Sign In

Ashley Kramer

Interim CRO, CSO & CMO at GitLab | Board Member | Advisor | Investor

Ashley Kramer is a dynamic leader with a rich history of driving hypergrowth in companies like GitLab, Alteryx, Tableau, and Amazon. With expertise in sales, marketing, product development, and technology, Ashley excels in building strong customer relationships, leading successful acquisitions, and crafting effective go-to-market strategies. In addition to executive roles, Ashley also serves on the board of dbt Labs and holds advisory positions at Snorkel AI and Evolv. Ashley is actively involved in high-tech fund investments and angel funding, showcasing a diverse skill set and commitment to innovation.

Highlights

Sep 5 · linkedin

GitLab has been named a Leader in two 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrants: DevOps Platforms and AI Code Assistants! 🎉

Spoiler alert: We’re the only vendor to be named a Leader in both reports. Read more: https://bit.ly/3MwQ3bd

Jan 26 · linkedin

A recent article in Fortune by Emma Hinchcliffe and Joseph Abrams - CMOs’ waning influence in the C-suite is a setback for female executives (http://bit.ly/3Ucxqy3) - got me thinking about my own journey as CMSO. With a background as a software engineer (and former GitLab customer), I have a personal perspective on customers’ needs. In fact, this past year, I logged hundreds of thousands of miles in travel speaking to customers. It's important for CMOs to have remit beyond traditional marketing responsibilities because:

  1. A technical background for a CMO is advantageous, empowering tech CMOs to deeply understand the pain points of customers.
  2. Understanding how messages land with customers is crucial, and direct one-on-one conversations prevent dilution in the communication chain.
  3. The CMO should serve as a go-to-market quarterback, understanding both the product and customer deeply.
  4. We can better bridge the gap between marketing and product development to ensure that messaging aligns with actual product offerings.

In the past two years at GitLab, I’ve learned the power of direct conversations, ensuring our messaging resonates authentically. Having “strategy” also as part of my role along with “marketing” isn't about titles; it's a commitment to bridge gaps, understand pain points, and align marketing with the value proposition of our product. And I invite my fellow CMO’s to join me in thinking beyond the old definition of the role.

Ashley Kramer
Add to my network

Location

San Francisco Bay Area