TextNow, a leading mobile app that offers free and inexpensive phone service, recently announced Mike Grishaver's joining the company as the new VP of Product. As such, the new executive is responsible for heading the product strategy, development, and vision that supports the 15 million active users of TextNow. Besides, the company said, as the new VP of Products, Grishaver reports to Derek Ting, the company's Founder and CEO.
During the formal announcement, as posted on PR Newswire, Ting said, as the company continues to make "the phone service accessible to everyone at any budget, the mobile experience of TextNow is their top priority." The CEO–Founder added, Grishaver, a former executive of Pandora and Etsy, "strikes the right balance between creative visionary and data-centric" as a product head. His knowledge and expertise in developing user-friendly tech products that leverage vigorous technology is the main key to scaling TextNow.
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New Role at TextNow
In the statement he gave when TextNow introduced Grishaver, Ting said he is excited to welcome the latter to the company. More so, he expressed excitement, too, in growing TextNow with a new office for a partner. Indeed, the new company VP is about to fulfill his role at TextNow as the firm expands its free phone service offer. For more than two decades now, Grishaver has been considered an expert in the field of product management, monetization, and design, and he is bringing this expertise to Textnow.
In the new company he is set to work with, Grishaver will form the internal product team of the TextNow, not to mention, design its long-term worldwide tactic for its so-called "cross-platform products." Before joining the fast-growing mobile app company, his most recent job was as Beachbody's SVP of Product from which he headed the firm's main product, Beachbody, on Demand to more than one million subscribers. More so, he introduced the Openfit of Beachbody, health, nutrition, and fitness product across the Internet, iOS, Roku, and Android platforms.
Grishaver's Commitment
Now that he is part of TextNow, Grishaver has committed to be one with the team in developing a product that provides low-cost connectivity to users all over the world. To date, he said, consumers are spending more of their time on mobile phones and tablets than watching TV. He also added that 90% of the time spent on a smartphone is allotted for mobile apps. Relatively, the ability of TextNow to offer phone service via a mobile app against the customary carrier brings into the line with that trend. Also, it positions the firm as a true disruptor in the industry.
The earlier work experiences of Grishaver include serving as Etsy's SVP of Product, Pandora's VP of Product Management, and LinkedIn's Product Management and Monetization Lead. At Etsy, this executive was influential in augmenting gross mobile sales for merchandise by 47%. Meanwhile, at Pandora, he contributed to the company's hitting the mobile revenue increase of 101% year-on-year. Lastly, Grishaver has had 12 patents from the time he worked at LinkedIn, where the teams he headed launched the firm's first products for social advertising.
