Open to senior marketing & growth roles

Marketing that ships its own software.

I'm a full-stack marketer who builds the tools too. Two SaaS platforms today, 5,000+ users between them, and a prior content portfolio past $1M in revenue. I turn data into demand, then automate the parts that scale.

Marketer & Builder/Boston, MA

Shawn Burns, marketer & builder
Boston, MAAvailable
  • 5,000+
    Users

    Across two live SaaS platforms

  • $1M+
    Revenue

    Annual, prior content portfolio

  • 250%
    Page views

    In 6 months, Prognos redesign

  • $20.5M
    Series C

    Decks I helped build, Prognos


Selected work

3 ventures · 2024 → 2016

What I'm building now, and the portfolio that came before it. Two live SaaS products plus the content business that funded the jump.

Founder/2024 – Present

Current Ventures

Two live SaaS platforms, both in active development. I'm hard at work on them right now, so the specifics stay under wraps for the moment.

SaaSClaude CodeSEOPaid Media
  • Both products designed, built, and shipped solo, end to end
  • Paid and organic acquisition tuned for healthy ROAS
  • Custom Claude Code agents run support, creative testing, onboarding, and email
  • More to share soon
Founder/2016 – 2023

Content & Affiliate Portfolio

Built and scaled five content-driven web properties to $1M+ in combined annual revenue through technical SEO, affiliate monetization, and audience development. Flagships ToolsOfMen.com and Createlet.com ranked among the largest in their niches. Adapted through major Google algorithm shifts, then wound the portfolio down on my terms.

SEOAffiliateContentPythonAnalytics
  • 500+ long-form articles built on n-gram and search-intent frameworks
  • 25+ affiliate partnerships across Impact, Rakuten, ShareASale, CJ, and Skimlinks
  • Proprietary Python analytics for forecasting and automated reporting

Side projects

Range, for its own sake
Side project · 2024 – Present

Prompting Pixels

Visit promptingpixels.com

A YouTube channel and site teaching AI image generation with open-source diffusion models: ComfyUI, commercial use, and real creative workflows. Part audience-building experiment, part contribution to the open-source AI community.

YouTubeComfyUIOpen-source AIContent

Where I've worked

2006 → now

Founder for the last decade, marketing leader before that. The throughline is range: I build the campaign and the system underneath it.

  1. 2024 – Now

    Founder

    Two SaaS platforms·Boston, MA
    • Operate two live platforms serving 5,000+ users, with growth, support, and operations running on a custom fleet of Claude Code agents.
    • Build and ship both products solo: development, paid and organic acquisition, lifecycle, and digital PR.
  2. 2016 – 2023

    Founder

    Content & Affiliate Media·New York, NY
    • Scaled five web properties, led by ToolsOfMen.com and Createlet.com, to $1M+ in combined annual revenue.
    • Produced 500+ articles and managed 25+ affiliate partnerships.
    • Built Python analytics for trend analysis, forecasting, and reporting.
  3. 2013 – 2016

    Marketing Manager → Senior Marketing Manager

    Prognos Health·New York, NY
    • Led a redesign and SEO program: +100% monthly visits and +250% page views in 6 months.
    • Built investor and client decks supporting a $20.5M Series C round with the CEO and executive team.
    • Stood up HubSpot automation, nurture campaigns, and CRM integration.
  4. 2010 – 2013

    Delegate Sales Manager → Marketing Manager

    CraigMichaels Inc.·New York, NY
    • Ran five-figure monthly Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook budgets to C-suite audiences; +500% CTR through A/B testing.
    • Launched 12 custom event websites with an external development firm.
    • Promoted from sales within a year on revenue contribution.
  5. 2006 – 2010

    Financial Aid Manager (Assistant → Counselor → Manager)

    University of South Florida·Tampa, FL
    • Promoted twice; translated each year's Title IV regulatory updates into training for all 50 department staff.
    • Built a publicly hosted Pell Grant lookup tool in Excel, and a macro workflow that compressed about a week of manual data entry into roughly an hour.

What people say

From LinkedIn recommendations
Shawn was colloquially referred to as “Shawnie Everythings,” our resident digital Renaissance man. A thoughtful visionary with a great instinct for visually compelling design, but what really differentiates him is his ability to interpret data, his understanding of user experience, and his knowledge of application development.
Jeffrey Olsen
Co-Founder, 7 Grain Army
Worked with Shawn at CMI
He surprises the entire company every time with his creativity over marketing and social media. His readiness to help on short notice and still deliver visually appealing work is commendable, and he does it with minimal to no budget.
Niyati Parikh
VP, Product Readiness, Norstella
Worked alongside Shawn
One of the most reliable and professional people I have worked with. He never ceases to amaze me with his knowledge and speed across all things technology and marketing, with an acute business sense that would make an immediate impact in any organization.
Amber McCullough, MBA
Insights Strategist & VP
Worked with Shawn at CraigMichaels
His initiatives with operational technology, mobile event sites, and web design helped propel the company's image in a very short period. A team player who is quick on his feet and quick to lend a hand to anyone about anything.
Annisa Teich
Entrepreneur, HBJ 40 Under 40
Worked alongside Shawn
His attention to detail and respect and knowledge of the process is stellar. I have total faith in Shawn's ability to manage digital projects with hard deadlines and never miss.
Mark Hutchins
Page One.5 Digital
Print & production partner
A motivated, ambitious, and dedicated team player who learns new and difficult information rapidly with an uncompromised attention to detail. Always going above and beyond to improve the organization.
Cynthia McCormack
Direct manager, USF
Supervised Shawn

About

MBA · Marketing

I’ve been building on the web since I was a teenager, and I never really stopped. Two decades on, the job is the one I started with: build an audience, then build the software that serves it.

Versatility is the throughline: I’d ship the campaign, build the event app, and fix the server in the same week. Today that looks like two SaaS platforms run by a fleet of Claude Code agents. Before it, a content portfolio scaled past $1M and a health-data startup carried through a $20.5M Series C.

  • As a teenager. Built GeoCities fan pages for Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing that pulled hundreds of thousands of visits.

  • App Store, day one. Shipped a batch of apps the week it opened. One called “Hire Me” reached #1 in the Business category.

2007 – 2008MBAUniversity of South Florida
2002 – 2006BS, MarketingUniversity of South Florida
What I do

Growth

  • Technical & content SEO
  • Paid media (Google, Meta, LinkedIn)
  • Lifecycle & email
  • Digital PR
  • Affiliate & partnerships

Build

  • Full-stack web (Next.js)
  • Claude Code agent systems
  • Analytics engineering (Python)
  • Conversion & UX

Brand

  • Visual & web design
  • Messaging & copy
  • Video & social
  • Investor & sales decks

Tools I reach for

platforms & stack

A working list of the platforms and stack I use day to day. I pick up new ones fast when the job needs it.

Ads & lifecycle
  • Google Ads
  • Meta Ads
  • LinkedIn Ads
  • HubSpot
  • Mailchimp
  • Beehiiv
  • Resend
SEO & analytics
  • Ahrefs
  • Screaming Frog
  • Surfer SEO
  • Search Console
  • Google Analytics
  • Core Web Vitals
Build & data
  • Next.js
  • Vercel
  • Cloudflare
  • Python
  • WordPress
  • LEMP stack
  • Claude Code
AI & video
  • ComfyUI
  • Diffusion models
  • ScreenFlow
  • Final Cut Pro
Commerce & affiliate
  • Stripe
  • Amazon KDP
  • Tremendous
  • Amazon Associates
  • Impact
  • Rakuten
  • ShareASale
  • CJ
  • Skimlinks

Off the clock

A marketer and builder the rest of the time, too. What I'm into when I'm not shipping.

Dad of two

The most important job

Bills & Sabres

Buffalo sports, for life

Marathon

Training for a race this fall

Open to senior marketing & growth roles

Let’s build something.

If you’re hiring for marketing or growth, or want a builder who can run the whole funnel and the software behind it, I’d love to talk.