Stanford University

University of Oxford

Wallenpaupack Area High School

Community Builder  -  Marketing Strategist  -  Man About Town

Skills: Product Launch · Cross-functional Team Leadership · Positioning (Marketing)

Rare Candy

Fractional CMO

Skills: Positioning (Marketing) · Professional Mentoring · Strategy

Polarr

Advisor

I took on Castro Labs during its pre-seed stage to help lead the exploration and growth of viable product areas under their mission to help queer people feel seen, safe, validated and desired. This included the development of two apps: OOMF!, a flirting app — and Bent, an LGBTQ+ communities app.

• Built and led marketing, communtiy/partnerships, policy and business strategy functions
• Designed and ran early foundational user research, diary studies and advocacy programs to help steer app development and evaluate product-market fit.
• Led competitive analysis, positioning, messaging and GTM for all launches and initiatives
• Developed and drove community-leader pitching funnels and onboarding programs 
• Built and launched queer-centered, compassionate policy frameworks with novel interaction design that drove greater recall among users
• Forged key corproate partnerships to drive growth and awareness, resulting in >2x app growth for Bent
• Built and led integrated strategic process for quarterly planning and learnings synthesis

Castro Labs

Head of Business Strategy & Marketing (COO-Equivalent)

Skills: Product Marketing · Positioning (Marketing) · Professional Mentoring · Strategy

• Grew marketing team from 1 to 13, spanning product marketing, B2B marketing, brand marketing, editorial and PR/communications
• Built core company-wide infrastructure including XFN matrix models, bottoms-up strategic planning and clear employee role leveling
• Oversaw go-to-market strategy and materials for high-priority moments such as corporate acquisitions, investments, fundraises and government subcontracts
• Led key foundational research initiatives to understand consumer needs and revamp 360º marketing positioning
• Interviewed >200 senior candidates across disciplines to support aggressive company growth in 2021.

Updater

Chief Marketing Officer

Skills: Strategic Planning · Editorial Development · Content Strategy · Strategy · Digital Marketing

Marketing Consultant

As Avenue 8 closed a successful seed round, I came on board to help design their marketing org, building out scalable early-stage marketing strategy, key messaging and audience positioning to shore up their position in advance of raising Series A.

Avenue 8

Interim Marketing Director

• Led brand, product marketing, community, editorial and growth/performance 
• Led revision of Polarr's mission, vision and brand identity
• Refocused editorial strategy; grew Polarr's Instagram from 11.3k to 500k+ in seven months
• Built and launched Polarr's 'Style Creator Program' to drive Gen Z affinity and production
• Launched Polarr Labs to house experimental innovation projects
• Built core marketing processes to streamline XFN communication, campaign impact reporting and knowledge sharing
• Grew and developed marketing team; launched Polarr marketing internship program 
• Notable launches: Polarr 6.0, Polarr Labs, Cyberpunk 2077 Styles, Creator Program

VP of Marketing

As Bungalow raised their Series B, I went in-house for six months to build a stable community foundation for their next stage of growth.

• Built integrated 2020 community strategy
• Oversaw team of ten community managers across Bungalow's key residential markets
• Built processes, structure and budgets for community development workstreams
• Developed and hired key leadership roles for events and editorial

As interim head of consumer marketing
• Authored Bungalow's brand mission, vision and community values
• Led positioning and go-to-market strategy and implementation for Bungalow's improved roommate matching experiences launch

Bungalow

Head of Community

Skills: Product Marketing · Positioning (Marketing) · Professional Mentoring · Strategic Planning · Agency Management · Strategy

Explorest

As Instagram’s PMM team scaled and assigned product marketers to specific product areas, I developed this role to leverage my depth and breadth of experience across the company to unlock outsized opportunities through strategic projects that span the product ecosystem.

• Partnered with decision science and brand marketing to develop and implement new methods of on-platform audience targeting that leverage ML to drive highest-ever average impacts at record efficiency
• Led marketing POV in early Japan research and strategy task force to establish foundation for incoming ground team 
• Initiated cross-product inbound market research to re-evaluate Instagram’s international market positioning for evolving user behaviors

Instagram

PMM Lead: Global Strategic Projects

As Soho House's San Francisco consulting liaison and first founding member, I led membership, community, and event experiences for members to help them discover and connect with other creatives across the Bay Area.

Soho House & Co

Community Consultant

• Drove end-to-end positioning, go-to-market strategy and momentum campaigns for all launches across Stories, Profile and Feed Sharing.
• Led core cross-functional teams and drove alignment on GTM plans. Partnered closely with product, engineering, design, comms, partnerships, and policy stakeholders.
• Notable launches include the Questions Sticker in Instagram Stories and Stories Highlights and Archive.
• Pioneered the Stickers program for Instagram Stories, collaborating with product and design to commission global artists, design campaign calendars, navigate policy review and merchandise sticker packs.
• Led Instagram's 2017 and 2018 Pride initiatives, which included a 360º campaigns with on- and off-platform activations as well as lasting changes to the core product.

Senior Product Marketing Manager

• Led community managers across global regions and industry verticals to synthesize feedback into actionable insights for product roadmapping
• Designed scaled playbooks and messaging to leverage relationships with major community advocates to amplify narratives, bust rumors and drive positive sentiment
• Worked with XFN teams to design outreach strategy for all major Instagram launches
• Wrote all launch blogs and announcements; managed translation and distribution across 15 language markets; produced launch videos and visual marketing assets managing both in-house teams and agencies

Community Product Lead

• Wrote, edited and published hundreds of stories across Instagram editorial channels to an audience of 100M+ on @instagram, the world’s largest social media account
• Designed and initiated accessible and repeatable global event series to bring local communities together and encourage creative collaboration
• Encouraged, supported and attended InstaMeets in key cities across North America to learn from and build relationships with Instagram advocates
• Served as Instagram’s first acting PMM (06/13 – 02/14). Major launches: Photo Tagging, Video on Instagram, Instagram Direct, Hyperlapse from Instagram, Creative Tools, Layout from Instagram, Search & Explore

Community Manager - North America

Facebook Stories
• Collaborated with team of seven to launch Facebook’s first foray into content creation: Facebook Stories
• Created international marketing plan for Stories; managing distribution to 54 countries in 14 languages 
• Manage quarterly Facebook advertising budget of $100k to promote balanced growth and engagement
• Created intake flow for user story submissions; place stories in consumer press
• Set benchmarks for growth and engagement using Facebook insights and Google Analytics
• Forged and maintained content partnerships with YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, and Instagram
• Worked as social strategist for publication of Facebook’s first brand campaign: “Things that Connect Us” 

Instagram
• Discover, curate, and write creative content for Instagram blog, Facebook page, and Instagram account
• Led internationalization for Instagram on Facebook
• Review and copyedit all Instagram blog content

Facebook

Editorial Producer

• Managed PR agency to create and pitch narratives around relaunch of Facebook Groups
• Ghostwrote Facebook Engineering page blog posts
• Authored speeches for large-scale speaking events and award ceremonies
• Coordinated and supervised production of b-roll and marketing materials for new product launches
• Created, launched, and managed Facebook Diversity page and supporting ads: grew Page to more than 10,000 fans

Communications Intern

• Wrote over 100 daily news articles for the "Insider" column on Advocate.com
• Screened and reviewed upcoming films and music for Advocate.com weekly "Hot Sheet"
• Reached out to organization heads, celebrities, and grassroots activists for interviews and statements
• Collaborated with head writers on research and editing for The Advocate print issue stories
• Assisted art department with photo preparation and archiving

Jeffrey Gerson