Head of Growth Marketing

Overview

You'll own the full demand generation function for Virio's done-for-you LinkedIn content service that sells to vertical SaaS companies. You're building the playbook from experiments—running paid ads, organic content, outbound sequences, and events at the same time—while figuring out what actually closes deals, not just what fills the CRM with "opportunities."

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Seed/Early-stage (26 employees, recently added $1M ARR in 30 days)

Size: 26 employees

Growth: High velocity - went from AI-powered GTM engine to $1M ARR in one month

Market Position: Category creator in AI-powered LinkedIn content-as-a-service for vertical SaaS

Culture: In-office 9-9-6 in San Francisco, paying $500K+ packages to elite operators

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• Currently unclear what % is founder-led content vs paid vs outbound - you're figuring this out
• They have an "AI-powered GTM engine" that just proved it works ($1M ARR/30 days)
• Your job is to systematize what's working and pour gasoline on it

Your Challenge: They have early traction but no formal demand gen playbook. You're building attribution models, running experiments across channels, and translating what converts to actual closed deals.

Cross-functional Reality: You sit between sales and the founders. The post explicitly says you need to have "sat between sales and marketing and survived" - expect tension over lead quality, attribution, and what counts as a real opportunity.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Traditional LinkedIn agencies, in-house content teams, other AI content tools

How They Differentiate: AI agents monitoring target markets 24/7 + human content experts + vertical SaaS specialization + claim that agencies/in-house can't match their results

Common Objections: "We can do this in-house", "How is this different from a freelancer?", "What if the content doesn't sound like us?"

Win Themes: Speed to results, vertical SaaS expertise, AI-powered research that humans can't match at scale

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Channel Execution (40%) | Attribution/Analytics (25%) | Sales Alignment (20%) | Experimentation (15%)

Key Activities

• Run 4+ channels simultaneously: You're personally executing paid campaigns, building organic content strategies (possibly working with founders on their LinkedIn), running outbound sequences in Clay, and coordinating events. You don't have a team yet - the post says "do NOT apply if you need a fully built team before you can do anything."
• Build attribution models: You're in the data daily, tracking what actually closes vs what just creates "opportunities." You have strong opinions about attribution and you're constantly testing them against reality.
• Align with sales on lead quality: You meet with the sales team multiple times per week to understand which leads convert, which go dark, and what messaging actually resonates with vertical SaaS buyers. Expect debates about MQL definitions.
• Run experiments and document playbooks: You test new channels, messaging angles, and targeting strategies. When something works, you document it into a playbook that can scale. You're building systems from experiments, not copying best practices from other companies.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• You're doing 4 jobs at once: Paid marketer, content strategist, outbound operator, and analyst. The 9-9-6 schedule is real. You'll work 60+ hour weeks.
• Sales will blame marketing when deals don't close: You're the person in the middle when sales says "these leads suck" and founders ask "why isn't the pipeline growing faster?" You need thick skin.
• Attribution is messy: Founder-led content creates awareness, paid ads retarget, outbound sequences close deals - but which one gets credit? You'll spend hours in spreadsheets trying to prove what's working.
• No team to start: You're hands-on-keyboard for everything until you prove what works and can make the case to hire.

What Success Looks Like

• You build a repeatable funnel: X spend generates Y SQLs which close at Z%, and you can predict it within 20%.
• You have conviction on channel mix: You know exactly how to allocate budget across paid/organic/outbound/events and can defend it with data.
• Sales stops complaining about lead quality: Your SQLs close at rates that make the sales team want more, not less.

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• VPs of Marketing at vertical SaaS companies ($10M-100M+ ARR)
• Chief Revenue Officers who own brand and demand gen
• Founders at earlier-stage vertical SaaS companies wearing the marketing hat

What They Care About:

• Pipeline generation - does LinkedIn content actually drive demos and revenue?
• Brand safety - will this sound like their voice or like generic AI slop?
• Speed to results - they've tried in-house and it's too slow
• Vertical expertise - do you understand their specific market (restaurant tech, healthcare SaaS, etc.)?

Requirements

• You've built a funnel that closes deals, not just fills a CRM with junk opportunities
• You know Clay well enough that it's "a lifestyle" - you're running complex enrichment and outbound workflows
• You have strong opinions about attribution backed by experience, not just theory
• You've done founder-led content that actually generated pipeline, not vanity metrics
• You've worked between sales and marketing and handled the tension without burning out
• You've run paid, organic, outbound, and events at the same time (probably at a startup where you had no choice)
• You build playbooks from experiments and data, not best practices you read in a blog post
• You're obsessive about your work quality - this is the "you obsess over your own work" requirement
• You can execute without a team - you're not waiting for budget to hire before you start moving