Charles Michael Yim is a 3x serial entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, that is passionate about inventing and building innovative products that consistently delight customers. He is a young veteran in the startup world with a proven track record of success. Charles is best known for being a Reality TV Star on ABC's Emmy Award winning show Shark Tank where he convinced all 5 celebrity Sharks to invest $1M together into Breathometer. Being the Founder and CEO of Breathometer, Charles is responsible for overall direction and product strategy. Most recently, Charles was Founder and CEO of Chatterfly from inception, to acquisition by Plum District, a Kleiner Perkins company. Under Charles' leadership and vision, Chatterfly was able to become one of the most influential neighborhood reward platforms in the mobile space starting from the ground floor. Prior to Chatterfly, Charles was the Founder of ProBuddy, where he teamed up with a senior engineer at Facebook to develop a local service provider recommendation engine. Prior to that, Charles played an integral role in business development at Fortify Software, later acquired by HP.
Before entering the software industry, Charles was heavily involved in a leadership role at Cintas Corporation as a Regional Six Sigma, where he was responsible for stream-lining business processes, business analytics, M&A and QA for the entire West Coast Operation within the Emerging Businesses Sector.
Charles has appeared on ABC's hit show Shark Tank and has been interviewed by TechCrunch Live, USA Today, MSNBC, Fox Business News, Wall Street Journal and prolific blogger Robert Scoble. Charles is the Managing Director of cMy Ventures and is an Advisor for Stanford University's StartX Accelerator Program. Charles has authored multiple patents in embedded systems and is currently writing his first book. Charles graduated with a B.S. in Business Economics from UC Riverside and from Stanford Graduate School of Business in the Executive Program.
TV Personality @ Shark Tank
Beyond the Tank
Top Chef From June 2013 to Present (2 years 5 months) North Hollywood, CaliforniaFounder and CEO @ Breathometer is the World's First Breath Analysis Platform that helps consumers improves their health and wellness, and saves lives! A digital health 2.0 and connected device company. Breathometer is backed by Riverwood Capital, Structure Capital, Stanford University-StartX, and is a Mark Cuban Company.
-first to market portable breath analysis platform: Original/Breeze (alcohol), Mint (oral health), health+fitness, asthma, diabetes, lung cancer
-indiegogo campaign: exceeded goal by 600% - sold 4,000 units/$140,000 in first 30 days of launching
-appeared on Emmy Award Winning ABC show Shark Tank and closed all 5 celebrity investors for $1M for the first time in history of the show
-won 1st place out of 10,000 start-ups globally for Sir Richard Branson's XTC 2015
-appeared on ShopHQ Mark Cuban's American Dream averaging $1,700/min
-established retail partnerships with Best Buy, Staples, Fry's Electronics, Brookstone, Walmart, Amazon, etc.
-developed exclusive partnerships with Cleveland Clinic, Uber, New Deal Design, FADD
-selected and funded by Stanford University's exclusive StartX medical accelerator program
-closed ~$2M Series Seed round 9/20/13
-closing $20M Series A now
-$4M in rev 2014, projecting >$14M+ 2016
-led 10x growth of company valuation since Series Seed financing
-assembled executive team and advisory board
-acquired FDA clearance device/mobile apps (iOS/Android)
-nominated White House Champion of Change for Crowdfunding Entrepreneurs June 2013
-nominated Forbes 30under30 2013 for technology
Link to full Shark Tank episode 2 season 5 (second pitch): http://www.hulu.com/watch/538005
Behind the Scenes of Shark Tank episode: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/sharks-bite-art-shark-tank-pitch-23577142
indiegogo campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/breathometer-a-smartphone-breathalyzer/x/2630133
TechCrunch TV LIVE interview: http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/05/breathometer/ From September 2012 to Present (3 years 2 months) burlingame, californiaFounder and Managing Director @ Portfolio
-Richard Branson's XTC Fund
-Breathometer, The World's First Portable Breath Analysis Platform
-CoolBox, The World's Smartest Tool Box
-Idea Buyer, IP Marketplace
-Dave Kim Music
-Jordan Freda Company From March 2014 to Present (1 year 8 months) burlingame, caAdvisor @ StartX is a non-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate the development of Stanford's top entrepreneurs through experiential education and collective intelligence. One of the primary ways to join the StartX community is through our startup accelerator. Through this program, we provide access to an organized community of the best Stanford founders and serial entrepreneur mentors, real time and individualized education, and infrastructure resources. We are a non-profit company and there is no charge (equity or otherwise) for participating in our accelerator. While most founders that are accepted to the accelerator have already graduated or have taken leaves of absence, some exceptional founders manage to build a company while in school. From November 2014 to Present (1 year) Palo Alto, CAVP of Mobile @ Plum District offers daily deals moms love. It is By Moms For Moms - a community of moms sharing deals from local and national merchants for other moms to enjoy. Plum District puts Mom first by connecting her with products and inspirations that make her life easier. We know moms are looking to indulge, explore, nest, nibble, play, splurge and give - our goal is to make Mom's day, by offering her great values for her and her family. Plum District is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
• Responsible for overall product vision, road map, strategy, innovation and discovery of all mobile properties (including Chatterfly) that fall under the Plum District brand
• Led product development for Plum District's native apps (iPhone, Android and tablet), as well as HTML 5
• Designed and implemented iOS and Android apps for both Plum District and Disney (BD partnership)
• Managed the Mobile Team which consisted of 6 engineers and 1 designer
• Responsible for developing the concept and structure for the 3 customer teams that represent the main constituents of the company; for the sole purpose of extracting feedback and distilling it into valuable product requirements
TechCrunch article on Launching of Plum District's Mobile Offers Platform: http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/09/daily-deals-for-moms-plum-district-debuts-iphone-app-local-loyalty-program-to-follow/ From November 2011 to August 2012 (10 months) san francisco, caFounder, Chairman and CEO @ Chatterfly is the next generation Online Rewards Platform. Think frequent flyer miles but for local businesses. Essentially, Chatterfly is the first local neighborhood rewards program that supports local shopping behavior.
• Founded the company in 2010
• Conceived initial vision, product concept and business model
• Developed one of the first location-based mobile loyalty rewards platforms in the market -- available on both the iPhone and Android platforms
• Raised < $1,000,000 in early-stage funding and developed relationships with key investors and venture capital partners in Silicon Valley
• Oversaw entire operation - everything from legal, finance, sales, marketing, engineering, and product management from inception to acquisition
• Led overall direction and product strategy that resulted in creating one of the most influential neighborhood reward platforms in the space
• Planned and executed the initial Beta Program that consisted of 1000+ local businesses in multiple markets (SF Bay Area/Orange County, CA; Austin, Texas; Raleigh/Durham, NC)
• Hired key team players ranging from CTO to Senior VP of Sales
• Selected as a presenting company at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2011
• Served on the Board of Directors
• Assembled and managed the Advisory Board
• Negotiated acquisition with Plum District CEO
Advisory Board:
• Yang Cao - CTO, Whitepages.com
• Tom Marcus - Managing Director, Woodside Capital Partners
• Martina Lauchengco - Marketing Executive, Microsoft & Netscape
• Coye Cheshire, Ph.D. - Professor, UC Berkeley (Comp Sci.)
TechCrunch article on Chatterfly being acquired by Plum District in Nov 2011: http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/08/moms-love-daily-deals-plum-district-raises-20-million-acquires-chatterfly-doodledeals/
Interview by John Collins - KRON 4 News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsPLoDoz7yI
Interview by Robert Scoble: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHqIrtqYgzI From July 2010 to October 2011 (1 year 4 months) San Mateo, CAFounder @ Teamed up with a senior engineer at Facebook to develop a local service provider recommendation engine. From December 2008 to June 2010 (1 year 7 months) Silicon ValleyBusiness Development @ Fortify's Software Security Assurance products and services protect companies from the threats posed by security flaws in business-critical software applications. Combining deep application security expertise with extensive software development experience, Fortify Software has defined the market with award-winning products and assessment services that assure software security from development to production. Today, Fortify Software fortifies the software for the most demanding customer deployments, including the world’s largest, most varied code bases. Fortify Software was backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. From March 2008 to November 2008 (9 months) San Mateo, CARegional Six Sigma @ Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas Corporation provides highly specialized services to businesses of all types primarily throughout North America. Cintas designs, manufactures and implements corporate identity uniform programs, and provides entrance mats, restroom supplies, promotional products, first aid, safety, fire protection products and services, carpet and tile cleaning and document management services for approximately 800,000 businesses. Cintas is a publicly held company traded over the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CTAS, and is a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
• Directly managed key partners to develop an efficient contract process for the Fire Division - $1 Billion revenue pipeline
• Directly managed and was responsible for the entire Western Region (it consisted of over 30 locations within multiple divisions - Document Management, Fire, and First Aid & Safety)
• Implemented 4x10/reroute/GPS business initiatives throughout the entire Western Region which resulted in $1.2 M cost reduction that directly impacted the bottom line From May 2007 to February 2008 (10 months) West CoastManagement Trainee/Account Manager @ Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas Corporation provides highly specialized services to businesses of all types primarily throughout North America. Cintas designs, manufactures and implements corporate identity uniform programs, and provides entrance mats, restroom supplies, promotional products, first aid, safety, fire protection products and services, carpet and tile cleaning and document management services for approximately 800,000 businesses. Cintas is a publicly held company traded over the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CTAS, and is a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
• Charles graduated at the top of his class, completing what was a 2 year management training program within 7 months
• Promoted within 7 months to Regional Six Sigma of the Western Region
• 2007 Cintas: As an Account Manager, he ranked 7th out of 642 in his initial entry point into the company.
• 2007 Cintas: Pinnacle Club Award From October 2006 to April 2007 (7 months) Intern @ From January 2002 to June 2002 (6 months)
Executive Development, Influence and Negotiations @ Stanford University Graduate School of Business From 2008 to 2008 Bachelor's Degree, Business Economics @ University of California, Riverside From 2003 to 2006 Charles Yim is skilled in: Product Management, Negotiation, Direct Sales, Web 2.0, Six Sigma, Product Strategy, Product Development, Mobile Applications, Loyalty Programs, HTML 5, Web Applications, Team Leadership, Business Operations, Mergers, Acquistions, Mobile Design, Social Media, Business Development, Entrepreneurship, Start-ups, Social Media Marketing, Management, Leadership, Mergers & Acquisitions, CEOs, Mobile Devices, Venture Capital, Business Strategy, Marketing, E-commerce, Sales, SaaS, Strategic Partnerships, Angel Investing, Corporate Development, Online Marketing
Websites:
http://www.breathometer.com,
http://www.plumdistrict.com,
http://www.chatterfly.com