General Manager, Film Freeway

About FilmFreeway

FilmFreeway is the home of the Film Industrys top festivals and filmmakers. Trusted by brands including HBO, The Oscars®, ESPN, NBC-Universal, Lionsgate, PBS, NPR and more, FilmFreeway is the world’s leading film festival marketplace. Every day, thousands of filmmakers, writers and artists use FilmFreeway to submit to over 12,000 of the world’s best film festivals and contests (including 150+ Oscar and BAFTA qualifying festivals). FilmFreeway is setting the industry standard for how filmmakers and fans discover, submit, and get tickets to thousands of film festivals and creative contests worldwide.

Backstage Holdings is part of Cast & Crew, a family of individually innovative companies modernizing the ways in which content is created.

The Role:

FilmFreeway is seeking a General Manager to devise our product strategy, own the roadmap for all our product offerings, set our future product vision, and oversee our general operations. This is a great opportunity for someone to run a fast growing and exciting business. We are a scrappy team of six, and together we’ve built a revolutionary product and platform that has accounted for over $10M in annual revenue and significant year-over-year growth over the last five years. Our platform has transformed the film industry by providing a digital solution to the expensive and laborious process of traditional mail-in film festival submissions. We are a stable, high-margin business looking for a leader to help us scale while providing the framework and structure to do so effectively and efficiently.

You will be charged with both strategy and execution of product initiatives, including ideating opportunities for expansion, new feature development, and improvements to our existing products. You will be managing a team of engineers, customer success, and marketing professionals. We value independence and autonomy, and trust our team to execute their tasks while working collaboratively towards mutual goals. As we are a lean team in a scaling organization, you must covet the opportunity to be a hands’ on contributor in a senior leadership role.

The General Manager will report to the President of TCS, the creative services division of Cast & Crew.

What You’ll Do:

• Set the strategic product vision for FilmFreeway and our products; envision the future landscape of the film industry, and how we may provide solutions that solve the pain points of our customers
• Lead extension of FilmFreeway brand into new verticals and partnerships; work closely with Growth team to increase awareness of evolving brand and product offerings
• Manage a fully distributed high performance team across multiple disciplines; foster a positive environment that encourages collaboration, upholds commitment to process, and provides professional development and mentorship
• Own P&L and set metrics to measure success of product and team against business and growth objectives
• Drive penetration of product in new global markets, leveraging deep primary and secondary research accessed through surveys, competitive landscaping and other methodology to understand and meet specific localization challenges
• Work closely with executive stakeholders to strategize and plan the roadmap, including resource allocation, budget, and timeline
• Leverage analytics tools to measure and report product and project success, and guide pivots and iterations as necessary
• Serve as subject matter expert for product needs; implement new processes, technology, and tools to improve efficiency and effectiveness
• Work closely with other TCS teams to strategize mutually beneficial partnerships; research, ideate, and prioritize new opportunities

What we’re looking for from you:

• Proven experience launching a new consumer-facing brand or moving a successful product into a new category or region; marketplace experience a plus
• Film industry experience, interest, or knowledge strongly preferred
• Executive presence; you possess gravitas and authority, and you’re a leader that your team and organization trust implicitly to make appropriate and data-driven decisions
• Experience hiring, managing, mentoring, and leveling up a remote team
• Exceptionally strong process that you can articulate clearly, thoroughly, and concisely to technical and non-technical audiences
• Adept at using qualitative and quantitative research methods and methodologies, including market landscaping and competitor analysis, to support product decisions
• A deep understanding of trends, technologies, and best practice, you possess the adequate knowledge and flexibility to determine the appropriate software development methodology (Scrum, Kanban, etc) for each unique situation
• Technical acumen; you may not be a developer, but you are able to understand and confidently communicate with engineers, analysts, designers, and other resources
• Advanced written and verbal communication skills that can be tailored to suit a variety of individual personalities and levels of seniority
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, including driving consensus and alignment
• Experience with web products and web technologies; SAAS experience a bonus