It all started when…
I was the head of marketing for a Google Ventures-backed startup. We were one of NY tech’s startup darlings backed by the who’s who of venture capital. We became a nationally recognized leader for the Good Jobs movement, getting on the radar of then-Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. We built an incredible team, wooing people away from FAANG companies to build something great. We were on a path to product-market fit, and with all that was going right, we struggled to unlock the secret to hockey stick growth.
And it wasn’t the first (or last) time I encountered this problem.
Whether you’re an established or emerging brand, competing for customers’ attention is harder than ever. And getting growth right isn’t easy:
How do you stand out from the digital clutter and engage in meaningful ways?
What early signals tell you what’s working vs. not?
How do you set up your growth team for success?
How do you ensure every growth investment drives real results?
These are the questions growth leaders wrestle with day in, day out. And they’re the challenges that led me to start my consulting practice.
I’ve spent my career working across every stage of a company’s lifecycle: seed-stage startups, companies in high-growth mode and mature, multinational companies.
I’ve had a front seat to big growth challenges such as:
working in banking during the 2008 financial crisis
navigating a business model pivot in a venture-backed startup
helping a global brand in crisis mode respond to the Covid-19 pandemic
My time in startups had me leading growth teams and riding the exciting wave of being acquired. Three of the startups where I worked all had successful acquisitions by big brands including Northwestern Mutual, WeWork and Seismic.
But the epic failures were as formative as the big wins: from pouring marketing dollars into products without product-market fit to throwing good money after bad in the wrong channels. Both as an operator and consultant, I’ve seen a lot of what works…and what doesn’t.
Companies spend a lot of time experimenting with growth. I help teams de-risk their customer acquisition strategies so they spend less time running into walls and more time driving revenue.
My work spans companies of all shapes, sizes and stages. You can find my bio below and more of my background on LinkedIn. I’m based in NYC and everywhere online.
JACQUELINE KURDZIEL, FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT
West End was founded by Jacqueline Kurdziel, a marketing and growth leader who has overseen teams at companies ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 brands. She ran growth teams at three venture-backed companies successfully acquired by major brands including WeWork, Northwestern Mutual, and Seismic.
Jacqueline began her career on Wall Street between 2006-2010, at the center of the worst financial crisis of our time. She ran sales and marketing programs at UBS. There she oversaw initiatives to grow revenue within their private client division, with a focus on structured products and alternative investments. At UBS, she contributed to millions in revenue for the company despite the financial crisis. She found that prioritizing client relationships in a tumultuous economy helped the company weather the storm.
Jacqueline left UBS to attend the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. She spent her two years in business school incubating and launching companies. She founded her first company, a pop-up yoga business, as an early member of the Darden School of Business Incubator. She took that company from concept to revenue within weeks, and Pop Up Yoga quickly became a household name in the Charlottesville community.
After business school, Jacqueline moved to New York to focus her career in venture-backed tech. She led new business development for the marketing technology platform Percolate and carved out the retail business category for the enterprise sales team. Percolate eventually was acquired by Seismic in 2019.
After Percolate, she oversaw strategic partnerships at the financial technology company LearnVest. She partnered with Fortune 100 financial services companies including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Northwestern Mutual, Lincoln Financial and BlackRock and individually drove >$1 million in net new revenue through those partnerships. Her partnership work led to the successful acquisition by the insurance company Northwestern Mutual.
She left LearnVest to join the Google Ventures-backed Managed by Q as their first marketing hire. There she built the marketing organization from the ground up. During her time, the company received international recognition as a leader in the "good jobs" movement and was featured in the February 2016 issue of the New York Times Magazine. In 2019, Managed by Q was acquired by The We Company, aka WeWork.
In working with big companies and small, Jacqueline noticed patterns for navigating common growth challenges. In 2017, Jacqueline launched West End, a marketing and growth consultancy, to help companies design and launch strategies for growth. You can get in touch with her at jq@westend.consulting
