BRAD HOFFERT
CEO AND CO-FOUNDERAbout Brad
Brad is the co-founder and President of LocoLabs, where he oversees business development, sales, marketing, and strategy. He often lends his expertise on hardware, software, and mechanical design to help clients solve their toughest design challenges.
Brad’s experience includes program and project management, designing and producing prototypes and large systems, product release, and product delivery. He has successfully lead LocoLabs through 20 years of industry cycles, with an emphasis on innovation, integrity and excellent customer relationships.
His career began at San Diego State University, where he would meet his future co-founder and the eventual CTO of LocoLabs, Steve Kelsey. Both young men had an insatiable curiosity about cutting-edge technology and were on the path to becoming engineers. They pledged that they would one day start a company together.
After college, Brad started working at Sun Microsystems, where he was responsible for ASIC design, project management, PCB design, QA architecture, and implementation.
After five years at Sun, he joined FutureTel, a pioneering network and broadcast video startup, as the VP of Engineering and Operations. At FutureTel, Brad built the engineering and operations teams, provided guidance and mentoring to key staff, and was responsible for releasing products. He was joined at FutureTel by Steve.
In 1996, Brad and Steve founded LocoLabs, fulfilling their college promise to start a company together. By this time, both engineers had acquired deep experience in a broad collection of technologies. These two seasoned engineers wanted to tackle challenging problems that came from several different verticals, as long as there was plenty of opportunity for laughs along the way.
Brad is an avid hiker, car enthusiast (ask him about his prized Karmann Ghia!), and espresso connoisseur.
Fun facts: Brad has 9 patents and double majored in Electrical Engineering and German.
What part of your work do you enjoy most and why?
I enjoy the thrill of solving new and challenging problems, working with and learning from my customers and staff, and creating mixed metaphors. Building teams is one of my most rewarding tasks, second only to the enjoyment of delivering well-architected solutions to our customers. I enjoy absorbing the needs of our customers, digesting the key requirements, creating solutions that knock their socks out of the park, and building friendships with our customers and vendors. I appreciate being part of a talented team with a wicked sense of humor. That makes life worth living.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not at work?
Playing and watching Tennis. Hiding out in the desert with family. Being a shade-tree mechanic under a mesquite tree. Driving twisty roads.
Where did you go to school and what was your major or advanced degree in?
San Diego State University, University of Tuebingen and University of Stuttgart in Germany. BS Electrical Engineering & German. Minor Computer Science
What were you doing before coming to LocoLabs?
I started designing ASICs and boards, doing mechanical design and software development. Just before LocoLabs, I was VP of Engineering and Operations at a VC funded startup creating video compression products, where I worked professionally with my college friend and LocoLabs co-founder Steve Kelsey.