How do you explain your profession to people outside of the industry? What do you find most exciting and/or rewarding about this work?
What are the core requirements of your job and how do you measure success?
As CGO of Babylist — the leading digital destination for growing families — my role encompasses the positions of CMO and Head of Sales, while also owning Babylist’s media business and strategic initiatives. In my role, I utilize emerging technology, including generative AI and the metaverse, as well as cutting-edge marketing strategies to address evolving customer needs and expand Babylist into new categories.
For example, in July of 2022, I created and launched The Push, Babylist’s content studio for brands. The Push enables brand partners to work with in-house editors, designers and social media experts to create partnerships and campaigns that successfully connect with Babylist’s audience. This includes written content, product and lifestyle videos (web, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram), dedicated emails, social media campaigns, influential partnerships, metaverse integrations and in-person experiences. The Push has seen notable success already with clients like Pampers, Huggies, Honest Co, ByHeart, Walmart, Enfamil, Gerber, Nike, Melissa & Doug, Kiwi Co, Disney and Gap.
Additionally, this year, I helped spearhead two health-based strategic acquisitions. I led Babylist’s acquisition of wellness app and media site, Expectful, which will become Babylist’s dedicated health and wellness destination, providing in-depth resources for its users. Following Babylist’s acquisition of Source MD, which allowed Babylist to launch Babylist Health, I developed marketing initiatives to drive expectant families to the site, with the first being simplified access to health insurance-covered breast pumps.
I measure success in terms of audience growth and revenue. Under my leadership, Babylist has experienced unique success in a challenging market, grossing nearly $290 million in revenue in 2022, up 20% from 2021, while remaining profitable. I also grew brand partnerships by 6X in under three years, doubling partnerships year over year in 2022 alone and growing the advertising business 109% year over year.
For example, in July of 2022, I created and launched The Push, Babylist’s content studio for brands. The Push enables brand partners to work with in-house editors, designers and social media experts to create partnerships and campaigns that successfully connect with Babylist’s audience. This includes written content, product and lifestyle videos (web, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram), dedicated emails, social media campaigns, influential partnerships, metaverse integrations and in-person experiences. The Push has seen notable success already with clients like Pampers, Huggies, Honest Co, ByHeart, Walmart, Enfamil, Gerber, Nike, Melissa & Doug, Kiwi Co, Disney and Gap.
Additionally, this year, I helped spearhead two health-based strategic acquisitions. I led Babylist’s acquisition of wellness app and media site, Expectful, which will become Babylist’s dedicated health and wellness destination, providing in-depth resources for its users. Following Babylist’s acquisition of Source MD, which allowed Babylist to launch Babylist Health, I developed marketing initiatives to drive expectant families to the site, with the first being simplified access to health insurance-covered breast pumps.
I measure success in terms of audience growth and revenue. Under my leadership, Babylist has experienced unique success in a challenging market, grossing nearly $290 million in revenue in 2022, up 20% from 2021, while remaining profitable. I also grew brand partnerships by 6X in under three years, doubling partnerships year over year in 2022 alone and growing the advertising business 109% year over year.
What is one notable professional achievement you've made over the past year that you are most proud of?
In August 2023, we opened Babylist Beverly Hills, a flagship showroom experience that brings Babylist’s business to life in a permanent 18,000-square-foot experience in Los Angeles.
Preparing for a baby’s arrival can be overwhelming and people have turned to Babylist for guidance for 12+ years. Since people love our experience digitally, we wanted to bring the best of the experience to the physical world. Babylist Beverly Hills was designed with the user in mind. The showroom journey guides new and expecting families through the home (living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and nursery) — where they can see products in their intended environments and test them to build their digital registry.
I’m so proud that we were able to use our expertise in supporting and guiding customers to bring an experience like this to life. It’s been amazing to see the way people are interacting with the space and discovering products — it was a huge feat but my team pulled it off.
Preparing for a baby’s arrival can be overwhelming and people have turned to Babylist for guidance for 12+ years. Since people love our experience digitally, we wanted to bring the best of the experience to the physical world. Babylist Beverly Hills was designed with the user in mind. The showroom journey guides new and expecting families through the home (living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and nursery) — where they can see products in their intended environments and test them to build their digital registry.
I’m so proud that we were able to use our expertise in supporting and guiding customers to bring an experience like this to life. It’s been amazing to see the way people are interacting with the space and discovering products — it was a huge feat but my team pulled it off.
What professional challenge or failure has stuck with you, and how did you embrace it?
I recently faced the challenge of helping Babylist navigate the changing retail landscape as the company’s competitor and partner, BuyBuy Baby, shut down this year. It shook up the industry in a big way — and brought a huge inflection point. To help families looking for a new registry option, we offered a simple registry transfer solution and a $10 promo code for those who transferred their registries. Since Bed Bath & Beyond’s bankruptcy and the BuyBuy Baby closures were announced in late April, Babylist has had over 300,000 new signups, a higher number of new customers than average. I’m looking forward to helping Babylist continue finding creative ways of rebuilding what baby retail looks like from scratch.
What trend or technology do you believe will have the most profound impact on your work (and the work of your peers) over the next year?
At Babylist, we’re using AI to improve our SEO, and I envision our team will continue to use AI tools to increase efficiency over the coming years. For example, our content team recently started using Frase, an AI SEO tool, to streamline the content creation process. Frase helps our editors create and update content with higher SEO value. It isn’t replacing our editorial team; rather, it is enhancing it by informing editors and creating better efficiency. By using AI tools, we’re building better-quality, more comprehensive content and improving our SEO ranking.
If you could say one thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Keep learning — new skills, new functions, new industries. It’s easy to think learning ends when school ends, but when you continue to invest in learning, you’ll be surprised how much you can grow in your career (and have more fun than doing homework)!
