Mike Bracco

Product Manager at JibJab
JAN 2012 - PRESENT

digital entertainment studio (Venice, CA)

• This is a newly accepted position - details to come.
• Check out my blog post for more info on my move to JibJab.

Product Manager at Ask for a Deal
DEC 2010 - DEC 2011

deal site founded by Jason Calacanis (Santa Monica, CA)

• Internally promoted within Mahalo to launch and manage site.
• Defined product requirements through two major release cycles and managed roadmap as Product Owner in a agile/Scrum environment. Prioritized backlog through constant A/B testing and user feedback.
• Designed product interface and user flow by building wireframes (I prefer Balsamiq). This included deep integration with Twitter and Facebook through their APIs as well as Amazon and PayPal for deal transactions.
• Monitored Key Performance Indicators and met weekly with CEO and President to report progress.
• Drove traffic through SEO, SEM, Facebook Ads, content creation and social media marketing.
• Led monetization efforts by optimizing AdSense design.
• Established relationships with major brands (such as Borders and Quiznos) and local businesses in order to gain product adoption and obtain feedback to guide product roadmap.

Product Manager, Community at Mahalo
DEC 2009 - DEC 2010

education community with millions of visitors a month (Santa Monica, CA)

• Was in charge of the tools and processes that supported the content creation team.
• Designed and wireframed tools used to recruit, monitor and pay Mahalo.com's content creation team of 100+ internal and remote writers/editors. Worked alongside engineers in agile/Scrum environment during development.
• Interacted with community members on regular basis to improve site experience. Used bug tracking software (such as Pivotal Tracker and FogBugz) to track and prioritize bug fixes with engineering team.
• Created educational tools to train content team on SEO, content creation strategy and social media marketing.
• Created corporate messaging materials including CEO's presentations for conferences and quarterly board meeting slide decks. Also designed and built the corporate blog.

Marketing Manager at Ensconce Data Technology
FEB 2007 - SEP 2009

enterprise data security company (Portsmouth, NH)

• Given broad responsibility and authority in this fast paced startup company.
• Researched market needs, determined competitive weaknesses and created messaging deployed online and in print.
• Key activities included email campaign lead generation, trade publication print ads, trade show participation and SEM. Worked with sales team to manage incoming leads in Salesforce.
• Designed and created banner ads, trade show signage, website explainer videos/tutorials and HTML emails.
• Managed website and social media accounts. Responsible for website updates, SEO and tracking site analytics.
• Managed outside PR firm. Gained coverage in major trade publications and won industry awards. Also broadened brand awareness by actively commenting on industry blogs.

Cofounder of SmackTweets
AUG 2011 - PRESENT

a better way to consume Twitter for NFL fans (Venice, CA)

• Created site with technical cofounder to create a better experience to consume the real time web around the NFL.
• SmackTweets aggregates and archives the tweets of 2,000+ NFL "insiders" (every active player, coach, team owner/staff, league pundits and beat writers) and surfaces the best conversations and media they're sharing.
• Wireframed and conceptualized entire site. Built site in Django and used Twitter's Bootstrap on the front end.

Host for ThisWeekIn Social Media at ThisWeekIn
MAR 2010 - OCT 2010

web TV network (Santa Monica, CA)

• Researched and read news for weekly shows ThisWeekIn Twitter ( view all episodes) and ThisWeekIn Social Media ( view all episodes). Co-hosted the show with Sean Percival (@percival).
  Participated in other network shows including Jason Calacanis' ThisWeekIn Startups ( view appearances) and Mark Suster's ThisWeekIn Venture Capital ( view appearances).

Writer at The Next Web
JUN 2009 - MAY 2010

top social media blog (remote)

• Wrote about social media, cloud technology and the startups in the consumer web space.
• Posts appeared on the front page of Digg, Techmeme and Hacker News among others.

B.A. Economics from Colby College
JAN 2003 - DEC 2006

top liberal arts college (Waterville, ME)

• Consistent Dean's List student - graduated with a 3.43 GPA.
• Studies focused on international economics, marketing and corporate finance.
• Played football and was named to the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) All-Academic Team from 2004 - 2006 and the All-Conference team in 2005.