Matt Lerner

SYSTM

At SYSTM (formerly Startup Core Strengths), our mission is to help early-stage startups find their big growth levers (and pull them). We've noticed that great startups don't waste time on small stuff, so we  focus everyone on the most impactful work.

Founder & CEO

TransferGo

During my part-time interim role, our team more than doubled the YoY growth rate of acquisitions while lowering CPAs and improving retention and revenue per transaction. I also sourced their full-time VP Growth, and hired 4 other diverse and talented marketers to the team.

Interim VP of Growth

500 Startups

I led 500 Startups operations in London, investing in 35 seed-stage companies including Storemaven, SimplyCook, ZenJob, AirSorted, Popsa, Settled, Lexoo, Thriva, CharlieHR, HonestBrew, Fy and Second Nature. I also set up and ran the "Distro Dojo" growth marketing program for our portfolio companies in London and Berlin, which I was able to staff with a handful of the most extraordinary growth marketers in Europe.

Partner, London

PayPal

I led business-to-business marketing for PayPal UK, and oversaw the SMB/SME merchant business as a general manager.

Director, SMB

Created and lead PayPal’s first website marketing team, including conversion specialists, web analysts, developers, designers and writers. With a $3.5M budget, I oversee all business-facing areas of PayPal.com, driving over 85% of PayPal’s small business acquisition. The team boosted conversion (visitors to signups) in 2011 by 28%, generating an extra $67M over three years.

Director, On-Site Marketing

Built and managed a team of direct marketers who oversaw all marketing to PayPal’s existing small business customer base including activation, cross-sell and retention, generating $30M in incremental revenue.
+ Led pricing in North America.
+ Oversaw all marketing for the PayPal Debit Card, a $60M business, accelerating growth from 7% to 20% YoY in 12 months.
+ Deployed a propensity model targeting our most promising new customers with a high-touch “welcome” experience, boosting their value by 34% vs. control. The program generated an extra $11M in revenue in the first year and $55M over three years.

Group Manager, Merchant Engagement Marketing

Promoted within the same role, grew the team to 18. Developed processes & metrics around go-to-market. Oversaw the launch of many of PayPal’s most popular small business products.

Group Manager, Product Marketing

Built PayPal’s first outbound Product Marketing team. We oversaw all outbound B2B product marketing, launched a dozen major products and features.

Sr. Manager, Product Marketing

+ Originally hired to oversee developer marketing
+ Managed partner marketing through our shopping cart partners including GoDaddy and Yahoo!
+ Ran PayPal’s first consumer engagement campaigns
+ Launched Website Payments Pro, which currently generates over $100M revenue/year.

Marketing Manager

Macromedia

Brought Fireworks MX 2004 to market. The launch exceeded sales forecast by 20%. Planned subsequent release including researching and writing the MRD.

Product Manager

Visited 36 countries, wrote a book, climbed two 18,000 ft. Himalayan peaks, dove some of the world's best reefs, and learned to "think globally."

International Traveller

+ Led the successful development and launch of two products and discontinued a third product without alienating valuable customers.
+ Led demand generation among designers and developers for four of Macromedia’s largest launches including the flagship Dreamweaver product. Sales consistently beat forecasts. Tactics included print advertising, online media, direct mail (Harte Hanks) and email (Digital Impact) campaigns.

Product & Marketing Manager

Elemental Software

Poppe Tyson

Led B2B online marketing programs for clients including Novell Inc., Edward Jones Inc. and IDG.

Assistant Account Executive

Startup growth strategist, Ex PayPal, 500 Startups VC, Founder @ SYSTM

I founded SYSTM to help startups find their big growth levers - the small actions that can have the biggest impact on their growth. We’ve worked with over 200 companies and earned a 96% founder “likely to recommend” score.

Before founding SYSTM, I was the London-based Partner of 500 Startups, an early-stage VC fund, where I built and ran an accelerator seed-stage growth program for our portfolio companies.

Prior to joining 500 Startups, I worked for many years building and managing growth teams for three  startups (two disasters, one exit), and later at PayPal. 

I approach my work first as a general manager and then as a marketer, product manager or both, as needed. My lens is quantitative, but rooted in deep customer insights and testing, and based on fast iteration. I’m always learning, and I really enjoy teaching and helping those around me to learn and improve. Skip to the references below, you'll see that I'm regarded as a thought leader in many areas of business, and an inspiring people manager who reliably delivers ahead of expectations.

Plain Writing

Recent clients: Flexport ($2.2B in venture funding), Facebook/Meta, YouTube, Delta, Pepsi, Carnival Cruise, The Trade Desk ($31B Market Cap), WhyHotel/Placemakr ($127M in venture funding), and Alteryx ($160M+ in funding).

Industries: B2B, SaaS, Airlines, Food & Beverage, Human Resources, CPG, Travel, Hospitality, MarTech, Professional Sports, Startup, Fortune 500, Fortune 100, Agency, Non-Profit, Healthcare, Education, Technology, Investment Advisory Fund, Biotech, etc. 

Capabilities: Copywriting, content strategy, wireframing, stakeholder presentations, email, social copy, event, landing pages, research, interviewing, messaging, user flows, UX writing, etc.

Freelance Senior Copywriter, Strategist

Toaster

Provided freelance copywriting support on several agency projects — Flexport, EcoR1, YouTube, etc.

Senior Copywriter, Strategist

The Trade Desk

Providing ongoing freelance copywriting support for The Trade Desk's internal creative teams.

MKG - Experiential Marketing

Provided freelance copywriting support on several agency projects — Delta Airlines, Facebook, etc.

Senior Copywriter

Acceleration Community of Companies (ACC)

Provided freelance copywriting support on a larger campaign with Pepsi and Carnival Cruise.

Article Group

Provided freelance copywriting support on an agency project for Box.

Leadr 

Led the marketing department while the company grew from 0 to 100 customers:
- created and rolled out a brand strategy and visual identity
- conducted interviews and translated findings into content, pitch deck, and product strategy
- wrote and tested internal team pulse tool
- built and launched a 1,000-account/mo ABM strategy (print, phone & email, including geo-targeted digital advertising)
- grew a standalone online community from 0 to over 850 subscribers
- dropped cost per subscriber 83% over 6 months (using lead ads) while also growing total new subscribers
- wrote, produced and printed a full-length workbook and card deck for teams (ask for samples. Over 7k copies in print)

VP of Marketing - Remote

the Found Series

I provide marketing and growth strategy support for other companies as a remote extension of their teams. I also do public speaking on the topics of marketing, branding and customer understanding. 

In 2016 I began to work full-time as a self-employed marketing strategist, serving mission-driven companies and cities. Clients include: Cisco, La Marzocco, Leadr, Modbar, Churchome (City Church), RentPath, City of Covington, Seattle Sounders FC.

Past speaking engagements include:
- Marketo Conference
- Domo Partner Breakfast
- Northwest Credit Union Association Annual Marketer's Conference
- Exponential West

Freelance Marketing Strategist

Cisco

Supporting the demand generation enrollment efforts of Cisco's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team through the global Networking Academy program. Responsible for developing, executing and project management of the growth and content strategies. 

Key Results:
Generated 3 million student enrollments in the past 3 years, with increased cost efficiencies over this time period equaling a 93% decrease in cost per enrollment. I manage a multi-million dollar acquisition budget across three agencies and multiple internal project teams. Quarterly and annual reporting to the C-suite level.

Our work has been recognized for two straight years at Marketo's Marketing Nation Summit Conference. 

Projects included the following areas of expertise:
- cross-channel, multi-channel content optimization
- social media advertising
- marketing automation 
- email marketing, nurturing
- interactive content development
- field enablement partnerships
- website UX/design improvement
- SEO and analytics optimizations
- landing page conversion optimization
- organic social media community management
- copywriting, messaging
- data analysis, analytics, reporting

Strategist | Multi-Channel Digital Marketing & Content - Remote

The Convergents

We provide in-depth customer interviewing and audience analysis as a service for busy and growing companies looking to unify their teams.

Co-Founder

Freelance senior copywriter with a history of completed projects for some of the largest companies in the world. 

Past clients include Delta Airlines, Cisco, HP, Google, The Trade Desk, Carnival Cruise, Flexport, YouTube, Facebook, Pepsi, and more. See my work: https://plain.run/

Now advising founders, VC networks, and early stage teams on their sales decks. https://onmarketing.substack.com/p/the-essential-gtm-sales-deck

Running GTM, sales, or revenue? Check out The Essential GTM Sales Deck: https://plain.run/sales-decks
Looking for more of my thoughts on marketing? Join me @ https://onmarketing.substack.com/

Looking for support? I operate as an independent creative agency called Plain, providing strategic writing, marketing, content, and research. 

Inquiries: derek@plain.run

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CLIENTS INCLUDE:
Flexport, Facebook, YouTube, Tripadvisor, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, HP, Google, Delta Airlines, Cisco, Pepsi, Carnival Cruise, The Trade Desk, blockit, Placemakr, Alteryx, EcoR1, Mayple Global, Unit21, Seattle Sounders FC, La Marzocco, Modbar, Box, City of Covington, and Pushpay.

CASE STUDY CLIENTS INCLUDE:
Google, YouTube, McDonald's, Old Navy, Jaguar, Kellogg's, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Modbar, CNN, Kraft Heinz, Samsung, The Trade Desk, and Zendesk.

MULTI-INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
Technology, B2B, Finance, Airlines, Fortune 500, Professional Sports, Supply Chain, FinTech, Risk & Compliance, Startups, SaaS, Payments, City Government, Education, Healthcare, Programmatic Advertising, MarTech, Social Media, Big Tech, Coffee, Hospitality, Retail, HR Tech, Consumer Goods, BioTech, Travel, Non-Profits

RESEARCH
Qualitative, stakeholder, interviews, customer, go to market (GTM), employee, competitive, industry, cultural, product

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COPYWRITING PHILOSOPHY 
The words we choose matter

STRATEGY PHILOSOPHY
It can't be strategic unless it's useful

RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY
The best insights can be found by asking a series of questions

taplio

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Matt Lerner

Derek Gillette

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