USA: Expert in sales, marketing, brand building. Using digitisation to scale global brands including LMVH, Duolingo, AMEX and Estee Lauder
North America
United States of America
Gina Gotthilf was the VP of Growth at Duolingo, the most downloaded education app in the world, leading the team that built its user base from 3 to 200 million. She also led Tumblr‘s growth in Latin America and participated in the Mike Bloomberg presidential campaign to help oversee digital ad campaigns at a historical daily spend.
In 2020, she joined Brian and Yuri as a co-founder of Latitud, to help engineer serendipity for the top doers and thinkers in the Latam startup ecosystem.
In this episode,
Gina Gotthilf’s earlier work history saw her found a boutique agency in Brazil. The agency’s focus was on helping companies involved in the tech industry grow. She also represented Tumblr in Latin America. Her role saw her help create and implement strategies that led to amazing growth using public relations, effective communications, and various partnerships. She also led the country’s MediaMath launch and developed international digital marketing campaigns for luxury brands. These include, amongst others, LVMH, American Express, and Estée Lauder.
Her path to success was not always smooth, however. Gina Gotthilf struggled with depression in her younger years. This led to her dropping out of college in the United States, where she studied philosophy, anthropology, and Chinese. She ultimately returned to her home country of Brazil.
When Gina Gotthilf returned to school, she once more studied philosophy and worked in a neuroscience laboratory. After this, she decided to pursue her dream. She moved to New York and started an internship in digital media. She returned to Brazil at the age of 25, where, according to her, her real career began.
Gina talks a bit more about what we’ve been up to but mostly about her own journey, challenges and learnings.
Gina resides in the USA and is fluent in English and Portuguese, Spanish and French, and has a limited working proficiency in Mandarin.
“Gina graced us as a keynote speaker for an Executive level event my company hosted. The audience raved about her witty while informative talk and we loved how easy and knowledgable she was to work with. Gina's expertise will help a wave of executives take meaningful insights and actionable next steps back to their businesses. Thank you for your influence!Gina graced us as a keynote speaker for an Executive level event my company hosted. The audience raved about her witty while informative talk and we loved how easy and knowledgable she was to work with. Gina's expertise will help a wave of executives take meaningful insights and actionable next steps back to their businesses. Thank you for your influence!”
“Gina has a passion for connecting with her audience and at the 2017 GrowthHackers Conference, this became evident. Leading up to the conference, Gina was prompt, engaged, and a joy to work with. Not only has she accomplished leading a team that has grown Duolingo’s user base from 3 to 150 million in the past 4 years, but she has also found the time to contribute her learnings to the GrowthHackers Community for greater good. Not to mention her fantastic sense of humor! I highly recommend Gina as a speaker and look forward to working with her more in the future.Gina has a passion for connecting with her audience and at the 2017 GrowthHackers Conference, this became evident. Leading up to the conference, Gina was prompt, engaged, and a joy to work with. Not only has she accomplished leading a team that has grown Duolingo’s user base from 3 to 150 million in the past 4 years, but she has also found the time to contribute her learnings to the GrowthHackers Community for greater good. Not to mention her fantastic sense of humor! I highly recommend Gina as a speaker and look forward to working with her more in the future.”
“Finding talent for Gina is always an absolute pleasure. She's incredibly thorough, responsive, and warm throughout the entire hiring process. Regardless of her work load, she always finds time to provide an update and deliver feedback. She implemented a strong interview process, and her approach ensured that each candidate had a positive experience. After working with her and speaking with members of her team I can confidently say she's an exceptional manager!Finding talent for Gina is always an absolute pleasure. She's incredibly thorough, responsive, and warm throughout the entire hiring process. Regardless of her work load, she always finds time to provide an update and deliver feedback. She implemented a strong interview process, and her approach ensured that each candidate had a positive experience. After working with her and speaking with members of her team I can confidently say she's an exceptional manager!”
“I had the pleasure to welcome Gina when she joined the Duolingo and I soon realized the great asset she was to the whole company. She is a very knowledgeable professional with great interpersonal skills.”
“We've had the privilege of working with Gina in 2012 building our first in-roads into Tumblr's second largest market: Brazil. Her initiatives include localizing Tumblr's interface and editorial content, developing partner programs, public relations, and outreach to the local Tumblr community of more than 15 million people. During these efforts, she's navigated the Brazilian media industry impeccably, shown an attention to product detail that has won tremendous praise from our community, and generated a whirlwind of excellent press. It's been a pleasure to work with Gina, and we're proud to have had her representing Tumblr.”