Marvin Fontanilla · Marketing Director

Before I spent client money, I spent my own.

I started in tech investment banking, then bet my own money on frozen desserts: 3 companies, 2 of them acquired. For the last 13 years I've been a full-stack marketer at a Bay Area agency: paid, SEO, social, analytics. Lately the job has turned into marketing engineering: agents, apps, AI in the loop.

The story so far

Finance, then founder, then the agency.

Stage 00Finance · 2005 to 2009

Numbers first.

My first job out of college in 2005 was investment banking at a boutique, research-driven tech bank, followed by operations at JPMorgan Chase. On the side, in 2006, I started a personal finance blog, The Zen Capitalist, which is where I first learned what it takes to get a stranger to read something.

Those years taught me to read a business through its numbers, and then 2008 showed me how fast those numbers can stop working. I decided I'd rather run a business than analyze one.

The Zen Capitalist, since 2006 ↗

Marvin on the floor at Tuttimelon in Modesto: the self-serve machines, the orange banquette, and the customer photo wall behind him — Modesto. The photo wall behind the machines was the customers.

The Fresno Tuttimelon mid-buildout: framing, ladders, and an unfinished counter — Fresno, mid-buildout.

Stage 01Tuttimelon · 2010 to 2015

Two storefronts and a stack of credit cards.

30+ people hired and trained, and I did all of the marketing myself

At 26, my two partners and I opened a frozen yogurt shop in the Vintage Faire Mall in Modesto, funded with savings and credit cards, then a second one at Fashion Fair in Fresno. We built a supply chain out of the Central Valley, and the Modesto Bee named us Best New Dessert Shop.

Fresno closed in 2013 and Modesto in 2015, and both times the thing that beat us was mall rent. The lease taught me more than the award did.

The full Tuttimelon story →

Stage 02Marketing for hire · 2012 to 2013

Other people's businesses, same instincts.

While the stores were still open, other people started paying me to do what I'd been doing for myself. I built a network of EDM music blogs, which taught me distribution and SEO with my own time on the line. In 2012, San Jose Options hired me as Director of Marketing, Digital.

Up to this point every dollar I'd managed was either mine or a small company's, and every result had my name on it.

SJ Options collateral, 2012. My first in-house marketing title.

Case · WODshop.com, Los Angeles

3 months in, as a consultant

Indexed to 100. Grey is the starting point; for conversion rate, it’s the industry standard.

Traffic

+150%

Revenue

Conversion vs industry

+50%

0100200250

Also: Instagram to 13K. Work covered SEO, CRO, social, and business development.

Stage 03 · SummitPop Up Gelato · 2014 to 2018

Tabletop gelato stations that pop up anywhere.

Marvin and a Pop Up Gelato co-founder behind two tabletop gelato stations at a wedding fair, 2014 — A wedding fair, 2014. Engaged couples were how we got the word out.

A line of Tesla employees waiting for gelato inside the Fremont factory — Inside the Tesla factory, Fremont.

A Pop Carts ice cream cart in a holographic Supergoop wrap, parked under redwoods — Pop Carts, wrapped for Supergoop.

In January 2014, my partners and I started Pop Up Gelato in San Francisco with a simple idea: tabletop gelato stations, quick to set up anywhere. Within a couple of years we were the Bay Area's mobile gelato bar, working from Napa to Santa Cruz and down to LA and Orange County, for Google, Genentech, Stanford, SpaceX, and Tesla, where we served 12,000 employees across the Fremont plant and the Palo Alto HQ over multiple days, and got asked back.

We added gelato carts, and then I spun up Pop Carts, an ice cream cart rental business, with carts wrapped for Supergoop, Marc Jacobs, and Henry's Hard Soda. On August 31, 2018, Phthalo Investments bought both.

The full Pop Up Gelato story →

First scoop to acquisition

4yrs 7mo

A film crew with a camera dolly in a park, a Pop Up Gelato cart set up behind them as part of the scene — On screen, 2017. One of our carts on a film set, with the camera crew in front.

Stage 04Jade Orchard · 2013 to now

I've sat in the client's seat.

I joined Jade Orchard in July 2013, 6 months before the first gelato station and with a frozen yogurt store still open in Modesto. For the next 4 years I was both: the marketer running paid media for an agency with 400+ clients, and the owner spending his own money on the other side.

Today I run paid across Google, Meta, and TikTok for schools, restaurants, and franchises. In 2017 Facebook brought me in, under NDA, to tell their ads team what breaks for media buyers. My title is Director of Marketing. The function, more every month, is marketing engineer: I build the systems the team runs on.

Marvin taking a selfie at a kitchen table work session with a co-worker, laptops open — A WFH day with one of my Pop Up Gelato co-founders. I hired him at Jade Orchard 3 years ago. Inset: the Facebook visitor badge, 2017.

Facebook visitor badge, NDA, December 14, 2017 — A WFH day with one of my Pop Up Gelato co-founders. I hired him at Jade Orchard 3 years ago. Inset: the Facebook visitor badge, 2017.

Stage 05Building now · nights and weekends

2 apps, AI in the loop, and my kids as the QA team.

WalkSteady · webcam

WalkSteady calibrating: a face mesh over Marvin's face on a webcam feed, with the nose landmark tracked at Nose Y 546

Calibrating · locking onto the nose

WalkSteady Mac · in development

A Mac app that steadies your webcam while you walk on a treadmill through Zoom calls. Your head bobs with every step, and the people on the call don't see it.

walksteady.app ↗