Making Growth Magnetic: A Conversation with Gabriel Farid Guerra (Head of Growth, Blacksmith)
Intro
Xiao He sat down with Gabriel Farid Guerra, Head of Growth at Blacksmith, for a quick chat on what “growth” really means at an early-stage devtools startup: brand, design, inbound demand, and how to think about growth plans that fit your product and audience.
Xiao: Hi Gabe, thanks for joining us today! For people who don’t know what “Head of Growth” means at a startup, what does your role look like? I also collected a few audience questions for you.
Gabriel: Sweet. I think the definition of “Head of Growth” is pretty vague—it depends on what the founders are looking for. Sometimes it means someone who’s product-analytics-oriented and helps with shareability features. Often, it actually just means “marketing”; it’s a fancier word for marketing.
At Blacksmith, it’s mainly marketing. The way I think about my role is: how can I make Blacksmith, as a company and as a product, attractive—not just to employees, but to investors and potential customers.
Xiao: Before we go deeper into day-to-day growth, could you introduce yourself? I saw on LinkedIn you started in music, then worked at J.P. Morgan, and now you’re Head of Growth at Blacksmith. What’s the journey behind that?
Gabriel: I was a bit of a confused kid going into college. I entered as a music major, but I knew I didn’t want to do music—it was just my best chance at a scholarship. Once I got in, I switched to architecture because I like cities. It was design-oriented with a lot of software.
By the end, I graduated in architecture, but I ended up liking software more. I graduated during COVID; there weren’t many jobs, so I switched into software completely—did my master’s, started working for J.P. Morgan while in grad school. I didn’t like enterprise much—I found it boring—so I went to startups.
I was in the devtools space for a bit and worked at a few companies. In each one, I found that go-to-market and marketing weren’t very good. Sales is quite established, but compared to CPG brands—where a lot is already dialed—devtools has horrible marketing. I was interested to see if I’d be any good at it, and Blacksmith gave me the chance to prove it.
Xiao: I remember a Blacksmith blog post about why design matters. You invested a lot of time and effort in design and brand identity. What’s the rationale behind?
Gabriel: There’s a quote in that post from our brand designer that I really like: the first thing investors, talent, and consumers see isn’t your product—it’s your brand. Founders often get this wrong. They think, “If we build it, they’ll come.”
But early on, no one knows who you are or what you do. Before they try the product, they’ll go through layers—your socials, website, onboarding. There’s a lot of potential friction if you don’t get it right. Design is a great way to represent the polish and the greatness of the product you’re building—before anyone uses it.
Xiao: One audience question: what does Head of Growth do at an early-stage startup—in one sentence?
Gabriel: Make the company and product very attractive. You could call that demand generation, brand marketing, product marketing—these words get muddled. Practically, it’s the opposite of outbound: I’m not going out to get people; I’m making things so attractive that people come in regardless. It’s inbound.
We focus a lot on self-serve, but increasingly we’re adding a traditional sales motion: they come in, book a demo, do a POC, and so on.
Xiao: Another question: how should founders create a growth plan based on what their company does? For example, Blacksmith is devtools; another founder is working on social-media intelligence. How do you recommend they approach a plan?
Gabriel: Marketing/growth boils down to three skill sets: writing, in-real-life experiences (events), and design.
For each, decide who you are as a company:
Writing: Are you irreverent? Humorous? Serious? That choice touches everything—socials, customer stories, website copy, blog posts, emails. If you haven’t decided who you are in communication, you’ll suffer.
IRL experiences: What are your events? Meetups? Parties? What vibe are you trying to show? For example, at our party you attended, there were other versions we could’ve done—a casual one, or a tuxedo-and-jazz-trio vibe at a fancy venue. We intentionally chose a warehouse feel with dynamic lighting.
Design: Your visual communication—colors, fonts, graphics. What should people think when they see you?
Those three things say a lot about your company before anyone tries the product.
Xiao: Last audience question: do you care how your company appears in LLM search results? How do you act on it?
Gabriel: We do care. At the end of the day, you have to write content that’s interesting—that’s how you surface.
The difference between LLM and SEO: SEO is keyword-oriented; you stuff in keywords and rank. LLM queries respond more when the title is a question—“How do you … ?” It’s more Q&A-oriented. But the core is the same: create valuable content people would actually search for.
Xiao: Final question I always ask: any books, films, or podcasts you recommend?
Gabriel: You said podcasts—
I like B2G Pod for more technical analysis of tech trends. I also like Lenny’s Podcast—it’s very good. For growth, I personally love Elena Verna. She’s now the growth lead at Lovable and writes a great Substack—I read a lot of her articles.
Xiao: Great. Thanks so much!
Gabriel: Thanks!
Resources Mentioned
B2G Pod — tech trends and analysis (podcast)
Lenny’s Podcast — product, growth, and startup lessons
Elena Verna’s Substack — practical growth strategy; Elena is Head of Growth at Lovable