Here are the 24 Growth Mentors of November 2023

1. Alex Ayache

Describe yourself

I’m Alex, currently CTO at Cobble – a platform that helps people reach collaborative agreements with others and I’ve previously co-founded Wheeli, a NYC, Techstars-backed carpooling platform for college students in the US. I’m passionate about any project that aims to leverage tech to positively impact the world around us, and help others figure out how to make that happen.

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

When I was building my first company in NYC, I relied heavily on people willing to give me advice and mentoring, as well as accelerators such as Techstars & Google – and I’ve always enjoyed being able to give back.

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

Being from a science background, a growth mindset is very similar to an experimentation mindset: embracing the processes and techniques required to efficiently set up experiments to learn what works and what doesn’t, all the way to figuring out a viable method to get to whatever results are the goal.

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

The intersection of tech and product (and how to make it work as you grow) – not only is that my core area of expertise, but it’s also where I’ve seen many companies struggle to find the answers they need in order to press forward without major headaches.

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

More recent examples are quite on the technical side, so I’ll go back a bit further in time: back in my first company, we didn’t have much marketing budget (or any budget really) – so I built a strong referral system baked into our core value prop, enabling our growth while keeping our unit economics viable.

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2. Andre Guelmann

Describe yourself

Hey, I’m Andre.

During my 12+ years of experience helping some of the most successful SaaS & startups in the world kick-start and grow their organic traffic I know exactly what works – and what doesn’t.

With my experience with SEO, Referral Programs, and Product-Led Growth I’ve been helping many companies go from startup to scale-up, and I love talking about their successes and failures.

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

Working with others brought me the best growth opportunities in my professional career.

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

Execute your plan and fail fast. In Organic Growth, most failures are caused by poor execution and not strategy.

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

The business side of SEO.

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

I designed an automated solution that created thousands of new landing pages programmatically at scale, for a client that didn’t have the resources to create them manually.

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3. Artem Chetverykov

Describe yourself

I’m a product marketing guru and practitioner with 18 years of experience at Google, Indeed, and Handshake. I build GTM strategies for B2B SaaS to launch products and move upmarket to Mid-market, Enterprise, and Strategic segments while achieving their monetization and product adoption goals.

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

I want to follow the most painful and current challenges startups face to date to keep my skillset and focus relevant.

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

I don’t believe in growth “silver bullets”. Instead, I believe in thoroughly understanding your market, users, and customers, and then applying those insights to craft differentiated positioning, select efficient channels, and develop effective product-led growth strategies.

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

Research and GTM

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

Conceiving and launching a seasonal hiring solution at Indeed by observing recruiter behavior and analyzing product data. Solution starting to drive hundreds of thousands in revenue immediately.

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4. Charlotte Charbit

Describe yourself

Hi, I’m the founder and CEO of NoLimbah, focusing on transforming waste management in Indonesia using technology. With a 7-year background in Strategy Consulting, I’m adept at idea validation, finding the right Product-Market fit, and crafting innovative growth strategies. I’ve also won a SharkTank-like competition in Indonesia, with a 6-figure investment at stake.

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

Becoming a growth mentor is close to my heart because I am grateful that some people took (and still take) the time to sit with me and advise me on how to push my startup, NoLimbah, further; and being able now to guide others to navigate the startup rollercoaster feels like the right way to give back to the entrepreneurial community.

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

To me, a growth mindset is all about being persistent, egoless, and resourceful. It’s learning from failures, humbly accepting feedback, and turning constraints into opportunities.

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

Mentoring early-stage startups from idea validation to Product-Market Fit – my expertise spans over guiding founders through the crucial stages of concept refinement and sustainable growth.

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

Imagine this: a French entrepreneur, that’s me, landing in Indonesia with a dream but no capital, tech skills, or understanding of the local language. Fast forward a year, and I managed to make the impossible become real through strategic resourcing. I crafted an app using no-code technology in a couple of months and that allowed me to onboard my Co-Founder and CTO. I built a team of 20 – starting with volunteers until we got the capital to hire marketers, designers, and operationals. Through an organic iteration process in local communities, we birthed a waste management app that supports several Indonesian villages, while developing partnerships with local Universities, and NGOs. Oh, and did I forget to mention? I’m now conversational in Indonesian, too!

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5. Chris Peters

Describe yourself

Hi, my name is Chris and I have working in marketing for over 12 years.

My experience ranges from working with enterprise brands like Amazon and Deloitte to fast-growth start-ups like Birchbox, to founders just getting started.

I’m an incredibly passionate B2B marketer and I’m hoping to impart my go-to-market strategies to help accelerate start-ups, whether that’s getting traction or scaling.

I have had my own start-ups and attended accelerator programs, and I have worked with over 40 brands in different shapes and sizes.

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

I love working with start-ups and I feel I have learned a tremendous amount over the last decade, more so in the last 5, all of which I feel could empower B2B founders.

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

A relentless focus on solving a problem that you’re incredibly passionate about.

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

B2B growth strategies. There are many routes to growth, and I have tried them all. However, I would want to unpack different businesses and help assess what routes are most suitable to your business.

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

This is hard to articulate.

However, I am currently working with one client who has over 300 marketers on their team!

The challenge is, their org doesn’t encourage alignment across their marketing programs. So, we have witnessed multiple overlaps in their marketing programs.

To help provide a centralized point to their marketing programs I have established a process that aggregates all marketing programs into one centralized point and built a dashboard that provides an overview of the campaigns that are run, which are represented by their different ICPs.

This means there is clarity on the marketing programs run to any ICO, cross-over is minimized, the user experience is better, the marketing out is more effective and money is saved!

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6. Daniel Parris

Describe yourself

I was one of the first operators hired at DoorDash, joining when the company had ~150 employees. I stayed at DoorDash for over six years as the company grew to over 10,000 employees. During that time, I held roles in operations, data science, and sales, working on sales analytics, growth strategy, and statistical modeling.

Since leaving DoorDash in 2022, I’ve split my time between running a popular data newsletter called Stat Significant and providing data consulting services across logistics, media, and fintech.

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

I believe I have a lot of knowledge to offer growing companies, as I worked at DoorDash for ~6 years as the company grew from ~150 staff to over 10,000 employees.

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

Growth comes from rapid experimentation, failing quickly, learning, and iterating. Personal growth often comes from individuals pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone. You need to be willing to take on new challenges and adopt different perspectives in order to grow as a personal and professional.

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

Interpersonal communication and organizational design. DoorDash grew 100x in size while I worked there. My experience at the company was colored by a rapidly expanding organization that complicated employees’ ability to operate. So much of the company’s successes and failures came from navigating interpersonal relationships and thinking critically about organizational design. I’m very passionate about this topic and believe I have a ton of insight from my previous experiences.

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

At DoorDash, we struggled to understand the most valuable restaurants for the company to bring onto the platform. We needed to enlist salespeople to go out and sign these merchants and thus needed a precise understanding of the top restaurants in any geography. Many people approach this problem by arbitrarily ranking restaurants or thinking about selection in terms of cuisine.

I advocated for mining data from our consumer base and then using this information to build predictive models. We built a “request a restaurant” feature and mined search data to better understand what merchants our customers wanted. We used this data to build a predictive model that was 25% better than other approaches to restaurant ranking.

I oversaw this entire project and was proud to contribute to the company’s growth in such a meaningful way.

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7. Edoardo Cenci

Describe yourself

Hi, I am a passionate fintech enthusiast with deep expertise in reshaping financial services. I helped both large and small organizations to innovate and successfully launch new products across the globe. I’m also an entrepreneur and love the challenge of scaling a new business.

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

I managed to get where I am thanks to amazing people who, through my career, inspired and helped me navigate challenges. It’s time to give back.

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

A growth mindset means embracing challenges as opportunities to learn, continuously seeking improvement, and remaining curious. It’s about staying open to new ideas, being flexible to changes, and working hard.

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

How to create and successfully launch a new proposition.

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

We live in a digital era but most often businesses forget the physical touch points that they have with customers. I worked with a bank to help them unlock the potential of those touchpoints and increase their distribution capabilities.

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8. Felix Remennik

Describe yourself

I’m a seasoned marketing leader with expertise ranging from big AdTech (Google) to founding my own digital agency, and now a consultant/employee with growth startups. I’m passionate about helping mission-driven businesses in education, healthcare, finance, and most of all climate/sustainability.

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

I enjoy helping mission-driven startups succeed in their marketing and growth efforts.

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

Growth mindset means always aiming for progress – making things better for yourself, those you work with, and your community. It means having the drive to do a bit more to help out even when you can rest on your laurels because we all aim to have an impact greater than ourselves.

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

Marketing strategy. It’s my area of expertise, ranging from organic to paid, to grassroots, to affiliate. I believe successful digital marketing is the single best way to grow a startup, and want to help others leverage its power.

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

I was recently able to build out a community of content marketers in our vertical through some grassroots networking and relationship building. We’ve so far been able to compound our SEO efforts through partnership and content sharing, as well as share tools for outreach to similar customer bases.

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9. Giulia Panozzo

Describe yourself

I’m an in-house Director of Customer Acquisition and a freelance neuromarketing consultant, with years of expertise in technical SEO and international strategy for e-commerce.

Before landing in digital marketing, I obtained an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Neuropsychology and worked in academic research published internationally. I now leverage my background in Neuroscience research to drive customer acquisition tests informed by cognitive patterns and bias under my own consultancy, Neuroscientive.

I’m a regular speaker at international industry conferences, where I talk about customer behavior, search, and data analytics.

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

I had the opportunity to be a mentor for different organizations (Women in Tech SEO, FDCD, BrightonSEO) and I’ve really enjoyed helping people solve their challenges. I’d like to have the opportunity to get more involved in it in a professional capacity.

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

A growth mindset means leveraging our unique perspective and experience to drive adaptive solutions to challenges, and to be open to the possibility of making mistakes along the way to be able to learn from them.

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

I’d choose to mentor on neuromarketing, because that’s a topic I am deeply passionate about and have the most expertise in.

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

My complex problem was search has been going in a customer-centric direction for a while now, but as an SEO director, I still had challenges getting executive buy-in for projects that were a blend of CX, UX, and search best practices rather than ‘pure’ SEO as we knew it. So I used my background in Neuroscience to inform the test we could run but also to analyze data in a way that could clearly isolate the impact of the initiative on upper funnel metrics, a method that has since been adopted by other departments and has ensured my projects could easily get a spot in the backlog.

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10. Henning Heinrich

Describe yourself

Hi there, Henning here, I’m passionate about growing software development businesses through acquisition, retention, and monetization strategies. My expertise is in B2B SaaS and PLG/PLS. When not obsessing about Growth, I’m an avid CrossFitter.

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

After 10+ years in Growth, I want to give back what I have learned.

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

A growth mindset sees opportunities where others see obstacles.

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

Product Led Growth in B2B SaaS

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

Hah. I’m not that smart. I’m proud of the times that I helped my team test & iterate through a complex problem, pushing them to dig deeper. For example, simplifying the onboarding for a B2B sign-up.

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11. Jacob Colton

Describe yourself

I have a passion for business. I love the excitement and thrill that building businesses deliver. I have been lucky enough to have some success during my career and would love to help other people to have the same.

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

To share my knowledge with upcoming entrepreneurs and because I love startups 🙂

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

Failure and challenges are a natural part of life. How you respond to failure and setbacks is what sets you apart.

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

Bootstrapping a business

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

We were about to launch a new product but realized there would be some challenges with the planned positioning. We therefore managed to cleverly repackage the product before going live to show off the key features and now it is one of our biggest-selling products.

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12. Katya Ryabova

Describe yourself

I’m a product marketer and researcher with a deep focus on customer-led strategies and growth initiatives. I help B2B tech and B2C subscription scale-ups run effective customer research and data analysis, gathering insight that leads to informed decision-making and action.

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

I wouldn’t be where I am without many mentors along the way so I’m looking to pay it forward to the community by offering my marketing and growth experience to all who need it.

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

Having a growth mindset means embracing change and never staying stagnant, no matter how comfortable and tempting it may be. Even the best things change; keeping up, always learning, and always experimenting is the only way forward.

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

Effective and ethical customer research.

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

I’ve been running a research project for a B2C brand where low participation of the target audience members from vulnerable communities was a concern. We needed to recruit 25 interviewees, which by itself is a big ask for a customer research round—it was daunting both for the product team and myself!

My solution was two-fold: first, I suggested we lead with a mixed methods survey, which isn’t revolutionary in and of itself, but it would give us a lower-risk opening and help with interview opt-in. Secondly, and more importantly, I leveraged my “status” as an independent researcher as a way to distance myself from the client to help participants feel more at ease. I also wrote an intro about myself in interview outreach, emphasizing all the confidentiality and security measures we were taking to ensure a safe space for them.

As a result, 48% of people who took the survey opted into an interview, and the interviews themselves had a 0% no-show rate, which is… rare, to say the least!

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13. Linus Antlov

Describe yourself

Hello! My name is Linus and I am a Performance Marketing Professional with over 8 years experience acquiring and retaining customers. I have worked in the B2C eCommerce space and also freelance on the side. I am happy to help out and advise with any customer acquisition-specific questions you have, and also any information regarding advertising platforms.

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

I want to give back to the community and share my expertise on how to grow your career.

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

Seeing that failures are a chance for us to learn valuable lessons to inform us of future success.

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

Mobile user acquisition specifically around advertising (Facebook, Google, Apple, TikTok, Twitter) & App Store Optimisation.

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

I implemented a referral program using AppsFlyer’s out-of-the-box solution which helped us scale user acquisition and at a very low cost compared to advertising.

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14. Marc Crouch

Describe yourself

I launched my first startup when I was 19, way back in the old dotcom days, and have been hooked ever since. I’ve built, grown, invested in, and exited several startups over the years and have run the funding gamut several times as well.

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

It’s really simple: I want to help less experienced founders succeed because I didn’t have access to the same kind of network when I started out.

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

To me, a growth mindset is the combination of determination, resilience, creativity, and big thinking that keeps the momentum dial always pointing forward.

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

How to get your startup from zero to one and get your first few customers, mainly because that’s what I love the most and is what I’m best at.

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

I came up with a tool in my last startup that allowed us to automatically generate landing pages for a list of prospects we had acquired if they entered a unique code on our landing page. We then spun up a quick script that generated thumbnails of each generated site which we could then email to each of the prospects on our list. Just one of the hacks we used to launch our product with 4000 users.

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15. Minas Iatrou

Describe yourself

Hi there, I’m Minas, a Growth Marketer based in London with thirteen years in the field. My career, spanning startups to global enterprises, focuses on multi-channel campaigns, from Facebook and Google to TikTok. Mentored by industry leaders, I’m now eager to give back to the Growthmentor community. My dedication to perpetual learning and empowering others fuels my mission to help cultivate future successful innovators.

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

After thirteen years in Growth Marketing, I’ve realized that my career’s most fulfilling moments come from lifting others.

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

A growth mindset is the lifeblood that drives innovation and endurance in an environment that’s inherently turbulent and competitive. It’s the collective belief within a company that abilities can be honed, solutions can be discovered, and challenges are simply undiscovered opportunities. This mentality encourages a culture of continuous iteration, where products, strategies, and ideas are constantly evolved and refined in response to new information and market dynamics.

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

It would unequivocally be about ‘Strategic Allocation of Seed Funding’, with a focus on long-term product viability over immediately paid marketing efforts. While a paid marketing strategy might yield short-term gains, it often overlooks the necessity of building a product that resonates with consumers’ needs and retains relevance and utility in their lives.

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

At a startup I worked with during my time with Nanigans, we faced declining user engagement post-onboarding despite a strong product. Instead of the usual marketing intensification or feature addition, I pinpointed the issue to the cumbersome onboarding process. My solution was a gamified onboarding strategy, transforming the initial user experience with engaging, reward-based tasks and visual progress cues, making it not just educational but also enjoyable and motivating.

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16. Mischa van Wieringen

Describe yourself

I’m an Operations and Organisational Consultant who helps remote (tech) startups create a strong foundation for their future growth by focusing on two pillars: people and processes. I advise on process and workflow optimization including the implementation of the right tooling and software. Professionalization of the business is often the outcome.

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

I already generally work with startups and I love it! Would love to pass on knowledge that can help them to succeed.

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

If you want to live your dream life, you have to build it yourself.

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

The link between efficient processes and a healthy company culture.

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

I started this work with the “simple” implementation of tools and software to improve workflows and processes within businesses (think of software for project management, HR, CRM, finance, etc). I very quickly found out that this is not “simple” at all. The reason for this is that processes are in a symbiotic relationship with people. One can’t go without the other and vice versa. I soon learned that the crux often isn’t processes, but the people. My focus as a consultant now lies on both, creating efficient processes AND a strong company culture.

It might not be an out-of-the-box solution…but it’s definitely something where I feel “damn, I’m pretty good at this” simply because most consultants don’t even bother looking at this ‘undercurrent’ (as I call it).

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17. Nils Koppelmann

Describe yourself

Hey! 👋🏻 My name is Nils, I’m the founder of 3tech a consultancy specializing in CRO and experimentation. I have a deeply rooted passion for optimizing things in both business and personal contexts.

I’ve worked with companies ranging from eCommerce, SaaS, and marketplaces and helped them build up or improve successful experimentation programs.

If you’re looking for help in ramping up an optimization program or want some advice in scaling experimentation in your company, hit me up.

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

I love helping and learning from people who genuinely want to solve a problem or learn something new.

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

Being open to change, embracing making mistakes, and continuously learning from them.

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

Building up experimentation processes and growing experimentation organization-wide.

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

Transformed a developer-centric organization that was used to “just deploy” into an organization that now leverages validation and other experimentation concepts to grow faster and make more data-driven decisions. Now even people who initially thought that A/B-Testing would add additional work and thought of it as rather bothersome are convinced that by testing and validating, only features that contribute to the bottom line should be deployed.

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18. Richard King

Describe yourself

I’ve spent 20+ years in sales and marketing roles within start-ups and scale-ups, working across a mix of B2B and B2C brands. I’ve planned and executed the growth that took two start-ups – Pact Coffee & Permutive – from Seed to successful Series A and know first-hand how challenging those early stages can be in a new business.

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

To give something back to founders and growth teams, in the same way mentors helped me earlier in my career.

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

Living and breathing the strategy, tactics, and execution with which you find new customers.

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

B2B sales from $0m -> $1m ARR. It’s such a critical stage of growth and requires a real mix of skills to execute effectively.

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

Positioning a SaaS solution for ‘Innovator’ buyers. We’d struggled for several months with describing our software and its various use cases, but resetting around a very simple message was transformational.

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19. Shannon Wright

Describe yourself

I’m a growth professional, with experience in product, lifecycle marketing, and data analytics. I have experience working with trial to subscription and freemium monetization models in the B2B and B2C space. I have experience at seed-stage startups and series E growth-scale companies and love working on developing top-notch customer onboarding experiences.

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

I’d like to help other companies succeed, as well as gain growth leadership experience.

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

Growth requires humility, vulnerability, and safety. In order to take risks, we need to feel safe enough to fail and supported enough to try again. Too often, the pressure to adopt a growth mindset is put on the person, without acknowledging the environment that is needed to let them succeed.

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

Customer education and onboarding is so key to setting users up for success and promoting retention. I would draw on my background in growth product and lifecycle marketing to help create 10/10 onboarding experiences that drive business success.

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

When I worked at Dialpad, we saw that there was a portion of new trial users who never made a call on the platform. These users had a very low post-trial conversion rate and an extremely low retention rate.

Data analytics told us that if a user didn’t make a call in their first 2 days, they were unlikely to make a call at all in their trial.

I hypothesized that users weren’t making calls because making a business call on a new platform felt too “high risk”. We developed a joke hotline that users could call to practice making a call. The % of users who made a call during their trial went up, which then led to increases in trial conversion rates.

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20. Shaun Choo

Describe yourself

Hi everyone! I am Shaun, a growth practitioner with key experience in driving new user acquisition for both global & local brands within the US & APAC regions. Beyond my core work, I am passionate about sharing my knowledge with companies & anyone keen to pursue growth in their careers. I have been lucky to have awesome mentors in my career & would now love to fulfill the same role.

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

Growth is a hugely misunderstood scope & I would love to share my beliefs, principles & methodologies around it.

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

Always anchor on the process – finding arbitrages & focusing on repeatability.

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

Everything around new user acquisition, including modeling, road mapping, experimentation & measurement.

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

Most companies reliant on paid acquisition need to have a robust creative experimentation process, yet it is always difficult to scale up creative production.

There are 3 options:
1. Hire creative designers in-house.
2. Outsource to creative agencies.
3. Double down on creator partnerships – instead of producing content on our own like in Options 1 and 2, we outsource this to creators to produce and scale up our creative production.

We went with Option 3, which allowed us to 10x creative production in a quarter, at a reasonable cost, and with only 1 employee in the paid ads team.

This works, especially in a lean set-up, because it isolates the key levers for success to only creator selection and creative brief, while leaning on the expertise of our creators for the rest of the creative process, such as scriptwriting, storyboarding, video production & editing.

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21. Teo Ivanov

Describe yourself

My name is Teo – I am a Growth Marketing Consultant with 13 years of experience in the startup scene (Blacklane, Helpling, felmo, Pets Deli, Localyze).

My expertise lies at the intersection between Data, Product, and Marketing.

I have experience growing and leading teams from various industries, with a primary emphasis on the B2C sector. I am particularly passionate about Marketplace, D2C, and e-commerce models.

I work mostly with early-stage startups (pre-seed to Series B), providing advice and operational support in the following areas:

• User acquisition strategy
• Performance Marketing (Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn ads)
• SEO
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Mar tech and analytics (Google Tag Manager, GA4, etc)
• Attribution
• Growth strategy
• Team building and coaching
• Forecasting

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

I enjoy solving problems and helping early-stage founders navigate the world of growth.

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

Never stop learning. Never stop challenging your own views. Growth is a choice.

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

Paid User Acquisition and Analytics. My first Marketing love was Google Ads.

Still to this date, I love to nerd out about everything Paid and Organic Search related with a pinch of Tech and Data.

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

During a fractional stint as a Head of Growth, it became clear that my client had no easy way to assess marketing performance in relation to their internal KPIs.

They were mostly relying on the external weekly reports they were receiving from their agency, where numbers were highly inflated.

With a presence on multiple different marketing platforms and a 6-digit monthly budget, it quickly became clear that unit economics had spiraled out of control and quick actions were needed to get the burn rate back on track.

Within 2 months we managed to reduce CACs by 75% by virtually staying on the growth trajectory as before. We did this by:

• Building reliable Performance Dashboards by joining cost data from multiple ad exchanges with first-party data
• Improved MarTech setup by incorporating 3rd party tools to help with measurement and data visualization.
• Defining clear North Star and Input Metrics for the team to use in their day-to-day performance steering
• Defining clear KPI ownership
• Identifying inefficiencies and moving budgets accordingly
• Introducing monthly target review meetings
• Laying the organizational foundations for building an internal full-time growth function

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22. Veronique Ziliotto

Describe yourself

Hi, I’m Veronique, a product leader and startup advisor with 15 years of experience in large corporations (Amazon) and startups. I’m currently the Chief Product Officer at a PropTech startup.

I’m passionate about growing businesses from the initial vision to scale-up, with a focus on customer-centric product development, go-to-market strategy, and customer success. I’ve successfully hired and mentored teams, implemented international product launch strategies, and delivered customer growth and retention programs as well as product upselling in SaaS environments.

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

I am passionate about helping founders and startups build customer-centric products and sharing my experience while learning from others at the same time.

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

Embracing successes and failures with equal courage, seeking out opportunities to learn from others, keeping relentless curiosity and open-mindedness, challenging oneself to improve, and celebrating the potential of others.

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

How to build and launch a digital product starting from your audience and the needs of your customers. I’ve done this in big corporations as well as startups and can bring a lot of lessons learned there.

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

For a SaaS startup, I developed a new business model to sell customized product features to clients that have unique requirements. This created whole new business opportunities to sell engineering and consulting services next to the standard product line.

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23. Vivek Rajukumar

Describe yourself

I spent the last 9 years growing e-commerce marketplaces and brands. Reach out to me if you need help in scaling a 2-sided e-marketplace or building an e-commerce business on a marketplace.

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

To stay connected with the startup community and contribute to the community from my experience of scaling an e-commerce startup, Flipkart to become the #1 player in India and incubate fashion brands in e-commerce platforms around the world (China, India, Indonesia, UAE, Saudi Arabia).

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

Continuous iteration and learning with a child-like curiosity.

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

Growth strategy

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

I re-imagined the experience of selling appliances online and designed browse and product detail pages with a differentiated structure with a focus on elements unique to the appliance purchase journey (buying guide, user-led videos, extended warranty, parameterized reviews, exchange, financing) as head of growth for Large Appliances business at Flipkart. This increased conversion by 3X and grew the online market share for appliances in India by 2X.

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24. Zubin Teherani

Describe yourself

I am the former co-founder of LeagueSide. We built a sponsorship marketplace connecting brands like Allstate, Blue Cross, Comcast, Panda Express, and Uber with youth sports organizations. I focused on product/software, operations, and the GTM for the supply side of our marketplace. Over the course of our journey, we gave over 4 million kids the opportunity to play, grew to over 8 figures of ARR, scaled profitability, and ultimately sold to a PE-backed software company.

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

I recently sold my company and want to give back to founders the same way my advisors supported me.

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

Having a growth mindset means approaching every problem with a “yes, and” perspective and focusing on incremental improvements every day.

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

Project management – how to prioritize the most important blocks of work, manage through ambiguity, keep systems simple and maintainable, and unlock productivity.

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

During COVID, youth sports were not running and our entire business shut down. Despite this, we kept 100% of our clients, created new digital sponsorship assets, and ultimately grew the business 2x.

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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.