# Maximus Greenwald

> Maximus Greenwald is the co-founder and CEO of Warmly, an AI-powered revenue orchestration platform that helps B2B companies identify, prioritize, and engage high-intent buyers in real time. A Princeton CS & Public Policy grad and ex-Google PM (where he helped build the famous 'Where's Waldo' Google Maps Easter egg), Max survived seven major pivots over five years to turn Warmly into a signal-based selling category leader with $3M+ ARR and $21.5M in total funding. Known for his mantra 'slope over y-intercept' and his 'Purple Cow' series on remarkable entrepreneurs, he is one of the most candid voices on the realities of finding product-market fit.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at Warmly
- **Organizations:** Warmly, IgniteSTEM, Google, Federal Trade Commission
- **From:** Colorado, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. Computer Science & Public Policy, Princeton University, High School Diploma, Kent Denver School
- **Known for:** Co-created the 'Where's Waldo' Easter egg in Google Maps (April Fools' 2018), Founded IgniteSTEM, a nonprofit creating DIY hackathon kits for schools, Built Warmly from $0 to $3M+ ARR through 7 major pivots

## Career timeline

- **2014** — Founded IgniteSTEM, a nonprofit EdTech organization providing DIY hackathon toolkits to schools
- **2015-2017** — Interned at the Federal Trade Commission in the Cyber Security department
- **2017-2020** — Product Manager at Google, working on Photos, Maps, and Chrome; co-created the 'Where's Waldo' Google Maps April Fools' Day Easter egg
- **2020** — Co-founded Warmly with fellow ex-Google colleagues; participated in Techstars Boulder (Winter 2020) and Y Combinator (Summer 2020)
- **2020** — Raised $2.1M seed round led by NFX's James Currier
- **2021** — Raised additional $2.4M Series A funding from Maven Ventures, F-Prime Capital
- **2021-2023** — Navigated multiple pivots - from Zoom virtual backgrounds tool to digital business card platform to signal-based sales intelligence
- **2023** — Raised $11M Series A led by Felicis Ventures; TechCrunch covered Warmly's pivot to warm lead generation
- **2024** — Raised $6M Series A+ led by RTP Global; published detailed post-mortem on seven pivots with Hunter Walk
- **2025** — Reached $3M+ ARR with 300+ customers; set internal AI productivity mandate of 30% efficiency gains

## Achievements

- Co-created the 'Where's Waldo' Easter egg in Google Maps (April Fools' 2018)
- Founded IgniteSTEM, a nonprofit creating DIY hackathon kits for schools
- Built Warmly from $0 to $3M+ ARR through 7 major pivots
- Raised $21.5M total in venture funding from Felicis, NFX, Zoom Ventures, RTP Global, F-Prime
- Grew Warmly to 300+ B2B customers
- Organized HackPrinceton and TigerTrek at Princeton University
- Featured in TechCrunch, The Top 100 Innovators Magazine, and multiple major podcasts
- Built the 'Purple Cow' Twitter series documenting remarkable entrepreneurs

## Latest updates

- **2025-03** — Appeared on The Remarkable SaaS Podcast (Episode #355) discussing Warmly's pivot journey and signal-based selling
- **2025-02** — Warmly raised $6M Series A+ led by RTP Global to supercharge AI-powered sales growth
- **2025-02** — Issued internal mandate: all employees must demonstrate 30% productivity gains via AI or be considered underperforming
- **2024-03** — Published detailed seven-pivot retrospective with investor Hunter Walk, becoming a widely-cited startup candor piece
- **2023-10** — TechCrunch covered Warmly's pivot from Zoom tool to AI-powered warm lead platform
- **2023-10** — Closed $11M Series A led by Felicis Ventures with participation from NFX, Zoom Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Maven Ventures

## Links

- Website: https://maxgreenwald.io/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-greenwald
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/maxpgreenwald
- GitHub: https://github.com/MaxGreenwald

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/maximus-greenwald
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-12