Andy Volk
Android & AI Developer Ecosystem at Google
Andy Volk
Android & AI Developer Ecosystem at Google
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Ecosystem Global Program Partnerships Lead for AI (API-first) and Android
2022 - Current
Supporting the growth of developers globally on Gemini, and Android, through Google's developer and startup ecosystem programs by working directly with key leads across the company.
Head of Developer & Startup Ecosystem, Sub-Saharan Africa
2013 - 2022
I am the head of Google's Developer & Startup Ecosystem team for Sub-Saharan Africa, managing an amazing team with members on the ground in Google's offices across Africa. Our team's focus is on reaching top startups and developers through scalable, high-impact programs, focused on all stages of the developer lifecycle. Target developers range from writing their first lines of code, to entrepreneurs launching their first startups and apps, and on to the most successful developers on the African continent. I'm a 10x thinker at heart: to support the growth of Google's impact, I enjoy developing new "moonshots" to massively expand my team's impact in Africa. Previous successful moonshots include Black Founders Fund Africa (raised $3m in funding to support black-founded startups across Africa), GFS Accelerator Africa (raised $3m+ in funding and headcount to launch Google's first region-specific accelerator program), the Google / IFC e-Conomy Africa 2020 report (Google's first projection of Africa's Internet economy future), and the Developer Ecosystem report (the first-ever research report series on Africa’s 700,000+ developer population). Projects my team leads includes coordinating and managing scalable developer outreach and support programs across the region (including Google Developer Groups, Google Developer Experts), working with startups and VCs through programs such as Google Developers Launchpad, increasing gender diversity in the professional software developer community with Women Techmakers, and representing Google's range of developer platforms in Sub-Saharan Africa. I've also given talks at a number of software developer events in Africa and beyond, including Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey, Zambia, and and Zimbabwe.
Angel Investor
2017
Investing in promising early-stage founding teams, focusing on emerging markets and disruptive technologies. 50+ angel investments to date, including: Alto IRA, Doola, Klasha, Kotani Pay, Lori Systems, Mood Health, MoonPay, Nestcoin, Paga, Republic, Smile Identity, Subskribe, Syndicate, Termii, and Vurbl.
Founding Council Member
2022
Sharing my time to support the growth of Talent City: a network of Charter Cities across Africa focused on providing the best quality of life for African technology talent that drives innovation and the digital economy.
Founding Limited Partner & Global Advisor
2018
Founding Limited Partner (LP) and global advisor with Microtraction, a Nigerian pre-seed VC fund focused on investing in Africa's most remarkable teams with technical founders at the earliest stage of their ventures. Proud to have been supporting this fantastic crew since the beginning.
Limited Partner
2021
An early stage fund, backing your next favorite thing
Limited Partner
2021
Limited Partner (LP) in Future Africa's investment fund, investing in mission-driven innovators building an African future where prosperity and purpose are within everyone's reach.
VP of Apps & Developer Relations
2012 - 2013
Leading the charge to support and expand Mxit's ecosystem of 3rd-party apps and developers running on the Mxit platform, Africa's first "super app" with an open API reaching millions of users across Africa. I manage the Developer Relations, Provisioning, and Support teams, working directly with premium 3rd-party developers, and defining API requirements / platform strategy. Key activities in 2012 included: - Growth of active developers on the platform increased nearly 3x - Launching a series of API Bootcamps to engage creative and digital agencies with the platform - Creating and managing the largest open-source developer tool ecosystem on any South African platform - Speaking for the Mxit developer platform at events ranging from Tech4Africa to Silicon Cape Academy - Managing and growing an ecosystem of thousands of developers and hundreds of their Mxit apps Key activities in 2013: - Creating the Preferred Developer Program to help surface the best Mxit developers to prospective clients - Creating the Mxit App Store in April, resulting in over 2mm Mxit App installs since launch - Giving the keynote address at the Pivot East conference in Uganda - Product owner for Mxit on the Nokia Asha, J2ME, and Blackberry platforms
VP of Product
2010 - 2011
As VP of Product at Kongregate, the top social game site for core gamers, I'm responsible for our online product and user experience. My duties range from managing the User Experience Design team and Product Management teams directly, leading our Agile product development process, managing our long-term product priorities, developing new product ideas and wireframing out the concepts, working with our game developers and community managers to add features that further our game/player ecosystem, and bringing the company together to review and collaborate on major new product features. Beyond just expanding Kongregate's reach and product offering, I also led the product initiatives to integrate strategically with GameStop's offerings, notably their PowerUp Rewards incentive program, and developing Kongregate community features for GameStop's 17,000 employees. And as with any classic startup, my hands-on work ranges from wireframing to writing site content, training new Product Managers, negotiating the occasional contract, and optimizing our content to spread virally across the web.
Founder & President
2007 - 2010
Founder and president of a consulting company and incubator based in San Francisco, providing years of Silicon Valley product management, engineering leadership, and design experience to both established and emerging web and mobile companies. In other words, we take our client's ideas and evolve them into excellent products. Organizations we've worked with include MTV, NASA, Craigslist Foundation, SPOTXchange, LOYAL3, LACMA, Gamezebo and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. We also incubate our own ideas and launch them as standalone products. Past in-house products include "Is It Safe to Visit?", NiceTips, and Phone Genome.
Chief Product Officer
2009 - 2009
On contract to an early stage financial services startup as their Chief Product Officer from seed through the successful closing of their Series A round. Played key roles in managing and building product pipeline, managing onshore and offshore teams, bringing in engineering management talent, and strategic brand development.