A Day in the Life: How Behalf’s head of marketing keeps a cross-border team innovating

  Although Crystal Eastman has over a decade of experience working at American Express, her recent switch to head of marketing at SMB financing firm Behalf has her pumped: “For a marketer,” she said, “the opportunity to build a brand from scratch is an incredible gift.” It’s also a challenging gift. Working with a startup, Eastman has to do a lot with a little, and her four-person team, which covers the gamut from brand to acquisition to lifecycle marketing, is spread across the company’s NYC and Israel offices. One of Eastman’s main goals is spreading awareness of Behalf’s SMB financing solution. With oh so many fintech and even bank SMB financing products on the market, standing out from the crowd is no easy task. As far as Eastman’s concerned, Behalf’s marketing win is in its value proposition, which leverages supply chain financing to help SMBs optimize their cash flow, so they can buy more, which then increases merchant sales. Here’s what an average workday in Eastman’s life looks like. 6 a.m.: As soon as I get up around 6 a.m. (!), I make my first cup of coffee and spend an hour on quick touch-base calls and respond to all of my emails. When you work on a global team, it’s super important to be there for your colleagues . Otherwise, you end up as a bottleneck to progress. I then proofread the day’s customer emails and give my team the green light to drop. 5 p.m.: I sync with our CEO, Benjy Feinberg. Since we’re a startup, we always have way more work to do than people to do it. Having a daily conversation with Benjy helps me prioritize projects and keep my sights set on the biggest opportunities 6 p.m.: We unwind as a team with drinks in our common area. We call this “Behalf O’Clock” and it is a great way to stay connected and recharge after a long, hard day!