I help startups start up!
San Francisco Bay Area
- Past
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- Senior Product Manager at Meraki
- Managing Director - Contract Position at thinkSmart LLC
- Sales and Business Development Consultant at thinkSmart LLC
- CEO and Founder at Spark Parking
- MBA at Kellogg School of Management
- Founder and Owner (Part-time position) at Cooper's Real Estate
- Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Califa Foods
- Director of Sales and Business Development at digipop
- Founder, Owner, Co-op Managing Member at Slug Books Co-op
- Education
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- Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- Recommended
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- Industry
- Internet
Cooper Marcus’s Experience
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Senior Product Manager
Meraki
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Networking industry)
April 2008 — October 2008 (7 months)
• Hired as first titled Product Manager at this Sequoia/Google-funded wireless networking+SaaS startup. Laid off due to economic downturn.
• Organized and updated all PRDs to align engineering, product management, sales, and marketing on the state of the product.
• Developed and socialized process and tools for engineering to communicate product improvements to sales and marketing.
• Facilitated new tools and processes to close the loop between customer feedback and engineering priorities. Improved Meraki's reputation as "responsive to customers".
• Designed, launched, and managed a "Customer Council" to efficiently gather early feedback on unreleased products and features from key customers. Streamlined the presentation of feedback to engineering and marketing teams.
• Gathered and presented insights on requirements for future products and features that would appeal to a new and strategically important customer segment. -
Managing Director - Contract Position
thinkSmart LLC
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
October 2007 — April 2008 (7 months)
• Managed nearly all aspects of this database marketing services and hosted application development firm.
• Responsibilities included P&L, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Product/Service Management, and Client Management.
• Grew both recurring and overall revenue by over 40% in 8 months while maintaining profitability.
• Designed sales process, developed lead lists, made cold calls, qualified prospects, presented services, drafted proposals, negotiated contracts, and closed sales.
• Increased engagement and revenue with existing clients by securing projects with new business units.
• Deployed new business development strategy utilizing industry partners to recommend and resell services.
• Implemented and refined advertising programs.
• Recruited, interviewed, and hired engineering and sales staff.
• Researched, implemented, and trained staff to use new ticket tracking, release management, and wiki systems.
• Improved staff morale, productivity and policy/procedure compliance. -
Sales and Business Development Consultant
thinkSmart LLC
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
August 2007 — September 2007 (2 months)
• Designed, implemented, and managed sales process utilizing lead generation, cold calling, contact management, and online demos.
• Implemented and customized Salesforce.com for sales management - trained users, commenced regular reporting of key sales metrics to senior management. -
CEO and Founder
Spark Parking
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Services industry)
July 2005 — July 2007 (2 years 1 month)
• Developed business plan and launched innovative parking management and technology services company based on applied wireless sensor networking and mobile phone payments.
• Raised capital from individual investors.
• Hired engineering, marketing, and operations staff.
• Invented, specified, and filed for multiple patents.
• Rapidly developed advanced knowledge of state-of-the-art parking management theory, practice, and technology. Was invited speaker at events including the International Downtown Association and the World Parking Symposium.
• Developed product specifications and supervised software development. Negotiated with multiple suppliers to secure pre-release access to key hardware components.
• Guided marketing strategy development. Reviewed, selected, and implemented CRM system.
• Sold parking management services to multiple private and municipal customers. Conducted all aspects of sales process from lead generation to contract negotiations and closing. -
MBA
Kellogg School of Management
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)
September 2003 — June 2005 (1 year 10 months)
See description below in Education section.
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Founder and Owner (Part-time position)
Cooper's Real Estate
(Real Estate industry)
March 1993 — December 2003 (10 years 10 months)
• Invested in residential real estate, managed tenants, remodeled properties. Converted apartments into condominiums. Achieved average annual after-tax returns of 25%.
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Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Califa Foods
(Partnership; 1-10 employees; Food & Beverages industry)
December 2001 — August 2003 (1 year 9 months)
• Conceptualized, planned, launched and managed a gourmet packaged foods company. Achieved profitability in year 2.
• Marketed and sold the company for a 250% ROI in 2.5 years. -
Director of Sales and Business Development
digipop
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
March 2001 — September 2001 (7 months)
• Developed and managed projects at this entrepreneurial web development company. Streamlined work process to facilitate productivity gains.
• Made sales presentations to customers. Secured new accounts sufficient to maintain flat company revenues amid a dramatic industry and economic downturn.
• Sold and architected digipop's largest ecommerce project to date, including integration with customer’s ERP system. Customer soon became no. 1 online vendor in their industry. -
Founder, Owner, Co-op Managing Member
Slug Books Co-op
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Retail industry)
October 1994 — December 2000 (6 years 3 months)
• Founded a low-profit corporation and self-financed its growth into a 38+ employee, $750,000+/year textbook retailer and job training center.
• Developed and implemented an innovative cooperative management structure that has been critical to the organization’s lasting success.
• Competed successfully against an entrenched and subsidized monopoly. Acquired 20% market share in 4 years.
• Delivered gainful employment and valuable job training to over 100 students and recent graduates.
Cooper Marcus’s Education
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Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
MBA , Majors in Technology Industry Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship & Innovation , 2003 — 2005
Received Top Student Award (1 of 15 in 800-person graduating class) in Technology and E-Commerce.
- Activities and Societies:
- President of InNUvation Forum, Northwestern’s cross-discipline entrepreneurship organization. Founding member of the Kellogg Pilots club, active member of High Tech, Marketing and Social Impact (socially aware business) clubs.
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University of California, Santa Cruz
BA , Environmental Studies with focus on Urban Planning , 1991 — 1995
Was awarded college honors & highest honors in major. Received Deans Award and Chancellor’s Award (1 of 4 in 2000-person graduating class) for senior thesis on social and environmental effects of telecommuting and teleactivities. Grade point average 3.9 out of 4.
- Activities and Societies:
- Volunteered and was employed as outdoor activities leader and instructor; organized and led backpacking, rafting, rock climbing, and sea kayaking trips. Active Student Center government member.
Additional Information
Cooper Marcus’s Interests:
Product management, entrepreneurship, teaching, photography, snowboarding, cooking.
Cooper Marcus’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
