I’ve been in tech startups for over a decade. I’ve co-founded companies, raised VC money, scaled teams, written copy for blog posts, social media and video scripts, built partner programs from scratch, and spent more hours in HubSpot than I care to admit.
This post is a look back at that work.
B2B AI SaaS Startup (2024–2026): Building the Growth Engine from Zero
My most recent role was Chief Community Officer (Growth Lead) at a B2B AI SaaS platform for sales agents in regulated industries. I joined when the company had limited organic presence and no systematic growth infrastructure. My job was to build it.
The brief, effectively: figure out how to grow this company from the ground up — acquisition, activation, conversion, retention, and revenue — and do it with a small team.
What I built
Content and SEO was the foundation. I set up a team and content engine producing 20+ blog posts per month, mapped to high-intent keywords and structured for both traditional search and AI-driven discovery. I wasn’t just optimising for Google. I was thinking about how AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini surface answers, a discipline now called Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) or Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
The results after 6 months:
- +938% increase in website visitors — attracting high-intent leads
- +1,696% growth in Google traffic — making it a primary growth engine
- 10x growth in traffic from ChatGPT — establishing AI search as a core acquisition channel
Social media was built channel by channel, each with a specific audience and goal. LinkedIn for B2B decision-makers, YouTube for product education, X and Instagram for thought leadership and reach. I worked with a team member to build the content calendar, production system, and distribution process. I also developed a product demo video system and experimented with AI avatar content, exploring what scalable video production looks like for a lean team.
The partner program started from zero. I designed the program structure, built the landing pages, and onboarded 55+ affiliate and agency partners, creating a new partner-led growth channel that extended our reach into markets we couldn’t reach directly.
The lead database and ABM motion took raw intent data and turned it into pipeline. I led the build of thousands of enriched lead database across priority industries, then designed the ABM outreach across email and LinkedIn using tools like Apollo, Snov, HubLead, and Gojiberry — engaging high-value accounts and feeding the enterprise sales pipeline.
AI sales agents were central to the product itself, and I optimised our own. The result: a +60% increase in contact conversions, leads who actually moved forward.
Product onboarding was often overlooked in growth conversations, but I treated it as a growth lever. I built out 150+ Help Center articles, an AI support chatbot, and interactive onboarding tours, so that once we acquired a user, they could activate themselves 24/7 without needing to wait for the team.
By the end, we had acquired users through purely organic channels, and I had grown my personal LinkedIn audience to 15,888 followers as a thought leader in AI sales and marketing — which itself became an inbound channel.
Remote Education Non-Profit (2021–2024): Scaling a Mission to 10,000 Students
Before that, I was CMO at a non-profit in Indonesia and Southeast Asia focused on equipping young people with remote work skills.
Non-profits operate under different constraints to startups. There’s no VC runway to burn through marketing spend. Growth has to be earned, not bought.
What we built: I led digital marketing strategy across all channels — content, social, team advocacy, community, events, and partnerships. I focused on building sustainable, repeatable acquisition that didn’t depend on paid ads.
The numbers:
- Grew from 100 to 10,000+ students
- 11x revenue of self-led courses and live bootcamps — helping the organisation reach financial sustainability
- 6 million social media reach in 2023
I also led the organisation of an international conference — with 40 speakers from around the world, attended by 190 participants over two days. It received a rating of 9 out of 10 from attendees. Events like that aren’t just marketing — they’re proof of community.
VC-Backed Social Storytelling Platform (2018–2021): Building from Co-Founder
My second co-founding experience was a social storytelling platform built for Indonesian writers — allowing them to serialise books, receive community feedback, and monetise their writing chapter by chapter.
I co-founded the company and led marketing from the earliest days. This was a different kind of challenge: we weren’t growing an existing company, we were building a new category from scratch. Writers had to believe this was a place worth publishing. Readers had to believe it was worth their time.
What we achieved:
- Raised $700,000 from angel investors and VCs
- Grew to 600,000+ members
- 100,000+ app downloads
The growth here was community-driven — word of mouth, creator enablement, and building a platform that writers actively wanted to share. That experience taught me a lot about how organic communities compound in ways that paid acquisition never quite replicates.
Digital Media Network (2015–2018): Building from the Ground Up
My first co-founding experience was a digital media network of 11 lifestyle portals, creating content for Indonesia’s youth. Think of it as a distributed media brand before that phrase was common.
As Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer, I helped shape not just the content but the business model — selling content marketing, digital marketing, SEO/SEM services, and user-generated content campaigns to brands.
What we built:
- Raised $300,000 in seed funding
- Built the team from 0 to 30 people
- Grew to 3–7 million users per month across the portal network
Building a media company with a lean team and limited budget means every piece of content has to earn its place. I learned to think about content not as expression but as infrastructure — something that brings people back, builds trust, and eventually converts.
The Through-Line
Looking across a decade of work, a few things stand out.
I build systems. The numbers above didn’t come from a single viral post or a lucky press mention. They came from content engines, partner programs, lead databases, onboarding flows — things that keep producing results after the initial effort. That’s what I mean when I say I build growth engines.
I work best at the intersection of strategy and execution. I’m the person who can write the growth strategy deck on Monday and be in HubSpot setting up the pipeline automation on Tuesday. Not every growth leader works that way. I do.
AI-Native. In my most recent role, I was building AI into the architecture of how we acquired, converted, and served users. That includes the AI sales agents we deployed, the AEO/GEO strategy, the custom GPTs and Claude workflows I built to automate team operations, and the AI avatar content experiments we ran for product marketing.
I understand the founder context. I’ve been the person with no budget, no team, and having to wear different hats. I’ve had to figure it out. That shapes how I approach growth: with flexibility, with resourcefulness, and with an eye for what actually moves the needle.
What’s Next
I’m looking for my next opportunity in roles such as Head of Growth, Content Marketing Lead, or AI Implementation.
What I bring to the table:
- Growth strategy + execution (organic, ABM)
- AI-powered marketing (AEO/GEO, AI agents & automation with Claude Cowork/Code)
- Content marketing + thought leadership (founder-led & team advocacy)
- AI implementation & education
- HubSpot, ClickUp, Claude, and dozens of tools in my tech stack
If you’re hiring (or know someone who is) and could use an AI-native Marketer with the depth of a decade of leadership experience, who’s equally comfortable in the strategy doc and the execution, your referral or recommendation means the world.
📩 liagolledge@gmail.com
🔗 View my full portfolio
💼 Connect with me on LinkedIn
Lia Golledge 
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