Meet the Team: Gary Gonzalez

Gary Gonzalez

Managing Partner

In today’s Meet the Team, we hear from Gary Gonzalez, Managing Partner of Catchy, about his journey of building and evolving Catchy for the last few years through market fluctuations, as well as his vision for managing the company’s culture and strategic goals in the coming years.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Gary has lived in Chicago, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and now lives in Seattle. At Catchy, Gary is responsible for defining our service offerings, delivery model, and client experience.

Can you talk about your background and share how you became the Managing Partner of Catchy?

From a relatively young age, I knew I wanted to spend my career working in a creative field. I spent most of high school doing photography and making films with my friends. From there, I got pulled to design and strategy work while doing my undergraduate degree. It all kinda clicked into place when I read Luke Sullivan’s Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This and was introduced to the agency world for the first time. I remember just being like, that sounds amazing, I want to do that.

The next ten years of “doing that” were a blur between getting my master's degree in integrated marketing, helping to grow an agency that eventually got acquired by Wipro, and then starting my own consulting firm called Convoke. The highlight of it all was when Richard inked the deal to acquire Convoke, and we started a new chapter of the Catchy journey together.

Gary’s first professional headshot from 2012

Gary working as a marketing strategist at Rational in 2015

It’s been a wild three years for businesses, but Catchy has tripled in size. What are some of the factors that have contributed to this growth?

It’s always so crazy to take a step back and reflect on that type of growth, especially considering that it happened during a global pandemic and recession. There are a thousand little factors you could point to, but for us, I think it’s been about having a clear vision of who we are and where we’re going. Catchy is the world’s leading developer marketing agency. Period. That clarity allows us to hire people that buy into this vision, work with clients that support our growth, and focus on a relentless pursuit of being the best at what we do.

You are a major advocate for the “people-first approach” we have at Catchy. Can you explain why this is so important to you?

It’s a bit of a cliche in the services industry, but our product is our people. Clients don’t come to us to buy a thing, they come to us to solve problems that no one else can figure out. That doesn’t scale unless you have a workplace that puts people first. When your team is in the position of solving impossible problems, you owe it to them to make sure that they can focus 100% on the task at hand. That means making sure people are secure in their roles, have clear paths to growth, and get rewarded for their achievements.

Take care of the people that take care of you.

How would you describe your leadership style?

WWAD (What Would Aragorn Do)

Having built a business, what advice would you give to young entrepreneurs?

Just do it. Go start something that totally sucks and fail at it. Before finding “success” with Convoke (and later Catchy), I’ve been a part of so many failed projects. A design studio called MagCity, a clothing brand called Vida Pura, a wellness platform called Methods… it’s a long list. You learn so much from those “failures,” and they prepare you for the thing that finally clicks.

The first ad Gary created as a high-school student from 2006

Which accomplishments are you most proud of?

Going to therapy and getting a handle on my mental health. And that my three-year-old nephew thinks I’m cool.

Want to work with Gary and the rest of the Catchy team?

Well, you’re in luck - we’re hiring! Check out our Careers page for our current openings.