About Us
Vesta, formerly known as Social Media Link, is the leading community marketing technology company. For more than a decade we have brought brands to life for their consumers and audiences, enhancing their digital presence with personalized engagement and delivering insights, authentic advocacy, and emotional loyalty.
We believe in the power of online communities – it’s how we built our company. Our purpose-built technology can help your company grow and evolve too.
In today’s privacy and transparency-focused, post-cookie world, the options to truly understand and connect with consumers are limited. Brand-owned Communities allow you to deliver a whole world of experiences at a greater value. And to receive, in return, the insights, social advocacy, and lasting loyalty that drive business forward.
While our business has evolved, engaging consumers is at the heart of our company’s DNA. It’s our passion and our purpose. And we measure our success by the impressive list of admired companies and breakthrough brands who continue to place their trust in us every day.
Reduce your reliance on third-party channels. Own the power of your direct consumer relationships again.
We make community-building simple, with 30+ activations for immediate impact. Single platform ease with multi-platform power.
Rich, zero-party data empowers marketers to deliver personalized brand experiences that inspire lasting loyalty.
For more than a decade, we have been developing a winning formula of insights, activations, and advocacy that is a sales multiplier.
We believe in outcomes, not outputs. We are single-minded in ensuring our clients achieve all of the powerful insights and bottom-line growth that is possible with our tools.
Our Communities are grounded in the concept that brands must provide value to build value and generate brand loyalty. Every day we strive to build the same loyalty for our own product, providing meticulous service, deep expertise, and innovative technology to our clients.
We believe in our increasingly siloed and divisive world, people are longing for connection. Our passion is engaging consumers with brands and with one another, making the digital world a more welcoming and meaningful space.
We are committed to challenging the status quo through collaborative innovation. We know listening and then daring to experiment are the keys to creating the tools you need for discovery and growth.
The gathering of consumer data confers a great responsibility as well as an opportunity. We are dedicated to helping our clients realize zero-party data’s benefits in creating better, more personalized experiences for consumers, while vigilantly protecting their right to privacy and transparency.
Co-Founder & CEO
Susan has spent her career redefining digital marketing. She has over two decades of experience in brand and retail marketing, Martech, and advertising, at brands such as Kraft and Glaxo-SmithKline. In 2009, seeing the opportunities social media offered to amplify the voice of the consumer, she founded Vesta. Sue’s mission is to help marketers utilize technology to transform the relationship between brands and consumers.
What community has had the most impact on your life? My community of women-led business leaders has helped throughout my career and the growth of Vesta.
Director of Product
Lisa is a digital transformation leader, with decades of experience at SaaS, Big Data and media companies. As Head of Product at Graphika and VP, Product at Purch, a digital publishing platform, she led integrated technology teams to scale their products. Certified in Agile, she specializes in designing inventive systems, processes, and products, and in aligning client needs with platform innovation.
What community has had the most impact on your life? The knitting community is incredibly interesting and supportive no matter your level of expertise. And I can share it with my mother and daughter.
Director of Technology
Drawing from over 20 years of experience with online technology, Seth is a leader who excels at nurturing a concept from idea to market. Since being handed his first computer at the age of 10, he has founded multiple companies and consulted for national brands such as Activision: Call of Duty, Disney, and Progressive. Seth is responsible for the continued evolution of Vesta’s intuitive and comprehensive platform.
What community has had the most impact on your life? I set out to create a non-profit without national or religious boundaries, only to find out that it already existed in Rotary International, an amazing humanitarian organization that is leading the charge to eliminate polio globally. My involvement has made me a better leader, father, husband, and friend.
VP, Marketing
Cathy thrives on connecting people to ideas, organizations and one another. She has over two decades of B2B marketing experience, leading promotions at top publications including Inc. and Fast Company, and serving as VP at luxury travel brand, JG Black Book. Her role at Vesta is to break through the Martech clutter to shine a light on the power of the platform.
If you had your own brand world, what would the theme be? A place to create. Writing, painting, cooking, sewing, gardening, and designing help cultivate creativity.
VP, Insights
Christoph is a career researcher and an insights specialist. Prior to Vesta, he spent over a decade at MMR Research Worldwide, serving as Research Director on consumer food, beverage, personal care, home care products and CPG research. He specializes in consumer segmentation as well as understanding and communicating the emotional and functional profiles of brands.
If you had your own brand world, what would the theme be? My ideal community would be centered around music and concerts, personalized to the genres I like, similar to Spotify, with the sharing and community that was common in the music blog scene back in the 00’s.
Account Director
Stephanie is a Community Marketing Specialist, and an expert on the capabilities of the Vesta Community platform, having worked on it since its ideation and launch. Her efforts partnering with clients on peer influencer activations and online community programs have helped hundreds of brands develop lasting consumer connections with millions of consumers.
If you had your own brand world, what would the theme be? I am a big reader, so I’d love a Community where my experience was customized based on the authors and genres relevant to my interests.
General Manager, Operations and Finance
Lisa’s diverse background in operations and finance – across advertising and digital media, entertainment, and fashion – have helped hone her thorough and resourceful approach to ensuring business effectiveness and capabilities. In her role as Vesta’s General Manager, she is focused on refining efficiencies in processes and workflows, and for supporting and nurturing the team.
What community has had the most impact on your life? My yoga community has shown me how valuable a community is when developing an individual practice. The support of teachers and students enables you to grow individually.
Business Advisor & Board Member
Peter is CEO of RapidMiner, the world’s most popular visual, open source data science/machine learning platform, and previously served as EVP of TIBCO Software and CEO of DataSynapse. He has extensive experience as an operating Board member for software companies. He also serves as an Independent Member of the Investment Committee of AFIG, a $250M investment fund focused on African entrepreneurs.
What community has had the most impact on your life? The venture community of entrepreneurs, investors and risk takers. They represent the engine of economic growth.