Hailey Friedman is cofounder of Growth Marketing Pro, the San Francisco agency where she leads content and the agency's external visibility. She was the second marketing hire at RealtyShares and cofounded the SEO tool GrowthBar, which was acquired by private equity firm XO Capital.
An App That Made $0
On the agency's about page, Friedman describes an app called Thursday that let friends share locations and favorite restaurants and bars. She built it with a developer and pitched it at South by Southwest, but it fizzled out within six months and made exactly $0.
She writes that the failure taught her that without customers a good idea and a strong team are worth little, which is what drew her to customer acquisition.
RealtyShares and GrowthBar
Friedman was the second marketing hire at the venture-backed real estate investing platform RealtyShares and went on to cofound GrowthBar, which XO Capital acquired. The agency's team page says she has driven organic growth for SentinelOne, HiBob, and WorkRamp, and that she is an Emory graduate and a published author.
Growth Marketing Pro
Friedman cofounded Growth Marketing Pro with Mark Spera and Adam Quint, and the agency made the 2026 Inc. 5000 list. She oversees its content, including a blog the agency says 1.2 million people have read in five years.