Rich Sands, the founder and principal consultant for RSands Consulting, is an experienced software marketing and business strategy executive who helps organizations drive business success through software platform adoption strategies and initiatives. Rich has deep, wide-ranging experience in high-tech marketing, business strategy, and sales support.
Rich honed his knowledge of developer initiatives leading the marketing effort behind the successful open sourcing of the Java Platform for Sun Microsystems, one of the biggest open source happenings in the history of the software industry. He has brought a wide range of software products to market, initiated high-impact competitive intelligence programs, shepherded technology and joint marketing agreements, and implemented a variety of effective marketing programs across a diverse set of audiences, employing a wide range of tactics and communications channels.
Rich has a reputation for poised leadership, inspiring cross-functional teams under extreme time and resource pressures. A creative, confident spokesperson, Rich is known for vivid messaging that shapes perception and motivates action. Rich operates by listening and understanding where people are coming from, gaining their trust, and building strong working relationships that help drive organizational changes. An expert in organizational change, Rich operates by listening and understanding where people are coming from, gaining their trust, and building strong working relationships that help drive organizational changes. He has fostered support within an engineering organization for a radical change from closed, proprietary development to open source, community based development for a large and complex, high-revenue software platform. Rich has also led a team effort to build bridges and collaborate with highly skeptical, independent developers, establishing and growing a community and converting outspoken critics into supporters.
As the marketing manager behind the open sourcing of the Java Platform, Rich led a very large, very successful effort to launch an industry-changing open source initiative, including launch planning, licensing, developer outreach and community building, licensee engagement, and messaging. He has built forecasting models and analytical frameworks for evaluating new opportunities in operating system and middleware markets. Rich has negotiated joint marketing and development agreements with ISVs, and has used trade shows and events, contests, web, video, print collateral, press and analyst outreach, community development, and social media to market to developer audiences worldwide.
With practical expertise in OEM and mobile software platforms, open source development, licensing and legal issues, community development, and developer programs, Rich Sands brings a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to his clients, driving focused changes that deliver business results.
In his 25+ years of software marketing experience, Rich has developed extensive experience in:
- Jean Elliott, Sr. Director, Cloud Services and Developer Tools, Sun Microsystems
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As the marketing manager behind the open sourcing of the Java Platform, Rich led a very large, very successful effort to launch an industry-changing open source initiative, including launch planning, licensing, developer outreach and community building, licensee engagement, and messaging. He has built forecasting models and analytical frameworks for evaluating new opportunities in operating system and middleware markets. Rich has negotiated joint marketing and development agreements with ISVs, and has used trade shows and events, contests, web, video, print collateral, press and analyst outreach, community development, and social media to market to developer audiences worldwide.
Rich operates by listening and understanding where people are coming from, gaining their trust, and building strong working relationships that help drive organizational changes. He has fostered support within an engineering organization for a radical change from closed, proprietary development to open source, community based development for a large and complex, high-revenue software platform. Rich has also led a team effort to build bridges and collaborate with highly skeptical, independent developers, establishing and growing a community and converting outspoken critics into supporters.
