Needle Also Expands Its Customer Base to Europe and Asia
SALT LAKE CITY — (BUSINESS WIRE) — August 28, 2014 — Needle, the pioneer in advocate-assisted commerce, today announced the expansion of its leadership team: Christian Matsumori joins as Vice President, Product; and Adam Davis joins as Director, Customer Success. Together, Matsumori and Davis know what it takes to accelerate growth and deliver the authentic, real-time experiences that today’s companies need to compete and win.
The additions come as Needle recently closed deals in the UK, Germany and Australia–and welcomed brands like Dick’s Sporting Goods, hhgregg and Nikon, Inc. to its customer roster in the U.S.
Matsumori and Davis bring more than 30 years of collective experience in B2B and B2C technology to Needle. They round out a strong bench of talent on Needle’s leadership team starting with its founders: Morgan Lynch, proven entrepreneur and crowdsourcing innovator; and Mikko Valimaki, recognized leader in commerce, communications, and security technology. More recently, Needle has attracted Scott Pulsipher, President and COO, who came from Amazon; Amy Heidersbach, SVP, Marketing, formerly with eBay Inc. and PayPal; Mike Montour, SVP, Sales, who came from LivePerson; and Stephanie Walsh, VP, Community, formerly with LiveOps.
“Adding Christian and Adam to our team is a huge win for Needle, and signals an important phase in our growth,” said Scott Pulsipher, President and COO. “We’re accelerating our progress–welcoming new customers weekly and expanding our operations globally. As more brands recognize the need to deliver better customer experiences–and the power of advocacy–this is the leadership team that will continue to keep Needle out in front as an innovator and leader.”
Matsumori most recently served as Senior Director of Product Management at AtTask–responsible for setting the company’s product vision and strategy and leading a team of more than 20 product managers, designers and analysts. Prior to AtTask, Matsumori held leadership roles at Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Intel. He holds an MBA from Yale University.
“I first noticed Needle because of the incredible team the company was building,” Matsumori said. “Then, as I learned more about how the company has created something truly revolutionary, it was easy to see why Needle has been attracting such high-caliber talent. With Needle’s strengths in crowdsourcing, gamification and real-time engagement, we’re now ready to accelerate our growth and innovation in this new advocacy space.”
Davis comes to Needle from Amazon–where he was most recently Head of Account Management for Amazon Webstore. Davis has more than 15 years' experience in technology operations, analytics, and customer management–including prior leadership roles at Novell, Rapidigm and Southern Skies Communications Group. He holds a master's in International Relations from Yale University.
“Needle is shaping the future of commerce in exciting ways,” Davis said. “Its unique technology enables real-time interactions between advocates and customers–not only online, but across multiple channels in the future. Our role is to help Needle’s customers get the most out of their advocacy programs–closely monitoring performance and identifying new ways to use the power of their advocates to create better customer experiences.”
About Needle
In the fast-growing category of advocate-assisted commerce, Needle is the pioneer. Founded in 2010, Needle powers authentic, real-time conversations between a company’s certified advocates and its customers. Needle’s unique technology helps companies deliver better customer experiences–the result of which is measurable, incremental revenue and long-term customer value. Needle is a privately held company based in Salt Lake City. For more information about how Needle works and whom Needle works for, visit www.needle.com.
Contact:
Needle Public Relations
Jeff DuBois, 801-461-9789
Email Contact
or
Needle
Amy
Heidersbach, 415-531-2751
SVP, Marketing
Email Contact
