Startup Go To Market Specialist; Blog Startup-Marketing.com
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- Marketing Advisor at Xobni
- Startup Marketing Advisor at Startup Marketing Advisor
- Venture Consultant at Venture Consultant
- Past
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- Angel Investor at Scout Metrics
- Interim VP Marketing at Xobni
- Vice President, Marketing at LogMeIn, Inc.
- Angel Investor at LogMeIn
- President at Uproar Europe
- Vice President, Marketing at Uproar
- Sales Executive at New World Publishing
- Sales Executive at Budapest Business Journal
- Angel Investor at Uproar
- Education
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- Harvard University
- New York University
- University of California, Davis
- Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem
- Recommended
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6 people have recommended Sean - Connections
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500+
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Sean Ellis’s Summary
Marketing entrepreneur with track record growing early-stage internet startups from launch to IPO - attracting over 35 million users between them.
Now focused exclusively on advising VC funded startups through most important and difficult marketing stage - customer discovery and implemention of marketing systems needed to aggressively scale a positive ROI marketing engine.
Angel Investor in web startups since 1995.
Email: sean (at) startup-marketing.com
Sean Ellis’s Specialties:
Specializing in guiding startups through a proven go to market process that opens scalable, profitable customer acquisition channels. Metrics driven marketing, online marketing, SEM, widgets, direct response marketing, freemium business model, marketing optimization.
Sean Ellis’s Experience
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Marketing Advisor
Xobni
(Computer Software industry)
July 2008 — Present (3 months)
Working with head of marketing at Xobni to build on growth momentum generated during my role as Interim VP Marketing.
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Startup Marketing Advisor
Startup Marketing Advisor
(Internet industry)
July 2008 — Present (3 months)
Work with the head of marketing and key executives at recently funded (VC, series A) startups to define critical marketing systems/priorities necessary to quickly ramp their marketing engine with a positive ROI. Currently working with Eventbrite.
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Venture Consultant
Venture Consultant
(Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
January 2008 — Present (9 months)
Independent consultant to Khosla Ventures evaluating the marketing viability of early stage opportunities.
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Angel Investor
Scout Metrics
(Internet industry)
August 2008 — August 2008 (1 month)
This is a strategic investment to help guide the vision of this next generation online marketing platform that meets the needs of early stage startups and established companies. Scout Metrics has built and continues to improve a platform for effectively discovering and managing online marketing channels. This angel investment was in conjunction with the Series A round of VC financing.
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Interim VP Marketing
Xobni
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)
January 2008 — July 2008 (7 months)
Six month intensive assigment to prepare Xobni for successful public launch.
Honed value proposition and target markets, defined metrics and testing infrastructure, optimized conversions and launched marketing programs (mostly viral). Transitioned user base from early adopters to primarily mainstream users. Xobni has experienced explosive growth since the public beta launch in May 2008 and is now widely recognized as the leader in its emerging category.
Xobni is an indispensible tool for hundreds of thousands of professionals to manage their flood of incoming online communications. Bill Gates called Xobni the next generation of social networking in his 2008 Office Developers keynote address and press coverage for Xobni has included the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and other leading business and technology publications. -
Vice President, Marketing
LogMeIn, Inc.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)
April 2003 — December 2007 (4 years 9 months)
Led marketing from launch to NASDAQ IPO filing (Jan 2008). Made angel investment in 2003.
Recruited by CEO for our second venture together. I set up first US office and worked directly with CEO to pitch Boston and Silicon Valley based VCs - successfully raising $10 million in Series A funding. Key differentiator for VC pitches was our go to market approach proven at Uproar. $10 million series B round 1 year later on proven freemium user acquisition metrics.
In three years, built LogMeIn service to over 25 million remotely accessible devices connected to NOC. A pioneer in the freemium business model category, LogMeIn eventually launched six premium services (primarily upsold from free service). ROI driven iterative marketing approach via trial generation (SEM, online display, webcasts, radio, trade shows); conversions via ecommerce and leads assigned to large telesales group. LogMeIn filed for NASDAQ IPO listing in January 2008. -
Angel Investor
LogMeIn
(Internet industry)
2003 — 2003 (less than a year)
Invested in LogMeIn simultaneously to joining the company fulltime and one year before securing VC financing.
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President
Uproar Europe
(Internet industry)
2000 — 2001 (1 year)
Following NASDAQ listing, replaced Uproar's founder as President of Uproar Europe. Served in position until Vivendi Universal acquisition in 2001. Primary objectives of the role were to:
- Ignite growth of our European properties (in 11 languages) based on proven US marketing strategy and tactics.
- Restructure the European teams in London, Hamburg and Budapest offices to post dotcom bubble realities.
Successfully reorganized European team (reducing headcount by over 50%) while accelerating European user and revenue growth and retaining all key team members. -
Vice President, Marketing
Uproar
(Internet industry)
1996 — 2000 (4 years)
Led marketing from launch to NASDAQ IPO in 2000 (President Uproar Europe 2000 - 2001).
Joined team in Hungary, opened NY office as first US based employee (HQ later moved to NY).
Launched website and first game in Sept 1996. Leveraged innovative viral widget (widely recognized as web's first widget) as key customer acquisition driver. Widget extended Uproar game experience to over 40,000 websites and efficiently converted millions of low cost loyal users to Uproar.com. Achieved online game category leadership (passing gamesites of Yahoo, Microsoft, and Sony) and worldwide number 8 in terms of aggregate visitor hours on website (Comscore Media Metrix). Lowest registered user acquisition cost (for free service) of any publicly traded internet company 1998-2000 (public in Europe from 1997). -
Sales Executive
New World Publishing
(Publishing industry)
1994 — 1996 (2 years)
Dreading a mundane life with a normal job, I moved to Budapest, Hungary directly after college with no professional contacts and very limited cash. Hired in a commission-only sales job at New World Publishing (publisher of Warsaw, Prague and Budapest Business Journals) selling advertising to tech clients. Became top sales executive within a year by cold calling companies throughout Europe and facilitating innovative advertising arrangements between vendors and their resellers.
Earned and saved enough commissions to make a significant dotcom angel investment in 1995 in Uproar (Uproar eventually listed on NASDAQ with peak valuation over $1 billion). In 1996 NWP offered me a promotion to launch and run a new business journal in Zagreb, Croatia, but I opted to leave NWP to join Uproar fulltime as its first US-based team member. -
Sales Executive
Budapest Business Journal
(Publishing industry)
1994 — 1996 (2 years)
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Angel Investor
Uproar
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
1995 — 1995 (less than a year)
Sean Ellis’s Education
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Harvard University
Advertising and Buyer Behavior (extension) 2007
5-month course (4.0 GPA)
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New York University
Strategic Marketing Management (extension) 1998
3-month course (4.0 GPA)
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University of California, Davis
BA, International Relations (World Trade), 1994
Graduated with Honors (3.6 GPA)
- Activities and Societies:
- Facilities Manager at UC Davis Lodge, Sigma Chi (rush chairman)
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Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem
UC Education Abroad Program, Post Communist Economic and Political Reforms, 1993
One year program in Budapest, Hungary (3.9 GPA)
Additional Information
Sean Ellis’s Websites:
Sean Ellis’s Interests:
Professional: Startups, entrepreneurs, venture capital Academics: Micro economics, psychology, statistics, marketing Recreation: Golf, skiing, gym Personal: Family, world travel
Sean Ellis’s Groups:
CMO Council, Sigma Chi
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Linked Affiliate - A Place for Affiliate Marketers to Meet! -
Fans of LogMeIn -
Fans of Xobni
Sean Ellis’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
