Jim Matteo

Founder & CEO Bird Rock Systems

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Jim Matteo is the founder and chief executive of Bird Rock Systems, a San Diego enterprise IT services company he started in 2003 and has run ever since. The firm sells what larger organisations increasingly buy rather than build: security, networking, cloud infrastructure, privacy and compliance work, and dedicated technical teams that scale up and down with a project. Its name comes from Bird Rock, a surf break in La Jolla and one of Matteo’s favourite spots, where by the company’s own account the business was founded “on the waves”. Two decades of steady rather than explosive growth have put it on the Inc. 5000 six times, and Matteo was named EO San Diego’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012. Alongside running the company he has worked at developing other founders, serving as entrepreneur in residence for the accelerator TrepCamp and mentoring students at Manhattan College, where he took his own degree.

Career Highlights

• Founded Bird Rock Systems in San Diego in 2003 and has led it as chief executive throughout.
• Built the company onto the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private American companies six times.
• Named EO San Diego Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012.
• Entrepreneur in Residence for TrepCamp, an international technology accelerator, and one of ten team mentors for its Manhattan College chapter.
• Co-founder of Applejax between 2019 and 2021.
• Interviewed on technology and entrepreneurship by San Diego Daily Transcript executive editor George Chamberlin in May 2014.
• Leads a management team including chief operating officer Joseph Javien, with vice presidents covering sales and operations, services, operations, and innovation, marketing and partnerships.

Professional Journey

Matteo founded Bird Rock Systems in 2003, and the company’s account of its own origin is unusually literal about where the idea came from — it was conceived at the Bird Rock surf break in La Jolla, and took the name. That detail is more than colour: the business has stayed in San Diego, stayed independent, and grown at a pace that put it on the Inc. 5000 six separate times rather than once spectacularly. Matteo has described the guiding idea as delivering best-in-class technical solutions grounded in a defined set of company values, which is the sort of thing every services firm says, but the six-time listing suggests the execution has been consistent over a long period.

The business sits in the managed services and value-added reseller part of the enterprise IT market: network and security architecture, cloud, mobility, privacy and compliance, and the supply of dedicated IT teams that clients use to run operations or execute projects without permanent hiring. It serves enterprise customers across a range of industries from San Diego, and Matteo has assembled a leadership team around him — a chief operating officer in Joseph Javien and vice presidents for sales and operations, services, operations, and innovation, marketing and partnerships.

He has also worked outside the company on the wider founder ecosystem. He served as entrepreneur in residence for TrepCamp, an international technology accelerator, and acted as one of ten team mentors for its chapter at Manhattan College — his own alma mater, which gives that particular commitment an obvious personal logic. Separately, he co-founded a venture called Applejax between 2019 and 2021. His public profile in San Diego business circles dates back at least to 2014, when the San Diego Daily Transcript’s executive editor George Chamberlin interviewed him about both the firm’s enterprise technology work and his efforts to foster entrepreneurship locally.

Matteo attributes his own drive to something his father taught him as a child — that nothing gets accomplished without personal effort — and frames the company’s growth in those terms rather than in terms of market timing or capital.

Education

Manhattan College

Bachelor of Science, Computer Information Systems, Management

No graduation year is published in any source located. His later role as a team mentor for the Manhattan College chapter of TrepCamp is consistent with a continuing connection to the institution.