Dave Schappell

Current

Founder and CEO at TeachStreet.com

Past

VP Marketing and Product Development at JibJab Media, Inc.
VP Marketing and Communications at Unitus
Independent Professional (Self-employed)

Director of Product Management at Amazon.com
Planning and Analysis Manager; Tax and SEC Reporting Manager at Commonwealth Bancorp
Senior Auditor / Consultant at Arthur Andersen

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3 more...

Education

The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School
Penn State University

Schuylkill Valley High School

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1 more...

Recommended

13 people have recommended Dave

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Dave Schappell’s Summary

Experienced manager, recruiter, innovative problem solver. Amateur poker superstar and expert dogwalker. Consumed with Email and Calendar issues.

Dave Schappell’s Specialties:

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, e-commerce, online auctions, Product Development, Product Management, Branding, Product/Company Evangelism, Building Relationships, Technology, User Experience, User Retention via Communication, Web 2.0, Blogging, Podcasting, Analytical Skills, Project Management, Fundraising / Resource Development, Public Relations, Accounting, Microfinance and Microcredit

Dave Schappell’s Experience

Founder and CEO

TeachStreet.com

(Privately Held; Online Media industry)

May 2007 — Present (2 years 7 months)

TeachStreet is a new website built to help students of any age find great local teachers and classes, and to empower teachers with robust online tools to manage their teaching businesses. The site isn’t geared towards online instruction, but rather the facilitation of face-to-face meetings between teachers and students.
VP Marketing and Product Development

JibJab Media, Inc.

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)

July 2006 — May 2007 (11 months)

My job was to help make people laugh, by making JibJab easier to find, addictive to use and disruptive to worker productivity everywhere.

I helped lead the re-launch of the JibJab website in May 2007, including:
- Redesign of all website elements enabled significantly improved ease-of-use
- Introduced a Content Management System for rapid creative rollout by non-technical personnel
- Significantly improved Media Player
- Rails / Database migration
- Advertising-enablement of website

Implemented Search Engine Optimization techniques that significantly increased (2-3x) generic search placements for non-brand keywords.

Helped lead four major video launches (Great Sketch Experiment, Do I Creep You Out, Nuckin' Futs, and What We Call The News). Garnered several Tonight Show with Jay Leno appearances, Digg homepages, Techcrunch writeups and widespread blog coverage.

All in all, I am quite proud of my accomplishments at JibJab -- the team just rocks.
VP Marketing and Communications

Unitus

(Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; International Trade and Development industry)

May 2005 — July 2006 (1 year 3 months)

Unitus is a nonprofit organization creating innovative solutions to global poverty using a venture capital model. Unitus dramatically accelerates the growth of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and demonstrates that many MFIs can be run as profitable, large-scale, poverty-focused businesses with links to formal capital markets. As of June 2006, Unitus had 10 MFI partners worldwide serving more than 718,000 poor clients. Based in Redmond, WA, USA, Unitus also has an office in Bangalore, India. For more information, please visit: www.unitus.com.

In this role, I managed the marketing, communications and fundraising teams, helping to build awareness of our mission and then enlist and cultivate our supporter base. During my 14 months we more than tripled our online traffic, subscribers and donor base. I continue to support Unitus as an Advisor and would be happy to share information about microfinace, microcredit and/or Unitus's unique approach to broadscale poverty alleviation.
Independent Professional

Self-employed

(Self-Employed; Myself Only; Internet industry)

October 2004 — April 2005 (7 months)
Director of Product Management

Amazon.com

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; AMZN; Internet industry)

May 1998 — October 2004 (6 years 6 months)

Product management, product development, marketing
Planning and Analysis Manager; Tax and SEC Reporting Manager

Commonwealth Bancorp

(Banking industry)

1993 — 1997 (4 years )

- Managed team that coordinated $2.1 billion budget process; made monthly presentations to senior management.
- Coordinated cross-functional team that prepared registration statement and proxy materials for $99 million IPO.
- Composed and coordinated preparation of 1994 and 1995 Company Annual Reports, and all SEC-required reports.
Senior Auditor / Consultant

Arthur Andersen

(Accounting industry)

1990 — 1993 (3 years )

- Performed consulting and auditing engagements for real estate, banking, insurance and non-profit clients.
- Passed Pennsylvania’s Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination in 1992.

Dave Schappell’s Education

The Wharton School

Marketing, Strategic Management August 1997 — May 1998

Activities and Societies:

Technology Club
University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School

MBA , Marketing , 1997 — 1998
Penn State University

B.S. , Accounting , August 1986 — May 1990

Activities and Societies:

Tau Kappa Epsilon
Schuylkill Valley High School

Diploma , Astrophysics , 1982 — 1986