TOM CRITCHLOW

About Me

Hi there, I’m based in Brooklyn, NY and currently do independent consulting work for media and technology companies. I also run the SEO MBA. I’m always happy to grab a coffee or a zoom!

Get in touch: [email protected] / @tomcritchlow


Timeline
Independent Consultant
2014 - Present
Helping media and technology companies build new growth capabilities through product innovation, SEO programs, content marketing and brand. Working with clients like The New York Times, Gartner, Etsy, Angi, Finder, Dotdash, Ziff Davis and more.
Launched the SEO MBA
2021 - Present
Launched a professional development platform for SEO professionals.
Launched Fiercely Curious
2013 - Present
Created Fiercely Curious, a Brooklyn art collective with pop-up art shows around Brooklyn and custom art installations for private and corporate clients.
Google: PMM Special Projects
2012 - 2014
Working with internal innovation teams like the Creative Lab, Google Cardboard, Jamboard and BizOps I helped to ideate, develop and bring to market new products and services. With one foot in creative and one foot in business I helped to add rigor to creative ideas and creativity to spreadsheets.
Launched 7books
2011-2013
Launched my first python project 7books, playlists for bookworms. Grew to over 6,000 users.
Distilled: VP Operations, NYC
2007 - 2012
Working alongside my brother I helped build Distilled from a team of 3 into a team of 50+ across three offices. I built the SEO capability for Distilled from the ground up, built the NYC office and client base and spoke at conferences across the world.

How I Got Here

In 2007 I joined my brother’s small digital agency, Distilled, and made tinkering with SEO, content and digital strategy a business. 1 office turned into 3, NYC became home base, the business became what is known as “known.”

I learned a couple things along the way.

  • Business consulting is about taking ownership and getting close to the problem and close to the people.
  • Effecting change is hard and momentum is the key to success.
  • Managing and hiring people is rooted in unlocking potential, not judging performance

As the internet evolved so did I and I found myself joining Google’s Creative Lab in 2012 where I worked on a wide range of strategic projects from producing a live action video about the future of search to presenting a new business model for Google to Larry Page. I also ran my first TV ad, worked with NASA, The White House and made a bunch of gifs.

After two years at Google I realized that innovation was more exciting and faster in incubators and loose creative communities so I left Google, launched Fiercely Curious and began an independent consulting practice working with media organizations and startups on growth, marketing, audience development and more.

I’m currently obsessed with the media landscape and how startups, agencies and media organizations are creating and distributing content across the web.

Knowledge Sharing & Teaching

A consistent theme across my work has been sharing knowledge and helping to teach others. I wrote some guides to crawling the web using Google Docs back in 2011 and get very excited about new ways for non-technical folks to engage with the web in a deeper way.

More recently I launched the SEO MBA which is an online education platform for SEO professionals to level up their business and management skills.

Maybe because of my British accent, I’ve been a mentor for various startup accelerators and incubators and spoken at conferences all around the world. More on my speaking here.

Get in touch

I’m always happy to meet interesting people for coffee. Email is here: [email protected]

Much love.

Me. Posing instead of rock climbing.