Chief Product Officer @ Firehorse
I'm a product and marketing leader. I enjoy building products that make users' jobs easier. I headed marketing for six startups. I also headed sales in one of those roles. Sat on the board of a non-profit startup for seven years. Spent six years at Intel in global partner marketing. So my experience is multifaceted. I look forward to helping you solve your challenges, like finding product/market fit, building AI agents, advertising (managed a big ad budget at Intel), analytics, staffing, partner/channel marketing, content marketing, product-led growth, marketing operations, revenue operations, and more.
Content is king after all. In 2023 the game is changing rapidly with generative AI reaching a breakout moment. Although we're still early in the hype cycle. I can advise on how to experiment to find a recipe that works for your brand, and then how to scale that recipe.
I hate leaky funnels. Or flywheels. I've spent a lot of time and resources trying to design funnels and flywheels that only leak minimally. Ultimately, it comes down to two things: 1) how well does your product satisfy the demand, and 2) how easy do you make it for strangers to become leads to become customers to become advocates?
I've overseen the marketing and sales tech stack for five different startups. I can advise which apps are best for your situation and how to configure them to serve you best.
I'm very familiar with most of the well-known project management and task management apps (Asana, Trello, Monday, ClickUp, Google Tasks, Todoist, Motion, and more). To a slightly unhealthy degree actually. I can advise on time management and productivity processes to fit your needs.
I have overseen the HubSpot instance for several startups, both B2B and B2C. I also migrated one of those startups from Marketo to HubSpot and wrote about the experience here: https://jonfalker.medium.com/how-and-why-we-migrated-from-marketo-to-hubspot-in-one-week-4afe9fec1113
I oversaw the use of Intercom as an integral part of a PLG self-serve sales and onboarding process for a B2B SaaS app. We used it for a public, search-optimized, knowledge base, as well as for lead qualification, free trial deployment, upsell, and paid customer onboarding.
I have led marketing for three SaaS apps. One B2C and two B2B. The B2B companies are quality and regulatory intelligence for life sciences companies, and product management software focused on empowering continuous discovery and helping weave it into continuous delivery.
Redica Systems is a data analytics platform for the life sciences industry, helping to improve product quality and reduce regulatory risk. As our head of marketing, I'm helping to create a brand and a category around Quality and Regulatory Intelligence. Part of that includes helping pharmaceutical and medtech companies see what is possible with analytics built on a unique and powerful dataset like ours.
I led marketing for Homesuite, which I rebranded to 2nd Address. The company is a two-sided marketplace for corporate housing. Think of it like a mini-Airbnb, but focused on corporate housing. Part of my job was to help balance our supply and demand so that we had a healthy market clearance in each of our geographical territories. I was also in charge of helping our Hosts make the most attractive home profiles possible. The competitive field was crowded at the time.
As Chief Product Officer at Firehorse, I’m responsible for product strategy and vision, customer discovery, roadmap and prioritization, and translating real-world enterprise workflows into scalable AI/ML-enhanced systems. I partner closely with engineering, design, and go-to-market teams to deliver products that are easy to use and outcome-driven.
I partner with executive leaders and forward-looking organizations to shape marketing strategies that set the stage for next-level growth, including go-to-market strategy, communications, brand positioning, messaging, product marketing, demand generation, media strategy, and marketing stack optimization. Representative engagements include: ▪️ Leading the marketing team at a $30M+ DTC CPG company, improving growth and operational efficiency. ▪️ Foundational product and marketing lead for a seed-stage AI/ML startup in the commercial real estate space. ▪️ Set a new messaging strategy to build awareness, consideration, and new client acquisition for a real estate private equity firm with over $3B in gross asset value.
Redica Systems helps life sciences companies maintain high quality throughout their supply chain and reduce regulatory risk. My role is to lead our marketing team, build our brand, and grow/strengthen our business.
I led marketing for this quickly growing data center real estate developer.
I coordinated the marketing and growth strategy, including brand, owned / earned / paid media, messaging, marketing collateral, events, and product marketing. I led experimentation, iteration, and business transformation to drive results against core metrics. ▪️ Evolved model from sales-led to product-led growth. ▪️ Designed sales funnel around free trial. ▪️ Introduced subscription payments management system. ▪️ 3X MRR in 3 months via content, SEO, and paid search. ▪️ Forged strategic partnership with a larger app company, enabling co-branded content while building relationship with potential acquirer.
Here, I was accountable for brand strategy / management, customer lifetime value (CLV), messaging, brand identity, positioning, and product marketing. I managed growth marketing to ensure scalability and efficiency. I crafted the media strategy across owned (website, SEO, social, blog), earned (public relations, corporate communications), and paid media. ▪️ Rebranded company from Homesuite to 2nd Address. ▪️ 30% increase in organic traffic. ▪️ Page 1 Google search results for several keywords. ▪️ Improved listing photo quality for Hosts: increased bookings 15% and enhanced user loyalty. ▪️ Increased brand awareness and preference.
I served on the board of this impactful non-profit gap year organization. TBB offers students academically meaningful study abroad options between high school and college. Our world-class curriculum focuses on the world's most challenging problems, like public education, agriculture, public health, and climate change/ecological stewardship. It seeks to answer the question: "What is development?"
I oversaw creative press campaigns and partnerships to amplify brand visibility and awareness. Advising on marketing strategy, I developed and deployed the partner marketing program across 50+ partners, boosting partner retention, wallet share, and channel sales. ▪️ $300K in savings per year and gained greater control over campaigns / spend by revamping partner marketing incentive mechanism (MDF). ▪️ 75+% boost in partner-sourced leads. ▪️ 2X branded assets used by partners. ▪️ -25% cost per lead with SEO-based automated lead gen. ▪️ 5-figure media impressions with Painted Lady campaign, including press day and media attendance for open house.
I managed the global partner marketing relationship between Intel & four of our largest OEM partners: Sony, Acer, ASUS and Dell. Past ad campaign examples below. Responsibilities included crafting global marketing strategy plans and budgets, paid/owned/earned media plans and content strategy. Worked with media agencies to optimize the media plan using marketing analytics and attribution analysis. Acted as the global GTM hub, coordinating regional and country-level plans in order to achieve global marketing communication consistency as well as budget optimization across various fund sources. Held responsible for both brand and sales KPIs.
I revamped market sizing, market segmentation, and growth forecasts. I led the global consumer go-to-market planning team, shaping the long-term plan and sharing market intelligence. I also led the consumer marketing strategy between marketing managers and HQ tactical execution teams. ▪️ Coordinated the roll out of the New 2010 Core Family, representing 50+% of the company’s revenue in 2010. ▪️ Designed product naming strategy for Intel Core processors.
(Company has since grown into Plant Prefab.) Planned and executed social media campaigns and brand building for this leader in sustainable home building during my business school internship.
Worked on the global marketing strategy team and covered visual computing and mobility for consumer and social media for enterprise for my summer projects. At the conclusion of the summer, Intel made me an offer to return full time after graduation from USC Marshall, despite the fact that the economy was melting down in August of 2008.
In this early role, I led sales and marketing, including business development and pricing. I managed contracts, scoped projects, onboarded clients, and managed vendors / partners. I also developed and deployed integrated marketing and B2B SaaS sales strategy. ▪️ 400% growth in 2 years. ▪️ More than 7X client base. ▪️ +75 average contract size.
A boutique real estate development firm focused on manufacturing facilities in Mexico. I researched the company's potential entry into the sale/leaseback industry. This followed a three month stint in 2001, living in Mexico and working with one of Cambridge's local architecture and construction partners.
