About me
A small introduction about myself
Davide Marrone
Entrepreneur/CTO from Milan (Italy)
I'm an entrepreneur working on innovative IT projects. I studied Computer Science at the University of Milan,
where I bagged a Bachelor of Science and a Master's of Science degrees.
In 2005, during a class of Mobile Computing, I had the idea to send messages like SMS from
mobile phones with an internet connection that can run mobile applications, to reduce the cost of the SMS.
Today, we all well know WhatsApp but in 2005 it was another world: iPhone, Android and also WhatsApp didn't exist yet
and it was the first year (in Italy) that the internet was available on Nokia mobile phones.
After having that idea I started a personal project to implement it and in 2007, two years before WhatsApp was launched, I founded my
first start-up: Skebby.
Skebby, over the years, has made a big pivot: from the original idea that allows consumers to send SMS from their phones at a lower price
compared to mobile operators, it has become an enterprise solution made with an innovative platform
allowing businesses to send SMS via internet from their web applications.
Since 2015, I have been the Co-Founder and CTO of Catapush, that is a
simple, reliable and scalable delivery API for sending transactional mobile push notifications from websites and applications.
Skills & Expertise
I can say I’m quite good at
Experienced Chief Technology Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the Computer Software industry.
Skilled in Enterprise Architecture Design, Microservices, Linux System Administration and Mobile Applications.
I started working in 2000 as a Freelance PHP Developer for small sites created with the LAMP stack.
In 2005, I created Skebby from scratch using PHP and J2ME.
Skebby was the fastest growing company in Italy in the SMS messaging industry. I was the CTO of a team of
10 people developing with PHP, JavaScript, Java, Android, and iOS.
My knowledge as a Linux System Administrator on the LAMP stack with Java microservices grew
massively during the Skebby experience and then with Catapush.
In Catapush I have designed all the microservice architecture based on the AWS ecosystem.
At the moment, my main interests are still building innovative solutions on distributed microservice architecture.
I really like to work on AWS for all the new and innovative technologies that they provide.
Work Experience
Till Date
Catapush
Co-founder/CTO
Catapush is a simple, reliable and scalable delivery API for transactional mobile push notifications
for websites and applications.
Ideal for corporation sending data-driven transaction notifications, including targeted e-commerce and personalized one-to-one messages.
With delivery confirmation and real-time status tracking of each message sent, it is possible to build
intelligent messaging logic.
As CTO, I have designed all the platform from an architectural point of view. I have created all the server
infrastructure with the Salt configuration management software on AWS.
The team has grown up to 10 people working on PHP for the frontend, Java for the backend
and we have developed also the SDK for all mobile operating systems: Android, iOS, and Windows.
April 2015
Skebby
Founder and CEO until July 2008 then CTO and Vice President
Skebby today is an innovative platform for sending SMS messages via internet
from business web applications.
I had the idea of Skebby in 2005 while I was at the University.
In 2007, I founded the company and started to work on it full time.
In 2008, I found two Business Angels that financed the start-up.
Together we have created the fastest growing company in the SMS industry in Italy with more than 30.000 business customers.
I was interviewed by my investor for the "Face2Face Capturing Creativity" initiative just after
the closing of the deal, the video is available here: Davide Marrone Face2Face.
I successfully exited from the company in 2015. Today, Skebby is still one of the leading SMS providers for business customers in Italy.
During the Skebby experience, there was a lot of interest from the media on the start-up,
my story was covered in different news about Skebby
in national newspapers and also on national televisions. Here are some references:
January - February 2008
Vigorelli Professional training center
Teacher
Teacher for the course Web Applications Security
Before Skebby, my main interests were in Computer Security. I have done lectures on Web Applications Security.
January 2007
University of Milan
Teacher
I was the co-teacher for the laboratory of course Information Security for Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
June 2005
Freelance
PHP Developer
I have worked for different clients, building small websites, CMS and CRM. All the projects were made with the LAMP stack.
Education & Diplomas
January 2007
Master's of Science in Information Technology
University of Milan - www.unimi.it
Title of thesis: Race condition in applicazioni Web
PDF -
Slides
Final grade: 110/110 cum Laude
The work of the thesis was followed by an academic publication:
"On Race Vulnerabilities in Web Applications"
Roberto Paleari, Davide Marrone, Danilo Bruschi and Mattia Monga
In the Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA), Paris, France, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, July 10-11, 2008.
[PDF - BibTeX]
February 2005
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
University of Milan - www.unimi.it
Title of thesis: Studio di buffer overflow in ambiente Win32 e realizzazione di un tool per la ricerca automatica di programmi vulnerabili a questo tipo di attacco
PDF -
Slides
Final grade: 110/110 cum Laude
June 2001
High School Diploma
Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale “Magistri Cumacini” - www.magistricumacini.edu.it
This was one of my best decisions on my career. I have to thank this school for having
given me a lot of good education in Computer Science and Maths (and a lot of fun too).
The first year of University was really easy, thanks to all the stuff learned during High School.