Keep it
simple.
AnsibleHow do you catalyze a vibrant community into a commercial success? You keep it simple, powerful, and agentless.
Todd BarrBrand builder · Leader · Mentor · Friend
Brands people want to belong to, not just buy from.
I build brands with communities at the core. When you give people a reason to connect, rather than just transact, they carry the brand further than you ever could alone. People want to belong. Let them.
Challenger to category leader. Three ways.
Keep it
Ansible
Culture
as brand.
GitLabHow do you turn a developer tool with a confusing name into a movement? You make culture the brand, and seize the moment.
Perception
is everything.
Chainlink LabsHow do you appeal to crypto degens and global financiers? You balance hype with discipline. To the moon 🚀, on a schedule 🗓️.
How I lead
Clear.
Accountability comes through clarity. My job is to align everyone on what we are building, why it matters, and how we will measure success, so they are empowered to execute freely.
Connected.
Brands people belong to start with teams people belong to. I lead by building authentic connections and fostering open collaboration, both within my team and across teams.
Creative.
I started my career as a designer, and I care deeply about creative standards and execution. Perfect can’t be the enemy of good, but it should certainly antagonize it.
I love to learn about new industries, technologies and ideas. I am excited to learn about yours, too.
Ask me about
global financial railsthe Hong Kong SARcrisis communications in ChinaDubai free zonesthe future of autonomous warfarecrypto memesLLM performance tuningMIDIsuperstitionsa forgotten Donald Ross course on Fort Braggthe vibe difference between senators and representativesflood management
Marketing case study 01
AnsibleSVP of Sales & Marketing · 2013–2017
Keep it simple.
The challenge
Build a durable brand and go-to-market engine from the ground up, around a fast-growing open source project.
As featured in
TechCrunch
“Red Hat is buying IT automation startup Ansible”
Read the story ↗︎
What we did
- Three-word positioning. Simple: why the community loved it. Agentless: the differentiator rivals couldn’t match. Powerful: squashed the main sales objection.
- Community activations. AnsibleFest and online community conversion turned users into inbound demand.
- Land and expand. A high-velocity sales model that turned community demand into revenue.
The results
$150M
Acquired by Red Hat in under three years, on $6M of funding
$0 → $25M
ARR growth. Today, a business inside Red Hat/IBM approaching $1B.
250,000+
Monthly downloads. A top 10 open source project on GitHub.
Marketing case study 02
GitLabChief Marketing Officer · 2018–2021
Culture as brand.
The challenge
A fast-growing developer tool needed its own identity to challenge the incumbent, GitHub. It also needed scalable digital and sales development engines to meet the demand.
As featured in
Fast Company
“GitLab’s radical vision for the future of work”
Read the story ↗︎
What we did
- Category creation. Created the DevOps Platform category, recognized by Gartner.
- Thought leadership. Built a treasure trove of SEO content on remote work that exploded in 2020.
- Activation. User events in San Francisco, London, Brooklyn and online that reached thousands.
- Demand engine. Operationalized demand generation and conversion.
The results
$30M → $200M
ARR, leading to an $11B IPO in 2021
25 → 160
Marketing and sales development team
2.9B
Impressions for all-remote content, from 300+ articles and 100K e-book downloads
Marketing case study 03
Chainlink LabsChief Marketing Officer · 2022–2025
Perception is everything.
The challenge
Narrative drives market value in crypto. Chainlink needed to cross the chasm from crypto to banking with an exciting, durable vision.
As featured in
South China Morning Post
“Chainlink makes case for blockchain-driven finance at its first Hong Kong event”
Read the story ↗︎
What we did
- Flywheel. A content, social and event engine to grow the audience and drive the narrative.
- Ambassadors. Paid and volunteer brand ambassadors ran hundreds of meetups and hackathons a year, online and in person.
- SmartCon. Capstone brand event with 1,500 attendees each in New York, Barcelona and Hong Kong.
The results
$6T → $23T
Total Value Enabled by the protocol, up 283% in three years
10K → 175K
LinkedIn followers, key to the shift from crypto to banking
3.4
Social posts/day (over 1,200 a year) across all channels.
In 2024, Chainlink launched Transporter, a consumer-focused sub-brand.
The rest of the story.
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Axonis2025–NowCEO. Hired to spin out a defense-focused AI technology and take it to market. Outcome pending ;-)
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Red Hat2017–2018VP of Digital Demand. After the Ansible integration, I was asked to bring together a 200+ person global team to modernize Red Hat’s online, digital marketing and marketing operations playbook. Introduced Red Hat’s first global marketing metrics.
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Alfresco2010–2013CMO, based in London. Led a global marketing team through 36% CAGR. Alfresco became a category leader in content management, later acquired by private equity and then Hyland.
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Red Hat2002–2008Sr. Director of Marketing. Where I really learned marketing, working across every marketing org: product, channel, partner and demand. 37% CAGR, from $79M to $523M.