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Kelly Esten believes in clients telling their authentic stories.
Esten is the Chief Marketing Officer at Toast, the innovative point of sale and restaurant management system company. Since joining the team, she has been instrumental in building Toast's customer focus the reputation.
When it comes to marketing, she knows the goal is to keep it real. “Something we always try to remember is the person on the other end of the marketing or advertising email and how we're trying to reach them,” Esten says. “It's much more impactful and authentic when a restaurant can say, 'Hey, here's how I'm using the toaster, and here's my story,' than what we can say.”
The toast trip
Esten remembers her first day at Toast very well. It was 2017 and Toast's offices were located in an incubator near Fenway Park in Boston.
“Job No. 1 was 'do no wrong,'” she recalls. “Learn what works, make sure we're building on the early success we had. Really building together with restaurants is what made us so successful.”
As Toast grew as a company, it began to take up more space. There were tables everywhere, Esten recalls, and the makeshift decor and mismatched carpet made it clear that the company was steadily growing.
“Things have changed a lot since those early days, but it's been a great journey,” she says.
Her expectation from day one was to come in and contribute to what the team had built. It was – as with many start-ups – an “all hands on deck” scenario.
“I'll always remember those first two weeks,” she says. “Toast was growing really fast; it was getting a lot of traction with restaurants at the time, and we definitely had product/market fit. Restaurants were using our point of sale all over the country and things were going really well.”
It found its footing under the tutelage of former Toast CMO Kevin Hamilton and Toast CEO and co-founder Aman Narang. Esten attributes much of her professional growth to their mentorship.
“Kevin Hamilton was a huge mentor of mine, someone who taught me a lot about marketing but also about leadership and gave me opportunities to learn and grow,” she tells Cali BBQ Media's Shawn Walchef during a tour of the new headquarters of the company in Boston. which opened in 2024.
Esten built on the legacy established by her mentors by enhancing Toast's customer-focused marketing efforts. Her philosophy involves active listening customer feedback and allowing them to share their stories.
When she started at Toast, the marketing department had about a dozen people; now, there are more than 200.
Her focus then, as it is now, was to help independent restaurants. “A lot of what we're doing today dates back to those early days of Toast marketing as well,” she says.
Launching the Toast Now app
One of Esten's most notable achievements at Toast is the successful launch of the Toast Now app.
She attributes the product's success to its development in close collaboration with Toast's partners, which resulted in a cloud-based solution that resonated strongly with the restaurant community. This deep involvement led to widespread everyday use and made Toast Now one of the most important product launches in the company's history.
“One of the things that was really rewarding for me to see is that we actually released a video along with it about how it was built because it was built with our customers,” she shares.
Esten's approach to marketing and leadership at Toast emphasizes the importance of customer engagement, mentoring and collaborative product development. Her commitment to understanding and addressing customer needs has driven successful product launches and fostered a culture of growth and inspiration within her team.
“When I think about my role as a leader now at Toast, it's a lot of work—how do you find the right people, set them up for success, and help them grow their careers?” she said. “Because that's what inspires people to do great work.”
Disclaimer: Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef is a paid consultant and content creator for Toast.
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