The ARMS Founding Story

Normally nothing too interesting happens at college reunions.  Too much beer is consumed, waistlines are covertly scanned and measured, and inevitably somebody embarrasses themselves with someone of the opposite sex. However at the Villanova Homecoming of 2008 something out of the ordinary did happen.  John Keleher, a former Villanova varsity athlete was conversing with Villanova’s Head Soccer Coach about the need for a better recruiting tool.  Villanova had tried a few of the recruiting systems and services on the market, but none provided everything the coach needed. John continued to listen intently to the needs of Villanova’s athletic staff and knew immediately he could help.  With notes in his pocket and ideas swirling in his head, John ran into Mike Flynn, a fellow Villanova graduate.  Mike had recently completed his MBA and was looking for a challenge.  As John laid out the case for what would become the ARMS system, excitement brewed in the hearts of these two young entrepreneurs. John then took the ideas for ARMS back to his business partner, Tim, and, after months of research and product development, the ARMS system 1.0 was born.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Our Executive Team

John Keleher

Self described as an “extremely technical, non-technical guy.”  John loves bringing technological wizardry back to earth – in business terms that everyone understands. John has for passion for solving the problems of Coaches, Athletic Directors and Compliance Officers.  He is driven to uncover the challenges of each client, develop an understanding of what they need, and deliver the industry leading features of ARMS.

John has been professionally and academically involved in the World Wide Web and consulting since 2000. He has worked on strategy for high-tech companies in Silicon Valley with R.B. Webber & Co., developed web applications for one of the top 5 software service firms in the world, Accenture, and independently led Web initiatives for several small organizations both domestically and internationally. John holds a BS in computer science from Villanova University and an MS in computer science from American University – where he achieved a perfect academic record focusing his research on the Web and Internet technologies.  While at Villanova John also played varsity soccer as a stalwart member of the Wildcat defense. He has moonlighted as a professor at AU, and on Sunday mornings he feeds his private passion (organic farming) at the Dupont Circle Farmer’s market where he has functioned as the “Market Master”.

Tim Otten

Tim has been described as a “guru’s guru,” and a “serious engineer.”

Business owners and managers love answers and direction. Tim is a deep well of technology knowledge. He possesses the creativity to ask and answer the question, “Why not?” in developing solutions for each client needs. Technical and academic by nature, Tim brings order to chaos, skillfully guides strategy, or offers solutions to puzzling obstacles through his signature “take it from the top” explanations. He has been interested in web solutions since 1995 – when he began and orchestrated a dial-up bulletin board system on a 386 PC.  Tim has consulted as the technical lead with Benton Consulting for the full lifecycle of multiple projects, and has previously worked with networked systems administration, web-enabled multi-media streaming systems, and web-based content and relationship management systems. Tim excelled as an undergraduate in computer science and mathematics at American University.  His talent first became widely noticed as he single-handedly developed and extended the Department’s Web and network systems and earned the record for best performance in the International Collegiate Programming Competition.

Michael Flynn

Mike Flynn has been a disruptive marketing force since 1999.  His job at ARMS is to be the uncontrollable advocate for the consumer.  He speaks about, works on, and sometimes dreams about how ARMS can solve all imaginable problems for coaches and athletic departments with the ultimate goal of having ARMS do everything short of pour Gatorade. Mike was trained in marketing and finance at Villanova University and earned his MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business with concentrations in product management and strategy.  He has honed his craft working in organizations large and small; for-profit and non-profit.  He has worked in product management for a Fortune 500 CPG firm and has expertise in product development, market research, media planning, event planning, digital media and social media. When not bugging John, Tim, and Gabe about random technology questions, he’s drinking coffee, running, reading, playing soccer, or some combination there-in.

Gabriel Serafini

Gabriel’s self apointed specialty is “imagining the future.” He exudes user interface design expertise and online marketing savvy as Benton Consultings’s lead “front-end” technician. Facilitating and implementing web designs that achieve user experience objectives is what he does. Although substantially creative – coming from a studio art background – Gabriel relies on sound design techniques and proven use flows as he realizes the web is more about effective communication than often distracting bells and whistles. Gabriel has grown up with the web site design world from its first boom in 1995. He launched his career shortly thereafter with a streaming audio startup where he built countless websites on his way to eventually becoming the primary user interface designer, building product logos and user interface designs for their whole lineup of products. Gabriel’s hobbies include reading, taking pictures (most of which end up on Flickr) and maintaining a top 10 Google ranking for “Gabriel” (out of over 104 million other “Gabriel” results out there).

Our Partners

At ARMS our customers are our partners.  We work closely with each athletic department, team and coach to understand their needs and develop solutions that lift their programs to the next level.

Below are a few of our partners.