Raj Ramanan Email & Phone Number

Salt Lake City, Ut, Us

Berkeley, California, Us

Jitsu plays in the domestic delivery space, a $200B market that is growing at a rate of 15%+ per year. We are the leading last-mile delivery platform and our mission is to build meaningful connections between brands and consumers, aiming to positively impact lives through these relationships.Jitsu delivers on the magic of an exceptional customer experience by shrinking the distance from “click to door,” resulting in an industry leading 99%+ on-time delivery that is well-ahead of incumbents at a competitive price. How? Unbelievable talent, a scrappy, customer-obsessed culture, proprietary tech and platform, and creative problem-solving on behalf of our clients.

Salt Lake City, Ut, Us

Scorpion, a $200mm+ ARR, 14,000+ customer, 1,000 FTE company backed by Sagemount, is the leading digital marketing platform for local services businesses, including lawyers, home service providers, hospitals, and franchise systems. Scorpion builds websites, provide SEO, optimizes paid ad spend / PPC, and manages ratings, reviews, and listings via a proprietary tech platform. Since coming onboard, I diagnosed challenges with the existing 600 FTE operations team, which was set up in 7 verticals matching our industry segments. While full-verticalization provided customer intimacy, it led to sub-optimal workload balance and inconsistent processes across the teams. I restructured the org to preserve “last mile” verticalization with Account Managers while making all fulfillment functions – website building, SEO, paid advertising management, ratings/reviews management – horizontal to boost productivity and efficiency. I identified strong leaders from the prior structure to lead Account Management and Fulfillment. To drive accountability, I created the first-ever metrics scorecard showing progress against our KPIs, which I published weekly to leaders and shared teamwide in monthly All Hands. Finally, I designed and launched Scorpion’s first-ever performance management process and re-designed our bonus program to reward individual performance gated by company and team outcomes.As a result, I grew gross margin by +400 bps, boosted our industry-leading net revenue retention (NRR) by +500 bps, and improved eNPS from -14 to +10, while supporting revenue growth of +21% YoY.Industry: Advertising, Marketing, Tech, Adtech, Martech, Local, SMBStage: Growth, mid-market, private equityRole: Chief Operating Officer, COO, operational improvement, margin expansion, restructure, re-organization, metrics, KPIs, retention, NRR

New York, Ny, Us

Spearheaded digital transformation and overall revenue growth of the San Antonio Express-News, the leading media property of South Texas owned by Hearst Media ($11.4B, 136-year-old, 22K FTE privately owned diversified media conglomerate). Wins include:Transformed culture: Re-positioned company as digital-first and redefined mission to serve community through the early stages of the pandemic, created high-autonomy leadership roles, re-structured commission plans to reward digital growth and month-over-month improvement, and launched an iterative approach of measuring and celebrating improvements from top-of-funnel (activity) through revenue performance (forecast and closed won sales).Hired key roles: VP Retail, VP Digital, VP Marketing, Head of Business Intelligence; replaced underperforming VP of Key Accounts team; prioritized tech & digital advertising experience in hiring profile.Implemented metrics: Implemented Salesforce; created standards; shared leaderboards on activity, pipeline, closed sales; rewarded forecast accuracy, all leading to higher productivity, especially of long tail of underperforming reps and in total revenue growth.Results: Grew digital adverting revenue by +31%; improved net revenue retention by +16%; and led all Hearst Media properties and the industry in digital and total revenue growthIndustry: Local Media, Newspaper, AdvertisingStage: Fortune 500, large capRole: Chief Revenue Officer, CRO, Sales, Growth

Irving, Tx, Us

Led 20% annual growth and return to profitability of HYFN Local, a $50mm+ digital agency owned by Nexstar Media Group [NASDAQ: NXST], the nation's largest owner-operator of Broadcast TV stations.Re-structured org: Re-organized company into cross-functional pods, each dedicated to subset of customers resulting in improved campaign delivery and customer satisfaction.Introduced Associate Program: To reverse employee attrition in a competitive labor market, I created a “juniors” program, recruiting the best and brightest at second-tier local colleges. Hired 22 Associates in my first 90 days, which addressed workload and service levels, and promoted 7 within my first year.Hired key Executive roles: Hired VP Sales, VP Operations, Chief of Staff; replaced underperforming VP Engineering and Product Manager.Implemented metrics: Developed monthly scorecard reporting customer retention, response time & on-time delivery of campaigns, resulting in improved issue resolution and company-wide accountability.Rebranded: The legacy name had a negative reputation in the marketplace, so re-branded to HYFN Local, including name, logo, website, positioning, go-to-market, and collateral.Won back trust of channel partners: Developed escalation plan for issue resolution with minimum response times, starting with the Account Manager and ending with me. Launched a roadshow to meet with our sellers, explaining HYFN Local’s value prop and product offering to empower sellers to pitch and close with confidence.Results: Improved: On-time campaign launches 75% to 93%, issue resolution time 2.5 to 0.8 hours, employee retention (annualized) 65% to 85%, employee satisfaction (eNPS) -5 to +20, customer retention 45% to 58%, and customer satisfaction (NPS) 8 to 28.Industry: Local Media, Broadcast, Television (TV)Stage: Fortune 1000, Fortune 500, large capRole: General Manager / GM, President, P&L responsibility, turnaround

Co-founded Loku, a local discovery startup that leveraged NLP and computer vision to match places, events, activities and experiences to users’ tastes, which we monetized initially through coupons and daily deals and ultimately via integrated payments; sold company to strategic partner.Key wins include:Raised funding: Raised $2.2mm from prominent Angel investors in Austin and a Silicon Valley venture capital fund.Launched B2B product: Interviewed 100+ local businesses and developed insights dashboard to provide overall online mentions, traffic, summary of reviews, sentiment analysis, and drivers of positive and negative sentiment (e.g., a particular dish or service issue); this was a free offering if the company provided a rev share on coupon or daily deal, and later payments integration, which drove adoption and monetization.Negotiated revenue-sharing partnerships: Led discussions and secured product integration and revenue-share partnership agreements with channel partners and mobile payments providers worth a collective $2mm+ in anticipated annual contract value.Negotiated and completed company sale: Key channel partner approached us with an offer to buy Loku outright; led 90 day process of identifying top-tier investment bank, writing investment memo, leading due diligence with 4 suitors, negotiating deal price and structure, and consummating the sale.Results: Raised $2.2mm in Angel & VC funding, grew to 250K+ users, negotiated $2mm+ in B2B partnership annual contract value, led successful sale/exit.Industry: Tech, consumer, local, discovery, searchStage: Early stage, startup, seed stage, angel investor, venture capitalRole: Co-Founder, Product, Business Development (BD), exit/sale, partnerships, fundraising

New York, New York, Us

Improved KKR's [NYSE: KKR] portfolio companies’ operating performance to accelerate exits; examples include: Owens-Illinois (NYSE: OI), VonHoffmann (acquired by RR Donnelley), Alliance Imaging (acquired by Oaktree Capital and, later, Akumin).Industry: Private Equity, KKR, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Capstone, Turnaround, Manufacturing, Industrials, Operations, Cost Cutting, Profitability, Sales Optimization, Revenue Growth, Consumer RetailStage: Late Stage, Large Cap, Fortune 500, Fortune 1000Role: Analyst, Executive, Interim, Pricing, Sales, Growth, Operations

Burbank, Ca, Us

Introduced tiered badging (silver, gold, platinum), offering unlimited visits for local Anaheim residents, to drive traffic to Walt Disney's [NYSE: DIS] Disneyland Resort; boosted local visitors by +11% annualized post-launch.Industry: Media, Diversified, Conglomerate, Entertainment, Theme ParksStage: Late Stage, Large Cap, Publicly Traded, Fortune 100Role: Analysis, Operations, Pricing, Growth, Profitablity, Traffic, Guest Experience

Us

Rated “distinctive” (top rating) and offered promotion to third-year Senior Business Analyst position.Industry: Consulting, Professional Services, Manufacturing, Auto, Construction, Retail, GroceryStage: Large Company, Large CapRole: Analyst, Partner