Bio (Copy) — Marisa Kontovrakis

Former cook turned marketer.

Weird trajectory, I know. “What’s the story,” you ask?

I minored in marketing in college and graduated with a B.B.A. I fell in love with human behavior and psychology in school, but started orbiting the food world shortly after graduating. This turned into completely pivoting careers. I started to work in a catering kitchen as a savory cook with zero experience, and over the course of a few years I moved up into managerial positions.

I love kitchen work — the hustle and bustle is simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting. But I became disconnected from what I fell in love with in college, so I left my kitchen career behind to pursue marketing.

Now here I am, running marketing for a tech start-up called Komeeda, steering the company through a pandemic and massive social justice movement. Suffice it to say, it’s been a wild ride.

There’s a tenet in kitchen work: wherever you go, never go empty-handed and never come back empty-handed, either.

Kitchens demand efficiency, multi-tasking, and precision. I translate lessons learned from my kitchen experience into my current work. Each day starts with a prep list: the tasks which need to be completed today, the tasks which would be nice to get to, and the tasks which can hit the back-burner.

I strongly value collaboration across teams, and dip my hand in every pot. I keep an eye on the big picture, but focus on the smaller pieces of the puzzle to make sure it all fits together.