Kirstin Hornby is a seasoned marketing strategist with over 20 years of experience driving growth across both B2B and B2C sectors. She honed her foundational marketing skills at industry leaders like PayPal and Gap before applying them in high-growth environments, where she built marketing teams from the ground up at startups like NileGuide and Polyvore. Her work at Polyvore led to a 40% increase in customers and contributed to Yahoo's $230M acquisition of the company.
Most recently, she led Growth Marketing teams at unicorns Culture Amp and Malwarebytes, both mid-size companies in high growth mode.
Kirstin's expertise spans a wide range of industries, including SaaS, Fintech, Cybersecurity, Marketplaces, and more. She specializes in KPIs, marketing channel optimization, attribution, and forecasting to maximize efficiency and ROI. Her strategic leadership has driven major transformations at companies like Culture Amp, where she increased new logo ARR by 34%, and Malwarebytes, where she managed a $40M budget and improved conversion rates by 130%.
Kirstin is recognized for her ability to quickly build trust with leaders and teams, driving meaningful operational changes and enhancing team effectiveness. Known for blending creative vision with data-driven precision, she works closely with CMOs and CEOs to align marketing strategy with business goals, ensuring the ROI is clearly communicated to the C-suite and board to guide informed decision-making.
Kirstin is deeply committed to empowering others, especially in emerging economies. She lived in Benin, West Africa, where she partnered with a local NGO to grow small, female-led businesses, and has led multiple marketing consulting projects through Rippleworks, partnering with social ventures in Mexico, India, and Kenya.
Kirstin is a published author, having co-authored a leadership book in collaboration with a Harvard Business School professor, published by Prentice Hall in 2004.
Kirstin holds a BA in Philosophy, graduating cum laude from Princeton University, and an MBA in Strategy, Marketing, and Operations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.