Vacancy: Head of Product

It’s not often that a new mobile start-up is guaranteed to set a market on fire. Chama is poised to become a high profile industry disruptor with global reach and a customer base in the millions. The two founders have already secured more than € 10 million investment to kickstart Chama. The Head of Product role will be a career-defining opportunity to lead the development team to conquer South America, Africa and Asia.

A mobile platform start-up with untapped potential

A quick way to explain the Chama business model: think ‘Uber-for-home-gas-delivery’. In many emerging markets, gas delivery is huge. Until now, it has been completely offline. Take Brazil: Each month, 95% of Brazilians order gas delivery to their homes. Through a network of independent dealers, five major distributors provide 400 million cylinders of gas annually that are used to heat homes and cook meals. Chama is the first to digitize the process to give people in emerging markets around the world faster access and more control of their orders. Currently, legal and illegal dealers compete to deliver gas by phone order or from street vendors. There is a clear safety issue with illegal dealers hooking up the cylinders and potentially dangerous consequences. With Chama, consumers can feel safe knowing that only certified, legal dealers are delivering and installing the gas into their family homes. And they can choose their gas delivery by proximity of drivers to their homes, quality or price. With the vision to quickly disrupt the residential gas market by offering dealers a better, faster and cheaper way to interact with their customers (resulting in better service at better prices for consumers), the start-up has already secured € 50-100 million in financial backing. Vendors use the app to automate their business, access customer data and gain business intelligence into consumers including their user choices. Drivers also use the app to help them deliver the product to homes. It brings transparency for the consumer, levels the playing field among vendors, causes a shake-out of overpriced players in the industry and removes unregulated vendors from the process. Within two years, Chama will reach 10 million customers. Chama was beta-launched for Android in November 2016 and has already exceeded expectations with an overwhelming number of app downloads. In the next stages, the focus will be on developing the Android and iOS consumer-apps, the mobile app for delivery drivers and dealers as well the web-portal for vendors into quality products of untouchable UX experience. With over € 10 million in seed investments secured, the co-founders have established the strategy, MVP and investment roadmap. The product development and investor relations teams are based in Amsterdam. Local teams are responsible for Dealer Acquisition, Marketing, Customer Care and Operations. Within two years, Chama will reach 10 million customers.

“Chama is Portuguese for ‘little flame’ as well as ‘call me.’ It’s the perfect name. Everyone in Brazil immediately gets the concept and no matter who we talk to, everyone is excited. It’s so simple to grasp and people are very enthusiastic and can’t wait to start using it.” Read the interview with Founders Marijn van de Ven & Bram Ellens

About the job: Head of Product

An adventurous and flexible personality is important and essential to thrive in an entrepreneurial start-up environment. A solid background in mobile app development is key for this role, as well as solid expertise managing products in a large-scale international environment with millions of users. The Head of Product will work closely with the local GMs and the Product Founder, who will remain actively involved in 2017. A high technical aptitude combined with an international mindset and the ability to grow are crucial. A day may begin in Amsterdam and end in Brazil, working closely with both developers and sales teams. International travel at least once every two months is expected, especially within the first year during the fast-paced growth stage. The current team of four developers is planned to grow quickly. By the next investment milestone, the team will consist of at least ten experts. It is crucial to recruit and inspire the core team to meet the next steps of the app’s development and market penetration with sales and marketing teams. A data scientist is in place who will also provide key business intelligence and analytics.

Type of work

From managing weekly sprints to preparing user stories, this role will develop the roadmap, continue user research, make KPIs for products and understand the needs of consumer users and vendors. Based in Amsterdam, the Head of Product must be an English speaker with an international mindset who will support the vision of GMs while meeting KPIs. The Head of Product must be able to bridge the gap between development and business and marketing and sales teams. And to relay plans and motivate teams to develop the best mobile app that will be the foundation for future developments. The Head of Product must balance solid business sense with technical expertise and the passion to make this disruptive app the market changer it is designed to be. As an internal and external evangelist, this role will work closely with business and development teams to get the app to market.

Personality

• High energy
• Flexible and able to travel often
• No 9-to-5 mentality
• Ambitious with International mindset

 Experience

• Mobile app experience
• International environment
• Senior product manager or product owner
• Fluent in English