Desirée Hodge, founder of Run Amok

About Desirée

Senior strategy from the person doing the work

I'm Desirée Hodge, founder of Run Amok. I define why a product matters to its buyer, then build the positioning, messaging, and go-to-market that make the brand impossible to ignore.

I've spent 15 years in marketing and more than eight leading it as a full function: strategy, operating plan, budget, team, and performance. I've been the senior-most marketer at two growth-stage tech companies, reporting to the CEO and accountable for the marketing-sourced pipeline number.

I lead with the narrative, because it decides what every channel says. I've built positioning and category narratives for technical products that had to win over skeptical buyers, from CFOs to HR leaders. I work as a generalist across product marketing, demand generation, content, brand, partner marketing, and marketing operations.

I set the strategy and execute it with a lean team, using AI-native workflows for content, campaigns, and reporting so a small team ships like a large one. I know attribution, funnel metrics, and budgets well, and I report clearly to CEOs, boards, and investors.

I've built the plane while flying it. Twice.

Receipts

Numbers from the seat, not the pitch deck.

$1M ARR
From pre-revenue, with a marketing team of three.Employee Cycle
50%
Pipeline growth in the first year of integrated GTM programs.Employee Cycle
30%
Quarter-over-quarter revenue growth within one year.Employee Cycle
2.7×
ACV lift from pricing I co-led.Employee Cycle
~40%
Demo conversion from a partner channel producing 500–1,000 leads a year.Employee Cycle
528%
Marketing ROI after the Modeling Intelligence repositioning.PFM / Synario
74%
More inbound acquisition after the repositioning.PFM / Synario
20–40%
Of ARR sourced by marketing.PFM / Synario

Why I built it

Why Run Amok exists

I've sat in the seat where the board asks why marketing spend isn't showing up in pipeline. So I know what companies actually need, and how often they pay for something else.

I watched companies spend six figures on strategy decks that nobody executed. I watched lean teams that needed a CMO, a demand-gen lead, and an ops hire, with budget for one. And I watched strong products blend into categories where every competitor sounds the same.

Most B2B SaaS companies don't have a lead problem. They have a growth-system problem: unclear positioning, disconnected data, a broken handoff between marketing and sales, and no one accountable for the number.

Run Amok is the studio I'd want to hire. Senior enough to set the strategy, hands-on enough to ship it, and small enough that you work with me, not an account team.

I take four clients at a time. On purpose.

  • An operator, not a deck Strategy that ships, gets used, and keeps working after the engagement ends. I stay accountable through launch.
  • Zero-to-one and scale I've repositioned an enterprise platform around a new category for CFO buyers, and taken a company from pre-revenue to its first $1M ARR through partner-led growth.
  • The full lifecycle Demos, sales enablement, onboarding, adoption, retention, and expansion. Most marketing help stops at the lead. Revenue doesn't.
  • AI your team keeps I use AI for speed and keep human judgment on your positioning, your claims, and your numbers. Your team leaves more AI-proficient than it started.

The path so far

  1. 2014–2019 Centreville Bank First dedicated marketing hire. Youngest officer in the bank's history.
  2. 2019–2022 PFM / Synario Concepted the Modeling Intelligence category. Rose to Director of Marketing.
  3. 2022–2026 Employee Cycle Marketing Director to Head of Growth & Revenue. Pre-revenue to first $1M ARR.
2011–now Run Amok Brand Studio The thread under all of it. Positioning, brand, and go-to-market work for founder-led companies since 2011, now my full-time focus.
Employee CyclePeople analytics SaaS, remote $1M ARR2.7× ACV Dec 2022 – Aug 20262 roles

Head of Growth & Revenue (Product Marketing, Growth & GTM)Dec 2024 – Aug 2026

  • Owned marketing strategy, operating plan, budget, and performance as the senior-most marketer reporting to the CEO, across product marketing, demand generation, content, brand, partner marketing, events, and marketing operations. Accountable for marketing-sourced pipeline and revenue.
  • Defined the positioning, messaging, and category narrative for a platform sold to skeptical HR and finance buyers, and made it the language the whole company used. Built enablement, collateral, and competitive intelligence for sales and partners.
  • Built the pipeline engine that took the company from pre-revenue through its first $1M ARR with a team of three. The partner channel generated 500–1,000 leads a year at roughly 40% demo conversion and became the primary source of pipeline.
  • Ran partner co-marketing with UKG and BambooHR: joint campaigns, enablement, and incentives that turned 100–150 partner reps into advocates. Worked with Customer Success on adoption and expansion; product adoption rose 30%.
  • Built AI-powered GTM systems, including partner-channel data, insight, and forecasting layers, so a lean team produced like a much larger one. Co-led pricing that lifted ACV 2.7×.
  • Set up attribution, funnel metrics, and forecast-to-actual reporting, reviewed weekly with the CEO and presented to the board and investors. Moved budget to the channels with the most measured impact and cut the rest.
  • Designed and coded the interactive product visuals on the platform page and created the homepage graphics, turning the software into moments buyers could see and explore.

Marketing DirectorDec 2022 – Dec 2024

  • Built the company's first integrated GTM programs, growing pipeline 50% and revenue 30% quarter over quarter within a year. Led a category-positioning initiative, website redesign, and brand refresh; content programs lifted engagement 20%.
PFM / SynarioEnterprise financial modeling SaaS, Philadelphia 528% ROICategory build Mar 2019 – Dec 20223 roles

Director of MarketingDec 2021 – Dec 2022

  • Served on the executive leadership team and owned brand, product marketing, demand generation, content, events, and PR for an enterprise platform sold to CFOs and finance leaders, technical buyers skeptical of change.
  • Concepted the "Modeling Intelligence" category narrative and led the repositioning from Whitebirch to Synario around it: 528% marketing ROI and 74% more inbound acquisition. Marketing contributed roughly 20–40% of ARR.
  • Built the thought-leadership and content engine: research-driven whitepapers, webinars, executive points of view, and customer proof. Owned the website, organic search, and social; web traffic rose 50% and conversions 30%.
  • Owned a $500K+ budget held to pipeline and ROI targets. Built and led a five-person team, guided five BDRs, and managed three agencies. Ran weekly metric reviews and quarterly attribution reporting for executives and the board.

Marketing ManagerJan 2021 – Dec 2021

  • Promoted to lead omnichannel marketing strategy and team operations across product marketing, demand generation, content, and enablement.

Senior Marketing CoordinatorMar 2019 – Jan 2021

  • Built the positioning, content, and enablement foundation for the company's enterprise go-to-market motion.
Centreville BankCommunity bank, Rhode Island First marketing hire Jul 2014 – Mar 20191 role

Bank Officer & Marketing LeadJul 2014 – Mar 2019

  • First dedicated marketing hire and the youngest appointed officer in the bank's history. Built the marketing function from nothing across digital, direct mail, broadcast, events, and communications, all under compliance review.
Run Amok Brand StudioIndependent brand & product marketing studio The Brand Spectrum™ Jan 2011 – PresentFounder

FounderJan 2011 – Present

  • Positioning, brand, and go-to-market work for founder-led B2B software companies, taken on selectively alongside in-house roles.
  • Creator of The Brand Spectrum™, a seven-wavelength brand identity framework used as a diagnostic, workshop tool, and scorecard.

Core strengths

Product marketing & brand

  • Positioning, messaging & category narrative
  • Product marketing & launch strategy
  • Brand voice & market presence
  • Content strategy & thought leadership
  • Sales & partner enablement

Growth & go-to-market

  • GTM strategy & resource allocation
  • Integrated campaign development
  • Demand generation & ABM
  • Strategic partnerships & co-marketing
  • Marketing-sourced pipeline accountability
  • Hypothesis-driven testing

Visual brand identity

  • Content design & production: video, graphics, collateral
  • Web design & management
  • Product visuals & interactive demos
  • Creative direction

Revenue operations

  • CRM management
  • Workflow automation
  • Sales operations & pipeline management
  • Marketing ops & tech stack
  • AI-driven marketing workflows

Leadership & reporting

  • Strategy, operating plan & budget allocation
  • KPI tracking & data storytelling
  • Attribution & performance reporting
  • Team leadership & cross-functional collaboration
  • Executive & board communication

Education & training

  • Bryant University B.S.B.A., Marketing
  • Harvard University Extension School Graduate Certificate, Marketing Management
  • Sales Performance International (SPI) Year-long GTM Improvement Program, 2022: Solution Selling methodology and ABM implementation across sales, marketing, and product.
  • Value selling with Tom Pisello On-site training with Mediafly's Chief Evangelist, 2022: differentiation, positioning, messaging frameworks, ICP, brand storytelling, product narration, and buyer psychology.