Hi there! I’m a product leader who loves leading teams to build AI products with real impact.

Jeff Okita

I’ve spent 15+ years in early/growth stage start-ups.

Before product, I led sales, client success, and marketing teams. Those roles helped me to understand that product success and company growth comes from tight cross-functional partnerships.

I’m a student of leadership and team building. Some of the most fulfilling aspects of my career have been setting ambitious goals and executing extremely well with a high functioning team.

I've worked my entire career in early stage organizations building foundations and levers for scale. I thrive in both the early and growth stages of companies. I like to balance rolling up my sleeves while empowering my team to do their best work.

Happy to chat and be as helpful as possible.

Work Experience

Ontra

Ontra builds software for private markets. Its flagship product line, Contract Automation, is the pillar I lead.

VP of Product/Group GM

Feb 2026 - Today

I lead Ontra's Contract Automation pillar. My scope spans product strategy, AI-first product development, marketplace dynamics, and operational efficiency.

  • Rebuild a proven, high-trust product category with an AI-native architecture, without losing what made it work in the first place
  • Balance near-term execution with longer-term bets on agentic workflows, new deployment models, and where automation can genuinely replace manual work
  • Manage a cross-functional team across product, engineering, and design
  • Partner with go-to-market and operations to connect product decisions to business outcomes
Tilt

Tilt is an early stage leave management platform that helps HR professionals save time, stay compliant, streamline pay, and offer an excellent leave of absence experience for employees.

VP of Product

March 2023 - Jan 2026

I joined Tilt to lead their product and design organization. As part of the leadership team, I was directly responsible for setting the product vision and strategy, and executing with a team of PMs and Product Designers.

  • Used product innovation to significantly move key business metrics: gross revenue, net revenue retention, gross margin
  • Managed and coached product managers and product designers
  • Revamped the product development lifecycle to focus on impact and speed
  • Partnered with the CEO, Board, and the rest of the leadership team on company vision, strategy, operations, and tactics
Degreed

Degreed created the Learning Experience Platform category, redefining what L&D looks like at larger enterprises. We helped companies see skills and skill development as central to their learning strategy.

Director of Product Management

March 2021 - Mar 2023

Product Manager

March 2019 - Mar 2021

Manager, Client Success

March 2018 - Mar 2019

Client Success Manager

Feb 2017 - Mar 2018

Growth Marketing

March 2016 - Feb 2017

I joined Degreed sub-100 employees and was a key player in the company’s growth to +$1 billion valuation. Across Product, Client Success, and Marketing, I was placed on high stakes projects and exceeded all expectations. I was recruited into product by our CPO because of my product sense, problem-solving, and customer orientation.

  • As Dir. of Product, I developed and drove the end-to-end product strategy and vision for the admin experience, including new product launches. I coached a team of PMs to execute on a complex, multi-product roadmap responsible for driving tens of millions in annual revenue.
  • As Product Manager/Owner of all admin related features and internal tools, key improvements I made led to a dramatic reduction of product-related risk on renewals.
  • As Client Success/Growth Marketing Lead, I built a scalable model to serve our customers and drive net revenue retention. Internal Tooling improvements led to an increase of gross margins by 4 percentage points
HotelTonight

HotelTonight was a Marketplace for last minute hotel bookings. Sold to Airbnb in 2019.

General Manager - US Southeast

Nov 2014 - Nov 2015

I was hired as the GM of the lowest performing region. HotelTonight wanted to hire the first GM from outside the company - someone who was a self starter and entrepreneurial. During my short time, I completely turned around the region to the fastest growing region in the company. I was impacted by a 25% RIF on my 1 year anniversary.

  • Grew region from 13% YoY growth to 90% YoY growth in 10 months
  • Exceeded or met forecast every month, +6% in Aug, +19% in Sep, +30% in Oct
  • Responsible for the P&L of 9 states, and over 1000 accounts
Chewse

Chewse was a marketplace for Office Catering. Chewse was a 500 Startups graduate (Batch 5).

Head of Customer Acquisition

Oct 2012 - Nov 2014

I joined Chewse as their first employee and went through 500 Startups Accelerator program with the founders. I played a number of roles and helped them gain enough traction to raise a Seed and Series A.

  • Identified key acquisition channel, resulting in 20x growth over 9 months through multi-channel acquisition experimentation
  • Created a hiring/onboarding/training/management program for 40% of company
  • Designed a KPI and analytics system to measure success, including cohort analyses and other custom reporting
Six Taste

I founded Six Taste, LA’s #1 rated Food Tour Company. These food tours took customers to different LA neighborhoods on a 3-4 hour walking tour where they sampled dishes at up to 8 different restaurants. Restaurants got customers in their door, and customers got to explore new neighborhoods. I sold the company in early 2013.

Founder & CEO

Aug 2009 - Jan 2013

I started this company in my early 20’s out of a passion for food exploration and building great experiences. I learned a ton about scrappiness, all aspects of businesses, and managing a team, very early on in my career as a result of this experience.

  • Bootstrapped business to $400,000 in annual revenues within first year of business
  • Negotiated and established working relationships with over 100 Los Angeles restaurants
  • Hired and managed 5 FT workers, and 20 PT workers

Outside of Work

Jeff at a USC alumni event

USC Alumni Leader

I’ve volunteered for 15+ years for the USC Alumni Association. I’ve chaired numerous boards, most recently the USC Alumni Entrepreneurship Network. I’ve been awarded the Widney Alumni House Award for outstanding service, and was most recently appointed to the 2024 USC Alumni Association Task Force, an advisory council to help select the new leader of the USC Alumni Association.

Foraging on the coast

Food Explorer

I used to be a picky eater - my mother used to make fun of me because I only ate chicken. Any other meat involved too much chewing. Now, I love to try new things. Inevitably when you love food, you learn to love cooking, and appreciating where your food comes from. Aside from trying new food, I like to cook at home, and enjoy foraging on the coast; abalone (back in the day), and now clams and oysters.

Traveling

Traveler

I’ve developed a passion for traveling. My partner and I love to travel to new cities and countries, learn about its history and what daily life looks like. With remote work, we’ve been able to work all across the globe.

At an obstacle course race

OCR/Hybrid Athlete/Racer

I sign up for several challenging races per year. I’ve done 20+ Spartan Races, a half ironman, several shorter races, and most recently I’ve been into HYROX races. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t exactly enjoy these races, but it’s a really good mental challenge, something for me to bond with my partner, and a forcing balance to all the food and travel I really love to do.

Contact

Name

Or email me directly at jeffokita@gmail.com.