ABOUT
I'm a technology product management professional located in Los Angeles. I have contributed to tech startups from pre-seed-stage to series-C-stage since 2010, and have specialized in product management since 2013. Industries have included restaurant analytics, document management SaaS, clinical research, and trucking logistics.
I'm currently the CEO of Vendorflow, a SaaS communications provider for the logistics industry.
EDUCATION
University of California, Berkeley - May, 2009
B.S. in Business Administration, Walter A. Haas School of Business
B.A. in Economics, College of Letters and Sciences
WORK
MAR 2018 – MAR 2020Principal Product Manager, Group Product Manager
- - Managed 1 PM and mentored several PMs on strategy, project planning, and stakeholder management
- - Led the development of a ‘ground-up’ re-build of core product after assessing legacy system scalability
- - Delivered ‘ground-up’ MVP in 4 months, and implemented product adoption feedback loop to track progress
- - Co-authored company Mission, Vision, and Values with company leadership
- - Composed quarterly OKRs with product organization, and drove cultural shifts toward lean that enabled OKR success
NOV 2016 – FEB 2018
Product Manager
- - Devised and executed plan to build critical-priority CRM features and release incrementally over time
- - Implemented maintenance development track to expedite release of bugs and minor enhancements by 50%+
- - Catalyzed decision to re-org tech department away from contractors in favor of in-house talent
- - Guided build vs. buy decisions and recommended adoption of industry-standard telemedicine and marketing software
FEB 2013 – JUN 2016
Director of Sales (APR 2015 - JUN 2016)
- - Doubled annual recurring revenue and monthly deal volume in one year
- - Closed dozens of Fortune 500 and publicly-traded clients across finance, pharmaceutical, energy, tech, and more
- - Worked closely with founders to shift sales strategy from ‘whale-hunting’ to scalable, predictable revenue model
- - Led team of two Sales Reps, three Sales Development Reps, and one Sales Analyst
- - Identified #1 inbound lead channel for new business and established exclusive partnership with channel owner
Senior Product Manager (FEB 2013 - APR 2015)
- - Evolved product culture from ‘idea-driven’ to customer-and-data-driven, resulting in initial product-market fit
- - Directed product roadmap based on customer feedback, feasibility, and long-term company goals
- - Designed critical functionality overhaul, simplifying complexity of QA process by reducing testing permutations
- - Implemented support standards and processes. Support quality is the top-cited benefit in client testimonials
- - Reduced support tickets per customer by over 50% by applying support data to product roadmap
Sole Founder
- - Designed mock-ups, wrote user stories, cut prototype development time by 40% by identifying work-around
- - Tested prototype using lean start-up methods to determine concept feasibility
Copilot Labs [Acquired by OpenTable]
APR 2010 – APR 2012Co-Founder, Director of Sales and Marketing
- - Gathered product feedback from clients to improve product development for iOS, POS, and web products
- - Conducted competitive analysis of restaurant POS industry to guide product development prioritization
- - Established relationships with Yelp, Scoutmob, and 50+ merchants such as Fairmont Hotels and Il Fornaio
- - Composed blog entries that were featured in Screenwerk, SF Chronicle, SF Weekly, and Street Fight Magazine
Bloomspot [Acquired by Chase Bank]
APR 2010 – FEB 2011Sales Operations Analyst, Accounts Payable Analyst
- - Conducted merchant surveys for product feedback
- - Established optimal pricing strategies to maximize revenue, identified outbound lead prioritization strategy
NOTES
2009 – 2012
- - Proposed 1st-prize winning class “Strategic Philanthropy” in UC Berkeley's Curricular Innovation Contest
- - Spoke at TEDxBerkeley 2010 about class to 700 in auditorium with 156,000 livestream viewers
- - Curriculum offered as upper-division class for four semesters at the Haas School of Business
- - Awarded additional $10,000 in annual funding from Doris Buffett’s Sunshine Lady Foundation
Skills
Agile Methodologies, CSS, HTML, JavaScript (Novice), JIRA, Salesforce, Slack, Spanish (Novice), SQL (Novice),
Trello, Zapier, Zendesk
Notes
Built ericrrod.com and mypitchmonkey.com using Amazon Web Services (S3 and Route 53), Blueprint CSS, and jQuery. Started career at Restaurant Gary Danko, #1 restaurant in San Francisco (Zagat 2008-2010). Cited as one of seven “high-achieving graduates” at Haas School of Business 2009 commencement. Alumnus of Beta Alpha Psi, Honors Business Fraternity.
RESUME
CONTACT
