Carlyn Sylvester

I’ve spent most of my career leading and building zero-to-one teams and initiatives at consumer-facing, content-driven brands like Spotify, Glossier, YouTube and most recently Netflix.

I left corporate 9-5 just over a year ago and am advising/consulting, while also working on a personal venture of my own.

I’m finding my consulting sweet spot is partnering with founders and leaders at early-ish ventures/brands in creative industries, at the intersection of content and consumer. I primarily do a combination of brand x innovation x incubation strategy work for creative businesses that have found early product-market-fit and are now looking to build and grow.

Also important – I find inspiration in the little things in life: hygge, hot dogs, reality TV, national parks, my library card, and fly fishing.

I had a lot of fun as the fractional marketing/strategy lead for a small, family-owned dairy brand here in California, who was looking to evolve from a wholesale/retail model to D2C subscription. I spent six months working with them on the “what” and “why” and “how” – and also fleshed out their content/marketing strategy + longer term resourcing model. I had never worked with cheese before…Learned a lot and also got to spend quite a bit of time outside / on the ranch.

I’m especially enjoying working with creative-first entrepreneurs working on early creative businesses. Some recent examples: Working with the MD/Head of Brand at a boutique creative agency to think through how to incubate a new business model and his newly established team; working with an award-nominated producer on the ‘Season 2’ sponsor and content strategy of her high-reach podcast; working as a thought partner to the founder of an indie music label / media company who recently left ‘the majors’ to start building on his own.

Originally from Washington, D.C. and currently living in Los Angeles with my deaf senior bunny Bubs.

Connect with Carlyn Sylvester via LinkedIn - or become a community partner to meet all our members.