Endorsements for Cary Rosenzweig
Stuart Landesberg
Founder and Former CEO, Grove Collaborative (NYSE: GROV)
Cary has an incredible mind for business leadership. We brought him on board as an advisor in the early stages of our company. He gives the rare combination of empathy and strategic guidance, and drives you to focus on the priorities of high performance teamwork and effective (if ruthless) prioritization. Cary has worked with our executives (including me) directly and spoken in full company meetings that remain among the team's most memorable moments. He's honest and genuinely invested in the people with whom he works -- and I'm lucky to consider him both a mentor and a friend. I would seek him out to help advise on any future project, and cannot recommend him highly enough as an executive coach.
Matthew Cowan
Co-Founder/CEO, Breezeworks; Co-Founder/Managing Director, Bridgescale Partners
I hired Cary as an advisor when we started Breezeworks. He helped me think through key issues, and I highly recommend him as a mentor/coach to other CEOs. I met Cary previously when we hired him to be CEO of IMVU. As Managing Director of Bridgescale Partners, I was an investor in IMVU. We saw his great leadership there, and sought him out later for Breezeworks. Trust him. Learn from him. Hire him.
Eric Olden
co-Founder/CEO, Strata Identity
As a serial Founder/CEO of venture-backed startups, I’ve faced many challenges and complex decisions. As CEO, I've found it’s hard at times to get the right input from my team or my board because of organizational or political dynamics. On several occasions when I needed open and authentic communication from an experienced ("been there") perspective, I turned to Cary. His advice has been insightful and helped me see the forest from the trees. Cary brings together the analytic dimension and human dimension to help broaden my view of an issue with helpful anecdotes and useful suggestions. Cary is there when you need him. I trust and recommend Cary as a mentor, coach and partner.
Will Anderson
Co-Founder and CEO, Complete Solaria (NASDAQ: CSLR)
In addition to his strong intellect and strategic savvy, Cary is extraordinarily empathetic to the specific challenges faced by CEOs. I initially invited Cary to be a strategic marketing advisor, but he quickly became a CEO coach to me as well. As a company, we have faced a myriad of challenges and opportunities, and he has actively helped me navigate them. He understands the pressures, obligations, and worries shouldered by CEOs, and he transforms that understanding into practical and objective advice. Cary would make any CEO better, and I offer my strongest endorsement to anyone considering engaging him for this purpose..
Doug Devlin
Co-Founder and CEO, Zuman, Tabulera
Cary has been the independent board member at Zuman since 2013. We are a startup, high-growth company offering premium, one-solution HR, benefits and payroll administration. While easy to work with, Cary challenges us to focus on the critical few strategic issues and opportunities to maximize returns for all stakeholders. In between board meetings, I call on him as a trusted advisor. He’s been a CEO and understands what it takes to build a great company. He gets it.
Brad D. Smith
Chairman and Former CEO, Intuit; President of Marshall University; Board, Amazon
Cary is a world class leader/teacher. His depth and breadth of experience, ranging from leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies to scaling start-ups, informs a source of wisdom and pragmatism that is invaluable for any executive. Cary possesses an uncanny ability to translate individual ability into organizational capability, helping executives scale their leadership to grow successful companies and preserve cultures. His interpersonal style is grounded in inquiry, enabling him to deeply understand challenges, as well as opportunities, building alignment and commitment along the way. Simply stated, Cary Rosenzweig is a valuable coach and mentor for leaders at every level.
Vincent Letteri
Director, TMT (Tech, Media & Telecom) Growth Equity, KKR
I worked side by side with Cary at First Data, where we hired him to lead our Clover business unit. In addition to being a great business leader, with clear expertise across sales, marketing, and go-to market, Cary was also a tremendous leader, helping to guide a group of young executives to create and execute the vision for the product that was going to be the future of the company. Cary fostered a culture of teamwork and empowerment and, where needed, he wasn’t afraid to challenge norms and push boundaries. He was a truly excellent executive in every way.
Shawn Carolan
Managing Director, Menlo Ventures
Building an amazing tech company takes both great technology and a well functioning team with the right people in the right places aligned in the right direction. I worked with Cary first as a board member while he led IMVU as CEO to successfully grow revenue and headcount, then as a mentor when I became a CEO myself. Cary is uniquely talented at figuring out how organizations can work better and how to put the ideas into action. I highly recommend him.
Jana Eggers
CEO, Nara Logics
I'll focus on three critical areas: team leadership, business acumen, and integrity. Cary ranks at the top in all three. He is the type of leader who people want to follow. He'll set forth a compelling vision. He'll listen and challenge team members. And, he'll remove roadblocks and get out of the way when needed. Cary's business acumen is exceptional. I found him to be well-rounded in his skills, working well across innovation, strategy, marketing, engineering and service. I looked to Cary for advice when we were both leading business units at Intuit. I trust his judgment and relied on his capabilities. Finally, Cary's integrity is among the highest I've seen. He makes tough decisions with the right focus on people, customers and the business. He will tell you what he believes and why, and have an intelligent, open discussion on that, even if you or others disagree with his point of view.
Josh Goldman
Former General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
Cary is a truly oustanding marketing, strategy, and general management executive. He has a rare combination of tactical marketing and brand development expertise at small and large consumer-facing companies, as well as general corporate strategy planning in fast-paced growth organizations. He spends an incredible amount of time on the development and empowerment of his team members, combining innovative planning and management techniques with plenty of face-time, counseling, and advice. He is one of the few people I've met that managed upwards to the board members as successfully as he did downward to his managers and employees, engendering the trust and respect of the entire organization. A truly outstanding executive in all senses.
Agustina Sartori
Sr. Director Innovation, Ulta Beauty, and co-Founder and CEO, GlamST
Cary was our advisor at Plug and Play when GlamST was selected to participate in the startup accelerator program. My business partner, Carolina Bañales, and I found Cary smart, strategic and empathetic. We were grateful to have him as an advisor and a friend.
Cary is the best advisor I've already had. He is clever, strategist, team builder and has a deep tech market experience. He can put ours foot on the ground, when we are over excited and, using the same energy, he can help us to get up when we fall down. I feel grateful for having the opportunity of work with him in US and I strongly recommend him for any advisement and leadership job in the tech/startup market. He was my advisor at Plug and Play Tech Center.
Narinder Sandhu
Co-Founder and President, SimplifyEm
Cary is an outstanding leader who can energize and inspire people and transform organizations to be at peak performance. During the period I worked with and for Cary on QuickBooks Payroll at Intuit, the business transformed into one of the highest growth businesses at Intuit, and it became a "talent magnet," as people wanted to work in Cary's business. His strategic skills, ability to focus on the "critical few" that really make a difference, and his empathetic teaching style made QuickBooks Payroll a wonderful place to work. I learned a lot from Cary, and anyone would be lucky to have him as a mentor or coach.
Terry Hicks
Former EVP, McAffee and Former VP/GM, Intuit
Cary was a terrific leader and mentor during my time as product management leader for QuickBooks Payroll. He has a knack for teaching in a way that inspired and brought out the best in the team... even when the teaching is criticizing work. Cary is a skilled, thoughtful business leader who focused the team on the critical objectives and empowered his team to execute. During Cary's tenure, the DIY Payroll team was transformed from a low morale team supporting an add on to QuickBooks to an energized, enthusiatic team driving growth for the small business division.
Dana Hoffmann
Co-Founder and CEO, Hemlane
Cary is one of the most thoughtful and caring business leaders in the Silicon Valley. His hands-on knowledge and expertise in the lean startup method is invaluable to any new venture. His patience, persistence, and insight will take your startup from an idea to a reality. I highly recommend Cary as a mentor and advisor. He was my advisor at StartX.
Cary brings exactly what so many mid-stage startups typically need in a leader to drive their next phase of growth: growth with profitability, structure with speed of execution, and operational excellence with intense customer and product focus. He's excelled in both large company and early startup environments. He's both grown big brands and established new ones. Aside from the immense user and revenue growth he marshaled at IMVU, two other aspects of his leadership there were especially telling. First, Cary's positive, employee-centric style allowed him to preserve and enrich a company culture that was already extremely unique, even amid the exit of three of the company's five co-founders early in his tenure. Secondly, Cary completely immersed himself in IMVU's product and customer experience, which not only garnered respect from employees but also earned him considerable respect and credibility from IMVU's vibrant user community. If you're a venture-backed CEO working hard to scale your business, product and team, Cary can help you navigate the many challenges you'll face. He's been there and succeeded through all of them.
Rich Yang
General Manager, IXL and former Co-CEO, Education.com
Cary is an outstanding leader and general manager. At both Intuit and Clorox, I've watched Cary grow businesses consistently. He is highly strategic, drives good decisions quickly, and is not afraid to roll-up his sleeves to ensure strong execution. He is also a terrific teacher who builds strong management teams. At Intuit, he was widely acknowledged as one of the company's strongest marketers and business leaders, and drove strong growth in our highly strategic Payroll business.
Cary is that rare blend of seasoned operator and inspirational leader that it is necessary to grow a company from innovative startup to successful global company. Cary turned IMVU from a cool concept to a strong product- and marketing-driven organization, enabling the company to become a leader in its space. I personally learned a lot from Cary about brand management from his days at P&G and Intuit, skills that I continue to use today. Culturally, Cary is a great guy and always fun to be around; his big laugh and focus on a positive work environment kept employees at all levels motivated and engaged.
Dan Beltramo
President, Onclusive
Cary was widely respected within Clorox for both his intuitive and analytical approaches to marketing and his ability to blend the two to deliver superior results. He also managed to set clear division-wide strategy while maintaining a grasp of the key consumer insights that drove individual businesses. Cary always built strong, committed teams driven by consistent vision and mutual respect. Besides being a strong leader, he was a pleasure to work with. Since leaving Clorox, I have continued to seek his advice and perspective in matters relating to consumer software and tech.
Zach Latta
Founder and Executive Director, Hack Club
Cary has been an invaluable mentor to me as we've built Hack Club. His rare blend of management understanding and real-world operational experience has helped me navigate countless difficult situations, and he's become my go-to person for management advice. I can't recommend him enough to any budding entrepreneur.
Mike Kitz
Professor at University of Notre Dame, former CMO, OfficeMax
Cary was one of the best Brand Managers I worked with at Procter & Gamble. He is the best strategic thinker I have encountered in my career, and he has the leadership skills to turn his vision into business building execution. I would work with Cary again in a heartbeat. And Cary is an outstanding mentor and coach. As my corporate career at large companies progressed to CMO roles and general management roles on billion dollar businesses, I frequently reached out to Cary for counsel. He listened deeply, questioned me for understanding, and then skillfully suggested ways to build my teams, grow in leadership, and drive business-building results..