Building and marketing a sustainability-focused speed networking platform through brand positioning, paid acquisition, and automation

Role: Founder & Brand + Growth Strategist
Scope: Brand Identity, Website, Funnel Design, Paid Ads, Automation, Event Operations
Audience: Sustainability founders, climate professionals, startup operators

The problem

  • While participating in ClimateBase Fellowship and Y Combinator, it became clear that sustainability professionals deeply valued peer networking — yet lacked structured, recurring opportunities to connect efficiently.
  • There was no niche speed-networking platform designed specifically for climate and sustainability founders seeking aligned collaborators.

Objective

  • Build a recognizable sustainability-focused brand community
  • Design and launch a recurring speed-networking platform
  • Develop a conversion-optimized digital funnel
  • Acquire participants through paid and organic marketing
  • Automate operations to support repeatable weekly events

Constraints

Self-Funded Growth: Personally funded ad spend and software tools. Required disciplined budget allocation and ROI tracking.

Solo Operator: Built brand, website, funnel, automation, and ad campaigns independently. Managed event hosting and participant segmentation without a team.

Paid Acquisition Costs: Meta ad costs increased over time. Required continuous A/B testing and funnel optimization.

Technical Integration: Integrated WordPress, Typeform, Luma, Zoom, speed-networking software, Google Analytics, and Zapier. Built automated workflows without developer support.

Strategy

  • Positioned the brand with emotionally resonant identity and terminology that aligned with sustainability culture (“Professional Hippies” / “Entrepreneurial Treehuggers”).
  • Built conversion-optimized WordPress landing pages and structured intake with Typeform to segment participants by industry, interest, and networking goals.
  • Implemented automated workflows via Zapier to manage registration, matching, attendance, and follow-up.
  • Launched and refined Meta ad campaigns with rigorous A/B testing on creatives and landing pages.
  • Tracked key funnels — cost per lead, landing page conversions, and attendance — to iterate product and marketing decisions.

Solution: Brand & Positioning

  • Balanced climate urgency with optimism by crafting a tone that avoided doom messaging yet remained professional.
  • Developed a brand that embraced community identity and values, validated by audience resonance with terms like “professional hippie.”
  • Designed an accessible, clean visual system to appeal to a diverse group of climate professionals.

Solution:

Community Growth & Automated Networking System

Designed and executed a full-funnel acquisition and event automation system to drive qualified attendance and structured professional matchmaking for virtual networking events. Hosted ~14 weekly speed-networking events over four months. Segmented participants based on attendance and interest for improved match quality.

01

Paid Acquisition – Meta and linkedin Ads

  • Built targeted Meta ad campaigns for professional audiences
  • A/B tested creatives (visual hooks, messaging, CTA framing)
  • Optimized for CTR and qualified conversions
  • Installed Meta Pixel on landing page for conversion tracking + retargeting

Top converting Meta ad

This image decreased the cost of conversion from around $14.00 to $3.00. It went slightly “viral” as we gained over 300 likes and 18 organic re-shares on a brand new Instagram and Facebook account.  

Top converting LinkedIn ad

Also a brand new LinkedIn company page and ad account, this GIF collected 23 organic reactions and shares. 

02

Event Landing & Registration – Luma

Used Luma as the event registration and logistics hub.

  • Custom event landing page
  • Meta Pixel integration for conversion tracking
  • Automated reminder emails
  • Calendar invites
  • Zoom access distribution

03

Structured Qualification – Typeform

After registering via Luma, attendees were routed to a structured intake form built in Typeform to capture deeper professional attributes:

  • Industry
  • Interests
  • Networking goals
  • Preferred engagement style

04

Automation & Segmentation – Zapier + Mailchimp

Designed a no-code automation architecture:

Zapier

  • Pulled Typeform responses
  • Applied segmentation logic
  • Synced structured tags to Mailchimp

 

Mailchimp

  • Delivered segmented email communications
  • Customized reminders
  • Post-event follow-ups
  • Targeted repeat-attendance campaigns

This eliminated manual list sorting and created scalable communication flows.

See site

05

Event Execution – Meetaway

Used Meetaway as the structured speed-networking platform. This ensured the experience felt curated and intentional rather than random Zoom breakout sessions.

  • Rotational matchmaking based on attendee data
  • Timed 1:1 breakout conversations
  • Structured networking flow
  • Live facilitation
  • Meetaway also enabled:
  • Built-in event feedback collection
  • Engagement tracking
  • Post-event reporting insights

06

Post-Event Growth Flywheel

Built a retention and retargeting loop: 

  • Feedback data captured via Meetaway
  • CRM enrichment via Mailchimp
  • Retargeting audiences via Meta Pixel
  • Repeat attendance targeting

Impact

Growth Metrics:

  • Achieved $8–12 cost per lead (CPL)
  • Maintained 28–35% landing page conversion rate
  • Reached ~60% event attendance rate
  • Successfully operated 4 months of weekly events

 

Strategic Outcomes:

  • Validated strong demand for structured sustainability networking
  • Built full-stack experience in brand positioning, growth marketing, and funnel optimization
  • Gained hands-on expertise in paid acquisition economics and conversion testing
The initiative concluded after ad spend exceeded personal budget allocation, demonstrating both traction and the capital intensity of scaling paid growth in niche professional markets.