Twenty-five years building revenue. Now helping teams put AI to work.

I work with companies on revenue strategy, partnerships, go-to-market execution, and practical AI workflows, combining operator experience with hands-on product building.

Open to full-time and fractional roles
01 / About

Founding teams. Acquired exits. Repeat.

I started in 1995 on the founding team at CDNOW, one of the first companies to sell physical product on the open web. Since then I've been the first commercial hire or BD lead at a string of companies that got bought, including Backstory (acq. Jirafe), ShopRunner (acq. FedEx), and ActionX, backed by Lerer Hippeau and SoftBank, where I led BD through its 2015 acquisition by Xaxis (WPP).

Today I run two related projects. Star Valley Labs is where I build and ship practical AI and SMS workflow products for overlooked operator problems. Star Valley Group is the advisory practice for founders and local operators who need first customers, partnerships, and a commercial motion, without learning it all from scratch.

Founding team
CDNOWIPO 1998, acq. Bertelsmann
VP, Business Development
ShopRunnerAcquired by FedEx
Co-Founder
BackstoryAcquired by Jirafe
SVP Sales & BD
ActionXAcquired by Xaxis (WPP)
Star Valley Group
02 / Advisory

Star Valley Group works with operators on what's next.

Selective fractional and project work, scoped, time-boxed, and tied to a specific outcome rather than a retainer.

Traction Sprint Funded founders
A 90-day engagement to get pre-seed through Series B companies to commercial traction: first paying customers, anchor partnerships, and a sales motion your team can run without me. A senior deal-maker embedded in your company until real commercial things happen, not an outbound agency or a strategy deck.
  • Anchor-client deal-making
  • BD & partnerships
  • First-revenue & sales motion
  • AI in revenue workflows
  • Sales hiring & ramp
  • Pipeline diagnostics
Selected clients and engagements
DreamIt Ventures (Vizy) · Without A Box · Music Choice · Phenom People · Eating Europe · Fairing
Star Valley Labs
03 / Products

Star Valley Labs builds practical AI workflow products.

Shift Teams · Scheduling & Comms · Flagship
HeardUp
Your team already lives in texts.
Scheduling, communication, and time tracking for hourly teams, all over SMS. No app to install or ignore. Open shifts fill in minutes. Built for the Gen Z workforce that won't download a 48th app for their shift manager.
72
People on platform
1,146
Shifts
5,196
Texts
625
Clock-ins
240K+
Minutes tracked
Live tryheardup.com →
Home Services · Voice AI
Visibliss
Turn spoken expertise into answers AI can cite.
Visibliss analyzes the useful answers already inside a creator's videos and podcasts, structures them as question-led content on the creator's site, and measures whether AI answer systems retrieve and cite them.
In development visibliss.com →
Education · SMS Dispatch
SubFinder
Last-minute subs, in minutes. Over text.
Fills substitute teacher slots via SMS for daycares, preschools, and K-12 schools. One text blast to your sub pool, and the first reply fills the room. No apps, no voicemail roulette. Average fill time: four minutes.
Live subfinder.dev →

Also in development: Hot Soup (CPG relationship management) and RevText (SMS-first commerce).

Hands-on AI for small operators

Beyond the products, I work directly with small businesses to find the two or three places AI and automation actually save time, and get them running.

Main Street Sprint Local operators
Two weeks, in person, installing the working systems that answer your phone, fill your schedule, and catch what's leaking, so you compete with bigger players without hiring like them. I come to your business across the Philadelphia metro and Delaware Valley, find the two or three places AI and automation actually help, and turn them on.
04 / Currently

Open to the right thing.

  • Full-time Senior BD, partnerships, or revenue leadership at a company building something worth building.
  • Fractional Project or part-time engagements with founders and operators who need first customers, partnerships, and a commercial motion.
  • Open call Always happy to talk to people building interesting things, even if there's no role in it.
hello@starvalleylabs.com LinkedIn Resume (PDF)