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Monica Ohara
CMO at HackerRank
Monica Ohara is an experienced marketing executive with a diverse background in technology and growth marketing. She served as the Chief Marketing Officer at HackerRank from June 2022 to June 2023.2 Prior to HackerRank, Ohara held leadership positions at several prominent tech companies:
- VP Growth Marketing at Shopify (July 2023 - Present)2
- Chief Marketing Officer at WordPress.com (Automattic) (September 2019 - June 2022)2
- Head of Acquisition, Growth at Lyft (August 2017 - September 2019)2
Ohara has a strong entrepreneurial background, having co-founded DataScore Inc., a startup focused on helping other startups grow, which was later acquired by Lyft in 2017.2 She also has experience in the online dating industry, serving as General Manager and Vice President of Marketing at SpeedDate.com, which was acquired by Match.com/IAC.2
Her educational background includes studies at UCLA and The Johns Hopkins University.2 Ohara is known for her expertise in growth marketing, customer acquisition, and scaling startups from pre-launch to successful exits.2 Her appointment at HackerRank was part of the company's focus on expanding its platform to support screening and interviewing for in-demand developer skill sets.1
Highlights
Here's the secret playbook of how Vivek Ravisankar hired me at HackerRank. I chose this company for 3 reasons:
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The CEO - I was blown away with Vivek's involvement in the hiring process and I knew right away, this was a special kind of leader. It didn't really feel like an interview, rather it felt like a brainstorm of how we could grow the business together. The way Vivek had my back at every step of the process was an early glimpse into how he personally supports his team every single day. I'm thankful to have the chance to learn from his words AND actions.
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The mission - How are we going to help accelerate the world's innovation? HackerRank helps companies build high performing teams by assessing actual skills over on-paper pedigrees for candidates. As someone who identifies as a minority woman, was born in a third world country, and knows first-hand what discrimination feels like, this value deeply resonates with me. I hope more companies catch on to this concept because great talent is everywhere and remote work makes opportunity more accessible.
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The team - With a product that helps companies hire top talent, you can bet the bar is incredibly high at HackerRank. I'm so impressed with people who surround me at this company and I'm honored to be part of their ranks. With the right conditions created by points 1 and 2 above, we are well poised to collaborate on amazing things together. At the end of the day, we are all focused on the same objective of helping our customers succeed.
Huge thank you to Allison Levitsky at Protocol for highlighting the journey and sharing Vivek's special sauce. Special kudos to Rebecca Janjic at Heidrick & Struggles for being an invaluable advisor during this entire process.
To all hiring managers out there: try it, it works!
To all candidates - if you're looking for a workplace that values skills over pedigree, come join us! https://lnkd.in/g8nu--Rx
#hiring #thankyou #leadership
