About — Tony Arteaga

Building from 0→1 (and scaling it)

I've spent a lot of my career building functions that didn't exist yet -hiring the first people, defining roles, setting standards, and creating simple operating rhythms that keep delivery moving. At OceanX, I built Sales, Pre-Sales, Services, and Customer Success from zero and scaled the overall engine to support $100M+ ARR.

What that looks like in practice

Hiring: wrote the first JDs, built a consistent interview loop, and made the bar explicit
Delivery: defined "done" (quality, security, docs, handoff) so teams didn't argue about basics
Operations: weekly engagement reviews + simple dashboards so we saw problems early
Repeatability: turned early wins into playbooks, templates, and starter repos
Ambiguity: kept teams focused when scope was moving and stakeholders disagreed

How I lead people

My job is to hire strong people, get them pointed at the right problems, and remove friction so they can do great work. At Guthy|Renker, I earned the highest manager score company-wide in the employee survey.

Hiring bar (and protecting it)

I hire for fundamentals, good judgment, and customer instincts—not just keywords. I keep the loop consistent and the expectations clear.

1:1s that actually help

Weekly 1:1s focused on: what's blocked, what's unclear, what's next, and what support is needed. Career growth gets its own cadence (goals, feedback, stretch projects).

Standards without bureaucracy

Clear definition of "good": code quality, reliability, security/privacy basics, documentation, and clean handoffs. Lightweight process, high bar.

Coaching in the moments that matter

I'll join an architecture review, help think through a tricky production issue, or step into a high-stakes customer call when it helps. Otherwise I stay out of the way.

What I look for when hiring

Beyond technical skills (table stakes), I look for:

Systems thinkers — Can see the ecosystem, connect dots across functions, and know where the 20% is that drives 80% of impact
Simplifiers — Turn complexity into actionable steps. Break things down into logical components.
Clear communicators — Exchange ideas constructively, not aggressively. Open, not stubborn.
Fast learners — Technically adept and can get up to speed quickly in new environments
Collaborators — Best idea wins, regardless of seniority or volume. Data over opinions.
Humble — Know they don't know everything. Can be wrong. Open to other ideas.
Team-first ambition — Want the team to win, not just themselves

Representing the customer (without letting chaos in)

I advocate hard for customers internally—translating their needs into product feedback, roadmap input, and process improvements. Field insights should shape what we build.

But I also protect the team. If a customer is disorganized or unclear, I build the relationship that lets me push back constructively—helping them clarify their own goals and outcomes that work for both sides. That creates structure so the team can do focused work, not firefight.

Enterprise delivery: strategic + hands-on

I can move between exec-level conversations and the details that make projects succeed. I've led technical discovery, scoped and qualified work in pre-sales, and owned delivery outcomes across complex enterprise environments.

I stay close to the work

Architecture reviews and technical discovery
Helping think through production issues with engineers
Prototyping to unblock teams
Clear technical write-ups for stakeholders

And I lead the system around it

Staffing and resource allocation across engagements
Delivery cadences (standups, retros, engagement reviews)
Quality bar + escalation paths
OKRs tied to customer success and adoption

Making work repeatable

I like turning "we figured it out once" into "we can do this reliably." That usually means playbooks, starter repos, integration templates, and a simple knowledge base that captures what the field learns.

Integration playbooks that reduced customer time-to-value and improved conversion outcomes
Starter templates for common implementation patterns to speed up onboarding
Field-to-product feedback loops that improved roadmap prioritization and reduced delivery friction
Documentation habit: I write so teams can move faster (and so new hires ramp quickly)

Why Anthropic

I'm drawn to Anthropic's focus on building AI that's reliable and safe. I've gone deep on modern AI through Stanford's graduate-level certificates and I build with these tools day-to-day.