TL;DR

Sundots has had a remarkably successful first few months of traction, and we need an exceptionally entrepreneurial Head of Marketing to own top-line growth. You’ll be in the trenches alongside the founding CEO to scale Sundots' success. This is a full-time role in Cambridge, MA.

You will have a remarkable amount of responsibility and will be personally driving the growth of a high-impact health product startup. We want to hire this person immediately.

About Sundots

Sundots are the world's first gummy for sun protection.

Developed by a Harvard-trained dermatology researcher, Sundots are based on polypodium leucotomos, a fern extract backed by 30+ years of sun protection science. Sunscreen just isn’t enough - whether we care about sun protection for health or beauty, Sundots help fill the gaps.

We launched Sundots with a $125k+ Indiegogo campaign in March 2018, shipped a month early, and grew rapidly through the summer, including working with some of the world’s most discerning retailers (e.g. CVS) and health experts (e.g. WellnessMama). In late summer we raised our first outside capital to accelerate growth and a build out our team. This is our first full-time hire outside the founding team.

Who's A Good Fit?

This is a dream job for someone who wants the entrepreneurial opportunity of a rapidly-growing startup with incredible early success. The product works, customers love it, we have robust backend and ops systems in place, and we need you to take us to the next level. We’ve figured out a few things that are working well - can you rapidly scale those and identify the set of strategies we’ll need for the next level of growth beyond that?

This is a nightmare job for someone who has to be told what to do and wants to "work in startup marketing." You will not be in a fancy exclusive office. There will not be "sick Silicon Valley startup perks." There is, however, be a rare chance to help drive the success of a mission-driven company poised for dramatic growth, and to grow yourself at a similarly incredible rate.

Responsibilities of this role:

• Lead the development of our emerging beauty story. We’ve done a much better job with the health angle so far, but our long game is beauty. Help us identify the right way to access that market, and what about our approach needs to change to perform well among that audience.
• Coordinate relationships with influencers and experts in the outdoor sports, beauty, organic/natural cosmetics, nontoxic health, wellness and related communities. Negotiate terms, design co-promo strategies, and close deals with affiliates who will accelerate Sundots' growth. We know this works - we’ve already worked with some of the top experts in this field, like WellnessMama, Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, and Kitchen Stewardship. You will need to run a funnel that is both high-volume and thoughtful to make sure we’re working with the best people to double-down on this success.
• Refine and maintain our customer and lead email journey, including our 101, promotions/upsell, newsletters, and other great content. Be conversant in quality ecommerce email marketing (we use Klaviyo) and own every email we send.
• Identify ecommerce best practices for us to implement, and scope/coordinate with our developer teammate to integrate them (we use Shopify and ReCharge).
• Foster our emerging relationships with aligned retail partners (e.g. QVC and Goop). Help them figure out how to tell our story in the way that best resonates with their audience. Ensure they have everything they need to introduce their communities to Sundots in a way that’s on-brand and emphasizes our key messages.
• Lead PR efforts, including strategy, outreach, nurturing, and story development. Most of our growth so far has come from organic traffic via earned coverage - how do we keep that going?
• Hire more junior specialized teammates for additional capacity on whichever growth strategies show the best return. PR showing awesome results? Hire a PR person and manage them.

NOT responsibilities of this role:

• Creating the actual visual or content assets we need. We have a great designer, photographer, and copywriting teammates.
• Ops/fulfillment and the like. We have strong systems already in place.
• Doing the legwork of executing on our affiliate outreach strategy (e.g. initial cold email, getting an intro, setting them up in our affiliate backend). We have an existing awesome team member on this already.
• Managing social media accounts (unless it’s an area of expertise). We have existing team and technology for this.
• Technical development of ecommerce experiments and strategies. If you have a vision for how our pricing page needs to be improved, our existing designer and developer will get it done.

Requirements

• Our ideal person has ~3 years in the trenches of a high-growth ecommerce startup. Preferably one with some overlap to Sundots' business: DTC marketing, beauty/wellness/natural, personal products, etc. With a few hours of pawing around, you can see things you’d change on day 1 based on what you know works best not just from reading ecommerce blogs, but from doing it yourself in a prior role.
• We have a very ownership-driven culture. You are the boss of your domain. You ask the CEO for feedback and a thumbs up/down as necessary, but you know that it’s your job to get it done, and you don’t wait for permission to move forward.
• Our communication style is very direct. We practice Radical Candor. You can give it and take it in a way that builds trust, confidence, and real relationships.
• Like the rest of the team, you’ll take a below-market salary because you see (and are motivated by) the enormous growth potential of the business. We’re expecting to pay ~$60k plus significant equity.
• You thrive in a face-to-face, hack-it-out-together-on-the-whiteboard creative problem solving process.Slack is great, especially considering much of our extended team is remote. But for a lot of stuff, burritos at Felipe’s are better. You’ll work from Harvard Sq ~80% of the time.
• We’re a B-Corp - you’re into that. We’re proud to be a thriving, profit-generating business, and we also want to do more with our company than just make money. You feel the same.

Benefits

• Salary ~$60k negotiable with room for rapid raises proportional to sales growth (your job!). Be an amazing fit and we'll find a salary that works.
• Significant equity commensurate with experience. You're an entrepreneur - you're motivated by upside.
• Health insurance. The basics, covered.
• Flexible work hours. Doing good work? Do it whenever you want.
• Unlimited PTO and sick leave.
• Incredible ownership and opportunity for growth.