Rahul Krishnan
Rahul Krishnan
Rahul Krishnan
Marketing Generalist
I joined Toplyne, a Sequoia & Tiger-backed series A start-up, right after the seed round in early 2022. Over the last 3 years, we grew the team to 40+ employees, ~1M in revenue, and scaled the brand globally in both B2B SaaS and D2C segments. I led Marketing here, wearing many hats as one does at a 0-1 start-up: Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Account-Based Marketing, Events, Sponsorships, and more.
An engineering by training, I started my career as a marketing analyst for Novartis Oncology in 2017. In my four year stint there, I worked closely with brand leaders to develop reporting and analytics frameworks for Novartis' portfolio drugs. In hindsight, Novartis taught me two crucial skills: (a) how to work with large volumes of data (I was working with patient-level datasets spanning 10+ years) and (b) Excel.
Director of Marketing, Toplyne
Director of Marketing, Toplyne
Director of Marketing, Toplyne
January 2022 - October 2024
Content Marketing
Toplyne
Scaled Toplyne’s SEO engine from 10 to 51 in Domain Rating and 1k to 50k monthly website traffic.
Grew the Top of the Lyne Substack newsletter from 1k to 20k+ subscribers in two years (>40% open rate)
Led the promotion & distribution of “The Coming of Age of D2C in India” report in 2024 in partnership with Sorin Investments & 1Lattice (6,300+ downloads)
Grew Toplyne's social media presence and brand from 0 - 40k+ followers at an average ~10k impressions per post.
Executed the branding, design, and development of Toplyne’s website. Led a team of 4 in continuous experimentation of Toplyne’s Positioning & Messaging and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Led the ideation and conceptualization of Toplyne’s video advertising campaign, in collaboration with Bombay Locale.
Executed Toplyne’s Series A funding announcement, along with global PR agencies, featuring appearances in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, YourStory, Inc42, etc.
Led 3 ProductHunt launches for Toplyne, finishing as #2 Product of the Day with one of them. (800+ leads generated)
Content Marketing
Toplyne
Scaled Toplyne’s SEO engine from 10 to 51 in Domain Rating and 1k to 50k monthly website traffic.
Grew the Top of the Lyne Substack newsletter from 1k to 20k+ subscribers in two years (>40% open rate)
Led the promotion & distribution of “The Coming of Age of D2C in India” report in 2024 in partnership with Sorin Investments & 1Lattice (6,300+ downloads)
Grew Toplyne's social media presence and brand from 0 - 40k+ followers at an average ~10k impressions per post.
Executed the branding, design, and development of Toplyne’s website. Led a team of 4 in continuous experimentation of Toplyne’s Positioning & Messaging and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Led the ideation and conceptualization of Toplyne’s video advertising campaign, in collaboration with Bombay Locale.
Executed Toplyne’s Series A funding announcement, along with global PR agencies, featuring appearances in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, YourStory, Inc42, etc.
Led 3 ProductHunt launches for Toplyne, finishing as #2 Product of the Day with one of them. (800+ leads generated)
Content Marketing
Toplyne
Scaled Toplyne’s SEO engine from 10 to 51 in Domain Rating and 1k to 50k monthly website traffic.
Grew the Top of the Lyne Substack newsletter from 1k to 20k+ subscribers in two years (>40% open rate)
Led the promotion & distribution of “The Coming of Age of D2C in India” report in 2024 in partnership with Sorin Investments & 1Lattice (6,300+ downloads)
Grew Toplyne's social media presence and brand from 0 - 40k+ followers at an average ~10k impressions per post.
Executed the branding, design, and development of Toplyne’s website. Led a team of 4 in continuous experimentation of Toplyne’s Positioning & Messaging and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Led the ideation and conceptualization of Toplyne’s video advertising campaign, in collaboration with Bombay Locale.
Executed Toplyne’s Series A funding announcement, along with global PR agencies, featuring appearances in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, YourStory, Inc42, etc.
Led 3 ProductHunt launches for Toplyne, finishing as #2 Product of the Day with one of them. (800+ leads generated)
Webinars & Podcasts
Toplyne
Led promotions, production, and post-event nurture flows of 11 webinars - with founders and revenue leaders at global B2B SaaS companies.
Ran optimizations through the webinar funnel - to maximize engagement, attendance, registrations, and invitation e-mail open rates.
Led the production and distribution of the "Humans of PLG" podcast series with founders and sales leaders at PLG companies.
Webinars & Podcasts
Toplyne
Led promotions, production, and post-event nurture flows of 11 webinars - with founders and revenue leaders at global B2B SaaS companies.
Ran optimizations through the webinar funnel - to maximize engagement, attendance, registrations, and invitation e-mail open rates.
Led the production and distribution of the "Humans of PLG" podcast series with founders and sales leaders at PLG companies.
Webinars & Podcasts
Toplyne
Led promotions, production, and post-event nurture flows of 11 webinars - with founders and revenue leaders at global B2B SaaS companies.
Ran optimizations through the webinar funnel - to maximize engagement, attendance, registrations, and invitation e-mail open rates.
Led the production and distribution of the "Humans of PLG" podcast series with founders and sales leaders at PLG companies.
Performance Marketing
Toplyne
Set up Toplyne’s acquisition engine through digital marketing channels across Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Generated $2M+ in pipeline, $400k+ in meetings booked through Facebook ads - running the end-to-end process from development of creatives to budget allocation by geo, custom audiences, and A/B tests within ads manager.
Set up Google Ads campaigns - branded campaigns, competitor campaigns, and outcome + feature-based campaigns - leading to ~5 meetings booked per week for sales from Google Ads alone.
Performance Marketing
Toplyne
Set up Toplyne’s acquisition engine through digital marketing channels across Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Generated $2M+ in pipeline, $400k+ in meetings booked through Facebook ads - running the end-to-end process from development of creatives to budget allocation by geo, custom audiences, and A/B tests within ads manager.
Set up Google Ads campaigns - branded campaigns, competitor campaigns, and outcome + feature-based campaigns - leading to ~5 meetings booked per week for sales from Google Ads alone.
Performance Marketing
Toplyne
Set up Toplyne’s acquisition engine through digital marketing channels across Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Generated $2M+ in pipeline, $400k+ in meetings booked through Facebook ads - running the end-to-end process from development of creatives to budget allocation by geo, custom audiences, and A/B tests within ads manager.
Set up Google Ads campaigns - branded campaigns, competitor campaigns, and outcome + feature-based campaigns - leading to ~5 meetings booked per week for sales from Google Ads alone.
In-Person Events
Toplyne
Led the end-to-end execution of Toplyne Executive Dinners and Mixers.
Hosted the “Wine & Dine” Executive Dinner series (room of ~20) in 5+ cities
Led the promotions, branding, nurture, operations, and post-event sales nudges of 5+ mixers (room of 50-400) in 3 cities (SF, London, Dublin)
In-Person Events
Toplyne
Led the end-to-end execution of Toplyne Executive Dinners and Mixers.
Hosted the “Wine & Dine” Executive Dinner series (room of ~20) in 5+ cities
Led the promotions, branding, nurture, operations, and post-event sales nudges of 5+ mixers (room of 50-400) in 3 cities (SF, London, Dublin)
In-Person Events
Toplyne
Led the end-to-end execution of Toplyne Executive Dinners and Mixers.
Hosted the “Wine & Dine” Executive Dinner series (room of ~20) in 5+ cities
Led the promotions, branding, nurture, operations, and post-event sales nudges of 5+ mixers (room of 50-400) in 3 cities (SF, London, Dublin)
Sponsorships & Conferences
Toplyne
Planned and executed Toplyne’s branding, lead-generation, and customer marketing strategy at SaaStr Annual (‘22 and ‘23)
Led the sponsorship negotiations with the SaaStr team for a Super Gold sponsorship in ‘22 and a Gold sponsorship in ‘23.
Set up playbooks for pre-event promotions, in-conference lead capture, booth activation, and post-event nurture to sales conversations.
Generated $1M+ in sales pipeline from two conferences.
Sponsorships & Conferences
Toplyne
Planned and executed Toplyne’s branding, lead-generation, and customer marketing strategy at SaaStr Annual (‘22 and ‘23)
Led the sponsorship negotiations with the SaaStr team for a Super Gold sponsorship in ‘22 and a Gold sponsorship in ‘23.
Set up playbooks for pre-event promotions, in-conference lead capture, booth activation, and post-event nurture to sales conversations.
Generated $1M+ in sales pipeline from two conferences.
Sponsorships & Conferences
Toplyne
Planned and executed Toplyne’s branding, lead-generation, and customer marketing strategy at SaaStr Annual (‘22 and ‘23)
Led the sponsorship negotiations with the SaaStr team for a Super Gold sponsorship in ‘22 and a Gold sponsorship in ‘23.
Set up playbooks for pre-event promotions, in-conference lead capture, booth activation, and post-event nurture to sales conversations.
Generated $1M+ in sales pipeline from two conferences.
MarkOps
Toplyne
Set up inbound workflows for lead capture optimization, qualification, nurture, and conversion to meetings booked for sales.
Configured Toplyne’s Account Based Marketing (ABM) workflows - a multi-touch multi-channel approach across ads, e-mail marketing, gifting, webinar & podcast invitations, and in-person events.
Set up CRM automation, and hygiene procedures while ensuring data parity between a 5 member global sales team and marketing.
MarkOps
Toplyne
Set up inbound workflows for lead capture optimization, qualification, nurture, and conversion to meetings booked for sales.
Configured Toplyne’s Account Based Marketing (ABM) workflows - a multi-touch multi-channel approach across ads, e-mail marketing, gifting, webinar & podcast invitations, and in-person events.
Set up CRM automation, and hygiene procedures while ensuring data parity between a 5 member global sales team and marketing.
MarkOps
Toplyne
Set up inbound workflows for lead capture optimization, qualification, nurture, and conversion to meetings booked for sales.
Configured Toplyne’s Account Based Marketing (ABM) workflows - a multi-touch multi-channel approach across ads, e-mail marketing, gifting, webinar & podcast invitations, and in-person events.
Set up CRM automation, and hygiene procedures while ensuring data parity between a 5 member global sales team and marketing.
Senior Marketing Analyst, Novartis Oncology
Senior Marketing Analyst, Novartis Oncology
Senior Marketing Analyst, Novartis Oncology
August 2017 - January 2022
Education
Education
Master of Sciences, Chemistry
Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani Campus
Graduated: May 2017
Master of Sciences, Chemistry
Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani Campus
Graduated: May 2017
Master of Sciences, Chemistry
Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani Campus
Graduated: May 2017
Bachelor of Engineering, Manufacturing
Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani Campus
Graduated: May 2017
Bachelor of Engineering, Manufacturing
Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani Campus
Graduated: May 2017
Bachelor of Engineering, Manufacturing
Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani Campus
Graduated: May 2017