John Docal

About

A full-stack marketing leader with experience across B2B and B2C, I'm obsessed with building things and the product, performance, and brand marketing that is required to make them great. Currently, I head up marketing at Local Kitchens (a restaurant tech startup backed by General Catalyst), where we’ve served 1 in 7 Bay Area households. Since joining, I’ve led a strategic rebrand that boosted revenue by 117% and launched four new product lines—now accounting for >40% of total sales. Before Local Kitchens, I led acquisition at Mojo (sports gambling), where we hit over $10M in deposits and 50K downloads in just 4 months, operating in a single state. I then shifted into product marketing, guiding a strategic pivot to launch a new mobile app in 10 months—overseeing everything from ideation to go-to-market. At Petal (consumer fintech), I joined pre-launch, when our budgets were effectively zero, and helped scale the company to over $80M in ARR within four years, ultimately owning a $40M marketing budget. My roles spanned from early-stage “do-it-all” marketer to leading lifecycle and later performance marketing. By the time I left, I was heading a cross-functional growth squad spanning product, engineering, risk, data, and marketing. Outside of work, I’m a football fanatic (I played in college & worked in the industry) and am a passionate supporter of startups. I advise several early-stage ventures on all things marketing and am always happy to chat—just shoot me a DM!

Experience

• VP of Marketing · Local Kitchens01-01-2023

  ● Lead the marketing department for a tech-enabled restaurant backed by General Catalyst, driving acquisition of over 33% of the addressable market and serving over 1 in 7 Bay Area households. ● Increased annual revenue by 117% to $15mm by leading a company-wide rebrand and strategic pivot. The initiative included new market positioning, mission, vision, values, visual identity—including the redesign of 13 physical storefronts—all culminating in an integrated launch campaign.. ● Conducted in-depth user research to inform growth strategies and improve acquisition, engagement, and retention. ● Launched 4 new product lines, conducting in-depth customer research, leading product development, creating distinct brand identities, and executing multichannel GTM campaigns. These product lines now drive 40% of total sales and achieve the highest customer retention rates in the portfolio.

• Product Marketing Lead · Mojo (Acquired)01-01-2022 – 01-01-2023

  ● Pivoted to GM a new vertical of our business, leading cross-functional teams (Product, Marketing, Engineering, Legal, etc.) through ideation, production, and launch in the iOS & Android App Store within 10 months. ● As Dir. Growth, successfully launched Mojo Sportsbook in New Jersey, resulting in over $10mm in deposits, $5.5mm wagers, and 50,000 iOS downloads within just 4 months and in only a single state. ● Managed a budget of over $15mm annually driving mobile app acquisition through a diverse channel mix.

• Director of Acquisition · Petal (Acquired)01-01-2018 – 01-01-2023

  ● Led and owned the cross-functional Growth Squad responsible for driving the company's acquisition goals, ensuring squad cohesion (consisting of product, risk, analytics, CX, brand, and marketing departments), as well as managing a team of 3 direct reports and a network of vendors/agencies. ● Managed and directly deployed $40mm annual budget across diverse channel mix including search, social, direct mail, affiliate, influencer, OTT, and more; exceeding CPA, volume, and credit quality targets. ● Conducted market research leveraging qualitative + quantitative data, shaping our product pipeline, market positioning, and GTM strategy; culminating in the launch of two new products and multiple mobile app features ● Maintained a self-built media mix model and daily performance reports to drive key cross-functional business decisions ● Built the affiliate marketing channel from scratch including the design of data architecture, development of legal + compliance processes, and the negotiation of over 50 key partnerships, to over $7mm annually. ● Overhauled go-to-market processes, generating 150% efficiency gains and higher quality outputs ● Developed cross-channel programmatic communication strategy driving acquisition, retention, and engagement.

• Digital Marketing Strategist · Xenith01-01-2016 – 01-01-2018

  ● Oversaw > $1.5mm marketing budget including partnerships, ad spend, grassroots campaigns, and content creation ● Spearheaded team transforming Xenith’s B2B go-to-market strategy into a Salesforce-integrated direct sales model ● Developed Xenith’s first-ever television commercial from ideation to air on ESPN & ESPN2 generating >6mm impr. ● Led Xenith’s B2C digital presence to over $3mm revenue annually; representing 140% growth over a two year period, deploying $400,000 annual ad spend across Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Education

• Tufts UniversityBachelor's Degree, International Relations and Affairs, Political Science, Minor: Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies

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