Kevin Colleran

One of Facebook’s first seven employees and former Director of Sales
Managing director at Slow Ventures, which has invested in more than 160 early-stage technology companies, including Pinterest, Evernote, Plated and BarkBox
Venture partner at General Catalyst, which focuses on early-stage technology investments in the e-commerce, mobile and enterprise spaces
Columnist for the Wall Street Journal’s “Accelerators”

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Kevin Colleran - We Are All Social

Called “one of the best hires I ever made” by Facebook founding president Sean Parker, Kevin Colleran—Facebook’s pioneering sales executive and among its first ten employees—was an integral part of the social networking behemoth’s sales force. As the company’s Global Partnership Lead, he was responsible for creatively monetizing the site without hampering user experience. In 2010, he was named one of New York’s 100 Coolest Tech People by Business Insider.

Having cut his teeth at the largest social networking site the world has ever known, Colleran created many of today’s mainstream digital marketing and branding practices, effectively rendering “old media” practices obsolete. In his view, there are only a handful of companies that really understand how social networking and real-time digital media affect the bottom line. Those companies are the ones that will survive and thrive in the constantly evolving business landscape; the rest will fall behind and eventually fail.

He currently writes the weekly column “The Accelerators” for The Wall Street Journal’s website along with several other startup gurus, in which they address entrepreneurship and venture capital.

An engaging storyteller with an infectious sense of humor, Kevin Colleran offers an enlightening presentation on sales, marketing, and branding in the digital age. He offers corporations the hard-won insights for reimagining and reenergizing their sales and marketing strategy and, ultimately, improving their bottom line.

Prior to his six years at Facebook, Colleran was a self described “lifelong entrepreneur” who opened a baseball card shop at age 14 and created such Internet businesses as LiveService, which outsourced customer service, and Photo Masterpiece, which put photos on canvas and boasted such creative marketing campaigns as the “Erase Your Ex” special for divorced couples who wanted to remove their ex from wedding photos. A savvy businessman, Colleran would often create a story around his business for the sole purpose of writing a press release and building his own personal brand. This strategy worked for Colleran; after creating Blabberforce—a college marketing force—while a student at Babson College, he soon branded himself as a college marketing expert, appearing on national media outlets. He was named College Entrepreneur of the Year by several national organizations and at 17 was one of the youngest people ever to work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

While at Facebook, Colleran helped guide major corporations—including such Fortune 100 companies as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart, and Coca-Cola—through the process of becoming present and engaged in the online space. By inserting themselves into the conversations that were already being had about their brands, these corporations found that they could engage their existing customers and capture new ones by cultivating brand loyalty and a sense of community.

Most recently, Kevin Colleran has joined General Catalyst Partners as a venture partner. In this role, he focuses on mentoring young entrepreneurs in early-stage investments. Colleran is a board member of several companies in the social media space, including Buddy Media, a Facebook brand platform, and Facebook Causes, one of the largest applications on Facebook, which focuses on generating awareness and donations for over 240,000 causes and nonprofits in the United States. Prior to working at Facebook, Colleran was a consultant for RCA and Arista Records, where he created corporate sponsorships between brands and musicians. He is a graduate of Babson College.

To book Kevin Colleran call Executive Speakers Bureau at 901-754-9404.

Join the Conversation Because It's Going on Without You: Building an Authentic Brand

As one of the first ten employees at Facebook, Kevin Colleran intimately understood what made the social networking giant so successful: a focus on user experience that was unhampered by intrusive ads.

In this presentation, Kevin Colleran helps corporations understand what too many do not: the conversation about your brand is going on whether you are online to represent yourself or not. With wit and amazing industry insight, he espouses the importance of going to where the customers are and shaping your own company's narrative - before a disgruntled customer or bloodthirsty competitor does it for you.

The Evolution of Facebook

Using his experiences as one of Facebook's pioneering employees as a springboard, Kevin Colleran describes the management strategies that helped the company grow from a few-person operation (with its East Coast headquarters in a New York apartment) to an $80 billion corporation and a global icon. In this fascinating speech, Colleran shares insightful and humorous anecdotes about his time at Facebook, drawing on real-life examples of how the company managed to stay fresh and innovative even in a flagging economy. He also shares how Facebook will evolve in the coming years (including why it will never have a "dislike" button!), offering a perspective on innovation that will inspire and energize audiences.

Company Culture & Workplace Cultivation: Protecting Your Company's Most Important Asset

How would you like to have meetings that always end on time? How about a weekly meeting with your CEO where you could ask anything - and get an honest answer? Or a yearly "field day" with the whole company or overnight "hackathons" for the entire workforce? This is the company culture at Facebook, a company that - even while navigating exponential growth over the course of a few short years - has managed to maintain a workplace that hinges on open communication and respect for time and talent. From offering rent credits and free meals to designating "meetingless" days once a week, Facebook's unique company culture has kept its workforce happy and productive.

In this illuminating keynote, Kevin Colleran - one of the first ten employees at Facebook - offers a fascinating look into the Facebook culture, sharing strategies that any company can employ. The key, he says, is simple: treat your workforce as your most valuable asset, and they will become more productive, loyal team players.

The Eyes Have It: Brand Strategy in the Digital Age

Eighty percent of ad dollars are allocated to demand generation ads - a space that has always been dominated by television. But with the rise of DVR and smartphones, it's becoming easier and more convenient to ignore the ads you don't care to see - either by fast forwarding through them or looking down at your phone, laptop, or tablet instead.

Kevin Colleran argues that this shift in consumer attention is a golden opportunity for advertisers if they simply follow their customers' lead and go to where the eyes are. Citing the importance of "living a day in your customer's media mix," Colleran explains how most executives have never actually tried to live like their average consumer and, as such, fail to truly understand how many distractions, ads, data, wireless devices, and other clutter is out there. In this fascinating talk, he explains how companies can enhance their advertising and brand narrative by thinking outside the box... literally.

Lessons from Facebook: Leading a Life of Purpose & Possibility

When Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, he crafted a specific vision for his brand and surrounded himself with colleagues who would support and uphold that vision. He put a premium on fostering creativity and innovation, all while adhering to the principles in which he believed.

In this fascinating, personal speech, Kevin Colleran - who was among Facebook's first ten employees and witnessed the brand's rise to cultural dominance - shares the story of Facebook and its evolution. He discusses how and why Facebook was successful, and how its principles of success can be applied to audience members' lives, whether they are in college, looking for their first job, or trying to build a fulfilling career.