Hive Identity — Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer
Co-founded a B2B KYC platform and ran marketing as CMO.
- Co-founder
- KYC
- PLG
- Self-serve
- Full-time
Co-founded Hive Identity, a Customer Identity Platform for startups and small businesses, and ran marketing and growth as CMO.
Full-time in Tallinn, Estonia: 05/2021 – 05/2023 (2 years, 1 month).
In my own words
As Chief Marketing Officer, I oversaw Hive Identity's marketing and growth initiatives. I was responsible for scaling our product-led, self-serve strategy and increasing our customer base.
Hive Identity gave startups and businesses a scalable, secure, reliable, and affordable Customer Identity Platform. For too long, non-enterprise businesses had been kept from using services to verify and identify their customers, a process known as KYC (Know Your Customer), because of costs and overcomplicated setups. To put it simply: underserved and overcharged.
But millions of businesses around the world, in industries like financial services, healthcare, the gig economy, marketplaces, and many more, must comply with laws and regulations and have these processes in place. Hive Identity filled that gap and supported those startups and small businesses with the right tools to grow and scale, stay compliant, and secure their customers' identities.
What I did
- Owned marketing and growth, scaling a product-led, self-serve strategy
- Built PLG from scratch
- Raised $500K in a round led by SendGrid's founder
What it taught me
The war in Ukraine disrupted the team, and Hive shut down in 2023 — which taught me more about prioritization than the roles that worked.
Where it fits
Hive Identity came after Semrush (10/2019 – 04/2021), where I was part of the team through the ~$2B IPO. It started the C-suite and co-founder years, 2021 – 2026: owning the whole funnel, beginning with PLG from scratch at Hive Identity.
The seed round was led by Isaac Saldana, founder of SendGrid, where I was part of the team from 05/2016 to 05/2019.
What was Felipe's role at Hive Identity?
Felipe co-founded Hive Identity and was its Chief Marketing Officer from 05/2021 to 05/2023 (2 years, 1 month), full-time in Tallinn, Estonia. Hive was a Customer Identity Platform for startups and small businesses, which had been kept out of KYC (Know Your Customer) by cost and overcomplicated setups: underserved and overcharged. As co-founder and CMO, Felipe oversaw marketing and growth, was responsible for scaling a product-led, self-serve strategy and growing the customer base, and built PLG from scratch. Hive Identity came after his time at Semrush and started his C-suite and co-founder years, 2021 to 2026, in which he owned the whole funnel. The war in Ukraine disrupted the team, and Hive shut down in 2023. Felipe says it taught him more about prioritization than the roles that worked.