linnesmedia.com

Maria Linnes — Marketing & Brand Leader

Brands trust me

to turn strategy into growth.

Eight years moving between strategic advisory and hands-on execution — for founders, growth teams and premium brands. From raw concrete to 500 paying members. Now looking to bring that into a bigger team, as Marketing Director.

0 → 500 paying members, THEGYM  ·  5 padel centres launched, Rocket Padel  ·  8 yrs independent  ·  4 yrs one client, TorvehallerneKBH  ·  Forbes feature, Insidr.ai

“I’m the marketing leader founders bring in when something needs to be built from the ground up — from idea to something people pay for.”

Positioning statement — read the full story below

Approach

What I bring to the table

I move between strategy and execution depending on what’s needed — sometimes doing the work myself, sometimes bringing in the right specialist for it. For eight years, my job has been making sure it happens either way.

01

Brand & strategy

From positioning through to execution — not just a deck for someone else to interpret.

02

Business understanding

I ask how the money moves before I ask what the campaign should look like.

03

Hands-on execution

Website, UX/UI, content, paid media, CRM, influencer marketing — I can build it myself.

04

Founder-level trust

Owners hand me the whole agenda — and trust me to build and lead the team around it, not just own one channel.

05

AI & automation

I use AI to move faster for the businesses I work with — automating workflows, producing content and visuals, and building systems that scale marketing output without scaling headcount.

06

Cross-functional collaboration

I connect strategists, specialists and data — aligning creative, channels and commercial priorities into one direction, not six.

Selected Work

Proof, not promises

Not a portfolio of everything I’ve touched — the engagements that actually show how I work.

2023 – present

Insidr.ai

Co-founded a platform to help people discover, compare, rank and promote the best AI tools on the market — growing it to 300K monthly views, 70K followers and a 7K-member community. It’s been featured in Forbes three times, with the first feature coming three months after launch — that coverage later led the UAE government’s Department of Future Office to hire us for their own curated AI tool directory. Currently in exit.

Forbes

featured 3 times

2022 – present

SwitchIt

Co-founder & Head of Marketing for an AI-based app helping households save time and money on recurring services. I lead all marketing, sales and website development — strategy, paid ads, CRM, funnel and UI/UX — using AI-driven automation to do more with less. Danish launch planned for autumn 2026.

4 yrs

as co-founder

2023 – 2025

THEGYM / THESTUDIO / THEBITE

Engaged directly by ownership to build a premium fitness brand from raw, unbuilt facilities — identity, website, social, PR, influencer marketing and partnerships. The result supported two further concepts launching within a year, under the same ownership. Before stepping back for parental leave, I trained and handed the function to a newly hired marketing lead.

0 → 500

paying members

2023

Rocket Padel

Worked directly with the owners to translate a UK-founded brand identity for the Danish market — digital presence, visual content, photography, print material and events. Also built the CRM system the business needed to manage customers, especially B2B, across all five centres.

5

centres launched

Selected case

Livilea

We turned her expertise as an internationally recognised Redken Artist into a scalable personal brand and education business — building the brand, website, e-commerce and course platform from the ground up, and turning signature in-person programmes into a hybrid learning model. She hired an additional stylist within two months, and course revenue grew 3–5×.

3–5×

course revenue increase

Selected case

Hjaelpen.com

We turned a strong founder story into a growth engine — building the brand, creating demand and driving revenue across organic content, PR, email and paid social. Newsletters alone generated 50K+ DKK, and paid social returned a 10.01x ROAS.

0 → 10M+

DKK revenue, year one

Selected case

Radon-Stop

The founder was running this alongside a full-time engineering role at Novo Nordisk. We put his marketing into a system — Google Ads, a trust-optimised website, SEO content and structured lead generation — built to run largely on its own.

4 months

to full-time, fully booked

Selected case

Galleri Benoni

We translated an exclusive Copenhagen gallery’s curatorial identity into a digital experience built to evolve with its artists and exhibitions — a scalable structure for portfolios, biographies and show listings, plus hands-on training so the team could run it independently. The result: a refined digital home that extended the gallery experience online, fully owned and operated by the team.

Self-run

platform, owned by the team

Also Worked With

More brands along the way

THEGYM · THESTUDIO · THEBITE · Rocket Padel · Hertz Denmark · Sinnerup · Sjölin · Hjælpen.com · Galleri Benoni · Cold Hand Winery · Master International · Supporters · MollersMedia · Nordicon Group

How I Use It

AI is a tool. Not the pitch.

“I use AI as a tool — not a sales pitch. I automate operations, analyse data, and build setups that save time. But that’s not why you’d hire me. You hire me because I have strong strategic judgment, because I’m willing to challenge the conventional approach in your industry, because I treat your money like it’s my own, and because I know how to say no when something doesn’t make sense.”
Story

Different by design

Not a collection of unrelated experiences. Four threads that converge into how I actually work today.

Entrepreneurship

Eight years of building my own opportunities

No big system behind me. Clients had to choose me, and I had to earn every relationship I kept.

Marketing & brand

Where the creativity actually thrives

Positioning, brand building, digital strategy, creative direction — the world I chose to build my career in after architecture.

Engineering

MSc, Architecture & Engineering — Aalborg University

An analytical, systems-first brain. I look for patterns and underlying structure before I look for a creative angle.

High-performance sport

Former professional athlete

I’ve never needed to be the loudest person in the room. But I’ve always wanted to become one of the best at what I do.

In other words

What people tend to notice

“So impressed by your ‘doer’ gene — your ability to get into things and turn complex problems into something tangible.”

Josephine Staunsbjerg — Communication & Influencer Marketing

“A dedicated person who always delivers high-quality results. Her ability to think creatively, with a structured approach, has been key to getting things over the line.”

Jan Grested — CEO & Partner

Currently open to: Marketing Director

Curious what happens when this gets placed inside a bigger team.

I’m not chasing clients right now — I’m exploring the right next chapter. If you think we should talk, or just have a coffee, don’t hesitate.

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