tl;dr: I help B2B SaaS founders (seed to Series C) build marketing that compounds. Nearly 20 years leading teams at companies like Front, Gusto, and Mode. My superpower is full-stack synthesis—turning tactical execution into strategic advantage. Flexible engagements from positioning sprints to fractional CMO leadership.

—

Hi founders, friends, and fellow marketers! 👋

I’m Emily Ritter and I’d love to help you crush your marketing goals. I named my consultancy up&to because that's what I love to do–design marketing programs that drive your company up and to the right. Just what your VCs love to see, too. Win-win-win.

I’ve been a marketer for nearly 20 years and still believe it is so freakin’ fun: right brain creativity, meet left brain analytical thinking. After building at companies across a variety of stages, industries, buyer types, and GTM motions, I decided it was time to scale my impact by hanging up my shingle. I most deeply identify as a product marketer, and believe that great marketing starts there–with understanding your customers, their expressed and unexpressed needs, and where they like to hang out. Brand and growth marketing flourish from that fertile ground. Know thy customer.

I love helping teams transition from loosely coupled marketing channels to high-impact machines that scale growth sustainably and flexibly.

I’ve built marketing across wildly different contexts. From the early category creation days at Tesla and Square, to B2B SaaS at companies like Mode Analytics, Gusto, Front, and Gorgias, I’ve lead teams of 2 to 25 people spanning all the disciplines of marketing–and beyond to include partnerships and SDR. I love bringing stories and ecosystems to life around gamechanging, high impact products and special, thoughtful teams.

In the age of AI, playbooks just aren’t it. Strategic, first-principles, customer-centric thinking is. Pattern matching and synthesis is an accelerant–and it just happens to be my superpower (especially when hikes and trail runs in the woods are involved – touch grass, I swear it works). Working across engagements accelerates synthesis as this landscape evolves faster than ever.

Since every startup is a uniquely evolving organism, I bring flexibility to my engagements. We can start with an intro call to explore what you have in mind and tailor an engagement to your needs. I also have a network of co-conspirators to bring in on specific execution as needed. Here are some engagement building blocks:

• Marketing Team Advisory You've just hired your first head of marketing (or you're wearing that hat as founder), and the team needs structure or clarity on what's working. I work with founders or founder/marketing leader pairs over 3-6 months through regular sessions plus async review to build high-functioning marketing organizations. We'll tackle what's most critical: aligning on strategy, assessing the team, implementing rituals and processes, or pressure-testing your roadmap. This is especially valuable for partnerships between founders and first-time marketing leaders getting set up for success. Think of it as an experienced CMO in your corner without being in the weeds of execution.

  
  

• Fractional CMO Leadership You've got a team of marketers and hypotheses about what's driving growth, but you're not ready for a full-time head of marketing. You need help translating your vision into execution and a strategic sounding board. We'd work together on scoping and likely start with a 3-month engagement. The upfront discovery of assessing your funnel and team makes a quarter-long engagement most fruitful.

  
  

• Positioning Sprints You're nearing your initial launch and need to establish your positioning, or you're in market but your story isn't resonating—maybe you've pivoted, evolved your ICP, or need to better differentiate. I can come in for a 2 to 4 week sprint (early stage) or longer engagement (growth stage) to nail your positioning and messaging. For early-stage sprints, you'll walk away with a positioning framework and V1 homepage wireframe. Add-ons could include pitch deck iteration, branding/web implementation work, or launch plan strategy.

  
  

• Hands-On Projects: integrated campaigns, new markets research, or rebrand strategy For later stage teams that need hands-on leadership, I can jump in to lead projects in collaboration with your team. Leveraging experience leading through multiple rebrands, introducing new market opportunities through research, and integrated campaign development, I can jump in where you need me.

  
  

How I work matters as much as what I work on. Two things that show up in every engagement:

• I love a spreadsheet. Throughout my career, I've built funnel models, defined budgets and quantitative goals, and designed teams. I've dived deep into data to determine focus areas for growth initiatives, lifecycle campaigns, and web optimization. I'm obsessed with testing out AI tools and can help you navigate tooling as needed. I'm not your person for day-to-day paid marketing execution or ops stack building. But I know what great looks like, know the people to pull in, and can help you set strategy.

  
  

• I love mentoring teams. I've had the honor of hiring and working with mind-blowingly inspiring people across brand, growth, design, ops, and beyond. I can help you build hiring plans, assess talent, guide strategy, define growth tracks, and ensure programs across your team sing from the same song book.

  
  

Hopefully by this point you’re feeling as hyped as I am. I can’t wait to hear more about you and your marketing teams and dreams. Let’s talk. Shoot me an email at hi@upandto.co

Up! Up!

✌️ Emily

Founder and Chief Marketer, up&to