About me

Hi, I’m Niels. I work in the part of marketing where the strategy eventually has to become a task in someone’s calendar.

That has taken me through paid campaigns, SEO, outbound, CRO, analytics, automation, and, more recently, AI-assisted workflows. I have worked in-house in banking, agency-side with FMCG and other brands, and now in SaaS.

Some projects were large and complicated. Others were held together by a spreadsheet, a deadline, and the quiet hope that nobody added a new column. Both can work when the goal is clear and the feedback loop is honest.

I think strategically, but I work hands-on. I like getting into the details, pressure-testing the idea, and asking the mildly inconvenient question: does this activity change anything useful for the customer, the team, or the business?

Today, I head up lead generation at Umbraco, an open-source CMS and SaaS company. I work in a cross-functional Growth setup across inbound and outbound. My job is to set direction, make priorities clear, and help turn ideas into work that gets done. I stay close to the details because strategy looks different once you understand who has to implement it on Thursday afternoon.

I’m especially interested in how automation and AI can change demand generation in practice. Not in a “this changes everything overnight” way. Tuesdays still exist. I want to know where the technology removes repetitive work, where it helps someone make a better decision, and where it is mostly an expensive detour with a polished demo.

I don’t have much patience for vanity metrics or advice that ignores real constraints. I still catch myself overcomplicating things, so I keep returning to a less glamorous test: can the team still maintain this three months from now?

Outside work, I live on an old farm with my family. I’m a dad. I cook a lot, brew beer, spend time in the garden, collect vinyl, and experiment with things that were working perfectly well before I got involved. Our Finnish Lapphund usually supervises.

This site is where I share what I’m learning as I go: practical writing, small tools, and notes from work that might save someone else a detour.

If you are wrestling with a lead generation, growth, or marketing-operations problem, tell me what is stuck. Useful conversations are always welcome; polished briefs are optional.