Experience

Kromatic - Lean Coaching & Innovation Ecosystem Design

• Innovation Coach & Founder

  • Nov 2010 - Present

  San Francisco Bay Area I coach startups and intrapreneurs on adopting Startup principles into practice. I've worked with companies as early stage as $0 revenue to larger enterprises with $12.9B in revenue. While the situation changes and tactics must be adapted, the principles remain the same. I coach using hands on techniques including workshops and ongoing facilitation, not just theories and 2x2 business school presentations. I blog about many of my experiences adopting lean startup at… Show more I coach startups and intrapreneurs on adopting Startup principles into practice. I've worked with companies as early stage as $0 revenue to larger enterprises with $12.9B in revenue. While the situation changes and tactics must be adapted, the principles remain the same. I coach using hands on techniques including workshops and ongoing facilitation, not just theories and 2x2 business school presentations. I blog about many of my experiences adopting lean startup at http://GrasshopperHerder.com References available on request. Show less



Unilever

• United Kingdom
• Manufacturing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Global Foods Innovation Board Member (External)

  • Feb 2020 - Feb 2021

  Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands I served as the external member to the global Foods Innovation Board overseeing investment on innovation projects. We met monthly (and ad hoc) to review experiment data generated by projects, discuss global strategy, and allocate investment to those projects. Particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, I am focused on supporting needed changes to strategy to adapt to the current situation and plan for various recovery and emergency contingencies.



Pernod Ricard

• France
• Beverage Manufacturing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Innovation Strategy and Lean Startup Coach

  • Feb 2020 - Dec 2020

  San Francisco Bay Area I worked with the Innovation Center of Excellence to: 1) Coach a disruptive innovation team on market discovery and sizing. 2) Consult on improving the innovation process. 3) Improve their internal innovation systems.

• Global Ice Cream Innovation Board Member (External)

  • May 2018 - Nov 2019

  Remote I served as the external member to the global Ice Cream Innovation Board overseeing investment on innovation projects. We met monthly (and ad hoc) to review experiment data generated by projects, discuss global strategy, and allocate investment to those projects. I also supported the board's portfolio management to ensure that actual investment aligned to the innovation strategy and supported the teams directly. That included tracking and analyzing the data on innovations and their… Show more I served as the external member to the global Ice Cream Innovation Board overseeing investment on innovation projects. We met monthly (and ad hoc) to review experiment data generated by projects, discuss global strategy, and allocate investment to those projects. I also supported the board's portfolio management to ensure that actual investment aligned to the innovation strategy and supported the teams directly. That included tracking and analyzing the data on innovations and their results. The changes made to global governance in the Ice Cream board were taken by the centralized Unilever innovation team and rolled out globally under the brand Innoflex. Show less



Tes

• United States
• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Lean Startup Coach

  • May 2018 - Aug 2018

  San Francisco Bay Area I worked with the Head of Product to embed lean ways of working into the product organization.



Credit Sesame

• United States
• Financial Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Lean Startup and Product Management Coach

  • Apr 2014 - Dec 2017

  San Francisco Bay Area Ongoing consulting and coaching for product teams on lean startup, metrics, organization, and product management.



Walmart

• United States
• Retail
• 700 & Above Employee

• Lean Startup Coach

  • Nov 2015 - Feb 2017

  San Francisco Bay Area I coached several Sam's Club innovation teams within Walmart Labs.



Temple University

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Musser Professor

  • 2017 - 2017

  San Francisco Bay Area The Warren (Pete) Musser Professorship in Innovation and Entrepreneurship was endowed to bring leaders in the field to the Fox Business School. I worked with faculty and students to bring modern innovation practices from the field (lean startup, agile, and design thinking) into the entrepreneurship curriculum.



Lean Startup Circle Inc

• Boots on the Ground & Lean Startup Coach

  • Apr 2012 - Jul 2016

  San Francisco Bay Area Building lean leaders at Lean Startup Circle. I helped setup new groups, created a world wide network of lean startup organizers, helped existing groups find their sustainable business model (even if non-profit), and hack a little bit on leanstartupcircle.com



Fujitsu

• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 700 & Above Employee

• Lean Startup Coach

  • Oct 2014 - Jun 2016

  San Francisco Bay Area Coaching an innovation team within Fujitsu in order to improve entrepreneurial skillsets on lean startup, agile, and design thinking. The team members went on to train others in modern entrepreneurship methodologies.



Swisscom

• Switzerland
• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 700 & Above Employee

• Lean Startup Coach

  • Oct 2013 - Sep 2015

  San Francisco Bay Area Bringing lean startup innovation methods into Swisscom by coaching innovation teams for Business Voice, Swisscom Cloud, and others.



StumbleUpon

• United States
• Food Production

• Lean Startup Coach

  • Jun 2013 - Mar 2014

  San Francisco Bay Area Working with the product and growth teams to drive experimentation.



LUXr Incorporated

• United States
• Technology, Information and Internet

• Master Lean Startup Coach

  • Sep 2012 - Jun 2013

  San Francisco Bay Area I ran LUXr's accelerator training program. This involved working with accelerators and enterprises in a train the trainer program and helping them design their curriculum. Accelerators learned how to implement and train startups in lean startup methodology using LUXr's core curriculum as a basis. I've had the opportunity to do this with Accelerators and Enterprises such as: - Startup Wise Guys in Estonia - Happy Farm in Ukraine - NEST'up in Belgium - N-motion in Lincoln… Show more I ran LUXr's accelerator training program. This involved working with accelerators and enterprises in a train the trainer program and helping them design their curriculum. Accelerators learned how to implement and train startups in lean startup methodology using LUXr's core curriculum as a basis. I've had the opportunity to do this with Accelerators and Enterprises such as: - Startup Wise Guys in Estonia - Happy Farm in Ukraine - NEST'up in Belgium - N-motion in Lincoln, NE - TechBA Seattle, WA - Lean Startup Circle organizers - and Pitney Bowes ...but since LUXr was a small company and a startup itself, I also wound up coaching startups, building LUXr's eCommerce site, evangelizing lean startup methodology, creating new learning frameworks, measuring progress through metrics, and always learning, learning, learning. Show less



Startup Weekend

• United States
• Civic and Social Organizations

• Organizer

  • Apr 2011 - Jan 2012

  San Jose, CA I ran two events with Startup Weekend. Chris McCann from StartupDigest said of the last one, "That was the highest quality Startup Weekend I've ever been to!" I also currently hold the speed record for organizing a StartupWeekend in 14 days. We had 9 days to sell tickets and managed to sell out. http://sanjose.startupweekend.org



TechBA

• Mexico
• International Affairs
• 1 - 100 Employee

• "Build or Die" Bootcamp Designer and Organizer

  • Feb 2011 - Jan 2012

  San Jose, CA I designed and organized a curriculum for a one month entrepreneurship bootcamp based on lean startup methodology. This included recruiting speakers, managing knowledge transfer between mentor handovers, and on-site supervision of the program as a lean startup coach. The program brought entrepreneurs from Mexico to the San Francisco Bay Area for education, networking, and exploring business opportunities in the United States.



faqden labs

• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Advisory Director & Lean Startup Coach

  • Jan 2011 - Aug 2011

  Advisor to a mobile app company in lean startup, product development, user experience (UX) design, and marketing. Their first product was PowerVocab, an iOS app to help students prepare for the GRE. The product line was acquired.



BUILD

• United States
• Construction

• Volunteer Mentor & Coach

  • Oct 2009 - May 2011

  Oakland, CA I volunteered with BUILD to teach entrepreneurship to high school students at Oakland Tech and help them get into college. My team designed and sold lanyards with the Oakland Tech colors.



startupSQUARE.com LLC

• Co-founder

  • May 2009 - Dec 2010

  startupSQUARE was my first lean startup. We applied the principles to invalidate our business idea. The idea didn't work, but the lean startup principles did and we blogged about our process at http://blog.startupsquare.com Our pitch was as follows: Opportunities won't wait. Every entrepreneur knows the frustration of seeing a potential business pass by because they couldn't find the right business partner, funding, or other needed resource. We enable entrepreneurship by… Show more startupSQUARE was my first lean startup. We applied the principles to invalidate our business idea. The idea didn't work, but the lean startup principles did and we blogged about our process at http://blog.startupsquare.com Our pitch was as follows: Opportunities won't wait. Every entrepreneur knows the frustration of seeing a potential business pass by because they couldn't find the right business partner, funding, or other needed resource. We enable entrepreneurship by creating a space where co-founders can meet one another and brainstorm the next big idea. Then we turn those ideas into businesses by matching them with funding, tools, and services in a virtual marketplace. But we want to go beyond that. We'd like to become a long term business partner who helps companies find the tools, services, and funding they need to thrive. We pledge to continue to push our business model further down the lifecycle of startups and tie our key metrics to the metrics of our customers. We will judge our success on the basis of whether or not we're able to increase the percentage of entrepreneurs on our site who are able to form businesses and the percentage of those businesses that succeed. In short, we want you to get your startup started! Show less



SECUDE International LLC (Vietnam)

• Chairman & General Manager

  • Feb 2008 - Feb 2009

  Originally in Vietnam for a two month period to restructure the marketing department, I was responsible for managing a team of 32.5 staff during the departure of the local GM and global CTO. Local operations included the R&D department for our Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Single Sign-On (SSO) products as well as the marketing department responsible for worldwide marketing support.

• VP & General Manager, Data Protection Division

  • Nov 2007 - Feb 2009

  I was responsible for the profit and loss of our Full Disk Encryption, email security, and file/folder encryption products. This included making all business decisions including alliances and acquisitions. I also worked with the marketing and sales teams to create the marketing plan and draft the marketing/sales collateral, white papers, presentations, and website material.

• Business Unit Manager

  • Feb 2007 - Oct 2007

  I was responsible for the profit and loss of our Full Disk Encryption product. This included making all business decisions including alliances and acquisitions. I also worked with the marketing and sales teams to create the marketing plan and draft the marketing/sales collateral, white papers, presentations, and website material.

• VP of Marketing

  • Jun 2005 - Feb 2007

  I worked with the sales team to develop and implement marketing campaigns for the North American market focusing on Single Sign-On for the SAP market. This included creating sales collateral including white papers, presentations, and product flyers. This work was done concurrent with advanced studies.



Music Industry, various locations

• Artist, Producer, Arranger, and Bandleader

  • Aug 1996 - Mar 2005

  I worked in various positions in the music industry. I recorded, produced, and edited three full length CDs and an EP (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003) as well as managed all aspects of CD manufacturing, graphic design, and layout. I established digital and retail distribution outlets, developed marketing campaigns (including print advertisements, CD release parties, and reviews), and booked national concert tours.