About Adam

The operator behind Product Joy.

Adam Root is a Chief AI & Product Officer who helps B2B SaaS companies replace product chaos with conviction that compounds enterprise value. Most teams aren't short on talent — they're short on clarity. Product Joy is how he packages 15+ years of that work into a subscription.

AR

Adam M. Root

Chief AI & Product Officer

Based
United States
Operating since
2008
Patents
4 granted
Method
The Conviction Sprint

By the numbers

$50M+

Raised across companies & clients

$4B

In annual savings unlocked at National Grid

20×

MRR scale at FieldPulse ($20K → $400K)

70+

NPS at FieldPulse (up from 40)

600+

Startups evaluated as a GP at Tricent

$40M

Exit valuation at Respondology

The method

The Conviction Sprint.

Most product orgs get trapped in feature churn, reactive roadmaps, and strategy by opinion instead of evidence. The Conviction Sprint turns ambiguity into a clear product thesis grounded in market reality, user behavior, and commercial traction.

The outcome isn't just a better roadmap. It's stronger alignment, faster decision-making, and product strategy that compounds into enterprise value — the same playbook Adam has used to scale MRR 20×, lift NPS to 70+, and unlock $4B+ in annual savings.

Experience

17 years across product, AI, and venture.

  1. 2024 — Present

    Root Ventures

    Fractional Chief Product & AI Officer

    Embedded AI and product executive for VC/PE-backed companies. Lead 0→1 and 1→N work across workplace productivity, field ops, consumer tech, and health tech. Author of The Conviction Sprint.

  2. 2024

    Neighborly®

    VP of Product & UX

    Optimized franchise operations across a $5B PE-backed portfolio of home service brands. Cut home inspection times 33% with drones + computer vision; lifted inspections 49% across 242 franchises.

  3. 2022 — 2024

    Toptal

    VP of Product

    Led digital transformation for global enterprises. Drove National Grid's solar CAGR from 5% to 25%, unlocking $4B in annual savings. Forged a $20M Gates Foundation partnership for World Vision.

  4. 2019 — 2021

    FieldPulse

    VP of Product

    First product hire post-Series B. Scaled SaaS from $20K to $400K MRR (+1.3K%) and lifted NPS from 40 to 70+. Built engineering, product, and CS teams across the US, Australia, and Eastern Europe.

  5. 2018

    Real Geeks

    VP of Marketing & Product

    Scaled ARR from $7M to $20M with AI-powered marketing tools that automated social and search ad creation for real estate agents.

  6. 2017 — 2018

    Zen Media

    Chief Operating Officer

    Tripled team size and doubled gross margin. Led the Gold Addy-winning Dippin' Dots campaign that generated 1B+ organic impressions.

  7. 2016 — 2017

    Tricent Capital

    General Partner, VP of Product Management

    Founded an early-exit VC fund with a proprietary algorithm predicting startup exit potential. Evaluated 600+ startups; achieved 200% ROI on Gentbox in 12 months.

  8. 2009 — 2016

    Respondology

    Co-founder, Chief Product Officer

    Built a machine-learning marketing platform from $0 to $7M ARR with a $40M exit valuation. Raised $17M from VCs and led a 72-person team across 5 VPs.

  9. 2008 — 2009

    Agency Entourage

    Director of Product Management

    Led campaigns and digital strategies for McDonald's, Shiner Bock, and The CW.

Education

  • Woolf

    M.S. Artificial Intelligence · 2025 — 2026

  • Oklahoma Christian University

    B.S. Mass Communications, Electronic & Corporate Media · 2003 — 2006

Honors

  • .Net100
  • Customer Value Leadership Award
  • Gold American Addy
  • Silver American Advertising Award (ADDY)
  • Eagle Scout

Certifications

  • UX Certification
  • AI Product Manager Nanodegree
  • Using Questions to Foster Critical Thinking and Curiosity
  • Navigating Organizational Politics as a Senior Leader

Patents

Four granted patents in social and product UX.

  • Patent 01

    Graphical User Interface for a Display Screen of a Communications Terminal — map source/comment markers with replies

  • Patent 02

    Key Influencer Based Social Media Marketing

  • Patent 03

    Social Media Lifecycle Marketing — GUI with map source/comment markers

  • Patent 04

    Graphical User Interface for a Display Screen of Communications Terminal — leads as a 'sea of faces'

Adam's work has been featured in

Fortune
Observer
Entrepreneur
Inc.
Time
Forbes
Huffington Post
Mashable
ReadWriteWeb
Dallas Morning News
American Express
CIO.com
Infoworld

Selected articles

  • First-Time Founder? 3 Rules to Raise Money Like a Pro

    Fortune

    Mar 14, 2017

  • Why Is Venture Capital Still Stuck in 1989?

    Observer

    Feb 6, 2017

  • VCs Want to See Product-Market Fit: Here's How to Prove It

    Entrepreneur

    Dec 19, 2016

  • Twitter Is Proof That Founders Make the Best CEOs

    Entrepreneur

    Dec 15, 2015

  • Take 4 Steps Back to Move Your Small Business Forward

    Entrepreneur

    Dec 7, 2015

  • 4 Ways Tech Leaders Can Focus on Customer Success

    Entrepreneur

    Oct 28, 2015

  • My Biggest Mistake: Losing Sight of Our Purpose

    Inc.

    Aug 29, 2014

  • How to Fire Your Boss and Break Free of the Corporate Grind

    Time

    Jul 6, 2014

  • Your Business Needs to Tweet — Here's How to Make It Worth Your While

    Forbes

    Jul 2, 2014

  • 7 Ways to Protect and Test Your New Business Idea

    Huffington Post

    Apr 1, 2014

  • 15 Underrated Apps Every Entrepreneur Should Use

    Mashable

    Nov 26, 2013

  • How to Deal With the Psychological Toll of Starting Up

    ReadWriteWeb

    Nov 12, 2013

  • 16 Things to Look for in Your Next Web Developer

    Inc.

    Nov 12, 2013

  • The Five: Using Twitter to boost sales

    Dallas Morning News

    Aug 1, 2013

  • 3 Ways Paid Social Ads Can Make Your Content Explode

    American Express

    Jun 10, 2013

  • 17 Tips for Achieving Social CRM Success

    CIO.com

    May 29, 2013

  • Stupid user tricks 7: True tales of extreme brain fail

    Infoworld

    Apr 15, 2013

Work with Adam directly

One operator. One thesis. One queue.

Product Joy is how Adam packages 17 years of product, AI, and venture experience into a subscription you can start — and pause — at any time.