Brendon Cilliers

VP Product Management @Viamo inc

🔥 Startup FounderMarketing Director💸 Marketing✔️ IT💼 C-level ExecutiveCPOCEO🧨 ConsultingProduct ManagerProject ManagerAdvisor

Brendon Cilliers is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in product management. He currently serves as the Vice President of Product Management at Viamo Inc, a global leader in digital technology. Brendon is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the product portfolio, ensuring the company's offerings meet market needs and exceed customer expectations. Prior to joining Viamo, he held several senior roles in product management and business strategy, where he honed his skills in product development, market research, and cross-functional team leadership. Brendon is recognized for his exceptional ability to translate business objectives into successful product strategies. His expertise lies in the intersection of technology, business, and innovation.

Feedback from Brendon’s ex-colleagues

Let me see

Keep in touch with meI'm using Intch to connect with new people. Use this link to open chat with me via Intch app

Work Background

ViamoVice President - Platform & Product

Jan. 2022CanadaOverview: Viamo Inc is a Platform Company serving +/- 30 million (and rapidly growing) of the 3 billion under-connected people, globally, who do not enjoy access to the digital economy and its vast resources. Viamo bridges the gap for these people by connecting them to Digital Services and Information that was previously impossible to access. My role at Viamo is to define and map out the Product Vision and Strategy to deliver even deeper value to these under-connected communities. I am achieving this by taking the current Platform / Products to the next level and by implementing cutting edge technologies like Chat GPT AI to literally give our Users an “Alexa” type experience on a feature phone with no internet access. These initiatives have significantly grown our Users, retention and revenue. They have also delivered immense value to Governments, NGO’s and the Commercial sectors we work with who are trying to connect their information and services to these very hard to reach communities. - Create the Product Vision and Strategy for Viamo - Transform Viamo into a Product-Led organization - Leadership to all departments within the Company and product function - Ensure the software development work is - well defined, prioritized, delivered on time and to spec - Identify and measure key success metrics - Mentor and grow the Product Managers into senior resources - Report to and collaborate with the Viamo executive board Some notable achievements: ● Year on year user growth of at least 60% ● Year on year user retention improvement of at least 40% ● Year on year revenue growth of at least 35% from new products and services ● Restructured and doubled the Product management team ● Retired a number of unprofitable products and replaced them with high value products ● Implemented World Class product function framework and tools ● Implemented an AI strategy and products that are rapidly being rolled out to all markets

SymendDirector of Product Management

Feb. 2021 - Feb. 2022Calgary, Alberta, CanadaOverview: Symend Inc is a Platform Company that turns difficult conversations and everyday moments into positive experiences across the entire Customer Journey. Symend’s Behavioral Engagement technology delivers digital experiences that are hyper-personalised based on consumer behaviour science. Our solution achieves significantly better results and builds stronger relationships between our Clients and their Customers. My role at Symend was to build and launch the Mend Product which helped indebted people rehabilitate and avoid the strong consequences of being delinquent in their repayments. I also refactored Symend’s internal Software Platform into a SaaS self-service solution that allowed Symend to scale globally. I managed a team of Product Managers, Engineers and Designers to deliver these solutions to market. - Create the Vision and Strategy to deliver my areas to market - Manage a team of professionals to execute on the strategy - Coordinate successful launches with all Symend departments - Identify and measure key success metrics Some notable achievements: ● Successfully scoped, built, and delivered the Mend 1.0 product to the market on time ● Successfully transformed the in-house Symend platform into a global SaaS offering ● Implemented World class product management framework and tools ● Implemented more sophisticated go-to-market and marketing frameworks in the Company ● Mentored a number of junior product managers

SOTISenior Product Manager - SOTI Insight (now Xsight)

Jan. 2018 - Feb. 2021Greater Toronto Area, CanadaOverview: SOTI Inc is a Global leader in the EMM (enterprise mobility management) sector managing 10’s of millions of mobile devices for some of the biggest Corporations and Governments on the planet. My role at SOTI was to take their concept of a data analytics product to a reality and success in the market. - Create the strategic vision in order to deliver the SOTI Xsight data analytics product to market - Manage the SOTI Xsight team of - engineers, QA, product managers, designers and project managers. - Identify and monitor key performance indicators (KPI’s) - Report to the Founder and CEO - Bring in PM best practices to the entire product management function - Grow revenue of the SOTI Xsight Product Some notable Achievements: ● Successfully scoped, built and launched SOTI Insight 1.0 into the global market ● Grew SOTI Insight in SOTI’s 2nd highest revenue generating product within 18 months. ● Successfully delivered SOTI Insight 2.0 with a variety of high value features and revenue add on’s ● Grew the SOTI Insight team from 12 to 34 members by the time I left ● Implemented world class product function framework and tools for SOTI Insight and the PM department. ● Implemented MLM and predictive data science models into SOTI Insight to allow pro active data analytics ● Worked with the technical and data science departments to build a highly scalable and efficient in house data storage and data analytics platform. ● Began the path to implementing artificial intelligence before it became mainstream in the years to come. ● Merged the SOTI Insight and SOTI Assist products to create SOTI Xsight.

B - Cubed Software (Pty) LtdManaging Director (Product-focused)

Jun. 2013 - Feb. 2018Johannesburg Area, South AfricaOverview: B Cubed Software become and emerging markets leader in the EMM (enterprise mobility management) and MEM (mobile expense management) sectors. While I was working at onedotcom I structured and concluded an investment deal into B Cubed Software in order to improve on and take their proof of concept software system to market. I was appointed as the managing director and over time received a 20% shareholding in the company. I drove the company from a pre market start up to an emerging market leader that won and delivered on some of the biggest EMM and MEM deals on the continent at the time. - Responsible for all departments and the success of the Company - Core focus on the strategic Company and Product vision - Run the Board and Exco to ensure strong cohesion and communication between all stakeholders - Take the company from pre revenue to profitable Some notable achievements: ● B Cubed won some of the biggest deals in emerging markets with large corporations like- Smollan Group, Telkom, Nashua, Itec, Gauteng department of education, Bidvest, and the like. ● Took the initial POC and built it into one of the most sought after EMM/MEM products at the time. ● Grew the company from pre revenue to profitable in under one year. ● Won multiple awards for our solutions ● Consistently beat large global competitors like - SOTI Inc, Mobile Iron and Airwatch in our markets ● Built extremely successful sales channel and white label models

ONEdotCOMHead of Product

Apr. 2011 - Jun. 20132 Hogsback Road, Constantia View Office park, Building 1 First FloorOverview: ONEdotCOM was a large ICT and Telecoms Company in South Africa providing end to end unified communications solutions to corporations and the Government in South Africa. I was part of the team that led the merger from DNS telecom into ONEdotCOM. In my role as head of Product I sat on the Executive Committee and I regularly presented to the board of Directors. I was responsible for all Product verticals and Products within them. I led and managed the Product team. I was mandated to build Product IP for the Company; part of my efforts was brokering a deal to buy a majority stake in B Cubed Software and then to shape their technical capabilities into a dynamic product offering. This deal saw me seconded from ONEdotCOM to B Cubed Software as their Managing Director. Some notable achievements: ● Built the ONEdotCOM brand, marketing materials and led the ONEdotCOM market launch ● Created all the product verticals and product marketing materials for our 3rd party products and services ● Created a product development department to build our own products ● The products I brought on contributed to over 85% of the companies revenue ● Structured and concluded an investment deal into B Cubed Software ● Was a valued member of the Executive committee

Mimiq Technology solutionsSenior Product Manager

Sep. 2008 - Mar. 2011United KingdomOverview: Momail’s software turned regular feature phones into Blackberry level of capability phones, while heavily optimising the data the phones would use to save on the extremely high mobile data costs at the time. - Launch the Momail Product in Southern Africa and then the entire African continent - End to end product and marketing management of the momail product Globally. - Report to the Founder and CEO in the United Kingdom - Responsible for finding MNO’’s to partner with in Africa - Responsible for revenue generation in Africa Some Notable achievements: ● Successfully launched Momail in South Africa and then 14 other african countries on the continent ● Partnered Momail with the top 5 mobile network operators in Africa ● At the peak momail was actively running on over 8 million feature phones in Africa ● Africa was the highest earning emerging market out of all momails markets contributing over 40% to the companies total revenue. ● I worked directly with the CEO on a number of momails new features and improved existing features. Should you require, I can provide an addendum with my work and business experience from 2000 to 2008.