Founder
Mike Simpson
20+ years across marketing, advertising, product management, and technology. He built Variant Media to do for B2B companies what large agencies can't — own the whole system, not just a piece of it.
Background
Built From the Ground Up.
Mike started his career at Apple, where he spent nearly seven years helping businesses and customers navigate digital strategy — across website development, design, and training. It was hands-on work that built a foundation most marketers skip: understanding how technology and people actually connect.
From there, he moved into advertising at Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Interactive — managing creative production, publisher-side ad operations, and multi-channel campaign infrastructure. He learned the mechanics of how attention is bought, measured, and optimized at scale.
The inflection point was The Venue Report, a venture-backed travel platform where Mike joined as a founding team member and became Operations Director. He led product, analytics, content, and marketing — growing monthly organic traffic from 5,000 to multi-million visitors and managing $1M+ in annual ad spend across 12 channels. That role shaped everything about how he thinks about growth: not as a campaign, but as an integrated operating system.
He founded Variant Media in 2019. Since then, he has led growth work across 20+ businesses — managing $5M+ in ad spend, building attribution systems, running paid media on every major platform, and embedding inside companies as a fractional growth operator.
B.S. in Organizational Leadership — Chapman University.
Why It Matters
The Background Behind the Work.
Most people who run marketing agencies either come from creative — and are weak on data — or from analytics — and are weak on communication. Mike is unusual in that he has operated seriously at both ends for over two decades.
His product management background means he thinks in systems, not campaigns. His advertising background means he understands how to move buyers at scale. His design and development skills mean he can build what he designs, not just hand it off.
For B2B companies in niche markets — where the buyer is specific, the sales cycle is long, and the funnel has to work as a whole — that combination is rare. Most agencies are built to serve mass markets. Variant Media is built for the exception.
When you work with Variant Media, Mike is the person on your account. Not a team lead who delegates. Not an account manager who passes information between you and the people doing the work. Mike.
Career
Experience.
Variant Media Inc.
Founder & Owner
July 2019 — Present
Led strategy across 20+ client initiatives, managing work across engineers, analysts, designers, and marketers.
Personally managed $5M+ in ad spend with focus on attribution, testing, and performance insight.
Built automation and measurement systems across Google, Meta, Reddit, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
A leader in transitioning businesses to AI-leveraged operating models.
The Venue Report
Operations Director
May 2015 — July 2019
Founding team member at a venture-backed digital travel platform.
Led product, analytics, content, and marketing teams totaling 20+ contributors.
Drove 20% average month-over-month growth across core business KPIs.
Owned performance strategy for $1M+ annual ad spend across 12 channels.
Grew monthly organic traffic from 5,000 uniques to multi-million.
CBS Interactive
Traffic Manager
Nov. 2014 — May 2015
Built and managed publisher-side ads across all CBS Sports owned properties and affiliates.
Maintained a near-zero error rate through communication and quality assurance.
Used HTML, CSS, and JS to identify more impactful ways to serve impressions.
Clear Channel Outdoor
Photography Manager
Feb. 2013 — Nov. 2014
Hired, trained, and managed 7 photographers to document CCO's Southern California inventory.
Managed a database of over 500,000 photos and videos used in sales and marketing.
Worked closely with the Marketing Manager and VP of Sales to identify and act on opportunities.
Apple Inc.
Creative
Oct. 2006 — Feb. 2013
Helped customers and businesses achieve digital goals through Apple's training services.
Demonstrated knowledge across 10+ industries including web development and digital art.
Acted as corporate trainer for businesses to identify and execute digital strategy.
Capabilities
Skills & Disciplines.
Digital Product & Marketing Leadership
20+ years leading product and marketing functions inside startups, agencies, and as a fractional operator.
Full-Funnel Growth & Campaign Execution
End-to-end campaign ownership: strategy, audience, creative, funnel, attribution, and optimization.
Paid Media
Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit. $5M+ personally managed with a performance-first approach.
SEO & Content Strategy
Built SEO programs from zero — including one that scaled a niche site to multi-million monthly visitors.
Data, Analytics & Attribution
GA4, Google Tag Manager, SQL/MySQL, custom dashboards. Every engagement is built on measurement.
UI/UX Design & Web Development
HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, Sketch. Builds what he designs — no handoffs required.
Peer-Reviewed Research
Contributions & Publications.
Mike's work in niche market acquisition extends into academic research. He has contributed to peer-reviewed publications on social media-driven health education — work born from his lead generation projects with medical research groups at Michigan, Cedars Sinai, and Northwestern.
He also contributed to growth initiatives for Within Unlimited (creator of Supernatural), which was subsequently acquired by Meta Platforms following FTC review.
Crohns Colitis 360 · 2025
Simpson M, et al.
“Leveraging Social Media for Health Education: Dissemination of Crohn's Perianal Fistula Educational Videos via Facebook and Instagram.”
American Journal of Gastroenterology · 2022
Simpson M, et al.
“Social Media for the Dissemination of Educational Videos About Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.”
Work With Mike
Let's See If There's a Fit.
Variant Media works with a small number of clients at a time. Tell us about your business and where you're stuck. Mike will let you know if he can help.