- Lendio (part 2)$9BCapital Attracted
- Aktify$4.8MAnnualized EBITDA on AI
- BambooHR+$30MARR from Payroll
- Lendio (part 1)$0–$100MLoans in 2 Years
- AtTask (Workfront)4x–5xPersona Adoption
Adam Michaelson builds and scales software businesses. Across more than 25 years, he has scaled from being an early-stage venture’s sole product builder to leading cross-functional organizations of more than 40 people. His leadership spans product management, UX, operations, and data science, with executive roles at Lendio, Aktify, BambooHR, and Workfront. He pairs strategic judgment with deep product craft—and he still builds.
At Aktify, Adam established the product organization around an enterprise conversational AI platform, engineered the human-in-the-loop infrastructure that trained models at scale, raised model accuracy from 71% to 88%, and ran the P&L of a $20 million business at a 24% EBITDA margin ($4.8 million annualized). Today, he prototypes and ships daily, guides backlogs with rapid experimental teams, and contributes directly to production code.
At Lendio, where he served across two tenures as COO, SVP, and Head of Product, Adam oversaw product, UX, operations, and people. From 2012 to 2016, he led the strategy and design of its small-business lending marketplace, taking it from $0 to $100 million in loans in two years (and $16 billion in cumulative volume by 2026), and launched a SaaS product that signed 20 clients in three months. Returning in 2022 as SVP of Product, he led 40 direct and indirect reports across marketplace, SaaS, embedded finance, and AI products. He launched three new lines: lender SaaS, embedded lending, and Forward Flow, whose automation of application, underwriting, and origination up to funding helped attract $9 billion in capital.
At BambooHR, Adam expanded the platform beyond core HR. He led the integration and migration of an acquired payroll company (+$30 million ARR), launched performance management as a new $25 million add-on, and launched eNPS, Pulse Surveys, and Analytics (+$10 million ARR), partnering with PhD organizational psychologists to translate workplace science into software. Earlier, as the first product hire at AtTask (later Workfront, acquired by Adobe), his user-research-led redesign validated 4x and 5x adoption by its key personas and helped grow revenue from $10 million to $50 million in three years.
Adam operates on empirical evidence: immerse directly in the business, observe how customers actually work, test core assumptions, and invest where user data points. He leads with focused priorities, clear ownership, and visible measures of progress—building resilient teams equipped to continually raise the bar.
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Lendio (part 2)
By my return, Lendio had grown to 300 employees and $100M in annual revenue. I came back as SVP of Product, with 40 direct and indirect reports. I was asked to lead the product team and create new product lines. We launched lender SaaS ($20M in annual loans), embedded lending ($18M), and Forward Flow, which attracted $9B in capital.
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Aktify
Aktify is a conversational AI company that grew to 70 employees and $20M in annual revenue. I was VP of Product and a member of the C-team. I was recruited to build a product team and create the vision and strategy. I built human-in-the-loop training that raised model accuracy from 71% to 88%, grew the product organization from 2 to 20 in 12 months, and ran the P&L at 24% EBITDA.
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BambooHR
BambooHR is B2B HR software with 600 employees and $300M in annual revenue. I was Director of Product, leading the organizational health area. I was recruited to add new product lines. I launched performance management as a $25M add-on, integrated the payroll acquisition (+$30M ARR), and launched eNPS, Pulse Surveys, and Analytics (+$10M ARR).
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Lendio (part 1)
Lendio is an online marketplace for small business loans, with 30 employees and $6M in annual revenue when I joined. I came in as its first product hire and became COO and Head of Product. I was asked to change the business model through product. I launched a SaaS product with 20 clients in three months, then a marketplace that reached $100M in loans in two years.
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Workfront
Workfront (then AtTask) is B2B work-management software that grew from 75 to 350 employees. I was its first product hire and Product Team Lead. I was asked to set the product’s vision and direction for its next phase of growth. After studying 30 clients on site, we redesigned around frontline workers, lifting their adoption 4x and project managers’ 5x as revenue grew from $10M to $50M.
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Optum Insight
Optum Insight is the healthtech arm of UnitedHealth Group, with 4,500 employees and $1.6B in annual revenue. I was a Senior PM and Release Manager. I was asked to bring a monthly release cadence to 21 business-critical applications. I built a prioritization process that aligned departments, and the releases booked $600M in SaaS revenue.
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Alta Bank
Alta Bank is a Utah community bank with about 300 employees and $1B in assets. I was its Online Banking Manager. I was hired to stand up consumer and business online banking from scratch. I launched both, reached 8,000 weekly users in six months, and hired a support team of four.
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