Chief Marketing Officer
About Mixbook
Mixbook is an award-winning design platform giving consumers unrivaled creative freedom to design and share one-of-a-kind stories, transforming the lives of more than 6M people. Today, we are the #1 rated photo book service in the US with 26K 5-star reviews and a profitable, growing business. Customers love Mixbook for our powerful and intuitive editor, superb quality, designer themes, and our fanatical customer service.
Founded by two Inc 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs from UC Berkeley California, Mixbook has been featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, TechCrunch, The Verge, Washington Post, New York Times, and many other global media outlets.
The Opportunity
As the CMO, you will have the opportunity to grow the brand and transform the category. The photo book market today reaches only a small % of photo-takers. Instead of being shared, their photos and stories are doomed to die in a dark corner of their phones or shoeboxes in the closet. Mixbook is building the future of the category to solve the photo mess using AI, bring stories to life beyond the printed page, and use them to connect their customers with the people they love – a 10x different product than anything that exists in the category today. With a big vision to deliver on, the CMO plays a critical role in bringing creative and strategic leadership to the future of Mixbook.
Unlike most growth companies, Mixbook has invested deeply in culture. Organizational health is central to their long-term strategy – they believe that when they love their people, they will love their customers, and their customers will love their business. Mixbook is looking for a leader who is inspired by their mission to empower people to be creative and connect deeply with the ones they love; who exudes their core values: scrappy (spirit of entrepreneurship), caring (heart of empathy) and craftsmanship (spirit of excellence); and who believes that great culture starts with helping their employees thrive.
POSITION OVERVIEW - CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Location: West Coast (HQ, Redwood City, CA)
Reporting to: CEO and Co Founder, Andrew Laffoon
Mixbook’s mission is to empower people to be creative and connect with the ones they love. This CMO opportunity will transform marketing at Mixbook during a very exciting time for the company as it embarks on a new product vision.
As a key member of the executive team, the CMO will bring big strategic vision and creative leadership to marketing efforts, contribute to the company strategy, and build a world class team.
Mixbook is in a phase of transformation - modernizing its marketing, solidifying product marketing, and delivering on a new product vision. The CMO will drive the modernization of marketing through data, retention, and personalization by leveraging their strong eCommerce experience.
This position is a critical member of the leadership team and works closely with product, operations and finance leadership to drive the overall success of the brand. The CMO will be a brilliant thought partner to the Chief Product Officer and CEO and will be the “wonderer” of the Mixbook brand. The ideal candidate comes with a deep understanding in digital, eCommerce, and product marketing, and is someone who thrives in fast-paced start-up environments.
KEY OBJECTIVES
- Modernize the marketing function: focusing on data, retention and personalization.
- Develop and deploy a long term marketing strategy shifting away from discounts to lead with benefits/differentiation. (desktop & mobile)
- Build out the product marketing function to better define their go-to-market strategy, feature+benefit language, and the design content selection strategy.
- Drive the development of the site merchandising strategy for mobile app/web and desktop that connects with a marketing plan across all channels, to drive improved conversion rate and ultimately ROAS.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Serve on the executive leadership team to own the entire marketing, creative, sales and business development functions and direct the conceptualization, development, execution and evaluation of marketing plans and programs in support of growing the Mixbook brand.
- Manage and define the messaging around new product/feature launches and product expansion to new customer segments.
- The clear differentiation of Mixbook across all channels to drive competitive positioning.
- Collaborate with Human Resources and Talent Acquisition to build a strong employer brand to attract and retain top tier talent.
- Partner with the analytics team to ensure all marketing tactics are measurable and own the reporting and analysis of marketing initiatives.
- Build, inspire, and lead a high performing marketing organization that delivers against marketing goals: clearly defined KPIs and performance measurement, roles, career paths, and employee success strategies.
- Oversee a team of 19 across acquisition, retention, product marketing, social media marketing, brand & content marketing, partnerships, sales, creative, PR and communications.
- Create and maintain a work culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability, always driven by customer-centricity.
QUALIFICATIONS
- 12+ years of B2C and/or B2B marketing experience, with a minimum of 5 years of experience leading high-performing marketing teams and at least 3 years of consumer ecommerce experience.
- Prior success in high-growth, technology driven companies with a deep understanding of eCommerce and the digital ecosystem.
- Strong brand building experience that is tied back to overall revenue growth and company performance.
- Expert-level command of product marketing (messaging, product launches, strategy, etc.).
- Strong knowledge of all metrics that measure marketing effectiveness (LTV, CAC, Churn, CPA, attribution models, average customer spend, ROAS, other customer-focused metrics, etc.) Leverages metrics and data to drive decision making.
- Experience building strategies across multiple marketing channels including product marketing and eCommerce.
- Holistic full funnel marketer with experience scaling digital and non-digital channels that drive growth of mobile and desktop.
- Has experience taking a brand from a niche customer set to a broader customer set.
PERSONALITY TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS
The ideal candidate is entrepreneurial and enjoys leading and building teams, implementing processes, and growing and scaling businesses.
- Entrepreneurial, roll-up your sleeves, get in the trenches
- Humble, hungry for growth and smart in how one treats others
- Embraces team based cross functional execution
- Direct in offering feedback, because they know the most caring thing they can do is help their teammates improve
- Captivating, visionary storyteller, and leader
- Structured and analytical thinker along with being a force for creative ideas and innovation
- Nimble, flexible, responsive to changes in the market
- Prioritizes clarity over certainty, values accountability
- Results oriented, driven, and strong work ethic
WHAT YOU'LL ENJOY:
- Comprehensive healthcare coverage, including fully-covered premiums for you and your family
- 18 weeks of paid parental leave for birthing parents and 12 weeks for non-birthing parents
- Unlimited paid time off (plus vacation bonuses!) and flexible schedules
- $2,000 per year for external learning and development
- 401k + match, monthly events, travel opportunities, and more
TEAM:
- Andrew Laffoon: Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
- Patty Morris: Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer
- David Newhoff: Chief Product Officer
- Venesa Klein: Head of Talent
RECENT PRESS AND HIGHLIGHTS
- A Message From our CEO, Mixbook:
- NY Times Wirecutter: Mixbook Rated #1
- Customer Stories
- #1 Reviews
- Martha Stewart Collaboration:
- Oh Joy! Collaboration:Hear From Our Community of Creators
STATS
- Year Founded: 2006
- Employees: 90
- HQ: Redwood City, CA
Company Mission
Our mission is to empower people to be creative and connect deeply with the ones they love. Unlike most growth companies, we have invested deeply in culture. Organizational health is central to our long-term strategy – we believe that when we love our people, they will love our customers, and our customers will love our business.
We want people to join us who exude our core values:
- Scrappy (Act like an entrepreneur)
- Caring (Heart of empathy)
- Craftsmanship (Spirit of excellence)