Tech leader · Marketing executive · Forbes 30 Under 30
I'm Kalina Bryant, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and Customer-Led Growth operator who leads regional marketing and customer growth in enterprise tech, and founded KMB Studio and UnapologeTECH after building advocacy and community programs at Asana, Mixpanel, Anaplan, Signifyd, Talkdesk, and Adobe. I currently serve as Expert in Residence at First Round Capital, lecture at USF, and host the globally-ranked UnapologeTECH podcast.
Speaking & advising inquiries
Keynotes, workshops, panels, and fireside chats on customer-led growth, advocacy program design, and building in tech unapologetically — plus advising engagements for founders and GTM teams. Share the details and you'll hear back directly.
$50M+
Influenced revenue across three IPO-stage companies
$30M+
Pipeline generated through customer-led growth
3
IPOs: Marketo, Anaplan, Asana
40+
Countries reached through UnapologeTECH
Selected work
VP, Global Customer Advocacy, Community & Executive Programs
$26M$9M107%
Built Asana's global advocacy, community, and executive programs from zero across AMER, EMEA, APAC, and Japan — founding the Customer Advisory Board, the Executive Briefing Center, and Blacksana along the way.
Director, Customer Advocacy & Engagement
30%25%$1.5M+
Built the customer marketing, community, and customer operations functions — including the global community platform, User Group Program, and the Master Anaplanner certification with Deloitte — and played a role in the 2016 rebrand.
Head of Regional Marketing & Customer Growth, Americas
$20M+$14.3M+7
Unified product marketing, demand gen, lifecycle, paid media, advocacy, and field into a single Americas GTM engine — and founded the global Customer Advisory Board that put C-suite leaders from Uber, McDonald's, Vuori, and AMC Networks in the product conversation.
Director, Customer & Product Marketing
1stG2Global
Built global customer marketing, product marketing, brand, field, and community from the ground up — founding Signifyd's first Customer Advisory Board, first customer conference, and first reference engine.
Sales Development Lead
$500K+100%+
Started on the revenue side of the category that invented modern marketing automation — carrying quota, and learning exactly how buyers move before ever designing a program for them.
KMB Studio
KMB Studio is my consulting practice — home of UnapologeTECH and the program architecture I've used to found customer engagement systems from zero. Every engagement starts with the same question: which executive relationships are we building, and how do they roll up to revenue?
Start a conversationC-level forum providing strategic input into company direction. Charter, governance, recruitment, and agenda architecture. Target: ENT, Strategic.
Pairs client executives and stakeholders with your executives and subject matter experts to explore near-term expansion. Intake, speaker bench, day-of orchestration, follow-through.
Engages senior executives at your company with select executives at strategic accounts to deepen relationships and drive growth.
Focused groups on usability, product features, and functionality — generating structured customer feedback and insight. Target: MM, ENT, Strategic.
Roundtables, fireside chats, dinners, and meet-ups where industry experts discuss the state of the market — and the gateway into executive-to-executive programs.
Membership programs for enthusiasts and champions that extend usage across teams and drive word-of-mouth advocacy at scale.
Advisory, teaching & community
Expert in Residence
Sep 2022 – Present
Embed with portfolio companies to architect and found Customer Advisory Board and customer-led growth programs from zero — program infrastructure, governance models, and executive engagement frameworks for early- and growth-stage SaaS.
GTM Instructor
Nov 2023 – Present
Design and teach customer-led growth systems for modern GTM leaders on Maven: lifecycle alignment, sustainable growth, and AI with a human-centered lens.
Lecturer, Marketing & Brand Strategy
2022 – Present
Four years of applied curriculum bridging enterprise SaaS marketing with academic frameworks, with an emphasis on equity-centered approaches and mentoring underrepresented students.
Founder
Aug 2022 – Present
Global platform advancing women and underrepresented professionals in tech across 40+ countries — media, community programs, executive workshops, and career acceleration frameworks.
“She brought a unique combination of experience, perspective, enthusiasm, and energy to the workshop. We are looking forward to having her back again.”
Speaking
From the Forbes 30 Summit and CMX to the 160th Saint Mary's College Commencement, I speak about building advocacy, community, and executive customer programs that turn relationships into revenue.
Request a speaking kitRecent stages
Topics
On stage & on air
PlayForbes stage · Forbes Video
A Forbes Under 30 Summit conversation with Secretary Hillary Clinton on leadership, purpose, and building a career with real staying power.
Watch on ForbesTalk · YouTube
Keynote on turning customer advocacy into a measurable growth engine — programs, proof, and pipeline.
Watch on YouTubeForbes stage · YouTube
A Forbes Under 30 Summit panel on the women reshaping STEM — breaking barriers, building innovation, and redefining what leadership looks like in technology.
Watch on YouTubeCommencement · YouTube
Featured Commencement speaker Kalina Bryant '14 returned to campus and offered remarks centered on empowerment, trust, and openness to opportunity, framed around her own life journey and recent work as a successful tech entrepreneur and influencer. Bryant is the founder of UnapologeTECH and was last year named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list. In her 2023 Commencement message, Kalina Bryant '14 reminded undergraduates that 'empowerment means recognizing your strengths and abilities, believing in yourself, and taking action to achieve your goals.'
Watch on YouTubeInterview · Urban Magazine
On founding UnapologeTECH, representation in enterprise tech, and building platforms that outlast titles.
Read the interview
PlayInterview · First Round Review
A deep-dive interview on building champion networks, advisory boards, and the customer-led growth programs that turn relationships into multi-year revenue.
Read on First RoundAs seen in
Education & credentials
Understanding why people commit — to a product, a community, a company — is the foundation of every program I've built. Design thinking and integrated marketing gave that instinct a method.
Degree
B.S., Applied Psychology (Honors) — concentration in social and personality psychology. Minor in Ethnic Studies. Returned as the 160th Commencement Speaker in 2023.
Certificate
XCDT110, conferred by Stanford Engineering and verified by the Stanford Center for Professional Development. Completed March 2024.
Certificate
Full-funnel marketing strategy across brand, demand, and lifecycle — the operational counterpart to the human-centered work.
Recognition & media
Keynote stages
UnapologeTECH platforms
Leadership platform
On-demand courses and live workshops on Maven — customer-led growth, advocacy program design, and community-led go-to-market — built from the playbooks used at Asana, Mixpanel, Signifyd, and Anaplan.
Community platform
A global network of women and underrepresented professionals in tech across 40+ countries — peer mentorship, executive workshops, career acceleration, and a safe space to lead without apology.
Join the community