My career story and thoughts on startup marketing strategy

Mark Lindquist

Early stage startup marketer specializing in product marketing, setting up go-to-market motions, and scaling marketing channels from 0 to 1 to 100.

At my last 2 startups, I was the first marketing hire, where I led the marketing strategy and execution and was a key member of teams that grew ARR from low 6-digits to $5M (bootstrapped and profitable) and $10M (burning $8M) respectively.

Check out my blog to learn more about what I have done in my career and my perspective on early-stage startup marketing, product marketing, content, and SEO

KEY SKILLS AND DELIVERABLES

  • Startup marketing strategy: identified, launched, and scaled organic and performance marketing channels at multiple startups.
  • Product marketing: talked to thousands of customers and leads to choose the positioning, messaging, channels, and GTM strategy.
  • Content marketing: developed and executed content strategies that repeatedly drove 100x organic traffic growth.
  • Paid search: built and scaled Google and Microsoft Ads from $0 to $200K/month with strong unit economics.
  • Direct mail and offline marketing: launched, tested, and scaled direct mail and insert campaigns from $0 to $300K/month.
  • Conversion optimization: mapped customer buying journeys and built high-converting funnels across digital and offline channels.
  • Analytics and reporting: built comprehensive, channel-specific reporting from scratch, tracking fully loaded CAC, LTV, and payback period.
  • Hiring and team leadership: recruited, hired, and managed full-time marketing team members, freelancers, and agencies.

Experience

Head of Marketing, Community Phone (YC W19), 5/21-9/24

Community Phone is building the most customer-obsessed phone company in the world. They provide reliable, affordable home phone service to seniors and a powerful communication platform for small businesses.

I joined as the first full-time marketer after they found PMF on their core consumer product and was a key member of the team as we grew from $500k to low $1XM ARR. I was lucky to work with many brilliant and hard-working people, and I learned what it takes to build a great business.

Responsibilities:

  • First full-time marketer, key leadership team member; helped scale ARR from $500k to $10M.
  • Established all marketing channels from 0-to-1, including defining the product positioning, conversion funnel, and inbound call sales motion.
  • Scaled paid search from $0 to $200k/month, achieving LTV:CAC > 3, payback < 9 months.
  • Grew traffic via organic search from 1.5k to 130k visitors/month (25% of signups), ranking top 2.5 for high-volume bottom-of-the-funnel queries.
  • Launched and scaled direct mail and inserts to $300k/month, our first demand-generating channel, achieving LTV:CAC > 5, payback < 7 months.
  • Hired and managed the marketing team (up to 3 at a time), and external agencies. Part of the hiring team for all major roles in the company.

Founding Marketer (Content &SEO), Mailshake, 1/18-4/21

Mailshake is a bootstrapped startup that helps salespeople, entrepreneurs, and agency owners build automated sales, LinkedIn, and phone cadences to generate leads.

I was the first employee and owned the marketing strategy and execution as we grew from $350k to $5M ARR. Our primary growth lever was organic traffic, which I grew from 2.5k to 240k visitors/month.

Responsibilities

  • First employee; owned marketing strategy and execution, scaling ARR from $350k to $5M.
  • Grew traffic via organic search from 2.5k to 240k visitors/month via keyword-driven content and systematic, scaled link building.
  • Developed template strategy and content to generate 20,000+ leads via blog traffic.
  • Managed a team of freelance writers; hired, managed, and mentored two junior content marketers.
  • Wrote and optimized 100% of company website copy; designed wireframes for new pages.

Senior Content Strategist, Web Profits, 5/16 – 5/18

Web Profits is a full stack digital marketing agency for growth-focused SaaS businesses. I managed client communication, strategy, and execution for all US-based clients, primarily focused on content marketing and SEO.

Responsibilities

  • Developed and executed content marketing and SEO strategies for 12 SaaS clients. Owned content production, link building, and traffic growth.
  • Account manager and primary contact for all clients. Owned client retention and communicated progress, reports, and deliverables.

Senior Content Strategist, Sync Digital Marketing, 7/15-4/16

Sync Digital Marketing was a full-service digital marketing agency for small, local businesses.

Responsibilities

  • Owned strategy and execution for all client deliverables. Led a team of 3-6 to design websites and execute ongoing marketing strategies.
  • Managed accounts, developing and communicating marketing plans with clients.

Co-Founder, Canary, 1/13-5/15

Canary was a full-service online marketplace that made selling furniture and other household items a simple, safe, and rewarding experience for baby boomers who are downsizing.

Responsibilities

  • Co-founded Canary in college and learned how to start a company; generated $330k in revenue and donated $30k to charity in 2.5 years.
  • Conducted hands-on customer development; met dozens of customers and facilitated sales to refine positioning, product strategy, and marketing.
  • Launched and scaled direct mail postcards, which became the company’s primary acquisition channel.
  • Built a referral program by cold-pitching local real estate agencies in person.

Education

University of Wisconsin-Madison – 9/10 – 12/13

GPA: 3.5/4.0
Triple major: B.B.A. Marketing, Entrepreneurship, International Business
Awards: Winner, 2013 Burrill Business Plan AARP $5,000 award for business that best aids an aging population.