Knox Dobbins
Knox Dobbins

Lead Product Manager

My name is Knox and I'm currently building software at MrBeast leading a team of 10+ engineers to build tools for MrBeast and other Creators around the world. I have 10+ years of experience designing, building and managing software across fintech, e-commerce, Creator economy, gaming, and social that have been used by over 4 million people and businesses.

Before joining MrBeast, I co-founded and led engineering at Emblem, a fintech startup that partnered with Visa and Mastercard to launch the first ever card-linked rewards programs for Creators and their fans.

Interesting Fact

At 19, while in college, I built and launched the first-ever social wagering app to be approved by Apple in the United States. I collaborated with Apple to clarify the state‑by‑state laws governing skill‑based wagering, ultimately securing the app's approval and release. I often look back on this experience whenever I feel the odds are stacked against me.

Latest Project

MrBeast Software

Tools we built for virality at MrBeast then rolled out to the public

Work Experience

Founding Product Manager

MrBeast

2023 -

New York City

Built software for virality at MrBeast and rolled out public Creator tools reaching over 2M users per month. Led the engineering and product buildout of the largest YouTube data analytics platform collecting and analyzing over 300B data points and over 700M videos. Since joining MrBeast, our subscribers have grown from 120M to 390M and our content is uniquely viewed by nearly 10% of planet Earth every month.

Experience

• Led a cross‑functional squad of 12+ engineers, designers, and data scientists; set product vision and quarterly roadmap

• Architected and scaled an end‑to‑end data‑ingestion pipeline capturing 350 M+ daily events

• Launched the Creator Insights dashboard to 2 M+ users

• Introduced an A/B‑testing framework that cut feature release cycles by 40 % and sharpened KPI alignment

• Established OKRs, sprint rituals, and mentorship programs that lifted team velocity by 35 % and grew junior talent

Product ManagementSoftware EngineeringAI/MLGenerative AIDesignDatabasesAnalyticsPythonJavaTypescriptNextJSReactSQLKubernetesGCPCI/CDGitAgileFigmaLinear

Co-Founder, Head of Engineering

Emblem

2021 - 2023

New York City

Card-linked rewards infrastructure for Creators and their fans in partnership with Visa and Mastercard allowing fans to become a rewards member with their favorite Creator to earn points and cash back when they shop.

Experience

• Sole‑engineered the entire Python/Flask backend, including database models and full REST API design

• Built and deployed AWS infrastructure (EC2, RDS – MySQL, and ELB load balancers) from scratch

• Designed the data architecture to support high‑volume, low‑latency transaction processing

• Created a rewards engine that ingests and scores live transaction streams

• Integrated and normalized data feeds from Mastercard, Visa, Plaid, Stripe, and other processors

• Maintained real‑time webhooks to capture and reconcile transactions as they occur

Product ManagementSoftware EngineeringPythonSwiftAWSPostgreSQLPaymentsCI/CDGitAgileFigmaLinear

ODX1 Startup Accelerator

On Deck (ODF)

2022 - 2022

San Francisco

Participated as a startup founder for my fintech company, Emblem, in the On Deck Global Venture Accelerator.

Experience

• Participated as a startup founder for my fintech company, Emblem, in the On Deck Global Venture Accelerator

• Received $100K in funding from the On Deck Venture Fund

Founder, CEO

Feature

2018 - 2020

New York City

Feature enabled Creators to broadcast, customize engagement, and build interactive experiences for their community to participate in live.

Experience

• Co‑founded the company and led engineering, owning architecture across mobile and cloud stacks

• Designed the end‑to‑end UI/UX for the iOS app, optimizing onboarding flow and feature discoverability

• Sole‑developed the iOS app in Swift and UIKit, achieving >99.9 % crash‑free sessions and App Store approval on first submission

• Implemented tiered subscription plans with StoreKit, boosting recurring revenue and enabling flexible upgrade paths

• Architected and coded the entire backend in Python (Flask), including RESTful API design and relational data models

• Provisioned and automated AWS infrastructure—EC2 auto‑scaling groups, RDS (MySQL), and ELB—supporting 10 k+ concurrent users

• Optimized database schema and query performance to deliver sub‑100 ms API responses under peak load

• Built real‑time monitoring and analytics dashboards, giving the team instant visibility into app health and user behavior

Software EngineeringPythonSwiftTypescriptReactAWSMySQL

Private Equity Analyst

ESO Fund

2017 - 2018

San Francisco

Worked alongside the Chief Financial Officer, conducted growth research and analysis on pre-IPO venture-backed companies, sourced and modeled financial projections of late stage US-based startups to scope potential investments

Experience

• Evaluated secondary‑equity opportunities in late‑stage, venture‑backed startups

• Conducted in‑depth growth and competitive analyses on pre‑IPO companies to identify high‑return investment prospects

• Built dynamic three‑statement and scenario‑based financial models projecting revenue, cash burn, and exit valuations

• Aggregated cap‑table and option‑pool data to size investments, structure terms, and estimate target IRRs

• Tracked key KPIs and fundraising milestones to support ongoing portfolio monitoring and risk management

Private EquityVenture CapitalFinancial ModelingRisk AnalysisStrategyExcel

Product Management Intern, AI/ML

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

2017 - 2017

Houston

Provided market insights and analysis on High-Performance Computing (HPC) trends such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine/Deep Learning (ML), and High-Performance Data Analytics (HPDA)

Experience

• Delivered comprehensive market research on HPC trends—AI/ML, deep learning, and high‑performance data analytics

• Authored the Market Requirements Document for HPE Performance Cluster Manager, translating customer pain points into prioritized feature sets

• Sized TAM/SAM for GPU‑accelerated clusters and projected revenue impact for new AI software capabilities

• Executed competitive teardown of Dell EMC, Intel, Lenovo, and other OEM HPC solutions, identifying key differentiation gaps

Market ResearchData AnalysisProduct ManagementHPCAI/MLML

Connect

Feel free to contact me at knox.dobbins@gmail.com