Cleveland, Ohio, United States
As the Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at Upright (formerly Fund That Flip), a leading fintech platform for real estate investors, I was responsible for translating the company's vision into action, both internally and externally. I helped drive the development of the why, what, and when of the overall company's strategic planning. I have over 12 years of marketing, operations, and strategy experience, focusing on fintech, investment management software, and marketing analytics. I've helped lead the company in growing from seed investment to Series B and landing on the Inc. 5000 5x in a row. My core competencies include developing and executing strategic marketing plans, leading cross-functional teams, creating and launching new products, and building strategic partnerships. I am also a multilingual professional with a background in Slavic studies, a former Fulbright scholar in Russia, and a published translator. Experience Leading: Strategic Initiatives, Strategic Communications, Enterprise Marketing, Product Marketing, Brand Marketing, Demand Generation, Project Management Office (PMO), Business Operations, Business Intelligence, Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, Compliance Specialties: Organizational Vision and Strategy, Strategic Initiative Prioritization, Marketing Service-Led and SaaS Products (B2B and B2C), Marketing Opportunities and Establishing Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategies, Scaling Organizations, Setting Organizational and Individual Objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Own Groundfloor Lending business unit’s revenue growth strategy and execution, aligning sales, marketing, customer experience, and product go-to-market functions. - Develop and drive a scalable revenue model across borrower originations and recurring platform engagement. - Partner with the corporate leadership team to set aggressive growth targets. - Lead and scale the borrower acquisition strategy, including direct sales, partnerships, and channel development, increasing top-of-funnel by 500% in 10 months. - Implement a disciplined sales process, metrics-driven forecasting, and pipeline management. - Build and coach a high-performing sales organization with accountability for growth and retention. - Oversee demand generation, brand, product marketing, and growth marketing functions. - Develop integrated marketing strategies to drive investor growth and borrower demand. - Optimize marketing funnel performance with a focus on CAC, LTV, and conversion efficiency. - Ensure brand consistency across all channels, building Groundfloor’s position as the leading platform in real estate investing. - Partner with Product and Technology teams to align GTM strategy with product roadmap. - Collaborate with Operations to ensure borrower experience drives retention and advocacy. - Leverage data and analytics to inform revenue strategy and continuously improve performance.
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Led borrower experience, product marketing, and GTM strategy during a high-growth phase for one of the nation’s largest private construction lenders. Partnered with product, engineering, lending, and marketing to drive digital transformation and improve borrower outcomes. - Led inbound borrower experience revamp, launching a roadmap that reduced friction, improved transparency, and increased NPS and retention - Directed full SEO and website overhaul, driving a 33% increase in quality organic traffic and higher lead conversion (www.builderscapital.com) - Launched new origination wing, Casa Lending—developed brand, messaging, personas, and website (www.casalending.com) - Built and managed first integrated marketing budget, increasing 10x to seven figures ($Xmm); aligned campaigns with launches and borrower profiles - Developed GTM strategies using market research and segmentation to tailor messaging for investors, builders, and developers - Led CRM integration with proprietary origination platforms to improve borrower tracking and sales coordination - Built multi-channel campaigns that drove a 47% increase in borrower engagement across email, content, paid media, and events - Partnered with product and engineering to optimize workflows, accelerating funding timelines and increasing digital adoption - Refreshed brand identity and messaging to support expansion across new borrower segments and regional markets - Advised executive leadership on borrower insights, competitive intelligence, and growth strategy
- Drives development of the “why, what, and when” of the vision and strategy, with the executive team, for the entire organization (Series B fintech scale-up) - Designs and runs strategic planning process at executive level; provide support and frameworks organization-wide for additional cycles and layers of planning - Drives decision-making for medium- and long-term impact and growth of the overall enterprise - Ensures enterprise strategy is clearly articulated across all layers of the organization - Leads a team of cross-functional experts and functions in Enterprise Marketing, Strategic Initiatives, People/HR, and Risk & Compliance - Helps launch high-impact initiatives in partnership with Strategic Initiatives and other appropriate teams; facilitates resource identification and allocation at inception and ensures smooth transition to operational teams - Works closely with CFO and other stakeholders to develop investment plan and ensure measurement of enterprise value and ROI on large-scale projects and initiatives - Anticipates and analyzes market trends and changes and appropriately adjusts strategy in response Identifies potential deals, partnerships, and opportunities that align with overall strategy - Acts as Chief of Staff for CEO to allocate resources, communicate with downlines, and lead project management and planning processes - Identifies risks to overall company strategy and large-scale initiatives at each stage; proactively offers mitigation solutions and/or articulates appropriate level of risk tolerance
- Oversees the development and execution of the organization's marketing and communication objectives - With executive leadership team (ELT), ensures marketing plan alignment to overall company strategy and growth trajectory - Drives overall topline growth for three business units (B2B, B2C, SaaS, and Service-led) through mix of demand/performance marketing and brand marketing - Builds processes, programs, and projects to implement and manage the overall marketing strategy for optional performance and results - Plans $Xmm marketing budget and ensures alignment with overall organizational budget - Drives analysis of market trends and research to inform crossfunctional strategies, GTM plans, pricing, and campaigns
- Drove user and customer acquisition by developing, implementing, and managing the overall demand generation and brand marketing plan - Owned execution of its associated plan, including scope, target outcomes, key metrics and measures, and required inputs and resources to deliver, including $1.5mm marketing budget - Launched 5 new products across two different customer segments, resulting in revenue growth from <$1mm to >$15mm - Scaled team to 8 marketers - Built processes, programs, and projects to implement and manage the overall marketing strategy for optional performance and results