Builder & Operator

Stanford GSB MBA '27 · ex-DoorDash AI · Urban Mobility · Sustainability Open to full-time roles → Get in touch

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About

I take ideas from prototype to business impact. Fluently, and fast.

I'm a generalist by design. I've scaled a $30M/yr CPG partner portfolio at DoorDash, negotiated a global procurement deal with Nissan, shaped product strategy for Zipline's autonomous delivery marketplace, and co-founded an olive oil company in Napa at age 19. Now I'm at Stanford GSB, exploring new applications of AI.

The thread through all of it: I run toward ambiguity, learn the domain fast, and ship.

Payton Rockwood headshot
$30M/yrCPG partner portfolio scaled at DoorDash
439%YoY growth driven for 25 strategic partners
$5.3MTCO savings unlocked for Dashers via Nissan deal
35+Primary interviews mapping the AV value chain
8Olive harvests as Tandem co-founder
2Hackathon podiums, incl. one grand prize

Experience

Stanford GSBMBA Candidate, 2025-2027
Future of Mobility Club Co-President · GSB Impact Fund · AI Club · Wine Circle VP
UCLABA Business Economics, 2020
Major GPA 3.8 (Top 10%) · Madrid EAP

Highlights

Off the clock

Officiating my brother's wedding
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Officiated my brother's wedding, 2024

Snowboarding jump
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Chasing powder

Polar plunge into an alpine lake
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Polar plunge, alpine edition

With my parents in Vietnam
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Vietnam with the parents, Dec 2025

Hiking Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala
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Hiking Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala

Arqlite recycling facility
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Arqlite days: "non-recyclable" plastic, by the ton

Solo traveling through China
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Solo traveled China to accomplish a lifelong dream

Wearing a PVISOR visor at the beach
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Launched PVISOR merch business during Covid

Spotlight

Tandem
Olive Oil

The olive trees around Napa Valley's vineyards are mostly decorative. Every fall the fruit ripens, drops, and rots. In 2017, a lifelong friend and I saw free fruit hanging over some of the most expensive agricultural land in America and started harvesting it.

Tandem ran for eight seasons: olives picked by hand, pressed into premium extra virgin oil, and sold back through the very wineries whose trees we picked. It taught me to sell before you build, and that margins are made in operations. I wound it down in 2025 to go all-in on Stanford.

$170K+Revenue, bootstrapped
8Harvest seasons
19Age at founding
Payton with bins of freshly harvested olives in a Napa vineyard
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Harvest day, Napa Valley
Tandem extra virgin olive oil bottles overlooking a vineyard
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The finished product, est. 2017

Say hi

Open to full-time roles in AI, urban mobility, and sustainability: early-stage operator, chief of staff, strategy, product. If you're building something that makes cities work better, I want to hear about it.

Let's
Talk