Building a platform for small businesses to get paid for over SMS. http://populace.io I'm a product person and entrepreneur with roots in Neuroscience and QA. I've started companies, led growth at organizations that were later acquired, and been the first product hire at hot startups. It's a wild ride. Servant-leadership is my M.O., and building effective teams around promising products is my goal. I like development processes that put people first and situations where saying "no" to good ideas is a privilege, not a burden. Contact me about product advice, cool hardware projects, or if you've found a good markdown-to-google-docs workflow (why does that not exist?).

CEO & Co-Founder @ Populace is a lightweight platform that enables small-business owners to more effectively grow their business and manage their customers. It is built for local entrepreneurs whose success in the on-demand economy is hampered by juggernauts forcing them to either be cut off from their customers or even shutter their doors. With Populace, small business owners are empowered to handle CRM, payment, and scheduling over SMS. By leveraging a pervasive and simple platform for customer engagement, dog walkers, maids, handymen, and more can now focus on what matters most: building their business. The product unifies these critical functions into a single dashboard, complete with insights into customer and business performance. The Populace team was incubated by Blue Ridge Labs, an accelerator run by the esteemed Robin Hood Foundation headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. The product is currently in beta and targeting a Q1 2016 broader launch. From August 2015 to Present (5 months) Summer Product Fellow @ Using technology to solve problems affecting NYC communities. http://labs.robinhood.org/fellowship/ From June 2015 to Present (7 months) Product Manager @ First Product hire for the full stack of developer tools in the DO cloud. I am formulating a workable strategy to bring developers the services that enable them to build and scale their own projects, implementing and managing a high-visibility product-development process, and building out the product roadmap for the year and beyond. Running multiple streams of development in an Agile (scrum-ish) context. From August 2014 to April 2015 (9 months) Greater New York City AreaCEO & Co-Founder @ Was the product lead on a subscription-model homebrew kit business. Grew to $5k MRR in 2 months and maintained steady growth over a year. Contributed to RoR codebase and ran marketing/PR efforts. From July 2013 to July 2014 (1 year 1 month) Brooklyn, New YorkProduct Manager @ I worked with an awesome team building new features on top of a great streaming video service. Our service reached 5m+ monthly uniques and spanned a variety of products, from an original content news service to set-top Video-on-demand apps for SmartTV, Roku, and mobile. From July 2012 to July 2014 (2 years 1 month) new york, nyDevelopment Lead, Product Lead @ Collaborated to build a gorgeous and interactive iPad children's book From November 2011 to November 2012 (1 year 1 month) Greater New York City AreaProduct Manager @ I worked with a great team owning and designing a great (deadpooled) product. Responsibilities included: rapid prototyping, wireframing, and working closely with engineers and upper management. I spent the rest of my time studying and QA'ing competing products and analyzing our product performance. From February 2011 to July 2012 (1 year 6 months) Greater New York City AreaQA Engineer @ I was the point person for all testing on iOS, Android, and web as each release occurs. I used lots of automated and manual tools to ensure we put out the best product we can. From February 2011 to July 2012 (1 year 6 months) Greater New York City AreaQA Contractor @ I provided freelance QA services surrounding a major release for the Mixel iPad app. This included developing a test plan and executing it off-site while the engineering team continued to make minor revisions to the feature set. I also provided product and QA advice regarding future features and sustainable/automated regression testing of the UI. From March 2012 to April 2012 (2 months) Greater New York City AreaPeer Review Specialist @ I was in charge of corresponding with Editors and Authors regarding the peer review process. I focused primarily on the technical end of the process, configuring and building tools for editorial staff to use on a daily basis. From November 2009 to February 2011 (1 year 4 months) Nature Educator @ I was an educator of small children for a summer. Myself and one other educator ran a small nature museum and created interactive exhibits for the children. We also curated a selection of live animals from the surrounding area and were responsible for their upkeep and well-being. From June 2009 to August 2009 (3 months)

Bachelor of Science, Neuroscience @ The College of William and Mary From 2005 to 2008 Albemarle High School From 2001 to 2005 Samuel Gimbel is skilled in: Product Management, Product Roadmapping, Agile development, Product Strategy, Product Analysis, Mobile Applications, Rapid Prototyping, Feature Design, Ruby on Rails, Entrepreneurship, Mobile Devices, iOS development, Copywriting, Brewing, Agile Methodologies