Selected work in startup and venture marketing.
Positioning, brand, editorial and communications work, with my role and supporting material.
Champ AI
Role: Fractional VP Marketing
Positioned Champ around buying operational outcomes.
An AI operations company explaining what customers could buy, which work it replaced, and how delivered outcomes would be evaluated in production.
Developed positioning around buying operational outcomes without building and maintaining internal software infrastructure, positioning legacy business process outsourcing as the relevant alternative.
Led launch communications strategy for Champ’s emergence from stealth, shaping how the founding team communicated their model to enterprise buyers, partners and the press.
My role covered launch communications and category narrative. The linked article is third-party reporting covering the company’s launch and financing.
Zenskar
Role: Head of Content and Brand
January–November 2024
Built the brand, content and inbound function.
A B2B billing platform supporting complex contracts and usage-based pricing.
Led the brand and inbound marketing function. Built and directed a nine-person team spanning brand design, founder marketing, editorial writing, search engine optimization and distribution.
Clarified core positioning and overhauled website messaging to speak directly to enterprise finance leaders and technical buyers.
Led the production and publication of more than 60 search-led articles within an intensive ~90-day window, and launched the company newsletter alongside the search and editorial programme.
Accel’s SeedToScale
Role: Marketing Consultant — Brand and Content
September 2020–June 2022
Turning founder knowledge into useful public resources.
SeedToScale turns knowledge from founders, operators and investors into resources for the wider startup community.
Helped build SeedToScale’s editorial and publishing foundations, then contributed writing and production across founder resources, frameworks and podcasts. The work translated knowledge held by experienced founders, operators and investors into material the wider startup community could understand and use.
Editorial contribution. The underlying theory is Kunal Shah’s.
Web3Auth
Role: Head of Content and Brand Marketing
February–December 2023
Led brand and communications across partner launches and sensitive issues.
Wallet infrastructure requiring clear explanations for developers, partners and prospective customers.
Built the content and brand foundations: CMS, style guidance, search content and brand voice. Owned PR for partner launches including Fox.com, Trust Wallet, SK Planet and Google Firebase. Wrote customer stories documenting how teams used the product, alongside public statements addressing sensitive issues.
Launch writing by Sampath.
Customer-story writing by Sampath.
The Pop Social story reports the customer’s results after integrating Web3Auth.
Masai School
Role: Content Marketing Manager
December 2020–February 2022
Built brand and communications around company milestones.
An education company explaining its model and communicating funding and acquisition announcements.
Built the content and brand foundations, including guidelines, website material and social presence. Led PR for company announcements, working directly with the founders, including communications around the 2021 Series A and Prepleaf acquisition.
25 March 2021
21 December 2021
Communications work around the announcements; the linked articles are third-party reporting.
YourStory
Role: Technology Journalist
December 2016–November 2020
Learned to find the real idea beneath a founder’s first answer.
Reporting on technology, founders and company building.
Spent approximately four years reporting on founders, technology and company building, including interviews with Dharmesh Shah and other technical founders and operators. Work included Techie Tuesdays, The Turning Point and The Product Roadmap.
Reporting and writing by Sampath.
Reporting and writing by Sampath.
Discuss the work you need.
Tell me what the company or fund needs to change, and where you need help.