About me

I help B2B cloud and DBaaS teams between $1–30M ARR get clear on segmentation, positioning, and GTM so they can grow more predictably.

From counseling rooms to cloud databases: My Story

I didn’t start my career in tech. I started in psychology and counseling—sitting across from people at inflection points, listening carefully, and helping them make practical, sometimes uncomfortable decisions.

That work trained me to ask better questions, cut through noise, and understand what actually drives behavior. When I moved into sales and then marketing, those skills turned out to be far more valuable than any generic “growth playbook.”

I eventually found my way into B2B cloud and DBaaS.

After a stint helping a Finnish B2B tech startup grow from early traction to a solid multi-million run rate, I joined Aiven shortly after their seed round as the first dedicated marketer. Over the next several years, Aiven more or less followed the marketing strategy I set through to their Series B:

  • Treating brand as a competitive advantage, not a coat of paint

  • Restructuring the trial experience so it actually supported how technical buyers evaluate products

  • Building a proper segmentation, targeting, positioning, and messaging framework through a brand development platform project

  • Establishing the initial channel strategy and shaping the first wave of marketing hires and partners

From there, I took on a different kind of challenge at Severalnines as Director of Marketing.

Severalnines had a mature product in a crowded market, but the story and GTM had fallen behind. My work there has focused on defining a Sovereign DBaaS category extension before it was fashionable, standing up more forward-leaning tactics like a CEO-led podcast, pushing through a self-serve motion for ClusterControl, and using our white-label offering (CCX) to create millions in pipeline.

More recently, we’ve seen exponential growth in “ClusterControl alternatives” searches from essentially zero to well over a hundred seventy queries this past year. That’s a strong signal that ClusterControl has moved into the default consideration set, exactly the kind of long-term brand and category effect I care about.

The pattern across all of this is consistent:

  • Step into companies in the messy middle (typically between $1–30M ARR)

  • Clarify who they’re really for and what they actually sell

  • Design segmentation, positioning, and GTM that the whole company can rally around

  • Shape the marketing function so execution becomes inevitable, not heroic

These days I do that as a consultant for founders and marketing leaders in B2B cloud, DBaaS, and adjacent infra. I’m based in Helsinki, work globally, and prefer straight talk over marketing theater.

Highlights

Aiven – first marketing hire, seed to Series B

  • Joined shortly after the seed round as the first marketer.

  • Established brand as a competitive advantage, not a cosmetic layer.

  • Spearheaded a trial restructure to better reflect buyer evaluation expectations.

  • Defined the early channel strategy and informed the sequencing of marketing hires and vendors.

  • Developed the marketing strategy that produced the segmentation, targeting, positioning, and messaging foundations that persisted through to the Series B.

  • Efforts directly contributed to a 600% increase in brand awareness and 2900% increase in ARR.

Severalnines – category extension and modern GTM in a crowded market

  • As Director of Marketing, helped move the company from legacy lead gen toward modern demand gen.

  • Developed the Sovereign DBaaS category extension before it was widely discussed, influencing how we talk about sovereignty, compliance, and control in managed database offerings.

  • Established forward-leaning marketing tactics like a CEO-led podcast to anchor that story and build founder-level authority.

  • Successfully argued for and implemented a self-serve option for ClusterControl, opening up a lighter-weight motion.

  • Planned and launched CCX for CSPs white-label DBaaS offering, generating millions in pipeline.

How I approach marketing and growth

1. Strategy before channels

I don’t start with “What should we do on LinkedIn?” I start with who you’re for, how you win, and what has to be true commercially. Segmentation, motion, positioning, and narrative first; channels and tactics second.

2. Built around technical buyers

Developers, DBAs, and platform teams have a low tolerance for fluff. My job is to make your story specific, credible, and testable so that a skeptical engineer can read it and think, “Yes, that’s actually how our world works.”

3. A few big strategic bets, not 50 disconnected tactics

Most teams between $1–30M ARR don’t need more activity; they need focus. I help you choose a small number of high-leverage plays that line up product, marketing, and sales rather than a long list of one-off campaigns.

4. Brand and category as real levers

Done right, brand and category design are not vanity projects. At Aiven, we used brand and positioning as a competitive advantage from the earliest stages. At Severalnines, category extension work around Sovereign DBaaS and white-label DBaaS is now showing up in search behavior and deal flow years later. I design for that kind of compounding effect.

5. Designed for handoff, not dependency

I’m not trying to become your permanent VP of “everything GTM.” My goal is to leave you with clear positioning, messaging, GTM architecture, and hiring/org recommendations that your team and partners can run without me.

6. Honest, founder-friendly conversations

I’d rather have one direct conversation about trade-offs than months of polite ambiguity. If I think something won’t work, I’ll say so—and I expect you to push back the same way.