Vetted Product Professionals in the Los Angeles Metro

Steve Black

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Principal Product Manager specializing in consumer engagement, AI, and connected fitness

Laguna Beach, CA15y exp

“Product leader with experience across Nike, Adidas, Bowflex, and startups, including serving as the first digital product hire at FluidLogic. Stands out for launching a connected hardware-plus-software product from zero to one in just 90 days, while also building AI-powered consumer features and aligning the entire company around digital strategy.”

“Independent IT consultant running a solo software and cloud services business focused on configurations, integrations, and development. Their strongest experience is in building and sustaining IT operations, including resource models, procedures, security compliance, and best practices, and they are motivated by the high-impact environment they experienced at a small healthcare startup.”

Steve Palley

Screened

Executive product leader specializing in marketplaces, consumer products, and health-tech

Los Angeles, CA21y exp

“Product leader with a rare mix of zero-to-one marketplace building, AI product development, and mission-driven consumer experience work. Led the creation of StoryLoom at Pixelberry/Nexon as a 'Roblox for writers,' is currently building a privacy-conscious AI concierge for a first responder coaching marketplace, and previously co-founded ApplyMap to deliver free AI-powered college guidance for underserved students.”

“Product leader at FloQast who launched FQ Ops from scratch, expanding the company beyond close management into a broader workflow platform that reached 70% adoption and $4.5M ARR in its first year. Has led both product and interim design organizations, mentored multiple internal hires into PM roles, and brings a thoughtful human-in-the-loop AI philosophy shaped by leading AI strategy across more than 10 product areas.”

“Product leader and former co-founder/CPO who built a K-12 tutoring marketplace end-to-end and later led AI personalization work at Mattel. Particularly compelling for mission-driven edtech roles: they combine deep two-sided marketplace and trust/safety experience with a clear philosophy that AI should strengthen, not replace, human tutoring relationships.”

“Growth and product marketing leader with experience building GTM systems from zero in high-ambiguity environments across SaaS, consumer tech, and esports. Has operated as a first PMM, built closed-loop acquisition-to-retention analytics, and delivered measurable outcomes including tripled freemium conversions, higher LTV at stable CAC, and major brand/sponsorship growth across multiple Asian markets.”

“Apparel product developer/sourcing manager at Linkwear Limited who led high-risk, low-MOQ launches (down to 50 pcs/style) by reverse-engineering samples into tech packs, aggressively vetting/negotiating suppliers, and managing production through QC and shipping. Demonstrated trade-risk hedging (Section 301) via parallel sourcing and hands-on supplier recovery by traveling to Wuxi to resolve a mill bottleneck.”

“Product leader with experience spanning enterprise SaaS and pharma, including building Alteryx's core cloud administrative services and launching an AI onboarding assistant that cut first-time value from 2 hours to 5 minutes. Stood up and mentored a PM team from scratch, drove complex pricing/packaging transformation, and combines strategic platform thinking with hands-on UX and customer research.”

“Early-stage investing candidate with experience at Slauson & Co., combining sector research, founder sourcing, and structured pipeline management. They stand out for publishing investment research in areas like pet care, women's health, and eldercare, then using that thesis work to build founder relationships and inform internal investment tracking.”

“Early-career technologist with internship experience deploying and fixing production/demo service configurations despite poor documentation, using step-through debugging and prior demo references to restore progress quickly. Also has hands-on IT technician experience diagnosing hardware failures (hard drive damage), recovering files, and replacing drives, plus QA test development in Python for customer-reported bugs and a strong focus on networking (monitoring, IP activity analysis).”

“Product leader with 20 years of experience across startups and agencies, including leading the end-to-end rebuild of Filmik, an AI-enabled workflow platform for film and television production teams. Stands out for combining deep UX simplification instincts with human-centered AI thinking, using automation to reduce friction while preserving trust, control, and collaboration. Has also built and mentored globally distributed product, design, engineering, and delivery teams across multiple regions.”