About Phil Getzen

Product leader turned strategic advisor, helping organizations make better AI decisions.

Background

Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution (2019-2025)

6 years as Director, Senior Manager, and Senior Product Manager, primarily leading Video Experiences for ESPN while collaborating with direct-to-consumer teams at Disney+ and Hulu. Led a team of 5 Product Managers across mobile, web, and living room platforms.

Key accomplishments:

  • Drove 75% increase in MAUs, 92% increase in video minutes, and 1,180% increase in ESPN+ subscribers from 2019-2025
  • Spearheaded launch of ESPN's next-generation direct-to-consumer platform, including video player technology migration
  • Led platform expansion to Comcast X1, Cox, and Facebook Portal (the latter driving a $95M ad spend deal)
  • Managed complete UX redesign across all video properties, contributing to 505% ESPN+ subscriber growth in first 2 years
  • Developed and executed 5-year strategic roadmap for ESPN video products

Twitter (2016-2019)

3 years as Product Manager II working on video infrastructure and performance optimization. Delivered consumer and infrastructure initiatives that drove 5X growth in video viewership.

Key accomplishments:

  • Launched unified video player framework across iOS, Android, and web impacting 100M+ daily active users
  • Shipped live video support and performance optimizations enabling streaming of Thursday Night Football
  • Led data analysis and experimentation initiatives to inform product decisions
  • Worked with cross-functional teams to prioritize high-value video products aligned with company goals

Microsoft (2014-2016)

2 years as Program Manager building enterprise cloud solutions using Microsoft Intune for Fortune 500 clients. Designed and shipped solutions for app and device management at scale.

Key accomplishments:

  • Designed and shipped enterprise cloud solutions for Fortune 500 clients
  • Conducted data-driven workshops analyzing client needs and tailoring solutions
  • Learned enterprise software rhythms—longer sales cycles, complex stakeholder needs, rigorous security requirements

Entrepreneurial Experience

Gique (Co-Founder & Vice President, 2013-2019): MIT-founded educational non-profit delivering STEAM education programs in greater Boston area. Developed and taught yearlong curriculum implemented at Boys & Girls Clubs of Dorchester. Published peer-reviewed research on measurable impact of educational interventions.

TempoRun LLC (Co-Founder & Mobile App Engineer): Consumer mobile app that auto-categorized music for running based on tempo and user preferences.

What This Means for Clients

I've Lived Your Problems

Build vs. buy vs. partner? At Disney, I negotiated platform deals with Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV. I've evaluated RFPs for major features and worked with leadership to recommend buy vs. partner approaches when 8-figure decisions were on the line.

Unit economics? At ESPN, we worked through complex tradeoffs between maintaining and growing our TV Everywhere business while expanding DTC offerings with ESPN+ and ESPN Direct. I understand the tension between customer value and margin pressure.

Feature bloat? At Twitter, I worked with partner teams to effectively prioritize the highest-value video products that aligned with overall company goals—saying no to features that didn't move the needle despite internal pressure.

I Know What Works at Scale

There's a difference between a feature that works for 1,000 users and one that works for 100 million users. I've shipped both. At Twitter, I launched a unified video player framework impacting 100M+ daily active users. At ESPN, I led products that scaled to millions of concurrent viewers during major live events. I know which architectural decisions matter at which stage, when to take on technical debt vs. when to pay it down.

I Understand Your Constraints

Mid-market organizations don't have Disney's resources or Twitter's extensive engineering teams. You can't afford to build everything in-house, but you also can't afford to bet wrong on platform partners. I help you make strategic choices that fit your actual constraints—not idealized versions of what you wish you had.

I've Worked Across Verticals

Enterprise B2B (Microsoft), consumer social (Twitter), streaming media (Disney/ESPN), consumer mobile apps (TempoRun), and education non-profits (Gique). This breadth means I can translate lessons from one domain to another—and I know when advice from one vertical doesn't apply to yours.

Why I Started Soulful AI

After 11 years building products at Disney, Twitter, and Microsoft—plus founding two companies—I saw a gap in the market. Mid-market organizations desperately need strategic AI guidance, but most consultants either come from pure tech backgrounds (great at algorithms, weak on product strategy) or pure business backgrounds (great at frameworks, weak on technical reality).

Having lived in both worlds, I can talk to your engineering team about platform integration strategies and your executive team about competitive positioning. I know which AI features create moats vs. which ones are table stakes because I've built video experiences and infrastructure at massive scale.

Most importantly: I've seen what happens when companies rush to adopt AI because competitors are, without thinking through unit economics, technical debt, or whether AI actually solves the user problem. I started Soulful AI to help organizations avoid those mistakes—and to bring the same strategic rigor to AI decisions that we brought to product development at Disney, Twitter, and Microsoft.

My competitive advantage isn't that I know more about AI than anyone else. It's that I've shipped products to hundreds of millions of users, made build-vs-buy decisions with 8- and 9-figure consequences, and learned when to say "no" to technology for its own sake. That's what I bring to client organizations.