Resume of Julie Gomoll

Trendspotter and momentum creator. Julie has a 26-year track record of recognizing and capitalizing on emerging trends and has created a string of successful, sustainable businesses, including: desktop publishing, web design, online communities, web product development, and coworking.
Visionary leader of multidisciplinary, high-functioning teams. Her strong entrepreneurialism enables Julie to effectively manage engineers, executive teams, designers, architects, and staffs of up to 40. She is extremely goal-driven and keeps the team motivated, focused on the vision and relentlessly executing to strategy.
Driven community builder. Julie’s success and strength of vision springs from a deep commitment to the formation of viable, energetic community in all she undertakes. This passion drives her to create tight, well-executing business teams, and is the secret behind her success co-founding the award-winning nonprofit Austin Free-Net, inventing groundbreaking online community management tools and community spaces.

Seasoned entrepreneur with proven ability to jumpstart businesses and bring innovative ideas to profitable reality.
Practical strategist, adept at guiding startups from vision to value by assessing, refining and creating actionable roadmaps to success.
Insightful analyst, able to discern what makes media, products and services relevant to real people, and how to motivate those people to take action.
Expert in creating online strategies, business models, and user-centered web experiences that serve core business goals.

Jules Says activities & client highlights

Worked with Berkeley Bionics to design, implement, and manage their website, initial marketing strategy, and rebranding. Project managed the official launch of eLEGS, their bionic exoskeleton.
With Firecat Studio, created information architecture and wireframes and was Art Director for the Southwest School of Art website redesign.
Complete logo and website design, development, marketing strategy, and social media plan for several small businesses, including Queen of Points, JPeterson Garden Design, The Go To Gay Guy, and BlogathonATX.
Guest lecturer, Texas State University
Mentor, LBJ School of Liberal Arts & Science
Frequent speaker: SXSW, RISE Austin, Austin Content Marketing Group, Chamber of Commerce

Recognized coworking as an important, emerging trend in early 2007. Created an innovative business model and detailed, phased business plan combining the coworking, multiuse urban development, remote collaboration, and mobile workforce trends with an SaaS partnerships model. (http://launchpadcoworking.com)
Engaged a mature, first-class team to implement the strategy.
Generated local and national buzz through hands-on social media and aggressive marketing, events and PR.
Developed sophisticated, proprietary web-based reservation software and e-commerce tool suite.

Capitalized on deep experience at Excite to create an innovative, profitable and sustainable subscription-based web community (http://vpchat.com).
Accurately assessed and acted upon the potential to win a loyal customer base by creating a trustworthy online space with a real sense of community, offering users a renewed sense of safety, connection, and value—back to the roots of what attracted users to online community in the first place.
Leveraged success with VPChat to develop and commercialize two successful products: Halsoft Online Subscription Service and Halsoft Leagues (http://halsoft.com).
Responsible for business strategy and operations including all customer-facing and back office components, marketing and billing. Managed 5 paid staff members and 35 remote volunteer staff members, including recruitment, initial training and ongoing support.

Won responsibility for Excite’s entire online community strategy, growing what had been a vague notion of needing users to “participate on the site” into the highest traffic-generating suite in Excite’s product line.
Pioneered protocols and positioning for the then unheard-of community applications that Internet users rely upon today, including instant messaging, chat, boards, groups and web-based email.
Performed under enormous competitive pressure as major players vied to win mindshare with new community offerings. Thrived in high-stakes, winner-take-all environment, including head-spinning growth as Excite rocketed from a 35-member company to a 3,500-member company.
Managed Excite’s Austin-based staff of 35, ensuring successful operations for community products, and synchronizing with remote executive team. Responsible for development, launch, and ongoing strategic direction as user expectations for online community evolved.

Parlayed background in old-school typography and print design into successful computer-based design business in 1987. Grew this one-person shop into an award-winning, 17-member digital media design and development agency.
Fearlessly adopted and mastered each new wave of media technology, from the desktop publishing revolution of the 80s to the Internet explosion of the 90s, to help clients continually leapfrog their competition.
Directed creative and technical teams in developing the right media experiences to serve business goals of clients such as Dell, IBM, Whole Foods Market, The Nature Conservancy and Holt Rinehart Winston. Successfully introduced new media strategies to lead clients to the web as early as 1993.
Go Media’s ability to quickly analyze, harness and channel the power of new technologies attracted Internet-player Excite to acquire the company in 1996.

Defined new vision and goals for supporting Internet use and education in traditionally underserved markets in Austin.
Crafted a strategic plan with practical steps and achievable milestones, thereby coalescing the team and creating forward motion.
The model created by Austin Free-Net is recognized internationally as a blueprint for success in community computing.
Honored for excellence by the City of Austin with a Distinguished Service Award in 2001.