I'm looking for you
About

Hi, I'm Kevin.

I find the idea people can't ignore, then make it move the numbers. For Y Combinator-backed startups to Fortune 500s and political parties.

You can reach me by email, find me on LinkedIn, or book a call.

ProductArt of Accomplishment

Two experiential products for an audience of 500,000+ learning emotional clarity.

Coaches leaders at
  • OpenAI
  • SpaceX
  • Apple
  • Anthropic
GrowthData Masterclass

ARR up 550% in two years for B2B services sold to Fortune 500 data & AI executives.

Advises executives at
  • Merck
  • Deutsche Bahn
  • Microsoft
PositioningClimate startup

3M€ raised by showing investors what climate change would cost their portfolios.

Sells to governments in
  • Germany
  • Switzerland

Art of Accomplishment

Year
2026
Role
Contractor
Team
Growth
With
Nibras Ibnomer
How to Feel Your Emotions: the course menu with its three exercises, on a laptop

The mission

Designing and building the new experiential layer of Art of Accomplishment.

Art of Accomplishment is the company founded by Joe Hudson, coach to executives at OpenAI, SpaceX, Apple and many more of Silicon Valley's biggest names.

Working closely with Nibras Ibnomer, AoA's Head of YouTube, I designed and built two interactive products to help AoA's 500,000+ followers build emotional clarity: a course of guided meditations and journaling exercises, and a game for happier money negotiations.

The work culminated in a new Experiments library to hold them and a presentation to Joe, receiving approval for launch in September 2026.

On Joe Hudson's work

"One of his superpowers is that he deeply understands emotional clarity and how to get there; this will be one of the most critical skills in a post-AGI world."
Sam Altman · CEO, OpenAI
Exercise three, journaling with the five-minute timer running, on a laptop
Exercise one, Stop feeling, on a phone

The result

Testing as of late September 2026.

This section will be updated with the results.

Book a callNext: Data Masterclass

Data Masterclass

Year
2024 to 2026
Role
Head of Growth, then contractor
Team
Growth
With
Dr. Alexander Borek
The Data Masterclass team and members after an event

The mission

Turning an idea with no business model into a B2B service that Fortune 500 data & AI executives pay for.

The result

ARR up 550% in two years.

  • ARR up 220% in the first 11 months.
  • Discovery calls tripled in the three months after the new offer launched, against the three months before.
  • The founder left his corporate role and is now full-time CEO.

The process

Data Masterclass is the company founded by Dr. Alexander Borek to coach, advise and connect Chief Data & AI Officers at Fortune 500s and tech scale-ups. When I joined as Head of Growth in February 2024, it had run one event, had no offer, was not profitable, and its founder still worked a full-time corporate job.

Working closely with Alexander, I spent weeks on calls with CDOs and Heads of AI, pitching nothing and only listening. Needless to say, they did not want another tech conference. They wanted a room of peers who understood their job, so I reimagined the entire business model along with Alexander and repositioned the company to become the most hospitable space for these executives. We facilitated introductions between people who should know each other, connected them to real problems they could work on together, and made sure we understood their every need to have the most high-touch service in the industry.

Important: I played no part in the brand identity, including the visual identity. The offer has been rewritten several times since the one I launched, based on the CEO's personal preferences. What you'll find on their site today isn't what's described here.

In their words

"Kevin helped me rethink my entire go-to-market strategy. He is smart, fast, focused and effective. I highly recommend working with him."
Dr. Alexander Borek · CEO, Data Masterclass
Book a callNext: Climate startup

Climate startup

Year
2025
Role
Contractor
Team
Fundraising
With
The founder, name confidential

The mission

Building the investor narrative for a climate SaaS startup that sells to companies and governments.

The result

Over 3M€ raised.

I replaced a broad pitch about the technology with one built on each investor's own portfolio and what climate damage would cost them.

This work is confidential.

The startup's name stays off the page because of its government contracts.

The process

The startup uses machine learning and climate models to predict how floods, heatwaves and storms will hit critical infrastructure, and sells to governments in Germany and Switzerland. The science was solid. The pitch sounded like every other climate founder's: earnest, technical and easy to forget.

Working closely with the founder, I built the funding narrative and the investor targeting. Instead of a generic demo, each investor received a climate risk report on their own portfolio companies: a preview of the platform, built for them, showing how much value they stood to lose if the damage was not prevented.

Government buyers got the same treatment for their own offices, down to which transformer in their neighborhood's grid fails first in a Category 3 flood.

Book a callNext: Trackdesk

We Rave You

Year
2017 to 2019
Role
Editorial writer, then partnerships and business development
Team
Editorial and partnerships
With
Yotam Dov, CEO
We Rave You, July 2020: David Guetta and MORTEN on the cover

The mission

Turning a YouTube channel with 50,000 subscribers into a media brand the biggest DJs on the planet wanted to talk to.

The result

A media brand of 600,000 with David Guetta on the cover of its magazine.

  • Our following jumped 200% after publishing the first batch of interviews, which pointed our strategy at partnerships with the biggest clubs.
  • Helped grow our following to 600,000 people back when being viral was super rare.
  • Built the first connections to have David Guetta's face on the cover of our magazine.
  • Built partnerships with labels like Sony Music, Spinnin' Records and artists like Swedish House Mafia, Oliver Heldens, Above & Beyond.

The process

We Rave You was a YouTube channel with like 50k subscribers with ambitions to grow into a blog. That's about it. I was 18 and still in high school when I cold-emailed the founder, after he posted on his Facebook page that he wanted to create one.

I was hired as an Editorial Writer and quickly grew my role into an undefined mix of partnerships, editorial lead and business development.

I almost got punched by Martin Garrix's manager. I did indeed literally run after him in the backstage of EDC Mexico. Once his manager had calmed down, I explained under my blushed 18-year-old cheeks I was here on business.

His manager wasn't having it but Martin did offer me to have a drink. He gave me some advice: talk to artists like regular people and to the managers like they're superstars. Solid guy. Turns out it helped me get over 10 interviews in two days with the biggest DJs on the planet.

In their words

"Kevin helped us go from zero to one of the most recognized brands in the industry."
Yotam Dov · CEO, We Rave You
Book a callNext: Art of Accomplishment

PRD, Mexican political party

Year
2016 to 2017
Role
Political comms strategist
Team
Youth campaign
With
A team of students

The mission

Rebuilding the youth campaign of a governor's race in Mexico around the violence young voters were actually afraid of, while the party wanted to talk about potholes.

The result

Under-30 favorability up double digits in the final six weeks.

It was too late. Who could've guessed? Still my biggest disappointment: I was grossed out of politics and promised to never touch it again.

The process

The state of Morelos had a serious violence problem. Teenagers were getting disappeared. Young people had organized a real social media movement around safety: it was impossible to miss. The party's campaign slogan was about fixing potholes.

The party had completely written off young voters and young voters had returned the favor. Turnout projections for under-30s were terrible because the campaign was obviously designed by people who hadn't ever opened Twitter/Instagram. The party's strategists had decided safety was too risky to touch.

We (me and other students hired to help) scrapped the pothole messaging for the youth campaign and rebuilt it around what young people were actually terrified about: their safety. The shift wasn't exactly creative genius but in his defense, the candidate went to local schools to discuss with the youth for 40-odd days.

Book a callNext: Art of Accomplishment

Trackdesk

Year
2024
Role
Contractor
Team
Marketing
With
Michal Stín, CMO
Trackdesk's pricing page: every plan and price in the open

The mission

Repositioning affiliate tracking software, the most boring category on earth, around what its buyers actually wanted to see.

The result

Trackdesk has grown 6x in the two years since.

  • Social engagement up 700% during the engagement.
  • A new segment the company had never sold to.
  • Word of mouth became the main channel.
  • The positioning carried forward by Michal, their former CMO.

The process

Trackdesk sells affiliate tracking software. Possibly the most boring sentence in the English language. Every competitor showed the same website: the same features, the same promises, and a "book a demo" button where the price should be. When everyone hides, nobody stands out, and the buyer picks whoever answered the email first.

I spent the first weeks on calls with customers and prospects, listening to how they chose and what annoyed them about the category. The answer was consistent enough to build on: they wanted to see the price, they wanted plain language, and they were tired of being sold to. So Trackdesk became the vendor that shows everything: transparent, a little edgy, and actually fun to read.

The pricing strategy did the rest. Putting the plans in the open and reshaping them around how people actually bought opened a segment the company had never sold to, and gave customers a reason to tell each other about it.

In their words

"Kevin is making the impossible possible. A brilliant example of knowing your customer, understanding the competition, and building distinctive communication."
Michal Stín · CMO, Trackdesk
Book a callNext: We Rave You

Failures & more

A list of my failures, experiments and earlier work

Bets that didn't work, and what each one taught me.

Companies I started

Hired to be FiredFounder · 2025

What I learned

Likes and compliments aren't demand.

Now I test whether people will pay before I build.

What it was

A startup that trained employees at Series A and B tech companies to post on social media, so a company's reach came from its whole team, not just the founder.

What it cost me

Almost a full year of struggling to land a single client.

Why it failed

  • CMOs loved the idea, but almost none rolled it out or would pay their people to post.
  • I spent too much time building a cool brand and getting likes on my content, instead of focusing on business results first.
  • I took praise as proof of demand and never properly tested whether anyone would pay.

LMNL MediaFounder · 2021 to 2022

What I learned

Start a company because you care about the problem, not to be a hustle bro.

What it was

The ad agency I started as my university graduation project, instead of doing an internship. We ran targeted ads for US real-estate firms, reaching people moving from the Bay Area to Idaho.

Why it failed

  • The ads worked: client website traffic grew 20%+. But the agency market was crowded, and nothing set us apart.
  • I didn't enjoy the work.

Working for others

Trackdesk's social contentContractor · 2024

What I learned

Attention isn't sales.

Decide how a channel will prove itself before investing in it.

What it was

Alongside Trackdesk's repositioning, which worked, I bet that a playful brand on social media would help sell affiliate tracking software, a famously dull category.

Why it failed

  • Impressions went up, but buyers barely engaged.
  • We couldn't link a single sale to the content.

MindfuelContent manager · 2023 to 2024

What I learned

When a company is struggling, that's the moment to take ownership, not to complain.

What it was

My job running content at an AI software company selling to large enterprises, during a hard year for the business.

Why it failed

  • The company was struggling, and the environment was chaotic.
  • I spent more energy criticizing than doing the work.
  • I never stepped up to lead, even though I could have.

PRD, Mexican political partyYouth campaign strategist · 2016 to 2017

What I learned

Politics isn't for me.

What it was

The youth campaign for a governor's race in Mexico. We rebuilt it around what young voters feared most, violence, while the party campaigned on fixing potholes.

Why it failed

  • The party ignored young voters until the final six weeks.
  • Our campaign lifted under-30 favorability by double digits, but too late to change the result.
Read the full story

Commitments I didn't keep

BuildspaceParticipant · 2024

What I learned

Get feedback early, while changing course is still cheap.

What it was

A Y Combinator-backed program for people building their own projects. I joined to build Hired to be Fired.

Why it failed

  • I skipped submissions and missed too many meetings.
  • I built what I set out to build, but without feedback I spent far too long on an idea that wasn't working.
  • That's where Hired to be Fired started going downhill.

30 in 30Personal challenge · 2026

What I learned

Building the tool can be a way to avoid the hard part.

What it was

A 30-day challenge to make one bold request a day and get comfortable hearing no. I built an app to track it.

Why it failed

  • I built the app, then never did the challenge.

What I'm exploring alongside my main work.

RatioMac app · 2026

The idea

Screen time is the wrong metric. What matters is how much of it goes to creating versus consuming.

What it is

A Mac app that splits my screen time into creating and consuming. I'm developing Jack Butcher's idea further with my own iterations: week and month views for better data, and a widget on my phone.

Ratio this week: 69% creating, 31% consuming, with a bar for each day

HandfulBrowser extension · 2026

The idea

Five YouTube videos a week. Chosen, not fed.

What it is

A browser extension that stands in front of every YouTube video I open. I can't watch it there, only save it. Two hours later it unlocks in my Handful, a single calm page where I watch my five for the week one at a time, with no sidebar, no autoplay and no Shorts. Music gets through and doesn't count. One codebase runs in Comet and Safari.

Handful standing in front of a YouTube video: Not now. Pop it in your Handful, it will be ready in 2 hours, with Save it and Let it go buttons

Executive coachingCoach · ongoing

Biggest lesson since ChatGPT

The world isn't short on talent or technology. Most of our hardest problems come from nervous systems that can't handle what they're feeling.

What it is

Coaching for leaders whose biggest bottleneck isn't technical. We work on what they're avoiding feeling, because the avoidance is usually what keeps the problem alive.

My experience

Mostly AI executives, from my time at Data Masterclass.

Earlier projects, each with its full story.

TrackdeskContractor · 2024

The result

Trackdesk has grown 6x in the two years since.

The mission

Repositioning affiliate tracking software, the most boring category on earth, around what its buyers actually wanted to see.

Read the full story

We Rave YouEditorial, then partnerships · 2017 to 2019

The result

A media brand of 600,000, with David Guetta on its magazine cover.

The mission

At 18, I cold-emailed the founder of a YouTube channel with 50,000 subscribers. Together we turned it into a media brand the biggest DJs on the planet wanted to talk to.

Read the full story
Book a call

I'm looking for you

Writing…
Kevin on a residential street in Paris, in a black cap and round gold glasses, glancing to the side with a half smile

A little about

Kevin Barrera-Joubert

Me and the world

I was raised between Mexico and France, studied in the Netherlands and have been nomadic since.

Book a callSee the work

On Goodreads