I have 25 years of experience building innovative technology companies, products and teams in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), marketing technology, computer vision, AI, business process management and media distribution.
I am an executive; product and marketing team lead; strategic advisor; and angel investor. I've led and experienced seed and venture fundraises, IPOs, successful acquisitions and several failures.
If you are looking for my resume, feel free to check my LinkedIn profile here. It will outline the companies I have served and led, and my accomplishments. Since you are here, I hope to take you through the lessons from my journey that has helped me truly understand building companies, brands and platforms.
My passion is in building great products through a customer-centric approach that understands both the entire product lifecycle and the holistic, multi-department delivery for success.
Raydiant - Computer Vision And Data Powered Digital Experience Platform
Head of AI and Innovation
I joined Raydiant as a critical part of the Perch acquisition. My mission has been to transform the Raydiant platform to be the most data-driven, intelligent digital experience platform for the physical world. My first focus was in integrating the Perch platform into Raydiant’s award-winning, modern, cloud-based platform, which we completed within 3 months.
I then built out our AI, Computer Vision, and data analytics strategy, to guide the prioritization and definition of all related product roadmapping. We are rearchitecting our data platform to take advantage of our proprietary computer vision data sources, industry leading breadth of integration into point-of-sale systems, and growing list of third party data sources. In the process, I took a struggling engineering R&D team in Amsterdam and helped them transform into the highest performing engineering team in the company.
Raydiant has been growing 357% YoY and was recently named to the Inc 5000, ranking #460 overall and #55 in the software sector.
Perch - Interactive Retail Displays Powered by Computer Vision and AI
CEO
I joined Perch in 2017, several years into its founding by technology visionary. The business had 3 years of flat revenues and the board brought me in to take the technology concept and drive towards venture growth rates. I raised money from my network and in the first year grew the business 127%, migrated to a subscription-based model, increased average deal size by over 3x, rebuilt the organization and senior leadership, rearchitected the platform, addressed operational challenges, and invested heavily in product and engineering.
Perch became the undisputed leader in Product Engagement Marketing platforms, Lift-and-Learn digital display and at the shelf shopper analytics with enterprise clients such as Macy’s, Johnson & Johnson, Estee Lauder, Coty, Invisalign, and many others.
We grew revenues 2.5x and had a $10m Series A that got pulled in March of 2020 because of Covid. Instead, we lost 70% of our ARR in the next 90 days and faced certain death without funding. I acted quickly to downsize the org, make painful sacrifices, and managed to survive and regrow the company to it’s original rev run rate and a successful exit to Raydiant in 2022.
Surviving Covid and getting to a successful exit was the most challenging of all my career accomplishments. Every investor I raised money from thought we were dead and instead I got them a multiple on their money.
Perch accolades include:
15 Tech Companies to Watch - Forbes
Top 20 Most Promising Retail Solution Providers - CIO Review
Edison Gold Medal Award for Retail Innovation (previous winners include Nike, Apple, Disney)
Winner of multiple Clio, Digi, Fast Company Innovation by Design and Pure Beauty awards
Most Influential CEO in Visual Merchandizing - Corporate Vision
Top 100 Retail Influencers - Rethink Retail, 2021-2023
Top 50 Retail Technology Thought Leaders - Retail Technology Innovation Hub
LocalVox - Local Online Marketing Made Simple
Co-founder, President and CTO
I co-founded LocalVox as President and CMO. Over 5 years, we grew the company from idea to business model to seed pitch to company formation to series A and successful acquisition by TBC Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Blackstone Group. I was in charge of Marketing, Product and Engineering as we grew the team to over 100 employees and 8-digit revenues.
I oversaw two social media technology company acquisitions, brought in the strategic partnership with First Data, and was responsible for all business modeling and deck preparation for our successful fundraises. I stayed on for two years as the company was integrated into the largest independent yellow page company and rebranded Vivial, navigating the integration of a high-margin but declining revenue business being extracted for cash flows with the next-generation, high-growth technology replacing it.
LocalVox accolades include:
One of the hottest / fastest growing NYC startups by Forbes, Business Insider and Huffington Post
A top SEO tool by VentureBeat, TopSEOs, and Entrepreneur
Best social media app by Social Media Today, American Express Open Forum and Entrepreneur
Top small business app by Wired Magazine, Good Day New York, Fox Business, LinkedIn and Forbes
Key Learnings and Experiences
Seed and venture fundraising strategy and execution. Learning from all the "no's" to get to "yes" while remaining confident in the path ahead.
Running a high-velocity product organization of 3 product managers and 12 engineers
Navigating a successful hard pivot from hyperlocal publishing company to local marketing software company and making the difficult decisions that come with that dispassionately
Managing SaaS company metrics and business modeling (CaC:LTV ratios, cohort analyses, payback periods, etc.)
Creating a large scale inbound marketing machine (2000 inbound leads per month) with minimal investment
Closing large, strategic partners as part of investment and competitive exit strategy (FirstData Corporation, Blackstone)
Merger and acquisition management and technology integration (we acquired Postling and MarketMeSuite)
Creating scalable processes for sales, client support, accounting and data management
Hiring and directly managing a 50-person organization
Deep technical understanding of local SEO, social media, social reputation management, email marketing and mobile.
Company operations - mission-driven culture development, office management, accounts payable and receivable management and recruiting
Startups are often a war of attrition. Overcoming tremendous challenges and enduring significant personal sacrifice to make LocalVox successful. It was a true test of what's needed and what you are willing to give up to make success happen.
“Trevor is incredibly talented and very versatile and working with him has been an enriching experience. He has a deep understanding of technology, marketing, and business development. I strongly believe this makes him an asset to any organization. Trevor has unmatched management skills when it comes to developing top talent. He has a deep-rooted conviction for nurturing employees and is able to provide coaching and training to scale across an organization. His vision for the market is years ahead of the curve and helped us to strategically position our company at key turning points in the market.”
Robert Henderson
CEO of JumpCrew, VP of Sales at Localvox
Weplay - For the Love of the Game
VP of Product Marketing
I was employee number seven at Weplay, a social network for youth sports funded by Creative Artists Agency, LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Jennie Finch and other high profile athletes. I was responsible for Marketing and Product Management of Media Products. Weplay was bought by TeamSnap several years after I left.
Key Learnings and Experiences
Developing highly-engaging social products that leveraged the dynamics of social communities with multiple roles and motivations (kids, parents, coaches, leagues) with 2 product managers and 8 engineers.
Integrated product lifecycle messaging and customer retention programming - a key challenge for a company struggling with sports seasonality
Created business models to support the CEO successfully raising ~$10m including supporting the CEO in board meetings
Large scale customer acquisition via SEM, SEO and social media to drive CPAs below $1.50!
"There are mission-driven people and then a step above them all is Trevor. When I'm hiring a product or marketing lead it's all about their ability to effectively get the right things accomplished and Trevor is a machine. A sharp, creative and thoughtful one, but nonetheless an execution savant."
TJ Marchetti
CMO at Awesomness TV, SVP of Digital Marketing at Disney Studios, VP of Social Media at MTV Networks, SVP of Product Weplay
Narrowstep - The TV on the Internet Company
Director of Product Management and Marketing
Narrowstep was a Digital Asset Management and proprietary Content Delivery Network (CDN) for long- and short-format IP video delivery. The solution and network was based on Windows Media Server at a time when the industry was rapidly transitioning to Flash Player. It's customers included ITV, The Discovery Channel, Syfy, and other leading video distributors. I was responsible for Marketing and quickly expanded my responsibilities to include managing the Product organization, including a brief stint as interim CTO. Narrowstep was acquired by KIT Digital.
Key Learnings and Experiences
Successful implementation of subscription payments system based on proprietary DAM integration with Cybersource and Paymentech - enabling non-advertising subscription revenue and near-term viability of the company. Quickly promoted to Head of Product managing 2 product managers.
First exposure to agile development process methodology and successful integration into the company.
Promotion to Interim CTO running all aspects of product and engineering with 8 engineers.
Responsibility for all marketing and messaging including website and brand relaunch, which doubled reach and lead effectiveness within 2 months.
Complete responsibility for management and customization of Salesforce CRM system across global sales organization. Dug deeply into sales alignment, process optimization and lead generation. Became a certified Salesforce professional.
"If I were starting a technology company from scratch, I would hire Trevor in a heartbeat as one of the core leaders in driving the product strategy. Trevor has strong technical skills, understands the technology landscape, and has a solid understanding of business fundamentals. He is creative, bright, strategic, flexible, energetic and has great leadership skills. He will be a tremendous asset to whatever organization that he joins."
Ellyn Ito
CEO of Innerstill, Chief Administration Officer at Granahan McCourt, Managing Director at Sigma Integrated Resources, SVP Narrowstep.
Lombardi Software - Business Process Management Software
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Lombardi was a leading Business Process Management (BPM) software platform. I entered the company as employee ~20 and led their New York sales efforts as the Regional Sales Engineering Lead. Over time, I transitioned into Product Marketing where I found a greater sense of ownership and was able to scale my efforts across all revenue generating activities. IBM acquired Lombardi Software for $176m.
Key Learnings and Experiences
Starting a regional office and sales territory from scratch with a Sales Director
Closing the largest enterprise deal at the time in Pfizer, Inc and growing the largest regional partner network (BearingPoint, Arvato Systems, etc.)
Reduced sales cycles by 20% by understanding the importance of sales training and marketing information accessibility. Consolidated and expanded all sales messaging and support into an Intranet that included product messaging by industry, case studies, pitch docs. Wrote most of the content. Learned a lot about writing concisely for marketing. Thanks, Jim Rudden!
My first foray into SEO/ SEM in which I doubled website traffic within 2 months of ownership and doubled lead generation by halving the cost per inbound lead
Drove 100% YoY sales growth every year I was in marketing
Lombardi also drove me deeply into understanding process, automation and scale, lessons that I would use often thereafter
"Trevor has an extraordinary skillset - technical knowledge, marketing, solution mapping to products and sales/business development. He delivers this in a simple, understandable method that creates value for any organization (including the two companies we worked together at). He has always contributed to direct revenue, patnerships and overall strategic/corporate performance. I have met few professionals like him."
Tony YI
Executive Vice President BD & GM Platform Direct, SVP of Strategy at OpenSlate, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Videology, SVP of Business Development at Narrowstep
Tantau Software / 724 Solutions - Highly Scalable, Resilient WAP Gateways and Carrier-Grade Mobile Internet Platforms
Director of Product Marketing and Technical Business Development
I started at Tantau software which was an offshoot of the High Performance Research Center of Tandem, the engineers that created the most fault-tolerant, highly available hardware/software solutions in the world. Tantau used this architecture to build carrier grade wireless Internet infrastructure to carriers (such as Sprint) and large enterprises. Tantau was acquired by 724 Solutions, the largest IPO in Canadian history for $120m in stock.
Key Learnings and Experiences
Responsible for technical and go to market strategy for the OEM group, and the team;s success became the model for the combined company moving forward.
Grew partnership revenue from $0 to $10 million in the first year earning the Tantau Performance Award
Managed product strategy and delivery through key partners such as Hewlett Packard, Sun, ZTE, Nokie and Ericcson
Understanding high availability architectures and applications. "No single point of failure," is now a life motto
Understanding that analyst predictions can be very wrong and adjusting strategy accordingly. In 2001, Gartner predicted wireless Internet would be bigger than traditional Internet in 3 years. That happened a decade later.
"Trevor was instrumental in the OEM group being responsible for not only the integration plumbing between products but the go-to-market strategy as well. He was involved from pre-sales to deployment and his product marketing/management abilities shined."
Lance Gibbs
Founder and Chairman of BP3 Global, Managing Director of Transformation Servives at Lombardi Software, Principal of Professional Services at 724 Solutions
Trilogy / pcOrder - e-Commerce, configuration and pricing for complex industries and distribution models
Head of PRODUCT MANAGEMENT AND Technical Sales - 2nd Tier Manufacturers Group
Trilogy built large scale eCommerce, configuration and pricing systems for Fortune 500 clients. They helped Boeing configure 747's, Sun configure servers, and helped the computing industry deliver products through a multi-tier distribution from Manufacturer to Distributors to Resellers to the Customer. Though Trilogy was private, the success of pcOrder led to an IPO that valued the company at over $300 million. I started as a Sales Engineer and Product Manager and was quickly promoted to the Head of Product and Technical Sales for the 2nd Tier Manufacturing Group.
Key Learnings and Experiences
Grew a new product and sales group from $0 to $4 million in revenue within the first 6 months
pcOrder was first my job out of college, during the Internet boom. I experienced all the exuberance and the consequential crash. It taught me a lot of about being resistant to hype and focusing on business fundamentals and value delivered
Learned a lot about sales and sales support, especially in emerging technology markets and traditional, large-scale organizations
Certified in SPIN Selling, Target Account Selling and other sales methodologies
"While Trevor is a savvy technologist, his true strengths lie in understanding business problems and the people behind them - a powerful combination in working on a deal. Internally, he is a joy in the office, bringing humor, passion, and fun to all those he worked with."
Michael Ma
Operating Partner at Sway Ventures, SVP of Digital Products at Bank of America, Chief Growth Officer of Betterment, Head of Retail Advertising at The Vanguard Group, Business Development Manager at Trilogy/pcOrder