Neal Polachek

Neal Polachek is and industry analyst, informed observer and management advisor to companies operating at the intersection of local, small and medium sized businesses and SaaS technology. Early in his career, Neal worked for a decade at Pacific Telesis Group in a wide variety of leadership positions. He spent nearly a year selling Yellow Pages advertising to business owners throughout the Bay Area - a position which he’ll always regard as among the most career defining job he’s ever held.

Before Neal chose to be a small business operator himself, he was was Director of Research and Consulting, VP of Advisory Services, CEO of The Kelsey Group and President of BIA/Kelsey. During Neal’s tenure at Kelsey - at the time the leading advisory services firm to the local search industry - he directed the company’s team of industry analysts. The analyst teaw, under Neal’s direction covered the ever changing and highly dynamic global local media industry. Neal was responsible for identifying new opportunities for expanding Kelsey’s local media coverage. Under his leadership Kelsey launched advisory services focused on local search, verticals, mobile and social media. He managed Kelsey’s client consulting assignments and was project leader on many local search, directory and emerging business projects, conducting market assessment studies and financial forecasts and building business models. In addition, Neal has conducted numerous due diligence projects on behalf of investors, private equity and strategic buyers and has served as an independent expert witness in anti-trust proceedings.

Since departing Kelsey in 2011, Neal has accumulated considerable expertise across two important new business dimensions - how the world of SaaS and the use of apps are affecting the way the Modern Consumer engages with businesses and organizations. Today, Neal is urging companies of all shapes and sizes, local governments and other organizations to ThinkLikeAnApp℠ as a guiding principle to succeeding in today’s era of modern commerce.

Neal is a board member at Soleo Communications and RenderAI and is a advisor to the teams at LocaliQ, Broadly, Agentz.ai and the Local Search Assocation.

Neal is regularly asked to speak at industry events in the United States and around the world. He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California.

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