Michael Gaudet, Principal, Eighty Twenty CMO

Michael’s Bio

I was born in Cornwall, Ontario, went to McGill University in Montreal for my undergrad and came to Calgary in 2007. I started out my career working in both traditional and digital marketing for a small company (Danatec, acquired by We Know Training) - but quickly realized that digital, with its ability to measure ROI, was where I was meant to be. During my time at Danatec, I also completed the Certificate in Advanced Web Analytics from the University of British Columbia.

I then worked for a world-class eCommerce company (iStockphoto/Getty Images) where I was a subject matter expert (SME) in the areas of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing/Pay-Per-Click (SEM/PPC), programmatic display, web analytics and affiliate marketing. Following this, I was a senior SME for a digital marketing agency (Vovia) - specializing in SEM/PPC for their largest accounts. After a year, I was promoted to lead the entire digital marketing team - in areas including SEM/PPC, SEO and analytics. During this time, I also completed my MBA on nights and weekends at the Haskayne School of Business (University of Calgary).

After completing my MBA, I moved over to a, then-fledgling, Enterprise B2B SaaS company in Calgary (Benevity, now unicorn) to build up Digital as a function for them. I was employee 63 at the company (hired right after their Series A raise) and we quickly grew revenue (and investment) to the point where we were over 700 employees. During this time, I was promoted to Director of Sales and Marketing Operations (I was the youngest Director at the company) - where my responsibilities grew to include all of demand generation (both inbound and outbound) and revenue operations (including being personally responsible for sales/pipeline forecasting for the company). At the same time as this, I created the course in Paid Media for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT).

I then moved on to a startup airline (Swoop, a WestJet subsidiary) where I oversaw all marketing, communications, product and digital. During this time, we pushed the boundaries of how tech is used in the industry - including website A/B testing to drive more sales, and marketing automation (implementing HubSpot for the airline) to personalize communications to passengers.

Following this, I moved to a venture builder in Calgary (Harvest) to start up and lead marketing for them. There, my Team and I helped our portfolio companies (such as Neo Financial - now also unicorn) - as well as other technology startups outside of the portfolio - scale inbound revenue.

I launched Eighty Twenty CMO in June of 2020 with the mission of using the skills and experience I’ve garnered over my career to enable venture-backed B2B SaaS companies to scale inbound revenue.

Get to Know Michael…

Where I’ve provided outsized-value prior to Eighty Twenty…

  • Led Marketing, Communications, Digital and Product for Swoop - a airline subsidiary of WestJet - to help achieve profitability in the first year of operating

  • Led Sales and Marketing Operations for Benevity - an Enterprise SaaS company that has also achieved ‘unicorn status’ (over 1B valuation)

  • Led entire Digital Marketing team at Vovia - a best-of-breed digital marketing agency - including Analytics, SEO and Paid Media

Education that enabled me to provide outsized-value…

  • Obtained my Bachelor of Commerce (with honours) from McGill University, with concentrations in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, as well a minor in Political Science

  • Received my Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, with a specialization in Entrepreneurship & Innovation

  • Completed exchange terms in Ireland for my undegrad (University College Dublin, Smurfit School of Business) and Austria for my masters (Vienna University of Economics & Business).

  • Obtained certificate in Advanced Web Analytics from the University of British Columbia

Passions (other than inbound revenue) that drive me…

  • Mountain activities

  • Active things not in the mountains

  • Podcasts and audiobooks

  • Politics and chicken wings

  • Theodore Roosevelt

Want to have a conversation with Michael?