Vince Thompson

CEO

at Middleshift Inc

Through his consultancy, Middleshift, Vince helps entrepreneurs build and scale their sales efforts. He has served as an interim CEO, a public company board member, and a consultant to over thirty clients including major internet companies, TV Networks, and Studios. Currently Vince serves on the board of Steezy, the world’s leading platform for online dance education and First Star, a global non-profit that helps foster kids get into college. He is also an advisor to Outer, and USC Annenberg’s Center for ThirdSpace Thinking.

California

DTC (Direct-to-Consumer), Media & Entertainment, SaaS & B2B Marketplace, Social Media & Community Platforms

advertising salessales managementsales strategy

Articles by Vince Thompson

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...

2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions

Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...

How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov

Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...