Forrest Singletary is a hardware sales professional based in San Francisco.
His career has focused on business development for hardware and technology companies.
Early life and education
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Singletary was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1997. He moved at age three to Wilmington, North Carolina, a coastal city near the Atlantic Ocean, where he grew up. He attended Cape Fear Academy.
Education
Singletary attended North Carolina State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in environmental technology and management in 2020. In 2020, he also studied transitions to renewable energy at Fukushima University in Japan.
Career
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Singletary has held sales and business development positions in publishing, consumer electronics, residential solar energy, optical components, housing, and commercial coffee technology.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
From May 2017 to August 2019, Singletary worked as a business development liaison at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a newspaper based in Brooklyn, New York. He worked on the publication's website redesign, branding, advertising and automated digital operations. His résumé reports a 27% increase in web traffic following the redesign, a 15% increase in advertising revenue associated with marketing initiatives, and a 4% reduction in operating costs attributed to automation.
Boosted
From July 2018 to March 2020, Singletary was head of sales for North Carolina at Boosted, a company known for electric skateboards and scooters. He conducted more than 50 product demonstrations and gathered customer feedback for the engineering team, including observations about product reliability. Sales of Boosted products increased 79% in North Carolina, attributable to Singletary’s demos and events.
Sunrun
From July 2020 to September 2021, Singletary worked as a sales manager at Sunrun, a company specializing in residential solar energy. Based in the San Jose region, his duties included lead generation, customer appointments and regional pipeline management. According to his résumé, he developed residential solar leads representing more than $200,000 in sales over a period of less than two months.
GEM Optics
From August 2020 to September 2021, Singletary served as regional sales marketing manager at GEM Optics in San Jose. He worked with manufacturers in China to develop custom optical components amid supply-chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. His responsibilities included technical customer requirements, quotations, lead times and commercial planning. His résumé describes relationships with more than 50 enterprise clients and repeat orders exceeding $2 million annually.
Rent the Backyard
From September 2021 to July 2022, Singletary was regional sales manager at Rent the Backyard, an Oakland-based business developing backyard accessory dwelling units (ADUs). He developed the company's homeowner sales process, visited sites to assess construction feasibility and worked with engineering and factory personnel on installation procedures. His résumé reports more than $10 million in sales associated with the role.
BrewBird
Singletary joined BrewBird as an account executive in August 2022. The San Carlos-based company develops whole-bean coffee brewing systems for workplaces. He has worked on inbound and outbound customer development, creating the company's sales processes, coordinating promotional events and collaborating with engineering on product development. Investors in BrewBird have included Sequoia Capital and Maveron.
Other interests and positions
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Singletary is a member of SF YIMBY, a San Francisco housing advocacy organization. He also volunteers with Creative Growth, an Oakland nonprofit arts organization supporting artists with developmental disabilities.
Personal life
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Singletary lives in the Alamo Square neighborhood of San Francisco. He has a pet gargoyle gecko named Tortilla.