Blueshift Turns Appoints LendingTree’s Former VP of Marketing, Josh Francia, as Chief Growth Officer

By STS News Desk On Apr 27, 2019

Blueshift Turns Appoints LendingTree’s Former VP of Marketing, Josh Francia, as Chief Growth Officer

Francia Joins the Blueshift Team to Spearhead Its Next Phase of Growth and Advance Its AI-Powered Customer Data Activation Platform

Blueshift, the leading Customer Data Activation Platform (CDAP), announced Josh Francia has joined the company’s executive team as its Chief Growth Officer. His appointment closely follows the company’s official CDAP debut, as well as its Series B funding, led by SoftBank.

Francia began his career at Priceline.com, serving as the Director of Marketing & E-commerce Technology. During his tenure, he recognized major gaps in data, technologies, and channels were hindering Priceline’s growth, and sought to fill them. With no suitable solutions in the market at that time, and three disappointing ESPs in six years, he partnered with an internal team to build a solution. The result was a very rough but effective in-house build of a first-generation CDAP–way before CDAPs even existed–that helped Priceline.com exceed aggressive revenue growth goals for four years straight.

Francia realized his innovative vision had been productized years later when, as the VP of Marketing at LendingTree, he discovered Blueshift.

“As VP of Marketing at LendingTree, I researched thirty companies before selecting Blueshift and completely struck gold,” he said. “I knew the baseline of what I needed thanks to my experience at Priceline.com, and Blueshift checked all the boxes–plus more. Their technology platform coupled with their authentic and deeply knowledgeable support team was and still is a rare combination in the SaaS MarTech landscape.”

Francia and team had Blueshift up and running at LendingTree in about 60 days, and the success was instant. “I was a firsthand witness to a step change powered by Blueshift’s cutting-edge platform — including an over 75 percent increase in revenue year-over-year from our CRM channel alone — and am excited to help bring that level of success to others,” Francia said.

“The addition of a former customer onto the executive team is a point of validation that cannot be overstated,” said Vijay Chittoor, Blueshift co-founder and CEO. “Josh recognized the need for a CDAP a decade before it even existed. After seeing the power and potential behind the Blueshift platform, his decision to join our fast-growing company is proof that forward thinkers and strategic marketers are recognizing the way we’re poised to shift the marketing paradigm in a way our competitors aren’t.”

As Blueshift’s Chief Growth Officer, Francia will lead marketing, strategic partnerships, and customer advocacy, and will share his extensive expertise in scaling B2C marketing organizations with consumer marketing leaders everywhere. His years of experience as a user of the Blueshift platform provides the company with an incredibly unique perspective, and will help to inform the product roadmap, drive growth, and get the Blueshift story in front of the right customers. Digital transformation is never easy, but Francia’s experience is perfect for assisting progressive marketers like himself with the adoption of emerging technologies and the reshaping of strategy for success in today’s marketing landscape.

“We’re at a pivotal moment in the marketing industry,” Chittoor added. “Marketers need to be able to reach their entire customer base on every channel, across time zones and oceans.

And the demand from consumers is for these interactions to feel as personal and relevant as they would if they were one-to-one. In order to fulfill this need, marketers are going to find that they require a customer-centric rather than a channel-centric approach. That’s what Blueshift provides, and I’m excited to bring on someone who has experienced its power firsthand.”