PC

Pablo Cruz

Product Management | Venture Capital | Strategic Growth

Chicago, Illinois

Work Experience

  • Executive Advisor

    2024

  • Platform Product Manager | Investment Committee Board Member & Investor

    2022

    Cap Table Coalition is a network of over 1,200+ accredited investors coming from underrepresented backgrounds (Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Native American, women, and other traditionally marginalized groups), investing in Venture start-ups across all industries and fundraising stages. The Coalition is made up of high-growth startups, VC firms, and emerging fund managers who want to work to close the racial wealth gap and provide access to all in this space. - Hosted webinars, conducted due diligence, negotiated deals with founders and VC partners to deploy $30M within 2 years - Established focus on verticals with expertise and experience: Fintech, Transportation (Logistics), Ai/ML, and HealthTech - Invested in 19 companies, ranging from pre-seed to Series E, including Hopskipdrive, FLYR (see Investments in table below) - Helped scale network of accredited investors of diverse and underrepresented backgrounds by 55% within one year

  • Author, Strategic Facilitator and Guest Speaker

    2022

    I write, speak and strategically facilitate on numerous topics for founder meetings, industry events and publications, corporate leadership meetings, board meetings, and sales meetings. Topics include: - Venture Building - Product Management - Value Economics - B/D Strategy - Venture Design - Product Innovation Frameworks - Investment Themes/Trends

  • FLYR - Investor

    2023

    An international team focused on enhancing the travel and transportation industry through expertise and innovation.

  • Collective - Investor

    2023

    Offers an all-in-one financial solution tailored for self-employed entrepreneurs, streamlining their financial management needs.

  • GigEasy - Investor

    2023

    Advocates for the gig economy, providing a specialized benefits platform for gig workers to address their unique challenges.

  • Tandem - Investor

    2023

    Develops a peer-to-peer payment app designed for couples to easily manage and share expenses.

  • CoLife, Inc. - Investor

    2023

    Creates co-living arrangements that match homeowners with vetted renters based on shared values and lifestyles.

  • Slang.ai - Investor

    2023

    Provides a 24/7 AI-powered phone concierge, ensuring customer satisfaction with quick and efficient responses.

  • UseBump.com - Investor

    2023

    Offers comprehensive financial tools to help creators grow their businesses effectively.

  • CashDrop - Investor

    2023

    A mobile commerce platform that enables businesses to quickly set up and manage online storefronts from a smartphone.

  • Castor - Investor

    2022

    Provides financial services similar to Earnin/Chime, targeting the Latin American market.

  • Flourish FI - Investor

    2022

    Delivers solutions that encourage customer engagement, savings, and loyalty in the financial sector.

  • Exotanium - Investor

    2022

    Utilizes AI and ML for cloud resource optimization and management, aiming to reduce costs while boosting security and performance.

  • Form Energy - Investor

    2022

    Innovates in the energy storage sector, focusing on affordable, reliable solutions to support a renewable electric grid.

  • Functional Finance - Investor

    2022

    Offers an all-encompassing platform for insurance operators to manage back-office tasks, from payments to premium finance.

  • MedHaul - Investor

    2022

    Improves access to safe, quality transportation for underserved populations, enhancing their overall quality of life and care.

  • HopSkipDrive - Investor

    2022

    Specializes in safe, reliable transportation services for children, ensuring peace of mind for parents.

  • Gentem Health - Investor

    2022 - 2024

    Revitalizes healthcare organizations by increasing revenue and modernizing the medical billing experience.

2017

  • Investor

    2019

  • Founder of Account Management Division (Served as Outbound Product Manager)

    2019 - 2019

    - Designed channel partnerships with Fuel Cards (i.e. WEX or COMDATA) to increase market absorption and create a new funnel of lead generation - Coordinated with Product, Business, and Engineering teams to build this integrated product into customer and Booster portals

  • Founder of Enterprise Division (Senior Manager) - Enterprise Partnerships

    2018 - 2019

    - Closed the first Enterprise account (AT&T) for the fleet business and built partnership to scale nationally with them (projected $50 million in ARR) - Founded the Enterprise Sales Division and supported the Chief Product Officer to build v1 & v2 of the Enterprise Product

  • Senior Consultant (Served as Outbound Product Manager)

    2017 - 2018

    Employee #2 of the B2B Fleet Business (Employee #15 in the company) - Developed the sales strategy and cadence to increase fleet sales from $2 million to $25 million (projected ARR) in two years - Sourced, closed, and managed strategic partnerships for over 125 corporate clients in 1.5 years (most in company history)

2022 - 2024

  • Advisory Board Member

    2022 - 2024

    Our name is inspired by Robin Hood - someone that will stand up for what is right and for those without a voice. Activewear For All Whether you walk around the block or walk to your couch for exercise, we're here for it. Responsible Production Third-party auditors visit our factories to ensure ethical production. Quality Products Our designers (from Lululemon and Ralph Lauren) create timeless, high-quality products made to last. 1% For Planet We donate 1% of sales to protect the environment and replenish resources we spend.

2023 - 2023

  • Venture Capital Fellow

    2023 - 2023

    Chicago:Blend Venture Fellows is a four-month program by Chicago:Blend to help underrepresented, aspiring VCs break into the venture industry. During this fellowship, I will be actively talking to founders and sourcing startups to pitch to Chicago-area VCs and investors. The industry sectors that excite me include Fintech, ClimateTech, and Transportation (Logistics). If you're a founder that is raising capital or a VC looking for unique deal flow, let's connect.

2023 - 2023

  • Venture Fellow Consultant

    2023 - 2023

    - Established sourcing channels with the Notre Dame VC ecosystem and a network of 246 Hispanic VCs sharing deal pipeline - Focused on two funds: 116th Street Ventures (Columbia University) and Waterman Ventures (Brown University) - Presented vertical trends, opportunities, and curated a thesis around Fintech - Supported GP alongside Principal with investment memos for direct investments and syndicated deals - Shared and incorporated my investment perspective factoring outcome-led behavioral science and hypothesis-driven product development as additional considerations for investing, in conjunction with unit economics and OKR frameworks

2021 - 2023

  • Baker Hughes | Production Solutions Digital Platform

    2022 - 2023

    - Launched a platform for customers to view their energy fields, pumps, and corresponding devices and pairing it with Ai to provide automated updates, insights, and recommendations to increase the efficiency of their energy production ecosystem - Pages included a dashboard, product filtering, advanced charting with insights/metrics/trends, notification/alarm management - Led pre-sprint backlog and epic/feature PI planning for a development team of 85 across front-end, UI (DLS components), back-end, architecture, visual design, and UX design

  • Department of Veterans Affairs | VA Platform SSO Strategy and Concepting

    2022 - 2022

    - Conducted Qualitative User Research; User (field) and Stakeholder Interviews - Defined research scope and intent; Concepting and validation - Established Service Blueprint, Strategic Roadmap, and Backlog Scaffold for VA team ingestion and implementation

  • Hewlett Packard (HP) | Ideation to GTM for new E-Commerce platform

    2022 - 2022

    - Led all product initiatives from initial concept to successful market launch in just 10 months (ahead of schedule) - Launched Custom E-commerce website generating $2.5M in Revenue in just the first month with full integration to ancillary tools/services - graphCMS, CMS (Shopify Enterprise), FreshDesk Suite, Channelside, ZigPoll - Established the framework with cross-team leadership for the Design Language System and Dev Component Library - Implemented Hypothesis Testing framework with Dev/Design iterations resulting in 69% increase in conversation rates - Created Service Blueprint (User flow, customer channels, interactions, data metrics, hypothesis testing, and opportunity areas)

  • Arvest Bank | Digital Retail e-Bank Strategy

    2021 - 2022

    - Set up OKRs, Product Strategy, Design Concepting, and Strategic Roadmap for NewBank venture arm of Arvest - Led Design Language System (DLS) and Front-End Product Delivery for NewBank venture arm of Arvest

2020 - 2021

  • Head of Product & Strategic Advisor

    2020 - 2021

    BrandsofAmericas is an E-commerce marketplace that connects cultural brands/products with an online community worldwide - Brought by the CEO to build the Product Management organization for the company - Rebuilt the checkout process by assessing Google Analytics data and identifying bottlenecks through HotJar, coordinating with engineering and implementing a new UX/UI - increasing conversion rate by 12% in the first four weeks - Market research identified 3 new revenue streams for B2B customers, generating 22% more revenue in 2020 - Led dev team of 5 to develop PWA platform ahead of schedule, increasing average dollar spent per transaction by 30% - Built roadmap and 5-year strategy plan with Co-Founders to help successfully fundraise $2 Million in Series A ● Managed partnership with the Puerto Rico Department of Tourism as well as numerous municipalities in the island to collaborate on data analytics (SQL) and to build a stakeholder-driven dashboard through Microsoft Power BI

2019 - 2020

  • Director - Enterprise Partnerships

    2019 - 2020

    - Collaborated with engineering and customer success teams to write user-stories and ultimately expand product strategy to new customer vertical (i.e. Landscaping) - Coordinated with internal engineering, customer success teams, and external customers to receive feedback loop and expand on pain points which led to the development of Unit Economics + ROI Model resulting in the team closing $400k in 3 months - Established the Enterprise Sales Division; engaging with internal and external executive stakeholders on program initiatives and pipeline updates - 83% of 2019 revenue came from enterprise-grade customers that made up <10% of pipeline