Doug Kilponen
Chief Operating Officer at Grin Gaming- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Anthony Moor
It was a pleasure to get to know Doug while working on a media-focused digital plan and business strategy. His deep experience in growth marketing, BD and e-commerce accelerated the project. His collaborative spirit meant that as a contractor I could count on his attention and input as deadlines approached. And despite the twists and turns that occur with any development project, he approached challenges and our relationship with a genuine good nature and calm demeanor that cemented an effective partnership and a friendship as well.
Flora Hsu
I worked with Doug during his time at Nextdoor as head of Small and Medium Businesses (SMB), which included the real estate business. As his business operations partner, I worked closely with Doug on revenue forecasting. Doug is a strong manager who earned the respect and trust of his team over a short period of time and quickly built out the real estate business’ inside sales group. This strategy was invaluable to exceeding the quarterly revenue target, a first for that business. Doug has valuable SMB and subscriptions experience and the relatively young group benefited greatly from his leadership. Doug is also a patient observer: like most startups, there were a lot of moving parts and I saw that Doug is flexible in changing tactics as needed. Moreover, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Doug – he genuinely cares for the wellbeing of his team and is an exceptionally strong business partner.
Anthony Moor
It was a pleasure to get to know Doug while working on a media-focused digital plan and business strategy. His deep experience in growth marketing, BD and e-commerce accelerated the project. His collaborative spirit meant that as a contractor I could count on his attention and input as deadlines approached. And despite the twists and turns that occur with any development project, he approached challenges and our relationship with a genuine good nature and calm demeanor that cemented an effective partnership and a friendship as well.
Flora Hsu
I worked with Doug during his time at Nextdoor as head of Small and Medium Businesses (SMB), which included the real estate business. As his business operations partner, I worked closely with Doug on revenue forecasting. Doug is a strong manager who earned the respect and trust of his team over a short period of time and quickly built out the real estate business’ inside sales group. This strategy was invaluable to exceeding the quarterly revenue target, a first for that business. Doug has valuable SMB and subscriptions experience and the relatively young group benefited greatly from his leadership. Doug is also a patient observer: like most startups, there were a lot of moving parts and I saw that Doug is flexible in changing tactics as needed. Moreover, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Doug – he genuinely cares for the wellbeing of his team and is an exceptionally strong business partner.
Anthony Moor
It was a pleasure to get to know Doug while working on a media-focused digital plan and business strategy. His deep experience in growth marketing, BD and e-commerce accelerated the project. His collaborative spirit meant that as a contractor I could count on his attention and input as deadlines approached. And despite the twists and turns that occur with any development project, he approached challenges and our relationship with a genuine good nature and calm demeanor that cemented an effective partnership and a friendship as well.
Flora Hsu
I worked with Doug during his time at Nextdoor as head of Small and Medium Businesses (SMB), which included the real estate business. As his business operations partner, I worked closely with Doug on revenue forecasting. Doug is a strong manager who earned the respect and trust of his team over a short period of time and quickly built out the real estate business’ inside sales group. This strategy was invaluable to exceeding the quarterly revenue target, a first for that business. Doug has valuable SMB and subscriptions experience and the relatively young group benefited greatly from his leadership. Doug is also a patient observer: like most startups, there were a lot of moving parts and I saw that Doug is flexible in changing tactics as needed. Moreover, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Doug – he genuinely cares for the wellbeing of his team and is an exceptionally strong business partner.
Anthony Moor
It was a pleasure to get to know Doug while working on a media-focused digital plan and business strategy. His deep experience in growth marketing, BD and e-commerce accelerated the project. His collaborative spirit meant that as a contractor I could count on his attention and input as deadlines approached. And despite the twists and turns that occur with any development project, he approached challenges and our relationship with a genuine good nature and calm demeanor that cemented an effective partnership and a friendship as well.
Flora Hsu
I worked with Doug during his time at Nextdoor as head of Small and Medium Businesses (SMB), which included the real estate business. As his business operations partner, I worked closely with Doug on revenue forecasting. Doug is a strong manager who earned the respect and trust of his team over a short period of time and quickly built out the real estate business’ inside sales group. This strategy was invaluable to exceeding the quarterly revenue target, a first for that business. Doug has valuable SMB and subscriptions experience and the relatively young group benefited greatly from his leadership. Doug is also a patient observer: like most startups, there were a lot of moving parts and I saw that Doug is flexible in changing tactics as needed. Moreover, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Doug – he genuinely cares for the wellbeing of his team and is an exceptionally strong business partner.
Experience
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Grin Gaming
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United States
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Entertainment Providers
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1 - 100 Employee
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Chief Operating Officer
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2020 - Present
Predictive Gaming. Backed by Operate Ventures, BAM Ventures, Nanban Ventures, DataFrame Ventures, Lyle Berman and a number of private investors. Strategic and financial planning and forecasting; business planning and budgeting; metric setting, measurement, and achievement; organizational design and growth; new business development, partnership and revenue growth; fundraising and institutional investor relations. Predictive Gaming. Backed by Operate Ventures, BAM Ventures, Nanban Ventures, DataFrame Ventures, Lyle Berman and a number of private investors. Strategic and financial planning and forecasting; business planning and budgeting; metric setting, measurement, and achievement; organizational design and growth; new business development, partnership and revenue growth; fundraising and institutional investor relations.
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Operate
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United States
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Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
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1 - 100 Employee
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Executive in Residence
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2020 - 2020
Operate Ventures is a seed fund and venture studio. Our mission is to partner with startup founders/creators to build and scale category creating companies that change how the world works. • Joined seed fund + venture studio to advise and help launch portfolio companies. • Coached multiple entrepreneurs on go-to-market, hiring and organizational strategy, pitch development, and fundraising; ultimately joined portco: Grin Gaming. • Performed diligence and business analysis on dozens of investment opportunities for fund. Show less
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Nextdoor
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United States
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Technology, Information and Internet
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700 & Above Employee
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Head of Small and Medium Business (SMB)
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2018 - 2019
Backed by Benchmark, Greylock, and Kleiner Perkins, Nextdoor is the private social network for connecting with your neighbors, local government, and small businesses in your community. • Hired to turnaround an under-performing group and to launch company’s first products aimed at local small business participation on the platform. • In my first quarter: delivered an effective growth strategy, created and executed the business and organizational plans, rallied cross-functional support, and exceeded established P&L objectives. • Rebuilt and motivated a diverse team, managed conflict and inspired collaboration, creating a high-performing group that consistently exceeded aggressive quarterly revenue goals and OKRs. • Instilled a data-driven culture; simplified processes and removed inefficiencies; improved sales operations via new pricing, onboarding flows, LTV calculations, and instrumenting for attribution. • Put the focus on the customer by looping their voice (via the success team and NPS feedback) into product development, customer education, and marketing. • Grew real estate group revenue by over 50%, increased daily agent onboarding 60%, decreased churn 25%, and delivered 115% against an aggressive quarterly revenue goal. • Championed, developed, and launched first advertising products aimed local merchants. Show less
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Wanderful Media
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United States
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Technology, Information and Internet
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1 - 100 Employee
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Chief Operating Officer
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2012 - 2016
Creators of Find&Save, a location-based, shopping-rewards app that provided cash-back for purchases made in our retail partners’ physical stores. Company was sold to OwnLocal. • Partnered with CEO to turnaround strategic asset owned by Advance Digital, Cox Media, Gannett, Hearst, McClatchy, Scripps, The Washington Post, et al. • Raised $50MM strategic funding; built and managed C-suite relationships across investor group. • Strategically pivoted business from online circulars to a mobile shopping app, restructuring the company and rebuilding the product and team accordingly. • Recruited and supported a world class team of product, revenue, partnerships, finance, and legal leaders, cultivating alignment, managing conflict, removing obstacles and promoting efficiencies. • Oversaw day-to-day operations to ensure consistent, rapid, and effective execution, according to the defined vision and strategy, and held teams accountable to commitments and KPIs. • Led app growth, from cold-start to $40MM+ of partner in-store purchases annually, by focusing team on marketing efficiencies (reduced CAC by 66%), product value to customer (increased LTV by 4X), and building healthy partner relationships. • Drove operational excellence via customer-first, data-driven culture, resulting in our 5-star rated apps consistently ranking top-5 in their category and being downloaded by millions. Show less
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MerchantCircle
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United States
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Technology, Information and Internet
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1 - 100 Employee
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Senior Vice President (functional COO)
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2009 - 2011
Backed by IAC, Scale Ventures, Steamboat, and Rustic Canyon, MerchantCircle was a social network that connected SMBs with the hyperlocal web. Company was acquired by Reply.com.• Promoted to SVP/COO to assume management of day-to-day operations, scale the business, build the team, and reach profitability.• Achieved profitability, 3-years of 60%+ annual growth, and 90% gross margins by scaling to serve 2MM+ merchants and 25MM monthly unique consumers.• Channeled diverse perspectives into a cohesive, cross-functional leadership team, creating alignment through company values, shared goals, simplicity, and transparency.• Attracted, developed, and retained high-performing partnerships, marketing, design, and engineering teams; mentored and cultivated rising talent.• Controlled operational spending within budget, approval of payroll, weekly invoices, and other financial reports.• Raised $10MM Series B and played a key role in MerchantCircle’s sale to Reply.com at a great return for investors and team. Show less
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Vice President of Growth
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2005 - 2009
• As founding business lead to launch product, develop and execute go-to-market strategy, and grow the user base.• Designed key elements of product prototype, landing page marketing, and built and instrumented the customer acquisition funnel.• Acquired 2MM merchant customers at a sub-$2 cost and >3:1 LTV:CAC by developing an automated, non-traditional advertising approach for testing, optimizing and delivering marketing messages.• Built SMB SaaS and e-commerce platform from pre-revenue to $15MM+ ARR through strategic partnerships with Google, IAC, GoDaddy, Angi, Web.com, Ask.com, AMEX, Yext and more. Show less
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Education
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Kellogg Graduate School of Management
MBA -
Northwestern University
BA, History -
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Summer Program, Marketing
Community
