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Even before becoming CEO of Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform for creative pursuits, Everette Taylor had already lived many lives, and his experiences have defined him.
His background includes working as a National Park Service Ranger as a youth—the youngest in Richmond, VA. It’s a job he’s never shared in interviews, and you won’t see it in his LinkedIn profile. But it was a character-defining chance for him to “interact with people from all over,” which, together with other roles and responsibilities along his career, have “molded him as a person, a man, a marketer” and have shaped his superpower as a leader: empathy.
Taylor is part of that rare cohort of CEOs who came up through the CMO role. Previously the highly successful CMO of Artsy, he also served as chief marketer of Skurt and Sticker Mule, and held several other marketing roles before that.
Now at Kickstarter, he’s on a mission to redefine crowdfunding and what it can be and do, as well as be a model for the next generation of Black leaders. His own visibility is core to that.
“Even though it’s really exhausting, because I am so visible,” he said, “it’s important that I have a responsibility to 1. Show people that Black people and people of color and people who are underestimated can do this job and do this job well, and 2. for the marketing community, I’m going to try to bust the door wide open for other marketers to be in roles like these.”
Listen to this episode of Marketing Vanguard to learn more about Taylor’s goals and how he’s connecting the dots between his visibility and driving the Kickstarter business forward, and how his marketing background informs his pursuits as CEO.
Stream below and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or find it on Spotify.
