Case Study: Codecademy

"Robin has already made a huge impact on the organization – she's evolved marketing to be a key driver of growth and revenue, and has achieved major milestones like our first brand campaign." 

Zach Sims, CEO, Codecademy

Brought in as Fractional CMO to rapidly scale the marketing organization, I transformed marketing into a measurable growth engine, helped launch the company's first brand campaign, built its enterprise marketing function, and contributed to Codecademy's $525 million acquisition by Skillsoft.  

Codecademy was experiencing rapid growth in demand but needed executive marketing leadership to scale the organization, modernize measurement, build an enterprise go-to-market function, and position the business for its next stage of growth.

I stepped in as the acting CMO. My responsibilities included: 

• Built a six-month transformation roadmap. 
• Established marketing as a strategic business partner. 
• Operationalized B2B go-to-market. 
• Modernized marketing measurement. 
• Built and led the team to meet key priorities and KPIs.
• Created the foundation for scalable growth.

Led a strategy that consistently exceeded growth targets, playing a critical role in Codecademy's $525 million acquisition by Skillsoft, increasing valuation from $397 million.

Played a critical role in Codecademy's $525 million acquisition by Skillsoft, increasing valuation from $397 million.

Business Growth

- $525M acquisition 

- 31% YoY revenue growth 

- 40% increase in forecasted marketing run rate 

- Led the team to record revenue months shortly after joining. 

Marketing Performance

- Multi-touch attribution 

- Multi-million-dollar funnel growth 

- +20% marketing investment after demonstrating ROI 

- 23% increase in recurring revenue via CRM retention program targeting upsell opportunities and at-risk subscribers 

- Launched the company's first TV campaign and integrated content strategy, exceeding ROI targets by 30%.

Brand

- +27% website visitors 

- +22% signups 

- +150% Share of Voice 

Enterprise

- Doubled pipeline 

- +20% ARR 

- Built GTM infrastructure

Recognized by Business Insider as a 'CMO to Watch' as a CMO rethinking the status quo and reshaping marketing.  I am in good company with leaders from major corporations like Netflix and Visa.

• Elevated marketing from a functional department to a strategic growth driver. 
• Established the operating cadence, KPIs, and cross-functional alignment needed to scale the business. 
• Shifted the company's focus toward data-driven marketing and measurable growth. 
• Expanded the company's focus on B2B and enterprise, creating a critical growth engine that supported the Skillsoft acquisition. 
• Became a key participant in executive leadership and board meetings, bridging technology, product, and business strategy through marketing. 
• Hired and onboarded 12 marketing leaders and specialists while strategically leveraging fractional expertise to scale efficiently.

Head of Data Science   

“Robin started as a fractional CMO at Codecademy and later transitioned to full-time. From day one, it was inspiring to see a marketing leader who fully understood the importance of using data to maximize precision marketing. I found Robin to be an execution-focused, data-driven, and relentless individual from the outset. In fact, it was refreshing to observe a leader utilizing her analytical skills to solve marketing problems and using her data-driven approach to make accurate and prompt decisions. 

Robin not only has built an excellent marketing team at Codecademy but she is like a master chef in the kitchen. She takes all the ingredients of data, analytics, growth, product marketing, and creativity, and puts them together to create something delicious. A delicious outcome here is one that yields a high ROI!”

Direct report 

“I was impressed by the impact and results she was able to drive in a fractional capacity—including leading the team as we drove our biggest revenue month ever and ushering in a new refresh for the brand. One of her biggest strengths as a marketer and leader is her ability to make complex things simple and communicate things in a human, relatable way. “