SJ

Sean Johnson

CEO @ Madison. Growing professional services firms. Kellogg professor. Investor w/ multiple exits. Amateur chef. Former Founding Partner @ Manifold.

Greater Chicago Area

Invests in

  • Min Investment:

    $100,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $5,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $1,500,000.00

Work Experience

  • CEO

    2024

    Madison helps grow professional services firms by making their Partners and Managing Directors "slightly famous." Specifically we help you: - Get clarity on your Point of View. - Communicate that Point of View through insightful and high quality content. - Create natural and respectful ways for your prospects to raise their hands when they're ready.

  • Owner

    2023

    Helping founders and senior executives build better businesses and live better lives.

  • Adjunct Professor

    2013

    Teaching a course on digital marketing to full and part-time MBAs.

2010 - 2023

  • Founding Partner

    2021 - 2023

    Manifold is a platform for perpetual value creation, combining venture investing, incubation and advisory services under one roof.

  • Partner at Digital Intent

    2010 - 2021

    Lead the product strategy and growth teams for our innovation business unit.

2013 - 2023

  • Partner

    2013 - 2023

    Founder Equity provides investors with an attractive way to gain exposure in early stage technology startups. Founder Equity has no fees and no carry, provides a built in portfolio of great companies, brings deep operational expertise to bear, and seeks liquidity targets significantly faster than traditional venture.

  • VP Product Development

    2009 - 2010

    Led product development for web 2.0 job and recruiting platform. Worked with the Brill Street team to determine product strategy, lead interface design and development, conduct user testing, etc.

2006 - 2009

  • Vice President and Creative Director

    2006 - 2009

    (NOTE: Goalquest was acquired by EducationDynamics in 2006) Responsible for identifying market opportunities and new product development initiatives for company’s Enrollment and Retention Division, which has 120 clients and generates $8 million in revenues annually. Determined project objectives, gathered functional and business requirements, developed personas, created wireframes and design prototypes or mockups for production. Conducted user testing and focus groups to gather feedback and improve products. Mentored and managed multiple graphic designers (in-house and freelance). Collaborated with other departments to ensure products accomplished business and client objectives. -- PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT • Along with VP Technology and VP Product Dev, responsible for the creation of a social networking platform that serves over 100 million pages a year and reaches over 100,000 students, as well as an analytics backend, a content management system, and an early warning system. • Created and implemented a formal product development methodology to decrease development time, reduce costs, decrease scope creep and improve client satisfaction. • Created the Enrollment Audit, an extensive consulting tool to help clients identify holes in their enrollment management strategy and provide suggestions for improving their overall enrollment process and increase revenue for the institution. • Developed, designed and deployed the EDDY Idea Manager, a Ruby on Rails application created to consolidate and manage innovation within the division and encourage collaboration between departments. -- CREATIVE MANAGEMENT • Responsible for managing the design of over 300 microsite and/or custom web development projects each year. • Recipient of multiple industry awards for web design and microsite development. • Received highest department grade for client satisfaction on every feedback survey conducted during tenure.

  • Owner

    2006 - 2008

    Web and email marketing company creating tools and consulting on strategies to help small businesses and non-profits run professional, results-driven online marketing campaigns.

2004 - 2006

  • Director of User Experience

    2005 - 2006

    Acted as user advocate, helping bridge the gap between business, technical and user stakeholders. • Developed formal user testing process to identify and eliminate bottlenecks and pain points in the user experience for company's web applications. • Regularly conducted focus groups at client sites to gather informal feedback on products. • Organized client and student feedback groups, and held regular calls to discuss new product opportunities and identify ways to improve existing products and services.

  • Account Manager

    2004 - 2005

    Handled account management and client service responsibilities for 15 clients. • Had the lowest client attrition rate during account management tenure. • Generated over $100k in upsell and cross-sell revenue.

2003 - 2004

  • Owner

    2003 - 2004

    Web and application development company, focusing on creating online campaigns and building attractive, standards-based websites and web applicaitons. Responsible for all marketing and PR aspects of the company and manage implementation of design for client work.

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