How To Grow An Internal Startup Marketing Team

This is an interview with John Doherty, the Senior Marketing Manager at HotPads (which is owned by Zillow).

This was a really fun interview for me personally, and it's the start of what I hope will be a series of these types of interviews with people I have admired in the marketing space for quite a long time!

John has for the longest time been a mentor to me in the industry, I've followed his blog and personal growth in the industry ever since first discovering him as he was a consultant at Distilled in New York City. He quickly grew to not only be a lead consultant at Distilled, but to head up Distilled's New York office. In the time John was at Distilled he performed in-depth SEO campaigns for exciting startups like Grovo and huge hotel chains.

John is a hustler to the tenth-degree. He embodies the growth mindset and pushes in-depth strategy with a focus on peek execution.

In this interview we delve into:

• What it was like getting to work at Distilled and some of the strategies they used there
• What it was like transitioning from agency life to in-house marketing team life
• What it was like growing from a single marketing person at HotPads to a team of ~9 marketers in under 2 years
• What kind of values John looks for in his hires for his internal marketing team
• How he finds the "bright spots" or biggest opportunities to grow in his marketing initiatives

So, without further ado, here's the interview!

If you'd like to see more from John, follow him on Twitter, check out his blog on marketing, and of course, check out HotPads if you're looking for a new place to live (or for awesome marketing inspiration!)

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