Mobile browsing startup Skyfire says new hire signals business shift

Skyfire, which offers a browser for fast mobile navigation of media-rich web pages, just announced that it’s hiring Jason Guesman as its new senior vice president of sales and marketing.

We don’t cover a lot of hiring news, especially non-CEO hires, but a company spokesman tells me this is a significant move for Skyfire’s business model, because it marks a new focus on selling Skyfire to companies, not consumers. Until now, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has devoted its marketing efforts to convincing consumers to download and use the browser, but there’s growing interest from manufacturers and mobile carriers who want to install Skyfire on their devices.

Among other things, the browser is a way to get Flash and Silverlight technology to play on mobile phones (Flash has famously been shut out of Apple’s iPhone and iPad, as Skyfire chief executive Jeff Glueck discussed in a column for VentureBeat.).

Guesman will be responsible for growing sales to those companies. He’s also supposed to grow the business around Kolbysoft, the company that Skyfire acquired earlier this month. Kolbysoft builds browsers for Google’s Android operating system. Guesman’s past experience includes six years a senior vice president and general manager at Seven Networks.

Skyfire has raised a total of $22.8 million in venture funding.

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