Meet Amrita Over an English Breakfast Tea with a Splash of Milk

Amrita Gurney, VP Marketing & Community at CrowdRiff | Toronto, ON

I will never forget the first day I met Amrita. We talked about our mutual love for building brands and creating goodwill, we discussed our journey in business and tech and our many career pivots, she listened to my thoughts on the difficulties and joys of being a working mom, I listened to her as she shed light on the challenges of being a woman of colour in tech and how much harder she has had to fight to rise to where she is now… the list goes on. Needless to say, we got deep! Our Macchiato <> English Breakfast Tea exchanges have been frequent since. I got to know the multi-dimensional Amrita who oozes positivity, who stops at nothing to help those around her to be their best selves, and who cares deeply about the company she has such a large part in helping grow.

Amrita Gurney is the Vice President of Marketing & Community at CrowdRiff, where she leads a team responsible for marketing, brand design and customer community. She is a frequent speaker at travel and tourism events around the globe. For context, CrowdRiff is the leading AI-powered visual marketing platform used by 800 travel and hospitality brands to discover and deliver visuals that influence today’s travelers. Amrita loves digital marketing, contemporary art, drinking tea and recently fulfilled a lifelong dream of traveling to all 7 continents.

Time to get vulnerable with the lovely Amrita. ☕️

“Word of mouth started to spread until we reached a tipping point where our community was organically forming and connecting and telling others in the industry about us.”

- Amrita Gurney on the strength of the CrowdRiff customer community

What does the power of connection mean to you and how has it impacted your personal and business life?

A.G.: Connection is one of the things I value most in life. I grew up in Newfoundland where people easily strike up conversations with strangers, so from a young age I became comfortable talking to people I didn’t know well. I had no idea back then how much this would impact my life.

One of my closest friends is someone I met while changing trains on a subway platform in London England. Another cold called me to pitch her agency’s services and not only did she get my business, she also became a lifelong friend. 

Connection doesn’t always have to be close, either. You can have a good relationship with someone you meet infrequently. On the career front, many of the doors that opened for me were a result of relationships with people I consider acquaintances, not good friends.  

Most importantly, connection is what fills me up, what gives me energy, and makes life worth living!

You've been a part of the CrowdRiff journey since its original startup days. You've been an integral part in building the brand and its community across the world and have faced several company and team pivots. How has external and internal culture influenced your decisions?

A.G.: When I joined CrowdRiff I learned very quickly how powerful a community can be, even in a B2B business. In the early days, our community was built one relationship at a time, and from there, word of mouth started to spread until we reached a tipping point where our community was organically forming and connecting and telling others in the industry about us.

The funny thing is, I didn’t think of it as building our brand at the outset. It was a way for us to learn from our customers, and to share our ideas and experience in ways that people found truly useful. Thinking like a community member rather than as a vendor created a lot of goodwill and trust.

When it came time to formalize our brand strategy, one major input was considering our company culture, since it is one of the most visible expressions of a brand today. 

One of CrowdRiff’s core values is “we’re in this together” and you can really see this in our people, who are warm and approachable and helpful. Which comes full circle back to our brand being one that is built on community and connection.   

How do you think about the evolution of a brand's identity across its various stages of growth? What mistakes and wins have contributed to your playbook today?

A.G.: That’s a great question! The biggest mistake I made early on was not appreciating the value of brand in driving growth. I came up through my career as a demand generation marketer, and we are so focused on directly attributable activities that I underestimated the power of brand in B2B tech.

It turns out that brand is a huge differentiator, if you consider brand as being more than your visual identity, which I do.

The biggest win is an easy one for me to choose - at CrowdRiff we set a high bar for our content very early on, focusing on quality over quantity. It wasn’t just what we wrote, it was also how we designed and delivered our content. In our early days, this was done with a couple of young team members just starting out their careers, and looking back, I’m so proud of what they were able to accomplish. 

This investment helped us build awareness and a reputation for having innovative ideas, which in turn drove measurable growth. We now get invited to speak at over 50 industry events a year, which is incredible given that 4 years ago, no one in travel and tourism knew who we were! 

“For the longest time I felt like I didn’t belong, because the existing model of leadership in tech didn’t look anything like the kind of person I am - sensitive, passionate, creative and a woman of colour.”

- Amrita Gurney

We often discuss how your love for travel, people, and community seeps into where you choose to spend your time. How has this approach enriched your life and what advice do you have for those seeking to marry passion and a harmonized work/life?

A.G.: You’re right that I love those things, but for many years I didn’t know how to incorporate them into my work life. For the longest time I felt like I didn’t belong, because the existing model of leadership in tech didn’t look anything like the kind of person I am - sensitive, passionate, creative and a woman of colour.   

Until recently, businesses didn’t think of community as an advantage - in fact, they didn’t think of it at all. Marketing was all about controlling your brand and having a corporate voice and it was a very one-sided conversation.

One of the reasons why I feel incredibly fulfilled at CrowdRiff is because what I’m good at is valued by our people and valuable to the company. So my advice to others is to find your people. Not every place is right for everyone. Know who you are, and what you need to thrive. Ask the right questions to know if the people you work with value what you bring to the table.

One final thought is there is a difference between following your passions and being passionate about what you do. I focus on the latter, whether it’s in my work life or my home life. I don’t relate to apathy - whatever I do, I put my heart into it. I’ve been like this since I was a child. 

“What I love most is that we can be together and get into a deep conversation about something we’ve experienced, giving each other different perspectives and seeing things through each other’s eyes.”

- Amrita Gurney

You and your husband are both in very creative meets architectural industries (literally and figuratively!). How have you contributed to each other's professional and personal journeys?

A.G.: We are indeed, and it’s definitely a big part of what drew us to each other. Our industries are so different, but I’ve loved seeing how Bill and his colleagues take a very community-oriented approach to designing and building skateboard parks. I learn a lot from the way he gathers feedback and iterates from concept design to detailed design and then construction, and how his colleagues share all the behind the scenes so the community sees the progress and not just the finished product. I don’t think my professional life influences him as much, but he is always a good sounding board around any of my creative endeavours.  

Personally, we spend a lot of time visiting galleries and museums, as well as experiencing urban and natural landscapes. I’ve pulled Bill more into the contemporary art world, while he has a great eye for street art and architecture. What I love most is that we can be together and get into a deep conversation about something we’ve experienced, giving each other different perspectives and seeing things through each other’s eyes.   

Favourite travel destination and why!

A.G. Most recently I would say Marrakech. I spent a few days there last summer and it was even better than I imagined. The city is so full of life but not overwhelming. The people, the food, the architecture and history all make it a great place for exploring and experiencing something new. I stayed at a lovely 5-room riad in the medina, and because I look Moroccan, I could walk around without attracting much attention. 

I also love really wild and barren places like Gros Morne National Park where I have a summer home. The salty air, the cool wind and the ability to be alone for miles and miles always gets me. 

“My advice to others is to find your people. Not every place is right for everyone. Know who you are, and what you need to thrive. Ask the right questions to know if the people you work with value what you bring to the table.”

- Amrita Gurney

Mindset you live by... go!

A.G.: One is that “this very moment is the perfect teacher”, a phrase coined by the Buddhist monk Pema Chodron in her book When Things Fall Apart. To me this means be present with what is in front of you, to not run away from your feelings. Even the most uncomfortable experiences can be a gift. 

The other mindset I live by is to be thoughtful. Putting that extra bit of care into something can make all the difference, whether it’s taking the time to pick out the perfect birthday gift for someone or crafting a microinteraction in a user interface that makes life easier for the person using it. 

Connect with Amrita!