My motto is “Build on strengths to deliver software people love.”
Known for: SaaS and CMS domain expert, customer experience champion, collaborative partner, business leader and general manager for high-growth SaaS products, and proven leader to scale remote and distributed teams.
Leadership philosophy:
Business executive archetype: Integrator, Product Guru, and Commercial Champion.
10+ years at WordPress.com/Automattic, CPTO @ Tumblr, then scaled the new CMS business line at HubSpot. Team builder who can lead all EPD, a business unit, or the entire product function.
My top strengths:
- Drive and bias for action
- Strategic alignment
- Team-oriented leadership
As a full-stack leader, I combine 19+ years of experience in the open-source free software community with the desire to cultivate a culture of quality and innovation. A culture of purpose for people around the world to do their best work together.
HubSpot: GM for emerging CMS business line, scale from thousands to millions of websites with a new freemium offering (2022–2023). I led the CMS product team at HubSpot, evolving a robust content platform for all product lines across Marketing, Sales, and Service. Managing a team of 14+ product managers, I partnered closely with a team of leaders across UX and Engineering to identify, measure, and deliver strategic opportunities for the product.
Tumblr: massive transformation for team, business, and brand refresh after an acquisition — chosen as second-in-command for the new unit (2020–2022). I led product and technology teams across 150+ people working in product management, engineering, data science, software testing, and internationalization.
Proven leader to scale distributed teams at remote-work innovator Automattic. (2010 to 2020) At Automattic I held product executive roles for WordPress.com and Jetpack, contributing to both user and revenue growth for the flagship app used daily by millions of bloggers and site owners. As an early employee for WordPress.com, I’ve led teams at each stage of the company’s strong growth, from launching 300+ WordPress themes and a theme marketplace to redefining the new user experience on our flagship web application. Scaled product and engineering teams from 50 people to over 1,500 across 10 years.
Born in Mexico City and raised partly in Durango, Mexico — I’m now based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
See also Lance on the Go for photos and links, and follow me on social via LinkedIn, Tumblr, GitHub, and Goodreads. (Also: X/Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook — yet not as active there).
At a Glance
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Speaking | The Power of Website Personalization to Drive Sales, presentation in Chicago, IL May 2023 for HubSpot and AmericanEagle.com. Product-Driven GTM Fuels the B2B SaaS Engine, advisor to the Simpleview product team, January 2023 in Tucson, AZ. ProductCon September 2021, keynote speaker. Topic: Your First 90 Days: Listen, Learn and Act. |
| Press | HubSpot releases free CMS with marketing, CRM integrations, TechTarget, July 2022 Tumblr Introduces Paid Subscription Tool to Woo Younger Bloggers, Wall Street Journal, July 2021. |
| Board / Mentor | Tribe Labs, AudiencePlus, Mighty, ShareOrb, Brain.fm, ChiselStrike, and Featureform, and various others. Startup or scaleup founder? Contact me for details on how I can help you grow your team and business effectively. |
| Podcast / Interview | Turing Distinguished Leader Series on YouTube (December 23, 2021) Path Into Product with Aaron Airmet and Ashley Roberts (episode 13, October 18, 2021) Remote Leadership at Tumblr on PM for the Masses with Cesar Abeid (episode 137, September 2021) The Muse: “Meet the Chief Product & Technology Officer, Tumblr an employee at Automattic.” |
View more on Linkedin — and learn more about hiring me as Fractional Head of Product.
The Full Stack Leader 