HackerRank

SQL growth

+14% QoQ

Pipeline enabled

$3.3M ARR

Opportunities

188 active

Monetization

~5× CVR

Problem

HackerRank had raised over $100M, reached ~$50M in ARR, and gained both mass market awareness and enterprise credibility – every developer in the world and nearly every technical hiring manager knows HackerRank.

But, the market still evaluated the brand like it was 2015 (generic tests, “LeetCode-style” screening), while the buyer conversation shifted to AI-era SDLC and hiring integrity.

The business challenge was repositioning for the AI era plus driving pipeline.

Strategy

Build a unifying brand narrative that ABM, paid, inbound/outbound, and self-serve could reuse without reinventing the story every week.

Key bets:

• AEO program with Relixir

• Hackonomics viral YouTube Shorts channel with YAAS

• Pillar op-ed blog articles that define “next-gen developer” and the new hiring reality

• Strategic, personalized ABM + “Hot AI” and “Next-Gen” cold email campaigns

Deprioritized: one-off tweets handled by a junior manager. I focused on compounding assets tied to pipeline and conversion.

Snapshot

#1: “Hot AI 70” ABM campaign

Built a 3-touch outbound campaign with 1:1 research per account so it read exceedingly human. Emails included a Supademo sandbox environment. Enrolled engaged targets (World Labs, xAI, Databricks, Glean, Anthropic, Clay, Baseten) into AE flow.

#2: AI Principles + Next-Gen Hiring pages

Owned messaging and partnered with design to ship landing pages + whitepapers used as ABM and paid destinations. Positioned trust and integrity as a first-class buying criterion in AI hiring workflows.

#3: Lifecycle marketing emails

Built trial nurturing, Interview expansion, upgrade nudges, and reactivation offers with clear value framing and direct CTAs.
Included CEO signatory and product GIFs to increase trust and conversion.

#4: Paid social planning + briefs

Partnered with Demand Gen and used a structured ads planner to map out new creative concepts (Meta, Google, Reddit) for cold audiences and existing customers.

#5: Editorial OS + messaging guides

Built internal Notion visibility layer (calendar + messaging guides) to reduce thrash and align cross-functional teams.

#6: Pillar OpEds

Wrote long-form assets defining AI-era roles and hiring trends – built to compound via search, outbound, and sales enablement. Styled as deep-dive brand journalism pieces.

#7: AEO initiative

Stepped in to co-manage an AEO visibility program to improve how HackerRank shows up inside AI forums. In 90 days, reached #1 Share of Voice (22.6%) and #1 Mention Rate ranking (55.3%) versus key competitors.

#8: Viral YouTube Shorts channel

Stepped in to own the narrative layer of Hackonomics, a viral media hub for distribution of AI shorts using the CEO’s likeness. Managed production with YAAS to drive reach outside traditional B2B channels.

Transferable playbook

• Give Sales self-serve and content-led assets + reusable proof they can drop into any convo.

• Build conversion destinations, not one-off campaigns.

• Treat lifecycle as a revenue product, not just “emails.”

• Operationalize output so velocity compounds.

• Ship through friction. I worked with a blunt, high-standards CEO and still delivered under pressure.

Key Artifacts