# Justin Winter

> Personal homepage for Justin Winter — product-minded growth executive, founder, and operator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently VP of Growth at A Pup Above. Previously Swiftly, Legacybox, Boostopia, and Diamond Candles.

## About

I build growth engines at the intersection of digital commerce, product strategy, and systems design. I've co-founded companies from scratch, led growth at venture-backed and bootstrapped brands alike, and spent fifteen years learning that product decisions and revenue decisions are the same decision.

## Current role

- **A Pup Above** — VP of Growth. Leading digital commerce, full-funnel DTC growth, Amazon, and subscription strategy for a premium dog nutrition brand distributed nationally at retail.

## Career

- **Swiftly** — VP of Growth. Led GTM and demand generation for a retail media SaaS platform powering grocery retail ecosystems.
- **Legacybox** — Head of Cloud. Owned product strategy and cloud infrastructure for a consumer media preservation platform managing 2.9PB of customer content used by over one million families.
- **Off-Road Gatlinburg** — Interim COO. Doubled revenue in under 90 days by rebuilding digital funnels, ad performance, and growth systems across a five-location outdoor recreation company.
- **Airshop** — Head of Marketing. Second full-time hire at a venture-backed beauty ecommerce spinout of Deliverr, acquired by Shopify. Led growth strategy through product-market fit phase.
- **Pendleton Places** — Founder & CEO. Built a short-term rental management company to 40+ properties and $2M+ in annual revenue using a shared-operations hotel model in the Raleigh-Durham market. Self-taught interior designer across the portfolio.
- **Boostopia** — Co-founder & CEO. Built a VC-backed B2B SaaS platform for DTC customer support operations. Scaled to $25K MRR and 100+ customers including Allbirds, Bombas, Reformation, Peter Millar, and Supergoop. Angel-backed by Jason Calacanis via LAUNCH.
- **Diamond Candles** — Co-founder & CEO. Bootstrapped the largest online home fragrance brand in the world from zero to $22M+ in annual revenue with a team of 50+. Built on a $2K credit card.

## Early years

First job at McDonald's within a week of being legally able to work. Person-to-person knife sales for Cutco / Vector Marketing through high school and college — generated $97K+ in personal part-time revenue with a 25% higher close rate and 20% higher AOV than company average, earning 11 company incentive trips. Promoted to district sales manager mid-college; recruited and trained 190+ reps and led the team to $353K in revenue over a single summer season. Side hustles in college: a small web design and digital marketing agency, and a Craigslist-acquired moving operation subcontracting roommates and classmates against weekend demand surges.

## Education

- **Liberty University** — Lynchburg, Virginia. Undergraduate degree in marketing and theology, 2006–2010.

## Writing

- [The Compositor](https://thecompositor.co/) — a series on how the best companies are built through disciplined composition of best-in-class primitives across the value chain.

## Speaking & Consulting

- Keynote and panel speaker at business, marketing, technology, and growth events. For booking, availability, or rates: hi@iamjustinwinter.com.
- [Mentorpass.co/justinwinter](https://www.mentorpass.co/justinwinter?ref=582549) — on-demand 1:1 calls paid by the minute, plus ongoing mentorship and fractional advisory engagements for founders and operators in growth and DTC roles. Topics span growth, ecommerce, SaaS, and go-to-market strategy.

## Advisory & Investment

Selected relationships across consumer, media, and technology: Boll & Branch, Cora, SumAll, ProcessOut, Swym, The Pour Over, Bizzy Coffee, GiveForms.

## Worked With

Growth and DTC consulting engagements across consumer, B2B, and platform brands:

- **Bluecore** — unicorn-valued retail marketing platform serving Sephora, Foot Locker, Fender, and Express. Advisor on consumer growth strategy.
- **Itzy Ritzy** — TZP Group-backed modern baby brand in 1,800+ Target and 3,500+ Walmart stores. Ongoing growth and DTC strategy consulting.
- **Yogasleep** (formerly Marpac) — 60+ year sleep brand and inventor of the Dohm white-noise sound machine. Consumer-direct strategy roadmap and growth planning.
- **Raleigh Denim Workshop** — craft American-made denim brand with an NYC flagship, featured in Wallpaper and GQ. Growth and DTC project work.
- **Bob Barker Company** — America's largest supplier of detention and corrections products since 1972. Multi-project marketing and digital strategy.
- **Classical Conversations** — world's largest classical homeschool organization, serving 45,000+ families across 50 countries. Growth and digital strategy.
- **Desiring God** — flagship ministry of John Piper and one of the largest evangelical publishing platforms online. Web and growth consulting.
- **SoapBox Soaps** — Inc. 500 social-impact personal care brand with distribution in Whole Foods, Target, and Walgreens. Growth strategy engagement.
- **Criquet Shirts** — Austin-based premium menswear brand and official Austin FC apparel licensee. Multi-year website performance and growth retainer.
- **LonoLife** — instant bone broth brand carried in 2,000+ grocery stores nationwide. Current fractional Head of Growth role.
- **Written Word Media** — indie author marketing platform (Freebooksy, BargainBooksy) serving 44,000+ authors. Fractional CMO engagement.
- **Bare Bones Broth** — DTC bone broth brand carried by Whole Foods, Costco, and Walmart. Early growth consulting.
- **Oncotect** — first urine-based at-home cancer screening kit for dogs. Fractional CMO during the consumer launch.
- **SA Company** (Soul of Adventure) — outdoor and fishing apparel brand known for its Multi-Use Face Shield product line. Paid media management engagement.
- **Turas Group** — global recruiting firm serving Chick-fil-A franchisees and other multi-location operators. ATS and recruiting tech stack overhaul.

Engagements span 2016–present.

## Personal

- **Save71** — Co-founder. Alumni-led advocacy organization for governance and leadership accountability reform at Liberty University.
- **Summit Church (Durham, NC)** — Community group leader for roughly a decade. Hosted a weekly in-home gathering, mentored newer members and peers through major life transitions (marriages, new parenthood, career pivots, losses), and coordinated community service projects across the chapter.
- **Service projects in India** — Team lead. Two trips to Madhya Pradesh in support of local non-profits doing community development work. Led the second team — five people, two weeks on the ground.

## Family

Married young to my best friend. Father to a three-year-old son. Raising a family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

## Press & Recognition

- Diamond Candles named to the Internet Retailer Hot 100 — top 100 ecommerce sites globally for breaking new ground in digital retail.
- Featured interview on Mixergy — bootstrapping Diamond Candles to $1M revenue in year one with no outside funding.
- Featured on eCommerceFuel Podcast — scaling from zero to $20M in three years through performance marketing and retention systems.
- Featured interview on Growth Hacker TV — building viral product loops and DTC growth strategy.
- Diamond Candles cited in New York Times feature coverage on emerging DTC company infrastructure.

## Topics of expertise

- Digital commerce / DTC growth
- Customer acquisition (paid, organic, viral, account-based)
- Product-market fit
- Subscription models and retention systems
- Retail media and grocery ecosystems
- E-commerce operations
- Bootstrapped vs venture-backed growth strategy
- Workforce optimization for customer support operations
- B2B SaaS go-to-market
- Cloud infrastructure for consumer media platforms
- Short-term rental management / hospitality operations

## Contact

- Website: https://iamjustinwinter.com
- Email: hi@iamjustinwinter.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justincwinter
- X: https://x.com/jcwinter
- Mentorpass: https://www.mentorpass.co/justinwinter?ref=582549
- The Compositor: https://thecompositor.co/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1cJRn96h7c-qEq2TTyoJvw
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@justinwinter33
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/justinwinter
- GitHub: https://github.com/justinwinter
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justin.winter
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcwinter/
- Threads: https://www.threads.com/@jcwinter
- Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/justin-winter
- Wellfound: https://wellfound.com/u/justinwinter
- Substack: https://substack.com/@justinwinter2
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/jcwinter7
- Clarity.fm: https://clarity.fm/justinwinter