Discover how to hire a COO in 8 steps to drive your business forward. Learn key hiring strategies and red flags to avoid to ensure a perfect fit.
Zach Harris
CX • Product • Go-To-Market
An entrepreneur with two decades of startup, agency, and brand experience. My roles have spanned strategy and operations, product and marketing, and business consulting. I love shaping disruptive products, projects, and programs on marketing, creative, and tech teams that use data and intuition. I get excited by scopes that require unconventional thinking, complex project managment, comfort with ambiguity, and agile customer development expertise.
Testimonials
Scott Witt
Chief Brand Officer, TwillZach is a really amazing strategist and operations person. He can where many hats a think big picture. He was our partner on the client side when we worked with Twill. He played a central roles in operations managing their team, triaging issues, working on business strategy, problem solving and interfacing with vendor like Academy. I would strongly recommend working with him for any strategic or operational needs.
Adam Perlis
Founder | Managing Partner, Academy Design
Work
WTA Story
https://zachharris.xyz/wta-storySituation
The Women’s Tennis Association wanted to modernize their commercial strategy and technical. This meant starting an in-house agency responsible for editorial, advertising and sponsorship sales, creative and professional services, and strategic advisory.
Action
Initially, my scope was narrowly focused on identifying branded content syndication partners and productizing advertising and sponsorship inventory across social channels and the website directly. Early on, it became evident that the online video platform the team had selected, was leading the team astray, so I was brought in as a fixer.
Results
During my time with the WTA, I forged strategic alliances with Twitter and Facebook, which resulted in over $850K of net new revenue from their monetization programs. And managed a team of internal employees, agency partners, global service integrators, and external vendors across multiple time zones relaunching the #1 Female Sport in the World's site.
Selectable Story
https://zachharris.xyz/selectable-storySituation
Recruited by former Allen & Co I-Banker turned CEO to turn around a distressed media asset, which had fallen into receivership. At the time I was hired as GM, the company was in dire straights, with an unhealthy balance sheet. I needed to contain costs and drive revenue fast.
Action
We had to dramatically cut costs, decrease overhead, and improve network quality to attract more valuable Tier 1 brand advertisers and publishers. So I quickly established a growth plan to increase revenues and expand profit margin. After six months, it worked swimmingly.
Results
By the time I left, I'd grown top line from four to seven figures monthly and expanded the profit margin by 25%. This additional cash allowed the team to double in headcount, recruit a new Chief Technology Officer, build a social gaming ad server, and ultimately exit to Meredith Media.
IBR Story
https://zachharris.xyz/ibr-storySituation
The Housing Markets had collapsed and a new segment of housing inventory emerged the Micro Apartment and Tiny Home. At the time, there weren't any brands designing high-quality, multi-purpose, American-made furniture for small spaces. I decided to join forces with my folks to launch a multi-generational family business.
Action
We started by prototyping on interior design clients' dimes. Then we began seeing demand for fully furnished rooms. We decided to manufacture domestically in our home state of Connecticut. I spent my time leading the design and development of our eCommerce site with 86 SKUs for our Direct-To-Consumer line of business.
Results
After landing lots of organic press, we decided to explore adjacent markets and identified the right conditions for hospitality. Realizing our product line translated to boutique hospitality was a huge unlock. I shifted my focus to B2B sales and we soon landed several large hotel deals and by year four became profitable.
Experience
Floc*
Growth and Web3 Strategy Consultant
Apr 2023 - Present
Brand strategy and design for decentralized communities and web3. Clients include MetaMask, MetaCartel, MetaFactory, Uniswap, Sushi, and Bankless
- Supported leadership team on brand strategy, identity, pre-sales support, client development and market opening for team in Alicante.
Forum Ventures
Operator Network
Jan 2023 - Present
Forum Ventures is an early-stage fund, startup accelerator, and community for B2B SaaS tech startups. We're a community of B2B SaaS experts, founders and advisors.
- Mentorship, Advisory, Product & Marketing
Mañana
Founder | Fractional Consultant
Jan 2020 - Present
Fractional consultant who supports product, marketing, strategy and operations teams.
- I wear a lot of hats… Some scopes are strategy + operations, product management, special projects, strategic vendor sourcing.
Twill
Strategic Program Manager
Aug 2020 - Oct 2021
Twill exists to untangle the complexity of a fragmented healthcare system. We weave together the strands of mental and physical health into a unified digital health ecosystem.
- Supported Chief Brand Officer across a range of strategic initiatves from brand health studies, vendor sourcing and selection, strategic program management, interim chief of staff responsibilities, white space analysis, organizational design planning,
Squat New York
Head of Growth and Product Innovation
Jan 2019 - Jun 2020
Squat New York is a full-service, digitally-driven creative agency, specializing in brand strategy, development and design solutions.
- Head of Product Innovation & Tech Lead for $350 MM ARR medical diet rebrand on behalf of Private Equity firm w/ $65 Billion AUM.
Children's Tumor Foundation
Senior Director, Data and Strategy
Apr 2018 - Mar 2019
Responsible for fundraising product innovation & unrestricted fund growth. The Children's Tumor Foundation's mission is to drive research, expand knowledge, and advance care for the NF community.
- Led digital transformation moving team from Blackbaud to Salesforce. Led SalesForce CRM modernization efforts.
Wta
Head of Growth and Strategic Partnerships
Jun 2016 - Feb 2018
Founded by Billie Jean King in 1973 on the principle of equal opportunity, the WTA is the global leader in women’s professional sports.
- Led commercial and technical digital transformation and revenue growth. Landed Twitter & Facebook branded content partnerships with revenues exceeding $850. Global Website Product Owner responsible for the relaunch of #1 Female Sport In World.
IBRShop.com
Co-founder | Executive Vice President, Growth and Partnerships | D2c Brand
Jan 2012 - Dec 2016
Thoughtfully crafted furniture for small spaces. Designed & Manufactured in America.
- Product Management & Strategic Partnerships
Selectable Media
General Manager, Video Ad Network
Jan 2010 - Dec 2011
Social Monetization & Video Ad Serving
- Responsible for growing revenues from 4 to 7 figures a month. Expanding margin by 25%. And recruiting key executive hires like CTO.
Venturebeat
Strategic Video, Growth Consultant
Aug 2007 - Oct 2008
VentureBeat is the leader in covering transformative tech. We help business leaders make smarter decisions with our industry-leading AI and gaming coverage.
- Assisted Director of Business Development develop 360º video strategy and execution plan.
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