SVP, Marketing Strategy - Palm Venture Studios

OVERVIEW

Palm Venture Studios (PVS) is an active, nationwide network of venture studios that specializes in giving promising but "stuck" companies a second life via rescue capital and other resources that enable companies to pivot and succeed. The venture studio network will provide portfolio companies with shared methodology, extensive networks and resources in functional business areas such as strategy, capital, FP&A, go-to-market, accounting, HR, and recruiting. PVS is backed by an active, family investment offices with a strong track record of acquiring underperforming businesses and pivoting them to a more disruptive business plan that drives results, as well as launching startups from scratch; the family office has acquired or started 65 companies since 1992, 18 of which have been sold for 21x return on capital invested.

We are looking for an experienced go-to-market specialist to own our go-to-market function to provide strategy and guidance to the dozens of ventures in our portfolio. This is one of a few priority areas of shared services that we are investing in to drive results across the portfolio.

THE ROLE

As SVP Marketing Strategy, you will be the primary strategic partner to the CEOs of our portfolio companies in developing and executing go-to-market and marketing plans. You will make sure that they have comprehensive thinking, correct prioritization, and effective implementation on key objectives on all workflows that relate to the marketing function. As you develop this function, you will be able to build a small team and manage a roster of “approved” vendor firms for our portfolio companies to hire in support of execution. 

Our companies are in varying stages of product development. Some have millions in recurring revenue and are ready for more robust strategies. Others have yet to scope and build their first product. And many are somewhere in between. On the turnaround side, most of the companies got “stuck” because they blew their first attempt at go-to-market, and will primarily need support in this arena.You will need to take a custom approach, developing a bespoke playbook with each company. The portfolio companies do not have huge marketing budgets and so you will need to be scrappy and creative.

You are a strong marketing generalist with successful experience in market analysis & mapping, customer segmentation, positioning, branding, paid advertising, and earned media. You have successfully marketed consumer and B2B products, and understand the relationships between marketing, market insights, and the product development cycle. You are a strategic thinker, but able to operate in the weeds, at startup speed, on a daily basis.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

As our SVP Marketing Strategy, you will be accountable for these workflows:

• Conduct an assessment of all PVS ventures to score their current go-to-market thinking, market potential, to create a priority matrix. Align with PVS leadership on how to prioritize your work portfolio according to which companies have the highest potential for ROI on your time and effort.
  
• Act as primary thought partner to all PVS portfolio CEOs on their go-to-market function. Make sure that high-priority marketing projects are moving forward and on-target.
  
• Actively coach, guide, and support on the core marketing functions: 
• Market analysis & market mapping
• Customer segmentation & persona development
• Brand design and development
• Product positioning
• Product pricing
• Demand generation
• Paid advertising
• Earned media
  
• Develop and manage a roster of “approved vendor” firms who specialize in various parts of the marketing value chain, refer them to portfolio CEOs as needed, and help ensure projects are well scoped and cost effective.

Requirements

You are a perfect fit for this position if you have:

• A strong desire to build companies that make the world a better place.
• At least 5 years of project leadership across the go-to-market motion.
• Experience leading pieces or totality of go-to-market on multiple consumer products and multiple B2B products/services with a track record and tangible successes you can identify.
• Experience scoping projects with limited resources. PVS is a frugal and fiduciarily-rigorous venture studio.
• An entrepreneurial, "extreme ownership" mindset and an appetite to take on a high level of responsibility, commensurate with anticipated rewards.
• Excellent professional references and a demonstrable record of integrity.

Benefits

The compensation for this role is “equity heavy”. The base salary is $175-250K with health insurance and 401K, and meaningful equity in the PVS portfolio which may grow to up to 60 portfolio companies. This role is a great fit for someone who is confident that their skills will translate to business wins, and who wants to participate in the upside of those wins.