| Cornell University, B.S. (Engineering) | 1996 |
| Computer Science, Cognitive Science |
Ontela
Mike is an inventor and product leader at heart. His professional passion is creating new products: forging designs that are simple and enjoyable to use, working day in and day out with great teams, and interacting with the market to make these ideas into reality. He gets his biggest thrills leading product advancements, learning from the market as it reacts, and seeing things really gel when a great product/market fit is achieved.
Mike has built products and led teams for more than 15 years, and focused on early stage startups for the last 6. Prior to his current roles he led marketing and production for Seattle Startup of the Year, Zipline Games, founded a TechStars mobile gaming company, started a mobile product and marketing consultancy, and served as a mobile products and internet services executive at Photobucket and Ontela. Prior to his start-up work, Mike spent nearly a decade leading teams to develop new products and improve some of the most-used software in the world at Microsoft (Excel, Outlook, SharePoint, Frontpage, Office). Mike has 11 patents to his name and 7 additional patents pending.
Skills: • Product management: team leadership, product planning, interaction design, usage metrics and goals, conversion goals and measurement, art direction, program management, release management, project management, algorithm and technical design, user research, technical documentation • Marketing: goal-setting, mobile app monetization, mobile app customer acquisition, positioning, messaging, content creation, branding, public relations, marketing and advertising analytics, product naming, and promotions • Engineering management: aligning output with the business, hiring, agile/scrum, spiral, and waterfall • IP portfolio development and management Specialties
