Julie@Smartnow.com
San Francisco Bay Area
Julie@Smartnow.com
San Francisco Bay Area
I began my career at Clorox in brand management and joined the software industry in the 1980s shepherding the growth of early product leaders in the packaged software space like PFS. After a selling and marketing software in Europe for nearly 7 years, I joined the entertainment software world as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Berkeley Systems. Promoted to CEO, I had the phenemonal opportunity to work with the creative team who transformed the company from its Flying Toaster heritage to a break-out gaming company with the introduction of YOU DON'T KNOW JACK, one of the best selling CDROM games in the 1990s. We were early innovators in Internet gaming world, bringing You Don't Know Jack online along with a few other games developed in-house. After, Berkeley, I joined Reel.com as CEO, the first ecommerce site to sell movies on the Internet. With a few great promotions, alot of focus and some early viral marketing, we exploded Reel.com into a $25M company within 18 months. Reel.com was then sold to Hollywood Entertainment within two years of my tenure for nearly $100M.
I am probably best known as the CEO of Pets.com, the leading pet supply company with its famous sock puppet. That was the ride of a life time. The Internet bubble burst and I was in position of either running the company to bankruptcy or shutting it down to return money to shareholders. I chose the latter returning a small amount to shareholders. Tough decision made with the support of worldclass team and board.
I have been recognized as one of the top women in technology by MicroTimes, the San Francisco Business Times and other organizations. I have been regular speaker at industry events such as Comdex, universities such as Harvard and Purdue, and the California Governor’s Conference for Women.
Internet, Consumer, Technology, Branding, Managing to a P&L, Hiring GREAT talent