About StatBid
In 2015, Roy and Shilo recognized a market gap for a new type of PPC agency, backed by evident demand. Both of them had experience as eCommerce operators, growing retail businesses by significant multiples during their tenures. They believed that this experience would provide them with an advantage.
As StatBid expanded, largely due to word of mouth, the demand for a broader offering became apparent. This led to investments in the development of a comprehensive SEO program, as well as further investment in engineering and data science.
Adapting to the ever-changing ecommerce landscape and client needs, StatBid has expanded its solutions. It now offers expertise in demand conversion, Shopify development and optimization, and ecommerce operations.
Meet The Team
The team is currently over a dozen dedicated staff, including data science, account management, strategy, engineering, support, and analysis. We’re still improving daily, building businesses, and helping produce millions in incremental revenue for our clients.
Director of SEM
Amy Sams
Vice President of Operations
Andrew Flicker
Support Team Specialist
Daphne Mae Tagama
Head of Partnerships and Sales
Francis Pilon
Support Team Member
Ian Jasper Pelayo
Director of Data Science & Analytics
Jaret Keniston
Director, SEO and Content Marketing
Jason Zimelman
Account Specialist
Kent Jason Emmanuel Escala
SEO Virtual Assistant
Mariel Caguimbal
Support Team Manager
Marlyn Camte-Cadaweng
Data Scientist
Mike Jelley
Co-Founder & CEO
Roy Steves
Co-Founder & COO/CFO
Shilo Jones
Senior Account Manager
Stephen Mahlum
Account Manager
Theresa Gollini
Senior SEO Manager
Zhanna Pasiaka
Director of SEM
Amy Sams
Amy transitioned a fascination with science and communication into a career sharing understanding of tools and systems. She manages PPC accounts for e-commerce clients, ensuring systems behave and humans understand what the machines are doing. Amy’s time away from work is spent covered in mud at her wheel, enjoying nature, or nerding out with friends and family.
Vice President of Operations
Andrew Flicker
Andrew started his career in eCommerce selling door knobs over the phone, and after fifteen years in the industry, he has helped to start or run more than 20 eCommerce sites and served roles across marketing, content creation, team leadership, sales, pricing, and logistics. He brings his accumulated eCommerce experience to his role as our Vice President of Operations, where he is responsible for upholding the values and profitability of StatBid, and drives the continued growth and happiness of our team. On his own time, he’s usually working on his chess game, crafting custom cocktails, or hiking around New York state.
Support Team Specialist
Daphne Mae Tagama
Daphne is a Biology graduate but tried her hand working online after graduation and never looked back since. She is passionate about her work and coffee. Her fascination with the natural world translates into a deep commitment to her projects. When not learning and growing in her work, you’ll find her unwinding with a captivating novel, a thrilling movie, or a thought-provoking true crime documentary… with a cup of coffee, of course!
Head of Partnerships and Sales
Francis Pilon
Francis’ guiding principle in all things is the concept of non-zero sum. He operates on the belief that the best outcomes are those that benefit everyone involved. He is consistently on the lookout for opportunities that embody this philosophy, where everyone finds themselves in a better position than they began.
Support Team Member
Ian Jasper Pelayo
Ian studied Electronics and Communication Engineering but found a way into the virtual industry as an SEO Support specialist. He brings a passion for learning and growth to everything he does, both in his work and personal life. When he’s not exploring new places or diving into new knowledge, you can find him unwinding with video games or anime.
Director of Data Science & Analytics
Jaret Keniston
Jaret is a statistician (MS in Statistics) turned ecommerce data scientist who oversees the testing and measurement strategies at StatBid. He uses his background in data analysis and modeling to design reporting, bidding, and testing programs for StatBid’s clients, with a heightened focus on producing insights around attribution and incrementality. When he’s not wrapping his head around ecom data, he’s probably nerding out about baseball, music, or comedy podcasts.
Director, SEO and Content Marketing
Jason Zimelman
Jason’s passion for writing and statistics materialized into a career in SEO. An agency veteran with experience leading SEO departments, his entrepreneurial mindset and industry relationships led him to StatBid to build out the agency’s SEO division. When he’s not optimizing websites, Jason is spending time with his family of 5 and 2 dogs and rooting for his Boston sports teams (and Tom Brady).
Account Specialist
Kent Jason Emmanuel Escala
Kent studied Chemical Engineering but found his way into the virtual industry as an SEO support specialist for StatBid. He is passionate about his work, and he loves to explore and learn new things. In his free time, he usually plays video games and enjoys watching sitcoms (especially Friends).
SEO Virtual Assistant
Mariel Caguimbal
Mariel leverages her experience in marketing and sales to thrive as an SEO Virtual Assistant. Outside of her professional endeavors, she enjoys playing musical instruments, getting lost in the pages of a good book, and reconnecting with nature’s beauty. Her curiosity drives her to constantly seek out new adventures and opportunities for growth, both personally and professionally.
Support Team Manager
Marlyn Camte-Cadaweng
Marlyn is a nurse by profession but accidentally found her path working online 5 years ago and has never looked back. She is currently helping out a little bit with Google and Facebook Ads which opened a whole new world for her and enjoying the process of enriching her knowledge and learning more.
Data Scientist
Mike Jelley
Mike digs into data for Statbid, and has done so for a UK Govt Quango, youth orgs, ultra-competitive commercial environments and more. He has many interests including sci-fi/fantasy, THFC, writing hobby fiction, etc. Mike has a wife, a toddler, 2 dogs and 3 cats.
Co-Founder & CEO
Roy Steves
Roy studied computer graphics and animation, but found his stride in eCommerce as a web developer, and migrated to marketing through automation and analysis. Outside of StatBid, he’s a hiker, amateur astronomer, hobbyist sci-fi author, litter collector, and a huge fan of EdenProjects.org.
Co-Founder & COO/CFO
Shilo Jones
Shilo began his entrepreneurial career building a Web development company in the mid 90s and made the transition to e-commerce in 2001 where he helped grow companies in the sporting goods and home furnishings industries. Shilo has a passion for entrepreneurship and creating values-driven teams that love working together and are driven to continually improve.
Senior Account Manager
Stephen Mahlum
Stephen gains satisfaction from helping to build businesses. In SEM, he focuses on understanding search intent, developing compelling messaging, and recommending landing page content.
Account Manager
Theresa Gollini
Senior SEO Manager
Zhanna Pasiaka
Zhanna loves SEO for its perfect balance of analytics and creativity. Since her first link building job out of college, Zhanna has gained expertise in both digital marketing and SEO. Zhanna’s passion is in building mutually thriving meaningful relationships at work and outside, spending time with her family doing anything in the world, reading Scandinavian literature and science fiction, and traveling.
We believe that a company’s culture is an emergent property of its people, not something that can be decided and approved upon by a board, and then dictated to employees. As such, this isn’t the first version of the list, and may not be the last.
This edition is heavily inspired by Moz’s TAGFEE, with honorable mentions to Wheaton’s Law, and various entrepreneurial biographies we found influential. The result is something that learns from other material, but we feel represents who we are, and what we are building together.
Conscientious
Everyone is trying to make their businesses successful, and each has their own journey toward that goal. We must therefore maintain an empathetic foundation in our interactions, with our peers, partners, clients, industry, and world. We operate with respect and care, especially over disagreement, but also in the way we individually, or collectively as StatBid, deal with others.
Candid
We strive to be as transparent and honest as possible. Life’s opportunities increase proportionally to our willingness to have awkward conversations. While it’s easy to share victories, only through honest, candid assessment can we improve over time, and help others to do the same.
Collaborative
There’s a saying: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” While it’s surprisingly difficult to trace to an original source, it sticks in the public consciousness for good reason–some things will call for the first approach, others the second. StatBid is in the business of going far, and that takes a team. Humans are such a successful species, in part, due to our ability to combine our talents and experience, and we embrace this opportunity.
Creative
Our industry changes far too quickly to allow any complacency. As a result, we must constantly be looking for new, innovative, and creative ways to approach challenges. Creativity demands the ability to step back, and find new perspectives on old limitations. We will rise to the challenge.
Clever
Not only should we try to be creative in our problem solving, but our solutions themselves should display elegance. We are energized by scrappy, innovative thinking, and our business will be guided in no small part by that approach. This will allow us to punch above our weight class, and out-maneuver potential risks and barriers.
Constructive
Everything we’ve built in the past can be improved upon. We are attached to our output, not our tools, and so we are always open to iterating on tools and processes, if it would improve the results. We will also provide candid suggestions to others who ask, and graciously consider suggestions that we receive. This philosophy allows us to build better things in the future.
Non-Conformist
The seventh of our Cs only barely starting with a “c” provides for the fact that creative solutions sometimes require abandoning preconceptions and past standards. Our industry changes quickly, and despite this, there are all kinds of baggage that accumulate along the way. To mitigate this, we will always be open to considering wildly alternative solutions. To paraphrase Tim Ferriss: “Most people walk down the street on their legs. Does that mean we walk down the street on our hands? …Not usually, no.” But we also reject the idea that there is a single solution that works for every business, or at every stage of that business’s life, and it’s up to us to spot the difference.
