Arte Merritt

Summary

Arte is a marketing, strategic partnership, business development, and product executive. He was the CEO/founder, and CMO, 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, chatbots, voice assistants, and analytics and has published over 70+ articles and spoken at global conferences on the topics. He has extensive operations experience as a CEO and executive board member.

Relevant Experience

Founder, Reconify

2023-Present

Founded analytics and optimization platform for Generative AI

Global Partnership Leader for Conversational AI at AWS

2021-2022

Created and launched global Conversational AI partnership program leveraging AWS AI/ML services to deliver hiqh quality, highly effective chatbot, voice assistant, and IVR solutions for enterprise customers
Created AWS Conversational AI Competency to differentiate top partners
Defined program, go-to-market strategy, and overall business plan
Lead all marketing, business development, and partnership efforts related to program
Recruited global SI and ISV partners
Achieved over 400% launched-wins goal
Spoke about conversational AI at global conferences including in Berlin, Cannes, Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York, and Washington DC
Recognized for “Invent and Simplify” Amazon Leadership Principle at annual partner all-hands

CEO, Co-founder at Dashbot

2016-2020

Co-founded analytics platform for conversational interfaces, chatbots, and voice assistants, including Alexa, Facebook Messenger, Google Assistant, IVR, SMS
Set overall product vision and go-to-market strategy
Led marketing efforts to organically acquire 20,000 customers, generating over 90 billion messages
Led business development, sales, and strategic partnership efforts with key industry players
- Increased revenues in midst of Covid-19 – setting company on pace for 100% annual growth
- Closed largest deal in company history during global pandemic
- Partnered with ecosystem players, Fortune 500s, digital agencies, and system integrators
- Received multiple M&A offers
Organized annual “SuperBot” conference featuring industry thought leaders from around the world
Published 50 articles on conversational AI interfaces & data insights
Industry speaker at MWC, SXSW, VentureBeat
Managed P&L
Raised $6.2M in venture funding

Senior Director, Emerging Tech at Turner Broadcasting

2011-2013

Corporate Development: identified, researched, and evaluated startups for partner, investment, and acquisition opportunities
Co-launched Turner's "Media Camp" Accelerator program
- Two portfolio companies acquired; one raised $14M
Evangelized mobile technologies and best practices within Turner

Founder, CEO / President at Motally

2008-2010

Founded mobile analytics platform
Led successful acquisition to Nokia
Set overall product vision and strategy
Led product, marketing, business development, and partnerships
Managed P&L
Raised $2M in venture funding

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 Accelerator, 2013-2018
Mentor, MIT Venture Mentoring Service, 2015-2018
Mentor, NYU AI NexusLab, 2017-2018
Investor, Advisor, SnapUp (acquired by Ipsy), 2014-2016
Director, Mobile Monday Silicon Valley, 2011-2013
Co-Founder, Mobile Monday Momentum 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

2023 AWS "Invent & Simplify" Leadership Principle Award Winner (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

Conversational AI, chatbots, voice assistants
Big data, analytics
Marketing, Product Marketing
Strategic Partnerships
Business Development, Sales
Product Management
Public Speaking
P&L responsibility
Managing teams
Reporting to executive board

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

B.S. Management Sciences