Graphite SEO Agency: My Journey as First Growth Manager

When I joined Graphite as their first-ever Growth Manager, I had no idea I was about to embark on one of the most transformative professional experiences of my career. What started as learning growth marketing from scratch became an incredible journey working alongside industry leaders, contributing to major client successes, and helping scale a company that would go on to work with giants like Netflix, Robinhood, Masterclass, and Ticketmaster.

What is Graphite? A Full-Service SEO Agency Driving Real Impact

For those discovering Graphite for the first time, Graphite is a full-service SEO agency dedicated to driving impact through their unique approach of focusing on "the 5% of SEO work that generates 95% of the results." Founded by Ethan Smith and Marcos Ciarrochi, the agency has built a reputation for delivering sustainable, revenue-focused SEO growth that goes beyond just traffic increases.

Unlike many agencies that focus purely on quantity, Graphite takes a rigorous, scientific approach combining SEO strategy, content creation, programmatic SEO development, and conversion rate optimization. Their philosophy centers on velocity—the combination of direction and speed that creates transformational impact for their clients.

What sets Graphite apart in the competitive SEO agency landscape is their focus on measurable business outcomes. After one year with Graphite, 60% of acquisition traffic comes from SEO for their clients, with a median traffic growth of 274K over the first 12 months. These aren't just vanity metrics—they represent real business growth.

Starting from Zero: My Entry into Growth Marketing

When Ethan Smith and Marcos Ciarrochi brought me on as their first Growth Manager, I was honest about my experience level: I was starting from scratch in growth marketing. What I brought to the table was something equally valuable—extensive networking experience across Latin American accelerators and a deep understanding of the Latino tech ecosystem.

The founders saw potential in this unique background. They needed someone who could help them tap into the "cured Latino talent" market, leveraging my years of networking and relationships built through various Latin American accelerator programs. This wasn't just about hiring; it was about understanding cultural nuances and building authentic relationships within a specific market segment.

Learning by Doing: From Sales Pitches to Growth Strategy

My role at Graphite quickly evolved beyond traditional growth marketing. For more than a year and a half, I participated in virtually every sales pitch, absorbing the founders' approach to client acquisition and relationship building. This front-row seat to business development taught me invaluable lessons about consultative selling, understanding client pain points, and positioning solutions effectively.

Ethan and Marcos didn't just give me tasks—they made me part of the strategic conversation. Every pitch was a learning opportunity, every client interaction a masterclass in professional service delivery. I was learning growth marketing in real-time while contributing to the business development that would fuel our expansion.

Introducing Webflow: From Skepticism to Major Business Unit

One of my most significant contributions to Graphite was introducing Webflow as a service offering. When I first proposed using Webflow for client projects, there was considerable skepticism within the team. The concern was understandable: how do you pitch a relatively new web development platform to unicorn companies and major enterprises that typically expect traditional development approaches?

The resistance wasn't about Webflow's capabilities—it was about perception. Would companies like Netflix, Robinhood, or Masterclass take us seriously if we proposed building their marketing sites on a platform that many still viewed as a "simple website builder"? The team was worried about credibility and whether large clients would trust Webflow for their mission-critical marketing websites.

Despite the initial pushback, I advocated for Webflow based on what I saw as its true potential: rapid development, design flexibility, client empowerment, and most importantly, SEO-friendly architecture that aligned perfectly with our growth objectives. I pushed for us to test it on smaller projects first, demonstrating the speed and quality advantages.

The transformation was remarkable. What started as a hesitant experiment became one of Graphite's major business units. Not only did we successfully pitch Webflow to those "extremely large unicorn companies" we were initially worried about, but it became a competitive advantage. Clients loved the combination of beautiful design, fast development, and the ability to make content updates without always needing developer resources.

The success led to building out an entire Webflow team within Graphite. We went from having zero Webflow capabilities to having a dedicated team of specialists who could deliver enterprise-level websites that performed beautifully for SEO while being maintainable for clients. This expansion contributed significantly to the company's growth and service offerings.

The BetterUp Success Story: From 18K to 3M Monthly Visits

One of the projects I'm most proud of leading was our work with BetterUp. When we started, they were generating around 18,000 monthly visits—a respectable number for many companies, but far below their potential given their position in the corporate coaching space.

Through strategic SEO implementation, content optimization, and systematic growth tactics, we transformed their organic presence. The results speak for themselves: BetterUp's monthly organic traffic grew from 18,000 to over 3 million visits. This wasn't just about creating more content—it was about understanding search intent, optimizing for the right keywords, and creating a content strategy that resonated with their target audience.

This project became a perfect example of Graphite's core philosophy in action. Instead of trying to optimize for everything, we focused on the high-impact initiatives that would drive the most significant results. The 18K to 3M growth story became one of our signature case studies and taught me the power of focused, strategic growth marketing.

Working with Industry Giants: The Client Portfolio That Defined Excellence

During my nearly two years at Graphite, I had the privilege of contributing to projects for some of the most recognizable brands in their respective industries. Here are the most relevant clients I was directly involved with:

BetterUp: My first super win in an SEO project, growing from 18k monthly visits to 2.3 million monthly visits. This project became a defining moment in my growth marketing journey and demonstrated the power of focused, strategic SEO implementation.

Robinhood: I rebuilt their blog in Webflow in just two and a half days while conducting comprehensive keyword research. This project showcased the speed and efficiency advantages of Webflow for enterprise clients and helped establish our Webflow capabilities.

MasterClass: My first days learning SEO involved reading their playbooks and pitching them new content topics. This early experience taught me how to analyze existing content strategies and identify growth opportunities for authority-based brands.

Medium: My first big SEO and CRO project, where I learned to balance content optimization with conversion rate improvements. Working with a major publishing platform provided insights into content-heavy website optimization.

Reforge: My first big and complicated editorial SEO project. This collaboration was particularly meaningful as it involved using growth tactics to help a growth education company expand their reach—a perfect meta-learning opportunity.

Grove Collaborative: My first super programmatic SEO project, where I learned to scale content creation systematically. This project taught me how to leverage automation and templates for massive content production while maintaining quality.

Netflix: Contributed to keyword research and Webflow strategy for the global entertainment giant. Working with Netflix provided insights into international SEO challenges and content localization at scale.

Shift: Handled keyword research, SEO, and Webflow strategy for this automotive marketplace, gaining experience in multi-sided marketplace SEO challenges.

Each client presented unique learning opportunities that built my expertise across different SEO disciplines—from editorial content strategy to programmatic SEO, from CRO optimization to Webflow development. The diversity of industries, from fintech to entertainment to education, gave me a comprehensive understanding of how growth strategies need to be adapted for different market dynamics, user behaviors, and business models.

The Business Development Experience: Building Latino Talent Pipelines

One of my most rewarding contributions was helping Graphite build relationships within the Latino tech community. My years of networking through Latin American accelerators had given me genuine relationships with talented professionals across the region.

This wasn't about checking diversity boxes—it was about recognizing that the Latino tech community has incredible talent that's often underrepresented in growth marketing and SEO roles. I helped identify, connect with, and recruit professionals who brought fresh perspectives and strong technical skills to our team.

The experience taught me that business development isn't just about client acquisition; it's also about talent acquisition and community building. The relationships I helped foster contributed to Graphite's ability to scale while maintaining the high quality of service that set them apart.

Process Improvement: Contributing Beyond Growth Marketing

As Graphite grew, so did the need for systematic processes. The founders valued my input on operational improvements, recognizing that someone new to the industry might spot inefficiencies that others had become accustomed to.

I contributed to streamlining client onboarding processes, improving internal communication workflows, and developing documentation that would help future team members integrate more effectively. These might seem like small contributions, but in a scaling agency, process improvements can have significant impacts on both team productivity and client satisfaction.

Key Lessons Learned from Ethan Smith and Marcos Ciarrochi

Working directly with founders Ethan Smith and Marcos Ciarrochi provided lessons that no textbook or course could teach:

Focus Creates Results: Their philosophy of focusing on the 5% of work that generates 95% of results isn't just a marketing slogan—it's a real operational principle that drove every decision.

Data-Driven Decision Making: Every strategy recommendation was backed by data. Opinions were welcomed, but decisions were made based on evidence.

Client Success Over Agency Growth: While the agency was growing rapidly, the focus always remained on delivering measurable results for clients. This long-term thinking built the reputation that attracted bigger clients.

Embrace Innovation Despite Initial Resistance: The Webflow experience taught me that sometimes the best opportunities come from ideas that initially face skepticism. Great leaders are open to changing their minds when presented with evidence and results.

Learning Never Stops: Both founders modeled continuous learning, staying current with algorithm changes, industry trends, and new growth tactics.

Why This Experience Shaped My Career

Looking back on my nearly two years at Graphite, I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn growth marketing in such a dynamic, results-focused environment. Starting as someone with zero growth experience and contributing to projects that generated millions of website visits taught me that with the right mentorship and commitment to learning, rapid professional growth is possible.

The Webflow success story particularly stands out as a career-defining moment. Being the first person to bring a new technology to the company, overcoming initial skepticism, and watching it grow into a major business unit taught me valuable lessons about innovation, persistence, and the importance of being willing to challenge conventional thinking.

The experience also showed me the power of authentic relationship building. Whether it was contributing to business development, participating in sales processes, helping build talent pipelines, or advocating for new technologies like Webflow, success consistently came from genuine connections and mutual value creation.

For Those Considering Graphite as an SEO Partner

If you're researching Graphite as a potential SEO partner, my experience gives me unique insight into their approach. They're not just an agency that delivers reports and hopes for the best. They integrate with your team, focus obsessively on business outcomes, and bring both strategic thinking and execution capabilities.

Their full-stack approach means they can handle everything from SEO strategy and content creation to programmatic SEO development and conversion rate optimization. More importantly, they're hyper-focused on initiatives that directly affect your bottom line, not just vanity metrics.

Conclusion: Gratitude and Growth

My time at Graphite was transformational—professionally and personally. I joined as someone learning growth from scratch and left with hands-on experience managing projects that generated millions of website visits for major brands. I participated in business development, contributed to process improvements, and helped build connections within the Latino tech community.

Most importantly, I learned from two exceptional founders who built a company culture focused on impact, continuous learning, and authentic client success. The experience at Graphite didn't just teach me growth marketing—it taught me how to think strategically, execute systematically, and build relationships authentically.

For anyone considering a career in growth marketing or looking for an SEO agency that delivers real results, my experience at Graphite provides a real-world example of what's possible when strategy, execution, and commitment to excellence come together.

Looking to connect or learn more about growth marketing strategies? Feel free to reach out—I'm always happy to share insights from my journey and discuss how the lessons learned at Graphite can apply to other growth challenges.

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