Consultant · ContractRefapp
Building the growth function for an HR-tech scale-up.
From no team or demand engine to a 100% increase in inbound pipeline — team, martech, brand, a multi-channel demand engine and an international GTM strategy, built from zero in a year.
A strong product, no engine to take it to market.
Refapp is a B2B SaaS HR-tech company that digitises and automates the reference-checking process. When I joined in 2021, the product had clear customer value and early traction — but no growth and marketing function: no internal team, no structured demand-generation engine, no GTM strategy, no marketing-automation infrastructure, no reliable attribution between marketing and revenue, and no operating model for agencies.
At the same time, Refapp was preparing for international expansion and needed a commercial foundation capable of supporting growth beyond the Nordic market.
As Chief Growth Officer I reported directly to the CEO and joined the leadership team, owning everything related to growth and marketing — from recruiting the team and implementing the technology to rebuilding the brand, generating pipeline and defining the international go-to-market strategy. Within one year, the growth engine increased inbound pipeline by 100%.
The starting point
Value proven — a repeatable system missing.
Refapp had a strong proposition: replace slow, inconsistent, manual reference checks with a structured digital workflow. The challenge wasn’t proving the product solved a problem — it was building a repeatable system for taking that value to market. Growth existed in isolated pieces, with no shared infrastructure connecting:
- Market positioning, brand and messaging
- Website conversion, content and SEO
- Paid acquisition and lead management
- Marketing automation and sales handoffs
- Pipeline attribution
- International expansion
What I owned
Growth and marketing, end-to-end.
I had end-to-end responsibility for growth and marketing, and as a member of the leadership team I connected growth priorities to company strategy, the sales organisation, product direction and international ambitions:
Act I
Building the team and operating model
A commercially accountable growth team — not a traditional marketing department.
The function itself, first
The first priority was creating the function. I defined the capabilities Refapp needed, recruited the team, established responsibilities and created a shared way of working — built from the start around commercial accountability rather than campaign output:
- Clear commercial targets and ownership by channel and initiative
- Continuous testing, fast feedback and transparent performance reporting
- Collaboration between Marketing and Sales
- Decisions based on pipeline contribution rather than activity volume
Act II
Building the martech foundation
One system to follow a lead from first interaction to commercial outcome.
HubSpot as the core platform
Refapp lacked the infrastructure to follow a lead through to a commercial outcome. I implemented HubSpot as the core growth and marketing platform:
- CRM and lifecycle structure, lead capture, scoring and segmentation
- Automated nurture journeys and sales handoffs
- Funnel reporting and campaign tracking
- Pipeline and revenue attribution
From “how many leads” to “what created value”
Lead scoring surfaced which accounts showed real buying intent; nurture flows developed relationships with prospects who were interested but not yet sales-ready. Most importantly, the setup connected marketing activity to pipeline and revenue — changing the internal conversation from “How many leads did we generate?” to “Which activities created qualified opportunities and commercial value?”
Act III
Rebuilding the brand and website
Making Refapp understandable to people outside the Nordic HR-tech market.
A rebrand, and a website that works
The existing brand and website reflected an earlier stage of the company. I led a complete rebrand and rebuilt the website in HubSpot — so it became a central part of the growth system rather than a static company presentation, connecting content, campaigns, lead generation, automation and sales follow-up in one environment:
- Brand strategy, positioning, core messaging and visual identity
- Website information architecture and product / value communication
- Conversion journeys and lead-capture points
- Content structure and international positioning
Act IV
Creating the demand-generation engine
A connected acquisition system, not a collection of isolated campaigns.
Each channel with a role
With the team, brand, website and martech in place, I built a multi-channel demand engine. SEO and content built long-term visibility and educated the market; paid acquisition created faster access to high-intent audiences; the website converted demand; HubSpot captured, qualified, nurtured and attributed it:
- SEO and content marketing
- Performance marketing and conversion optimisation
- Marketing automation and lead nurturing
- Campaign-driven acquisition
Inbound pipeline doubled
Together these elements formed a connected acquisition system rather than a set of isolated campaigns — and within one year, inbound pipeline increased by 100%.
Act V
Building the agency model
Agencies as extensions of the growth function, not disconnected suppliers.
Specialist capacity, internal ownership
To expand execution capacity quickly, I selected and onboarded specialist agency partners across content, creative and performance — while keeping strategy, prioritisation and commercial ownership internal:
- Clear strategic and campaign briefs, with defined responsibilities
- Shared commercial objectives and regular performance reviews
- Creative feedback loops and testing / optimisation routines
- Accountability for measurable outcomes
Act VI
Preparing for international expansion
Market entry as a deliberate choice, not a translation exercise.
A structured market-entry foundation
Refapp’s next stage required moving beyond its Nordic position. I developed the international go-to-market strategy with concrete market-entry priorities — so expansion wasn’t treated as simply translating the website and launching ads, but as a deliberate choice of audience, positioning, channel mix, commercial motion and resource commitment per market. The work considered:
- Market attractiveness, category maturity and competitive intensity
- Local buying behaviour and search demand
- Regulatory and operational conditions
- Sales capacity, localisation and the balance of central vs local execution
Results
A growth engine, built to scale.
From fragmented marketing activity to an accountable internal growth organisation.
Inbound pipeline doubled
The demand-generation engine doubled inbound pipeline within one year — by connecting brand, website, SEO, performance marketing, content, automation and sales handoffs into one measurable system.
Growth & marketing from zero
I created the function from the ground up — team, roles and targets, processes, channel strategy, technology, agency partnerships, reporting and a performance culture — plus a rebrand and a HubSpot website built for international growth.
Complete HubSpot implementation
HubSpot became the central infrastructure for lead management, scoring, segmentation, nurturing, sales handoffs, funnel reporting, and pipeline and revenue attribution.
International GTM priorities defined
A structured international expansion strategy with concrete market-entry priorities, giving the leadership team a clear basis for its next stage of growth.
Key learnings
What building a growth function taught.
Building a growth function starts with the operating system.
Team structure, technology, goals and measurement need to work together before channels can scale efficiently.
Marketing should be accountable to pipeline.
Connecting activity to revenue creates better prioritisation and stronger alignment with Sales and leadership.
A website is part of the GTM infrastructure.
Positioning, conversion, content, automation and attribution need to be designed as one connected experience.
Automation should improve timing, not replace relevance.
Lead scoring and nurture flows work when they help the company respond appropriately to buying readiness.
Agency relationships require internal ownership.
External expertise produces stronger results when strategy, measurement and commercial accountability stay inside the company.
International expansion is a market-entry problem, not a translation exercise.
Successful expansion requires deliberate decisions about positioning, channels, resources and sales motion.
“I built Refapp’s growth function from the ground up — creating the team, brand, website, martech, demand engine and international GTM strategy that doubled inbound pipeline within one year.”
My role
Chief Growth Officer — the whole growth function.
As Chief Growth Officer and a member of the leadership team, I built and led Refapp’s complete growth and marketing function:
- Growth strategy and commercial planning
- Team design, recruitment and leadership
- Demand-generation strategy
- Full HubSpot implementation
- Lead scoring and nurture automation
- Pipeline and revenue attribution
- Brand strategy and rebrand
- Website strategy and rebuild
- SEO, content and performance marketing
- Agency selection and management
- Marketing and Sales alignment
- International GTM strategy and leadership reporting
Building a growth function from zero?
If you have product-market fit but no engine to scale it, let’s talk about the team, martech and demand system that turns traction into pipeline.
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