Director of Design & Marketing @ 8billionideas

Experienced assembler of teams, initiatives, and products.

Passionate about product led businesses that leverage design

Looking for a role that utilises my love for creating great products, and connecting customers to them

Skills

Product Management

Digital Marketing

Design

Sales

People Management

Leadership

Financial Modelling & Strategy

Tools

Figma

Photoshop + Adobe CC

Hubspot

Asana

Webflow

Reach me

🐦 @raviisoccuped

🔗 /in/raviisoccupied

📲 +44 7493 778178

✉️ [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]?subject=Hey%20Ravi!)

📝 Read my words: occupied.blog

🎙 Hear my voice: designbyus podcast

Prefer a download? Download this

Highlights

Experience

Director of Design & Marketing

@ 8billionideas // October 2020 - Present

8billionideas is an EdTech company based in London that launched in January 2021. From a standing start the company has raised around £450k in pre-seed funding, hired around 20 FTEs, and achieved six figures in revenue. I am a founding team member, and as such my role has been incredibly diverse, however my approach has always been the same; design and people oriented. I understand how important vision is to a business in the long term, but equally how important execution & traction are in the short term.

Pre-Launch

• Articulated 'digital-first' strategy and set the vision for our product
• Developed a subscription based business model, and achieving buy in for it from key stakeholders
• Created our Financial Model and Pitch deck, raising over £450k in pre-seed funding

Product Focus

• Scoped our initial MVP product, writing over 300 user stories
• Controlled and deployed a £250k budget to create our MVP, selecting near-shore agency in the process
• Conducted prototype testing with users
• Recruited for and set up our Studio team of Motion Design and Video creatives
• Defined our approach to learning and education with 'Manifesto' approach

Marketing Focus

• Designed our brand
• Recruited 3 people into a newly formed Marketing team, subsequently leading it
• Aligned all Marketing activities to Customer Lifecycle
• Conducted 50+ marketing focused interviews
• Ran a PR campaign resulting in placements on BBC, GMB, Fox & others
• Launched our Product, driving over 100 users in our first week
• Mentored weekly by experienced NED CMO consultant

Sales Focus

• Defined initial ideal customer profiles
• Wrote and implemented our Buyer Journey
• Bought & deployed Hubspot across Sales, Marketing, and Operations teams
• Responsible for a 6 figure sales target with around £1m bookings to date
• Mentored weekly by external experienced Sales Leaders

<aside> 🌳 At this point in my career, I have realised that my success at 8billionideas was tied to my ability to communicate effectively with team members and stakeholders in order to get things done. I've also learned about the realities of running a small company, where every invoice, payment, and decision matters. It's been a fantastic experience, and one I hope to never forget the learnings from.

</aside>

Marketing Lead

@ 7billionideas // February 2019 - October 2020

7billionideas was the pre-cursor to 8billionideas, and was an Education services firm. During this time I went deep on improving our company's brand experience. I would fit in working on 7billionideas alongside my University studies, using the term breaks to come into the office and work with the team full time.

• Standardised our brand with guidelines
• Rebuilt our website using Webflow, owning all aspects of its creation
• Implemented project management tooling and methodologies by deploying Asana in our team
• Recruited a team of 5 students to bring skills into the team with flexibility
• Created our first Digital Learning Experience in response to the pandemic, achieving over £40,000 in revenue
• Travelled internationally to deliver our courses to students across the world

<aside> 🪴 During this time I learned more about who it was that I wanted to be, and started to understand the challenges of a growing business. Our flexible student team was created in response to the needs of the business, and I was proud to lead the team that created every material our clients and students touched. Unfortunately, the pandemic meant that our physical services business model was no longer feasible, and we gradually wound the company down.

</aside>

Executive Assistant

@ 7billionideas // September 2017 - January 2019

This was a part time role that I did alongside my University studies. At this time, the company was just 3 people so I was involved with a wide variety of activities and initiatives. As time progressed, I gradually upped my hours to reflect my increased commitment to the company.

• Modernised our internal communication and processes
• Modernised our IT infrastructure, instituting an 'Apple @ Work' policy
• Created 'designed focused' Sales & Marketing Materials
• Created courses and materials that were delivered into Schools

<aside> 🌱 I was excited to join an early stage company where the possibilities are nearly endless. During this period of my time there, I learned how difficult it is to run a company, even a small one, and that success was linked to our ability to delight and surprise our students and clients.

</aside>

Co-President

@ Accelerate ME CIC // June 2019 - June 2020

Helping to lead Manchester’s best student society, dedicated to improving the student Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in the North West. During my tenure as Co-President of the society, I recruited a team and made decisions about how we organise, energise, and inspire that them.

• Recruited a team of 30
• Implemented an innovative organisation structure, realised it wasn't working, then adapted it
• Ran a Start Up Weekend in partnership with Techstars with 50 attendees over 3 days
• Deployed over £30,000 through our own student Accelerator
• Worked with key stakeholders, including senior University of Manchester leadership
• Navigated the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic, making the difficult decision to stop our in person events before lockdowns were instituted
• Led our company incorporation and subsequent restructuring into Accelerate ME CIC

<aside> ⏳ It's always difficult leading an organisation when you know that yourself, and the majority of team members will move on after just 12 months. However, together as a team we left a legacy of a brilliant brand, and a set of partnerships, and a governance structure that ensure that the mission of the organisation will be carried out for years to come.

</aside>

Management & Operations Internship

@ IBM Consulting UKI // June 2016 - August 2017

As part of a 13 month internship with IBM, I supported the Global Business Services United Kingdom & Ireland Leadership team. This was a varied and high pressured role and prominent internally with stakeholders across the business.

• Crafted internal video and written communications to improve employee engagement
• Provided management information on Financial and Organisational matters
• Worked with client and did so accurately and to demanding timelines
• Outside of my mainline role, I was given the opportunity to visit and interact with clients (including Wimbledon)
• Offered a degree-apprenticeship with IBM Security

<aside> 💾 I loved my time at IBM, and was sure I was going to return after completing my degree. However, whilst at University I was sidetracked by the world of startups and entrepreneurship, and haven't looked back since.

</aside>