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Profile
Will Glaser is the Founder and CEO of Grabango. Grabango is the leading provider of checkout-free technology for large-scale grocery and convenience store chains. Glaser has nearly 34 years in the computer software industry. He began his career in 1987.
Before joining Grabango, Glaser was a founder and owner at Will Glaser Consulting and before that a founder, CTO and COO at Pandora. Earlier in his career he worked with Amtel Video as a senior systems engineer.
Glaser graduated from Cornell University with an undergraduate degree in computer science, mathematics, and physics.
As a 3x founder, advisor and C-suite executive, Will Glaser has mastered what it takes to successfully mobilize a team and grow a company while creating an entirely new industry. As the co-founder and former CTO of music streaming service Pandora and now CEO of checkout-free technology pioneer Grabango, Will is proficient in solutions demanded by users in analytics-driven, data-intensive industries, such as SaaS. Will is a strong people leader and is purposeful in creating a culture of diversity and innovation within Grabango. He challenges individuals in all roles and at every level to ideate and push the boundaries of what the company’s computer vision and machine learning software, as well as the associated hardware, can accomplish for the good of society. Since founding Grabango back in 2016, he has grown his idea into a startup that’s signed on five retail partners, each with over $1 billion in revenue, including a global top-10 grocer and Fortune-25 convenience store retailer. As an engineer, Will has a proven track record of bringing complex solutions to market in a simple way to meet consumer demand. He is accomplished in patenting technical products (Grabango currently has 38 patents granted and pending), transforming consumer experiences, and driving purposeful product innovation. He draws on his diversified background with his triple degree in computer science, physics and mathematics to identify then solve everyday problems, from a listener’s desire to curate a personal playlist to a shopper’s desire to just grab their grocery items and go without waiting in long checkout lines. Finally, Will is incredibly entrepreneurial and generously shares his passion and experience with other technology leaders as an advisor. He has helped advise a wide range of companies from pre-IPO startups to multinational corporations navigate product architectures and technology turnarounds. From his advisory role, Will understands the importance of having a vision while also anticipating what’s next, an imperative outlook as every industry scrambles to incorporate SaaS programs into their digital suite of remote operations.
Will is a visionary leader, very strategic with a strong bias for action. Will is wonderful to work with and he has exceptional expertise in business strategy processes, identifying top talent, and driving engagement. He consistently demonstrates a great work ethic and leads by example. He empowers his team and see them as thought partners while supporting initiatives that moved the attention towards a global agenda. Will is highly technical and his area of expertise formulate a strategy for long term success. It’s rare that you find a CEO who is highly technical with a matched level of EQ. Its been such a pleasure to work for Will, I’ve learned so much and feel privileged to work with him and the Grabango team everyday.
Will brings technical brilliance along with his proven record of building successful tech companies. He is meticulous, thoughtful and diligent. He cares deeply about the team, the product and the brand. He is incredibly focused, efficient, and purposeful. As the leader of Grabango, Will is deeply engaged in all areas of the business. He cares about what the team thinks and welcomes feedback. He creates space for diversity of thought and challenges the team to be the very best. He sets audacious goals, while tooling the team properly to fulfill them.
Will has an unwavering focus on solving consumer problems, as he did with Pandora music streaming and is now doing with Grabango checkout-free technology. Will is uniquely able to use extremely complex computer vision and AI-based technology to deliver solutions that feel magical and simple for consumers. He is also dedicated to building not only great products, but a great and diverse team that fosters innovation and creativity.
Integrity Humility: willing to ask questions, not know, and learn from his trusted team around him. Asks for input and feedback on his decisions Strategic Thinker: directs the organization in strategic Relational: Cares about his team as individual people Self-Aware: Clear about his strengths and his weaknesses
Authentic; Humanist: sees people for who they are and plays to their strengths; inclusive: makes the most of diverse backgrounds, work styles and thinking styles; independent-minded: recognizes customary vs accidental vs intentional decisions and always pushes for intentional; fair, appreciative, and upbeat.
Making difficult decision, being self aware, being aware of what’s going on around him and his employees, collaborative, great communication skills and working with different personalities.
Strong leadership skills with the ability to motivate and be inclusive of all of the Grabango employees. He is extremely grounded which is a rare quality for someone at his position.