Paul Sims
Board Member | Repeat Entrepreneur | Experienced Executive
Atlanta Metropolitan Area
Invests in
Sectors:
Locations:
Min Investment:
$5,000.00Max Investment:
$100,000.00Target Investment:
$25,000.00
Skills
Education
Lists including Paul
Investments
Work Experience
2022
Co-Founder
2022
Removing friction from insurance
2022
Co-Founder
2022
Scaling profitable insurance businesses through innovation in products, distribution, technology and operational excellence
Founder/President
2020
Strategic guidance & actionable insights for organizations & private investors (hedge/PE/VC funds) globally on strategic growth oriented issues - GTM, innovation, digital transformation, capital raises, strat. planning, & competitive intel. Sectors: tech/software, insurance, autotech, & financial services. Deep expertise in marketplaces, automotive, & insurance. Completed projects include: * Developed business plan for family held enterprise to start a new business to diversify risk * Advised family held enterprise's digital startup on growth, go to market opportunities * Growth strategy plan for middle-market US-based PE portfolio company in the financial services sector * Guided executive team's new product development at VC-backed online European marketplace * Customer journey development & go to market guidance for online global marketplace * Growth focused digital transformation roadmap & plan for high-growth PE-backed insurance administrator & agency * Developed a comprehensive digital marketing lead gen. program w/ 3 facets - local social media advertising, webinars, & online referral tool & launched pilots w/ local offices for private equity owned financial services firm * Market overview and competitive dynamics scenarios for the automotive industry with PE & international hedge funds * Business plan development and advising CEO of disruptive student lending business * Developed a new extended warranty program for a manufacturer including qualitative & quantitative market research, internal interviews, 5 year financial forecast, D2C & dealer channel sales processes, & go to market plan.
2005
Board Member/Advisor/Angel Investor
2005
Board Member of several companies. Actively involved in the start-up ecosystem globally - advisor, indep. board member, investor, & mentor with 3 accelerators. Board/Advisory Board experience: AutoComplete, Paays, SwissWatchExpo.com, Bridge Money; Privacy4Cars; Cloud Dentistry; Funding University; UEG Deep expertise: Marketplaces, Insurance, FinTech, TalentTech, & AutoTech. The underbanked & education is an area of social interest -- Advisory Board Member, AutoComplete Advise this embedded auto insurance company on growth & go to market. -- Advisory Board Member, Paays Advise this Canadian fintech that prevents fraud -- Advisory Board Member, Bridge Money Advised the founder of this social impact fintech on: growth, fundraising, go to market. Investors: Deciens Capital & Kapor Capital. Bridge serves the unbanked population w/ low cost financial services. -- Advisory Board Member, Privacy4Cars Advised this privacy software company on growth, fundraising, go to market, & talent. In <1 yr, P4C closed exclusive partnerships with >90% of N. America's wholesale auto market & is growing in EU. Providing protection to auto players & consumers whose data is on their cars. -- Advisory Board Member, Funding University Advised the CEO of this social impact fintech on growth, fundraising, other board issues. Investors: Goldman Sachs, Bezos Expeditions, Valor, & Deciens Capital. Funding U leverages big data to provide a “college completion” non-cosigned loan solution -- Board Member, Cloud Dentistry We raised a successful A round & built a world class executive team to support the founder for this SMB SaaS Talent-tech marketplace. -- Board Member, Used Equipment Guide (Sold to Randall-Reilly) Raised an oversubscribed round from key industry players for the largest used equipment search engine globally disrupting the industry. https://bit.ly/ueg1 --Investor only: Deeded 2022 Arc.dev 2021 WeFunder 2021 Spire Global 2019 Tovala 2019, 2021 Nucurrent 2019 Sofi 2012
2017 - 2019
Senior Vice-President, Digital Automotive and National Accounts
2018 - 2019
The Warranty Group sold to Assurant where I stayed 18 months post sale. Accomplishments • I turned around the declining $200M P& and achieved outperformance in 2019 • I simultaneously built the new digital distribution channel business into the market leader • I developed two new technology platforms for the new digital channel business • I established several partnerships to enable us to serve this channel as the market leader
Executive Vice President, Digital Automotive & National Accounts (The Warranty Group)
2017 - 2018
Recruited by TPG Capital ($111B PE firm) to their portfolio company, The Warranty Group (world's largest & oldest auto warranty provider) to help grow the company and to prepare it for sale. Accomplishments: • I took over a rapidly declining $200M P&L and changed the performance of the business • I simultaneously built a new digital and alternative distribution channel business from scratch
2014 - 2017
COO (Chief Operating Officer)
2014 - 2017
Sold to Wisdom Tree (Nasdaq: WETF) A machine-learning and natural language processing back-end based on big data and deep proprietary primary research delivered in a SaaS platform that helps professionals and job seekers understand and improve their online credibility. We have 2 sides to our business 1) For large companies, our platform helps with sales outreach and employee advocacy-building the brand, sales and deepening their relationships and success with their current customers. If you are a sales professional, you are being screened by your new targets. 2) For active and passive job candidates and organizations with a vested interest in helping them. (eg. university career centers, outplacement firms, staffing firms) If you are a job seeker, you are being assessed and filtered based on your online presence. I managed the Marketing, Product, Technology, Research, Content, and Partnerships functions. I enjoyed coaching my team and helping them develop leadership experience. Achievements: • Exit: Acquired by Wisdom Tree (Nasdaq: WETF) • We raised 2 rounds of funding from the largest angel group in the Southeast • I negotiated and managed partnerships • I built a product and development team and established an agile software development process • I designed and we built a software platform from the ground up for job candidates nationwide • I established processes and managed all operations for 2 cloud software product lines serving Fortune 1000 clients and top universities • I was co-inventor on a patent for a Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning system Articles: https://www.fa-mag.com/news/advisorengines-acquires-kredible-technologies-32528.html https://hypepotamus.com/news/kredible-acquisition/
2011 - 2014
Co-Founder & Customer Strategy Officer
2011 - 2014
Sold to Cox Automotive. DealerMatch is a Dealer to Dealer SaaS marketplace disrupting the wholesale auto industry (20MM+ units). We built a socially-enabled wholesale automotive, dealer-to-dealer trading platform that helped auto dealers buy, sell & trade with each other with no transaction fees. Think Netflix. Our mission was helping our members grow profits by lowering costs, speeding inventory turns and expanding their business networks. DealerMatch’s patent-pending technology helped turn our members’ relationships & reputations into a competitive advantage & increased profits. We disrupted the 20 million vehicle transaction wholesale marketplace by bringing transparency the same way AutoTrader.com brought transparency to used car buyers at retail in 1998. I built and managed the following teams: Product, Marketing, Sales, Business Development, & Customer Support. We built an amazing culture that celebrates successes and places a high value on smart risk taking - trying things knowing they may not work but not being afraid to try them and learning from them when they didn't work. We practice continual learning and optimizing. Speak to any of our 150 employees, you'll understand the culture. Achievements • Exit: Majority shareholder, Cox Enterprises, bought out the founders and DealerMatch became part of Manheim, world's largest auto auction company • I wrote the business plan • I built our initial product team & we built an integrated Web/IOS/Android platform used by dealerships nationwide • We built the largest wholesale automotive community in the world • I built and managed our initial inside & outside sales teams • We were on plan for profitability within 3.5 years of product launch • We grew headcount rapidly to match the nationwide scaling plan investors wanted and achieved low employee attrition • We grew company to 150 employees • I established partnerships with 16 strategic partners (in <30 months) including Volkswagen, BMW, Cars.com, etc.
2011 - 2012
Advisory Board Member
2011 - 2012
Looxii is a social media analytics start-up. I helped the founders with issues surrounding sales, business planning, staffing, capital planning, and exit planning.
2010 - 2012
Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder
2010 - 2012
Alternative energy startup. Patent-pending alternative energy generator co. included team members from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Georgia Tech Research Institute. Achievements: • I co-wrote the business plan. • Management team raised $600K from angel investors • Management team built out a lab for creation of phase II prototype, but were not able to get the prototype to the next phase
2007 - 2011
Director of Product Management, Online Solutions
2007 - 2011
OVE.com was merged with Manheim. Promoted after reorganization to manage portfolio evolution of online mature, semi-mature, & new growing B2B products through their lifecycles and managing over $9.5B GMV. The 3 products were (1) Manheim.com, the largest wholesale automotive venue (2) Simulcast the world's largest live video auction broadcast tool and (3) Online Vehicle Exchange, the world's largest multi-day wholesale auto auction site. These products allow tens of thousands of car dealers to buy and sell vehicles from each other and from hundreds of commercial sellers and handle hundreds of thousands of wholesale transactions annually. Businesses consist of 2.5M+ vehicles listed online, ~800K sold online, $9.6B GMV, $100M in revenues, growing >50%. Manage ~$3.5M operating budget, $2M+ capital budget & 9 professionals. Achievements • Developed business plan for new business launch • Staffed and managed product management team for Simulcast, a live online video auction broadcast product with ~2M vehicles across 109 North American operating locations offered for sale, and 600K vehicles sold growing revenues 30% annually • Led product management team for Online Vehicle Exchange product suite, growing sales at 60% annually, with over 200K annual vehicles sales • Developed strategy for rationalization of disparate transaction businesses to simplify & optimize the customer experience while leveraging cross-selling opportunities • Collaborated & manage product plans across 6 teams, including 2 IT organizations • Established metrics & processes necessary for effective scaling & management of the businesses