John Faber

(415) 218-1351
john@jfaber.net
Lafayette, California
Summary

Technical sales strategist, digital platform architect, and internet pioneer with 25+ years of experience building, scaling, and selling transformative web solutions. From founding one of San Francisco's earliest ISPs to launching open-source frameworks like Next-Drupal, I've led companies, advised enterprise clients, and architected modern digital platforms across sectors including government, legal, education, and real estate. I bring a rare blend of technical fluency, sales acumen, and product strategy, guiding clients through complex decisions involving AI adoption, headless CMS ecosystems, and enterprise-scale architectures. Whether leading GTM, negotiating platform partnerships, or translating business needs into roadmap-ready solutions, I operate at the intersection of vision and execution.

Top Skills
Architecting modern web platforms (Headless CMS, API-first, decoupled systems)
Designing enterprise-scale solution architectures and system integrations
Leading pre-sales engineering and consultative sales cycles
Driving digital agency growth through sales strategy and execution
Negotiating enterprise client and vendor contracts
Advising on AI strategy, enterprise adoption, and implementation pathways
Educating teams on AI business models and platform capabilities
Defining product architecture and guiding platform design decisions
Building and managing partner/channel ecosystems for growth
Navigating complex, fast-changing sales and delivery environments
Certifications
Artificial Intelligence: Business Strategies and Applications UC Berkeley
API Security on Google Cloud's Apigee API Platform
API Development on Google Cloud's Apigee API Platform (with Honors)
Developing APIs with Google Cloud's Apigee API Platform Specialization
API Design and Fundamentals of Google Cloud's Apigee API Platform (with Honors)
Experience

Head of Technical Sales & Platform Strategy

May 2011–Present

Chapter Three — San Francisco, CA

  • • Tasked by owners to operate, scale, and position Chapter Three as a high-performing digital agency serving Enterprise, public sector and mission-driven clients.
  • • Revenue & Growth: Driving $30M+ in revenue across net-new project work, recurring support, and enterprise consulting. Led all technical sales, pricing strategy, and client acquisition efforts.
  • • Agency Operations: Managing the day-to-day functions of the agency—including HR, staffing, marketing, legal, vendor contracts, and financial oversight—ensuring organizational alignment and operational resilience.
  • • Market Differentiation: Spearheading the design and GTM strategy for Next-Drupal, a headless CMS framework leveraging Drupal and Vercel, and positioned the agency as a modern architecture leader in a legacy CMS market.
  • • Strategic Partnerships: Negotiating and closing Enterprise licensing agreements and integrating modern CI/CD pipelines into client delivery processes.
  • • Enterprise Projects: Acting as strategic lead and solutions architect on major digital transformation projects for organizations like the National Association of Realtors, Google Apigee, Apple, NVIDIA, UC Berkeley, Stanford University and many others.
  • • Compliance & Security: Leading agency responses to procurement, security, and accessibility audits.
  • • AI & Workflow Innovation: Driving internal innovation by introducing AI-assisted tooling, GitHub Actions automation, and component library standardization to accelerate delivery and improve performance.
  • • Brand & Community Presence: Managing outbound brand presence—through conference attendance, thought leadership, and speaking engagements. I strengthen Chapter Three’s visibility across the Drupal and open web ecosystems.

Vice President of Sales & Partnerships

April 2010-May 2011

Commerce Guys

  • • Agency Operations: Managed West Coast operations and sales for Commerce Guys, driving revenue growth.
  • • Partnerships: Deployed nationwide partnership and training programs to enhance e-commerce solutions using Drupal.
  • • Business Development: Analyzed customer data to uncover new sales opportunities and increase market presence.
  • • Partnerships Contract Negotiation: Negotiated contracts with customers to establish mutually beneficial agreements.

Founding U.S. Team / Technical Sales & Delivery

January 2008-April 2010

af83inc — San Francisco

  • • Opened and scaled the San Francisco office of a Paris-based digital agency, establishing U.S. market presence and leading all customer-facing technical engagements.
  • • Acted as pre-sales technical lead and trusted advisor for prospective clients, designing digital platform architectures, scoping engagements, and translating customer needs into actionable implementation plans.
  • • Built and led cross-functional teams in the delivery of Drupal-based digital platforms, custom integrations, and emerging front-end frameworks (early React-era work).

Founder / Technical Sales & Delivery Lead

January 2004-January 2010

Ridgeworks, Inc.

  • • Founded a Drupal consulting firm focused on the legal services industry; served as lead technical advisor and solution architect for all client engagements.
  • • Led end-to-end sales engineering process—from demos, proposals, and scoping through implementation and long-term support.
  • • Developed and deployed secure, compliance-aware content management platforms tailored to document-heavy workflows, case management, and role-based access.

Founder / Director of Technical Solutions & Client

January 1992-February 2000

ISP Networks Inc

  • • Founded one of San Francisco's first business-focused Internet service providers (ISPs), delivering T1, Frame Relay, DSL, ISDN, colocation, and web services to enterprise clients during the formative years of the commercial Internet.
  • • Acted as chief solution architect and technical sales lead, designing infrastructure solutions tailored to client scale, uptime, and security needs.
  • • Scaled the business to acquisition, negotiating the sale in 2000 and completing a successful exit.
Education

BA Sociology

Clark University, Worcester, MA

AI Business Strategies

UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA