Joseph Guy

Building Things That Last

I’ve always been obsessed with the "build"—the journey of taking a raw idea and turning it into a system that scales and an experience that lasts. Whether it’s crafting the perfect latte or architecting the digital infrastructure that powers a global real estate leader, my focus remains the same: removing human friction and building for impact.

The Entrepreneurial Foundation

My journey began in my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, at the University of Dayton, where I fell in love with the Flyers, great coffee, and the thrill of building companies. I started as a barista at Flyer Enterprises—one of the largest student-run companies in America—and by the time I graduated in 2011, I was serving as CEO. Leading a team of 200 student employees and driving a company that generated over $1.3 million annually taught me how to lead through growth before I had even finished my degree. I even managed to start two businesses of my own before graduation, an experience that taught me just how exhilarating it is to build from the ground up.

Product Management at Scale

After graduation, I moved to New York City to join BlackRock,in their Product Management group. I was selected for their prestigious Global Graduate Program, where I eventually ranked in the top 3% of my class. For nearly three years, I focused on building the digital software and experiences that powered our financial advisors and internal sales teams. This early exposure to building high-stakes products for a global audience solidified my analytical foundation, but the pull of the startup world eventually led me to Venture for America (VFA).

As one of the first 10 hires at VFA, I spent my early years building the growth team and aiding national expansion before returning to the Buckeye state in 2015. Based in Columbus, I developed the community-based partnership model that eventually became the standard for the organization nationwide. In 2016, I returned to NYC for a three-year tenure at Managed by Q (acquired by WeWork). While I initially wore hats in business operations and growth, my desire to be at the center of the "build" led me back into Product Management, where I launched and iterated on platforms that bridged digital services and physical office environments during a period of hyper-growth.

Architecting the Revenue Engine

In 2019, I joined Industrious as a founding member of the product organization. Over the last six-plus years, I have grown alongside the company from a Product Manager into a Director of Product, helping navigate the transition from a scaling startup to its landmark acquisition by CBRE in January 2025. Joining CBRE—the world’s largest commercial real estate firm with over $30B in annual revenue and a global workforce of 130,000+—allowed me to scale my impact to an enterprise level while maintaining the agility of a tech-first organization.

Today, I serve as the custodian of the "Revenue Engine" that powers our business, leading the teams responsible for our global transaction backbone and our Partner API channel. By consistently delivering innovative features and integrating AI-driven automation, we have turned our commercial tools into a high-velocity engine that now processes the vast majority of our global transactions.

We’ve managed to solve the "growth paradox": as our member base surged into the hundreds of thousands, we significantly reduced our support overhead and friction. By leveraging AI to streamline operations and cutting the time it takes for a member to join our community from over a week to just two days, we didn't just move the needle on revenue—we created a seamless, modern entry point for our members worldwide.

Why I Do It

I believe that product leadership is about more than just shipping code; it’s about creating value that people can feel in the real world. I’m most proud of the culture I’ve helped build—one where we solve complex commercial problems while mentoring the next generation of product talent. I’m always looking for the next challenge in building things that endure.

See something interesting? Let’s chat.