Constructor Appoints First CMO to Scale Next Phase of Growth

SAN FRANCISCO—September 28, 2022

Constructor, the company building revenue-driving on-site search and discovery solutions for digital merchandisers, today announced Courtney Austermehle as the company’s first chief marketing officer to drive market awareness for the company’s AI retail solutions.

Austermehle joins Constructor from Salsify, a commerce experience management platform, where she was the VP of Marketing Revenue and Business Development Representatives. Courtney was instrumental in scaling the company’s marketing team from five to forty employees over three years while increasing revenue to $100M+ and reaching a valuation above $2B.

At Constructor, Austermehle will further develop and expand the marketing team while helping drive the company’s EMEA expansion and go-to-market strategy as Constructor prepares to support the increasing demand for tailor-made ecommerce merchandising solutions for online shopping experiences.

“Courtney’s deep understanding of the market, proven ability to scale teams, and history of executing cross-functional operational efficiencies will help catapult Constructor into its next phase of growth,” said Eli Finkelshteyn, CEO and co-founder of Constructor. “Constructor is maturing as a company and with Courtney on board, the team will be able to expand our reach to more retailers around the globe and continue delivering world class service to existing and future customers.”

Delivering digital merchandising experiences unique to each customer is extremely difficult, but the right technology can make a massive impact on retailers’ revenues. Constructor uses clickstream data to find and rank the best products for individual shoppers across search, browse, recommendations, collections, and quizzes in real-time. As the majority of merchandising teams spend 50% of their week on manual activities, optimizing inefficient processes has never been more important.

Under Austermehle’s leadership, Constructor will further modernize the retail search process and enable brands to deliver personalized and relevant digital shopping experiences through simple and easy-to-use AI solutions that increase brand loyalty. Austermehle will also work alongside the sales team to determine go-to-market strategies that reflect the challenges of online retailers while making revenue driving decisions for the entire company.

“Retailers must streamline their shopping experiences and think seriously about their ecommerce future,” explained Austermehle. “Customers have several purchasing options in today’s digital world, making it crucial for brands to deliver a personalized and relevant experience that keeps the customer coming back to their site. Constructor’s technology is unlike anything on the market. It’s simple, easy to integrate, and directly impacts conversion rates.”

Austermehle’s appointment as CMO follows Sonja Keerl’s appointment as VP of Product Marketing earlier this year. These new hires come less than a year after the company’s Series A fundraise in 2021. In the past 12 months, headcount increased by 116% and customer acquisition is up nearly the same amount, including the addition of household name retailers like Birkenstock and Serena & Lily.

About Constructor

Constructor is the only search and product discovery platform tailor-made for enterprise e-commerce where conversions matter. Constructor’s cloud-based solutions use natural language processing, machine learning-enhanced results ranking, and collaborative personalization to deliver powerful user experiences across all facets of product discovery – from search to browse, recommendations, and autosuggest. Constructor optimizes revenue before relevance and generates consistent $10M+ lifts for our customers, which include some of the biggest brands in ecommerce like Sephora, Backcountry, American Eagle, Maxeda Brands, and Serena & Lily. Constructor is a U.S.-based company that was founded in 2015 by Eli Finkelshteyn and Dan McCormick. For more, visit: Constructor.io