Made by
Nick Pawson
Work Experience
Palko AI
May 2022 - Present
COO
Global
- Operations: business model & planning; financial model & projections; product roadmap & implementation; day-to-day operations.
- Sales: dtc sales; b2b sales; CMR; customer acquisition & management; marketing & advertising; fundraising; investor relations.
- Design: product design; UX/UI; web development; advertising copy; marketing copy; application/PWA development, testing & implementation.
- Led marketing & advertising campaigns on Meta, Google, and TikTok to industry leading CAC and advertising conversion result metrics.
- Crucial in the development of tools using a predictive neural network to analyze data and automate the management of social media advertising settings to optimize for conversion.
- Researched and developed key strategies for operations, revenue generation, and customer acquisition.
- Communicated with executives, investors, and venture capitalists in the music industry.
- Specialized in identifying market and designing targeted advertising campaigns for growth.
CoWork Reho, Cafe Reho
Jan. 2021 - Present
Partner
Rehoboth Beach, DE
- Concept and planning of oceanfront co-working space; architectural & CAD designs; general contracting; licensing & submittals.
- Successfully led construction renovations to completion under budget and within deadlines.
- Designed and implemented sophisticated networking infrastructure to satisfy the heavy demand of our customers.
- Worked with local government to approve use-case of space previously not allowed.
Dalmata
Aug. 2020 - Jun. 2021
General Manager
Rehoboth Beach, DE
- Operations: payroll & labor cost; scheduling; food & beverage cost; ordering; management.
- Planning, creation and implementation of all branding, design, and marketing.
- Organized general contracting for renovations from previous business.
- Drove efficiency with constant focus on improving both quality and consistency.
- Menu planning & execution in cooperation with high-volume takeout programs (COVID).
- Implemented procedures for food & labor cost. Oversaw payroll and ordering.
Houston White Co.
Sep. 2018 - Jun. 2021
General Manager
Rehoboth Beach, DE
- Planning, creation and implementation of all branding, design, and marketing.
- Organized general contracting for renovations from previous business.
- Implemented procedures for food & labor cost. Oversaw payroll and ordering.
- Drove efficiency with constant focus on improving both quality and consistency.
- Led southern Delaware in beef quality (upper prime, wagyu, aged).
- Protein menu planning & execution; butchery of all cuts from sub-primals.
La Fable
May 2016 - Jun. 2021
General Manager
Rehoboth Beach, DE
- Planning, creation and implementation of all branding, design, and marketing.
- Organized general contracting for renovations from previous business.
- Implemented procedures for food & labor cost. Oversaw payroll and ordering.
- Drove efficiency with constant focus on improving both quality and consistency.
- Award winning with notoriety from Good Housekeeping, Forbes, OpenTable, Delaware Today.
- Maintained industry leading profit margin for fine-dining French concept (~21%).
Wawlee
Jan. 2019 - Mar. 2020
Founder
Rehoboth Beach, DE
- Invention & development of patent-pending smart home audio device.
- Within budget (<$120k) production-ready prototype in six months; worked closely with manufacturers in southeast Asia and northeast USA.
- Fully custom PCBa design (10-layer, and 8-layer); Arrow certified technology & BOM.
NPC
Jan. 2009 - Present
Freelance Designer
Philadelphia, PA
- Branding, Graphic Design, Web Development; notable concepts: Mixx & Mingle, La Fable, Houston White, Co., Dalmata, CoWork Reho, Cafe Reho, Palko AI.
- Web Development of Palko AI's MVP PWA application.
- Design & execution of Palko AI's web, marketing, and advertising presence.
- CAD & Architectural planning; notable concepts: La Fable, Houston White, Co., Dalmata, CoWork Reho, Cafe Reho.
Education
The University of the Arts
2011
BFA, Acting
Philadelphia, PA
- Founding member of Alpha Psi Omega.
- Admissions Ambassador for Performing Arts Dept.
Skills
- Over a decade of experience leading and managing teams with extensive operations experience in both the Hospitality and Tech sectors.
- Co-founder in AI & Machine Learning startup. Restaurateur of four concepts from cafe to elite-fine-dining. Partner in oceanfront co-working space. Inventor with patents pending.
- Operations; planning; business modeling; revenue forecasting; sales; CRM; customer acquisition; account management; partnerships; fundraising; marketing; social media advertising; food & beverage; management; payroll; hiring.
- Experience: conceptualized, designed, and executed numerous user/guest experience projects to stand out from the crowd and use novel techniques for converting/reaching users and guests.
- Grew restaurant/co-working/cafe concepts to over $4.2M in annual revenue.
- Achieved industry leading social media advertising conversion metrics by training and maintaining our predictive neural network with Palko AI.
- Successfully reduced CAC to industry leading costs by fine tuning conversion tactics with Palko AI.
Licenses & Awards
- ServSafe Certified
- Arrow Certification Program (Wawlee)
- PMP: Product Management Professional Certificate (projected completion July ‘24)