Spotify's Mayur Gupta on his move to Freshly: 'The industry is still underpenetrated'
“My dream after having spent two-and-a-half years at Spotify — which was a fascinating journey at a terrific company — is to get in early with a growing company and build an iconic brand,” Mayur Gupta told The Drum. “Freshly provides that.”
Freshly appoints Mayur Gupta CMO
Bold goals from a marketer known for his daring.
That attitude is one reason Freshly has appointed Gupta as its chief marketing officer, effective 7 January. “Mayur’s extensive background and data-inspired brand building will help usher Freshly into its next phase…,” Michael Wystrach, chief executive and cofounder of Freshly, which provides fresh-prepared meal kits that are ready to eat in three minutes, said in a statement.
Gupta told the Drum that the role is “perfect for me.” The company’s mission and purpose around helping its customers live a healthy life are clear, he said, and data and science underlie all that. “Plus, it’s a great time to be in the food-tech industry,” Gupta said. “It’s a trillion-plus industry and our category of fresh, prepared meals delivered to your door that you can cook in minutes is still underpenetrated. There’s a lot of growth to come.”
“Freshly is at a pivotal point right now — we’re experiencing huge growth as the market is rapidly shifting… Mayur’s proven ability to build and lead large teams while helping shape an industry makes him the perfect addition to our executive team,” Wystrach said.
Although it’s early days, Gupta told The Drum, he already has several goals in place. “My first priorities include building the brand and laying the foundation for that — the category is new, and we want to own it,” he said. “And, of course, build the user base and build loyalty and trust. How we’ll go about all that is still to be determined, of course.”
Gupta will likely take pages from his well-worn playbooks from his previous roles. Most recently, he served as vice president of growth and marketing for Spotify. While there he was tasked with growing the company’s user based and strengthening the brand. Prior to that Gupta served as executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Healthgrades. He also served as global head, omnichannel experiences and platforms at Kimberly-Clark and prior to that director of marketing technology and strategy for SapientNitro.
“I’m passionate about connecting brand with growth and performance. To me, it’s important to use brand to drive growth, not think of them as isolated pieces,” Gupta told The Drum, adding that he plans to organize the marketing team by outcomes instead of channels to help facilitate this.
“Mike [Wystrach] often says that the future of CPG is economies of value versus economies of scale,” he added. “In that environment, you apply data and science to solve consumer problems. It’s about having a solution-driven mindset instead of a product-driven one. Instead of continually launching new products and seeing what works, you focus on consumer needs and behaviors and think about solving consumers’ problems. When doing that, you need data and science as your backbone. But, be inspired by data versus being blindly led by it or you can lose that creativity and spark.”