Former VP of Growth at BarkBox, Rob Schutz, discusses the challenges and successes of building the BarkBox brand, including early organic growth and leveraging social media. He also talks about the evolution of his new healthcare tech company, Ro, and his current endeavors in growth marketing consulting and domain acquisition.

Rob Schutz is Chief Growth Officer and Co-founder at Ro, the healthcare technology company building a patient-centric healthcare system. To date, Ro has raised over $870M with a last reported valuation of $5BN and under Rob’s growth leadership, Ro has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. Prior to Ro, Rob was VP of Growth at Bark, the makers of BarkBox, and helped scale revenue from zero to $100 million. He also founded a Washington DC-based daily deals site that was acquired by kgbdeals in 2011. In Today’s Episode with Rob Schutz You Will Learn: 1.) How Rob made his way into startups and growth through the world of daily deals? How that led to his leading growth for Bark and ultimately founding Ro? How did leading marketing for Bark impact his growth strategy today with Ro? 2.) What is "Growth" and When to Hire For It: How does Rob define "growth and "Head of Growth"? When is the right time to start thinking about a growth team? Should founders hire a "Head of Growth" first or hire younger growth reps? Where should the growth team sit within the organization? 3.) How to Hire Growth Leader and Reps: What is the step-by-step process to hire growth leaders and reps? How does it differ when hiring growth leaders vs reps? What questions does Rob always ask? What separates good from great answers? What case studies does Rob like to use to determine candidate quality? How can one tell whether marketeers and growth candidates truly understand data? 4.) How to Structure the Onboarding Process: What does the optimal onboarding process look like for new hires? What tasks and duties do you expect reps and growth leaders to complete in the first month?  What are some early red flags that the candidate you have is not good enough? How can leaders deliberately manufacture moments for growth teams to interact with other teams? What are the biggest mistakes growth teams and leaders make in the early days?

Casey Winters is the Chief Product Officer at Eventbrite where he leads the PM, product design, research, and growth marketing teams. Prior to Eventbrite, Casey spent close to 3 years at Pinterest where he led the growth product team. Andy Johns is one of the pre-eminent growth leaders of the last decade. Andy’s career started in growth at Facebook when the company scaled from 100M-500M active users. Since he has worked in some of the leading growth orgs at companies like Twitter, Quora and more recently at Wealthfront as Head of Growth and President. Bangaly Kaba is the Head of Platform Growth @ Popshop Live, a live streaming mobile marketplace that combines commerce, entertainment, and social. Prior to Popshop, Bangaly led the product growth and consumer product orgs at Instacart and before Instacart was Head of Growth @ Instagram, where he built and led the product team that helped grow Instagram from 440M to > 1B monthly actives in 2.5yrs. Elena Verna is a master when it comes to all things starting and scaling growth organizations. Previously, Elena spent over 7 years as SVP Growth @ SurveyMonkey where she ran product, growth marketing, and data teams. Post SurveyMonkey, Elena worked with the rocket ship that is Miro both as Interim CMO and as an advisor. Ed Baker is an angel investor and growth advisor to various startups including Lime, Zwift, Whoop, Crimson Education, GoPeer, and Playbook. Ed was the VP of Product and Growth at Uber from 2013-2017. Prior to Uber, Ed was the Head of International Growth at Facebook. Rob Schutz is Chief Growth Officer and Co-founder at Ro, the healthcare technology company building a patient-centric healthcare system. Under Rob’s growth leadership, Ro has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. Prior to Ro, Rob was VP of Growth at Bark, the makers of BarkBox, and helped scale revenue from zero to $100 million. In Today’s Episode with Ed Baker You Will Learn: 1.) Casey Winters: How does Casey define "growth"? How does it differ from product? How do the best growth leaders decide between art vs science when making growth decisions? 2.) Andy Johns: What is Andy's biggest advice to founders looking to build their first growth team? What unexpected choice did Andy decide to make at Twitter that moved the needle for new user acquisition? 3.) Bangaly Kaba: What were some of Bangaly's biggest takeaways from scaling Instagram from 440M users to 1BN? What decisions did Bangaly make without data? How did they go? What did he learn? 4.) Ed Baker: What are Ed's biggest takeaways from facebook around structuring growth teams? What are Ed's biggest pieces of advice for startyups looking to grow internationally? What were some of Ed's biggest learnings from working with Travis @ Uber? 5.) Elena Verna: What is the difference between a good vs great growth model? When does one need to change or amend their growth model? How does one know when it is working? 6.) Rob Schutz: Why does Rob believe that startups should not diversify their customer acquisition channels too quickly? How does Rob assess resouirce allocation and spend on new channels? How did this process look when partnering with the MLB for Ro?

Rob Schutz, co-founder of the innovative healthcare company Ro, shares his journey from healthcare consulting to DTC marketing. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on consistent marketing channels while leaving room for experimentation. Schutz offers practical advice on planning for scale and fostering strong growth-marketing relationships. He also delves into the world of domain acquisition, providing insights on negotiating valuable digital assets. Furthermore, he discusses the evolution of Ro's health solutions and the challenges faced in establishing brand credibility.

Rob Schutz, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Ro, shares insights on balancing fatherhood with his impressive career. He discusses the importance of modeling kindness and respect for his kids, reflecting on emotional challenges in early parenting. With humor, Rob reveals surprising lessons learned and highlights the need for adaptable parenting strategies. He also contrasts his desires for his children's relationship with technology, emphasizing the proactive management of social media exposure. Get ready for relatable anecdotes and thoughtful reflections!