Press Kit · Last updated May 2026
Press kit
Everything a journalist needs to write about Falk Gottlob and Falkster.AI, ready to copy and paste.
For media inquiries: falk@falkster.com
Bios
One-line bio
Twitter, bylineFalk Gottlob is a product executive with three decades at Microsoft, Salesforce, and Adobe, and founder of Falkster.AI.
Short bio
50 wordsFalk Gottlob is founder of Falkster.AI, an agentic healthcare startup, and author of The PM Standard. He has been Chief Product Officer at Commure, Crisis Text Line, SOCi, and Smartcat, with prior product and engineering leadership at Microsoft, Salesforce, and Adobe. Three company exits, including the $6B Commure-Athelas merger and the Microsoft acquisition of MVC.
Medium bio
100 wordsFalk Gottlob is a European-born American product executive and founder of Falkster.AI, an agentic healthcare startup. He has served as Chief Product Officer at four enterprise software companies, including Commure, which merged with Athelas in 2023 at a $6B valuation. Earlier in his career, he was co-founder and CEO of MVC, acquired by Microsoft in 2006, and a co-founder of Nutricraze.com, acquired by bodybuilding.com in 2008. He held senior product roles at Salesforce, Adobe, and Microsoft Research. He writes Falkster.com, a working notebook on AI-era product management read by tens of thousands of product builders.
Full bio
350 wordsFalk Gottlob is a European-born American product executive, founder, and writer. He is the founder of Falkster.AI, an agentic healthcare startup launched in April 2026, and the author of The PM Standard, a six-skill framework that recasts traditional product management as a Product Builder role centered on AI-native workflows, prototype-first development, and end-to-end ownership.
Gottlob began his career as a software engineer at Microsoft in 1989, advancing to Chief Software Architect at Microsoft Research. He co-founded and led MVC, a software company based in Beijing, China, from 2003 until its acquisition by Microsoft in 2006. He subsequently co-founded Nutricraze.com, acquired by bodybuilding.com in 2008. From 2006 to 2010 he was Chief Technology Officer at Sitebrand, a Canadian online marketing company that listed publicly on the TSX Venture Exchange during his tenure.
From 2010 to 2018, Gottlob held senior product and engineering roles at Responsys (acquired by Oracle), Salesforce (where he scaled the Marketing Cloud platform and grew Quip from acquisition into what became Slack Canvas), and Adobe (Head of Solution Consulting).
Between 2019 and 2026, Gottlob served as Chief Product Officer at four companies. At Commure he helped build a full-stack AI healthcare platform that raised $500 million and merged with Athelas in 2023 at a $6 billion valuation. At Crisis Text Line he led product and technology for one of the world's largest mental health crisis platforms. At SOCi he launched the Genius AI product line following the company's $120 million funding round. At Smartcat he led the company's transformation into an AI-native, multi-agent platform.
In April 2026, Gottlob founded Falkster.AI. He concurrently publishes Falkster.com, hosting a 28-chapter handbook, 39 AI agent blueprints, and writing on prototype-first product development. Through Impact.pm, his education platform, he has trained more than 3,200 product managers. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from New York University.
Key facts at a glance
- 30+ years
- shipping product
- 3 company exits
- MVC (Microsoft, 2006), Nutricraze.com (bodybuilding.com, 2008), Commure (Athelas merger, 2023, $6B)
- 4 CPO roles
- Commure, Crisis Text Line, SOCi, Smartcat
- Microsoft Research alum
- Chief Software Architect, 1989 to 1998
- Education
- M.S. Computer Science, New York University
- Current
- Founder, Falkster.AI (agentic healthcare, stealth)
- The PM Standard
- 28-chapter handbook, 39 AI agent blueprints, free
- Impact.pm
- 3,200+ product managers trained
- Lives
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Personal
- Ironman triathlon finisher, endurance athlete
Talking points and themes
For journalists writing about AI-era product management, the future of work, or healthcare AI, Gottlob speaks to:
“Specs are dead. Prototypes ship.” Why traditional PRDs have collapsed as a planning artifact in AI-native teams.
The Product Builder role. Why the Product Manager job description, write specs, run rituals, push handoffs, has been replaced by a hands-on builder who ships working prototypes and writes evaluations before code.
Roadmaps as the most expensive lie in product. Why outcome-driven planning replaces feature-driven roadmapping.
AI agents as teammates. What changes when an organization treats agents not as features but as members of the team.
Workflow thinking over feature thinking. The shift from building tools to embedding intelligence inside the way work actually happens.
The agent or non-agent bet. What boards need to ask their CPOs in 2026.
Healthcare AI. Lessons from scaling Commure to $6B and the next wave of agentic clinical software.
Selected coverage
- Santora, Mike. “Mind over Machine: Beyond the buzzword. Falk Gottlob on embedding AI into real human workflows.” Design World, March 2026.
- Gottlob, Falk; Thomas, Ron; Richey, Stacey. “Speed, Governance and People Readiness.” 360 Magazine, January 2026.
- “SOCi Welcomes Falk Gottlob as New Chief Product Officer.” PR Newswire, July 2023.
- “Health tech companies Commure, Athelas unveil merger plans to drive automation, LLM tech into health systems.” Fierce Healthcare, October 2023.
Assets and links
High-resolution headshot available on request. Email falk@falkster.com.
For interviews and speaking
Gottlob is available for podcasts, keynote presentations, and written interviews on AI-era product management, founder operating systems, and healthcare AI. Quarterly board reviews of AI-product roadmaps are offered through Falkster.com.
Contact for press