Launching is the part most people underestimate. A category that doesn’t exist yet has no shelf, no search term, no comparison price and no reason to be trusted — so the work is inventing the demand alongside the product: the demo that makes it click, the retailer willing to bet on it, the first thousand people who make it look normal. I’ve done that for flying cameras, rolling droids, camera glasses and text-message checkout. The next one is AI you can touch.
I’ve put my name on a few viral product launches. Others achieved product-market fit, but market timing was not favorable. Some found an audience and no business model. And a few are just ideas I haven’t let go of.
project_Atlas 2025 → project_Warmup 2024 → project_Dutch 2025 → Spectacles 2016 → project_Kookie 2022 → Snapbots 2016 → Shopping App 2021 → Zero-party Data 2022 → Minishop 2021 → Text Shop 2019 → Petalfox 2018 → Pop-up 2016 → Shopping QR 2020 → BB-8 2015 → AR Drone 2010 → SPRK+ 2015 → ROLI 2015 → Ollie 2014 → Zik 2011 → Zikmu 2009 → Automotive 2009 →Same job, different companies: get a new category to market before anyone agrees it's a category. The titles changed — SVP, CMO, founder — the problem didn't. I've run go-to-market across robotics, AR/VR, gaming, voice and commerce, through retail channels and app stores, first spending other people's conviction and then my own. The second was harder and taught me more.
The collection of apps I’ve launched or had a hand in building have solidified their presence at the pinnacle of the iOS Store rankings — tallying up to a remarkable 143 weeks at the top of the app charts, consistently holding spots in “most downloaded” and “store picks.”
Browse the media library →Retail merchandising playbook — sales sheets, shelf talkers, and channel strategy across Apple, Disney, Best Buy, Brookstone, Nordstrom and more.
See the retail archive →I did. I was Head of Go-to-Market for Consumer Products at Snap pre-IPO, and my team developed the Spectacles launch in-house and in secret. We hit our goal of 100,000 units in under 10 months without selling a single pair online — distribution ran entirely through the Snapbot vending robots, which we placed in more than 80 locations worldwide, and a pop-up overlooking the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. The launch earned 75 billion impressions and six Cannes Lions: 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze.
I was SVP of Global Go-to-Market, Sales and Product Development at Sphero when we launched BB-8 with Disney and Lucasfilm alongside The Force Awakens in 2015. My team co-created the product design, packaging, marketing and app behaviors — BB-8's Aurebesh language, its mannerisms and its holographic projections. It sold into more than a million homes and was NPD's number one top-selling toy. Over roughly three years Sphero went from $10M to more than $150M in revenue, and we opened 40 global markets in 15 months.
Retail distribution is a separate discipline from demand generation, and it starts earlier than most founders expect. I've managed more than 20,000 retail points of sale globally — Apple's 420 stores, Amazon, Disney Stores, Best Buy, Brookstone, Nordstrom and Harrods — plus over 1,000 direct-to-consumer e-commerce sites, and I opened 40 global markets in 15 months at Sphero. The work is sales sheets, shelf talkers, margin structure and channel strategy, and I advise founders on exactly this.
I've done it three times at three different companies. The Parrot AR.Drone created the consumer drone category when I introduced it at CES 2010, and drove more than $350M in drone sales. BB-8 turned a character from a film into a robot in more than a million homes. Spectacles made camera glasses something people lined up for. It has been the same job every time: get a new category to market before anyone agrees it is a category.
We made buying a pair an event rather than a purchase. Spectacles were sold only through Snapbots — vending robots that appeared in a location for a day and then vanished — so scarcity and surprise did the marketing, and we never sold a unit online during the launch. We aimed at the first-generation iPod benchmark of 100,000 units and passed it in under 10 months. Ad Age published a piece under close to this exact headline in 2016.