From Engineering to Growth: How Dena Nejad Bridges Technical Depth with Strategic Marketing
Some of the most compelling go-to-market leaders don't follow traditional paths. Dena Nejad, Founder, GTM and Growth Advisor at Roya Labs, exemplifies this perfectly. Her journey from mechanical engineer to marketing executive at high-growth companies like Bosch, HOVER and Showpad has given her a unique perspective on how technical products find their market fit.
After years of scaling marketing teams through multiple funding rounds, Dena made the leap to consulting, founding Roya Labs to help early-stage founders navigate the complex terrain between having a brilliant product and building sustainable growth. Her approach combines the systematic thinking of an engineer with the strategic storytelling skills of a seasoned marketer—a combination that's particularly valuable in today's AI and emerging tech landscape.
In this conversation, Dena shares insights on making unconventional career transitions, the difference between consulting and in-house marketing leadership, and the biggest mistakes she sees founders making when they're eager to scale. Her perspective on slowing down to speed up offers a refreshing counterpoint to the "growth at all costs" mentality that often dominates startup conversations.
1. You started your career as a mechanical engineer and eventually became a marketing executive at companies like HOVER and Showpad. That’s not a typical trajectory. What drew you to marketing, and how has your engineering background shaped the way you approach go-to-market strategy?
I’ve always been drawn to how things work, whether it’s a physical system or human behavior. Engineering trained me to solve complex problems with a structured, systems-based mindset, and marketing gave me a space to understand people and drive change at scale. I didn’t take a straight path from engineering to marketing, but once I realized that go-to-market strategy is really about pattern recognition, experimentation, and iteration, just like engineering, I was hooked.
My background allows me to toggle between technical depth and strategic storytelling. I’m often the one translating between product, engineering, and the market, helping teams connect what they’re building to what users actually value. That combination has served me especially well in AI and emerging tech, where the products are deeply technical but the need for clarity and relevance in messaging is even greater.
2. After years of leading marketing teams at high-growth companies, you decided to start Roya Labs and work with multiple clients instead of focusing on one organization. What was behind that decision? And what’s different about building growth strategies as a consultant versus being the person executing them day-to-day?
After scaling teams and navigating several Series A to D journeys, I hit a point where I wanted more variety and more ownership over the kinds of problems I was solving. Roya Labs was born from a desire to help early-stage founders who had brilliant products but lacked go-to-market clarity. I wanted to bring the same level of strategic rigor I used in-house to companies that were still searching for product-market fit.
Consulting shifts the dynamic. You’re not embedded, so you have to learn fast, read between the lines, and influence without authority. But it also gives you perspective. You see patterns across companies, industries, and stages that most people miss when they’re in the trenches of just one business. That altitude has made me sharper and more honest. I don’t just build growth strategies. I help teams prioritize, get unblocked, and focus on what actually moves the needle.
3. Through Roya Labs, you work with a lot of early-stage companies on their go-to-market approach. What’s the biggest mistake you see founders making when they’re trying to scale their marketing and sales efforts? And how do you help them think about it differently?
Founders often try to scale too soon. They want the playbook before they’ve really figured out what’s working and for whom. It’s tempting to invest in ads, hire sales reps, or redesign the website before validating the basics: who your ideal customer is, what problem you’re solving for them, and how they’re making decisions.
I help founders slow down to speed up. We get crystal clear on buyer psychology and what makes their product actually different. From there, we run focused experiments to learn what converts. Once that clarity is in place, I help them build the right growth levers and scale them in a way that’s sustainable. Most early-stage go-to-market is about focus, not scale. When you nail the fundamentals, the growth follows.
Resources
Website: https://roya.us/
Newsletter: Substack
Linkedin: Dena Nejad
Email: dena@roya.us
Instagram: @Summittomar
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