Kimberly Salzer

Small/startup tech executive

AirBnB, Uber, Threadflip, Waze, Zipcar

It can be frustrating trying to constantly stay ahead of the trends and competition. But the reward is seeing the direct impact you can have on growing an entire business with new ideas and innovation.

Not thinking enough about the customer.

1) Focus
2) Constantly prioritize
3) Every single hire has to be the very best

Kim Salzer is currently the General Manager of Gifts.com, where she heads up day-to-day operations of the broadest gift-giving website.  Prior to Gifts.com, Kim was General Manager of Citysearch, where she strove to help people discover the best their cities have to offer through expert, curated content.  Prior to Citysearch, Kim spent over ten years in the videogame industry, first as Director of Product Marketing at Electronic Arts, where she headed up numerous offline and online gaming initiatives for EA GAMES, EA SPORTS and Pogo.  Later, she went on to become VP of Global Brand Management at Activision Blizzard, at various times managing franchise development efforts on Guitar Hero, portfolio management for Activision’s Family game franchises (DreamWorks Animation, Transformers, Ice Age), and the successful launches of Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 3.  Finally, she headed up Marketing and Product at Linden Lab, the makers of the largest online virtual world, Second Life.  Prior to EA, Kim worked in various marketing roles and industries -- most notably, The Clorox Company in traditional consumer packaged goods brand management.  She holds a BA in Communication Studies from UCLA and an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA.