Taking hot startups to market.
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- Advisor at KISSmetrics
- Founder/Principal at 12in6
- Advisor at Xobni
- Venture Consultant at Venture Consultant
- Past
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- Guest Lecturer at UC Berkeley, Haas Business School
- 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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8 people have recommended Sean - Connections
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500+
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Sean Ellis’s Summary
Sean Ellis led marketing from launch through NASDAQ IPO filings at both LogMeIn and Uproar and later helped bring Xobni (Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital) to market as Interim VP Marketing.
He is now founder and principal at 12in6 Inc., a firm that helps startups unlock their full growth potential by focusing on the core value perceived by their most passionate users. Our service is primarily focused on helping startups discover their unique user perceived value and surface it in messaging optimized for response. For startups with “must have” products we continue with equity and cash projects to them build growth and monetization strategies around this core value and maximize the number of prospects that experience it.
Startups passionate about exposing their strong user perceived value often grow with very little marketing effort (Google). Add a customer centric aggressive marketing approach to these companies and you can accelerate this growth even further (Apple). Now add metrics driven marketing optimized for ROI and you have the startups that have worked with 12in6 including Dropbox (Sequoia Capital), Eventbrite (Sequoia Capital), Grockit (Benchmark Capital), Flexilis (Khosla Ventures), eduFire (Battery Ventures).
Sean Ellis’s Specialties:
- Startup metrics
- Finding product/market fit
- Developing a compelling value proposition (based on strong user perceived value)
- Business model development (SaaS, Freemium, licensing...)
- Optimizing user flows
- Strategic growth planning
Sean Ellis’s Experience
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Advisor
KISSmetrics
(Internet industry)
December 2008 — Present (1 year )
Advising KISSmetrics as they create a platform for executing metrics driven customer development.
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Founder/Principal
12in6
(Internet industry)
August 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)
12in6 Inc. is a firm that helps startups unlock their full growth potential by focusing on the core value perceived by their most passionate users. Our service is primarily focused on helping startups discover their unique user perceived value and surface it in messaging optimized for response. For startups with “must have” products we continue with equity and cash projects to them build growth and monetization strategies around this core value and maximize the number of prospects that experience it.
Startups passionate about exposing their strong user perceived value often grow with very little marketing effort (Google). Add a customer centric aggressive marketing approach to these companies and you can accelerate this growth even further (Apple). Now add metrics driven marketing optimized for ROI and you have the startups that have worked with 12in6 including Dropbox (Sequoia Capital), Eventbrite (Sequoia Capital), Grockit (Benchmark Capital), Flexilis (Khosla Ventures), eduFire (Battery Ventures). -
Advisor
Xobni
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
July 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)
Working with co-founder of Xobni to build on growth momentum we built during my earlier full time role through Xobni's public launch.
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Venture Consultant
Venture Consultant
(Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
January 2008 — Present (1 year 11 months)
Independent consultant to VCs such as Khosla Ventures evaluating the marketing viability of early stage investment opportunities.
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Guest Lecturer
UC Berkeley, Haas Business School
(Internet industry)
March 2009 — March 2009 (1 month)
Lecture on metrics driven customer development in Steve Blank's entrepreneurship course.
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/blank.html -
Interim VP Marketing
Xobni
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
January 2008 — July 2008 (7 months)
Six month intensive role through Xobni's 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's explosive growth has been covered in 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; Computer Software industry)
April 2003 — December 2007 (4 years 9 months)
Led LogMeIn's marketing from launch to NASDAQ IPO filing.
Rapid growth driven by aggressive positive ROI marketing and supported by finely tuned freemium business model. Built LogMeIn service to over 30 million active installations (today over 70 million). Transactions for our seven premium services processed through ecommerce and leads assigned to large telesales group.
LogMeIn completed it's NASDAQ IPO in July 2009. -
Angel Investor
LogMeIn
(Internet industry)
2003 — 2003 (less than a year)
Invested in LogMeIn simultaneously to joining the team and one year before we raised our first round of 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. Successfully streamlined European operations leading up to acquisition by Vivendi Universal in 2001.
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Vice President, Marketing
Uproar
(Internet industry)
1996 — 2000 (4 years )
Executed Uproar's launch and served as VP marketing through NASDAQ IPO in 2000 and leadership of the online games category (President Uproar Europe 2000 - 2001).
We were pioneers in leveraging metrics and network effects in driving growth throughout the 90s, including launching the web's first viral widget which spread to over 40,000 websites. Among all publicly traded dotcom's, Uproar had the lowest cost of acquiring a free registered user through 2000.
Uproar gained worldwide leadership of the online games category- surpassing Sony Station (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune), Microsoft Game Zone, Yahoo Games and several well-funded Silicon Valley startups. At the time of the Vivendi Universal acquisition, Uproar was the the 8th largest website in the world in terms of total usage time. -
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
Extension , Advertising and Buyer Behavior , 2007 — 2007
5-month course (4.0 GPA).
Highly relevant to my current startup marketing approach, this course taught a process for discovering a "promise" that motivates prospective customers to try and buy a product. This process has become a key element of the 12in6 Methodology. The course is a favorite of Harvard MBA students and is taught by bestselling author Harry Washburn. He previously ran research at a leading Madison Avenue advertising agency where he honed his promise development approach. -
New York University
Extension , Strategic Marketing Management , 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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University of California, Davis Network -
Fans of LogMeIn -
Fans of Xobni -
Startup2Startup
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
