Here are the 25 Growth Mentors of May 2023

1. Adrian Vladimirov

Describe yourself

I’m passionate about products and how they change our world. My ultimate goal is to create great products that solve real problems.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

Mentoring others is something I enjoyed in a similar program last year with my previous employer.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

We learn through experience and experience unavoidably goes through mistakes. When something goes wrong, we must understand what happened and what we could do differently next time.

There are no unsolvable problems – we just haven’t learned how to solve them yet.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Product Management

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

With my current employer, it happened that the product team has only a handful of junior (but highly motivated) folks. By the end of my 1st month, I realized that the product team was not included in the R&D process at all.

As a result, lots of mini-products were lost in translation – nobody knew what was left to be done, what the products were doing when they would be live, and we didn’t even know which team has the next action.

I’ve sat down with the team, and as a 1st step, we collected all existing marketing, R&D, legal, and sales processes. Then, based on our industry and company environment, we agreed on where and how the product team has to be involved.

The three of us created an end-to-end product lifecycle workflow, aiming to clarify where and how we fit in. We got buy-in from the management team and had 2 mini-products to go through our new workflow.

As a result, we’ve moved forward with products that were stuck for 3-5 months, helped the teams to organize user manuals, content, marketing strategy, sales, and manufacturing, and released the products to market in under 1 month.

View Growthmentor Profile

2. Agnieszka Wojtkun

Describe yourself

Hi, I’m Agnieszka and I inspire people with things that I enjoy doing in marketing: looking at metrics, CRM data, sales, and campaign results, combining them with analytical tools, psychological knowledge, and business acumen, and providing marketing proposals. Sounds scary? With my 10+ years of experience in marketing analysis, marketing automation, and email marketing, I’ll make sure it’ll be easy to understand for you 🙂

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I’m already a mentor in other areas of my digital presence, but I still have a lot of room for new mentees from other sources.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

It means taking full responsibility for your own path in a career or business. Being aware that no matter of years of experience, we all are constant work in progress, and have things to learn and skills to improve. It’s also asking for support when needed.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Marketing analysis & marketing automation

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I worked for a wine e-commerce/omnichannel company for 6 years as a marketing manager & CRM expert. The business was struggling with rebuilding the customer database in the B2B channel when half of the contacts were unfortunately lost due to various laws and market circumstances. Instead of spending thousands of money on the traditional acquisition process (including phone calls, meetings, etc.) of new business partnerships, a completely digital and automated campaign was designed. It cost a penny to create creative content, an e-book about wine savoir-vivre in business, that was used as an offer for lead generation. The whole customer journey, from the first e-mail to purchase, was automated and worked tremendously well. With a simple and cost-efficient campaign, we grew the database again and aimed for unexpectedly high ROI.

View Growthmentor Profile

3. Andrei Tiburca

Describe yourself

Hey, I’m Andrei. I help software companies scale their content marketing efforts.
I’ve previously helped companies like Toggl Plan, Airfocus, and Hashnode generate 100k+ relevant organic traffic and turn organic search into their primary customer acquisition channel.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I breathe and eat organic growth. That’s what I do for work, and that’s what I do for fun.
I’d love to help other founders determine if SEO, Video marketing, or content marketing is a good fit for them and how to execute it.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

It means constantly trying new ways to reach the people relevant to your business and 100% committing to the channels that work.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Content marketing

• Scale writing teams
• Repurposing content
• Linkbuilding (Free and paid)
• Kickstarting video presence (how to scale video production and turn YouTube into an acquisition channel)

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I got 100+ organic links from some of the largest universities and publications through an Unsplash growth hack. (Probably $300k in value)

View Growthmentor Profile

4. Anton Kireev

Describe yourself

Hi, I’m Anton. I’m in IT since 2002 and during this time I’ve used a lot of front/back-end technologies from Perl in the early days to Python and ReactJS lately. This experience helped me answer the most common startup question: “How can we build this thing quickly, ideally yesterday”?

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

To try a new experience in a direction that I feel I like.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset for me is: remembering to listen carefully as a student, constantly asking challenging questions (like, “Can this be done in half the time?”), and occasionally doing new things to “try” my feelings.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Software architecture (choosing the right IT tools for the task). Reason: I have extensive knowledge of technologies and real experience using them in startups.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

Problem: how to test a hypothesis (which requires a video conference). Solution: Do research for open-source solutions and make the MVP live in a week.

View Growthmentor Profile

5. Avishai Linde

Describe yourself

Hi, I’m Avishai! I have over 13 years of experience in the digital marketing industry, including 9 years of leadership roles at Google and Facebook. Before that, I led user acquisition and growth marketing for high-growth start-ups and agencies. I have a deep understanding of digital advertising and have helped drive the growth of hundreds of startups through advanced, data-driven campaigns and growth marketing strategies.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

As an experienced marketer and aspiring entrepreneur, I am eager to use my knowledge and expertise to help startup founders and growth marketers achieve their goals. I am always looking to learn from others and am excited to work with them to solve their challenges. In the process, I hope to grow my consulting business and expand my network.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset means being open to new things, even if it means making mistakes. Rather than viewing failure as a setback, a growth mindset sees it as an opportunity for growth and learning. This perspective allows for continuous improvement and the belief that there is always room for personal development.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Paid digital advertising

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I worked with a startup facing challenges with their paid advertising campaigns due to the wide range of purchase values among their customers. This made it difficult for them to optimize their ads for ROAS. I was able to help them come up with a creative solution involving server-to-server events and some calculations, which resulted in significant performance improvements. They eventually became a market leader in their industry, and I’d like to think my solution played a part in their success!

View Growthmentor Profile

6. Bhuvan Dua

Describe yourself

I have 9+ years of startup ecosystem experience in PnL management, 0-10 PMF, and Growth. Have scaled numerous BUs and verticals from scratch across industries like EdTech, Hospitality, and RE.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I have a deep passion for employability, growth, and helping folks to become a better version of themselves.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Constantly iterating to stay ahead of the curve. Going deeper into segments where there are exponential gains.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Go-to-Market Strategy. Have done this successfully in a bunch of settings in the most frugal and innovative fashions.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

Brought in the concept of dark stores to used car businesses to reduce the cost of running full-fledged centers, increase reach while being profitable, and all this while maintaining an above-par experience for the customers.

View Growthmentor Profile

7. Carlos Guerrero

Describe yourself

I am a technology marketing strategist with +15 years of background in tech multinational global HQ. I have been leading teams of product marketing and leadership roles as CMO and CCO in blockchain and crypto startups. Currently working on my own project with a focus on business models, product roadmap, and growth.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I have always had a passion to guide young students and junior product managers in their careers. As an entrepreneur, I have also been working with younger colleagues and I enjoyed sharing my knowledge after 15 years of experience in multinational tech companies.
I have been a mentor as well in my career in the companies I have been working in.
At the same time, I can say I have learned as well from the ones I tried to help by listening to their problems or difficulties.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Knock all doors: try fast, fail fast & learn fast.

Look after the 10x factor in all possible ways.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Business model sustainability: wow to make sure your business can make a profit over time.

In my experience, this is the key element to ensure the success of start-ups, scale-ups, and businesses that want to differentiate looking for growth.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

Creating an MVP of a Hardware product without having a physical proto, just using AR technology and 3D printing to simulate it in front of customers.

The way to start innovation using MVP to validate the hypothesis requires some creativity to avoid spending too much time.

View Growthmentor Profile

8. Christian Kemsies

Describe yourself

I’m Chris, Director of Product Operations at Almosafer, meaning I’m PMing the PM experience. In between and before, I worked as Product Lead with multiple customer-facing and customer-enabling Product teams, helping them build amazing products and grow as a team and individuals.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I learned (and continue to learn) so much from the community that it is now on me to give back so that cycle can continue.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Being curious and keep learning new things. Have the open-mindedness and courage to challenge assumptions by experimenting and finally being able to change one’s own beliefs based on what has been learned.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Product Management because I love its ambiguity. Depending on where you are in your product lifecycle, it can mean completely different things and require different ways of thinking. Not one size fits it all, but seeing how all the puzzle pieces fit together is truly marvelous.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

We identified a big customer segment that only made purchases when they had a discount code. So together with the marketing team, we developed a wallet system for cashback, enabling the marketing team to create discount codes that split the discount across two purchases (e.g. 5% now, 5% later). This significantly decreased the CAC and improved the retention rate at the same time.

View Growthmentor Profile

9. Diego Gilon

Describe yourself

I recently left my job as a software engineer at Shopify. I have been advising my brother on his productized service business for several years. I’ve worked with app developers, for a cold email campaign tool startup. At Shopify, I’ve mentored interns, new hires, and other devs. I’ve managed people while working on ships and sailing through the oceans. I own 2 Shopify stores. Now I’m focused on helping brands leverage Shopify and free up some time so they can focus on their product and their customers.
The more people I listen to, the more I learn. I’m an avid mountain biker and ski mountaineer. Living in Vancouver for now but grew up in Belgium. I speak French and English.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

Pass on knowledge and learn from people.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Learning, growth, and interests compound. Learn a little bit every day. You’ll start making connections between things that you didn’t think could be related.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Shopify store ownership and operations, especially the more technical aspects of it.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

2 weeks ago I was in the backcountry, skiing with friends. We got on a sub-peak that was very wind affected, the snow was unstable and there was a significant risk of avalanche. 1 of the group members started panicking, high winds are nerve-racking and visibility was decreasing. I was scared as well, things had changed fast and an acceptable situation turned into a bad one. I didn’t let my fear take the best of me. I managed to get us a little bit higher in a much better spot. I talked my partner through it and motivated them by explaining why I thought we could safely get out and how, that is was ok to be stressed, all the red flags were up and we had to move fast. I remained calm and came home knowing I had done a good job of turning the situation around, my partner was very happy with my reaction and told me so. Just a great day of learning.

View Growthmentor Profile

10. Ilya Govyadko

Describe yourself

Hi, I’m Ilya! I have 4 years of experience in startup product management. Cowered all steps of the product lifecycle with a significant focus on product scaling. Have success stories of scaling both B2B and B2C products.
During the last 1.5 years, I’m working in strategic consulting in a top-10 worldwide consulting company, developing strategies for global private companies and governmental entities

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I have a very long way in exploring all components of product management, now I would be happy to share my knowledge and help other people to create and scale something that will make our world a better place.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

For me, it is an approach where you always try to find new creative solutions and constantly test various hypotheses. You are always trying to learn something new about your clients, your product, and even about yourself.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Hypothesis generation and testing.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

My startup – a social network for gathering public opinion via polls has struggled with attracting new users.
So, I decided to create a group on the social network called “VK” (A Facebook-like network very popular in Russia) to post some polls there, then attract subscribers to the group, and then transfer them to our service. To virally attract people to the group, I called it “Stolen polls”. Under each post in other groups with polls, I typed the comments using the group’s account, which included the phrase “Nice poll, perhaps I will steal it” (actually, we did not steal any polls, and all polls were created by us).
People became very curious about what this group was and why we were so shameless. They came to our group to check it out, saw interesting content, and stayed there. After that, we converted these people from this group to our service via native context advertisement.
This approach helped us to scale the number of our service users from 100 to 11 000 in just 2 months without any investments.

View Growthmentor Profile

11. Jonny Silberman

Describe yourself

I am an analytics leader with ten years of experience in digital strategy, advanced analytics, and digital transformation at top-tier organizations including Dannon, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Google. A coffee enthusiast perpetually searching for the best espresso.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I help large corporations all day, I want to spend time helping smaller businesses – it is energizing.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset is a belief that your abilities are not fixed and that with a good attitude, hard work, and persistence you can accomplish your goals.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Marketing Measurement

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I was helping out a friend’s yogurt company (Icelandic Provisions) which was an Icelandic Yogurt sold in the U.S. We need to generate amazing social content for a low cost in Iceland, but we were all in New York. I found one of the best nature photographers in Iceland and DM’d him on Instagram asking if we could ship him yogurt if he would bring it on his trips. He was interested and took some of the most amazing photos. It would have cost us thousands to stage a shoot in Iceland, but we were able to get great content at half the cost.

View Growthmentor Profile

12. Kevin Veitia

Describe yourself

Hey 👋 I’m Kevin, a growth marketer at large and ex-Canva alum. At my core, I’m a problem-solver who enjoys finding the creative product and marketing solutions needed for smashing through growth goals. I’m also a good listener and am keen on sharing what I’ve learned on my 10+ year-long marketing journey.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I have more than 10+ years of experience in growth marketing. I am also developing a concise methodology to help others achieve their goals. I want to be able to help others with my experience and also become a better educator in the process.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Approaching problem-solving without prior assumptions or biases. Testing various hypotheses, learning fast, and doing whatever it takes to achieve product market fit.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Growth mindset and methodology

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

At Canva, we were struggling to reach sub-$1 CPAs for our paid campaigns. Thanks to a well-structured campaign testing matrix as well as thinking about user personas and what aspects of our product would be the most enticing, I was able to find the winning combination that allowed us to hit CPAs as low as $0.03.

View Growthmentor Profile

13. Lisa Wagner

Describe yourself

My superpower is curiosity. Even after 25 years in the B2B tech sector I love learning. I am known as a ‘troubleshooter’ – I want to understand the problem/challenge before I start to think about solving it. Go-to-market prioritization – whether it is new product features or vertical markets – is an area I excel in.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

After 25 years of working in the B2B tech sector, I now want to focus on adding community value rather than adding to my bank balance.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Open to ideas and best practices from other industry sectors. Willing to experiment and walk away if it doesn’t work. Listen, listen, listen.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

The importance of breaking down functional silos. Product to marketing to sales to customer success. I would emphasize how critical it is (and why) to have feedback loops between the teams.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I had to educate the SDR/BDR outbound team on the blockchain. I created a one-page cheat sheet that simplified the concepts. I then had the CTO record a two-minute video in which he used analogies to describe how blockchain worked.

View Growthmentor Profile

14. Mariana Racasan

Describe yourself

I’m a growth product marketer with +12 years of marketing experience devising and executing well-defined go-to-market strategies and plans, crafting impactful messaging, and building marketing teams from the ground up. I previously led Product Marketing at Tinybird, helping developers deliver immediate value with user-facing applications using SQL and APIs. Before that, I led marketing at Zenhub where I served as the go-to person for all things related to developing and executing effective marketing strategies that would drive growth. I also worked and had fun at CARTO, Localistico, Lladró, Steelcase, and eRepublik Labs.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I love helping early-stage startups understand their core audiences, speak to them like actual humans, and drive growth with messaging strategy. I also enjoy teaching and sharing my knowledge and experience with others.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

To me, a growth mindset means that I believe that my abilities and intelligence can be developed over time through dedication, hard work, and perseverance. Instead of viewing my talents and skills as fixed traits, I see them as qualities that I can continue to improve and enhance. It encourages me to take risks, embrace challenges, and continuously strive for self-improvement.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

As a growth product marketer, I specialize in building scalable GTM engines for early-stage growth startups. My services are designed to help these companies achieve their revenue goals by creating an impactful GTM strategy that is tailored to their business needs. This includes devising an impactful GTM strategy based on insights into the problems that the client’s customers face, as well as their competition and unique strengths. Once the GTM strategy is in place, I work with the client to build an integrated customer acquisition, expansion, and retention plan that aligns with their yearly and quarterly revenue goals. This plan is designed to optimize marketing spend and drive revenue growth in a scalable way. Throughout the process, I provide guidance and support to the client, helping them to execute their GTM plan effectively and achieve their revenue targets.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

This example is all about timing a product announcement with a seed funding announcement to generate more awareness and drive more product adoption.

In 2020 I was working at Zenhub (a project management solution built directly into GitHub) as the only marketer in-house. Back then, we heard from our users that they were spending a lot of time on administrative tasks like updating project progress rather than writing code. As we thought about ways Zenhub could help these teams reduce manual overhead, we realized automation was the solution.

To solve this issue and enable developers to work more efficiently and focus on the most meaningful work, we created Zenhub Sprints. No other product in the market today provides a more automated experience around planning sprints and carrying over unfinished work between sprints.

We intentionally launched Zenhub Sprints in February 2021, together with the announcement of our $4.7M seed funding. The fundraising narrative was built around ZenHub being the “most automated solution,” and we capitalized on the exposure the seed funding generated in the press to increase our brand awareness and drive more adoption of Sprints.

View Growthmentor Profile

15. Mark Szelenyi

Describe yourself

My expertise is in helping companies build successful SaaS products that customers love and will pay for. I have worked extensively on both the inbound product strategy and execution, as well as on the marketing team building and delivering high-growth GTM plans.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

After 37 years of work in the technology industry, I am shifting away from full-time work and towards helping others, doing some consulting, and perhaps joining a board or two.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset to me centers on identifying and solving a key business problem for a specific buyer persona and then taking that solution to market in a way that minimizes friction and maximizes customer adoption.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Product management. This is where I am most passionate and have demonstrated repeated successes in different markets.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I was once given the opportunity to lead a product organization that had never successfully built a community of active users. By focusing on a specific user persona and building a new suite of applications for that user, I was able to help pivot the company to a SaaS subscription business model and from $0 – $150MM+ in annual recurring revenues.

View Growthmentor Profile

16. Michalis Konstantoulakis

Describe yourself

I am currently the Head of BI & Insights at efood. I studied Finance followed by a MSc in Operational Research when I discovered my passion for data.

I have more than 10 years of accumulated knowledge working as an analytics professional & mentor in 9 different roles, across 7 different industries. In my work, I have designed and developed analytical solutions in a wide variety of businesses, ranging from the banking sector to hotels and from retailers to various tech companies.

My core interests lie in helping teams analyze their data and communicate insights effectively using stories.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

Mentoring is something that I love and have been an active mentor in numerous NGOs, university clubs, boot camps, and even within the companies I have worked for, since when I started out in my career, there were not many options for mentors around so I really like to be there for younger (or older) professionals that could use a helping hand.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset means to never settling and never allow yourself to become comfortable in your existing knowledge and skillset. The only way we have ever learned something was through hard work in unfamiliar territories.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Analyse & Communicate data effectively

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

One of my companies had an infinite amount of databases, vendor solutions, dashboards, KPIs, and data teams when I joined and in general, the whole data stack was a mess. The budget to fix this was 0 and the technical skills were not at the top level, so building something complicated from scratch or buying a solution, or building open-source was not an option

Using just two simple free tools (Power BI + Google slides) I have re-created the data stack, regardless of their current implementation, made every single piece of info available to C-level stakeholders and junior analysts and every piece of information was now available no more than 2 clicks away

It sounds simplistic, but going from 5+ tools, 200+ dashboards, and 700+ random definitions to finding everything using two tools was not.

View Growthmentor Profile

17. Monica McMahen

Describe yourself

I’m the Director of Marketing at Photonic and have been growing marketing teams at startups for 10 years. I have a degree in marketing, complimented by many years of trial and error to understand the strategy and tactics that resonate with customers. I’m a marketing generalist and have spent time in product marketing, demand generation, and strategy roles.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I love mentoring people and sharing what I’ve learned over the past 10 years so they can avoid some resource-intensive trial and error.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset is all about constantly iterating and reassessing your strategy and tactics to reach your (often lofty) growth goals. It usually means building on what’s working, scrapping what’s not, and always trying new things. Combining creative ideas with data analytics is key.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Growth marketing strategy

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I was hired by a startup to market their brand-new SaaS product for buildings. And it just was not selling. So every single time a sale came in I picked up the phone and called the person to understand who they were and why they purchased.

I quickly discovered that while we were targeting individual users, we should be targeting campuses. We did a marketing campaign towards campuses and immediately landed more sales. Over the next few months, we evolved our product to work more as a campus monitoring tool than a troubleshooting tool and updated our pricing accordingly. Our sales jumped, our revenue surged and we realized we had found our product market fit. All from a few phone calls.

View Growthmentor Profile

18. Oluwabunmi Balogun

Describe yourself

I am a proven growth expert who has successfully built brands from 0 to 10x growth.

Haven built several million-dollar businesses, I have shown over 5 years of experience in using the power of data in product marketing and branding.

I have successfully acquired digital leads for businesses of up to the tune of 14 billion Naira and acquired up to 200,000+ users for businesses across Africa.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I had led growth for over 8 African startups, I believe it is time to share that knowledge with others.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

For me, it means knowing that challenges and setbacks will always happen but being aware that they can always be overcome.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

community as a growth tool. This is because it is a niche I have carved myself into over the years. Most growing people have not seen the importance of communities around products and services.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I led growth for a food-tech platform in Nigeria. Within the first 2 months of joining, I noticed how they were acquiring users. Through Ads, and one-on-one conversations. I realized this was not scalable. I created an Ambassador initiative that caused growth in the company by over 43% and got 2 investors interested in the organization.

View Growthmentor Profile

19. Peter Kelemen

Describe yourself

I am an experienced leader of multi-national businesses and organizations, with a heart for consumer and brand building. I was born with a resourceful entrepreneurial mind and a “can do” attitude ( this makes me different from a lot of colleagues from large corporations). I am skilled at balancing strategic clarity with simplicity & pragmatism, and often recognized by colleagues for my empathetic servant leadership style, coaching, and organizational development skills.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I would like to help young and bright minds to succeed with their business ideas.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Never stop learning and exploring – no matter what the current circumstances might be. Never give up.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Brand Building Strategies

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

I designed a new shaving brand for the discounter channel (where P&G had historically no presence) by repurposing existing technologies – 0$ R&D / Capital / Marketing spending for what became a market leader brand nationally 24 months later.

View Growthmentor Profile

20. Robert Neander

Describe yourself

I’ve earned my stripes managing a 15-person performance marketing agency which has seen me working with clients in every vertical. I’ve personally managed 40+ ad accounts and have overseen 150+ over my 5 years at the agency. This has enabled me to see trends and understand what strategies and tactics businesses should be incorporating to get the most value from their marketing.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I think the highest leverage activity I can do for others is mentorship because, in a relatively small amount of time, I can create a sizeable impact on companies.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset means always trying to better yourself and improve in any way. To me, this means being open to different opinions and constantly finding new sources to learn from.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Meta Ads and/or Performance Marketing in general.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

Recently for Funding Circle (1,000 employee loans company), I developed a strategy to improve their tracking and allow us to optimize for high-value customers rather than just people who passed the first phase of credit checks.

Their KPIs are PreQualifications (PQs), Fully Submitted (FS), and Issues (Loans issued). That is how the user journey works also.

Previously we had been optimizing towards a low cost per PQ however by suggesting they track the value of the loans issued, we would be able to optimize towards people who were issued larger loans (and subsequently higher value customers).

By optimizing to a lower part of the funnel and passing back more attributes than we had previously, we were able to change our core KPI to ROAS as we had a monetary value associated with each loan and not only lowered our CPA but also increased the average loan amount.

View Growthmentor Profile

21. Temitope Adeosun

Describe yourself

Hi, I am Temitope, Director of Product Marketing at Talisman Tech [Former Head of SEO @Jumia]. I have unlocked growth at startups and NYSE-listed B2B and B2C companies. I enjoy the smallest of experiments that deliver the most ROI while having analytics pages opened on my second screen displaying how much growth in %change on key MoM KPIs.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

To recreate the same path that helped me scale my career very fast for many others for free.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Having a growth mindset means being open to learning and adapting to new strategies and techniques. It means seeing failures and setbacks as opportunities to learn and improve rather than as deadends.

A growth mindset prepares an individual to overcome feelings of defeat or loss but to instead analyze results, identify what worked and what didn’t, and use that information to make adjustments and try again.

This encourages continuous learning and experimentation: taking risks, trying new things, and learning from both successes and failures to achieve tremendous success in the long run.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Conversion Rate Optimization

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

Relaunched a campaign for B2B fintech, trying to get his first signups for his product after spending thousands of dollars but was only getting fake/low-quality leads.

I basically followed simple landing page design tips of

• Using a skewed landing page.
• Showing social proof using known partner logos to improve credibility.
• Made qualifying questions mandatory to be filled before form submission.
• Replaced some questions to become clearer and compulsory.
• Finally added benefits and expectations as a sticky sidebar to the page.

These 10x submissions totally stopped fake submissions.

View Growthmentor Profile

22. Thomas De Toledo

Describe yourself

Hi, I am Thomas, originally from France but living in London. I am a senior Product manager with around 6 years of experience who worked in different industries from Media to E-commerce. Currently making the world easier and fairer for songwriters in a music tech company. My background is in tech where I used to be a senior developer and tech lead for about 5 years before moving to product.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I have been helped throughout my career but also at times had to learn by myself and I feel I would like to help people not make the same mistakes I made. I feel having a mentor is an important way to progress faster while growing your network.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

I think it is the idea to always try to learn and progress and be open-minded to new ideas. You have to accept you do not know everything, be humble and learn from others.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

As a former developer, I love helping the product approach tech problems and imagine solutions for the future. On top of that having been both a developer and product manager, I am well-positioned to help others to have the best relationships with their tech teams.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

While working in an concierge service business managing short-term rentals, we needed to find a way to provide the keys to our guests in a light-touch way. We worked with a provider that had a network of places where guests could get their keys (like small shops). By integrating with them, we were also able to know when the keys were picked up and provided a transactional email to give instructions to the guest at the right time. This new way of check-in was adopted by more than 50% of our guests vs the classic meet-and-greet check-in. We saw also an increase in satisfaction thanks to the simplicity of the process and the communication provided.

View Growthmentor Profile

23. Tyler Jordan

Describe yourself

Hey, I’m Tyler, I run a digital marketing agency focused on paid acquisition (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Linkedin, etc), as well as organic growth (SEO, content marketing, organic social, email marketing, etc.). I’ve worked on both sides of the table, working for agencies but also multiple startups running in-house marketing teams, and launching marketing programs and initiatives.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I want to get out of my comfort zone and understand what other people are seeing in their businesses, and most importantly I get a lot of energy from talking to other enthusiastic marketing leaders about their experiences, and their journey both personal and professional.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset means one of continuous expansion and diversification, someone who is constantly learning and applying new principles to their life and business. A person with a growth mindset realizes how much they have to learn and that there is no finish line, only completed goals along their journey.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Setting up marketing programs and iterating over time, and working on defining a successful process.
Marketing is all about process, testing, and iteration.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

The first time I took over from a big agency, and realized that while most marketers know what they should do, very few people have the proper process to do what needs to be done. We cut their CAC to 1/4 of what it was prior to working with us.

View Growthmentor Profile

24. Usman Akram

Describe yourself

I am a results-oriented SEO growth strategist who’s obsessed with both algorithms & customer insights.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

Want to give back to the community and by helping other people, want to keep pushing myself for further growth.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset to me is the acknowledgment that perfection doesn’t exist and there’s ALWAYS room for improvement, regardless of whether you’re an entry-level employee or a VP-level executive.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Organic search growth for SaaS companies.

WHY: I’ve been obsessed with SEO ever since I started my career and I specialize in SaaS as a vertical. I come with a portfolio of about a dozen SaaS companies that I’ve helped grow with an SEO strategy that not just helps them rank for keywords but has actual/measurable business (revenue) impact.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

We were trying to close a unicorn mar-tech company as a client in the agency that I work at for about 4 months (part of it was before I joined). The potential client wanted to hear some ideas from us first. I was asked to put together an organic growth plan for them, which when I delivered, they converted in one week.

View Growthmentor Profile

25. Vivek Valayapathy

Describe yourself

Hey, I am Vivek. I lead a digital marketing team at a B2B SaaS company. I have 8 years of experience running performance marketing and website optimization projects. In my last 3 roles, my team has scaled revenue 2x from digital channels. If you have a demand generation and conversion problem, I can help.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I want to provide value to upcoming start-ups and be involved in up-and-coming tech.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset is one where you aren’t afraid to experiment and push boundaries in order to achieve extraordinary results. Don’t make assumptions, test everything and never be satisfied with your metrics.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

PPC. Website optimization is a close second.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself.

Problem: LinkedIn Ads weren’t generating any leads.

Solution: Built a full-funnel strategy. Created demand by introducing Top of Funnel video content to the creative mix. Built a video view audience that I retargeted with more Mid or Bottom of Funnel content.

Result: LinkedIn top-of-funnel Ads generated 50% of the demand on our website and Ads themselves started generating closed won deals.

View Growthmentor Profile

Interested in becoming a growth mentor?

What we’re looking for:

• Growth marketers, product managers, and designers, with extraordinary track records of success
• Inspirational founders that have “been there and done that.”
• Friendly people that take joy in helping other people.
• At least 5 years of demonstrable experience working in growth.
• GrowthMentor is a #givefirst platform. You should be cool with mentoring for free until you have three reviews.