Draper University

Focused on global business development and partnerships for leading Silicon Valley Venture Network, Founder Residency and Accelerator.

Led major deals to accelerate global entrepreneurship and ecosystem growth for partners ranging from governments to leading blockchains including Jetro Japan, Cyberport Hong Kong, Stellar Development Foundation, and the Cardano Foundation.

VP - Ecosystem Growth

DraperU is a leading pre-accelerator located in Silicon Valley founded by Venture Capitalist Tim Draper. Their entrepreneurship programs have gathered 2100 entrepreneurs from 101 different countries with  US$900m raised in venture capital.

Led major crypto program deals: Algorand, VeChain, NEO, CEEK, etc

Head of Business Development and Partnerships - APAC

Bevy

Helping brands build, grow, and scale their communities. Clients include Slack, Twitch, Atlassian, Asana, Webflow, etc

Investor

LawAdvisor Ventures

Helping leading Legal-tech platform LawAdvisor connect to Startups.
Raised US$5M Million Seed from backers, including Google Maps founder Lars Rasmussen, ex-Barclays Ventures CEO Ben Davey, former Orrick chairman and CEO Ralph Baxter, Microsoft general manager and associate general counsel Jason Barnwell, etc

Investor & Startup Ambassador

SOSV MOX (Mobile Only Accelerator)

Mentor

Startup Grind

Global startup community: 4 million startups in 600 cities and 125 countries worldwide.

Proudly interviewing and sharing the stories of global game changers, from Unicorn founders to Nobel Prize Winners.

Global Podcast Host

Connecting the World's Best Startups with Silicon Valley, Our Global Network, and Partners.

Startup Grind (powered by Google for Entrepreneurs) inspires, educates, and connects 3,500,000+ entrepreneurs, in 600 cities in 125 countries around the world. Local partners include: ASX, Deloitte Private, Salesforce, IBM, MYOB, Zendesk, Airwallex and NAB.

APAC Director

The aim of Startup Grind Australia is to both showcase the best of local startups and help support the progression of online business, in addition to amplifying our voice within the international community.

Startup Grind is an event series and media company designed to help educate, inspire, and connect local entrepreneurs.

Established local and national partnerships with the ASX, NAB, Deloitte, MYOB, Zendesk, 99designs, Holding Redlich, inVision, Xero, Salesforce, and Vinomofo.

General Manager - Australia/New Zealand

DreamPushers

On a mission to build the #1 Crypto Creator Community and Lifestyle Brand™

Founder

Startupbootcamp

Corporate Innovation, Growth Hacking and Program Management for global leading industry-focused
accelerator.
Lead venture builder for the 雀巢 Nestle Accelerator (Beijing, China) - Commercialising
patented technology in personalized nutrition. Venture building and growth hacking for Mars and Asahi.

Managed and trained 5 cohorts of growth hackers redesigning curriculum with the latest in
digital marketing and ethical growth hacking.

Program Director / Venture Builder

Draper Startup House

The Hotels for Entrepreneurs. On a mission is to enable ONE MILLION entrepreneurs by 2030. 
Part of the Global Draper Venture Network and Ecosystem.

Head Of Marketing (International)

Collective Campus

Connecting Melbourne's leading startups with local and global resources. Collective Campus is Melbourne's Leading Enterprise Innovation Hub. It is focused on running corporate accelerator programs for Mills Oakley (LawTech), Village Roadshow (VR/ AR), and Charter Hall (Proptech) and Lemonade Stand - A fun business & entrepreneurship program for kids (Australia & Singapore)

Entrepreneur In Residence

Forbes

Covering startups and entrepreneurship in Australia and New Zealand for Forbes.

Contributing Writer

VP - Ecosystem Growth @ Draper University

With over 11 years of experience in the startup and venture capital space, I am a passionate and proactive leader who helps brands build, grow, and scale their communities, products, and impact. As the VP of Ecosystem Growth at Draper University, I focus on global business development and partnerships for the leading Silicon Valley Venture Network and Pre-Accelerator, connecting entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, and governments across the world.

I am also an active investor and mentor, supporting startups in various domains and stages, such as Bevy, LawAdvisor, SOSV MOX, and Startup Grind. I have a strong track record of building partnerships, launching programs, and growing ecosystems. I leverage my expertise in marketing, innovation, and blockchain to empower and inspire the next generation of changemakers and disruptors. My mission is to push the boundaries of what is possible and create value for society.

Chris Joannou 💎

Zeno Group

On a mission to build Silicon Valley's first agency of record one click+like+tweet+share & conversion at a time 👍🏼

Data-driven, creative and constantly thinking of innovative ways to reach audiences online with content, programs, campaigns and stories that matter. 

➜ Data & Analytics: 
Use data analysis to find whitespace in the market for clients. Analyze media data, social data, web analytics, sales data, competitive & primary research, extract insights and use them to inform marketing and communications programs.

➜ Influencer & Audience Marketing:
Support clients by identifying influencers and audiences across multiple sectors - Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Enterprise Security, C-Suite, and Healthcare. Build programs that leverage and extract key insights, affinities, conversations, sharing patterns and media consumption that will inform laser-focused editorial and creative content, social, paid media and rigorous integration with traditional media relations programs. 

➜ Brand Storytelling:
Support clients with the technical aspects of building online newsrooms - integration with corporate website and blog, social medial and 3rd party content. Also support the content engine that powers the newsroom - identifying contributors, editorial workflows, KPIs and the content distribution strategy. 

➜ Social Platforms & Technologies:
Expert power user in social listening platforms (Crimson Hexagon, Sysomos, and Meltwater), influencer marketing technologies (Onalytica, Traackr, Buzzsumo), audience intelligence platforms (Affinio, Audiense, DemographicsPro), traditional media monitoring platforms (Trendkite, TechNews, and MuckRack) and social marketing platforms (Spredfast, Sprinklr & Sprout Social).

Global Head of Analytics

The Social Intelligence Lab

Advisory Board Member

Kogan Page

Participation Marketing explores the benefits of getting employees to subscribe to a brand’s ethos in order to magnify a brand’s voice. Employee advocacy has always been worth investing in, but the importance of leveraging it has massively increased with the explosion of unique social media connections. Earning the respect and passion of hard-working employees, and encouraging them to share the company’s activity in their personal channels, importantly communicates a transparent and human brand.

This book will help business leaders think strategically about employee advocacy as a new channel to market and will show them how to develop trusted brand messages. Participation in company activity and sharing content not only helps reach wider communities with trusted peer-to-peer endorsements, it also reinforces the credibility of a company as a positive brand experience. Alongside higher employee engagement, retention and productivity, Participation Marketing shows you how to work with the most vital influencers that any organization can have: its employees.

Participation Marketing: Unleashing Employees to "Participate" and Become Brand Storytellers

Pearson

➞ Published by Pearson Education, 2013

There is a content surplus and an attention deficit in the minds of consumers today. They are highly influential and aiding others down the purchase funnel using organic conversations about the products they care about and the ones they don't. In order to reach these consumers, brands must create recent, relevant and value add content in order to break through the clutter and successfully change their behavior. 

Content is still king - and if you're a brand marketer, you need to start thinking like a media company, too. Your Brand, The Next Media Company brings together the strategic insights, operational frameworks, and insights and practical approaches for transforming your brand into a highly successful media company.

Your Brand: The Next Media Company

➞ Published by Pearson Education, 2011

Many organizations today have already evolved into social brands. They may be active on Twitter and Facebook; they may have corporate blogs and communities and they are trying hard to engage effectively with the social customer. However, behind the firewall, chaos, anarchy, and conflict reign. In Smart Business, Social Business, leading enterprise social business consultant shows how to build an internal framework based on change management that will lead to success with social media: one that will make external engagement more effective, meaningful, and sustainable. 

Michael Brito systematically identifies the internal culture, process and technology obstacles to long-term success with social media, and offer best practice solutions. He discusses a wide spectrum of issues, offering actionable intelligence and helping decision-makers build strategies and plans that deliver value. Topics addressed include change management, organizational models and dynamics, internal communications, collaboration, governance, metrics, training, employee activation, policies, technology integration, workflows, social CRM, and much more. Drawing on his own experience working for Silicon Valley companies, HP, Yahoo! and Intel, Brito presents dozens of examples and case studies. Using this book, companies can begin to transform their organizations from just a "social brand" to a fully collaborative and dynamic "social business.”

Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization

San Jose State University

I teach a strategic social media and business communications class to both undergraduate and graduate students. The class covers the following: 

• Creative storytelling: How to create a narrative 
• Best practices for social media marketing and publishing 
• How to build audiences and launch paid campaigns in Facebook & LinkedIn
• Best practices for influencer marketing for B2B and consumer brands
• Presentation skills: Oral delivery and how to build strong PowerPoint decks

Adjunct Professor

Golden Gate University

➞ Teach a graduate class about social media marketing, content strategy and analytics.

LEWIS Global Communications

➞  Responsible for business growth, P&L, hiring and office culture for the 60+ staff in the San Francisco office and digital organization in the US. 

➞ Worked with a variety of B2B & B2C clients (VMware, McAfee, TiVo, Jenny Craig, PCA Skin, ServiceNow, NVIDIA, Cisco, and Infosys.)

➞ Pitched new business, respond to RFIs & RFPs and develop marketing plans for the San Francisco office.

➞ Built innovative products and data-driven approaches for marketing, analytics, public relations, content strategy and B2B influencer marketing. 

➞ Provided clients with strategic planning for PR & digital communication programs, campaign activations, social marketing and lead generation activities and using data to inform content strategy (brand narrative, campaign programs & editorial approach.) 

➞ Established strategic partnerships with social technologies and platforms: Crimson Hexagon, Zignal Labs, Sysomos, People Pattern, Spredfast, Meltwater and Traackr. 

➞ Built and create new, innovative product offerings for clients that drive business impact:
 
- LEWIS Analytics 
- Employee Activate
- Data-Driven Storytelling 
- Influencer Marketing and Activation

Head of US Digital

W2O Group

➞ Led a team of 10-12 social, digital & content marketers.

➞ Collaborated across the organization with internal stakeholders to ensure high-performance of social programs and high-quality client deliverables – account, planning, analytics and creative. 

➞ Built global, social content programs and campaigns integrating paid, earned, shared and owned media channels for Healthcare, Consumer and B2B clients (Sanofi, Best Buy, HPE).

➞ Used audience data and insights to inform creative content, editorial strategy and paid media initiatives for owned media (blogs, newsrooms) & Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn. 

➞ Launched employee and customer advocacy programs focusing on brand activation and storytelling by partnering with Dynamic Signal (employee advocacy technology platform).

➞ Developed social media training and certification programs emphasizing employee activation, executive visibility, best practices for social engagement and measurement. 

➞ Launched Content as a Service (CaaS) - strategic approach that helps brands operate like publishers.

Head of Social Marketing

TED Conferences

➞ TEDx presentation about legacies and the importance of a "personal brand".

Keynote Speaker, TEDx

UC Berkeley

➞ Taught Berkeley-Haas MBA students about social media marketing, content strategy and data-driven storytelling.

Adjunct Professor, Strategic Business Communications

Digital OG. Global Head of Analytics @Zeno Group + TEDx Speaker + Adjunct Professor + U.S. Marine | @Britopian

Digital OG, but still learning. 

Battle-tested, but ready for the next test. 

Mamba mentality, always.

Humbled and grateful for friends, family and colleagues who have always believed in me, especially when I failed. From chasing ambitious goals to facing unexpected pivots, I've been humbled by the reality that success isn't always a straight line. Each setback is a reminder that there's always more to learn.

I failed algebra twice in High School, and 30 years later, I'm leading global analytics at Zeno. True story.

Years ago, a mentor taught me how to make "big data" small and more actionable. It wasn't easy, and after many pitfalls, it began to click. Since then, I've been helping brands turn data into actionable insights that enable them to make swift, informed decisions.

And, this is my expertise and passion: using real-time narrative and cultural intelligence, integrated measurement, and predictive analytics to drive strategic business outcomes for my clients.

Leveraging an advanced tech stack, strategic approach, and proprietary algorithms, I bring precision and depth to analytics and measurement, ensuring that brands can see around corners and stay ahead of the curve. 

Today, this is more important than at any time in history. 

My philosophy: Data-driven marketing and communications produce business results, increase customer lifetime value, and create brand love. And, the truth is  … if you love your customers, they will love you back and tell others. 

Legendary brands know this.

🏆 Awards and recognition I'm thankful for:

Bylines & Media Mentions ↘
Featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Adweek, Information Week, and other reputable media outlets.

TEDx Talk ↘
It's still mind-blowing that I was invited to speak at a TEDx event, but I did it in 2017. 

Industry Awards ↘
▶︎ Recognized as one of the Top 50 Social Intelligence Pioneers by The Social Intelligence Lab.
▶︎ Named to PRWeek's annual list of 25 of the most influential people in communications technology–Dashboard 25 Class of 2022.
▶︎ Identified as one of the Top 25 Digital Innovators by PRovoke Media.

Published books 📖:
▶︎ Smart Business, Social Business (2011)
▶︎ Your Brand: The Next Media Company (2013)
▶︎ Participation Marketing (2018)

Specialties: Social Listening ▹ Narrative & Cultural Intelligence ▹ Media Insights & Analysis ▹ Research & Analytics ▹ Influencer & Audience Analysis

taplio

The Battle

Chris Joannou 💎

Michael Brito

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