David Temkin is a product development executive and entrepreneur with a history of designing, developing and commercializing web and mobile products used by millions of people. David has managed large engineering and product/business teams with significant revenue and broad product portfolios, and has a history of pioneering new product categories. He was an early innovator in the area of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), having founded Laszlo Systems, and was involved in mobile computing from its early days (Apple's Newton) and interactive TV (Excite@Home). He is the recipient of eight patents.
Founder and CEO @ From February 2015 to Present (11 months) Board Member @ From August 2014 to Present (1 year 5 months) CTO @ Led Hightail's tech team (120 people, spanning dev, ops, QA, IT), supporting the company's popular file sharing service and its 45M users. Focused on upgrading Hightail's core platform; rationalized the tech organization and its interactions with the rest of the company; drove improvements in reliability, scalability, and processes; spearheaded a successful initiative to define a next-generation product. From March 2014 to October 2014 (8 months) GM/SVP, Mobile and Mail @ AOL MOBILE: Unified AOL Mobile into a single unit responsible for 20+ mobile/tablet apps and 20+ mobile sites representing all major AOL web brands (AOL.com, Huffington Post, Patch, TechCrunch, Engadget, Moviefone and more) on multiple mobile platforms. Hired top-notch talent across all functions; built a design team from scratch. Boosted mobile traffic by over 200% during a period of 70% industry growth. resulting in AOL becoming the #4 US mobile destination — behind only Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. Implemented a mobile ad server and integrated it with AOL’s advertising and sales operations, creating a substantial mobile display advertising business. Acquired two startups; delivered new mobile-first products including Editions, Engadget Distro, Huffington, Play and more.
AOL MAIL: AOL was the #4 US webmail provider in 2011/2, with 20M+ monthly active users. Drove the first major redesign of AOL Mail in over five years, boosting per-user revenue by 20+% and arresting a decline in usage. Created an all-new, innovative mail product called Alto (altomail.com). Alto manages mail across multiple accounts (GMail, Yahoo, iCloud, AOL), with auto-categorization of messages and a differentiated visual approach to an email user experience. The product launch generated more press coverage than any other AOL product launched during my years at the company. Alto was named as one of 2012’s “Best UI Ideas” by FastCo Design. From 2010 to 2013 (3 years) VP Developer Platform @ Led the team responsible for the webOS App Catalog, SDK, developer tools, and developer portal. Responsible for setting the strategy and shipping software to support Palm’s webOS developer ecosystem. Shipped Palm’s App Catalog (released at CES 2010), crafted a native tools strategy and a novel developer incentive program. From 2009 to 2010 (1 year) Founder/CEO, and CTO/VP Engineering @ Founded Laszlo Systems, an early innovator in the area of RIAs (rich internet applications). Served as the company's first CEO, from 2000 to 2002. Raised the company's $10M Series A investment from two venture firms. Later transitioned into a CTO/VP Engineering role, leading the company's strategic shift from a commercial platform provider to a provider of an open-source developer platform complemented by commercial, consumer-oriented communications applications.
Led efforts to establish the overall RIA market category as it grew from 2003 to 2008. Played critical role in bringing large accounts on board (including Verizon, T. Rowe Price, Wal-Mart, H&R Block, Alcatel-Lucent, Cox Communications, and IBM) and in ongoing large account relations. Led the company’s strategic embrace of open source in late 2004, including establishing a new business model and building an open-source focused relationship with IBM. Grew awareness of OpenLaszlo, Laszlo’s RIA platform, establishing it as the most credible “open” alternative in the RIA space, winning InfoWorld’s 2007 “BOSSIE” award for Best RIA Platform, and obtaining over a half-million developer downloads by 2007. Presented at technical conferences on the subjects of user experience, Ajax, RIAs, Web OSs, and related topics. Served as keynote speaker at multiple conferences. Demoed at DEMO conference. Frequently quoted in industry press as an expert on RIAs. From 2000 to 2009 (9 years) Senior Director, Engineering @ Joined @Home Network as an engineering manager tasked with developing innovative consumer software for the cable internet service. Later became Senior Director of consumer software, responsible for multiple teams developing multiple products, ranging from the CD-ROM installer used to get a customer on-line, to a custom browser, to a TV set-top box user interface and software platform designed for @Home's cable partners. Managed the design and development of the only content/advertising product to be adopted by Excite from @Home's portfolio following the merger of @Home Network and Excite. This product, an advertising-supported desktop client called the Excite Assistant, generated 1M daily page views from its users. From 1997 to 2000 (3 years) Software engineer and development manager @ Joined Apple as a member of the original software development team for the Newton, Apple's first mobile device. Focused on the Newton's user interface and UI toolbox. Later managed the Newton Toolbox team, which was responsible for developing the libraries and APIs used by internal and third-party developers to make Newton applications. From 1992 to 1997 (5 years) Software Engineer @ Designed and implemented modules for Intermedia, a pre-web hypertext/hypermedia system, including a world map browser, a graphics editor, and a dictionary/reference application. From 1987 to 1990 (3 years)
A.B., Computer Science & History @ Brown University From 1985 to 1989 David Temkin is skilled in: Mobile Devices, Mobile Applications, Product Management, User Experience, User Interface, Strategic Partnerships, AJAX, Entrepreneurship, Agile Project Management, User Interface Design, Software Design, SaaS, Scalability, Software Development, Product Development