Stephen Joos
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Denver, CO, United States
Toptal member since May 27, 2019
Stephen is a dynamic and strategic business leader with a track record of building and scaling innovative products across multiple industries. With extensive experience in product management, strategy, and business development, he has led transformative initiatives, including growing a mobility business to $100 million ARR in under a year, launching wireless carriers within a Fortune 20 company, and pioneering mobile fundraising solutions that generated millions for nonprofits.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Growth Strategy
- International Commerce
- Mobile
- Mobile Payments
- Partnerships
- Product Management
- Research
Work Experience
Vice President, Corporate Strategy
Fluid Truck
- Secured $225+ million in funding through strategic initiatives and investor engagement.
- Led product strategy alignment with corporate objectives, resulting in 20% revenue growth.
- Spearheaded alliances across OEMs (Ford, GM, Stellantis), retail (IKEA, Target), logistics (Amazon, FedEx), and leading financial institutions.
Head of Product
Fluid Truck
- Built the product function from 0 to 18 employees; scaled business to $100+ million in ARR in under 12 months.
- Defined multi-year product roadmap and pivoted the business from B2C to B2B in 90 days, enabling 9-figure revenue growth.
- Introduced the first-of-its-kind pay-as-you-go model, boosting retention and revenue with 70% of customers leveraging the payment feature.
Head of Product, Yahoo Mobile
Verizon
- Led product, strategy, and design, and navigated complex regulatory hurdles to launch a brand new wireless carrier, Yahoo Mobile, in an unprecedented three months.
- Introduced the world’s first wireless single sign-on (SSO) enrollment, streamlining user onboarding across platforms.
- Owned and led all product functions, driving end-to-end strategy, development, and execution to successfully launch and scale the business.
Head of Product Growth and Strategic Initiatives
Verizon
- Served as founding product lead on a team that launched Visible, Verizon's first digital-only direct-to-consumer (D2C) wireless carrier.
- Created a peer-to-peer growth engine and innovative device swap program, resulting in an 8-figure contribution to customer lifetime value.
- Built a pre-owned device category, exceeding projections by 80%.
- Established strategic partnerships across music, finance, and insurance verticals.
- Co-created Visible's nonprofit investment incubator, integrating social impact directly into the brand vision while providing strategic advice to emerging social enterprises.
Director of Product
GeoPoll
- Designed and scaled an omnichannel consumer insights platform reaching 200 million users across 44 countries, successfully deploying 175+ million surveys and establishing market leadership in emerging markets.
- Orchestrated product portfolio expansion and led cross-functional teams from C-suite to directors, resulting in 7 new revenue streams, including media measurement, micro-tasking, and advanced analytics tools, contributing to 60% of company revenue.
- Spearheaded the company's international expansion by establishing EMEA headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, built the local product operations team, and adapted the platform for regional markets.
- Supported business development efforts to secure key accounts with leading multinational FMCG, telecommunication, and media firms, including Coca-Cola, WPP, Colgate, P&G, and Vodafone.
Director of Product
mGive
- Oversaw the end-to-end product development, SLA adherence, and administration of SMS, PSMS, mobile web, IVR, credit card, and client administration system in US, Canada, Haiti, Pakistan, and Cuba.
- Conceived and executed on the go-to-market strategy for all products focusing on cross-functional coordination stakeholders throughout the product lifecycle in an Agile environment.
- Scaled product to support over 15 million users, 2+ billion SMS messages, and $62 million in microtransactions and 1,700 nonprofit clients.
- Oversaw additional product lines, including the launch of the first mobile social network in Pakistan (Humari Awaz) and Cuba (ZunZuneo) with material market penetration.
- Developed a mobile money platform in collaboration with mobile network operators, banks, and the American Red Cross for a cash-transfer pilot in Haiti, post-earthquake.
Director of Operations
mGive
- Collaborated with stakeholders to create industry standards for mobile messaging, transactions, and network provisioning processes for the mobile-giving channel.
- Drove the end-to-end implementation of leading US and global direct messaging and billing carrier integrations with SLA creation and adherence.
- Successfully managed multiple disaster response initiatives including the "text HAITI to 90999" initiative where $40 million was raised through PSMS micro-donations for Haitian disaster response.
- Formed and maintained strategic partnerships within the telecommunication and payment space.
Project History
Fluid Truck
Transitioned a B2C marketplace to B2B, resulting in $100+ million in ARR in one year.
ZunZuneo and Humari Awaz | The First Mobile Social Networks
Led product development efforts to bring the 1st mobile social networks in Cuba & Pakistan to market with significant usage.
I led efforts to launch a free SMS-based social network to allow information sharing between people facilitated by the social networking platform.
My efforts resulted in the following:
• Grew 800,000 subscribers, 1 billion messages in Pakistan.
• Expanded to 50% mobile penetration in Cuba.
• Changed behavior: the incidents were reported on the network as they happened in Pakistan, and the government increased internet accessibility in Cuba.
Mobile Giving
Led product design, development, and operations to launch a cross-carrier mobile donation solution that raised $75 million.
I enhanced the product to drive SMS engagement, donation diversification to support 1,700 nonprofit clients.
I led product development efforts to launch and grow the platform resulting in the following:
• Reduced client onboarding time by 10x.
• Reduced the donation transaction completion time to four seconds.
• Expanded the billing system capacity to support 75,000 transactions in one hour for an NFL promotion.
• The disaster response effort—text HAITI to 90999—led to a watershed moment raising $41 million for Haiti Earthquake relief.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree in Business Administration
Warwick Business School | WBS | The University of Warwick - Coventry, UK
Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration (Management Information Systems)
University of Colorado - Colorado Springs, CO, USA
Certifications
PMC III
Pragmatic Institute
Skills
Tools
Trello, Slack, Jira, TFS
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, Agile Workflow, Scrum, Agile, Kanban, Waterfall Development
Industry Expertise
Nonprofits, Telecommunications
Platforms
Productboard
Other
Mobile Payments, Mobile, Product Management, SMS, Referrals, Loyalty Programs, Business Analysis, Requirements, Product Strategy, Product Roadmaps, Go-to-market Plans, User Research, Business Models, Product Design, Product Frameworks, Innovation, Product Ownership, Product Discovery, Product Delivery, BRD, Software Requirements Specifications (SRS), B2B, Data Analysis, End-to-end Implementation (E2E), Business to Business (B2B), Product Growth, Web, Android, Research, Media, Digital Advertising, Analytics, Growth Strategy, Business Development, Partnerships, Management, International Commerce, Global, Africa, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Content Management Systems (CMS), CRM Systems, Localization, Enterprise, Startups, Social Networking, International Payments, Mobile Money, Social Networks Development, Program Management, iOS, Advertising, Product Marketing, P&L Management, Salesforce, Seed Fundraising, Fundraising Strategy, Product Development, B2B Partnerships, Strategy, CX Strategy, Technical Product Management, Product Launch, Launch Strategy, International Business, Execution
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