At COO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based COO’ operating in the Mobile Apps space. If you think a COO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Andrew Maguire
Chief Operating Officer of Elevate Labs
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About Elevate Labs, Oakhouse Partners: Elevate is a cognitive training tool designed to build communication and analytical skills.
David Bos
COO of Maple Media
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About Maple Media: Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising, and technology company that acquires and operates category-leading, consumer apps.
Amit Agrawal
Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Cyber Infrastructure (p) Ltd
Mr. Amit Agrawal directs CIS’s Operations Quality & Process initiatives that are instrumental in driving major Financial and Operational benefits to CIS and its clients. He plays a vital role in establishing key alliances and building competent teams who are quite adept in using Latest Technology, Frameworks and Techniques; giving CIS a competitive advantage. He is also responsible for providing direction to strategic initiatives at CIS and building up CIS’s technical capabilities.As a technology veteran since 2002, he is leading and managing multiple projects, while maintaining budgets and meeting deadlines. He also steers the development lifecycle of all our web initiatives, mentors the research and implementation of innovative Web/ Mobile & Cloud Solutions. He is responsible for assimilation and adoption of latest technology in the company. Prior to CIS, Mr. Agrawal has served in various managerial roles in global IT companies in the US, Europe, and India. He possesses a number of certificates in Programming Languages, Project Management, Quality Control and Innovation Straategies.He holds a Bachelor’s Degree (BE) in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of RGPV and graduated in 2002 and is an MDP alumnae of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), 2007.
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About Cyber Infrastructure (p) Ltd: Cyber InfraStructure Pvt. Ltd. or CIS is a IT and consulting company in Central India.
Nicole Houston
President, Chief Operating Officer of Fluid Credit
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About Fluid Credit: Fluid Credit provides university students with credit and personal finance education.
Jerrin James
COO & Co-founder of Food Rocket
Jerrin James, Co-founder & COO of Food Rocket Ex – Amazon | Ex – Facebook | Ex – Groupon | Last Mile Expert | Six Sigma Black-Belt Exceptional data-driven, highly analytical and technological operations leader and change agent with unusually diverse global experience, James, has a career that displays a consistent track record of positive results and transformation accomplished through leadership roles in different organizations, including technology giants such as Amazon, Facebook, and Groupon. At Amazon, James led operations for multiple fulfillment centers, was in charge of productivity improvements for the Amazon Sortable Network, and launched multiple FCs. James still holds the record to ship out the most number of units out of a single day during peak season at one of Amazon’s legacy buildings. At Facebook, James led Global Logistics and Supply Chain Ops including Global Sourcing, Procurement, FC Operations, Deployment, Transportation, Trade & Compliance and Reverse Logistics, managing a ~$500mm spend. Most recently, James was COO at Driven Deliveries building California’s largest vertically integrated last-mile operator for cannabis from the ground up, servicing consumers all over California, the largest market, in under 60 minutes. James played an instrumental role in raising the first major investment for the company to scale its growth, taking the company public as well as an exit through an acquisition in just under 2 years.
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About Food Rocket: Food Rocket is an application that provides customers with on-demand 10-15 minute free grocery delivery.
Luke Kathol
COO & Co-Founder of Urgently
Luke Kathol is a Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Urgently, Inc
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About Urgently: Urgently features a roadside assistance industry to the benefit of global brands and roadside assistance professionals.
Zaizhuang Cheng
COO, Co-founder of Spin
Zaizhuang Cheng is co-founder at Skinny Labs, also known as Spin. He was a lead software engineer at Disqus before he co-founded the company with Derrick and Euwyn. Zaizhuang is a Stanford University graduate, holding a master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering.
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About Spin: Spin is a stationless electric scooter company that provides dockless mobility systems.
Josh Yguado
President, COO & Co-Founder of Jam City
Josh Yguado is co-founder, COO and President of Jam City, where he oversees the company’s operations, growth strategies and game portfolio – which has repeatedly dominated the top grossing charts of the Apple and Google Play stores. Before launching Jam City, Josh was Vice President at Fox Entertainment, where he helped Fox in its acquisition of MySpace, its creation of Hulu and its launch of new television networks. His career also includes working at MTV Networks and Univision. Among other honors, SoCalTech named Josh one of its top “50 Most Influential People” in Southern California’s technology industry. A board member of The Young Turks, he received his bachelor’s degree and MBA from Harvard University. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.
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About Jam City: Jam City is a mobile entertainment company, connecting the world through technology, creativity, and play.
Navin Ramachandran
COO of Match Group
Navin Ramachandran currently serves as the Chief Operations Officer of The Match Group and General Manager of PeopleMedia. Navin has served in multiple roles since joining the Match Group in 2012, including GM of Match Events and GM of Match Latin America. Prior to Match, Navin held various management and consulting roles at Amyris, i2 Technologies and McKinsey & Company. Navin holds an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology and a Master’s in Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
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About Match Group, Match Group, People Media: Match Group is a division of IAC & online dating portfolio that comprises over forty brands around the world.
Zachary Goldberg
Co-founder, CTO/COO of Lynk Messenger
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About Lynk Messenger: Lynk Messenger is a hyper-local messaging application that lets its users to chat with friends nearby for free.
Karan Singh
Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer of Ginger
Karan co-founded Ginger.io and currently leads its clinical operations and strategy. He has over 13 years of experience in healthcare from management consulting for biopharma to data analytics, having worked at leading health care firms including ZS Associates and Humedica. A leader in the digital health community, Karan is a frequent speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship, health innovation and new models of care. He has served as a scholar at the Aspen Institute, delivered keynotes at Public Health Institute (PHI) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and recognized as a rising star in Healthcare by LinkedIn’s Next Wave. Karan holds his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan, attended the Harvard Medical School / MIT Health, Science & Technology (HST) program, and received his BA and BS in Economics and Business Administration from UC Berkeley.
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About Ginger, Pixel Vector Media: Ginger is an on-demand mental health company providing around-the-clock access to emotional support via coaching, therapy, and psychiatry.
Crid Yu
COO of Fyber – A Digital Turbine Company
Crid Yu is Vice President and Managing Director, North America for InMobi, where he is accelerating the phenomenal growth of the region. Crid is a digital media industry veteran with experience growing transformational businesses at Google and Demand Media. Previously, he held senior leadership positions during his eight years at Google. He was responsible for the top 1000 strategic partners in Google’s US Display Business, and was also a key member of the management team in Asia Pacific, where he established Google’s operations in China, Hong Kong, and Korea. In his role as SVP, Strategic Partnerships at Demand Media, he developed partnerships that expanded distribution and increased revenue. Prior to his career in digital media, Crid was an Associate Principal at the management consulting firm McKinsey and Company. Crid holds both a BS and a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
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About Confidently, Fyber – A Digital Turbine Company: Fyber, part of Digital Turbine’s independent Mobile Growth Platform, develops ad monetization solutions trusted by top mobile app publishers
Cathy Vigrass
COO of Future
Cathy Vigrass is Head of Canada at Square. In her role, she is focused on the growth of Square’s business in Canada and leads the charge in continuing to bring powerful Square tools to the Canadian market. Cathy has spent the last several years at technology and commerce companies in Silicon Valley. Prior to Square, she was the Head of Business Development and Product Operations at Sosh, a social platform for discovering local experiences. Her career has also included strategic and operational roles at eBay, where she worked on category management and corporate strategy, and Apple, where she focused on retail innovation. Cathy holds a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Future: Future offers one-on-one digital training with fitness coaches at home, the gym, or on-the-go.
Matt Bijur
COO of HONK
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About HONK: HONK is an innovative roadside assistance platform that uses both technology and a unique business model.
Edmond Wong
Co-Founder & COO of BuzzMob
Edmond Wong is an Operations and Strategy executive focused on delivering great customer experiences while scaling VC and PE backed growth stage companies. He currently advises growth stage companies in consumer products, eCommerce, SaaS and subscription based services and is an angel investor and co-founder of the Asian American Investors Group. Most recently, Edmond was co-founder/COO of Chatter, Inc (Appletree), a SaaS based communication platform that encourages engagement between parents and teachers within K-8 schools. He also co-founded and was COO of BuzzMob, a crowd engagement and fan technology app for live events. BuzzMob connects on-site attendees and delivers exclusive curated content to revolutionize the live event experience. Prior to BuzzMob, Mr. Wong created, built and scaled many iconic fashion and consumer product brands both in the US and worldwide.
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About BuzzMob, UCI Applied Innovation, UCI Paul Merage School of Business, VHA Corp: Connecting classrooms and schools to engage and empower parents and students.
Ben MacAskill
COO of SmugMug
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About SmugMug: SmugMug is a photo sharing website that allows its users to store, share and sell their photos online. They also own & operate Flickr.
Daniel Barnes
COO of N3TWORK
COO @ N3twork Maximizing LTV to CPI, driving scalable acquisition of revenue and profitable installs to the entire mobile portfolio across some of the most successful games in the Appstores. Focus on Product Systems, Retention & Monetization to create sustainable revenue streams through scalable, centralized tool sets to increase specific KPIs. (If you got this far, I’m trying to growth hack my profile using bingo KPI buzzwords, sorry)
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About N3TWORK: Creating, publishing, and scaling the very best in mobile games.
Beth Morgan
Chief Operating Officer of TrueData
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About TrueData: TrueData is a mobile data platform that works with app publishers who generate mobile data & the companies who need data for ad targeting
Pieter Doevendans
Co-Founder, COO of Ava
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About Ava, Kairos Society: Ava empowers 400M deaf & hard-of-hearing people to have accessible in-person conversations, anytime, anywhere.
Chuntao Yang
COO of Steps Mobile Inc.
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About Steps Mobile Inc.: SaaS, Mobile App, Social Media, Snapchat-powered
Mohana Radhakrishnan
Co-founder & COO of Expertus
Mohana is both a visionary and pioneer in the learning industry. Co-founding Expertus in 1998, Mohana has since directed it through a decade plus of consecutive growth − transforming Expertus from a top learning services company into the provider of the #1 ranked LMS. Today as COO, she is instrumental in setting the strategy, driving execution and creating best practices for Expertus’ services and technology. She also serves as our chief consulting strategist, helping Global 2000 corporations deliver real business value through next-gen learning.
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About Expertus: Expertus Inc. offers learning management systems and services.
Sonia Tsao
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Camera IQ
Sonia Tsao serves as co-founder and chief operating officer at Camera IQ, helping brands tell stories that captivate. She is uniquely in tune with how technology impacts the consumer experience. Previously, she headed Brand Strategy at Google Venture-backed mobile commerce app, Spring, where she grew the supply-side community to over 1,000 digital brands. Sonia holds as MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Tufts University.
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About Camera IQ, Chief: Camera IQ is a camera experience manager platform that helps marketers create new worlds that customers love to explore.
Natalie Portier
Chief Operating Officer of Loóna
Natalie is an executive with a Masters in Law and +11 years of experience in a small business and startup environment, with the focus on building and managing administrative operations, legal, sales, marketing and evangelism departments. Creative and analytical, Natalie has spoken at numerous of national and international events, including Casual Connect, White Nights Conference, PG Connects, participated at panels, given interviews and judged at game competitions. Natalie is on a constant mission to find new creative ways of growing existing relationships with programmatic partners, and learn what does and doesn’t work in mobile app monetization.
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About Loóna, Operators Guild: Loóna is a mixture of color therapy, sound ambiance and storytelling that helps to let go of daily fuss and get a better night’s rest.
Sam Krichevsky
Co-Founder/COO of geojam
Technology and music innovator Sam Krichevsky is Co-Founder & Chief Revenue Officer of Geojam, the first rewards-based music platform bringing artists and fans together through customized experiences and limited-edition product drops. Sam’s career spans some of the most dynamic music concepts including founding TanZ where he produced multiple live music events such as Electronic Opus, TanZ SummerFest, Transmit Festival, and developed a new music licensing and publication platform; Springboard Tracks. Prior to TanZ, Sam was a partner at LaunchHouse, a seed capital investment fund where he served as COO and developed LHX, a nationally-recognized accelerator program cultivating top entrepreneurial talent through senior-level mentorship, strategic business development resources, and seed funding. To date, LaunchHouse has developed a diverse portfolio of 64 innovative startup companies, raising $30+ million in follow-on funding. A seasoned strategist and startup expert, Sam is an active member of the Recording Academy, and currently serves as a board member and advisor to several music, tech and entertainment startups.
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About geojam, LaunchHouse: Geojam is the ultimate social media platform for music.
Melih Kayar
COO of CarHub
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About CarHub: CarHub is a comprehensive automotive site and app that guides car customers from the moment they decide to buy until the moment they sell.
Ish Baid
COO of Edible Project
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About Edible Project, Virtually: Edible Project is a data collection and management tool for restaurant data.
Maverick Eguia
Co-founder, COO of Veme.ly
Mr. Eguia’s personal and professional portfolio is derived from his competitive and athletic past. After retiring after about two decades as an international figure skater, he transitioned his attributes of determination, creativity, and stubbornness for perfection to a career in branding, design, and tech. As a creative director, Mr. Eguia is defining and protecting the brand’s identity. Accomplishments – Founded and directing the creative agency, having served more than 30 clients within the commodities, tech, cannabis, beauty, medical, and crypto sectors. – Co-founded and heading creative and marketing for a software start-up. Released premier app product to the App Store in 2017 and was named by Apple as “An App We Love”. – Rebranded and solidified the identity of brands within North America, most notably for the tech startup; aiding in their investment journey of raising about $40 million dollars as their Jr. Creative Director. – Generated engaging content and assets for music artists from major record labels, which took their ticket sales for shows to a “sold out” status. – Re-designed the “go-to-market” packaging and “point-of-purchase” displays showcased at retailers like Best Buy, Brookstone, and InMotion across the US and Canada. – Awarded the Silver Pentaward in 2017 for the packaging design in the electronics category. – Facilitated captivating social media content for a client with Kim Kardashian, generating thousands of new website visitors and an overflow of consultation requests. – Directed the design billboard campaigns that showcased in Times Square, Las Vegas, and Miami. His style for simplicity and perfection has been seen on display across different media types and platforms, but most importantly, Mr. Eguia has made it his purpose to bring value by elevating brands from their very foundation.
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About Hubmade, Veme.ly: Video editing made easy… finally. All-in-one video tool to create powerful videos for those stories, posts, and ads on social media.
Rebekah Jefferis
Chief Operating Officer, Founding Partner of FNDR
As COO, Bekah plays the role of the Realist. She has a unique ability to identify the way forward and brings proven leadership experience in creative business strategy and building innovative business practices. Always involved in entrepreneurial pursuits, Bekah spent over a decade helping build advertising agency 72andSunny from a small 20 person creative shop to a 1000 person Global business. As their first digital leader, Bekah built and evangelized a diverse range of digital offerings and sub brand properties. Then leading Global Growth and expansion to multiple offices, Bekah developed the overall company business strategy, and led the development of creative brand strategies that became enduring Narratives for brands like Google, Target, truth (anti-smoking campaign), ADIDAS, Square, Starbucks and many more.
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About FNDR: FNDR sends you alerts about things that interest you – when you are near them.
Sheila Merchant
Co-Founder & COO of MARBL Travel
Sheila Merchant is co-founder and COO at Marbl.
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About MARBL Travel: MARBL is hub for ‘all things travel’ including the best content and brands in millennial travel.
Cem Yildirim
CTO/COO of BigZpoon Inc.
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About BigZpoon Inc.: B2B SaaS venture addressing restaurants’ unsolved pain points with preference based menus, disruptive delivery model & food waste management
Alvin Fong
COO of Cie
Senior executive and advisor with 12+ years leading strategic, operational, financial, and product development decisions in the tech space. Expertise spans monetization, video, web publishing, ad tech, and operations with a deep passion for growing and scaling businesses.
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About Cie: Cie is an innovation accelerator for large enterprises and a growth accelerator for emerging startups.
Hammed Animashaun
COO + Co-Founder of CLQSIX
Hammed Animashaun is a young entrepreneur, whose motto is “living no limits. His mission in life is to enhance the human experience. Hammed brings a unique value to his role as COO of CLQSIX. Having worked at two Fortune 500 companies; helping to launch three regional sports networks, Hammed is experienced in helping to build a business from inception to success. His mission in life is to enhance the human experience. CLQSIX is a social network designed for cliques to share together and interact with followers. Hammed along with his two brothers created CLQSIX in 2015, with the mission to provide a group identity for friends throughout the world.
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About CLQSIX: A social media platform for squads to connect, create, and share.
Derek Distenfield
Co-founder and COO of GSD Venture Studios
Derek Distenfield is the COO, CFO, and Co-founder of GSD Venture Studios. For over 15 years, he has blazed high impact careers in startups, corporate, and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, he launched and subsequently sold Cult Following, a successful growth marketing and brand building agency. Prior to this, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for 360 Payments, driving the people, processes, technology, marketing & finance for a $2 billion payments company. As the growth strategist behind Bunker Labs USA, he transformed a nonprofit serving veteran entrepreneurs into a premier national brand. He also ignited immediate growth in a highly regulated industry as CEO of NextGenJustice, a social enterprise startup that served as an alternative to traditional legal venues. As a founding visionary and chief evangelist, he developed a product that grew its consumer base 50% 17 of 18 months in business. Derek has been a keynote speaker at the Military Defense and Veterans Opportunities Summit, One Spark Innovation Conference, and International Conference on Business Incubation. He is also a mentor and startup business advisor for GrowthX, Google Pioneer Accelerator, and LifeFlip Media as well as a columnist for Forbes and a college lecturer at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Derek Distenfield is passionate about breaking barriers, leading innovation, and inspiring people to believe they can achieve. Known for bringing revolutionary new ideas to organizations that deliver explosive growth and for being efficient with limited resources, Derek’s high tolerance for ambiguity and complexity makes him an invaluable source of inspiration and advice for growth-oriented startups and founders. At GSD, Derek is the operational mastermind who brings a variety of resources together to best serve each portfolio company. Derek lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two children, and travels frequently to Russia to work with GSD’s international client base.
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About GSD Venture Studios, Varwin: Venture studio specializing in helping resilient entrepreneurs #GoGlobal
Brad Johnson
CFO & COO of Grio
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About Grio: Grio is a software consulting firm located in San Francisco. We specialize in web and mobile app development.
Jordan Lyall
COO of Make Believe Labs
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About Make Believe Labs: Make Believe Labs lets you talk to your favorite characters. Our first product, Hello Santa, let’s children talk to Santa.
Dan Salman
CoFounder & COO of Fotition
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About Fotition: Fotition makes it fun and easy for people to discover, support, and share the causes, issues, and topics they care about.
Jim Watts
CoFounder & CFO/COO of LASSO40
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About LASSO40: Mobile Event Technology. Providing simple, scalable and integrated check in and eSignature at your meetings and events.
Cyril Bassan
Co-founder COO of MoneyMatch
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About MoneyMatch: MoneyMatch is an eSports tournament over blockchain startup
Zachary Lovenson
Co-Founder & COO of TickHIve
Co-Founder & CFO at TickHIve
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About TickHIve: Scan It, Live It, Relive It
Zachary Lovenson
Co-Founder & COO of TickHIve
Co-Founder & CFO at TickHIve
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About TickHIve: Scan It, Live It, Relive It