Draft:Falk Gottlob

• Comment: Article is based on self published press releases and personal website. Fails WP:GNG. Rht bd (talk) 07:23, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. ~2026-32106-67 (talk) 04:42, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

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Falk Gottlob

Falk Gottlob is a European-born American product executive, writer, and founder of Falkster.AI, an agentic healthcare startup launched in April 2026. He is the author of The PM Standard, a framework that recasts traditional product management as a "Product Builder" role centered on AI-native workflows, prototype-first development, and end-to-end ownership.[1]

Early career

Gottlob began his career at Microsoft in 1989, advancing to Chief Software Architect at Microsoft Research, where he worked until 1998. He then served as Chief Solution Architect at Intershop Communications in Jena, Germany, and as Interim CTO at D2C2 Taiwan Limited in Taipei. Founder roles and acquisitions

Gottlob co-founded and led MVC, a software company based in Beijing, China, serving as CEO from 2003 until its acquisition by Microsoft in 2006. He subsequently co-founded Nutricraze.com, a B2C e-commerce company acquired by bodybuilding.com in 2008. From 2006 to 2010, Gottlob served as Chief Technology Officer at Sitebrand, a Canadian online marketing company that listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in 2008.[2] Enterprise product leadership

Gottlob held senior engineering and product roles at Responsys (acquired by Oracle in 2013) and Salesforce, where he served from 2012 to 2018 across multiple positions, culminating as Senior Vice President of Quip. He grew Quip from post-acquisition into a strategic Salesforce product and led its integration into other Salesforce Clouds, where it later became Slack Canvas. From 2018 to 2019 he served as Head of Solution Consulting at Adobe, leading a global transformation of the company's enterprise Solution Consulting organization.

Chief Product Officer roles Gottlob served as Chief Product Officer at four technology companies between 2019 and 2026. At Commure, where he was CPO from August 2019 to February 2023, he helped build a full-stack AI healthcare platform that raised $500 million and scaled across major U.S. health systems.[3] In October 2023, Commure merged with Athelas at a valuation of approximately $6 billion.[4][5]

He served as Chief Product and Technology Officer at Crisis Text Line from 2022 to 2023, leading product and technology for one of the world's largest mental health crisis platforms.

In May 2023, Gottlob was appointed Chief Product Officer of SOCi, following the company's $120 million funding round.[6][7] At SOCi he drove AI product strategy for the CoMarketing Cloud and launched the Genius AI product line, which integrated OpenAI's GPT-4 to automate reputation management for multi-location enterprises.

He subsequently served as Chief Product Officer at Smartcat from November 2024 to April 2026, leading the company's transformation into an AI-native, multi-agent platform for global enterprise.[8][9]

Falkster

Gottlob founded Falkster.AI, an agentic healthcare startup, in April 2026. He concurrently publishes Falkster.com, a working notebook on AI-era product management hosting a 28-chapter handbook, 39 AI agent blueprints, and writing on prototype-first product development.[1] He also runs Impact.pm, a product management education platform aimed at mid-career product managers, through which he has trained more than 3,200 students.

The PM Standard

Gottlob's central thesis argues that the traditional Product Manager role has been displaced in the AI era by a Product Builder who ships working prototypes, writes evaluations before code, and treats AI agents as teammates.[1] The PM Standard defines this role through six skills: workflow thinking over feature thinking, AI system design, rapid prototyping, evaluation systems, cost and latency thinking, and end-to-end ownership.

Personal life

Gottlob is originally from Europe and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a long-time endurance athlete and has competed in Ironman triathlons.

Education

Master of Science, Computer Science, New York University, 1993.

References

"Falk Gottlob: AI-Era Product Management Standard, Handbook and 39 Agent Blueprints." Falkster.com. https://falkster.com/

"Sitebrand." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitebrand

"Falk Gottlob." LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/fgottlob/

Landi, Heather. "Health tech companies Commure, Athelas unveil merger plans to drive automation, LLM tech into health systems." Fierce Healthcare, October 4, 2023. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/health-tech-companies-commure-athelas-unveil-merger-plans-drive-automation-llm-tech

"Commure Combines with Athelas to Create a Pioneering Platform Dedicated to Transforming Health Systems." BusinessWire, October 4, 2023. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231004260135/en/

"SOCi Welcomes Falk Gottlob as New Chief Product Officer." PR Newswire, July 6, 2023. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/soci-welcomes-falk-gottlob-as-new-chief-product-officer-301871182.html

"SOCi Welcomes New Chief Product Officer to Lead AI-Driven Strategy and Vision." ON Partners. https://onpartners.com/news/soci-welcomes-new-chief-product-officer-to-lead-ai-driven-strategy-and-vision/

Santora, Mike. "Mind over Machine: Beyond the buzzword. Falk Gottlob on embedding AI into real human workflows." Design World, March 2026. https://www.designworldonline.com/mind-over-machine-beyond-the-buzzword-falk-gottlob-on-embedding-ai-into-real-human-workflows-2/

Gottlob, Falk; Thomas, Ron; Richey, Stacey. "Speed, Governance and People Readiness." 360 Magazine, January 2026. https://www.the360mag.com/speed-governance-and-people-readiness/