Femme Lead S02 E11 Growth Marketing: How to build a growth machine in tech with Irina Scarlat, Chief Growth Officer at Bitpanda.
Growth Marketing | BitPanda | Growth Machine | Leadership | Product-Led Growth | Well-being | Career | Uber | Revolut | Marketing Executive | Teamwork | Sabbatical
Irina Scarlat is the Chief Growth Officer at Bitpanda and an Uber & Revolut Alumna. She joins Femme Lead Podcast to discuss her amazing trajectory in the marketing space, how she tackled becoming a global manager, and how she helped build the growth machine that Revolut is known for. Additionally, we explore well-being and balancing career and family life in a real conversation that “you cannot have it all” and how to prioritize your time.
Irina Scarlat is an entrepreneur at heart, product marketer & team builder, with more than 12 years of business experience, 10 of them in tech. She currently leads the growth department for Bitpanda, an Austrian financial services company that allows its users to trade with cryptocurrencies, stocks, and precious metals.
She previously spent 3 years with Revolut, where she joined as Country Manager for Romania in early 2018 and grew the local market from 20k to almost 1.5M users. She then built Revolut’s growth machine, led the growth teams in CEE and, later on, their Global Growth department, shaping Revolut’s growth journey from 1M to 15M users globally.
Before joining Bitpanda and Revolut, Irina has been leading the marketing efforts of Uber in Romania, shaping the local strategy, and working on strategic regional projects & initiatives. During her time at Uber, she launched 3 cities, scaled the market to 1M users, and built the marketing team from scratch.
Irina Scarlat is a global citizen that has been living, studying & working in seven cities across Europe and the United States, she speaks four foreign languages and she’s also the mom of a hyperactive toddler.
Follow Irina Scarlat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irina-nicoleta-scarlat-30a4b28/
Episode Timeline:
02:50 What is growth marketing?
03:45 What do you see are the trends in growth marketing?
05:20 How will the field of marketing evolve?
07:50 What is the proudest moment from working to grow Uber’s marketing efforts?
11:15 What is the main learning from the period at Uber?
14:10 Learn to focus on what moves the needle
15:10 What is your advice for prioritizing?
17:00 Revolut career path: Initial KPIs.
18:10 Reaching hyper-growth through Community-Driven Growth.
20:25 What advice can you share for those who look at global roles?
24:03 What changed dramatically when you took over a global role?
27:00 Challenging situations: Approach & Advice.
29:50 How to manage stressful situations?
32:50 How do career & well-being work together?
36:33 Did you feel stress about family life & career expectations?
39:48 How to prioritize time between career & family?
40:55 What was the biggest surprise of your career?
42:10 What do you wish you knew 5 years ago?