Aspireship

Aspireship Inc operates multiple brands to help people transform their career trajectory.

Our brands:

Aspireship - Upskilling platform for B2B tech companies 
- aspireship.com

Orchard - Career Discovery for students and career changers
- orchard.careers

Teacher Career Coach - Online Courses, resources and community to help transitioning teachers find a great career after deciding to leave the classroom. 
- teachercareercoach.com

Founder & CEO

Story Ventures

As a Scout Investor, I'm privileged to be able to invest in founders of early-stage startups with the conviction to create positive change.

Story Ventures is an early stage VC fund based in NYC.

We invest in entrepreneurs with big visions that leverage technology and the proliferation of data to impact the way people interact with the world.

Scout Investor

MINDBODY, Inc.

Acquired by Vista Equity Partners.

Led the integration of Frederick into the MINDBODY organization. Frederick now powers the MINDBODY and Booker premium product editions to bring AI driven marketing to beauty, fitness and wellness businesses worldwide.

Vice President & GM, Frederick

Booker Software

Acquired by MINDBODY.

Continued to operate as CEO of Frederick following the acquisition by Booker Software.

CEO, Frederick

Frederick

Acquired by Booker and MINDBODY. 

Created the world’s first marketing automation platform for local businesses that’s powered by artificial intelligence. We call him Frederick, and he’s the smartest marketing engine local businesses have ever seen.

Dell

Building Dell's relationships with top venture capital firms, angel investors, Fortune 500 innovation departments and fast-growth startups.

Director, Center for Entrepreneurs

PhoneTell

PhoneTell makes mobile local search apps for consumers and wireless operators. 

My role was a hybrid of product management and business development. I was responsible for a Top 40 Travel & Local consumer app and worked alongside the CEO/COO to close and support deals with large wireless carriers globally.

VP, Product & Business Development

Game Change Ventures

Worked with consumer internet, e-commerce and SaaS startups to help them launch and grow innovative companies.

Managing Partner

Club E Network

Grew a local organization that began as a student club at Arizona State University into a multi-state organization with 10 chapters and an online network reaching entrepreneurs around the world.

President

The Business Journal

Guest Columnist

CEO @ Aspireship | Helping people get hired in tech sales and customer success

I’ve dedicated my professional career to helping people who want to help themselves. Currently, I’m building Aspireship Inc.

Aspireship Inc operates multiple brands to help people transform their career trajectory.

Our brands:

Aspireship - Upskilling platform for B2B tech companies 
- aspireship.com

Orchard - Career Discovery for students and career changers
- orchard.careers

Teacher Career Coach - Online Courses, resources and community to help transitioning teachers find a great career after deciding to leave the classroom. 
- teachercareercoach.com



Corey Kossack

Refine Labs

Moved from client delivery to leading Refine Labs’ marketing, reporting to the CEO. I own brand, content, digital, and messaging - focused on pipeline and revenue growth for the business.

Everything ties back to what customers care about and what drives growth. My job is alignment: strategy to outcomes, team to impact.

VP of Marketing

Built and led 5 account teams from scratch, supporting 20+ B2B SaaS clients. Grew our book of business 400% in 6 months. Focused on marketing strategy that actually drives pipeline - not just activity - and partnering with execs to fix what’s not working.

VP, Demand Generation (Client Services)

Make Demand Generation your Competitive Advantage.

Refine Labs is a demand accelerator for B2B SaaS companies. We help companies increase marketing’s contribution to qualified pipeline and revenue while lowering customer acquisition costs. Through our Demand Acceleration Framework, we build a system to capture existing market demand in intent channels and create new demand in awareness channels. We test, iterate, and push boundaries to continually bring new strategies into your marketing mix - giving you the edge over competitors.

We accelerate business growth through a mix of these core components:

*Revenue Operations
CRM / Marketing Automation
Tech Stack Development & Integration
Marketing Attribution
Advanced Insights & Analytics
Sales Operations & Enablement

*Growth Marketing
Paid Search
Paid Social
Content Marketing
Conversion Rate Optimization
Remarketing

*Buyer Enablement
Ungated Thought Leadership
On-Demand Demos
Expert Product Pages
Customer Stories
Online Ordering (E-Commerce)

Director, Demand Generation (Client Services)

Aptivio

Strategic Advisor (Growth)

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

As a senior digital marketing manager inside of the AWS acquisition and activation marketing group, I develop the marketing strategies and guide campaign execution for end-to-end acquisition marketing programs (demand generation, lead generation, and customer acquisition) that reach and enable targeted audiences to learn, experiment, and build faster with AWS cloud technology - SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS solutions. 

I oversee all aspects of campaign development and execution ranging from creative and messaging, customer insights, targeting and testing, vendor management (selection and on-boarding), tracking infrastructure and analytics, reporting, and conversion optimizations. 

My role collaborates and directly influences cross-functional teams - product, field, sales, finance, and operations to create and activate full-funnel campaigns to achieve various campaign and program objectives; sales and product growth, acquisition, and awareness aligned to CPA, CLV, and CAC targets.

Sr. Marketing Manager, Acquisition & Activation

Paid search manager responsible for the holistic management and execution of the global AWS paid search acquisition program.  

Leadership | Lead responsible for all aspects of program success including global strategy and execution, stakeholder education and management, vendor management and on-boarding (contracts, IOs, integration), facilitating MBRs, QBRs, and driving annual planning.

Operations | Developed the operational framework used to reduce program inefficiencies (targeting, audience overlap, keyword duplication, tiered bidding strategy) and implemented a standardized process to eliminate cross-department cannibalization, reduce keyword CPCs, improve CTRs, lower overall CPAs, and drive up CLV on a global level.

Data and Analytics | Manage all paid media analytics (tracking, tagging, implementation), performance analysis, testing, and channel optimizations to improve customer lifetime value (CLV) while efficiently meeting cost-per-acquisition (CPA) targets. 

Publishers | Google, Bing, Yandex, Naver, Baidu. 

Vendors and Tools | Sprinklr, Tableau, Publisher platforms, Salesforce, Marketo, Adobe Analytics

▪️ Reduced CPA and scaled acquisition 28% YoY
▪️ Restructured keyword strategy and reduced non-brand CPCs by 76%
▪️ Implemented search abandoner targeting strategy yielding an incremental 820K visitors
▪️ Grew site visitor 283% in Pakistan after spearheading localization project
▪️ Identified and onboarded 3 new publishers contributing to 1 million incremental visitors and influenced over 30K service adoptions

Manager, Paid Search, Acquisition

Microsoft

Top Sales Performer at 128% Annual Quota Attainment FY17 | Microsoft's Americas Gold Club

Managed $15M+ in advertising revenue for 300+ SMB accounts comprised of agency and direct advertisers; B2B, B2C, and Consumer marketing objectives.

I craft, plan, and pitch proactive sales strategies and growth road-maps to each customer to empower them to grow their business revenue while maximizing their investment with Microsoft’s Bing Ads. 

At its core, sales and successful account management is centered around nurturing new and strengthening existing relationships to maximize overall customer satisfaction. 

I pride myself on building strong relationships and earning trust at multiple levels within an organization - after that, the sell comes naturally as I become a direct extension of their marketing team with a seat at the table during strategic planning. 

▪️ Exceeded personal sales quota 5 consecutive quarters
▪️ Awarded Americas Gold Club – Top Attainment Worldwide at 128% in FY17 
▪️ Awarded 100% Attainment - Microsoft Search Advertising in FY17
▪️ Evangelize and educate prospects of Bing Ads solutions at industry conferences including SMX 

Earn Trust. Listen. Pitch. Revenue.

Account Manager, Microsoft Advertising (Sales)

Walgreens

Management and responsibility for all paid search, shopping, mobile and retargeting activities for drugstore.com™ and Beauty.com™ retail catalogs. 

I provided e-commerce thought leadership and strategic guidance for efforts across both properties while executing and aligning appropriate mix of search strategies/optimization to improve program efficiency and revenue contribution at category levels. I partnered with category managers and finance teams to align the e-commence efforts with key company initiatives in order to manage and scale the program within efficient ROAS goals.

▪️Restructured PPC account (2M+ keywords) to align with new profitability goals resulting in a 20% lift in ROAS

Senior Marketing Analyst, Paid Search (SEM)

drugstore.com

Paid Search Coordinator, Retail (SEM)

Seattle Online Retail Company

Marketing Coordinator

VP Marketing, Refine Labs | B2B SaaS Leader | Guiding the Transition from Lead Generation to Demand Generation, One Company at a Time (10x) | Trusted Advisor & Consultant

Cleaning offices in High School to serving tables in college to pay for tuition taught me a lot - how to read people, figure out what they need, and bring some order to the chaos. That curiosity naturally pulled me toward marketing, where it all clicked.

After college, I taught myself paid search (Google Adwords for the OG folks) on YouTube and landed my first marketing job with Walgreens. From there, I moved into sales at Microsoft, then strategy at AWS. Now, I help B2B SaaS companies scale by focusing on what actually drives impact.

Here’s how I apply that focus in marketing:
- Building demand strategies that resonate with real customers and drive measurable results.
- Optimizing onboarding and conversion funnels to make them seamless and effective.
- Analyzing full-funnel revenue data to uncover what’s working (and what’s not).
- Creating clear, scalable roadmaps that help teams grow efficiently without adding complexity.

Outside of work? You’ll probably find me sipping bourbon, soaking up some sunshine, and spending time with my favorite people. Simple moments, but they’re what fuel the bigger picture.

Evan Hughes

I’ve spoken with 27 marketers in the last three weeks who’ve been laid off or had their roles eliminated. Real people with families. Directors, VPs, and senior specialists - with years (even decades) of experience.

Here’s what I’m hearing
→ The job market is flooded with talent, but the opportunities just aren’t there
→ Many of these people have led demand gen, ABM, marketing ops, and content marketing teams and now they’re questioning how to stay afloat
→ Most are remote, open to freelance, or even looking to pivot industries just to make it through

The stories are brutal for me to hear.

...20+ years of experience reduced to chasing job postings that don’t even match their skills.

...Talented leaders who scaled SaaS companies being told, “We need to cut costs.”

...Professionals who were the backbone of their teams now scrambling to cover bills.

👇

If you’re hiring - or know someone who is - let’s get these people back in the game. They’re ready to make an impact.

#job #laidoff

FWIW I know I’m just one person, but if this helps even one of you land something, it’ll be worth it. And maybe more will join. 

Linkedin do your thing. Algo please don't throttle reach.

VP of Marketing at Refine Labs - B2B Demand Gen Agency | Builder of Hired, a no-BS community for marketers [See Featured]

Every VP of Marketing job description reads like they’re hiring three people in one.

Strategic. Visionary. Creative. Analytical. Operational.
Oh, and while you’re at it can you write copy, build dashboards and lead a team with “grace under pressure”?

Translation they want a CMO for half the cost.

The interview process doesn’t help either.
You’re basically auditioning for a role that doesn’t exist yet.

You’re told you’ll “own strategy” but the CEO still wants to review every post.
You’re told they value “big-picture thinking” but every conversation circles back to last month’s pipeline.
You’re told they want “integration” but the team’s split across three departments with no shared goals.

Then there’s the board deck fantasy and KPIs
The CMO wants a story that “inspires confidence”
So your job becomes making it all look clean and linear.
Like growth is a straight line.

It’s not.
It never f’n is.

Most VPs of Marketing are just managing contradictions.
Trying to be strategic while buried in Slack.
Trying to be a visionary while fixing a broken lead form.
Trying to grow pipeline while cleaning up leftovers from whoever came before.

It’s not that people lie in interviews.
Most companies just don’t know what kind of marketing leader they actually need.
They know what they want to show the board.

If you’re a new VP reading this stop trying to be everything they wrote down in that job post.
Find the few things that really move the business and pour your energy there.

Because the best marketing leaders don’t check every box.
They just know which ones to ignore..

taplio

The Battle

Corey Kossack

Evan Hughes

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The Battle

Corey Kossack

Evan Hughes

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Evan Hughes's LinkedIn Performance

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