It takes a particular kind of mind to not only create an idea on paper but also build that idea into a reality. Eyal Gutentag is a man who has that sort of mind.
Education and Early Career
Growing up, Gutentag was able to learn from the example of his father, who started a diamond and jewelry business on the streets of New York City in the 1970s. This entrepreneurial spirit spurred Gutentag to attend UC Berkeley, leaving with a degree in business and high honors. He continued on to graduate school, attending Columbia University for a degree in educational technology. He received a James Woods Fellowship and appeared on the Dean’s List. With a strong educational foundation, Gutentag had a lot of opportunities and life paths from which to choose. He became interested in various startups, using his abilities to help develop companies further. The first company he worked with was eventually sold to NBC which led him to begin his own startup companies. One of them was eventually bought by Lens.com. His next project came from his own passion: Primafuel, a company that provided technology services for the biofuel industry. The World Economic Forum provided his company with the Technology Pioneer Reward and in 2010, EdeniQ took over Primafuel.
Becoming a Leader in Performance Marketing
With all of these successful businesses, Gutentag was already a true performance marketing leader, but he still had a lot more to give the world. His career brought him to the NFL where he worked as head of marketing and also led their data analytics team. He used this opportunity to learn more about how people interact with content and marketing. He was also able to see the bigger picture of marketing as he was working for an already established global corporation. He was able to take what he learned and marry it with his various ideas about startup companies and how to get new business names on the board.
All of this information came together and really culminated in his experience at Uber. Gutentag launched a lot of the sub-functions of Uber such as Uber Wheelchair Accessible vehicles, UberEats, UberPOOL, UberLUX, and UberESPANOL. Uber employed a lot of millennials, an age group that didn’t have a very good reputation. Gutentag looked past that reputation and learned how to utilize the millennial nature in a way that helped the company grow. He structured Uber in a way that pushed change and allowed for a path of growth within the company. His organizational structure allowed for millennials to channel their restlessness and ambition in a positive manner.
Gutentag then moved on to Ziprecruiter, giving the company a make-over. After his input, it became one of the top career sites.
Gutentag is so successful when it comes to performance leadership for a couple of reasons. He is very good at realizing what established companies are doing well and translating that into his startups. He is also very good at finding people’s strengths and creating a company structure around its people. No matter what he’s doing, he is looking for entrepreneurial opportunities to explore.
Photograph by Leo Hidalgo