Scott Stearns

I've spent 30+ years building data-intensive systems, from signal processing algorithms at venture-backed startups to managing bioinformatics programs at J&J to directing data sciences for a stroke detection company. Four patents. Four degrees from Johns Hopkins, Catholic University and Penn State. MIT data science certification. Along the way I've worked at every scale, from two-person startups to multinational healthcare companies, and in every role from individual contributor to department manager to director.

Now I'm applying all of that to Vantage Meridian Group. We test the paths a customer can take into a local business: the form on the site, the booking page, every published phone number, the buttons on Google and Yelp. The owner gets a written finding with the evidence behind every line. Not software to license and learn. The diagnosis, and then the repair.

It is the same discipline I spent thirty years on in regulated engineering: measure it, say what the measurement covers, and never claim more than the evidence supports. A booking path that silently stopped working is a defect like any other. The difference is that it usually has nobody inspecting it.

VMG's first product, PricePilot, was a pricing-intelligence tool for small retailers. Building it to production, and sunsetting it, taught us the lesson the company now runs on: small businesses don't need more software to operate; they need the work done for them.