Jay Acunzo

Jay Acunzo is waging war on conventional thinking. As a digital media strategist at Google, he pushed marketing executives and practitioners more rapidly into the digital age in ways that benefitted companies and careers. He held multiple leadership positions at high-growth tech startups, including Head of Content at HubSpot and Vice President of Brand and Community at the venture capital firm NextView Ventures. On the side, Jay created the award-winning podcast Unthinkable and co-founded Boston Content, the northeast’s largest community of content creators and marketers.

Courses at Harvard Business School have cited Jay’s work, as have writers at The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fast Company, Forbes, and more. Salesforce has called him a “creative savant” and named him to the city of Boston’s “50 on Fire” list.

Today, Jay is the founder of Marketing Showrunners, the author of Break the Wheel, and a decorated show host and executive producer. Marketing Showrunners teaches brands how to make original series, such as Against the Grain, a documentary series launched in partnership with the tech company Help Scout. As the host, director, and writer, Jay traveled the country searching for brands that put people over profits and community over shareholders and helped spark a movement of for-profit businesses that seek to use capitalism for good. You can find the series at helpscout.com/atg.

In a world where “storyteller” has become a buzzword, Jay understands how to tell great stories–stories that entertain, surprise, teach, and push people beyond conventional thinking toward their best work. He believes his job is to hand out compasses, not maps with directions drawn on them. This equips audiences to walk into any scenario they face, get their bearings, find their true north, and feel empowered to proceed confidently and in the right direction.