Stephen Li

One of my core memories from childhood is sneaking to the living room in the middle of the night as an eight-year-old to watch Hitchcock's The Birds. In hindsight, I was a few years too young to watch it (which is probably why my parents would never have allowed it...) and it definitely is the enesis of my lifelong fear of birds, but it also began my love affair with movies that ultimately led me to my early career in screenwriting. Although I've since transitioned into tech, I try to center all my favorite elements of film — human-focused storytelling, unexpected thinking, relentless ideation — in my current work.

After leaving film, I worked in a variety of roles at early-stage startups. I got experience managing projects, overseeing operations and logistics teams, building financial models, and designing corporate strategy. At one point, in true startup fashion, I even served as a corporate safety officer, a role for which I was wildly under-qualified (thank goodness OSHA writes comprehensive documentation). Eventually, I landed on product management and consulting. I currently focus on the latter at Bloomberg, where I build and optimize internal tools and processes for a 400-seat in-house marketing agency. In my personal work, I focus on the former, shepherding a variety of nascent product ideas through their early life cycles.

When I'm not working, you'll find me:

• Reading fiction (with the occasional essay collection thrown in — I highly recommend Girlhood by Melissa Febos)
• Writing (stories, scripts, essays)
• Eating (need I say more?)
• Learning (I've never met a Wikipedia hole that I wouldn't tumble down)
• Traveling (I've resolved to fill up my passport before I renew)

You can learn more about my experience by using the "Download CV" button above or checking out case studies on the My Work page, but here are some quick highlights.

At Bloomberg

Bloomberg offers best-in-class financial products, news, and philanthropy. Bloomberg's marketing studio produces tens of thousands of unique assets to support these businesses. My role is to optimize the studio's processes and tech stack to ensure that we continue to deliver delightful advertising experiences with minimal waste. I currently focus heavily on the use of Asana for project and product management. I've audited and redesigned workflows, developed custom NodeJS scripts to automate repetitive actions, and built a reporting framework that has driven significant improvements in data hygiene, employee engagement, and operational efficiency. I've also spoken at various internal and external events about change management and analytics in marketing.

At GiGstreem

GiGstreem is a service provider that delivers data center and in-home managed WiFi solutions for enterprise and residential customers. I initially worked to develop and execute a program of strategic initiatives, which included founding a PMO, overhauling GTM strategy, and auditing and remediating issues in financial statements. These efforts spurred significant growth in revenue and reduction in operating expenses, which were parlayed into a $10M fundraising round. Subsequently, I shifted to focus on product strategy and management. I owned all internal and external products, which included bringing multiple zero-to-one products to market. These drove double-digit growth in NPS and formed the foundation for a further $59M fundraising round.

With Asana

Along with my work implementing Asana for Bloomberg, I also serve as a volunteer forum leader for Asana's online community. In that capacity, I have spoken at events and webinars, produced tutorials and learning content, and offered solutions-focused consulting to platform users. I have guided users through the end-to-end process of implementing a new work management platform and philosophy, which includes onboarding and training, process improvement and automation, and continuous feedback integration. I have also developed purpose-built scripts and integrations to ensure that users aren't wasting time on things that machines should do for them.

At BAI Connect

BAI Connect is a Los Angeles-based service provider that specializes in delivering managed WiFi and IoT solutions to luxury residential and commercial venues west of the Rockies. My responsibilities there ranged from infrastructure project management to logistics management to financial modeling, with my work on the latter being instrumental during the company's acquisition by a private equity firm. My work helped to minimize the negative financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business, expand operations into multiple new markets, and develop multiple new products, including a co-branded video streaming platform and digital network deployment for large-scale events.