Shiju Thomas
Founder · Sydney, Australia
Shiju has spent more than ten years running marketing for B2B SaaS and marketplace businesses, from Series A to Series B and from first marketing hire to CMO. The job is the same each time: find where revenue actually comes from, build the system that produces more of it, and hire the people who can run it.
- 2–3×
- ARR growth
- 10+
- Years in B2B SaaS
- 5
- Industries scaled
How he works
“Marketing is a revenue function, not a brand function.”
Most B2B SaaS marketing fails in the same place: the gap between MQL and closed-won. Shiju spends most of his time there. He sits with sales, fixes the handoff, instruments the funnel, and builds retention into acquisition from day one. His best campaigns were retention and expansion plays that brought in new pipeline as a side effect.
Experience
canibuild
VP / Head of Marketing · B2B SaaS, construction tech
Jun 2024 – May 2025
Built the marketing function from scratch across Australia, New Zealand and the United States, with paid social, sales development and ideal customer profile content run as one motion.
- SQLs up 247% in 90 days
- CPA cut from $120 to $30
- Closed-won MRR up 134%
Antler VC
Entrepreneur in Residence · Venture capital
Jan 2024 – Apr 2024
Validated two AI business concepts through customer interviews, market research and rapid experiments, testing ideas in days rather than quarters.
- 1 of 40 founders selected from 3,000+ applicants
- Validated 2 AI concepts to customer traction
ezyCollect
CMO / Head of Marketing · B2B SaaS, AR automation and digital payments
Sep 2020 – Jan 2024
First marketing hire. Built the function, the SDR team and the sales playbooks. Through a 50% team cut in the pandemic, he kept the largest client in company history and doubled average deal size.
- ARR scaled from $3.5M to $9.2M
- CPA down 84%
- Upsell opportunities up 349% and churn down 24% after the EOFY client wrap report
Z10 Consulting
Director, Performance Marketing · Growth advisory
Mar 2018 – Sep 2020
Ran marketing for clients the way an operator would, not an agency: inside the business, owning the numbers. Clients included B2B SaaS marketplaces, luxury eCommerce and Veolia.
- Proptech marketplace conversions up 137%
- Luxury furniture brand revenue up 10x
On leadership
Shiju runs marketing teams the way he coaches soccer: high standards, clear roles, and the belief that most people can do more than they have been asked to. He hires for character and judgement and teaches the craft, because the marketing stack changes every eighteen months and character doesn't.
His scoreboard is promotions. People he has managed have gone on to lead marketing at larger companies, start their own ventures, and step into roles they didn't think they were ready for.