James Matlick for Owner

In your words

Your "What it's like to work at Owner" video was really helpful. It made clear who you want: three kinds of people who thrive at Owner.

01Mission champion"Not motivated by money or status, but by impact and ownership."How I think → 02Intense laser beam"Move insanely fast. We have one speed, and it's go."How I move → 03Pride in the craft"Builders who take deep pride in their craft."My craft →

How I think

Mission champion, in my words

I help define the mission.

First principles and high impact are how I think about mission and priorities.

I start from what the customer actually needs and why. That becomes the mission. Then the work with the biggest impact goes first.

How I move

Intense laser beam, in my words

I help execute it quickly.

The roadrunner is my animal: one speed, go. I don't wait to be told. I spot the problem, write the plan and get it moving. I think in days, not months.

At ChatB2B, a team of AI agents builds the product. I cut the work into releases of one to three days and decide what ships.

49 product releases in under four weeks.

My craft

Pride in the craft, in my words

The right tool for the goal.

Support, training, process, automation, product and technology are all tools. My craft is matching the right one to the problem so the customer actually reaches the goal. Not everything needs a hammer, because not everything is a nail.

Whatever the tool, it takes every team. I line up product, engineering, operations and sales on shared goals, so everyone can just go.

Biggest result: Wellput grew from no revenue to about $3M a year while I led product.

Four teams, four sets of prioritiesProcessShareThis: one roadmap, ranked by revenue.

Ad tracking kept tripping people upTrainingWellput: docs for clients, and tag training for customer success.

Run ad budgets across hundreds of newslettersProductWellput: I designed the order and budget engine, with pacing and budget controls.

A client's tracking needs fixing nowSupportWellput: I joined client calls and owned onboarding when needed.

Run campaigns without a big engineering teamAutomationWellput: AI ran ad targeting and quality checks.

Grow revenue from media inventoryTechMadison Logic: rebuilt the platform. Revenue up $22M.

Goal reached.

Why Owner

Let's help the small, fun, important guys compete.

I'm a serious cook, and I respect small, family-owned and boutique restaurants. I've worked the process from the floor to the pass. I understand the kitchen.

I don't want a world of big-box chain restaurants. Owner gives the independents a real shot. That's the work I want to do, whatever the title.

Every side of the restaurant

Cookserious, not professional
Expediterthe pass
Runner
Server
Guesta regular
Busserresets the table

Experience

ChatB2B (ShrinkMyStack) · Co-Founder / Advisor

Nov 2025 to Present

Set product strategy for ShrinkMyStack, which helps finance and IT leaders control SaaS and AI spend.
Built two AI agents that run buyer research for marketing teams inside their AI assistant.

Wellput.io · Head of Product

2021 to Sep 2025

Frequency · Advisor

Jun 2024 to Jun 2025

Set the strategy and roadmap for its podcast ad network.

ShareThis · Sr. Director of Product

Oct 2019 to Mar 2020

Madison Logic · Marketing to Director of Product

2007 to 2019

Owned the company's largest client (IBM) and largest partner (IDG).
Directed a 25-person team as Director of Product and cut delivery time in half.
Helped lead the company's shift from lead generation to account-based marketing.
Grew the partner network from 20 to 300+ media companies and publishers.

Restaurants · Server, busser, runner, expediter

Summers, high school and college

Syracuse University · BS, Finance

2007

Skills

AI agentsTesting on real dataSafe launchesAPI design Anthropic ClaudeOpenAI (ChatGPT, API)Google GeminiCursorPythonSQLAWSGoogle Cloud

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