Steve Watson

Chief Product Officer & Founding Team Member at Memory Lane
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Contact Information
us****@****om
(386) 825-5501
Location
Miami-Fort Lauderdale Area

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Experience

    • Consumer Goods
    • Chief Product Officer & Founding Team Member
      • Feb 2023 - Present

      Memory Lane is redefining humanity’s relationship with legacy, using AI to revolutionize the way people preserve and recall their most cherished memories. Currently in stealth – see more & sign up for updates at https://trymemorylane.com

    • CEO / Principal Consultant
      • 2018 - Present

      Coral Springs, FL I help businesses build scalable product, operations, and customer success processes to support rapid growth. My experience in Edtech has helped scale from start-up through IPO to billion dollar valuation, M&A as a key growth strategy, taking a nascent start-up from 2 employees through hypergrowth and Series A/B fundraising rounds, and helped an established private edtech company targeting an exit within 5 years become a viable acquisition in less than one year. Clients include:… Show more I help businesses build scalable product, operations, and customer success processes to support rapid growth. My experience in Edtech has helped scale from start-up through IPO to billion dollar valuation, M&A as a key growth strategy, taking a nascent start-up from 2 employees through hypergrowth and Series A/B fundraising rounds, and helped an established private edtech company targeting an exit within 5 years become a viable acquisition in less than one year. Clients include: Forklift Simulator is a VR training company focused on screening, training, and motivating logistics forklift operators through engaging, safe and effective XR experiences. For Forklift Simulator, I led the evaluation and evolution of customer facing experiences from demo, onboarding, data/dashboards to ensure the business can pivot to a HaaS/SaaS environment and scale effectively. AI-based Stealth Startup. As a pre-seed stealth startup Advisor partnering with the CEO, I lead product and operations, coordinating development of multiple proof-of-concept prototypes to validate the technical feasibility of our AI solutions and illustrate the product vision. TRANSFR VR is a start-up providing workforce skills development through virtual reality (VR) that employers use to provide trainees with an immersive, hands-on learning experience to practice and acquire the skills required to obtain employment. For TRANSFRVR, as an independent contractor I led all Operations, Project Management, and Client Services for the rapidly growing business before joining the CEO as the second full-time employee and eventually Chief Product Officer. Show less

    • United States
    • Truck Transportation
    • Chief Product Officer
      • Oct 2020 - Mar 2022

      Lead Product and Design teams to ensure that TRANSFR’s Virtual Reality (VR) exploration and learning experiences are the most enjoyable, effective, efficient, and authentic to help people get on a career path and build the skills to get a well-paying job. Led product strategy, vision, and design to achieve triple-digit year over year ARR growth and TRANSFR's $35M Series B fundraising round.

    • Vice President - Operations
      • Mar 2019 - Oct 2020

      Directed all Operations, Virtual Reality (VR) Training Product Design and Development, Project Management, and Client Services through our first phase of hyper-growth and our $12M Series A fundraising round. I built teams and processes from the ground up to define, design, develop, and launch TRANSFR's virtual training and career exploration VR products to transform the classroom-to-career pipeline to meet the needs of underserved young people, employers, workforce development, 2-year… Show more Directed all Operations, Virtual Reality (VR) Training Product Design and Development, Project Management, and Client Services through our first phase of hyper-growth and our $12M Series A fundraising round. I built teams and processes from the ground up to define, design, develop, and launch TRANSFR's virtual training and career exploration VR products to transform the classroom-to-career pipeline to meet the needs of underserved young people, employers, workforce development, 2-year colleges, and high school CTE programs.

    • Head of Operations (Contract)
      • May 2018 - Mar 2019

    • General Manager, School Business Unit
      • 2017 - 2018

      Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area Head of the VKidz School Business Unit, LearningCity, overseeing sales, marketing, client services, product development, content and professional development teams across three products serving B2B and B2C education markets. In 2018, Vkidz was acquired by Cambium Learning. Used by over 10% of US elementary school students, VocabularySpellingCity.com is dedicated to helping students, teachers, parent-teachers, and school systems build Vocabulary and Comprehension. Science4Us is an… Show more Head of the VKidz School Business Unit, LearningCity, overseeing sales, marketing, client services, product development, content and professional development teams across three products serving B2B and B2C education markets. In 2018, Vkidz was acquired by Cambium Learning. Used by over 10% of US elementary school students, VocabularySpellingCity.com is dedicated to helping students, teachers, parent-teachers, and school systems build Vocabulary and Comprehension. Science4Us is an interactive standards-based science curriculum that provides foundational skills for K-2nd grade students. WritingCity is an award-winning, subscription-based platform for delivery of standards-based digital writing and grammar curriculum for grades K-5. Show less

    • United States
    • E-Learning Providers
    • 700 & Above Employee
    • Vice President, Products and Technology Operations and PMO
      • 2014 - 2017

      Herndon, VA Directed all program and project management of customer facing content and technology application development for K12, FuelEd, and A+ brands. Oversaw operations functions supporting product and technology development, including product support, vendor management, media sourcing, planning, and production operations.

    • Vice President, Curriculum Product Development
      • 2013 - 2014

      Herndon, VA Headed all product development for K12, FuelEd, and A+ curriculum brands (~275 staff and contractors). Ensured continuous improvement of academic outcomes, operational efficiency, transparency, and regulatory compliance by managing oversight of content subject matter experts (SMEs), instructional design, editorial, creative, and mobile functional teams in addition to previous accountabilities.

    • Vice President, Product Development PMO, Planning and Operations
      • 2010 - 2013

      Oversaw program and project management in addition to operations teams, consisting of 85+ high-performing professionals responsible for delivery of products on scope, time, and budget. Headed teams responsible for delivery of 60+ projects per year with 14 program and project managers.

    • Sr. Director, Planning and Operations
      • 2008 - 2010

      Directed operational support teams, including product support and alignments, technology and training, production support, financial planning, and offsite development team in Provo, UT.

    • Director, Financial Planning
      • 2007 - 2008

      Herndon, VA Directed financial planning and analysis, resource management, back-office administration, and controlled group’s P&L of $16M. Improved project budgeting and forecasting, standardizing process and enhancing predictable financial outcomes. Accomplished clean audits with internal and independent auditors and generated product related inputs for corporate annual and quarterly filings through risk-focused financial and operational SoX control implementation for product group in support of K12's… Show more Directed financial planning and analysis, resource management, back-office administration, and controlled group’s P&L of $16M. Improved project budgeting and forecasting, standardizing process and enhancing predictable financial outcomes. Accomplished clean audits with internal and independent auditors and generated product related inputs for corporate annual and quarterly filings through risk-focused financial and operational SoX control implementation for product group in support of K12's initial public offering. Introduced project budget ownership and accountability at manager and project manager level while maintaining security of sensitive financial data.

    • Senior Product Development Manager, Financial Planning
      • 2005 - 2007

      Instituted financial transparency in department budgeting, forecasting, capitalization, and variance reporting. Implemented system and associated policies for resource management, timesheets, expense reports, and project accounting. Integrated with HR and external Employer of Record vendor systems, automating leave and hourly contractor reporting through invoicing. Enhanced financial transparency and accuracy by developing tools, processes, KPIs, and teams to forecast, track, and analyze… Show more Instituted financial transparency in department budgeting, forecasting, capitalization, and variance reporting. Implemented system and associated policies for resource management, timesheets, expense reports, and project accounting. Integrated with HR and external Employer of Record vendor systems, automating leave and hourly contractor reporting through invoicing. Enhanced financial transparency and accuracy by developing tools, processes, KPIs, and teams to forecast, track, and analyze departmental and project financial performance.

    • Senior Product Development Manager, High School Product
      • 2005 - 2006

      Herndon, VA Directed product management and development for K12’s high school launch, including proprietary curriculum builds and 3rd-party customization. • Headed requirements gathering, course planning, prototyping, project managers, and curriculum development teams for 6 simultaneous online course builds and 3 textbooks via just-in-time delivery for successful product launch under budget. Oversaw just-in-time content delivery teams, ensuring material released at least 20-days ahead of students’ progress… Show more Directed product management and development for K12’s high school launch, including proprietary curriculum builds and 3rd-party customization. • Headed requirements gathering, course planning, prototyping, project managers, and curriculum development teams for 6 simultaneous online course builds and 3 textbooks via just-in-time delivery for successful product launch under budget. Oversaw just-in-time content delivery teams, ensuring material released at least 20-days ahead of students’ progress through courses.

    • Senior Producer/Director
      • 1999 - 2005

      Fairfax, VA Produced and directed educational and community outreach television programs and multimedia projects.

    • United States
    • Higher Education
    • 700 & Above Employee
    • Adjunct Professor
      • 2000 - 2000

      Fairfax, VA Instructed students in basic skills and foundations of video production and advanced skills and theory of post-production editing, sound, and graphics.

    • News Videographer, Videotape Editor, ENG Live Truck Operator
      • 1998 - 1999

      Syracuse, New York Area Shot and edited stories on assignment for local broadcast news under tight deadlines.

Education

  • George Mason University – Costello College of Business
    MBA, Management
  • Syracuse University
    Bachelor of Science (BS), Television, Radio, Film

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