Startup Mentor | Coach
2018 - PRESENTTechstars- Worked with 100+ startups at Founder Institute (global accelerator) to define their business model and go-to-market, interview and survey customers, define product strategy and roadmap, and launch product MVPs to validate market assumptions.
- Worked with 15+ high-growth startups at Techstars Berlin (an $18.2 billion accelerator) to built their value proposition, identify assumptions and risks, do market research, define product strategy, and build web/mobile MVPs in multiple industries.
- Mentored Flowr at the Imagine2030 (a sustainable mobility incubator by the German Government) building an energy storage system to charge EV fleets in cities, and having financial transactions by reselling energy back into the grid.
- Worked with Beelinguapp (an education mobile app with 3 million users) on carrying out customer research, identifying opportunities, building an opportunity roadmap, and launching A/B tests to increase onboarding, retention, and revenue metrics.
Head of CRM Digital Ventures
2021 - 2022The Kraft Heinz Company- Led a 15-member team of cross-functional builders to build three disruptive startups by building MVPs.
- Designed the innovation and discovery process for the CRM department to identify 200+ ideas and validate 30+ ideas in a few months.
- Interviewed 100+ people and built 30+ landing pages to discover customer problems and validate potential solutions.
- Reported to the chief growth officer (CGO) and VP of digital transformation.
Interim VP Product
2020 - 2021Fintech Co.- Defined the product vision, strategy, go-to-market, customer journey, and customer pain points. Launched 15+ discovery and design sprints to interview customers, build mobile prototypes, launch MVPs, and validate assumptions with thousands of users.
- Managed the delivery team of 10+ people with Agile and Scrum to deliver a fully working, compliant mobile investing app. Defined the product roadmap, sliced product releases, managed the product backlog, and led scrum sprints.
- Led the design and marketing team to deliver marketing assets like a product video, landing page, and community that helped create a waitlist of 40,000+ users.
Lean Product Manager | Innovation Consultant
2019 - 2021LEANCrush (Self-employed)- Launched several discovery-and-design sprints (build of the MVP) to validate market/product assumptions, MVP, and version 1 of their product for Hulecos SA (a deep-tech and mobile app stealth company).
- Worked for Offerista GmbH (the largest DACH consumer network with a 39.5 million reach) and trained senior management in lean, created a new business department, launched discovery-and-design sprints for a product for Kaufland (food retail company).
- Launched a new healthcare product in Germany for Menavitin GmbH (a spin-off from Pelion the largest Polish healthcare operator with a $2 billion revenue) by executing discovery and design sprints; directly reported to the CEO and board of directors.
Co-founder | CEO | CPO
2011 - 2018Proudsugar- Managed and led growth, product, and analytics teams for more than 15 projects that resulted in increased revenues for eCommerce, SaaS, app, and lead generation with conversion rate optimization, lean and agile methodologies.
- Led a team of six, implemented web analytics, interviewed/surveyed customers, identified opportunities, redesigned the UX, and launched A/B tests for MROSupply (eCommerce with 1 million SKUs for mechanical parts) resulting in $5 million/year sales.
- Led a team of seven, added analytics, launched surveys, optimized customer journey, built a testing roadmap, redesigned UX, and launched A/B tests for Openme.com (an eCommerce startup that was sold to Rowl), resulting in over 33% in sales in <3 months.
- Led a team of nine, added analytics, surveyed and interviewed, redesigned UX, road mapped, and launched A/B tests for Plug.dj (a web/mobile music startup with 7 million users), resulting in higher retention of 120,000+ new users/year in <3 months.
- Worked with a team of 15, added analytics, did user research, built an opportunity roadmap, and launched A/B tests for Moviepilot (a movie content platform that sold to Webedia), resulting in higher onboarding for 520,000+ users/year in <4 months.
- Worked with a team of seven, implemented web analytics and created dashboard reports for Pluto.tv (an internet TV startup that sold to Viacom for $300 million). This led to identifying product conversion problems, UX redesigns and better KPIs.
- Led a team of five for Discuto.io (a B2B SaaS ideation and collaboration platform with 20,000+ users), implemented analytics, performed user surveys/interviews, launched a UX redesign, resulting in higher onboarding of 35%, as well as 2x retention.
- Led a team of four for Explorable (an educational platform with 4 million visitors/month), implemented web analytics, did user surveys/interviews, launched a roadmap of A/B experiments, and built an MVP. Increased engagement by 30% and sales by 25%.
CMO
2011 - 2011Wunderlist- Worked for Wunderlist: the best to-do list app in the world, with over +10 million users that sold to Microsoft for +$100 million.
- Led the marketing and design team of seven people from 2 million to 4 million app downloads.
- Delivered a pre-launch event for Wunderkit campaign that attracted over 500,000 users.
- Led the creation of Wunderkit's new website from ideation to pre-launch.
Co-founder | CEO | CPO
2010 - 2011Lowffer- Worked for Lowffer: a mobile recommendation app that allowed users to discover the best geo-located offers.
- Led a team of six people from definition to launch and improvement; it had about over 40,000 users.
- Executed the pre-launch campaign over magazines, radio, conferences, and online that attracted over 3,000 users.
- Defined and built the web and mobile app with a team of four designers and developers from mockups to deployment.
Startup Advisor | Investment Deal Flow Manager
2010 - 2010Keiretsu Forum- Worked for La Salle Innovation Park (startup incubator), supporting ten product launches alongside 50+ world-class mentors. I also helped manage the Keiretsu Business Angel Forum, a community of accredited Angels and VCs in 53 global chapters.
- Built a startup deal flow network for investors across Spain, then screened and valued 100 companies—raising €200,000-€2million. Created a network of dozens of investors across Spain to present startup fundraising deals.
- Mentored ten technology startups and helped them build a product, execute go-to-market strategies, and fundraise.
Associate Consultant for Business Intelligence
2008 - 2009Oracle- Worked for Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation with 177.13 billion in market capitalization.
- Participated in building two business intelligence projects for EMEA management.
- Collaborated in building BI dashboards for Dutch management.
- Provided a training workshop on the Oracle BI platform.
Javier Rincon
Product Manager in Berlin, Germany
Member since March 31, 2020
For 15+ years, Javier's helped startups and corporates to build and launch successful products that customers love with his lean, product, and growth expertise. He's worked with VC-backed startups such as Wunderlist (acquired by Microsoft), Open Me (acquired by Threadless), Moviepilot (acquired by Webedia), and Pluto TV (acquired by Viacom). He also led the company builder for Kraft Heinz. Javier is a top mentor for Techstars and Founder Institute, helping 100+ startups launch sticky products.
Javier is now available for hire
Project Highlights
- Led CRM Digital Ventures team of 15 people to identify 200+ potential ideas, validate 30 and build three startups to disrupt the food industry.
- Led the discovery, design, and development of the alpha and beta release for a new AI-powered investing app to a +40,000 user waitlist.
- Implemented analytics, carried out surveys to thousands of users, created a roadmap, and launched A/B experiments, which increased retention, revenue, and onboarding by 120,000 new users/year on a 7 million user base.
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- Customer Journeys
- Customer Research
- Innovation Strategy
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Product Discovery
- Product Roadmaps
- Web Analytics
Education
- Loughborough University
- Loughborough University
Employment
Project History
- Kraft Heinz CRM Digital VenturesLed CRM Digital Ventures team of 15 people to identify 200+ potential ideas, validate 30 and build three startups to disrupt the food industry.
Kraft Heinz, one of the world's biggest CPG, was looking to build new and revolutionary digital ventures to expand its digital footprint.
I joined the project as a business lead to build a startup in the Convenience vertical. I was promoted to lead the whole CRM department, comprising 15 people. I designed and managed the innovation process to interview +100 people, survey +5000, ideate +200 potential ideas, and build 30 landing pages and three MVPs. - Q.ai InvestLed the discovery, design, and development of the alpha and beta release for a new AI-powered investing app to a +40,000 user waitlist.
• Defined the product vision, strategy, customer journey, and critical pain points, then validated problem assumptions with thousands of users.
• Launched over ten discovery and design sprints to build several mobile prototypes, launched MVP, and then validated market/product assumptions with thousands of users.
• Managed the delivery team of over ten people with Agile and Scrum to deliver a fully working, compliant mobile investing app. - Plug.djImplemented analytics, carried out surveys to thousands of users, created a roadmap, and launched A/B experiments, which increased retention, revenue, and onboarding by 120,000 new users/year on a 7 million user base.
Plug.dj is a social music discovery site with 7 million users and over 120,000 rooms where users can pick and play songs to each other in turns, discover new songs, make friends through the chats, and customize their social avatar with hundreds of different skins.
- OpenMeImplemented analytics, optimized the customer journey, and launched multiple A/B experiments to redesign the website—which increased the sales funnel by 33%.
OpenMe is the best place to create individual and group ecards for every occasion! It was acquired by Threadless. It allowed anybody to select from a range of e-card designs and then invite friends to e-sign the card before delivering it to the recipient.
- MoviepilotImplemented analytics with millions of data events, carried out user tests, created a roadmap of experiments, and launched A/B experiments, which increased signups by 520,000 new users/year.
Moviepilot.com was a fan-driven website that provided news and content about upcoming movies and allowed viewers to discover their next favorite movie along with news from behind the scenes to the big screen. It was acquired by Webedia.
- MROSupplyImplemented analytics, analyzed customer feedback, and launched A/B experiments, which increased sales to over $5 million per year.
MROsupply.com is the eCommerce extension of Mechanical Drives and Belting, established in 1898 in Los Angeles. It provides over 200 of the top brands, totaling over 1 million SKUs and delivering to companies likes Space X.
- DiscutoRedesigned UX for whole product, homepage and landing pages resulting in a 35% increase in onboarding and doubling retention.
For Discuto.io (a B2B SaaS ideation platform with +30,000 users), I worked with a multidisciplinary team of over five people. With this team, I implemented analytics including a product-market fit analysis, performed user surveys, led a complete redesign of the UX, and launched it in stages (front-end and admin side). I also created a new homepage and landing page.
It resulted in increased onboarding of 35%, as well as doubling retention. - ExplorableLed a team of four for Explorable (an educational platform with 4 million visitors/month), implemented web analytics, did user surveys/interviews, launched a roadmap of A/B experiments, and built an MVP. Increased engagement by 30% and sales by 25%.
Explorable is a health content publisher of research articles and news with +4 million visitors per month. They wanted to monetize their existing user base and needed help conceptualizing and building products. I worked with the client to identify opportunities and launch MVPs that successfully increased revenues by 25%.
- KrautreporterLed the web analytics and customer discovery implementation that led to the redesign of the website and increase in engagement and revenues.
Krautreporter is a German news website that has been online since October 2014. The platform's financing was done by crowdfunding to guarantee independent journalism without advertising. They needed more revenue, and I implemented analytics and identified opportunities that led to the platform's relaunch.
- Healthcare Startups for Pelion HealthcareLaunched a new healthcare product as a spin-off, Menavitin GmbH, by executing discovery and design sprints. Directly reported to the CEO and board of directors.
Pelion Health is the largest Polish healthcare operator with $2 billion in revenue. I was hired to explore and validate a new opportunity as a spin-off.
Menavitin was launched as a way to revolutionize how young people access, manage, and intake nutrients through the molecule 1-MNA.
By launching Lean Sprints, the demand was validated, the customer segment was identified, and further product iterations were developed.
Education
- Master's Degree in Systems Engineering, Marketing, and Management2007 - 2008Loughborough University - Loughborough, England
- Bachelor's Degree in Systems Engineering2002 - 2007Loughborough University - Loughborough, England
- Summer Thesis in Organizational Learning2005 - 2006Hong Kong University - Hong Kong, China
