Matt Lerner

SYSTM

At SYSTM (formerly Startup Core Strengths), our mission is to help early-stage startups find their big growth levers (and pull them). We've noticed that great startups don't waste time on small stuff, so we  focus everyone on the most impactful work.

Founder & CEO

TransferGo

During my part-time interim role, our team more than doubled the YoY growth rate of acquisitions while lowering CPAs and improving retention and revenue per transaction. I also sourced their full-time VP Growth, and hired 4 other diverse and talented marketers to the team.

Interim VP of Growth

500 Startups

I led 500 Startups operations in London, investing in 35 seed-stage companies including Storemaven, SimplyCook, ZenJob, AirSorted, Popsa, Settled, Lexoo, Thriva, CharlieHR, HonestBrew, Fy and Second Nature. I also set up and ran the "Distro Dojo" growth marketing program for our portfolio companies in London and Berlin, which I was able to staff with a handful of the most extraordinary growth marketers in Europe.

Partner, London

PayPal

I led business-to-business marketing for PayPal UK, and oversaw the SMB/SME merchant business as a general manager.

Director, SMB

Created and lead PayPal’s first website marketing team, including conversion specialists, web analysts, developers, designers and writers. With a $3.5M budget, I oversee all business-facing areas of PayPal.com, driving over 85% of PayPal’s small business acquisition. The team boosted conversion (visitors to signups) in 2011 by 28%, generating an extra $67M over three years.

Director, On-Site Marketing

Built and managed a team of direct marketers who oversaw all marketing to PayPal’s existing small business customer base including activation, cross-sell and retention, generating $30M in incremental revenue.
+ Led pricing in North America.
+ Oversaw all marketing for the PayPal Debit Card, a $60M business, accelerating growth from 7% to 20% YoY in 12 months.
+ Deployed a propensity model targeting our most promising new customers with a high-touch “welcome” experience, boosting their value by 34% vs. control. The program generated an extra $11M in revenue in the first year and $55M over three years.

Group Manager, Merchant Engagement Marketing

Promoted within the same role, grew the team to 18. Developed processes & metrics around go-to-market. Oversaw the launch of many of PayPal’s most popular small business products.

Group Manager, Product Marketing

Built PayPal’s first outbound Product Marketing team. We oversaw all outbound B2B product marketing, launched a dozen major products and features.

Sr. Manager, Product Marketing

+ Originally hired to oversee developer marketing
+ Managed partner marketing through our shopping cart partners including GoDaddy and Yahoo!
+ Ran PayPal’s first consumer engagement campaigns
+ Launched Website Payments Pro, which currently generates over $100M revenue/year.

Marketing Manager

Macromedia

Brought Fireworks MX 2004 to market. The launch exceeded sales forecast by 20%. Planned subsequent release including researching and writing the MRD.

Product Manager

Visited 36 countries, wrote a book, climbed two 18,000 ft. Himalayan peaks, dove some of the world's best reefs, and learned to "think globally."

International Traveller

+ Led the successful development and launch of two products and discontinued a third product without alienating valuable customers.
+ Led demand generation among designers and developers for four of Macromedia’s largest launches including the flagship Dreamweaver product. Sales consistently beat forecasts. Tactics included print advertising, online media, direct mail (Harte Hanks) and email (Digital Impact) campaigns.

Product & Marketing Manager

Elemental Software

Poppe Tyson

Led B2B online marketing programs for clients including Novell Inc., Edward Jones Inc. and IDG.

Assistant Account Executive

Startup growth strategist, Ex PayPal, 500 Startups VC, Founder @ SYSTM

I founded SYSTM to help startups find their big growth levers - the small actions that can have the biggest impact on their growth. We’ve worked with over 200 companies and earned a 96% founder “likely to recommend” score.

Before founding SYSTM, I was the London-based Partner of 500 Startups, an early-stage VC fund, where I built and ran an accelerator seed-stage growth program for our portfolio companies.

Prior to joining 500 Startups, I worked for many years building and managing growth teams for three  startups (two disasters, one exit), and later at PayPal. 

I approach my work first as a general manager and then as a marketer, product manager or both, as needed. My lens is quantitative, but rooted in deep customer insights and testing, and based on fast iteration. I’m always learning, and I really enjoy teaching and helping those around me to learn and improve. Skip to the references below, you'll see that I'm regarded as a thought leader in many areas of business, and an inspiring people manager who reliably delivers ahead of expectations.

Visable

- Generated over 7 figures in revenue through strategic optimization of Google Ads and Meta Ads campaigns, leveraging advanced audience targeting and analytics.
- Reduced Cost Per Click (CPC) by 25% and improved Cost Per Lead (CPL) by 70%, driving higher ROI across paid media channels.
- Enhanced conversion rates by 30% through A/B testing and optimization of landing pages, ensuring alignment with user intent and ad copy.
- Developed and executed data-driven strategies by analyzing performance metrics, identifying trends, and applying insights to maximize campaign profitability.
- Collaborated cross-functionally with design and development teams to implement changes that directly boosted campaign revenue and customer acquisition.

Senior Manager, Performance Marketing

AutoScout24

- Developed and executed a comprehensive European acquisition optimization strategy resulting in a 25% decrease in CPC; boosted ROI significantly and grew ads impression share by an impressive 40%.
- Engaged with cross-functional teams in the creation and deployment of tailored marketing strategies throughout the sales funnel, leading to a 10% rise in lead conversion rates and a 9% growth in YTD revenue.
- Boosted retargeting campaign conversions by 35% by collaborating on landing page enhancements, resulting in a 15% increase in overall user engagement, as well.
- Reduced cost per lead acquisition by 20% by implementing advanced audience targeting strategies, leading to a 15% increase in marketing ROI.

Performance Marketing Consultant

Autobahn Security

- Spearheaded global acquisition strategy that resulted in 30% decrease in CAC & CPL and 50% boost in lead generation within 1 Q
- Sat up over 90 SEO and SEA optimised paged for better conversion and retargeting
- Led a comprehensive analysis of marketing funnels, identifying critical bottlenecks while crafting and executing growth loops strategies; delivered an impressive 20% surge in post-trial conversion rate within just 3 months.
- Effectively managed marketing budgets and reported on campaign performance that resulted in a 100% alignment with company OKRs while leading and mentoring a team of marketers to drive results and team success

Performance Marketing Lead

Babbel

- Ran data-driven campaigns influencing over 11 deals worth 6 figures.
- Identified areas for improvement by analysing marketing funnels and implementing growth loops to enhance post-trial conversion by 5%
- Established data driven attribution modelling that helped in effective marketing budget spending and decreasing budget waste.
- Enhanced over all CRM & User Engagement metrics by 20%

Senior Manager Marketing Operations

adam.ai

- Directed marketing initiatives resulting in 40% reduction in CAC, 30% increase in lead generation, and achieving seven figures in ARR.
- Collaborated with Product Management, Sales, and Customer Success to optimise marketing messaging and onboarding that led to 30% increase conversion.
- Assembled a team of 4 marketers to achieve individual and team success that contributed to weekly updates to content, paid marketing & A/B testing

Growth Marketing Lead

Instabug

- Constructed paid acquisition campaigns across paid channels and surged ads impression share by 30%
- Decreased CPC by 15% for SEA & Paid Social
- Enhanced conversion rate by 10% through building and optimising landing pages & applying growth and funnel loop approaches.
- Implemented Home page & Landing Page optimisation strategies that improved website conversion rate by 25%.

Growth Marketer

tajawal

- Built over 200 pages for SEO & SEA with content to improve organic ranking & ads ranking.
- Conducted market and competitive analysis that factored to a large boost in impression share (90%) in MENA region through user acquisition Strategies across Paid, Search & Display channels.

Growth Marketing Executive / Content Manager

Almosafer

Seera Group

With over 8 years of hands-on experience in performance and growth marketing, Wael helped companies scale their revenue, acquisition, and conversion across various industries, such as Automotive, Travel, Cybersecurity, FinTech, Mobile Apps, Banking and E-Learning. 

Wael currently serve as the Senior Manager of Performance Marketing at Visable (an Alibaba Company), where He spearheads the EU acquisition strategy to achieve the company's vision for exponential growth.

Wael has a strong background in data-driven and customer-centric marketing, with certifications from Apple, Google, Meta, CXL, and Reforge.

Some of Wael's areas of expertise include growth model strategies, product-led growth, analysis and market research, data-driven experience optimization, A/B testing, search engine optimization, and content marketing. 

Wael is passionate about finding new and creative ways to engage and retain customers, optimize conversion, and maximize revenue.

In his free time Wael likes to write short stories, read about mental health, fashion, filmmaking & photography 

taplio

The Battle

Matt Lerner

Wael K.

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