Summary
I've been involved in
various stages of Internet start-ups (consumer and business-to-business) assuming management roles as required. I've
spent the majority of my professional experience in the Product Management and Business Development arenas with a product management eye on
requirements and a business development eye towards both the revenue potential and the level of integration and/or execution effort. I like to be hands-on and enjoy digging into the requirements from a business strategy perspective that leverages my product management know-how.
Experience
Product Management, BizDev, Marketing Consultant and more April 2016 - Present
Bethesda, MD
Provide product management consulting services for the creation and integration of web-enabled products and services. Clients include web marketing company, MarketHardware.com as well as traditional local businesses including IMP Productions (9:30 Club, Merriweather Post Pavilion, The Anthem).
Winegame is another venture that I'm involved in. The company is co-founded by chef Jose Andres and restauranteur, Rob Wilder. It is an app/game that easily allows you to host and/or participate in blind winetastings. As a host, you take a picture of your wines, and the app automagically creates a set of multiple choice questions about each wine. Your tasters then select answers in trying to guess the wine (getting points along the way). It really levels the playing field when winetasting regardless of your experience. I've been doing bizdev and brand ambassador duties (and I'm also an investor).
I'm also involved in a winemaking venture, FoolHardy Vintners, which is based in Walla Walla, Washington. We are creating small lot Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Blends. FoolHardy's first vintage, the 2016 FoolHardy Cabernet and the FH Cabernet Blend, was released April 1. While I've learned all about the business of producing and marketing wine (especially direct-to-consumer), my favorite task is the blending sessions!
Co-Founder of DoubleCat Games April 2013 - Dec. 2018
Bethesda, MD
DoubleCat Games developed strategy games for mobile - iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android (phone and tablet), and other gaming platforms. Our first game, RailRivals, launched on the Facebook gaming platform in early 2018. It is a two-player strategy game where you build your transcontinental railroad across the US by claiming Territories by earning Resources to purchase Stops, Stations, and Track. The gameplay is exciting especially as you get farther along in the game (think chess after the initial start). Our intention was to port to IOS once we had optimized based on feedback and usage data however we ran out of time and resources for further development.
Director,
Strategic Relations at Webs, Inc.
June 2007 – June 2012
Silver
Spring, MD
I managed Business Development and reported directly to both the VP of Corporate Development and to the CEO. Webs offers services that allow a small business to easily create their Web, Mobile and Social front door digital presence through DIY services that include Webs.com, ContactMe.com and Pagemodo.com.
I was part of a small BD team that focused on Strategic Relations, Sales, Mergers and Acquisitions. I was responsible for a number of strategic initiatives that also included making buy vs. build vs. partner decisions for products and services that were synergistic to the Webs' core offerings. I recruited 3rd Party Developers for our Webs App Store (of which I also participated in the creation as product manager alongside the lead engineer). Some of the 3rd Party partners included DudaMobile, Google AdWords, Cafe Press, Etsy, UpCity, Meebo, Wibiya and Full Slate. I analyzed and executed sales strategies to sign distribution partners (Network Solutions, American Express) for the flagship product Webs.com (website building service), Pagemodo.com (Facebook business page creation service) and Contactme.com (light-weight CRM for small businesses).
I headed up our reseller offering in which we white-labled our website building/hosting service to large organizations that then resold to their members. Not only did I close these deals, but I also became the de facto product manager/project manager as well as client account manager both for on-boarding and continued management and maintenance. Our clients included American Chemical Society (500+ hosted websites), Experimental Aircraft Association (1000+ hosted Websites) and Zumba Fitness (100,000+ hosted websites) as well as local online publishers and directories including Dex One, ImmersiFind Publishers (Comporium, Tribune Media, ZipLocal and other local directories). I also was Business Development lead for the Webs Affiliate program (using Google's Affiliate platform).
I participated at the executive level in Product/Project Management as well as Marketing/PR for Webs. Basically a jack of all trades because of my extensive start-up experience.
Webs was acquired by VistaPrint in December, 2011 for $117.5 million.
Director,
Product/Project Management at Webs, Inc
July 2006 - June 2007
Silver Spring, MD
I joined Webs (formerly Freewebs) early in their maturation prior to VC funding - focusing on product and project management areas. Webs is a DC area company (Silver Spring) that provides
consumers with free webspace, easy pagebuilding, profiles, social network tools, blogs, photo
galleries and more.
Venture funding of $11 million was raised from Columbia Capital
and Novak, Biddle in October of 2006.
Consulting
VP Operations/Product Management at Transactis, Inc.
April 2003 - July 2006
Bethesda, MD
I provided account,
project and product management for day-to-day business operations as well as
longer-term product strategy for email technology and marketing start-up. I also
participated in business analysis, sales and funding. Transactis’ proprietary
technology enabled secure transactions to occur directly in html email without
jumping to a webpage to complete the transaction. Clients include John Kerry
for President, John McCain and Friends, National Geographic, World Wildlife
Fund, University of Maryland, Harvard University, USAToday, FTD, Washington
Capitals and many others.
Transactis was acquired by OfferIQ after raising $36m in multiple rounds.
VP
Product Management/Executive Producer at Winetasting.com
August 2000 - October 2001
Napa, CA
Directed, developed and
managed Internet product development, product marketing, business development
and product merchandising for multi-faceted premium wine e-commerce business
with a focus on direct-to-consumer marketing.
Responsibilities
included:
Product Development - determined new Internet products/services,
enhancements, upgrades etc.
Content Marketing/Merchandizing - oversaw the
winery portal (www.winetasting.com) user interface and merchandizing content as
well as ongoing CRM
Business Development, Consumer Marketing, PR - developed and negotiated relationships with
eBay Premier and Salon.com, Ashford.com, Localwineevents.com and other
wine-related sites.
Also developed strategies and oversaw implementation of
offline/online marketing, advertising and PR of the Winetasting brand/portal.
Winetasting raised Angel funding led by Bill Hambrecht, founder of Hambrecht and Quist and was acquired by 1-800Flowers in 2004.
VP &
General Manager, NBCi.com/XOOM.com August, 1998 – August 2000
San Francisco, CA
Directed, developed and managed all aspects of XOOM.com, a
business unit within NBC Internet. Owned direct P&L responsibility. Focused
on developing revenue opportunities (both e-commerce transactional and
advertising) via the development and distribution of free viral Web products
with an emphasis on Web community and personal Web organization tools/services.
Responsibilities included:
Day to day site
management of XOOM.com with an emphasis on creating membership generation
via distribution of free viral web products and services including;
Personal Homepages and accompanying services, Web File Storage and Sharing
(MediaSharehouse – personal and public storage and file sharing for any
type of digital file including but not limited to images, sound files, movie
files, programs and more), and member commerce opportunities such as
MemberStores, Affiliate Programs, Auctions and Shopping.
Directed new
development (buy, build or partner decisions) and ongoing management of
these Web services with a staff of 29 (product managers, graphic
designers, site architects and engineers).
Developed and
implemented initial XOOM.com and subsequently NBC Internet international
Web product efforts including the launch and management of XOOM.it and
XOOM.fr.
Began employment at
XOOM.com as Director of Product Management in 1998 prior to XOOM.com’s IPO
and subsequent merger with NBC.com and Snap.com to form NBC Internet.
XOOM.com IPO'd in 1998. XOOM then merged with NBC and Snap.com to form NBC Internet - formerly a publicly traded company.
Director, Product Management at Spark Online
February 1998 to August 1998
San Francisco, CA
Directed, developed and managed product features for Spark
Online’s software/service to solve inefficiencies of Internet advertising.
Produced product
spec by gathering functional requirements from prospective real-world
users such as Ad Agencies and Web Site Publishers.
Developed and
scheduled features for Alpha, Beta, 1.0, 2.0.
Managed
development of user interface and content of Alpha with technical team.
Director,
Product Management at Alexa Internet
July 1997 - January 1998
San Francisco
Coordinated efforts of engineering, Q&A, marketing and
design staffs to release Beta, 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 versions of Alexa, a Web
navigation and data-mining software and service. Directed and managed
partnerships with other Internet companies including Yahoo Internet Life,
VeriSign, TRUSTe, Recreational Software Advisory Council and NetMetrics.
Explored, analyzed and recommended other value-added services and technologies
to incorporate into Alexa software/service.
Alexa was acquired by Amazon in early 1999
for $200 million.
Product
Management at FreeLoader
1996 – 1997
Washington,
DC and San Francisco
Freeloader was one of
the first software/services of the Web – acting as the VCR and news
gatherer of the Web. This was Mark Pincus's (founder of Zynga Gaming) first foray into Internet
Start-ups. I was one of the first 5 employees and was the lead Product Manager.
FreeLoader was acquired by Individual Inc. for $38 million in 1997.
Archivist/Producer
at the Washington Post
1989 – 1995
Washington,
DC
I was part of the original
"Digital Ink" team that was the Washington Post’s first foray on the
Internet and subsequently morphed into the WashintonPost.com. Prior to Digital Ink, I worked in the Washington Post's News Room as an archivist and researcher.
Education
BA, History - Ohio
Wesleyan University
Delaware, Ohio
Hawken
Preparatory School
Gates Mill, Ohio
