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Dillon Ferdinandi

Mentor at Techstars

San Diego Metropolitan Area

Overview

Work Experience

  • Coach

    2022 - Current

    Performance coach to early-stage founders and investors. More info here: https://dillonferdinandi.com.

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Techstars

  • Mentor

    2023

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Slack

  • Director, Slack Fund

    2019 - 2024

    Help manage Slack Fund where we lead Pre-Seed and Seed stage investments in enterprise and B2B software companies. In 2021, we started investing out of our third fund which is $100M. Manage a global portfolio of 75 active companies ranging from Seed to Pre-IPO. I’ve contributed to 70 of Slack Fund’s 110 lifetime investments (excluding follow-ons) since inception by either directly sourcing, performing diligence, executing on the investment, or providing portfolio support. Select investments: Hopin, Oyster, Sonar, Hightouch, Five to Nine, Compt, Videowise, Courier, Yac, Poised

  • Platform & Strategic Partnerships

    2016 - 2019

    Successfully sourced, developed and managed partnerships with enterprise SaaS players such as PagerDuty, Github, GitLab, Heroku, and Datadog. My work included leading collaborative design sessions, guiding development against Slack’s platform APIs, negotiating contracts, and crafting joint GTM campaigns. Worked closely with M&A and Strategy on corporate development landscaping projects and international expansion opportunities. In 2017, I helped launch Slack to customers across EMEA and Japan – kickstarting initial ISV partnerships and hiring local team members. Collaborated with marketing, partner eng and product on API beta launches (Enterprise Grid, Dialogs, Message Menus, Shared Channels, App Unfurls) to extend Slack’s value prop via partners, including identifying and recruiting target partners and GTM planning and execution.

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Zemanta

  • Director of Strategic Partnerships

    2014 - 2016

    Zemanta was a USV and SeedCamp funded company that offered a native advertising platform to brands, publishers, and media agencies. I joined as employee #15 and owned product partnerships and marketing. Zemanta was acquired by Outbrain in 2017.

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Adobe

  • Product Manager, Typekit Enterprise

    2011 - 2014

    Following Typekit's acquisition by Adobe, I stayed for an additional three years. During my time at Adobe, I owned the product roadmap, go-to-market strategy, and sales for Typekit's enterprise product. I also lead the integration of Typekit's business with Adobe M&A. Outside of my core role, I supported various projects across Creative Cloud such as M&A sourcing, font licensing, and product integrations with Photoshop and InDesign.

Typekit, Inc.

  • Business Development

    2011 - 2011

    Acquired by Adobe Systems in Oct 2011. Typekit was a True Ventures and Freestyle Capital backed company. Typekit enabled designers and developers to use custom typography across the web -- from individual blogs, platforms such as WordPress, and popular brands such as The New Yorker, JetBlue, and The NY Times. I couldn't have asked for a better first role post-college. I joined as employee #10 and played a utility role -- supporting Customer Support, Sales, Product Management, and even chasing down customers who hadn’t paid. I developed a taste for product design, and how great product teams operate.

Education

Investments

Videowise

Seed

Total Funding: $3M

Relevant Websites