Consumer Software

Get 1:1 advice from experienced consumer software experts

Martin Oliva

Martin Oliva

Chief People Officer - Fountain
Strategy & Ops Expert
doordash
pepsico

Martin is an experienced CHRO with expertise in all things People and Hiring. Most notably, Martin was at DoorDash during the time the company went from Series D to a $75B IPO at the NYSE. During this time, the company’s headcount grew from 400 to 5k+ under Martin’s leadership. Martin currently serves as Chief People Officer at Fountain, which empowers the world’s leading enterprises to find the right people through smart, fast, and seamless recruiting.

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Hiring
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Leadership
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HR
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DoorDash
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Recruiting
See pricing & availability
Nadim Cheaib

Nadim Cheaib

Product Lead - Google
AI + DeepMind Expert
Google
Morgan Stanley

Nadim is a product manager in the tech industry. He leads efforts to build next-generation, AI products for Google Search, YouTube, Bard and Workspace. During his 10+ years at Google he has worked on a number of projects, including scaling Google's Ad Extensions business by millions of $ in ARR, as well as leading business and product strategy teams. He has also worked as a software engineer at United Nations and investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Nadim's experience spans across the US, Europe, and the Middle East. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

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Product management
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Generative AI
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DeepMind
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Software engineering
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Investment banking
See pricing & availability
Mallory Contois

Mallory Contois

Head of Community - Mercury
Community Expert
Mercury
Cameo

Mallory leads the founder community at Mercury and is the founder of a 2k+ member, paid community called the old girls club. She was on the early teams at Pinterest, Compass and Cameo focused on growth loops and product/revenue strategy, then served as COO of a gaming startup through a series A fundraise. Her expertise is growth marketing, user-led growth, and startup operations.

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Community
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Product-led growth
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Pinterest
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Cameo
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Mercury
See pricing & availability
T Zhu

T Zhu

Co-Founder & CEO - Tellus
Fintech & Proptech Expert
Tellus
Zazzle

T Zhu is the co-founder of Tellus, a smart savings platform powered by real estate backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Alumni Ventures and Decent Capital. He previously founded and scaled a number of companies, including Sodacan, a social consumer mobile app startup that released Sip, an anonymous, location-based photo sharing app (top 50 on the US App Store), and More Corn (acquired by Answers.com) a Facebook apps company that was the seventh largest developer on the Facebook Platform. Zhu is a Stanford University graduate who enjoys assisting both technical and operational founders with their day-to-day, scaling/growth, cultural, and execution challenges.

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Raised $25M
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a16z
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Top 50 App Store
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More Corn (acq.)
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Stanford University
See pricing & availability
Antoine Bohannon

Antoine Bohannon

Head of Inclusive Engineering - Snap
Diversity and Inclusion Expert
Snapchat
Activision

Antoine Bohannon is an engineering and people leader. He currently oversees the Inclusive Engineering at Snap. His expertise lies in improving efficiency, supporting people, and optimizing product development. He covers a wide range of topics, including hiring, well-being, career development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). His experience is rooted in guiding companies through startup, growth, and expansion phases, where he helps develop talent and guard against costly pitfalls and roadblocks.

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Snap Inc.
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DIRECTV
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Activision
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2K
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Inclusive Engineering
See pricing & availability
Josh Auffret

Josh Auffret

Head of UX Programs & Operations - Google
Product Marketing Expert
Google
Disney

Josh Auffret is an accomplished digital media and entertainment leader with over 25+ years of experience developing innovative digital campaigns and content solutions for some of the world's top brands. With extensive experience in product development, creative design, UX, and go-to-market strategies, Auffret excels in driving operational excellence. He is adept at account management, online marketing, and brand management, consistently delivering impactful results and enhancing brand value.

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Google
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Disney
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NBC Universal
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Paramount
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UCLA
See pricing & availability
Chris Yeh

Chris Yeh

Partner - Blitzscaling Ventures
Co-Author of Blitzscaling
Blitzscaling Ventures
Harvard Business School

Chris Yeh is a writer, investor, and entrepreneur who has been in the world of startups and scale-ups since 1995. Co-author of the bestselling book Blitzscaling together with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Chris offers advice and mentorship on on how to build and scale your business. Hundreds of companies, from garage-dwelling startups to Fortune 50 titans have tapped his knowledge and insights to accelerate and transform their businesses. As the Founding Partner of Blitzscaling Ventures, he helps founders rapidly scale their companies, fundraise and figure out how to crack new markets. Prior to his investing journey, he was the CMO of Target, and started his career as a PM at D.E. Shaw in the 90s.

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NYT bestseller
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CMO Target
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Venture Capitalist
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Harvard MBA
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Blitzscaling Academy
See pricing & availability
Tim Specht

Tim Specht

Co-Founder & CTO - Dubsmash
Consumer & Social Expert
Dubsmash
Reddit

Tim Specht is the Director of Engineering at Reddit and the Co-founder and CTO of Dubsmash, a TikTok competitor that he successfully started, grew, and sold with over 250M installs and 160M users. Specht has spent over a decade working with startups across the US & Europe, helping them execute, develop their vision & grow best-in-class engineering organizations. He has extensive experience leading projects in distributed systems at scale, large-scale native mobile development, and mentoring founders and engineers to help them grow & succeed. Tim was named to Forbes' 30 under 30 for social media in 2022.

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Forbes 30 Under 30
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Founded Dubsmash
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250m app installs
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160m users
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Acquired by Reddit
See pricing & availability
Edvard Engesaeth

Edvard Engesaeth

Co-Founder - Nurx
Telehealth Expert
NURX.
Union Square Ventures

Dr. Edvard "Eddie" Engeseath, MD is the Co-founder of telehealth startup Nurx, angel investor, startup advisor, and a former family physician. He founded Nurx to make prescription birth control more accessible. The company has since grown into a full-service telehealth startup in the prescription medicine delivery space and is backed by some of the world's most prestigious VCs such as Union Square Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Y Combinator, to name a few. Nurx has been featured on Y Combinator's list of 100 most valuable startups several years in a row. Eddie has made appearances on ABC, CBS, and NBC, and has been featured in Scientific American, New York Times, S&P Global, USA Today, and Forbes, among others. An active angel investor, he is passionate about helping entrepreneurs and aspiring founders looking to build great startups that help shape the future.

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Founded Nurx
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Acq. by Thirty Madison
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Raised $100M+
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Y Combinator
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YC top 20 exit
See pricing & availability
Anada Lakra

Anada Lakra

Co-Founder & CEO - BoldVoice
EdTech Expert
Boldvoice
Y Combinator

Anada Lakra is the co-founder and CEO of BoldVoice, a Y Combinator-backed startup that provides accent training to non-native English speakers. Anada previously worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. and as a product manager at Peloton. She graduated with honors from Harvard Business School and was named to the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 list for Education in 2022.

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Y Combinator alum
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Forbes 30 Under 30
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McKinsey & Co.
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Peloton
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Harvard MBA
See pricing & availability
Itay Forer

Itay Forer

Co-Founder - Cleanly
Y Combinator Alum
Cleanly
Initialized Capital

Itay Forer co-founded Cleanly, an on-demand laundry & dry cleaning service backed by YCombinator (W15), Initialized Capital, Soma Capital, Paul Buchheit (creator of Gmail), and NFL legend Joe Montana. He is a serial entrepreneur, board member, mentor/coach, and active angel investor who has built a startup from the ground up to a 400+ person workforce. Specializes in PMF and scaling companies from 0 to 10. As a mentor & coach, he has helped over 300 founders realize their full potential.

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Y Combinator alum
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GTM strategy
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Building sales team
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Finding PMF
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Scaling startups
See pricing & availability
Praful Mathur

Praful Mathur

Founder & CEO - Sarama
Y Combinator Alum
Sarama
Y Combinator

Praful Mathur is the founder and CEO of Sarama, a deeptech startup that uses AI to determine intent from barks i.e. crude translation. He was previously the co-founder and CEO of Shotput, a Y Combinator-backed startup that built APIs for instant logistics. He raised capital from Nexus Venture Partners, Initialized Capital, Y Combinator, Techstars, and MHS Capital. Before that he started Amp Idea that introduced credit card machines & ad units to Boston Cabs which was sold to a Fortune 500 payments company. He graduated from Northeastern University with a bachelor's degree in computer science and enjoys helping founders develop products from the ground up.

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Y Combinator alum
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Initialized Capital
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Customer acquisition
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Performance marketing
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Organic growth
See pricing & availability
Rune Hauge

Rune Hauge

Co-Founder & CEO - Mentorcam
Fundraising Expert
Mentorcam
Y Combinator

Rune Hauge is the co-founder and CEO of Mentorcam (YC S21), angel investor, and startup advisor. Before co-founding Mentorcam, Rune founded three different startups with one successful exit as a founder. He has raised millions of dollars in venture capital from top-tier Silicon Valley VCs like General Catalyst and Goodwater Capital and several high-profile angel investors. He took Mentorcam through Y Combinator in the summer of 2021 and raised $4M at a $27M valuation in their seed round. A lifelong believer in continuous learning and development, Rune is passionate about mentoring other founders and building products that empower people's lives.

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Mentorcam
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Y Combinator
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General Catalyst
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Goodwater Capital
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Raised $4M+
See pricing & availability
Ilya Usorov

Ilya Usorov

Co-Founder & CTO - BoldVoice
Y Combinator Alum
Boldvoice
Y Combinator

Ilya Usorov is the co-founder and CTO of BoldVoice, a Y Combinator-backed startup that provides accent training to non-native English speakers. He has eight years of software development experience, specializing in React Native mobile apps for iOS and Android, as well as practical knowledge of building React web apps, node.js on the backend, SQL and Mongo based DB environments. Prior to founding BoldVoice, he was the Director of Product Engineering at Section4, an edtech startup that has raised over $37M in venture capital from General Catalyst, GSV Ventures and Learn Capital. In addition to this, Ilya also holds a bachelor's degree in Finance from NYU's Stern School of Business.

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Y Combinator alum
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React Native
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SQL
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Mongo
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iOS and Android
See pricing & availability
Joey Flores

Joey Flores

Founder - Inversion Art
Creative Industries Expert
Inversion Art
Y Combinator

Joey Flores is the founder and Managing Director of Inversion Art, an accelerator for artists. He has over 20 years of experience launching, growing and scaling startups. In 2010, he co-founded Earbits, a music streaming service designed to prioritize the needs of musical artists. He raised venture capital from Y Combinator and top angel investors and went on to serve over 15,000 artists and 600 record labels, before being acquired in 2015 by You42. In 2019, he was invited to design and lead a startup accelerator for the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. Joey has experience in marketing, business development, product design and development, and is an advisor to numerous venture-backed startups.

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Earbits founder (acquired)
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Y Combinator alum
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Raising from angels
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Product development
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Marketing
See pricing & availability
Jason Meltzer

Jason Meltzer

Ex-Head of Operations - Mentorcam
Co-Founder of Wag!
Mentorcam
Wag!

Jason Meltzer is an accomplished entrepreneur, board member, and investor known for his expertise in building and scaling successful businesses. As the founder and former CEO of Wag!, he was instrumental in transforming the startup into the world's largest pet care company and a leading player in the pet industry. Wag is now publicly traded on NASDAQ. Jason's experience goes beyond startups, with notable success as an investor and advisor in various ventures. His passion for team building, mentoring, and empowering others drives him to help individuals achieve their goals. Additionally, Jason possesses skills in deck review, marketplaces, and fundraising, making him a valuable resource for entrepreneurs seeking guidance in these areas.

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Wag!
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Mentorcam
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Scaling startups
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Pitch practice
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Product-market-fit
See pricing & availability
Eli Schwartz

Eli Schwartz

Author - Product-Led SEO
SEO and Growth Expert
Survey Monkey
Scribd

Eli Schwartz is an SEO expert and consultant with more than a decade of experience driving successful SEO and growth programs for leading B2B and B2C companies. He helps clients like Shutterstock, Gusto, WordPress, BlueNile, Quora, Getaround, Mixpanel, and Zendesk build and execute Global SEO strategies that dramatically increase their organic visibility at scale. ​ In the past, Eli led the SEO team at SurveyMonkey, building organic search from nearly zero to one of the largest growth drivers at the company. He helped launched SurveyMonkey’s first APAC office and oversaw international SEO pre- and post-IPO.

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SurveyMonkey
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Mixpanel
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Zendesk
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Y Combinator
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Duke University
See pricing & availability
Rogelio Choy

Rogelio Choy

CEO - Cars & Bids
Marketplace Expert
Cars & Bids
Eaze

Rogelio "Ro" Choy is the CEO of Cars & Bids, . Previously he was the CEO of Eaze from 2019 to 2022, a cannabis-focused on-demand marketplace, where he led it's growth from less than $2OM to $2OOM+ in revenue. Prior to Eaze Ro was the CEO of BitTorrent (acquired by TRON blockchain), CBO of Luxe (on-demand valet parking app, acquired by Volvo), Director of eBay's Auto Group, and Strategy Consultant at Bain & Company.

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Scaled rom $20m - $200m
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CEO BitTorrent
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CEO Eaze
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CBO Luxe
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Bain & Company
See pricing & availability
Nikhil Desai

Nikhil Desai

CTO - Mentorcam
Product Engineering Expert
GoToMeeting
LendingClub

Nikhil Desai is a seasoned technology executive having a prolific career spanning two decades. Throughout his tenure, he has guided teams to success in both startup environments and large corporations. His notable past experiences include creating GoToMeeting, a cornerstone in remote communication; the LendingClub platform, which revolutionized peer-to-peer lending; and the Earnest student finance platform, known for its innovative approach to education financing. In his latest role as Mentorcam's CTO, he is focusing on delivering unparalleled expert advice, mentorship, and training to empower both individuals and businesses.

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Earnest
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LendingClub
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GoToMeeting
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CNote
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Product engineering
See pricing & availability
Daniel A. Chen

Daniel A. Chen

Head of BD - Brightside
Wharton MBA
Simple Things
Wharton

Daniel Chen is the Head of Business Development at Brightside, a financial care solution that helps working families improve their financial health. He started his career as a Senior Auditor at KPMG Canada, then moved on to work as an Assistant Controller at eBay before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey with Lightside Games and Levanto Financial. Prior to joining Brightside, Daniel served as Quicken's Head of Business Development, where he oversaw partnerships and launched new businesses. In addition to this, he has an MBA from Wharton Business School and is a certified public accountant.

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Brightside
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Quicken
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eBay
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KPMG
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Wharton MBA
See pricing & availability
Tristram Hewitt

Tristram Hewitt

Ex-VP of Operations - Turo
Startup Growth Expert
Turo
Outschool

Tristram Hewitt is an experienced ops executive with a track record of scaling companies like Turo (Series B to E) and Outschool (Series A to D). His expertise covers customer ops, risk, insurance, go-to-market, and company operations in marketplaces, mobility, and edtech. Tristram excels at data-driven problem-solving and has prior experience at Bain. He got his degree from Harvard and holds his MBA from the University of Chicago.

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Turo
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Bain & Company
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Outschool
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Intrax
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Harvard University
See pricing & availability
Matthew Erley

Matthew Erley

Ex-Head of Growth - Drizly
Growth Marketing Expert
Drizzly
Oldtom

Matthew Erley is a startup growth and marketing executive, advisor, and investor. He has provided 100+ growth audits to both consumer and B2B startups. Matthew has proven experience with early stage startups, developing effective growth programs, building teams, and scaling. Past Head of Growth at Drizly, VP of Growth at Havenly, and Chief Growth Officer at Stella.

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Thunderbird MBA
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Angel Investor
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Fortune 500 Advisor
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Speaker eTail
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Asian Markets Expert
See pricing & availability
Tobias Bengtsdahl

Tobias Bengtsdahl

Founder - memmo.me
Growth Expert
memmo.me
Wolt

Tobias is a sales-focused founder who launched and localized memmeo.me, an app for personalized video messages from celebrities, in 15+ markets. During his time with memmo, Tobias helped creators earn millions and reached $10m+ in revenue in year 2. He recruited 150+ employees in the first 20 months and experienced hypergrowth firsthand. During his time with memmo, he raised $25m in funding from top tier investors like FJ Labs and Left Lane Capital. Tobias started his career as an Account Executive and held various sales and operations leadership roles before launching his own company. He uses these learnings to work with fast scaling direct-to-consumer growth leaders – supercharging and scaling their sales and operations.

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Scaled to $10m+ revenue
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Built 150+ person team
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Sales & operations
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Recruiting for growth
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Consumer sales
See pricing & availability
Charlie Depman

Charlie Depman

Co-Founder & CTO - RidePanda
Climate Tech Expert
Ride Panda
General Catalyst

Charlie Depman is the co-founder and CTO of Ridepanda, a climate-tech mobility benefits platform that helps employers like Amazon reduce Scope 3 CO2 emissions, meet clean air mandates, offer their employees flexible commute options, reduce costs, and retain talent. He has over 8 years of experience in the mobility and sustainability space as an engineer, having pioneered some of the world's most cutting-edge mobility technologies at Bird, Scoot Networks, and now Ridepanda, which has raised venture capital from Porche Ventures, Yahama Motor Ventures, and General Catalyst. Charlie has extensive experience establishing technical infrastructure for startups, leading product development, and working with hardware-focused tech.

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Bird
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Scoot
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General Catalyst
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Porsche Ventures
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Green mobility
See pricing & availability
Jon Foley

Jon Foley

CRO - Alcott Consulting
B2C Sales Coach
opentable_svg
FourSeasons_svg

Jon is a high-growth revenue leader with over 16 years of leadership experience, having held executive-level positions at both OpenTable and Medely. At OpenTable, Jon had the opportunity to scale sales teams from 10 to 75 team members and contributed to significant growth of the business. Notably, Jon played a key role in increasing OpenTable's sponsored ad revenue from $9M to $50M. During Jon's tenure at Medely, he spearheaded the expansion of the revenue team from 12 to over 100 individuals. He oversaw the growth of Medely's revenue by 141%, leading to a substantial increase in revenue, exceeding $200M.

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Sales strategy
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Sales team hiring
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Revenue growth
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OpenTable
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Medely
See pricing & availability

What Does a Consumer Software Mentor Do?

A consumer software mentor serves as a trusted advisor to consumer software founders by offering them personalized insights and practical advice. Consumer software advisors have extensive experience in the consumer software industry, which they use to guide early-stage consumer software startups that are looking to develop innovative consumer apps.

What Is Consumer Software?

Consumer software products are software applications specifically designed to be used by consumers (rather than businesses). The consumer software industry encompasses many different kinds of applications. Common consumer software examples include: 

Consumer applications are designed to provide solutions that meet the demands of everyday users. Developers of consumer apps typically prioritize user-friendliness and accessibility to make the software as easy to adopt as possible.

The software market is growing quickly across many different niches. For example, the Know Your Customer (KYC) software market is expected to reach $9.5 billion in size by 2028, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.7%.

Enterprise Software vs. Consumer Software: What’s the Difference?

The key difference between consumer software and enterprise software is the target audience. Consumer software is designed for individual end-users, whereas enterprise software is designed to meet the needs of businesses and organizations.

Consumer Software

Consumer software is sold directly to consumers (which is why it’s sometimes called direct to consumer software). This category includes applications like financial planning software for consumers, video editing software for personal use, and other tools that enhance individual productivity, provide entertainment, or meet another common need.

Enterprise Software

On the other hand, enterprise software is developed specifically for organizations. It’s designed to facilitate business operations and often takes the form of an entire software system rather than an independent software application. Examples of enterprise software include:

Enterprise software usually includes more complex functionalities and integrations than consumer software does in order to support business processes like customer service, project management, or data analytics.

What Can a Consumer Software Mentor Do for You?

A consumer software mentor can be an invaluable source of support for consumer software startup founders. Mentors have extensive firsthand experience in the consumer software industry and can share tips to help you build and scale your consumer software business.

Mentorcam’s consumer software mentors are the ideal startup advisors to help you position your consumer software product for long-term profitability. With the technical expertise and industry knowledge of one of Mentorcam’s mentors at your disposal, you can significantly enhance your chances of success.

Related areas of interest: Fundraising, Product Development, eCommerce