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I specialize in building AI-enhanced growth engines at early-stage startups, combining sales development, lifecycle automation, and multi-channel marketing to drive measurable revenue and user engagement.
My focus is on driving Revenue Through Growth, Sales & Marketing
Hey, I’m John Hinek
About Me
After graduating from UCLA in 2020, I joined a luxury food startup as employee #2, where I managed everything from product development to launch. I learned how to build processes from scratch, succeed with limited resources, and adapt quickly to the shifting needs of a growing startup. The role gave me room to be both inventive and resourceful.
That foundation carried into my next roles. At Mage, I joined as the first marketing lead and employee #6, positioning our AI platform before the broader wave of adoption. This required us to market both the product and the possibilities of AI/ML itself. I built the marketing engine from the ground up: leading SEO strategy and implementation, developing partnerships with media and open-source contributors, and growing a community of over 7,000 data professionals through creative digital marketing.
I later joined Underline, where I expanded my scope and marketed to a broader, more diverse audience base. I experimented with messaging across digital channels, events, and out-of-home campaigns, gaining a deeper understanding of how to adapt strategy across different formats and funnel stages.
I returned to Mage
with a more strategic
lens, leading
full-funnel demand
programs for Mage
Pro. My focus was on
combining product,
lifecycle, and ABM s
trategies—building
campaigns across
email, paid media,
and in-product
surfaces, and using
AI tools to scale
messaging for
different user
segments. I helped transition the company's
marketing motion from open-source education to demand capture, aligning brand and performance efforts around growth.
Starting my career at early-stage companies taught me how to stay flexible, adapt to a wide range of situations, and approach challenges with both creativity and analytical rigor. I focus on generating innovative ideas, thinking through their implications, and using tools like LLMs and agents as force multipliers to optimize the marketing workflow.


After graduating from UCLA in 2020, I joined a luxury food startup as employee #2, where I managed everything from product development to launch. I learned how to build processes from scratch, succeed with limited resources, and adapt quickly to the shifting needs of a growing startup. The role gave me room to be both inventive and resourceful.
That foundation carried into my next roles. At Mage, I joined as the first marketing lead and employee #6, positioning our AI platform before the broader wave of adoption. This required us to market both the product and the possibilities of AI/ML itself. I built the marketing engine from the ground up: leading SEO strategy and implementation, developing partnerships with media and open-source contributors, and growing a community of over 7,000 data professionals through creative digital marketing.
I later joined Underline, where I expanded my scope and marketed to a broader, more diverse audience base. I experimented with messaging across digital channels, events, and out-of-home campaigns, gaining a deeper understanding of how to adapt strategy across different formats and funnel stages.
I returned to Mage with a more strategic lens, leading full-funnel demand programs for Mage Pro. My focus was on combining product, lifecycle, and ABM strategies—building campaigns across email, paid media, and in-product surfaces, and using AI tools to scale messaging for different user segments. I helped transition the company's marketing motion from open-source education to demand capture, aligning brand and performance efforts around growth.
Starting my career at early-stage companies taught me how to stay flexible, adapt to a wide range of situations, and approach challenges with both creativity and analytical rigor. I focus on generating innovative ideas, thinking through their implications, and using tools like LLMs and agents as force multipliers to optimize the marketing workflow.

About Me
I specialize in building AI-enhanced growth engines at early-stage startups, combining sales development, lifecycle automation, and multi-channel marketing to drive measurable revenue and user engagement.
Hey, I’m John Hinek
My focus is on driving revenue through growth, sales & marketing
Learn More
Get in Touch