Biography
Barnaby Dorfman is a CTO-in-Residence at Mainsail Partners, where he advises portfolio CTOs, CPOs, and CEOs on scaling product and engineering organizations, with a specialized focus on AI integration and execution strategy. He is a seasoned technology executive, AI strategist, and advisor with over 30 years of experience in software product development and executive leadership across high-growth, global technology companies.
As a multi-exit CTO, Barnaby has helped lead multiple successful outcomes, including the acquisition of PayScale, with an Enterprise Value of $325M, by Francisco Partners . At Amazon, he helped pioneer new revenue models and the original Marketplace—launching IMDbPro, introducing STARmeter and MOVIEmeter, and driving the creation of A9’s local search and patented image-based navigation. He also held early leadership roles at startups like Kyte.tv and Peerflix, and later joined Go1, a SoftBank and Salesforce-backed leader in employee learning, as Global CTO overseeing Product, Engineering, Design, Data Science, IT, and Security.
Barnaby also founded Foodista.com, secured funding from Amazon, and published the Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook with Andrews McMeel/Simon & Schuster.
Now based in the Greater Seattle Area, Barnaby also co-owns Don and Joe’s Meats, a historic butcher shop at Pike Place Market, bringing a community-focused entrepreneurial spirit to his multifaceted career.
Barnaby holds an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, a B.S. in International Business from San Francisco State (Magna Cum Laude), and has studied at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is multilingual (English, Spanish, limited Italian) and is listed as an inventor on several patents related to geolocation-based image systems and UI innovation.