Plan A: Innovate
Plan B: <Not Available>

   There Is No Plan B
Who's West?
Leading innovation and product management at scale

/ 20+ years Product and innovation experience

West builds and leads teams that design, develop, launch and manage products and platforms.
2004 - 2007  Senior Product Manager
- Proposed Amazon's first billable web service
Built and led rockstar teams that:
- Built and launched the content operations for Amazon's 1st digital video product
- Proposed, built and launched Amazon's 1st fraud and merchant risk office in India
- Rebuilt European Merchant Fraud program and team, reducing free cash flow loss from fraud by 98%
- Led Amazon NA Media Marketplace and UK Affiliate marketing
2007 - 2009  Vice President, European eCommerce & Innovation
Built and led rockstar teams that:
- Built Visa's European eCommerce strategy
‍- Rebuilt Verified by VISA (VbV) in Europe, increasing usage by 130% YOY
- Proposed, designed and built Visa's 1st B2C eCommerce payment strategy and product; which was Visa's first PayPal competitor
2010 - 2012 Senior Director, Platform and Innovation
- Proposed and created the Platform team Built and led rockstar teams that:
- Rebuilt PayPal Australia’s AML, KYC and CTF compliance infrastructure retaining 3MM+ AU consumers
- Designed, developed and launched PayPal's 1st point of sale strategy, product and platform; which was PayPal's first point of sale product
2012 - 2013 Chief Product Officer
(Re)Built and led rockstar teams that:
- Built a new product strategy shifting the company from physical box to digital platform
- Rebuilt Android and IOS mobile apps, lifting feedback from 1 to 4.5+ stars
- Built 1st micro-lesson app: Travel
- Built 1st Kids products – reaching #2 iTunes store ranking for Free Kids apps and winning  awards
- Acquired, integrated and launched 1st SaaS learning platform and B2B product line
2013 - 2014 Chief Product Officer
- Proposed and created the San Francisco office and team
(Re)Built and led rockstar teams that:
- Built a new product strategy
‍- Opened the San Francisco office hiring 60+ FTEs in 4 months
- Eliminated 500+ bugs and lifted platform availability to 99.9%+
- Lifted data capture from < 6MB/day to > 200GB/day.
2015 - 2017 Entrepreneur in Residence & Vice President, Innovation
- Target's 1st Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR)
- Proposed and built an innovation strategy for Target and was made VP, Innovation
- Proposed and led the Techstars Accelerator at Target
Built and led rockstar teams that:
- Designed and developed my EIR company
- Centralized Target's innovation efforts
- Built and managed the Techstars Accelerator

/ 8+ years International Work Experience

West lived overseas for 8 years and led teams in over 30 countries.
LONDON, ENGLAND
4 years working in the UK as Senior Product Manager at Amazon UK & Vice President, Innovation and eCommerce at VISA Europe
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
3+ years working in Australia as Director, Product and Customer Experience at PayPal, Head of Marketing and Product at GraysOnline, and Chief Product Officer at Bigcommerce
BANGALORE, INDIA
6 months working in India designing, building and staffing Amazon’s first fraud analytics facility in India – now the largest such facility for Amazon

/ Patents

West and his teams filed a lot of patents.
Payment system
Disclosed embodiments provide systems and methods of processing payment authorisation requests for payment.
View Patent
Smart Wallet
A service provider provides one or more “best” total value suggestions for one or more items specified by a user.
View Patent
Payment system
Embodiments of the invention provide a method of processing payment authorization requests for payment transactions.
View Patent
Local Affiliate marketing
Merchants within close proximity to each other are “affiliated” with other by distance. A consumer making a first.
View Patent
Systems and methods for providing information to consumers
A method and a system to provide information to consumers are provided.
View Patent
Location Determination and Map Building
The present disclosure involves a method comprising: determining a location of a user inside a facility.
View Patent
Account access at point of sale
Verifying personal identification number [PIN]
View Patent

/ AWARDS

West and his teams won several awards.
Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF)
In 2020 West was selected to join the EHF community of 500 "action-oriented people influencing the course of humanity". Fellows undergo a rigorous application process and were selected from 10K+ applicants.
Minneapolis Real Power 50
In 2016 West was selected as a "Power 50" who are "The linchpins in their company. The heart of the operation. The people who make things happen.” Winners were nominated by previous members and vetted for 3 months.
PayPal Employee Awards
In 2012 West received:
- the “Universe” award, eBay’s highest award, from PayPal’s CPO
- the “Meteor Shower” award, eBay’s 2nd highest award, from my team
for my leadership of the Point of Sale Program.
iKids Awards
 In 2014 the team West led won 1st place in “Best Learning App for Preschoolers“ for Rosetta Stone’s Lingo Letter Sounds.
Webby Awards
In 2014 the team West led was nominated and selected as an Honoree for “Apps, Mobile, and Voice” in “Education & Reference (Handheld Devices)” for Rosetta Stone's Lingo Letter Sounds
PYMNTs.com Innovator Awards
In 2013 the team West led won:
- Gold for “Most Innovative”
- Silver for “Most Disruptive”
- Bronze for “Best Merchant”
for PayPal's point of sale solution.
Google Australia Brand Zeitgeist
 In 2010 the team West led won "fastest rising Google searches for Australian brands" for their SEO work at GraysOnline.

/ Education

West graduated in 2001 from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

On-The-Job Training

Executive Leadership Training

Selected by CEOs for Executive Leadership Training reserved for the top 1% of executives at Target (2016), PayPal (2011) & Visa (2008)

1:1 Executive Coaching

At PayPal, Target & Visa

Management Training

At Amazon, PayPal, Target & Visa

Media Training

At PayPal, Target & Visa

/ Media

West and his team's work has been covered by a variety of media outlets.
Can Target And Techstars Turn Minnesota Into The Next Silicon Valley?
"With its first retail-oriented program, Techstars and Target are hoping to turn Minneapolis into a hot new destination for entrepreneurs..."
Read article
Meet the Entrepreneurs Trying to Get Target to Think Like a Startup
"After spending years as a product manager at Amazon, PayPal and Rosetta Stone, West Stringfellow, 37, decided to take a 10-month vacation and travel..."
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Rosetta Stone Acquires Livemocha to Decipher the Cloud
"The language learning company hopes to accelerate its transition to the modern era by acquiring a rival with its roots in the cloud rather than the stone age of CDs..."
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Rosetta Stone Launches A Digital Learning App For Preschoolers
"Rosetta Stone’s first foray into the consumer kids learning app market includes 'activities that promote English phonetic awareness, pronunciation of letter sounds, and a grasp of everyday Spanish phrases.'..."
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A Tech Startup Is Literally Poaching Google And Facebook Employees While They Wait For A Ride To Work.
"The tech world is certainly competitive. Some companies in the Silicon Valley have even been accused of shady practices when it comes to recruiting from other companies..."
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5 Tips for Improving Your Ecommerce Revenues
"Online shopping has created an efficient and enjoyable shopping experience for its users, and now, brick-and-mortar shops are trying to do just the same — by moving the online experience offline..."
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10 guidelines to help you innovate and get stuff done
"Innovation is simple. You don’t have to be a genius, or boast an MBA from Harvard, or carry some McKinsey strategy in your back pocket. You don’t even have to have an original idea. You simply have to be able to get shit done..."
Read article

/ West IS launching a podcast

Watch this space.
Coming Soon
Will be available on

/ And A YouTube channel

Watch this space.
Go to Youtube
View projects
View all the projects West is working on!
Projects
About
FOLLOW ME ON
West Stingfellow
contact@we.st
© 2020 West Stringfellow
West and his teams won several awards.