Valerie is an award-winning, executive with a passion and talent for accelerating new businesses, shaping marketing strategy, developing go-to-market plans, building organizational process and mentoring talent.

She serves as Partner with Ethereal Innovations and leads all of our marketing engagements.

Ethereal Innovations was originally founded as an investment group and incubator for fast growth technology companies. The has invested in more than 40 startups over the years, sat on the boards of many others, and held leadership roles from startups to public companies.

In 2013, Valerie joined Ethereal and founded their boutique marketing agency. She had this idea, bring people closer to the things they care about and they will do the marketing for you. She added a couple of team members to the mix and before long every surface was covered with computers and promotion material. The upside was that the clients she had helped for the previous 5 years quickly became a growing business. The downside was it’s often hard to find people with a shared mission and authenticity is a character trait that takes years to develop.

So, we intentionally chose the clients we’d work with and brought a few friends to the team. Our business has grown with the increasingly complex nature of marketing across email, websites, social networks, mobile devices and a broader understanding by brands of connecting with customers through social channels. We still make investments in certain companies and advise select entrepreneurs on their overall growth. However, our team shines the brightest when we can define a marketing strategy and implement it so that entrepreneurs at high growth companies can focus on the parts of their business they know the best. Today, most people around Atlanta know Ethereal Innovations for our marketing efforts and our ability to launch high-growth companies and serve as interim CMO/head of marketing when your team needs a key performer to “fill in the gap”.

Valerie works with high-growth global brands providing leadership, strategy, and execution in both B2C and B2B settings. Some of the brands she has worked with include The Iron Yard, Softwear Automation, CBS Sports, Lighthouse Family Retreat, Carhartt, Shop-Vac, Buck Knives, Zippo and dozens of Atlanta based technology companies. Her digital strategy and efforts have been recognized and awarded, including earning one of the 50 most engaged workplaces in America.

She is on a mission to rescue companies from boring, lifeless, fact spewing marketing communications by becoming more personable and fun.

Key highlights from the past few years:

  • InfoMart: Valerie led marketing for three brands under the parent company and helped to launch three new products in less than one year. She restructured the marketing team processes using agile methodology and efficient technology systems to increase productivity and transparency.
    • Increased website sessions by 55.7% and new users to website by 83.6%.
    • Set marketing strategy for new customer web platform. Implemented the strategy to provide training and give a seamless transition for existing customers.
    • Created new trade show plan by analyzing conversions and success from past shows and researching competitor involvement in shows in order to provide a comprehensive strategy.
    • Transformed email marketing from one-off emails to automated campaigns growing leads by 34%.
    • Partnered with SEO expert to redesign website and increase organic leads resulting in 76.6% increase in organic search to our website.
    • Tripled marketing collateral to help sales team sell more effectively.
  • Deputy.com: Valerie was brought on to “take ownership of our Marketing efforts in North America and help us blast open a fast-growing market”.
    • Created strategy and direction for PR in America’s resulting in articles in Forbes and multiple industry publications (e.g. HR.com, HR Tech Outlook).
    • Ranked mobile app #1 on iTunes (previously not on first four pages in category).
    • Helped develop videos to easily explain the product.
    • Transformed social media accounts and dramatically increased global audience.
    • Defined and launched event strategy for US launch, as well as overseeing conference booths and designing sponsorship collateral.
    • Interviewed and selected teams for PR, SEO, and content creation – managing content writers and PR efforts.
    • Established processes and initial content calendar for website and social media.
  • SoftWear Automation: Valerie was brought on to jumpstart the companies marketing and PR efforts, after their first major round of venture funding. She served as SoftWear’s head of marketing and PR from 2014 through the end of 2015, helping the company perfect their messaging leading to the wave of coverage including features by The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Economist, and many others.