At Reforge, our courses are based on proven, actionable frameworks developed by leaders at the fastest-growing companies. We designed our Executive in Residence program to bring more of these leaders into Reforge to help us define and spread the future of Product as a discipline.
We were blown away by the level of interest and the caliber of the applicants we received. Ultimately, the three EIRs joining us are some of the most accomplished leaders in growth today. All of them have been execs at companies that you know and respect, like Slack, SurveyMonkey, and Instagram. They each bring a unique perspective to Reforge that will further enhance the learning experience for our participants.
We are excited to welcome Bangaly Kaba, Elena Verna, and Fareed Mosavat to Reforge as our first Executives in Residence.
Bangaly Kaba, Former Head Of Growth at Instagram
Bangaly Kaba is one of the most prominent and accomplished practitioners in the field of growth. Previously, as Instagram's Head of Growth, he helped the social network surpass one billion monthly active users, making it the fastest growing app in the world. Known for his deep user empathy, keen business intuition, and rigorous strategic thinking, Bangaly has developed unique theories about maximal product-market fit and building for the next set of users. Bangaly is no stranger to the classroom and began his career in education. He taught in Washington, DC public schools and was Dean of a Swiss boarding school.
“I’m excited to get back in the classroom at Reforge. This is an opportunity for me to discuss not only how to grow products, but also how to lead teams with humility and a servant leadership mindset. I believe the best product leaders always put the user and their teams before themselves. Reforge has some of the brightest up-and-coming talent, and I’m looking forward to spending time getting to know more of the participants.”
This spring, Bangaly will be leading the Growth Series and the Retention + Engagement Deep Dive.
Elena Verna, Former SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey
Profitability is more important than ever for technology products. And Elena Verna brings over a decade of experience in monetization, pricing, and revenue growth to Reforge. Formerly the SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey and Malwarebytes, Elena is now one of the most sought after growth advisors anywhere. She brings a breadth of experience across freemium, self-serve, and free-trial subscription models for both B2C and B2B. She also helped co-create two new Reforge programs for Spring 2020: Monetization + Pricing and Experimentation + Testing.
“This Spring we’re going to introduce a lot of new concepts to the Reforge community. I think Monetization especially is one of the most misunderstood topics in growth today. I’m looking forward to leading that program because there just aren’t many places you can go to really learn about pricing or how to optimize revenue. It’s become such a hot topic in technology and I think we can help a lot of people get to the right answers a lot faster.”
This spring, Elena will be leading the Monetization + Pricing Deep Dive.
Fareed Mosavat, Former Director of Growth at Slack
Fareed Mosavat was most recently a Director of Product at Slack, focused on growth in the freemium, self-service business. Previously, he led growth and product teams at Instacart, Zynga, and other startups. He has been a regular guest speaker at Reforge over the past few years and is known for his terrific humor as well as his deep knowledge of growth. Fareed is one of Silicon Valley’s foremost experts on product-led growth in both consumer and bottoms-up SaaS companies with a deep background building and leading experimentation teams.
“I love teaching and Reforge is always one of the highlights of my year. When I started, growth teams kept their tactics secret to maintain their edge. As the practice of growth has matured, we’ve transitioned from secret tactics and hacks to advanced strategy, creating opportunities for shared learning and collaboration. Brian and the Reforge community have a lot to do with creating this transition. I’m excited to help the next generation of leaders learn from our mistakes and develop the frameworks and skills they need to build sustainable growth for their products.
This spring, Fareed will be leading Advanced Growth Strategy and the Experimentation + Testing Deep Dive.
We could not be more excited to have such an incredible trio of leaders joining us this Spring. They have all been guest speakers multiple times, and I’ve seen firsthand that they are also talented teachers who are passionate about sharing their expertise with the Reforge community.
If you are interested in learning directly from Bangaly, Elena, or Fareed, you can apply to Reforge’s Spring 2020 programs here.
You can also apply to join Reforge as a future EIR.