Scott Sanfilippo
scott@scottsanfilippo.com
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
General Manager: October 2018 – Current
Your Store Wizards (Los Angeles, CA)
Implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) model for the business to aid with growth, managing employees, and improving efficiency. After deploying this model, the company was reorganized to operate more efficiently by aligning team member roles with their skills, removing the business owner from the day-to-day operation to a visionary role where he is focused on creating new products and apps which generate recurring revenue, and shifted the core focus to app building.
After the successful roll-out of EOS, I took over as General Manager and am responsible for the day-to-day operation of the company with a focus on new products, strategy, marketing, employee-related issues, and revenue growth. I also serve as the decision-maker for business, client, and project issues.
- Conduct weekly web meetings with the owner and top-level managers to review key metrics such as sales, jobs in process, churn, new acquisition, etc.
- Conduct quarterly “State of the Company” all-hands meetings to ensure all team members are on the same page with goals and expectations.
- Conduct a three-day annual meeting with the owner and top-level managers to review the prior year’s performance and set the new year’s goals, prioritize projects, and ensure revenue expectations align with the year’s plan.
- Manage remote teams consisting of graphic designers and web/app developers in California, Pennsylvania, Florida, and the Dominican Republic.
- Maintain strategic relationships with technology partners including Yahoo!, BigCommerce, Shopify, and more.
Director, Agency Services: April 2009 – March 2018
Web.com Group, Inc. (Jacksonville, FL)
After the successful acquisition of Solid Cactus by web.com in April 2009, I remained with the company in various roles until March 2018. During the last two years of my tenure, I managed a team of account managers and online marketing specialists in various locations across the country.
The division, known as AGENCY // Web.com, was created to service the growing number of businesses with larger marketing budgets than the traditional web.com customer. Using the original blueprint for the Solid Cactus business, this new division was set up to provide “white glove” marketing services to 150+ clients in various industries.
- Managed a team of account managers, pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and comparison shopping engine (CSE) specialists who provided service to 150+ clients with a total annual marketing budget of $10M.
- Responsible for client budget forecasting, monthly revenue reporting, and meeting or exceeding agreed-upon SLA/ROI metrics.
- Worked with sales representatives and sales architects to craft custom marketing solutions for agency-qualified accounts.
- Coordinated training and hosted webinars for both team members and clients on new products, sales initiatives, marketing trends, and other topics of interest for small to medium size businesses.
- Developed marketing products/bundles based on current trends and reviewed quarterly for relevance, effectiveness, etc.
- Served as the go-to expert company-wide for all things related to eCommerce.
- As the leader of the team, I assisted in creating clients’ marketing calendars, developing the overall marketing strategy for all forms of their online advertising, reviewing and editing blog and ad copy, and reviewing monthly reports to gauge the effectiveness of our work/campaigns.
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer: January 2001 – April 2009
Solid Cactus, Inc. (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
Co-founded the largest eCommerce website design company that specialized in building online stores on the Yahoo! Store platform. With 4,000 stores launched during the eight years, the company was privately owned, Solid Cactus was the go-to developer for small and medium-sized businesses looking to sell online. For a period of five years, Solid Cactus was the only firm Yahoo! referred merchants to when they needed a store built or redesigned.
The company started out with six employees and grew to over 200 in eight years with $12M in annual revenue at the time of sale. In addition to web design, the company diversified into offering managed Internet marketing services including PPC, CSE, and SEO as well as call center services for small business owners.
- Oversaw the entire company’s operations with departmental managers reporting to me.
- Created and served as editor for the Solid Cactus branded print magazine, eBiz Insider, which was written and designed in-house and mailed to over 10,000 subscribers (free of charge) on a monthly basis.
- Personally oversaw every aspect of the company’s marketing initiatives including website redesign, new product launches, product sell sheets, brochures, direct mail pieces, and trade show publications/promotional merchandise.
- Organized eCommerce “Boot Camps” that were put on several times a year. These three-day events were held at the company’s headquarters (and one at sea!) and would include seminars, networking opportunities, dinners and events which were designed to educate online store owners and highlight Solid Cactus products and services which turned into sales.
- Hosted monthly informational webinars for several years that were attended by 200+ eCommerce store owners and featured guests, in-house experts, and clients that discussed the latest marketing and web design trends as well as operational issues such as customer service, warehousing and other topics of interest for small to medium size business owners.
- Under my leadership, Solid Cactus was named one of the “Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania” by the PA Chamber of Commerce in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Only 100 of the state’s 220,000 businesses received this honor. In 2007, the company captured a spot on the Inc 500 list of fastest-growing companies in the US ranking 255th.
- Successfully negotiated the sale of the company to web.com in April 2009.
Co-Founder / Chief Operating Officer: January 1994 – May 2007
Neeps Incorporated (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
Co-founded one of the Internet’s first eCommerce companies where a $50 investment turned into an enterprise generating $12M annually at the time the company was sold to Drs. Foster & Smith (a division of PetCo) in 2007.
The company had a total of 49 employees across customer service, management, marketing, and fulfillment headquartered in the company’s 25,000-square-foot distribution center in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
- Created the blueprint for online shopping as we know it today by building one of the first eCommerce businesses during a time that pre-dated Yahoo!, Google, and Amazon.
- Managed a team of customer service representatives, warehouse employees, and brand managers to support the operation of the company’s flagship property, TheFerretStore.com, as well as additional eCommerce stores in the specialty pet and lawn & garden industries.
- Designed, sourced, and imported a private line of fabric pet supplies and toys in the small animal and dog categories. One of the products, the “Ferret Flying Saucer” was prominently featured on CBS’s “The Saturday Early Show” as well as the “Graham Norton Show” on BBC.
- Created, formulated, and oversaw the production of a private-label ferret food and nutritional supplement line that quickly became a top seller and continues to be sold online by PetCo.
- Personally oversaw every aspect of the marketing initiatives for all properties including new website launches, quarterly print catalogs, direct mail pieces, sell sheets, package inserts, radio ads, etc.
- Maintained relationships with vendors, manufacturing partners, and sales representatives and worked with them on consumer promotions and internal incentives.
- A hands-on owner who could be found answering phones in the call center, packing orders in the warehouse, and loading outgoing orders onto trucks all to ensure customer satisfaction at every level.
- Developed unique, ahead-of-the-time programs to drive customer loyalty including monthly subscription services, auto-ship food/supplement delivery, a very early version of pet chat rooms, and an interactive pet website similar to today’s popular social media sites.
- Successfully negotiated the sale of the company to PetCo in May 2007. The business was relocated to Wisconsin.
EDUCATION
King’s College, Wilkes-Barre PA – 1993
Bachelor’s in Mass Communications
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
- November 2005: Named one of Entrepreneur magazines “Young Millionaires”
- December 2006: Named one of the “Top 20 Under 40” by Northeast PA Business Journal
- December 2006: Solid Cactus named one of the “Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania” by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce out of 220,000 businesses in the commonwealth.
- August 2007: Solid Cactus makes the Inc. 500 list for the first time
- November 2007: Nominated for “Person of the Year” by Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice newspaper
- November 2007: Solid Cactus named one of the “Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania” by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce out of 220,000 businesses in the commonwealth for the second straight year.
- September 2008: Solid Cactus named one of the “Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania” by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce out of 220,000 businesses in the commonwealth for the third straight year.
- December 2008: Named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” by Wilkes Barre Times Leader newspaper
- May 2009: Received “Entrepreneurial Achievement Award” by Ben Franklin Technology Partners of NEPA
- …more available here.