Pablo Cruz
Product Management | Venture Capital | Strategic Growth
Chicago, Illinois
Invests in
Sectors:
Locations:
Min Investment:
$50,000.00Max Investment:
$1,500,000.00Target Investment:
$250,000.00
Skills
Education
Lists including Pablo
Work Experience
2024
Executive Advisor
2024
2022
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