Paul O.
5.0
(3)
Admissions Committee at Columbia Business School
Works at University of Southern California
Available tomorrow at 4:30 PM UTC
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Work Experience
Incubator Director & Adjunct Professor
University of Southern California
2014 - Present
Interviewer
- Founded highly-competitive startup accelerator program (and also the 2nd largest in LA) for companies led by USC alumni, faculty, and students. Selected 250+ portfolio companies across AI, SaaS, edtech, healthtech, VR/AR, robotics, apparel, consumer packaged goods, food/beverage, and more. Guided and advised company founders to build teams, to acquire customers, to improve unit economics, raise $350M+, to generate tens of millions in revenue, and to be acquired. - Established program strategy, built culture and values, allocated hundreds of thousands in grants, recruited company advisors. - Teach university classes including analytical growth marketing, feasibility analysis, and venture initiation, making complex topics understandable. Provide companies access to hire top talent. - Created a business roundtable that supported 50 businesses impacted by COVID-19. - Author of six case studies for Harvard Business Publishing. My cases are used by corporates and universities to understand industry opportunities, reasons for success, and innovation models. Forecasting, Market Planning and +13 skills
Founder
Startups Unplugged
2012 - Present
Interviewer
I help companies grow in a few ways. 1) I help companies understand and improve their unit economics, through data analysis and value proposition exploration. 2) I build incubator/accelerator programs to help companies and communities thrive. 3) I help teams understand how to judge and benefit from the impact timing has on their market entry or investment. A few examples of past work: - Interim Head of Growth for a Series A company, where I optimized their conversions and improved retention and margins. - Built the Volunteers of America Futures Fund Community Health Incubator. Worked with the $1B organization that serves 1.2M people per year, along with the Humana Foundation, to build and roll out a national program focused on product innovation and investment related to social determinants of health (https://www.voa.org/community-health-incubator). - Appointed to lead an environmental tech / cleantech startup accelerator that combined VC with social impact guidance from the Vatican in Rome. Identified tech companies with potential to impact large populations in emerging economies. Selected companies for investment ($100K+) (https://www.fastcompany.com/40424655/inside-the-vaticans-tech-accelerator-thats-targeting-climate-change). My involvement ended in 2017. - Founded Hong Kong’s first funded startup accelerator, AcceleratorHK. Identified market opportunity and raised investment. Created a successful strategy by understanding local culture, investment climate, and government partnerships to build positive ROI where others could not (https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/17/meet-acceleratorhk-hong-kongs-very-first-startup-accelerator-program/). - Workshops for Fortune 500 companies on innovation and market entrance timing. market entrance timing, pitching and +17 skills
Co-Founder, Co-CEO
Chatfe
2009 - 2011
Hiring Manager
Transformed the way people communicate by developing the Chatfe technology platform, which created deep interactions for online and offline communities by phone or browser conversations. Especially targeted for patient recovery-related communications. Built founding and supporting team. Iterated through many product and design changes based on user actions. Sold platform to online communities, generating revenue. Developed new products to monetize user talk interest and trends. Microsoft BizSpark winner. Businesses that used Chatfe had much higher user time on site and interactivity. Sales, Forecasting and +10 skills
Senior Management Consultant
BearingPoint
January 1997 - December 2008
Interviewer
- AT&T: Product development and business development, including developing and selling carrier and enterprise-grade VOIP products. Highest revenue producing team member (70%). Created an equipment leasing product that increased department revenues by 10% and enabled new market entry. Sold product to multiple large enterprise customers. - LECG and BearingPoint: Management Consultant, focused on tech strategy for Fortune 100 companies. Built a new internal consulting practice. Advised on a $500M infrastructure investment, multiple data center, and tech strategy projects. Sales, New Market Expansion and +11 skills
Education
Columbia Business School
Master of Business Administration - MBA
Admissions Committee Experience
Strategic Thinking, Corporate Venture Capital and +8 skills
Cornell College
BA, History
Admissions Committee Experience
Strategic Thinking
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