The nine-year Yelp veteran has helped the company’s ad revenue grow from $25 million to nearly $1 billion in revenue.
Indian American Vivek Patel has assumed the new role of Chief Product Officer at Yelp Inc, the San Francisco-based local search service, which has gained immense popularity for its crowd-sourced reviews.
Patel, a nine-year Yelp veteran, will oversee the product management functions at Yelp, including design, data science, and user research, among other areas, according to a press release by the company issued on February 19. The release said that, as a member of the executive leadership team, Patel will ensure that the development of Yelp’s products is aligned with the company’s strategic direction, especially its diversifying go-to-market strategy and focus on both business owners and consumers.
“Growing up with and working alongside a family of restaurateurs and small-business owners has provided me not only with firsthand knowledge of the complexities of this industry, but also a deep and personal connection to Yelp’s business owners and an understanding of products that serve them effectively,” Patel said.
Yelp Inc. praised Patel’s impressive tenure with the company.
Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder and CEO of Yelp said, in the release: “During his tenure at Yelp, Vivek has played an integral role in accelerating the diversification of our business products and enhancing our go-to-market strategies, specifically through the development of key products such as our self-serve platform, Request-A-Quote and Yelp Reservations, and the integration of Yelp’s partnership with GrubHub.”
During his career at Yelp, Patel managed the business products team, which, under his leadership, grew Yelp’s advertising products from $25 million to nearly $1 billion in revenue
A graduate of Stanford University with an MA in Education, Learning, Design & Technology and a BS in Computer Science, Patel also served as Yelp’s Head of Business Products from 2011 to 2016. During his tenure as head of business products, he led the development of the company’s self-serve advertising platform, business-owner mobile app, Request-A-Quote and integration of Yelp Reservations and Yelp Waitlist.
Before joining Yelp, Patel worked at Sharpcast Inc. as director of product management. He has also worked as software engineer at a few companies before that.