# Floyd Smith > AI content marketer, million-selling Dummies book author, speaker, Board member. Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/floyd Clarity. Even in this AI-powered era, the key to content marketing and product marketing is to be clear. Tell your future users what your product does, why it's better, and what it's like to use it. (As Kelsey Hightower puts it, the fundamentals.) If you add how you built it, and why, you'll build trust. Then use SEO, AI visibility, and social media to get the word out to those who need to know. I'm a stellar startup contributor, with meaningful experience in the Magnificent Seven and Fortune 500. My books, such as Quantum Computing For Dummies (2023), have sold more than a million copies. I can help you send a clear signal that cuts through the noise and reaches your natural audience where they live. ## Work Experience ### AI Content Marketing Contractor @ HAProxy Technologies Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Advising on AI strategy for content marketing, SEO and GEO/AIO, and the "content flywheel" - a human-driven, AI-assisted process to expand core assets across multiple outreach channels. Includes competitive analysis for the use of AI in go to market strategies, with recommendations to product management. ### Marketing Advisor, Board Member @ Applied Quantum Software Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Marketing advisor for Applied Quantum Software, following from the success of Quantum Computing For Dummies, for which I was lead author. AQS' goal is to make quantum computing accessible,, practical, and useful for the finance industry. The company offers algorithms, APIs, and data integration, in partnership with industry players including OneMarketData, Triaxiom Capital, and Quantum Rings. Participating in the 2025-2026 Creative Destruction Labs Quantum Stream. Advising on industry, product development, attracting investment, and go to market strategies. ### Director of Product Marketing @ Onehouse Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Sunnyvale, California, United States Established initial marketing strategy for Onehouse, co-led the company's first (and still most successful) webinar, and built up the blog, downloadable content, and social media presence. These efforts contributed to a successful $30M Series B round for this data lakehouse thought leader. ### Product Marketing Consultant @ Talend Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area Consulting roles in product marketing, adding sales enablement, positioning, and messaging to world-class content marketing skills. Companies include Tetrate (service mesh) and now Talend (data management). Also co-author, Quantum Computing For Dummies. ### Director, Product Marketing @ Unravel Data Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Palo Alto, California, United States Director of Product Marketing for this fast-growing startup. Unravel Data uses AI and machine learning to lead the way in DataOps for big data and streaming data. Unravel solves performance and cost problems, and opens up new opportunities on-premises, in the cloud, and cross-platform. We used product-led growth (PLG), jobs to be done (JTBD), and a brand-new industry event to fine-tune and accelerate our outreach, with great results. ### Director, Content Marketing @ SingleStore Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area First Director of Content Marketing at SingleStore (was MemSQL), a leading NewSQL database company. SingleStore is The No-Limits Database for the most challenging applications. I lead product launches, including first product-led growth (PLG) offering for SingleStore. ### Director, Content Marketing @ NGINX, Inc. Jan 2015 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area Responsible for strategy and execution for inbound marketing at NGINX, including the NGINX blog, ebooks, and webinars. Analysis and reporting for successful outreach across multiple channels. Managed documentation for future products. Contributor to marketing teams' goals and implementation, including demand generation, social media interaction, and SEO. Speechwriting for CEO and executives during a period of rapid growth for NGINX. ### Content Marketing Consultant @ Google Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | Mountain View Content marketing consultant with companies including Google and Recurly. At Google, worked with internal Finance group to create a new Google Help Center in crash three-week project, then extend it over several quarters as new features added. At online payments startup Recurly, worked with small marketing team as content creator, including blogging and creation of a white paper on PCI DSS. ### Sr. Technical Writer @ Visa Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | Foster City, CA • Researching new technology for use in company's payments, merchant, and cardholder networks • Team member on R&D project connected to Hadoop and big data technologies • Applied big data to pioneering global game development toolkit • Used DITA and XML authoring tools for large authoring project • Documented control system for thousands of multi-function peripherals worldwide ### Documentation Design Manager @ Marketo Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 | Foster City, CA • Founding technical writing manager for Silicon Valley Fastest-Growing Private Company • Developed new Tutorials format for documentation delivery with resulting increase in usage • Moved about 1000 Knowledge Base articles to easy-to-read, graphical model • Created in-depth PDFs for API and pre-sales documents • Worked in Salesforce Knowledge, MadCap Flare, SnagIt, Word, Excel, Google Docs, Trello • Active in Marketo Green Team and product donation program. ### Author of books on Facebook, Apple iPad, green computing; Consultant @ Independent Jan 2009 – Jan 2011 | Oakland, CA • Wrote book on leading social networking service for business use, first-to-market book • Created book/media package for iPad with searchable text, linked video and audio • Topics of other recent works include iPad, WordPress, Google Apps, creating Web pages • Consulted to software development companies on Web sites and marketing strategy. ### Senior Writer and Project Manager for Intranet Video @ HSBC Jan 2008 – Jan 2009 • Created and documented online IPTV video portal for HSBC’s 330,000 employees globally, reducing travel costs and emissions as part of HSBC’s “first carbon neutral bank” strategy • Assessed user needs for Cisco system through interviews with 40 senior stakeholders globally • Created in-context help; end user, publisher, manager, governance documents; reach study • Created, populated, and maintained SharePoint site for corporate knowledge base. ### Senior Consultant @ Hargreaves Risk & Strategy Jan 2007 – Jan 2008 • Managed Hargreaves Risk and Strategy Web site, company knowledge base, extranet • Wrote for and edited Risk Digest for housing association managers and regulators • Conducted risk management assessments for UK housing associations; documented results • Conducted assessment of networked and Web 2.0-based risk management solutions. ### Vice President, Marketing @ Humanware Jan 2006 – Jan 2007 • Delivered Web site upgrade focused on accessibility for the blind and visually impaired • Wrote and reviewed product documentation including large-font print and in-context help • Led product development effort for next-generation text to speech reader, myReader II • Researched, wrote, delivered report assessing strategic direction for company worldwide. ### Senior Product Manager @ Navman Jan 2004 – Jan 2006 • Created research reports describing product needs for next-generation GPS devices • Created and revised multi-lingual documentation and in-context help for global audiences • Wrote marketing communications deliverables for online, in-store and customer use • Managed user interface redesign deployed throughout Navman product line. ### Lead Writer and Account Manager @ Sequel Group (formerly item) Jan 2002 – Jan 2004 • Lead writer, managed teams of writers and designers for communications consultancy • Led improvements to print, online publications for BAE, Smith & Nephew, Coca-Cola • Writing and editing for UK government agencies, Amersham Biosciences, Vodafone. ### Web Site Content Manager @ Independent Consultant Jan 1997 – Jan 2002 | Silicon Valley, California • AOL – created, edited content for marketing channels with millions of dollars in revenue • AltaVista – Group Product Manager leading team of five, sites w/1 million daily pageviews • Microsoft – Defined site architecture, wrote documents, in-context help, revised online knowledge base; led re-launch of WebTV site and extranet. ### Senior Technical Writer; Competitive Analyst @ Apple Jan 1991 – Jan 1997 • Writer and manager for QuickTime VR, QuickTime Web interface, QTVR Web site • Technical documentation for Apple hardware, API documentation for Taligent object-oriented operating system, including in-context help, developer knowledge base • Worked in Apple competitive analysis team comparing Apple to Macintosh capabilities in multimedia • Led Apple "RoadMap" strategic plan presented to top executives, press and analysts. ## Education ### MSc in Information Systems The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) ### BA in Information Systems Management University of San Francisco ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/floydearlsmith --- Source: https://flows.cv/floyd JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/floyd/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05