JOHN PATRICK HINEK
Building marketing teams and operations
from zero at high-growth startups
Work Experience
SafetyKit
First Marketing Hire
Sole marketer who built the full go-to-market function—managed sales enablement, conference strategy, content, paid acquisition, and website—for an AI safety platform serving PayPal, Discord, Visa, and Eventbrite.
Learn moreMage
Growth Marketing Specialist
First marketing hire. Built and grew a 7,500-member Slack community of data professionals, launched the company blog, managed agency relationships, and ran product launches for Mage Pro.
Learn moreUnderline
Performance Marketing Associate
Ran paid acquisition across Google, Meta, and LinkedIn while coordinating field marketing events and out-of-home campaigns for a fiber infrastructure startup.
Learn moreLastof7 Inc.
Early Employee
Employee #2 at a luxury food startup. Handled product development, launch operations, vendor coordination, and fulfillment logistics before the company had dedicated teams.
Learn moreFreelance
Marketing Consultant
Marketing consulting for early-stage startups—building automation workflows, writing positioning and messaging, and setting up analytics infrastructure.
Learn moreAbout Me
I've spent my career as the first marketing hire at early-stage startups, which means building everything from scratch: strategy, systems, content, events, and cross-functional processes.
Most recently at SafetyKit, I was the sole marketer for a Series A AI company, working directly with co-founders and GTM leadership on everything from conference strategy and executive dinners to website development and sales collateral.
Before that, I built the marketing function at Mage, growing their Slack community to 7,500+ data professionals, managing agency partners, and coordinating product launches across engineering, product, and sales teams.
I started my career as employee #2 at a luxury food startup, where I learned to build operational processes from nothing—handling product development, vendor relationships, and launch logistics.
Outside of work, I've organized Toys for Tots SF for five years running, coordinating 300-500 attendees, volunteer teams, and venue logistics each December.
