Welcome Cathryn Wile

By Adam Siegel on March 23, 2017

This week we welcome a new addition to the team.

Cathryn Wile, who currently resides in Denver, will be joining us to lead our marketing efforts. 

In previous stops, Cathryn has led marketing for non-profits and for-profits, and began her career in finance at Bank of America before listening to her inner-business-self and deciding marketing was her true calling. 

More importantly, she is highly active as a volunteer, working to empower girls to grow into strong women as an ambassador for SheJumps. Besides volunteering Cathryn is an epic traveler who can not only lead a white water rafting expedition, but also take those rafters through a full yoga regimen (certified coach) each morning. 

She truly is a jack of many trades and a kind, thoughtful person, and we're honored she's joining the team.

More broadly, why now? Why did we decide to hire someone that is focused 100% on our marketing efforts when up until now we've been a team of consultants, designers, and engineers?

Ben and I are seeing two things happening with our business that are positive trends and we feel it's time to scale our marketing efforts.

First, I’m noticing a distinct change in the conversations we’re having with clients about internal crowdsourcing. They’re more educated, they have a clearer idea of what they want to do, and most importantly, they recognize that this isn’t just an “experiment” or something to try because of an article or book they read. There is a distinct change in tone that people contacting us need to be doing what we offer. More companies should hear the stories of what their peers are already doing.

Second, a large percentage of the business we have now are repeating clients. Forecasting pilots that have evolved to become an institutional capability. Internal crowdfunding campaigns that are on their 3rd and 4th round. When people are renewing 5 and 6-figure contracts, that's the best signal we have we’re making something people want. I want the world to hear about the value we're creating.

We believe more than ever that the future of work is about the empowerment of the individual to be agile, make decisions locally, experiment more without fear of failure, and collaborate seamlessly. Crowdsourcing is fundamental to that empowerment and will be part of the decision making and operational fabric of every organization in the future.

During our interviewing process, Cathryn had some great ideas. Now that she’s started and we spent some time with her in Chicago this week, the entire company is even more enthusiastic about embarking on this journey with her.

Feel free to say hello to Cathryn @cultivatelabs.