Justin Schmidt

I am a marketing leader who wants to build cool things, tell cool stories about those things, and do it with cool people. 

When I think about my favorite moments in my career, they are all centered around building something new with a group of smart people and we’re all thinking through how we’re going to make the thing in front of us work as best as possible for the given use case. Over the years, I built things that I would use myself (or did use myself);  I loved sharing the excitement over that thing with others. Even better was building things that drove demonstrable value for our clients. There is nothing better than marketing a product that gets me excited about the way it can be used and about the problems it solves. This is why I like startups so much! I really enjoy the creative process from the initial marketing strategy to marketing execution and how I get to go back and forth between the 50’ and the 50,000’ view.
 
For me, building also means building teams. I have been so fortunate to have built amazing teams over the years. I am proud to have built a large network of people and it brings me so much joy to see how their careers have grown since our time together. I am the type of leader that cares more about my teams success than my own. I want to help my teams become better and I believe that if my team members grow, the company’s goals will fall into place.
 
I want to bring a product to market that delivers measurable value. I need to do all of this with smart people who challenge me and push me to be better. Marketing is storytelling with an objective. I love bringing ideas to market and telling a story to someone about how the offering we have is going to not only solve their immediate problem but also help them take advantage of new opportunities in the future. I’ve been doing this my whole career, and it is something I must continue doing.

I am always interested in expanding my professional network. If you would like to connect or have any specific questions about what you see above, please contact me at justin (at) justinschmidt.me.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE 
Revenue Growth
Product Marketing
Marketing Strategy 
Demand Generation
Executive Leadership
Revenue Optimization
Content Development
Business Development
Brand Strategy and Identity
Innovative Solutions Creation
Transformation & Turnarounds 
Product Development and Launches
Business Development and Expansion 
Startup Operations and Market Growth
Team Leadership, Empowerment, & Development

VP of Marketing

Compt helps companies build, streamline, and scale employee perk stipends that delight teams and give companies a more productive and engaged workforce.

Everyone has different needs, and we think that when perks take this into account the value to the employee goes beyond just beer or catered lunches and becomes so much more.

Amy Spurling

After 20+ years as a CFO and COO, I've sat on both sides of the HR budget conversation. I've approved (and rejected) countless software requests, managed $200M+ in financing, and learned that the best solutions aren't always the most expensive ones.

Now I'm building what I wish I had: lifestyle benefits technology that makes sense to both HR and Finance teams.

What I write about:
- Why most HR tech ROI calculations are wrong
- Building benefits that Finance wants to fund
- Real stories from both sides of the budget
- When to invest in software (and when not to)
- The things I've learned (and unlearned)

Previously:
- Led finance & operations for multiple venture-backed companies
- Scaled teams from startup through successful exit
- Managed two acquisitions valued at 10-30x revenue
- Built and implemented benefits strategies for 10,000+ employees

Follow for straightforward takes on HR tech, benefits, and building solutions that both your people and your CFO will love.

Want to see what HR tech looks like when a CFO builds it? Let's connect.

Founder & CEO

Compt helps companies build, streamline, and scale employee perk stipends that delight teams and give companies a more productive and engaged workforce.

Everyone has different needs, and we think that when perks take this into account the value to the employee goes beyond just beer or catered lunches and becomes so much more. 

If you believe the same and are interested in making perks your competitive edge, reach out and send me a message or check us out at www.compt.io.

Honors & Awards:
- Many of the most innovative & people-first companies as customers 
(including Great Place to Work, Drizly, Webflow, Nextdoor and more)
- Built In Boston's Best Small Place to Work 2022
- SHRM #1 Innovative HR Platform of the Year 2021
- Shortlister "Personal Spending Account" category winner 2021
- Built In Boston's Best Small Place to Work 2020
- New England Innovation Award 2019 Finalist
- Product Hunt's Shipping in Boston Award 2018

My wife, who worried that "we have to book our flights right away because everyone is going to Albania this year" somehow still refuses to go to the grocery store with me. 

Really really looking forward to that last remaining can of weird beans we get to buy tonight at 7pm. 

I'm convinced every relationship has the person who is built for an apocolypse, and the person who would say "oooooh berries" and eat some poisoned nonsense in the first 5 minutes.

Yeah, I'm talking about you, Theonie Alicandro!

Founder & CEO @ Compt | 3x CFO, 2x COO | Building HR tech & lifestyle benefits that finance actually approves

Some of my favorite 1:1s include actual work. They also include:

A lot of catching up. Random stories. Laughing.
Occasionally (often) talking about something completely unrelated.

Productivity culture would hate us.

We still get things done. Always do.
But I’ve never once thought, “wow, this would’ve been better if we skipped the human part.”

Those moments make the rest of the work easier.
And a lot more fun. :)

I used to think the hardest part of building a company was making the big decisions.

The pivots. The hires. The moments where everything feels on the line.

Over time, I realized it’s the small decisions that matter more. The ones you make when no one’s watching. Like the conversations you avoid. Or the standards you quietly let slip

Those moments shape culture far more than any all-hands announcement ever will.

“I’m sending this after hours but no rush.”

I see this all the time (although thankfully not at Compt). And I know it’s usually well-intentioned. But intentions don’t always equal impact.

If you truly mean “no rush,” there are better ways to show it.
Schedule the message.
Or be okay with not getting an immediate response.

Healthy work cultures are built on behavior (that goes for leadership, too). How we communicate sets the tone, whether we realize it or not.

“We hire adults.”

Sounds empowering. But I’ve seen it used as a way to avoid clarity more times than I can count.

Adults still need context. Direction. Feedback. Trust doesn’t mean disappearing as a leader.

Autonomy without alignment isn’t empowerment.
It’s abdication.

I think benefits say more about a company than people realize.

Not because of what they cost. But because of what they assume. You can usually tell within a few questions.

Do we trust employees to choose what works for them?
Or do we decide for them and call it support?

The best benefits programs I’ve seen are built on trust and flexibility. They meet people where they are, instead of where we think they should be.

I'm paying a lot more attention to this lately.

In 2026, 1 in 10 stipend dollars is being spent at grocery retailers.

I'll Iet that sit for a second.

This isn’t about perks.
It’s not about “fun benefits.”
It’s about cost of living.

What’s striking to me is what this says about flexibility. When support is visible and adaptable, employees use it where it actually stabilizes their lives. Sometimes that’s wellness or development. And sometimes it’s groceries.

There’s a real difference between support that disappears into a paycheck and support that shows up as something tangible. Something people feel.

This stat from our 2026 Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report says a lot about the moment we’re in. And it’s not the only one.

You can see more here:

Open article: 2026 Annual Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report by compt.io

2026 Annual Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that great companies aren’t built by having all the answers.

They’re built by asking better questions. Over and over again.

Questions like:
Are we actually solving the right problem?
Are we listening closely enough?
Are we building something we’d be proud to use ourselves?

The moment you stop asking those questions is usually the moment growth slows. Or things get messy. Or both.

Confidence gets rewarded early, but curiosity pays off later. And tbh curiosity has served me better than confidence ever has.

If you’re given a wellness benefit, but it only works one specific way, it doesn’t always feel like support.

Real life is messier than that.

Some weeks, wellness looks like a workout or a massage.
Other weeks, it looks like groceries, meditation, or a meal prep kit to make eating healthy a little easier.

When benefits give you flexibility, you get to decide what wellness actually means for you in that moment.

That choice matters more than most programs account for.

I agree with a lot of what Olwyn Patterson shared recently about pay transparency.
But this part is the clincher for me:

Transparency only works if it’s built early and maintained rigorously enough that every pay decision can actually be explained.

Just publishing salaries without doing the underlying work is where things fall apart.

If you’re not running regular comp reviews, maintaining bands, checking for fairness, and explaining why decisions were made, transparency alone doesn’t fix much.

It’s also so much harder to retrofit at scale.

In a small company, contributions are visible and context exists.
In a larger org, it’s different. Seeing someone you’ve never worked with in another office making a few thousand more without any context can create bad blood fast.

That doesn’t mean disparities shouldn’t be fixed. They absolutely should be. But in my experience, they need to be addressed long before transparency is rolled out. And that step often gets skipped.

I tend to believe the healthiest approach for many teams sits somewhere in the middle.
Not everyone walking around with their salary on their shirt, but real transparency within teams. Clear bands. Shared understanding of where people sit and why.

That foundation changes the conversation entirely.

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Justin Schmidt

Amy Spurling

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The Battle

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Amy Spurling

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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);}Amy Spurling's LinkedIn Performance

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