About
As an Operator/Founder who started my career in Silicon Valley 30+ years ago, I understand how to solve for the pain points of building a business in a competitive and dynamic environment.
I’ve developed effective strategies to streamline execution and drive performance across key operational areas.
My operational experience spans a wide range of roles (CPO, COO, Founder) business models, company size and categories including digital media, software-as-a-service (SaaS), ecommerce and digital service providers among others.
Now, I leverage that experience to help CEOs, startups and mid-size companies break through executional gridlock and elevate company performance.
Perspective
My career journey has been intentional, with a focus on exploring opportunities that would broaden my outlook by delving into different industries and new roles. As a result, I’ve been able to stack a diverse range of experiences, knowledge, and insights one upon another that now form the foundation of my operational philosophy. I’ve had an unobstructed view of success and failure which has, among other things, equipped me with the ability to understand them both.
I’ve cultivated the habit of approaching each opportunity with a beginner’s mindset. This approach, I believe, has allowed me to discover unique insights and forge innovative connections that domain experts might overlook.
My career diversity also reflects my curiosity, a desire to learn and to be challenged. I’ve prioritized continuous improvement and dedicate time to exposing myself to new ideas and voices. You can see what I’m currently consuming via the content bar on this site. For more details on my background, read on.
Work History
My work experience spans three decades though in “digital years” it’s more like three lifetimes or three “Webs” (1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc). I started as a self-taught programmer and UX designer in the Bay Area in the mid 90s. I worked for several big brands (Sun, Bank of America, Nike) and was a part of the team that built Levi Strauss’s first ecommerce site and Nike’s first in-store kiosk. I was working alongside people who would go on to play major roles at Google, Salesforce, Meta etc.
After a few years working as a freelance developer/designer, I co-founded a VC-backed company (eWork Exchange) focused on leveraging the internet to build a project marketplace (an early version of Upwork) and software to enable remote work in 1999. I was the ‘technical’ founder and built the first version of the product while raising 15M over several rounds. The European division of the company still exists today and went public in 2010.
I left eWork in 2002 and moved to Los Angeles where I held various programming, product and analytics roles. During that time, I was a member of the founding team of an IAC-incubated startup that was later sold to Liberty Media.
Later I ran Product and Mobile efforts for a large public Auto Parts ecommerce company before moving into operations as COO for Onestop, an ecommerce services company focused on the fashion industry.
At Onestop, I oversaw Platform development (product, technology and analytics), Warehouse logistics and a Photography studio. Onestop was later sold to Branded Online.
Most recently, I was COO at Jukin Media, a digital and media entertainment company, when we had a 9-figure exit to Trusted Media Brands (Deal Coverage). At Jukin, I was responsible for all internal operations (content operations, production, product/technology/analytics, HR etc) including building out a 100+ person team in India to mirror all US-based operations. I was also responsible for strategic planning and a member of the team that shepherded the deal to close.
- “I've seen at every level people who are very good at describing problems, people who are very sophisticated in explaining why something went wrong or why something can't get fixed, but what I'm always looking for is, no matter how small the problem or how big it is, somebody who says, 'Let me take care of that,'"
- Barak Obama