Magazine and ZDNet, and negotiated the sale of his first online business with affiliate marketing titan, Commission Junction.

A native of Denver, Marcus moved back to his hometown after a long stint in California to be closer to his family. When not working, you can find him dabbling in film projects, watching movies with his family or tapping on the piano.

Michael Hilla, VP of Sales and Business Development

Michael is responsible for managing the analyst services and platform sales team, as well as the business development and vendor relations teams. Helping map SelectHub’s value to various platform users’ evaluation and buying journeys as well as aligning technology vendors’ sales cycles and marketing focus to different SelectHub offerings, Michael’s team will ultimately focus on onboarding and enabling software buyers and vendors to meet seamlessly, qualify, and transact with one another.

Most recently, Michael was the Regional Director for Public Sector and SLED (State, Local and Higher Education) markets at Info-Tech Research Group. Before that, Michael held sales or executive management roles at Gartner and DemandBase, among other organizations, where he demonstrated an ability to build and launch local and global go-to-market initiatives.

Get Started

Main Office

611 S. Congress Avenue, Suite 130
Austin, TX 78704
sales@selecthub.com
Sales and General Enquiries: 877.692.2896
Advisory Assistance: 855.850.3850

Michael ShearerAbout SelectHub