Growth Marketing Leader

Lara Stiris

(Lah-ra Stee-ris)
Head of Marketing | Growth and Demand Gen for Technical Products

Data-driven marketing leader specializing in building and scaling demand generation engines for B2B SaaS startups and enterprises. Expert in developer marketing, strategic execution, and cross-functional leadership.

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Career Highlights

by the Numbers

$80M+
Pipeline Generated
$7M+
Budget Managed
38:1
Pipeline-to-Spend Ratio
749%
Search Visibility Increase
300%
Traffic Growth
15
Years Experience
Lara Stiris
About Me

Driving Growth Through Strategy & Innovation

I'm a growth marketing leader with over a decade of experience building and scaling demand generation engines for some of tech's most innovative companies: from building 0->1 at early-stage startups to accelerating revenue growth at enterprise giants like AWS and Twitch. I specialize in marketing to technical audiences: developers, product managers, and technical decision-makers. As a player-coach, I can roll up my sleeves and lead teams through any stage.

What drives me:

  • Data meets creativity: I build comprehensive marketing strategies that align business goals with market opportunities, then combine analytical rigor with creative execution across the full funnel.
  • Brand + demand: I believe brand and demand generation go hand in hand. Perfect attribution is a myth; the best marketing creates momentum across multiple touchpoints.
  • Technical storytelling: I translate complex technical products into compelling value propositions.
  • AI-powered marketing: I leverage AI to amplify results, bringing years of experience to curate quality output.
  • Team Leadership: I love building and coaching high-performing teams in collaborative environments where people thrive.

Background: B.A. in Economics with Honors and Distinction from Stanford University

Beyond work: Chief Mom Officer to three amazing kids | NYT word game enthusiast | San Francisco fangirl | Geek out on the latest trends in AI, developer tools, and marketing technology

Experience

Building Growth Engines

Track record of driving pipeline generation and developer growth across high-growth startups and enterprise tech companies.

Sfumo
Founder & CEO
March 2026 - Present

Founded Sfumo, a growth marketing consultancy serving VC-backed startups across AI, developer tools, and enterprise infrastructure. Embedded marketing leader and strategic advisor to founders, CEOs, and CMOs.

  • Synthflow (AI voice agents): Interim marketing leader during the company's VP of Marketing search — audited and realigned the channel mix, managed external agencies, led competitive GTM research, built the marketing strategy, and acted as strategic partner to the CEO
  • Tetrate (enterprise AI gateway): Building digital acquisition channels from scratch, standing up marketing tooling, exploring a product-led sales motion, and planning and executing enterprise-focused integrated campaigns
PlayerZero
Head of Growth Marketing
June 2025 - March 2026

Founding marketer at category-creating AI dev tool startup, building systems and campaigns to market to technical decision makers and developers.

  • Took the company out of stealth, building $XM of inbound pipeline through cross-channel integrated campaigns at a 38:1 pipeline-to-spend ratio
  • Established sustainable demand engine generating millions in pipeline and growing traffic 300%; set up martech stack from scratch for streamlined lead flow
Userflow
Director of Demand Generation
May 2024 - May 2025

Built and scaled top-of-funnel growth and pipeline generation for an early-stage startup focused on marketing to PMs and PMMs at PLG SaaS startups.

  • Drove 111% increase in Sales Qualified Opportunities, grew inbound traffic by 148%
  • Increased search visibility by 749% and average search position by 40% over 6 months
  • Developed SEO strategy from scratch and established efficient content production process utilizing AI
Twitch Interactive | Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Director | Head of Growth Marketing, Amazon IVS
July 2021 - April 2024

Built marketing strategy and tactical growth plan to drive developer awareness and acquisition for Amazon Interactive Video Service (IVS).

  • Accelerated growth of active developers by 15% MoM, reaching tens of thousands of developers quarterly through community, content, and events (320% over goal)
  • Hired and coached a high-performing team to scale awareness and acquisition efforts globally
  • Completed High Performance Leadership course designed for top managers within the organization
Vonage
Director of Go To Market Strategy | Sr. Demand Gen Manager
October 2019 - July 2021

Led GTM strategy and demand generation for Communications APIs, driving ROI improvements across B2B and B2D channels.

  • Drove 149% attainment of pipeline targets through B2B and B2D acquisition channels
  • Won Key Contributor Award for 2020, awarded by leadership and CEO to a select few
  • Managed $7M yearly budget and operations of two performance marketing agencies
Reflektive
Sr. Manager, Demand Generation
September 2018 - October 2019
  • Drove 151% increase in qualified leads and 124% increase in marketing-sourced opportunities within 4 months
  • Launched ABM programs to support Sales team's transition to territories
  • Led major web experience redesign project to improve SEO and increase inbound demand capture
PubNub
Sr. Marketing Manager | Web and Digital Marketing Manager
March 2017 - September 2018
  • Drove 6x increase in paid advertising traffic at the same level of spending, 54% growth in signups
  • Served as interim Head of Marketing, managing six direct reports
  • Led web strategy and execution to increase demand generation and optimize SEO
Splunk
Web Marketing Manager | Web Marketing Specialist
May 2015 - March 2017
  • Managed complex, high-visibility web projects affecting UX, inbound lead generation, and product-led growth
  • Used analytics tools to optimize performance of web pages and improve content and messaging
Expertise

Skills & Specializations

Marketing Strategy

Demand Generation Pipeline Generation GTM Strategy Product-Led Growth

Growth Channels

SEO/AEO/GEO Paid Media Content Marketing ABM Web PR/AR Social Events Outbound

Developer Marketing

B2D Marketing Technical Audiences Community Building Dev Relations

Technical

Web Experience Conversion Rate Optimization Analytics Martech Stack

Leadership

Team Building Coaching Budget Management Cross-functional

Certifications

ABM Certified Strategist McKinsey Management Program Twitch High Performance Leadership Program

Let's Connect

Open to consulting engagements through Sfumo, networking, and advisory roles.

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