CRO @ Redfish Technology || Providing Disruptive Tech Companies w/ Talent || 24k Followers || Forbes Next 1000 || Girl Mom

Forbes 2021 - Next 1000 Honoree


Chief Revenue Officer at Redfish Technology, where I lead with empathy, strategic insight, and a commitment to building strong relationships. 

As Viola Davis once said, "My dreams are bigger than my fears."

Our Work

Helped a new VP of Sales at an Enterprise AI Client hire the first 3 members of his Sales Team: Our team consulted with the VP to identify the profiles he needed, researched and built a list of target companies to source from, then reached out nationwide to over 350 AEs in our network, interviewed/screened over 70, submitted 30 to the VP for review, and he hired 3 - saving 100’s of man-hours in the process.

We've built out and engineering teams with the top 30 startups across the country.

Placed Director of Growth at a Fintech Startup: After hiring the Director of Growth, we were asked if we could help with two PM roles, they were struggling with filling. We did so in about 5 weeks for both a Platform PM and Mobile PM. This led to an introduction to their Design team, where we have helped them hire 3 Sr. Product Designers.

Leah Scarnegi

Wrapping up 2025 at Redfish Technology 

This year was about prioritizing focus over volume—and building real partnerships, not transactions.

- Strong YoY growth
- Higher acceptance rates + repeat clients
- Faster time-to-fill on more complex, senior roles

But what mattered most?
 
Doing the work the right way—better discovery, tighter alignment, and a truly human approach to hiring.

Grateful for the clients who trusted us, the candidates who partnered with us, and the team that showed up every day.

Onward!


#2025InReview #RecruitingDoneRight #TechHiring #HumanCenteredHiring #RedfishTechnology

Leah Scarnegi 

CRO @ Redfish || Scaling Startups with the Right People || Blaine County Board of Education || Forbes 2021 - Next 1000 Honoree

Redfish’s real differentiator isn’t speed — it’s judgement.

The data backs it up:

• Discovery excellence shows up again and again as a leading indicator of successful outcomes.
• Clients respond to market insight, not just resumes in their inbox.
• Our content, workshops, and POV compound trust long before a search even kicks off.

In a market obsessed with velocity, judgement is what actually scales.

#redfishtechnology #recruiting #hiring

If you’re hiring PMs, ask yourself:

Do candidates have examples of things that didn’t work — and what they changed after?

Can they explain impact in metrics, not just features?

.......And if you’re a PM interviewing right now:

Your job isn’t to be impressive. It’s to be credible.

The best PMs don’t pitch perfection. They show judgment.

#productmanagement #product #hiring #interviewing

ChannelCore started as a marketing agency, built to help brands scale profitably. But after working closely with both content creators and brands, it became clear there was a bigger opportunity, to build the infrastructure the creator economy truly needs.

That’s why ChannelCore evolved to a tech platform designed to help content creators operate and scale their business while giving brands a new way to run influencer marketing like a true performance driven channel.

My journey to this point has been anything but traditional. I started as a music teacher and later became a touring musician, where I learned the power of creativity, discipline, and connection. Those experiences taught me how to perform under pressure, adapt quickly, and lead with purpose.

When I transitioned into marketing, I quickly made an impact leading teams, driving revenue growth, and building scalable systems. I rose through the ranks to become a 2x CMO, leading marketing strategies that scaled brands from $1.5M to $6M, $16M to $31M, $64M to $200M, and even $750M to $1.2B. In 2024, I was recognized as a CMO to Watch by the CMO Alliance, a testament to the results-driven approach and leadership style that define my career.

Over the last 17 years, I’ve led, built, and scaled marketing teams of 30+, managed $75M+ in ad spend, and owned full P&L responsibility all focused on profitable, sustainable growth.

My work spans global brands and fast-growing startups, with results like:

• Luxury Fashion Brand: Scaled to a successful exit

• DTC Apparel: 4.5X ROAS while reducing CAC by 38%

• CPG Brand: Tripled new customer revenue, boosted LTV by 60%

• Fintech Startup: Increased lead conversion by 240%, reduced CPA by 45%

• Financial Services Firm: Built a scalable customer acquisition strategy that doubled inbound leads

Now, with ChannelCore’s evolution, we’re building something bigger designed for the next generation of content creators and brands ready to scale.

Learn more at: https://channelcore.io

Jeremy Grinacoff, MBA

Our dev team is growing! 

We're looking for a few software engineer interns to join us at ChannelCore, Inc. 

You'll gain immediate, hands on experience building with the most modern tech stack known to man! 

Interested? Or Know anyone? 

Comment down below or send me a DM.

Creators. Brands. Performance. | Founder & CEO ChannelCore | CMO Alliance CMO to watch 2024 | Scaled brands north of $1.2 billion in revenue |

Built.

ChannelCore went from idea to prototype to in-market driving revenue in under 1 year.

The people made the difference.

We moved fast, paid attention, and focused on a real problem.

This one taught me to trust speed when it’s paired with the right people.

Phase 2 is about momentum.

Momentum comes from action, not intention.

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It’s funny, I keep seeing posts about “we’re getting closer to better tracking and attribution in influencer marketing,” “the future is more authentic content, better data, and more performance-driven partnerships,” and "the creator economy isn't the wild west anymore..."

But NONE of that can exist without real infrastructure behind it.

Tracking isn’t some future breakthrough, optimization isn’t a trend anymore, and performance doesn’t show up just because we keep saying the word.

If you can’t pace spend, shift budgets mid-campaign, or clearly explain what’s working and why, then it’s not performance marketing. It’s just content.

The future of influencer marketing isn’t better creators or more buzzwords.

It’s systems that treat creator spend with the same rigor as paid media. 

Everything else is just noise.

Creators. Brands. Performance. | Founder & CEO ChannelCore |

Brands say they want influencer marketing to scale. This is where it usually breaks.

These are the conversations we’re having with brands right now.

Everyone agrees creators belong in the media mix.

The real tension is whether creator marketing is allowed to be a serious growth channel, or if it stays protected from accountability once scale enters the picture.

Most teams aren’t stuck on strategy. They’re stuck with tooling that was never built for conversion, learning, or iteration at volume.

That gap is exactly why ChannelCore for brands exists. If creator spend is real spend, it deserves real infrastructure.

So here’s the question: when influencer becomes a meaningful line item, should it still be treated differently than the rest of the media mix?

VP of Growth Marketing Manychat / Tech Startups Marketing Adviser

Your CMO asks: "Which influencer drove that conversion?"
Wrong question.

We kept creator budgets small for years because we couldn't prove direct attribution.
Then we stopped trying.
Instead, we treated creators exactly like demand creation ads that convert downstream, rather than relying on last-click magic.

What changed in Q4:
1. Moved budget from ads to creator partnerships
2. Went from 100 to 150 active creators
3. Launched in France, Germany, and Spain with native creators
5. 4x'd our impressions and saw an immediate lift in new markets

Three things that actually move the needle for you:
1. Stop calling it "influencer budget"
Call it what it is: media mix. Creators compete with ads for dollars, not with your swag budget.
2. Local creators beat translated content every time
We didn't localize our campaigns. We found French creators for France, German creators for Germany. The authenticity difference is massive.
3. Measure contribution, not conversion

Lately I’ve been realizing something about creator programs.

They feel creative at first because you’re still experimenting. 

That works… until it doesn’t.

Once real money is involved, you need clarity. And a lot of programs don’t actually have that.

Not because the content is bad.

Because there’s no real way to understand what’s actually working and what isn't.

Saw this stat this morning and it kind of stuck with me.

Global influencer marketing spend last year was around $37B. And about half of marketers say they can’t really prove ROI from influencer campaigns.

Being conservative, that’s $12–13 BILLION a year where brands admit they’re barely measuring outcomes. 

If you take the broader number, it’s closer to $18–19 BILLION that can’t be clearly tied back to performance.

That money isn’t necessarily wasted.
But it is mostly untracked.

And that’s why the expectations are changing. 

Marketers aren’t just looking for awareness anymore. They want to understand who’s actually responding, how it’s performing down funnel, and whether it lines up with the audience they’re trying to reach.

Once you see the numbers, it’s hard to unsee them. It definitely puts a lot of what’s happening in this space into perspective.

Been talking to a lot of brands lately about their influencer marketing programs, and one thing is really surprising me.

I thought they would be asking to work with MORE creators when in reality...

They just want confidence.

Confidence in knowing what the heck is working in their campaigns, what's not working, and if it can scale.

I've been in the room too many times when budgets are getting questioned and you have no idea how to answer.

And if I'm being honest... it sucks.

You lose confidence in yourself, and therefore, the campaign.

ChannelCore, Inc. is growing! 

We are looking for a rockstar social media intern to help with community engagement, creator acquisition, and a little bit of content creation. 

If you are passionate about the creator economy and tools to help them grow, you won't want to miss out on this opportunity!

Interested or know anyone? 

Comment down below or send me a DM!

It’s the same cycle every single time.

Creators get frustrated when brands ask for more data.

Brands get nervous when they can’t explain results.

Most of the tension in creator partnerships isn’t personal. 

It’s structural.

When there’s no shared view of performance, both sides end up guessing. 

And guessing doesn’t scale for anyone.

Small teams are the best. 

This week reminded me why working with a small team allows us to move faster at ChannelCore, Inc.  

Communication. 

We can go from having an idea to pushing something live sometimes in the same day. 

Without having clear communication this wouldn’t be possible. 

Everyone knows what they need to be working on and if there are bottlenecks, or if something breaks (which happens all the time), we talk through it. 

No one is blamed, no one is yelled at. 

We just figure it out and it gets done.

It’s funny, we always talk about influencer marketing like it’s purely creative.

But the second we actually press go on the budget, the energy in the room completely shifts.

Suddenly, nobody is asking about the aesthetic anymore. 

We just want to know:
1. Did it work?
2. Who clicked?
3. Do we do it again?

We go from "art mode" to "decision mode" really fast. 

And the tricky part is... usually, we’re trying to make those decisions without having the full picture.

And that’s the problem!

We treat influencer marketing like art right up until the moment money’s on the line.

Then we expect it to behave like a performance channel.

That only works if you can actually see what’s happening, change what’s not working, and defend the outcome.

ChannelCore makes untracked creator performance impossible, so when you switch into decision mode, you’re not guessing.

You’re deciding.

Copying your competitors is a trap.

At ChannelCore, we spent a lot of time looking at how everyone else handles influencer attribution. 

We studied the dashboards, the tracking links, the promo codes... the whole "industry standard."

But the more we looked at it, the more we realized the standard actually sucks.

Everyone is just polishing a broken model from ten years ago because "that's how it's done."

When we started building, we asked ourselves one question: "If we’re building this from scratch today, without all the legacy junk, how do we make it actually work for brands?"

We decided to ignore the "industry standard" entirely.

Instead of building another tool full of "best guess" data and messy workarounds, we focused on precision. 

We built something that looks nothing like the legacy tools because it’s designed to show you exactly where your money is going.

We aren't trying to be a 10% improvement on what’s already out there. 

We’re building the version that should have existed all along.

If you’re a brand owner tired of guessing which influencers are actually driving ROI, stop settling for "good enough" data.

I'm looking for 3 more brands to stress-test this new attribution model with us.

If you want to see the "non-standard" way we're doing things, drop a comment or shoot me a DM.

Real rant... 

If your creator “plan” doesn’t include budget pacing, success metrics, and what happens if things underperform, it’s not really a plan.

It’s literally just guessing.

Therefore, you can’t start with the creators.

You need to start with outcomes and what you're trying to achieve from the creators you work with. 

Is it awareness? 
Is it conversions? 

It's ok to have multiple.

Every creator has different abilities and you need to work with the ones that align with your goals. 

Because if you can’t explain how creator spend is supposed to perform before the campaign launches, measuring it after the fact, won't save you.

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