- Vice President, Product Development2017 - 2019Quantarium
- Led the business strategy, development of new products, marketing, and sales operations processes for a software engineering and Cloud computing business unit. I oversaw the implementation of core business metrics, revenue modeling, and customer and partner development.
- Developed a platform that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision to make predictions and provide home valuations in the real estate industry.
- Designed, developed, and implemented a corporate spin-out from the parent company. Planned to unlock latent business value and position the company for an over 100% compound annual growth rate.
- Directed product development strategy, and the successful launch of a new Amazon Web Services B2B eCommerce portal to achieve greater distribution of products and services.
- Cultivated the development of an innovation and intellectual property pipeline, including the filing of numerous new patents.
- Designed and implemented business plans to grow booked revenue from $5 to $50 million in five years.
- Chief Product Officer2015 - 2017Trensant
- Led the development and commercialization of Trensant’s patented portfolio of graph databases, text analytics pipelines, machine learning algorithms, and SaaS API’s–with monthly venture-funding, and an international development team of data science and software engineering Ph. Ds.
- Secured board approval, and implemented a new Software as a Service (SaaS) business model, assembling value proposition, sales motion, and P&L to achieve geometric revenue growth with only linear increases in cost.
- Successfully launched a new SaaS API, and landed numerous channel partners including Microsoft, Domo, Qlik, Tableau, and PointLogic.
- Recognized by Gartner Group as a 2013 “Cool Vendor” in the Content and Social Analytics category.
- Principal Program Manager, Artificial Intelligence2013 - 2015Microsoft
- Led the technical program management for several artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives on behalf of Microsoft Research’s Academic Outreach team.
- Developed and led the functional design of core features for Project CodaLab, and over 60 online Executable Papers for computer scientists to enhance productivity and consistency in data-driven research.
- Hosted and enabled over 200 machine learning data science competitions.
- Identified and retained collaborators to specify, design, develop, and launch http://www.codalab.org as an open source, GitHub-hosted project.
- Established and grew a highly specialized and technical community of machine learning experts from zero to over 3,000 members.
- Managing Partner2011 - 2013Inception Capital Management
- Boutique venture firm specializing in secondary offerings.
- Facebook shares (pre-IPO).
- Twitter shares (pre-IPO).
- Genprex shares (pre-IPO).
- Director, Business Strategy and Market Development2010 - 2011Microsoft
- Established new partnerships on behalf of Microsoft Research Asia for product development, technology transfer, and strategic sourcing with software development partners.
- Led Microsoft's innovation and market access agenda with the Chinese government, industry, and academia.
- Managed a USD 150 million P&L supporting an organization of 130 people.
- Grew Microsoft's investment in the China Partner Ecosystem by over 33% or USD 50 million.
- Established the company's first formal Market Research function focused on Microsoft Partners in China, unleashing a wave of Sino-Centric insight.
- Enterprise Partner Marketing Manager2007 - 2010Microsoft
- Drove executive engagement for Microsoft's top 150 Financial Services customers, expanding to cover Enterprise Partners across all sector and industry verticals.
- Conceived and delivered a balanced portfolio of relationship marketing programs to enhance Microsoft's relationships with CxOs, incorporating their feedback into actionable initiatives that drove Microsoft's solution, product, and business development.
- Secured a $1.3 billion per year marketing pipeline in financial services during the fiscal year 2008, fueling a 12% CAGR in sector sales.
- Increased Microsoft’s marketing-influenced enterprise partner sales pipeline during the economic downturn of 2008-2009 by 26% or $1.8 billion per year across all sector and industry verticals.
- Redesigned the Microsoft Enterprise Marketing’s entire business architecture, enabling teams of industry analysts to nearly double their customer-facing time while halving the time required for operational tasks.
Erick Watson
Seattle, WA, United States
Member since May 6, 2019
Erick has over 15 years of experience as a technology product and market development leader. His has extensive expertise in R&D, sales and marketing, program management, and strategic operational planning and change.
Erick is now available for hire
Project Highlights
- Developed and led the functional design of core features for Project CodaLab.
- Led the development of a patented Internet Human Opinion Search Engine and resulting knowledge graph.
- Led the design, construction, and operation of a boutique 1,400 square foot, 1 Megawatt, 2.1 PetaHash, Tier 3 data center.
Expertise
- Agile
- Customer Development
- Financial Services
- Kanban
- Scrum
- Software as a Service
Education
- Louisiana State University
Employment
Project History
- CodaLab Platform for Reproducible Research and Data Science CompetitionsDeveloped and led the functional design of core features for Project CodaLab.
Led the technical program management for several artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives on behalf of Microsoft Research’s Academic Outreach team.
- Human Opinion Search EngineLed the development of a patented Internet Human Opinion Search Engine and resulting knowledge graph.
Led the development of a patented Internet Human Opinion Search Engine and resulting knowledge graph, which led to the parent company being acquired for this technology.
- Blockchain Mining Data CenterLed the design, construction, and operation of a boutique 1,400 square foot, 1 Megawatt, 2.1 PetaHash, Tier 3 data center.
Led a team of industry experts in the specification, site selection, construction, provisioning, and operation of a Tier 3 data center designed for ASIC blockchain mining of Bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies. This included the definition of all operational processes, such as maintenance, security, power, and heat management.
Education
- Bachelor's degree in Linguistics1989 - 1993Louisiana State University - Louisiana, USA
