Mike Sobol Email & Phone Number

Portland, Me, Us

I help both startups and corporate innovators turn promising ideas into scalable solutions. Worked closely with MaineHealth executive leadership and a large cross-functional team to establish a framework for their own innovation center to address important unmet needs in the Maine ecosystem.

Turned around an under-performing business providing hard-to-find wire and cable products for a wide range of industrial applications. Customers included Toyota, Bose, Space-X, NASA JPL, US Navy, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, JW Danforth, Coherent Industrial Lasers, and thousands more manufacturers, repair shops, contractors, universities, government agencies, product designers and research facilities.What began as a small consulting project turned into an exciting opportunity when I was recruited to re-build this e-commerce business from the ground up and take over day-to-day operations. I launched a new website with improved user experience, more advanced SEO & digital marketing, new operational processes, and more effective sales and account management. Established several new and more profitable vendor relationships as we grew sales and increased market share.I increased average order size by over 5X while also increasing customer LTV, top line revenue and profitability.

Portland, Maine, Us

Self-Configuring Cloud Systems: Make big changes fast, with a few simple commands.Torque is a new kind of open-source framework for development operations. It elevates work from the configuration level of HCL, YAMLs and scripts, to the level of architecture design, powered by code libraries. Built specifically for managing cloud system architectures, Torque is a framework that, when installed in your codebase, helps to implement development operations for your architecture, the way you design it.

Conceived and launched a new startup accelerator program in partnership with MaineHealth and Unum. Attracting high calibre teams from across the country, Venture Hall provided world-class training, experienced advisors, and an evidence-based process to help entrepreneurs gain a clear line of site to reaching new milestones, and eventually, to realizing their vision.

We make it dead simple for consumer product companies to get their products placed inside the content their target consumers already enjoy on YouTube.Why are we doing it? Because marketing has changed. Traditional interruptive advertising just doesn't work like it used to. Consumers don't trust brand messages, and they certainly don't go online to see ads. They go online for content-- entertaining, fun, informative and useful content, like YouTube videos.More than ever, consumers seek out independent sources of information, especially when they're thinking about buying. That's why it's so important for consumer product companies to get their products found inside the content their target consumers already enjoy. YouTube is the perfect place to start, with product reviews and demos providing exactly the kind of information consumers need to make purchasing decisions.Since launching our beta in early 2015, over 5,200 YouTubers have joined the platform along with 2,000 product companies. Videos produced through Content BLVD have been viewed 18.5 million times!

Finding no adequate solutions to support our content-driven SEO efforts in building Without the Stress, we sought to solve the challenges of scaling the creation and distribution of high quality original blog content for content marketing and SEO. We developed a 3-way marketplace for brands, freelance writers and blog publishers to work together quickly and cost-effectively, with the common goal of creating more great content for their audiences.Grew Guest Blog Genius into a leading guest blogging solution, before evolving the product into what would become Content BLVD.

Los Angeles, Ca, Us

Dominated a niche market (passport and visa expediting services) with localized online marketing, expanding reach to 6 cities in 6 months. Having identified an opportunity to capture online traffic in the passport and visa expediting space, quickly built a large inbound marketing funnel and customer support system to service clients through partners in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and New York. Managed on-site and off-site SEO, landing page optimization, business partnerships with independent expediters, and operational processes, including a remote customer support team who handled on-demand expedited services, 24/7.Discovered huge unmet needs in digital marketing that led to the development of Guest Blog Genius and Content BLVD.

For every business challenge, there is a solution. Collaboration Lab helps small business owners find the solutions they need through resources that go far beyond a single type of service, coaching system or professional perspective. Within every community, there exists all the knowledge, experience and opportunity business people need-- finding it and taking advantage of it is the hard part. From expert seminars on specific business topics, to peer support and one-on-one coaching, our objective is to provide exactly the right help to each and every client.And, when a client is looking to create something new, we assist them in capitalizing on new opportunities, such as alternative funding options and strategic partnerships.

Danville, Ca, Us

I led the operations team, including 4 direct reports, in training and supporting a network of 260+ franchise offices through periods of industry-leading growth. Provided both strategic and tactical support to other departments in determining priorities, developing new products and services, and providing the main conduit of communication between the franchisor and the franchise network.Together, all of these changes helped Bark Busters to be named named America's #1 Pet Services Franchise by Entrepreneur magazine, and received Franchise Business Review's Franchise 50 Award for franchise owner satisfaction.We completely redesigned our educational programs, from pre-launch preparation and initial training to on-going support resources. Through our annual conference, group training calls, mentoring program, intensive advanced classes, intranet resources and personal contact with the training and support team, our franchise owners were able to push their own skills and abilities as far and as fast as they wished.As a Master Dog Behavioral Therapist and Trainer, I also led a fundamental shift in the delivery of our core service offering, to improve our trainers' abilities to quickly achieve lasting results with clients and their dogs.Finally, we launched more robust business and sales support programs to assist franchise owners in realizing the maximum return on their marketing, sales, customer service and business management efforts.

Danville, Ca, Us

Provided help to clients struggling with their dogs' problem behavior, as well as those in need of basic obedience training.Delivered free child and dog safety seminars and sought to further public understanding of dog behavior, health and welfare through special event lectures, school assemblies and local media appearances.After purchasing an under-developed territory, I quickly built a strong base of business by establishing a referral network of veterinarians and other pet industry professionals.I routinely closed sales at a rate nearly twice the average for Bark Busters nationally and pushed average client revenue more than 40% above the mean, while fostering a reputation for exceptional results and customer service.Within 18 months, I sold the territory for close to double the purchase price and was recruited to join the corporate office.

Played a pivotal role in developing the strategy of a young, transitional department charged with securing and managing national accounts, to be serviced by franchise owners and affiliated vendors across the US and Canada.Consulted with clients to design and fulfill custom logistics solutions, while liaising with franchise owners to ensure both parties received the best possible value from the relationship.First, I was trained in a consultative selling approach that helped me close more deals for more money by empathizing effectively with customer needs. This allowed my department to pay franchise owners more for the same work building significant trust and credibility across the network.Second, I realized that specialty logistics isn't an asset management issue, it's a risk management issue. Working closely with Allstate Insurance, I conceptualized a new logistics management platform that would capitalize on Navis' strategic advantages in risk management, while commoditizing what every other logistics company had: trucks, warehouses, personnel, etc. We were able to turn competitors into our service providers because we could take on the risks they couldn't.

Sold, designed, built and serviced high and low ropes challenge course facilities for colleges and universities, secondary schools, summer camps, hospitals and business conference centers nationwide.Delivered courses in safety instruction and group facilitation training to assist clients in program and staff development.

Ba, Philosophy & Psychology

Philosophy, Psychology