Product Council provides startups and existing companies a fresh new outlet for critical feedback, ideation, and improvement of their products. Join product makers, designers, developers, and founders to learn valuable lessons and insights from experienced product owners as they dive deep into the challenge, success and failure of product design.

Local startup, MyRentHero, will seek feedback on their product strategy from our experts as they prepare to roll out their solution to off-campus housing for students to a half dozen new markets this fall. They will be followed by Romain Rousseau, Digital Marketing & Demand Generation Leader at COOP.com, Ryder’s answer to the sharing economy and how they created an entirely new digital business, that turns idle products into revenue.

Run of show:

- 6:30 Doors Open

- 6:45 Networking

- 7:05 Act I

- 7:15 Act II

- 8:00 Break / Networking

- 8:10 Product Chat

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Product Council Events are broken into two acts:

Act I: For the first act, we introduce a startup who’s there to ask for product advice and feedback from the council. The council consists of three (3) experienced product owners who serve as an anchor for the ensuing conversations. In this instance, the product council and audience provide a product owner valuable feedback on their product.

Featured speaker: Greg Rothman, MyRentHero

Greg is the former VP of strategic initiatives at the largest edTech company in LatinAmerica where he was focused on organic and inorganic growth. Last year, Greg dove into the startup world and is currently leading a real estate tech company focused on the off-campus student housing market. Greg has always been enthralled by entrepreneurship; prior to taking the plunge as an operator, he worked as a portfolio manager for a global accelerator called Endeavor Miami.

Act II: The second act introduces a more established business who’s product owner is given an opportunity to showcase a particular product or feature they feel their product team has executed particularly well. In this scenario, the audience is provided with valuable product learnings through the experience of another product owner. Note: There are occasions where we have product makers come give talks about various themes related to product development, management or design.

Featured Speaker: Romain Rousseau, Coop by Ryder Systems, Inc.

Romain is the Senior Director of Digital Innovation for Ryder System, a FORTUNE 500® commercial fleet management, dedicated transportation, and supply chain solutions company. He leads sales, marketing and technology for the company’s exciting new vehicle sharing platform COOP .

Romain initially joined Ryder System in 2014 to lead Digital Marketing and Demand Generation. In his role, he initiated Ryder’s digital transformation and helped grow demand generation across all business divisions.

Romain initially began his career at Club Med, launching the company’s first online reservation system and implementing distribution agreements with Travelocity and Expedia to expand Club Med’s market share in North-American.

Romain earned both his Bachelor of Business and Master-equivalent in International Marketing from the ESSCA Business school in France. He is married with a daughter and has been living in Miami since 2000.

About COOP by Ryder™

COOP by Ryder™ is a commercial vehicle sharing platform that links fleet owners with idle vehicles to trusted businesses in need of rental vehicles. COOP’s mission is to make trucks easy to share and allow fleet owners the opportunity to generate revenue from their idle vehicles and providing businesses with an alternative source of rental vehicles. For more information, visit COOP.com.

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Product Council Panel:

Jared Husch, Product Manager, Nearpod

Formerly COO of LiveNinja. Originally from Lawrenceville, NJ. A Richmond Spider '08. A Miami Hurricane '10. Enjoys reading, eating, data, science, sports, traveling, and his dog Dakota.