10 Questions with Gabriela Martinez
Growth Sales Director at Vox Media
Gabriela Martinez is a Growth Sales Director at Vox Media, focused on breaking new business and creating new advertising revenue streams. She has ten years of sales experience working in media and entertainment, specifically within high growth digital companies. Prior to her current role, she was based out of Sydney, Australia helping BuzzFeed build their APAC business. Throughout her career, she has contributed to the ever-changing landscape of online media — from the early days of streaming video on demand (SVOD) during her time at Hulu to evangelizing global branded content partnerships and beyond.
Gabriela earned a Masters in Business Administration from NYU Leonard N. Stern School of Business, with a concentration in Finance and Marketing. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Boston College, with a major in Communications and Studio Art. Outside of work, you can often find her traveling abroad and spending time with her partner, Nick, and their puppy, Lemmy.
- When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?
To be honest, the tech life found me! I knew I was interested in Media after having interned at HBO in college. I found it challenging and fun from a personal standpoint, and being in the know of pop culture was interesting to me. During my first job at ESPN, I saw that media consumption habits were changing, specifically with television losing viewership to online portals. At the time, Netflix was disrupting its own business and the media industry by offering streaming video alongside its long standing DVD rental service. An old coworker told me about this new player on the scene called Hulu. I looked around my then television-based office and knew that I wanted to be a part of something different. So I joined the small Hulu team in New York, and the rest is history.
From a personal standpoint, being a part of the build is what I find extremely satisfying. That’s the thing about tech — if you’re doing something right, then you’re always building and pushing past the status quo.
2. Who is a role model that you look up to?
My mother has always been that person that I wanted to emulate. She immigrated to the United States when she was 17, during the early 1970s while El Salvador was in civil war. Without speaking the language and being a foreign child from little means, she was able to create an amazing life for herself and my father. She worked hard, learned English, and went to college. She’s been a teacher for decades now, impacting the lives of children in New York City public schools. I have always been able to look at her and say to myself, “Wow, if she can do all of that with what she started with, I should be able to conquer it all.”
3. Where is your hometown?
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.
4. What is a struggle that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?
Since both of my parents were teachers, education was the highest priority in our home. I was fortunate enough to attend The Lawrenceville School for high school, which is a prestigious boarding school in New Jersey. Though those years were some of the best in my life, it was also the first time that I truly felt like an outsider. At the time, I was one of very few Latin students in the school, let alone Latin women.
I struggled to feel comfortable in my own skin, while in a predominantly wealthy and white community. It took years for me to stop looking outward to find validation. As I matured, I realized that what made me different, both culturally and socio-economically, made my point of view unique. That high school experience prepared me for the tech industry, where women of color are vastly underrepresented. As one of them, I have to dig deep often and find my own validation by knowing I am more than qualified to have a seat at the table.
“I realized that what made me different, both culturally and socio-economically, made my point of view unique.”
5. What is something that you are immensely proud of?
I decided to get my MBA during my time at Hulu. I also knew that I didn’t want to leave the company because we were doing something innovative and seeing growing success. So, I opted to go to NYU part-time.
The concept of going to school for three or four years to get a two year degree wasn’t an option for me, so I met with a Stern academic counselor at school and walked through what an accelerated program would look like for me. Essentially, it would mean I would be working full time, and going to school full time by dedicating my night and weekends (winter and summer semesters included) for two years straight. I decided to take the challenge on, and was one of the first students to pioneer what is now Sterns’ accelerated MBA program.
I’m proud of this for so many reasons. First, I became the first person in my family to get a Master’s degree. Secondly, Latinx students constitute a small percentage of total enrollment for MBA programs. And lastly, I was able to help build a new part of the part-time MBA program that wasn’t established before.
6. What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?
The representation of women of color in leadership positions in our industry. Though this always seems to be on the broader diversity agendas of Fortune 500 companies, the examples of them turning to reality are few and far between. As an industry, we have to be more dedicated to diversifying our hires, because different and unique experiences bring new ideas and processes. Qualified candidates exist, we just have to ensure that they are included in the conversation.
“As an industry, we have to be more dedicated to diversifying our hires, because different and unique experiences bring new ideas and processes.”
7. Favorite food?
Pizza!
8. Favorite book?
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
9. If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?
An astronaut. Dedicating your life to space exploration must be so challenging and so insanely rewarding. Who wouldn’t want to go on a mission to the moon or Mars?
10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?
Focus less on what you think others want from you and more on what you want for yourself.
