MEET RAHUL,
FOUNDER OF
5&VINE

Rahul Raj, 5&Vine Founder & CMO

Rahul started 5&Vine to help ambitious founders build companies, and launch and grow meaningful businesses that disrupt categories and better society. To date, our impact has helped our partners close over $1.4Bn in follow on financing and two have gone public.

5&Vine was born from Rahul’s time as CMO at ecobee, where he helped transform the brand from relative obscurity into the #2 thermostat brand in North America with a 30% share and developed a playbook on how Challengers could take down industry incumbents.

Rahul knows what a brand needs to take on Goliath. Prior to ecobee, he ran an incubator for Walmart in San Francisco. For these efforts, he was honored with Walmart’s Innovation Champion Award, a fellowship with the Aspen Institute and by GOOD magazine as 1 of 100 people pushing the world forward.

His commitment to bettering the world started when Rahul was young. At the age of 17, he founded and developed Meal Exchange to build healthy, just and environmentally sustainable food systems across Canada. His work has been recognized by TIME magazine as “revolutionary”.

Actively Engages with Organizations Creating a Better World

Featured In

Speaking, Facilitating and
Mentoring

Speaking, Facilitating
and Mentoring

Today, alongside his work at 5&Vine, Rahul’s actively engaged in inspiring and empowering others to make their own positive impact. As well as being on the Design Team of the Aspen First Movers fellowship, he mentors entrepreneurs at First Round Capital, Tech Stars, the American Marketing Association, the University of Toronto’s Venture Mentoring Program, and the Presidio Graduate School. The commonality across each of these programs is their belief that mentorship is about tapping into the generosity of the community and creating lasting, deep connections with others.

BOOK RAHUL

Read about the lessons Rahul’s learned mentoring with TechStars and First Round Capital on the blog.

Read about Rahul joining The Aspen Institute’s First Movers Design Team on the blog.

Speaking & Events

The Globe and Mail Small Business Summit

Panel: Marketing for Small Businesses – How to Develop Strategies to Grow a Big Sales Funnel on a Small Budget

Small business owners often have limited marketing budgets and staff resources. In an ecosystem crowded with confusing options, from paid social to marketing automation to advertising, entrepreneurs need to know where to get the biggest return on investment. Rahul’s presentation pinpointed the most effective marketing approaches for smaller companies.

INBOUND 2020

Go-To-Market Strategies for Startups: A Framework + Insights from One Challenger Brand to Another
A compelling vision for a startup is a great start, but without a thoughtful go-to-market (GTM) strategy in place, you won’t get anywhere. In this Go-To-Market workshop session taught by 5&Vine founder and marketing strategist Rahul Raj, you’ll learn to develop a plan that clarifies the problem your customers are hiring your product/company to solve (your value proposition), who you are selling to (target customer), where you plan to reach those prospects (channel strategy) and how (sales, messaging and promotion).