Apr 2025 – Present · 1 yr 1 mo · Remote

• Helping companies hire top growth & marketing talent that costs 80% less than US peers.

Nov 2022 – Jul 2023 · 8 mos · Lisbon, Portugal · Hybrid

• The Bounce app connects people (primarily travelers today) to stores, restaurants, and hotels for an affordable, safe place to store their luggage or backpack for a few hours or days. Now over 10000 small businesses on the platform have earned millions of dollars in incremental revenue offering storage space (more locations worldwide than Taco Bell!). In most cities, your Airbnb is within a 5-minute walk of a Bounce location. So instead of sitting around in a coffee shop until mid-afternoon check-in babysitting your luggage, you can pay $5.90/day to leave it at a Bounce location and explore the city.

Oct 2019 – Present · 6 yrs 7 mos

• A podcast where we interview leaders from the world's fastest-growing companies to uncover what is truly driving their breakout success.
• Click below to listen.

Sep 2019 – Present · 6 yrs 8 mos

• Sean offers an online learning program at GoPractice.io, an immersive growth simulator. This is a partnership with a talented team led by Oleg Ya, a product expert and former data scientist at Facebook (Meta). Learn more at GoPractice.io.

Apr 2017 – Present · 9 yrs 1 mo · Newport Beach, CA

• Best-selling manifesto, "Hacking Growth," is a global phenomenon translated into 16 languages and embraced by over 750,000 readers worldwide. In this comprehensive guide, Sean and and his coauthor Morgan Brown unveil the process behind scaling startups to unimaginable heights, offering a blueprint for success that resonates across continents. Sean and Morgan have unique insights into growth success because of their combined experiences growing products such as Dropbox, Facebook, Shopify, LogMeIn, Instagram, Eventbrite and studying the growth engines and processes behind other breakout success companies.
• Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Growth-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Breakout/dp/045149721X

Feb 2017 – Feb 2021 · 4 yrs · Greater Boston

• Guest lecturer in Jeffrey Bussgang and Jeffrey Rayport's class on Launching Technology Ventures at HBS 2017.
• Also guest lecturer in Mark Roberg's Entrepreneurial Management class at HBS 2020, 2021, 2022.

Oct 2013 – Nov 2018 · 5 yrs 1 mo · Orange County, California, United States

• [Acquired 2018] Led GrowthHackers from founding to acquisition in late 2018. At the time, GrowthHackers combined a SaaS solution for managing rapid growth experimentation with a community of growth professionals. I am no longer affiliated with GrowthHackers.com.

Jun 2012 – Feb 2016 · 3 yrs 8 mos · California

• [Acquired 2016] Built Qualaroo into the leading voice of customer solution for websites generating millions of dollars in recurring revenue. Customers included Uber, Starbucks, Spotify, Burger King and Intuit. Profitable SaaS business when it was acquired in 2016.

Oct 2011 – Oct 2015 · 4 yrs · Irvine, CA

• [Acquired 2021] Mavenlink delivers enterprise-class Software as a Service (SaaS) to successfully manage and scale projects, revenue, and profitability.
• Mavenlink was acquired in 2021 by Accel-KKR.

Sep 2011 – Sep 2013 · 2 yrs · Newport Beach, CA

• [Acquired 2013] Backed by Khosla Ventures, SignNow became the leading iPhone app to sign documents. Held board seat until company was acquired in 2013 by Barracuda Networks.

Sep 2009 – Mar 2010 · 6 mos · Washington DC-Baltimore Area

• During the six months working with Webs, worked with CEO to diagnose and resolve issues that were preventing Webs from reaching its full growth potential. By the end of the six month engagement, growth had greatly accelerated relative to the six months prior to our engagement. This was achieved without a significant increase in marketing spend. Webs was acquired by VistaPrint for $117.5m in 2011.

Mar 2009 – Mar 2009 · 0 mo

• Lecture on metrics driven customer development in Steve Blank's entrepreneurship course.
• http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/blank.html

Feb 2009 – Sep 2009 · 7 mos · San Francisco, CA

• First marketer at Lookout, a mobile security software company that now protects over 50 million mobile devices. Worked with CEO to build the foundational growth processes and systems to drive scalable growth in the Android ecosystem. Lookout achieved a $1 Billion+ Valuation in 2014.

Sep 2008 – Mar 2009 · 6 mos · San Francisco, CA

• First marketer at Dropbox. Worked with CEO for first six months after private beta ended to build a strong growth foundation based on data, experimentation and customer passion. We also had the goal of making data and experimentation an important part of the ongoing Dropbox culture. Dropbox was able to leverage this foundation to become the fastest SaaS business to ever reach a $1B revenue run rate.

Aug 2008 – Feb 2009 · 6 mos · San Francisco, CA

• Prior to my joining the Eventbrite team, it was still a small company that had experienced relatively moderate growth over the preceding two year period. I joined the team in 2008 to work with the CEO to introduce a more systematic approach for unlocking rapid growth. One of the first things we did was instrument detailed analytics and funnel tracking and began conducting qualitative research to understand what was preventing faster growth. With this information, we were able to significantly improve the funnel conversion rates of event organizers and help them drive more successful events. This increased our conversion rates of event organizers and expanded their LTV, which made it much easier to scale aggressive positive ROI customer acquisition.
• During this six-month interim growth role, one of my key goals was to help the team create a culture of data-driven growth experimentation. Eventbrite achieved a $1B valuation in early 2014 and listed on NASDAQ in 2018.

Jan 2007 – Present · 19 yrs 4 mos

• Sean is a sought-after speaker, channeling his expertise to empower companies to revolutionize their approach to growth. His keynotes and collaborative workshops have left an indelible mark on businesses around the globe. Learn more at SeanEllis.me.

Apr 2003 – Dec 2007 · 4 yrs 8 mos · Boston, MA

• Led LogMeIn's marketing from launch to NASDAQ IPO filing (filed Jan 2008). Today LogMeIn is valued at several billion dollars and is one of the top 10 SaaS companies in the world.
• Overcame early challenges of scaling a pioneering freemium model with rapid data driven experimentation throughout the conversion funnel. Early marketing team included design, engineering, analysts, DBAs, and marketing management. Accelerated growth by improving ARPU with additional premium services and aggressively scaling customer acquisition campaigns with an average payback time of 3 months. This significantly reduced the need for dilutive funding leading up to the Jan 2008 IPO filing.

Jan 2000 – Jan 2001 · 1 yr

• Following NASDAQ listing, transferred to Europe to run international operations with offices in four countries outside the USA. Successfully streamlined operations prior to the acquisition by Vivendi Universal in 2001.

Jan 1998 – Jan 2000 · 2 yrs

• Worldwide leader in online games and NASDAQ IPO by 2000. Valuation exceeded $1 billion.
• From humble beginnings as an Eastern European founded startup, we competed in a space originally dominated by giants such as Sony Station (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune), Microsoft Game Zone, Yahoo Games and several Silicon Valley founded startups. By the time we were acquired by Vivendi Universal, Uproar had become the 8th largest website in the world in terms of total usage time and the number one game site.
• Our innovative growth programs included the web's first viral widget which spread to over 40,000 websites. Among all publicly traded Internet companies in 2000, Uproar had the lowest cost of acquiring registered users.