Experience

Kurt for Wisconsin Campaign — Digital Director (kurtforwisconsin.com)

JUNE 2017 - AUGUST 2018

After the 2016 election, I was driven to put my project management, marketing, and technical skills to work in my home state. Throughout this statewide campaign for Lieutenant Governor, was able to drive brand strategy, develop omnichannel marketing content development and placement, and established and maintained the tech stack for the campaign. This work led to garnering 32% of the statewide vote for a first time candidate with no initial voter ID or base. My role in this effort included:

• Leading a team that was responsible for $500K omnichannel budget and placement on TV, Radio, Print, Email, Text, and Social, which led to a record breaking 11M+ impressions on voters within the last 3 months of the campaign. This included managing our young and small team to create diverse drip journeys to over 400,000 email subscribers, coordinate over 50 volunteers to send nearly 200K texts in 2 days, and develop over 300 approved political ad permutations on Facebook.

• Managed iterative review process and leveraged tools such as Adobe Spark, Magisto, Google Drive, Facebook Ads Manager, Google Adwords, YouTube Creator Studio, and Google Analytics for marketing content and placement. This process enabled our interdisciplinary team of staff, interns, and volunteers to develop nearly 1,000 pieces of content that was continuously iterated based on performance with Wisconsin voters.  

• Provided technical leadership to the campaign by maintaining the campaigns website, blog, and social media pages. Our campaign leveraged Wordpress, utilized a variety of plugins to bring voters on an automated marketing journey, and ultimately accepted Paypal, Square, and ActBlue transactions for donations.

• Analyzed and where prudent, implemented new technology into the campaign, such as L2 Database for thorough voter data, RevUp Software for fundraising efficiency, and Slack for widespread communication.  

Red Clay / Founder and CEO (redclaydesign.com)
JUNE 2010 - MARCH 2017, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Red Clay is an online marketplace for industrial design. The platform enables brands to match to a community of top industrial design talent to turn a product idea into manufacture-ready technical files. As the founder of the business, I specifically:

• Recognized the massive log jams in the existing processes being utilized by brands and retailers to develop physical products and set out to build a technology solution that reduced the time it takes to design a product from 9 months to 8 weeks.

• Was responsible for the overall P&L of the business (which grew over 100% every year) as well as fundraising (over $2.5M in venture) in order to keep the business solvent and operational for six years running.

• Recruited and managed a team of 10 employees, an advisory board of industry experts, and an operational board of directors.

• Lead enterprise sales efforts that resulted in closing nearly a dozen Fortune 500 customers within 18 months, including Walmart, Target, Clorox, and General Electric.

• Implemented SEO, UI, and analytics best practices to increase sales conversion of SMB customers by over 100% within 3 months.

• Leveraged leading marketing automation tools and processes (Mixpanel, Pardot, Salesforce, drip campaigns, retargeting, etc) that when combined resulted in over 10K qualified leads within 6 months and over 100K within 12 months. This effort lead to a 200% sales lift within the same period.

• Spearheaded content marketing efforts, including defining editorial voice, content calendar development, thought leadership posts, social media presence, and video production that put over 1M views on Red Clay assets over 2 years.

• Partnered with our CTO and participated in a residency at Pivotal Labs, to manage an agile technology development process for the Red Clay platform, including developing predictable roadmaps and feature releases. Under my management the first generation of the website was built and profitable within four months.

• Went from zero contacts in the retail industry to being a regular speaker/consultant in the retail technology world. Learned from established leaders and emerging talent that resulting in my strong point of view on the role of omni-channel retailers and the future relationship between consumers and brands.

AirBnb Host / CEO (thefabuloushouse.com)
MARCH 2016 - PRESENT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA/SHEBOYGAN, WI
Blending my technology, design, and community development expertise in a small portfolio of vacation rental homes.

• Successfully scouted ideal properties for rentals, led renovation/design teams to make the homes rental ready, and currently manage teams needed to keep properties guest ready on a regular basis.

• Lead marketing efforts for both properties which include pricing strategies, social media presence, and public relations/communications efforts.

  • These efforts have resulted in the Lake Michigan home being profitable within the first six months of operation.

  • The San Francisco home has been featured in Elle Decor, HGTV, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Curbed within the past 18 months.

• Renter satisfaction has lead to being a Superhost within the first six months on the platform.

• Plans are in the works for a third location in Bentonville, AR.

City of San Francisco Planning Department / Policy Planner
JULY 2007 - JUNE 2010, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Member of the policy team responsible for gathering input from a range of constituents and organizations, distilling feedback, and guiding recommendations for the built environment through the political process to help an iconic city navigate through ever evolving times. Projects and responsibilities included:

• Managing the policy development process for the Castro and Market Street intersection that resulted in not only a community living room recognized by the New York Times, also spurred a citywide open space development program commonly referred to as “Parklets.”

Education

Master’s of Urban Planning & Policy

University of Illinois-Chicago
AUGUST 2003 - MAY 2005,  CHICAGO, IL

• Awarded full scholarship and research fellowship
• Completed a Master's Degree in Urban Planning and Policy and a concentration in Gender and Women's Studies

Bachelor’s of Science

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
SEPTEMBER 1999 - MAY 2003,  GREEN BAY, WI

• Recipient of highest student award, Chancellor's Leadership Medallion 
• Completed a double major in Urban and Regional Studies and Environmental Planning and Policy, as well as a minor in Spanish within 3.5 years of coursework.