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Adam Engel
Early-stage go-to-market strategist & operator
Fractional Head of Growth & Product for Seed & Series-A/B Stage B2B & SaaS startups (4x work led to raising funds); Former founder & CEO of 10k user mobile app (consumer tech); Former GTM Business Partner to $100mm channel at Yext (public AI SaaS); Also former multi-million dollar political fundraiser (conversation starter)
Work
Strategist | SmartLabs
https://www.smartlabs.comSmartLabs (Series B biotech) creates flexible spaces and provides world-class operational support to power scientific breakthroughs for emerging biotech companies – and they’re moving fast.
After rapidly closing their A and B rounds, and the bulk of their capex focused on physical expansion, they needed a capital-efficient way to support sales and marketing, so they hired me to play the role of strategist and content marketer. What started as a two-week project, has lasted nearly one year yielding over 100 assets across marketings, sales, events, web/digital and corporate comms.
Needing to simultaneously build top-of-funnel brand awareness and support sales and direct outreach, deliverables have included brand messaging and positioning strategies, persona mapping, product brochures, social media content, and a variety of other sales and marketing assets.
Strategist | EZ Newswire
https://news.eznewswire.com/news/three-female-founders-win-investments-onstage-during-san-antonio-startup-weekEZ Newswire is rewiring the way business news is written and distributed. Having proven demand with a no-code tool, they needed a strategist who could help them develop a roadmap, operationalize product development, and spearhead product and growth.
I was hired as that utility player and quickly became the head of product to bring a concept from idea to primetime. For six months, I worked with the co-CEOs on positioning and ICP development, and I led a designer, and two engineers through the full product lifecycle including scoping, designing, developing, and released a homegrown MVP in three months - followed by three months of data analysis, user research, and iteration.
My work led to the team activating Priceline as a customer within a month of being in-market, a growing user base (thanks to an increasingly effective generative AI stack utilizing LangChain and recursive prompt engineering), and the company winning a notable pitch competition.
Strategist | Goodwork
https://www.goodwork.comGoodwork is quickly becoming the go-to resource for early stage ventures who need fractional marketing support provided by A players. For their first year, I helped them as a strategist leverage the insights gained from experimentation to figure out their ICP in order make the Goodwork experience more focused and seamless.
Advisor | Solydaria
https://solydaria.coSolydaria is building next generation commerce technology that drives loyalty through personalized, direct deals powered by AI on the blockchain. Advising founding team on narrative, product, and go-to-market strategies.
Advisor | Ai Synapse
https://www.ai-synapse.ioAI Synapse is a pre-seed sventure automating SDR-level work in order to make sales more human again. I am an advisor focused on go-to-market strategies.
Founder | IN., the together app
https://www.areyouin.ioIN. is a consumer mobile app that enables people to more easily spend time together by removing friction in the planning and spending journey.
I founded and led the company from 0 to 10,000 active users. Things snowballed in 2019 when we interviewed 432 individuals about their experiences traveling and partying with friends, and discovered an opportunity to bring several familiar features into a single, unified experience that made getting together and having a great time easier.
By 2021, we used a prototype to raise nearly a half-million dollars from tech leaders, formed a founding team of four, brought on seven incredible advisors (with backgrounds like Airbnb, Uber, UBS, Bridgewater, Orbitz, Bankrate, rent.com, Teamsnap, Oracle, and more), and hired world-class fractional consultants to solve what turned out to be an incredibly difficult problem to solve.
The app continues to grow today, although it is now a project on the back burner given that the team has disbanded.
Experience
Self-employed
Product & Growth
Nov 2022 - Present
I partner with founders as a thought partner and a trusted extra pair of hands to drive customer-centric decision making.
- Led B2B AI media platform from 0 to activating Priceline as a customer
- Spearheaded branding and positioning for Series B biotech labs startup
- Led ideation and solutioning projection for pre-seed blockchain founders
- Assisted in customer discovery strategy creation for seed-funded AI agent platform
IN.
Founder & CEO
Mar 2021 - Nov 2022
Founded and led a social communications, collaboration, and cost tracking tool for groups of consumers to more easily plan and enjoy time together. We raised a pre-seed round from tech leaders, attracted an advisory board of world-class professionals, and grew from 0 to 10,000 users.
- Raised nearly a half-million pre-seed
- Activated 10,000 consumers
Yext
Growing Channel Revenue Business
Oct 2017 - Aug 2021
Worked in several capacities growing the $100mm channel revenue business which included selling and training digital marketing agencies as well as innovating with and activating the liked of IBM and Accenture. I also led enablement for the business, training 100+ partner managers, account executives, and customer success managers.
- Built and grew adoption of a self-serve training platform for partners
- Trained the business through an entire pivot of company's go-to-market strategy
- Designed playbooks that enabled Accenture to build and go-to-market with Yext
- Sold over $1M ARR in reseller partnerships
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