- Founder2017 - PRESENTMHUG Ventures
- Worked with a startup's founding team to establish and document a clear product vision and value proposition prior to raising investment.
- Optimized eCommerce user funnels through iterative landing page improvements and persona-driven marketing, to increase sales conversions.
- Consulted with the founding team to implement a learning framework and develop financing plans prior to fundraising.
- Managing Director2015 - 2017Yavi
- Successfully created a legal spin-out of a product team and IP from a parent company.
- Built and motivated a team of 12 from the product, operations, and marketing fields.
- Established user-centered practices for the product as a popular HR tool with 4.9/5 stars.
- Crafted a compelling product and financial narrative during fundraising and secured £1.5 million.
- Innovation Manager2013 - 2015Kotikan, Ltd
- Advised management on innovation and lean practices, driving alignment amongst management team.
- Built and managed a dedicated Lean product team that quickly and cost-effectively validated product opportunities.
- Initiated and managed an Agile computer vision R&D project with internal and external stakeholders.
- Incubated and spun-out an IP and team from an agency into a new venture.
- Honed Agile PDM skills at the agency that developed native apps for Skyscanner and Fanduel.
- Led deep MVP-driven explorations of the on-demand workforce opportunity space.
- Co-founder | Manager Director2008 - 2012Spinsight, Ltd
- Drove the successful productization and commercialization of R&D work.
- Built and managed an external sales/development partnership that ultimately resulted in an acquisition.
- Hired and built a team of six, including four engineers and a sales executive.
- Raised grant and equity funding of ~$750,000 for R&D and product development work.
Alex McAndrew
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Member since November 2, 2018
Alex has over a decade of experience building teams, products, and ventures from the ground-up—ranging from a computer vision startup, internal corporate ventures, to consumer eCommerce ventures. He's passionate about building and motivating teams and has done so in the sports media industry, mobile app development, and the HR tools market.
Alex is now available for hire
Project Highlights
- Led the product team that launched Yavi—a 4.9-star mobile-first HR offering—used across many of the largest intl retailers.
- A proprietary real-time Ultra HD video system that was launched into two of North America's biggest sports leagues.
- Designed and developed a proprietary straight-to-customer customized-book offering which was launched with rave reviews.
Expertise
- Fundraising
- Leadership
- Product Management
- Project Management
- R&D
- Team Building
- User Experience (UX)
- eCommerce
Education
- University of Edinburgh
Employment
Project History
- Yavi AppLed the product team that launched Yavi—a 4.9-star mobile-first HR offering—used across many of the largest intl retailers.
Yavi was a communications platform used by hundreds of teams across retail and fast food giants like Aldi, Ikea, and Pizza Hut to help them work more productively. By replacing paper processes, putting workers in control, and providing a user experience on par with consumer alternatives, we created a product that our users truly loved to use (iOS: 5/5 stars).
Because Yavi was adopted by retail workers from the bottom up, we were able to build an organic sales pipeline into a variety of enterprise accounts.
Alex assembled the team—both new hires and from the parent company—with careful attention to the cultural and motivational challenges arising from a spinout. This included stakeholder management within the parent organization, establishing communication frameworks that kept everyone aligned on vision and progress. - K2 Panoramic VideoA proprietary real-time Ultra HD video system that was launched into two of North America's biggest sports leagues.
I grew and managed a team of six to develop a real-time video solution used across many of the biggest names in soccer and rugby. Our panoramic video solution helped establish an industry standard in coaching and media solutions.
In addition to real-time video processing, we designed and developed our own electronic systems to administer in-stadium camera installations.
The computer vision research was conducted by an in-house team and deployed in a CUDA environment.
I also managed a sales and development partnership across time zones that led to an acquisition in 2012. - Onki BooksDesigned and developed a proprietary straight-to-customer customized-book offering which was launched with rave reviews.
On this project, I assembled a remote team to develop Onki Books—a web app that collects users' photos and assembles them into high-quality, custom-illustrated printed board books.
In the consumer-facing web application, particular attention was placed on the UX challenges of getting the user through the entire pipeline, particularly given the 75%+ mobile users. The project also included the back-end management of "processing jobs" that were handled by the staff.
I also implemented project management practices to overcome challenges in managing a team across multiple time zones.
Our commercial success was recognized with strong referral rates and high average basket sizes.
Education
- Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Computer Science and Management Science2004 - 2008University of Edinburgh - Edinburgh, Scotland
