Vol 26. Insights from Sagard’s Chief Growth Officer

Case Studied Experts
Meet Jonathan Metrick

Each week, we sit down with a marketing leader to learn more about their career, insights, and accomplishments. This week, that marketing leader is Jonathan Metrick, Chief Growth Officer and Partner at Sagard.

From consumer packaged goods to education to venture capital and private equity, Jonathan’s career has been anything but linear. What ties it all together? Jonathan pursued his interests, which led him to work for brands he was passionate about, solve consumer problems more effectively, and travel the world doing marketing. 

Here are the need-to-knows about Jonathan:

• In his first CMO gig at Policygenius, he grew revenue by 10x, expanded the team from 6 to ~50, and closed Series D funding.

• He overhauled Hult International Business School’s marketing, product portfolio, and CRM, leading to +100% leads and +30% enrollment. 

• In his current role, he’s helped scale Sagard from $3 billion to $32 billion AUM and built the firm’s go-to-market function from the ground up. 

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The quintessential training ground

Jonathan’s career started where many marketers of his generation did: at Procter & Gamble. After earning his undergrad degree at Queen’s University, he joined P&G in Toronto. “It was an amazing training ground. P&G was one of the pioneers of consumer research so I learned a lot about how to figure out what problem I’m solving for a consumer. I was working across very big consumer brands with big budgets for TV, print, and radio. I got exposure to great brands like CoverGirl and Olay.”

But even early on, Jonathan felt the itch to move faster. “You don’t take a ton of risks when you’re selling into Walmart and Target. I wanted a more fast-paced environment so I went to work in entertainment at Live Nation in New York.” Joining the company’s sponsorship division, Jonathan’s role involved partnering Fortune 50 brands with artists. 

At Live Nation, Jonathan ended up learning a lot about drawing consumer attention. “Everybody might not care about the new version of Windows but when you put an artist beside it, people really pay attention. Hype marketing was really key—it drew people in emotionally and connected them. That’s the impact of true fan marketing.”

Case in point: Jonathan’s team did a concert series at a Sears store with Jason Derulo and fans lined up for hours beforehand. “They were going crazy for it. That was my first exposure to working on brands that people could truly care about. When you actually connect with fans, you can build very strong, resilient communities around.”

Global Growth

After Live Nation, Jonathan took a left turn into education, joining Hult International Business School as their first senior marketing hire. It was a disruptor/challenger brand that was looking to reimagine how higher education, specifically business school, could be delivered. And Jonathan was brought on to build out the marketing function. 

“It was my first scale-up experience. With P&G, the brands were household names. At Hult, most students hadn't heard of us. It was really interesting to work on a brand where the marketing foundation truly shaped the outcome. Not everybody had heard of Hult before, so if the marketing wasn't working, you weren't getting in front of customers.”

The role at Hult also satisfied a personal itch. “I had wanted to live abroad and I ended up living in London. And I also got to travel the world and work in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. So it was a super interesting opportunity on both the professional and personal side.”

Building from scratch

Before taking on CMO roles, Jonathan co-founded a consulting boutique, The Agility Project, with a friend from his P&G days. “It was a very cool opportunity to really start things from scratch. You’re not just the marketing department, you’re also HR, IT, finance. It gave me a fundamental understanding of startups and entrepreneurs, having done it myself.”

After consulting for brands like Tiffany, Lacoste, Teach for America, Jonathan and his co-founder decided to return to industry. That’s when Jonathan landed at Policygenius in his first CMO role.

“The business was doubling every six months. We grew revenue by 10x over my tenure and I went from managing a team of six to 50. We built out product marketing, lifecycle, SEO—functions that didn’t exist before,” he said. 

“It was a very transformational experience. My remit expanded as we scaled and we had a big impact on the business. But I mean, the CMO gig is one that is very rewarding and very challenging. When you’re doing well, everyone celebrates. When you’re not, the stress is on you and everyone’s looking at you for the leads.”

The scale-up was intense, but Jonathan credits his peer network of fellow CMOs as a lifeline. The Policygenius CEO was part of a group that brought together executives at similar stage companies and Jonathan joined the CMO pod. “I met some amazingly talented scale up CMOs in New York through that pod. We’d meet every month for dinner and it was real talk for three hours. Those relationships were critical. Years later, I still meet with them.”

From CMO to Operating Partner

Jonathan’s current role is with Sagard, an alternative asset manager that invests in various different asset classes including venture capital and private equity. As an operating partner, he works with the portfolio companies that the firm has invested in, helping with marketing, sales, and growth.

“In the operating partner role at a fund, you’re not a consultant—you’re a little closer to the same set of companies over and over. But you’re not just working with one, you’re working across a few of them. There’s a great quote that a colleague always said about the role: your job is to be the cool uncle, not the dad. As an operating partner, you need to earn your seat at the table and offer advice—but they don’t have to take it. So being able to quickly add value tangibly really matters.”

At Sagard, Jonathan works across 100+ portfolio companies, from fintech disruptors like Wealthsimple and Koho to SaaS scale-ups. He helps them tackle core questions: Is your data foundation solid? Do you know your ICP? Do you have the right talent for your go-to-market stage?

When he’s not working individually with companies, Jonathan works to port knowledge throughout the firm’s global businesses in a one-to-many approach. He helps organize the firm’s annual Growth Summit, where portfolio companies come together to share best practices, ideas, and strategies. “This year the theme is AI in action. We’re having a variety of innovative marketers showcase the different ways they’re using AI. It’s a chance to learn from each other about what’s working and what’s not.”

A Standout Campaign

Of all the campaigns he’s led, Jonathan points to Policygenius’ riff on Poetry in Motion.

“Life insurance is a relatively boring category that few pay attention to. So we riffed on New York’s Poetry in Motion program, which places poetry on subway systems throughout the city. We created sarcastic, funny poems that looked like the originals. People weren’t sure if they were ads or not and it ended up going viral.”

Poetry in Motion was the first big campaign Policygenius had done. It blanketed New York subways, boosted awareness, and gave Policygenius its first big brand moment. “Employees were taking selfies with the ads and showing their parents. That kind of IRL legitimacy hits different than a YouTube pre-roll. It was fun, it was cool, and it gave us a pretty big lift to the business.”

Advice and Takeaways

1) Build your peer network.

Jonathan credits much of his growth as a first-time CMO to his monthly dinners with other CMOs. Having a trusted circle meant he could share struggles, swap tactics, and get mentorship from people one step ahead.

Don’t wait until you’re in crisis to build your network. Start now. Find peers in your city or industry and set up recurring time to connect, share stories, and swap strategies. Those conversations will become your sounding board when the job gets hard.

2) Be intentional about education.

Jonathan earned his MBA at Harvard Business School, and that move created a meaningful change in his life—moving him from Toronto to New York, opening a global network, and helping him work on brands he couldn’t have reached otherwise. But his take on MBAs is that you should have a reason to do it. “People who maximize their ROI on the MBA investment are the folks who are looking to make a change—one they maybe couldn't have done on their own. If you're working at a nonprofit and you want to go work in investment banking, an MBA might be an interesting opportunity and change point for you. But if you’re already working in product management and want to continue working in product management, I don’t know if you need an MBA.”

Whether it’s an MBA, a certification, or a specialized course, don’t pursue education just for the line on your résumé. Get clear on your why. Are you using it to open new doors, change your trajectory, or help you build skills you can’t gain otherwise? Be honest about your goals and invest when the payoff is clear.

3)  Add value fast.

As an operating partner, Jonathan knows how busy founders and executives are. “Nobody needs another meeting. But if you can help them solve a problem or do part of their job, they’ll definitely talk to you. If you’re laser focused on adding value quickly, diagnosing a challenge, and solving it, that’s where the magic can happen.”

You don’t have to be an operating partner to apply the same principle inside your org. Whether you’re new to a role or you’re pitching a bold idea, come in with value. Prove you can make something better, right away. That credibility buys you the runway to tackle bigger challenges.

Think long-term: What could help make your campaigns more successful over time? The right agency partner. And Vendry can help you meet yours, for free. Get started.