Right Side Up Talent Spotlight: Justin Gorrell

The Right Side Up Talent Spotlight series profiles some of our full-time employees and growth marketing consultants. We chat with the experts in our network to learn about their incredible professional experiences, expert marketing insights, and how they’re balancing work and life.

Justin Gorrell | Principal, Right Side Up

Justin Gorrell is a growth marketing leader with more than 15 years of proven experience in growth marketing strategy, customer acquisition, lifecycle marketing, marketing measurement, and marketing technology. He has generated 10M+ in attributable new customer acquisition, helping companies like Coinbase, NerdWallet, DoorDash, and Kabbage effectively build and scale profitable growth marketing and retention programs. He joined as principal of Right Side Up’s Team’s effort in September 2023.

What do you do here at Right Side Up?

I serve as a principal for Right Side Up. In this role, I lead teams of marketers deployed directly on client business while embedding myself in the project, operating the teams I assemble for the client. We offer hyper-specialized marketing teams to clients looking to tackle revenue opportunities and drive growth. Whether a business needs to build a marketing team from scratch or to augment existing resources, I focus on assembling and leading the right mix of expert marketers to supercharge their growth.

Where is home these days?

I was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs but have been in the Bay Area for over 12 years. I now live in sunny Oakland, CA with my wife and two-month old son. I hope to never trade mild temperatures all year round again for the winters I experienced growing up.

Tell us about your professional background and areas of expertise. Any achievements you’re proud of or notable brands you’ve worked with?

For the past 15 years, I’ve specialized in growth marketing for web and mobile products, bringing together design, engineering, and data partners to execute on marketing strategies driving user growth, engagement, retention, and revenue. I help companies effectively build and scale growth marketing and retention programs, with $1B+ in attributable annual revenue under my belt. I’ve worked with brands like Coinbase, NerdWallet, DoorDash, and Kabbage to generate 10M+ new customers. With experience in-house and as a consultant, I’m able to understand the range of challenges faced by high-growth brands in competitive industries. 

I started my career media buying for affiliate products and mobile games before completing brief stints as a product marketer and a jack-of-all-marketing trades at a startup. I found my way back to focusing on growth at NerdWallet and haven’t looked back since. Following my time at NerdWallet, I spent two years with Right Side Up helping clients like Kabbage and DoorDash accelerate their acquisition programs, and loved the opportunity to work across disparate types of businesses at the same time. Most recently, I built, led, and scaled growth marketing as a function at Coinbase, helping them to acquire tens of millions of new customers and generate hundreds of millions in new revenue across performance marketing and lifecycle marketing over the three years I was there.

What excites you about growth marketing? Has your work changed since you first started? What do you see for the future of growth marketing?

It’s intensely rewarding to own the part of the marketing funnel that ends up being the “last mile” in introducing customers to new products that create value for both them and the companies I partner with. I’ll never forget the many times I’ve heard customer feedback that they learned about the products I’ve marketed through the thoughtful and creative communications that my team and I have put out.

Mechanically, I love how growth marketing as a practice is rooted in the ability to tie back and measure outcomes and value creation directly to the marketing we as growth marketers do. The tools at our disposal and our ability to measure those outcomes are ever evolving due to advancements in both technology and an increasing desire to maintain customer privacy. This keeps the craft interesting to me (and all of the data partners I’ve worked with throughout the years!).

As for the future of growth marketing, my bet is that arrangements between growth marketers and the companies they help will become increasingly flexible. Growing companies’ needs for growth marketing have always changed depending on evolving business goals, the season, macroeconomic climate, and other factors. Because of that, companies are learning that it’s beneficial for them to flex growth marketing resources up and down through partners like Right Side Up and the Teams offering we’re launching rather than maintaining the level of internal headcount they’ve previously been accustomed to.

And now, let’s get to the fun stuff…

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Rock star.

What do you like to do for fun in your geographic area?

Get outside as much as possible and enjoy what I believe is the best dining scene in the country.

What’s a TV show, podcast, book, video game, recipe, etc. that you’re loving right now?

Telemarketers on HBO / Max. It’s a documentary on the seedy underbelly of telemarketing in the United States. I spent a summer in high school working for a firm that employed similar tactics to the ones the documentary exposes; that experience profoundly shaped my moral and ethical compasses going forward.

What was your first concert?

Weezer.

What’s your favorite place you’ve traveled to? Why?

Paris—I’ve been lucky enough to travel there fairly frequently, and my wife and I got engaged there. For me, it’s the only European city that’s consistently met the romanticized ideal I had for it prior to visiting. I plan to revisit many more times.

What’s a fun fact about yourself that people wouldn’t expect?

I’ve seen the band Phish almost 100 times; despite that, I’m not really a fan of other “jam bands.”

Want to talk to Justin about hiring a dream marketing team to take your brand’s growth to the next level? Get in touch at growth@rightsideup.co to get started. Or maybe you’re interested in joining the Right Side Up team? We’d love to chat—reach out to talent@rightsideup.co and we’ll be in touch.