Ryan Charles Bio
Ryan Charles is a mobile professional and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Consmr, a ratings app for grocery and drugstore products. Consmr has been called “Yelp for the grocery store” and has been featured in The Washington Post, TechCrunch, LifeHacker, PC Magazine, local newspapers and television. It has been downloaded over 100,000 times since May 2012.
As an innovator in the mobile space, he was the Head of Mobile for the Zagat restaurant guides and revitalized their mobile and social visibility. Ryan turned their traditional print guide into all-time top selling apps on the iPhone [#134 out of 204,000] and iPad [#33 out of 60,000], rated 4.5 out of 5 stars during his tenure. As well he has garnered multiple Webby nominations for his work with iPhone, Android, and augmented reality. To broaden social and mobile presences, he built first-of-its-kind brand partnerships with companies like Foursquare, Foodspotting and Flipboard. Ryan was at the forefront of major steps in mobile reviews including submission of reviews via mobile web and mobile apps, business ratings integrated into augmented reality, and cross-referencing Foursquare checkins to trigger review reminders.
Industry leaders including Apple, Google, and Microsoft have featured his products in various TV commercials, mass media campaigns, and promotions. His work has been cited in Gary Vaynerchuck’s “Thank You Economy” as creating a template for old brand success in the modern digital world.
Ryan has been interviewed by the The New York Times (2/10, 11/10) The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch (8/10, 7/11), Ad Age (2/10, 6/11), The Huffington Post, The New York Observer, The Next Web, renowned blogger Robert Scoble and various technology websites. He has spoken at conferences and panels including ones for Google, Ad Age, Harvard Business School, Wharton Business School, Social Media Week, Publisher’s Business Conference, NY Tech Meetup (2x), Internet Week, Big Money’s Untethered, among others. He most recently spoke at the 2012 CTIA Wireless Conference.
His previous roles include digital subscription marketing, interactive marketing and product development in the e-commerce field. He is an executive member of the IADAS, and a judge for the mobile category in the Webbys. Ryan earned his BA from Brown University.
Quotes about Ryan:
New York Times Best-Selling Author Gary Vaynerchuk
“He rocks!”
Former Microsoft CTO & Zagat investor Nathan Myhrvold
“The most important person at the company”
Forbes Magazine
“Zagat’s brand builder”
New York Observer
“The social media whiz kid”
TechCrunch
“(Ryan’s work) pretty much sets the pace for mobile social dining in the future.”
Presentations and Panels
- Google I/O: May ‘09
- NY Tech Meetup: May ‘09
- Ad Age - Apps For Brands: Sept ‘09
- Augmented Reality NY: Jan ‘10
- Publishing Business Conference (PBC): Mar ‘10
- Mobile Monday NY: April ‘10
- Tabula Rasa: April ‘10
- Columbia Business School: May ‘10
- The Big Money Untethered: June ‘10
- Ogilvy & Mather: June ‘10
- Location Based Apps Meetup: Aug ‘10
- Harvard Business School Cyberposium: Nov ‘10
- Wharton Business School BizTech: Dec ‘10
- MESA Presents Augmented Reality: Dec ‘10
- NY Tech Mixer: Jan ‘11
- NY Tech Meetup: Feb ‘11
- Social Media Week - Social Commerce: Feb ‘11
- SXSW 2011 - IdeaCOMM: Mar ‘11
- GeoWorld Summit: May ‘11
- Hoboken Tech Meetup: May ‘11
- Internet Week - Social Food Apps (Moderator): June ‘11
- Internet Week - Food 2.0: June ‘11 (Moderator): June ‘11
- Internet Week - We Are New York Tech: June ‘11
- Real Estate Connect - July ‘11
- Google Think Branding - Oct ‘11
- Pluggedin Ventures Social Media Summit - Oct ‘11
- Stamford Tech Meetup - Nov ‘11
- LaGuardia College - Nov ‘11
- SVB Seed - March ‘12
- CTIA Wireless - May ‘12
- NYC Mobile Forum - June ‘12
