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As a marketing leader in early, mid-stage, and late-stage startups, I have seen the journey from $1M to over $200M ARR. I’ve built and coached teams to win across market segments in multiple product categories: data, analytics, CX, CRM, and security.
My sweet spot lies in developing differentiated positioning and messaging with storytelling and asset creation that empowers the organization to win.
At Valimail (Series A/B security startup):
► First senior marketing hire; built the product marketing function from 0 to team of five
► Worked with the founders to simplify messaging for a highly complex anti-phishing solution that accelerated DMARC enforcement. DMARC is an arcane but rapidly growing email authentication standard in DNS
► Drove Valimail’s transition from a seed round brand to a category-defining challenger brand as the company grew from $1M to $8M ARR and 20 to 100 employees
At Freshworks (Series G/H, IPO-ready CX products):
► Challenge was to lay the groundwork for the IPO as leadership transitioned from India to the United States. Building on an SMB foundation, it was also imperative to grow up-market and increase ACV with bigger enterprise deals.
► Worked with CMO to simplify the company’s patchwork of multi-product messages, developed the company narrative, and trained the global sales team. New “Customer-for-life Software” platform messaging aligned a diverse group of products and moved Freshdesk from four years in “niche” to the only “visionary” of the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant
► Experienced rocket-ship growth; $150M to $225M and 1,000 to 2,000 global employees (managed team of 15, with 5 directs)
At Heap (Series C/D analytics products):
► Led the 2021 repositioning of the company from point analytics solution to Digital Insights Platform.
► Launched Heap Illuminate, an automated data science capability that reduces time-to-insight and reveals hidden friction in the customer’s digital experience.
► Launch generated $10.65M in pipeline and provided air cover for Heap’s $110M Series D raise (a 4x valuation increase from $255M to $960M).
► Firm grew from $38M to over $60M ARR and 200 to 335 employees. Managed team with 4 directs.
As a leader:
► I’m a coaching manager that promotes a fun, collaborative environment and growth mindset. Past direct reports have been promoted to Director-level and beyond after working with me.
► I flex my management style from consensus-driven to servant-leader to directive as needed to make people around me successful and drive business outcomes.
Portfolio: www.vivekasija.com