Arte Merritt

Summary

Arte is a strategic partnership, marketing, business development, and product executive. He was the CEO/founder and go-to-market leader of two venture backed SaaS startups, which he led to be leaders in their respective spaces, both in crowded fields. He sold his first startup to Nokia and received multiple acquisition offers for the second. Arte is a thought-leader in conversational AI, generative AI, chatbots, voice assistants, and analytics and has published over 80+ articles and spoken at numerous global conferences. He has extensive cross-functional team leadership, P&L, and operations experience.

Relevant Experience

Founder, Strategic Partnerships and GTM at Reconify

2023-Present

Founded SaaS platform for Generative AI analytics and large language model (LLM) optimization
Generating growth through strategic partnerships, content marketing, community building, and outbound business development
Negotiating partnerships with GSIs, SIs, consulting firms, and cloud providers
Launched platform offering in AWS Marketplace

Global Strategic Partner Development Lead, Conversational AI at AWS

2021-2022

Created and led global Conversational AI partnership program and Competency leveraging AWS AI/ML services to deliver hiqh quality, highly effective chatbot, voice assistant, and IVR solutions for enterprise customers
Achieved over 400% launched-wins goal and 4.88/5.00 Partner Satisfaction score (PSAT)
Won Amazon Leadership Principle award for “Invent and Simplify”
Defined program, go-to-market strategy, co-selling motions, and overall business plan
Led partner development, partner relationship management, marketing, business development, and field sales enablement for program
Created AWS Conversational AI Competency to differentiate top partners
Recruited Global SI and ISV partners
Evangelized AWS and partners through thought-leadership content and industry speaking engagements

CEO, Co-founder at Dashbot

2016-2020

Co-founded SaaS analytics platform for conversational AI interfaces, chatbots, and voice assistants, including Alexa, Facebook Messenger, Google Assistant, IVR, SMS
Ran M&A process that resulted in six acquisition offers
Grew annual recurring revenue (ARR) nearly 100% annually
Led go-to-market strategy that resulted in 20,000 customers, generating over 90 billion messages
Raised $6.2M in venture funding and owned P&L
Set overall product vision and led marketing, business development, and strategic partnerships
Negotiated contracts, licensing, and commercial agreements with fortune 500 enterprises
Led strategic partnerships with Global SIs, ISVs, agencies, and Cloud Service Providers (AWS, Google GCP, Microsoft)
Built a community through thought-leadership content, monthly meetups, and an annual conference
Published 50 articles on conversational AI interfaces & data insights
Evangelized Dashbot as industry speaker at global conferences

Senior Director, Emerging Tech at Turner Broadcasting

2011-2013

Led corporate development initiatives related to mobile and media technologies
Prospected startups and performed due-diligence evaluation for strategic partnership, investment, and acquisition opportunities
Co-launched Turner's "Media Camp" startup accelerator program to invest in media startups
- Two portfolio companies acquired; one raised $14M
Evangelized mobile technologies and best practices within Turner

Founder, CEO / President at Motally

2008-2010

Founded SaaS mobile analytics platform
Led successful acquisition to Nokia
Ran merger and acquisition (M&A) process that resulted in five offers
Raised $2M in venture funding and owned P&L
Set overall product vision and go-to-market strategy
Led product, marketing, business development, and partnerships - growing to be a leader in the space

Other Experiences

Product Manager, Yahoo! Mobile, 2005-2007
Product Manager, 3mg Inc, 2000-2003, 2005
Sales Engineer, Vettro, 2004
Senior / Lead Technologist, Viant, 1998-2000
Consultant, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 1997-1998
Internet Developer, RandomHouse Publishing, 1996-1997

Volunteer

Investor, VoiceFlow, 2021-Present
Investor, Dashbot, 2017-2021
Mentor, Orange Fab startup accelerator, 2013-2018
Mentor, MIT Venture Mentoring Service, 2015-2018
Mentor, NYU AI NexusLab startup accelerator, 2017-2018
Investor, Advisor, SnapUp (acquired by Ipsy), 2014-2016
Director, Mobile Monday Silicon Valley, 2011-2013
Co-Founder, Mobile Monday Momentum Startup Accelerator, 2013
Chairman, MIT Wireless Forum, 2001-2003
Entrepreneur Committee, MIT Club of Boston, 2001-2003
VP Communications, MIT Club of New York, 1997-1999

Patents

US Patent 8,180,376 for Mobile Analytics Tracking and Reporting
US Patent 8,620,315 for Multi-tiered anti-abuse registration for a mobile device user
US Patent 6,341,779 for Mathematical Card and Dice Game

Awards

2022 Amazon Leadership Principle Award for "Invent & Simplify" (AWS)
2019 Voicebot Top Technologist in Voice (Dashbot)
2018 Gartner Cool Vendor in AI for Conversational Platforms (Dashbot)
2018 MIT AI Idol Winner (Dashbot)
2011 Telecom Council Spiffy Edison Award for Most Innovative Startup (Motally)
2010 Mobile Ecosystem Forum Meffy Winner for Business Intelligence (Motally)
2009 Amazon AWS Startup Challenge Finalist (Motally)

Skills

Generative AI
Conversational AI, chatbots, voice assistants
Big data, analytics
Strategic Partnerships
Go-to-market strategy
Marketing, Product Marketing
Business Development, Sales
Contract negotiations
Product Management
Community building
Public Speaking
P&L responsibility
Managing cross-functional teams
Startup operations
Reporting to executive board

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

B.S. Management Sciences