In managing this week’s OC’s Wealthiest issue—my first, our 17th—I placed a call to a source to confirm a few figures in our write-up. “Wealthiest,” the source sighed, “my favorite issue.”
I get it. There’s an old saying: “You know what gentlemen (and ladies) say? They don’t.” It’s a malleable adage, but let’s say the maxim can also be applied to one’s wealth.
That said, please rest assured we don’t compile this issue simply because it’s a business-publication staple— much less out of financial voyeurism.
I hope you agree when reading their stories. We produce this issue foremost for the unique narratives behind the building of each personal fortune. We also take equal pains with our wealth estimates, to detail the massive giving that seems both an inspiration and an imperative to the men and women on the 2017 list of OC’s Wealthiest.
Dean Stoecker is not on our wealthiest list. But the CEO of the data-analytics firm Alteryx is having a good year.
Alteryx is the IPO SNAP and Blue Apron hoped to be—up 40% from the March debut, sales more than doubling over the last two years. Alteryx didn’t happen overnight. Stoecker, Olivia Duane Adams and Ned Harding started the predecessor firm SRC 20 years ago.
Stoecker is a civic booster’s poster child—filled or replaced most of his executive positions in the last 18 months from within Orange County.
When it needed funding Alteryx raised some from Silicon Valley, but also from Vinny Smith’s Toba Capital here. And Stoecker likes being here. “…less expensive, less competition for everything,” Stoecker said over lunch—acting like a boss who’d hired good people and could enjoy his meal. “And, the business culture is better here.”
Stoecker also embraces the “millies.” Alteryx HQs features a converted VW bus for conferences, where the fuel line spews craft beer. The firm encourages time off to do service and promotes its in-house charity Alteryx for Good. A few weeks back Stoecker and teammates rang the bell at the NYSE. “It’s just a button….but it was a lot of fun.”
Speaking of power lunches The Insider hears that Prego Ristorante may reopen at The District in Tustin, after a 30-year run in Irvine ended in February. Prego’s power eats included an infamous, Friday night gathering in December ’94 where the OC-bankruptcy decision was reportedly sealed.
Not many NY Yankees fans in OC—okay more than we’d like and perhaps a few placed bids this week at shopgoodwill.com on a baseball signed by eight of the ’27 Yankees, including Ruth and Gehrig. Shopgoodwill was created by Goodwill OC which gets a fee for sale of all items, 20 million items since 1999. The ball fetched $10,003+ for Goodwill of Tallahassee, less the vig to our local. Go Yankees. Never sounds right.
