Businesses, both just starting out and fully established, need assistance from experts to bring their brands and companies to the next level either through growth, relationships, marketing or all of the above.
Tony Mammoliti, along with everyone at No Fixed Address, has made it his mission to assist companies in accelerating brands and companies to reach their fullest potential through his marketing and entrepreneurial expertise.
We sat down with Tony to find out just how he does what he does and what he loves about it.
You’re an Entrepreneur in Residence with No Fixed Address. What does that mean?
Traditionally, at an investment fund or a venture capitalist firm, there is a person put in place called the ‘Entrepreneur in Residence’ who usually has experience in a specific field. They put that person there so they can accelerate a potential buy of a particular company that they want to have, or, to help accelerate companies that they have in place. The Entrepreneur in Residence is someone who has expertise in a particular area to accelerate the growth of that company.
How did you get into this?
I started my career as a marketing manager at Maple Leafs food in the CPG world. I was a traditional marketer that you would have in any CPG in Canada. I have always had this affinity for design and building brands. I decided to start a small company in the outdoor space called ynotmade.com. It is an outdoor brand that designed utilitarian outdoor products that allow you to take on the day and use them for a lifetime. I set up a facility and started making them and developing products. I used the things I learned in the CPG world and brought that to a fashion/outdoor brand. Through that business experience and building that brand, I was able to land a job at No Fixed Address.
Tell us about this department that exists at No Fixed Address.
No Fixed Address is a full-service agency. We also do a lot of stuff in the real estate sector, many things with CPG brands as well as the alcohol and the financial services space. What is unique about No Fixed Address is we have a wing called ‘No Fixed Investments’ where we own certain companies or have a stake in them and therefore can use our agency experience to accelerate those companies. The difference is we have a vested interest in growing that business because, in some instances, we either own the business, own part of the business or have decided to partner with the company. While we as a business have skin in the game with a lot of our clients, we do have some that we only represent traditionally. I am kind of like your inside marketing director. A company may not have a marketing director yet, somebody that can lead that, I will be that person until the company reaches a certain standing or grows to have their own marketing team.
Have you always been in the marketing and entrepreneurial space?
Yeah. Even as a kid, I always had that mentality. I was the kid that had the lemonade stand. The fact of the matter is, I’ve always been entrepreneurial and felt a draw to businesses and jobs like that.
What do you love about your job?
I really love the people we have working at NFA. Another thing I love is that I get to do genuinely different things almost every day. I will step in the office and, although I’ll be working on a client, I get to do a lot of different things for them or have different touch points with them. Sometimes I’ll be working with their marketing team or their digital team. I get to work on a bunch of various projects. Every day I come in, but sometimes it’s an entirely different day than expected, and that’s what’s nice. I’m not just going to that standard weekday job.
How would someone who also feels themselves to be entrepreneurial get into a similar job?
I think it’s through varied experience. I think the fact that I worked agency side and also the experiential, I ran my own business. I worked for a large CPG. Having that rounded experience is how you get this job. It’s because you’ve done a bunch of different things and have had a lot of various projects in your life. It’s also making sure you’re doing things outside your entrepreneurial world. You’re still testing yourself, and you’re still learning and working on other projects and using new technologies. Those are the things that have gotten me to where I am today.
What type of person is suited to this work?
You have to be extroverted but also a taskmaster. You have to be someone that is comfortable with getting into the details when you need to because you’re going to need to do that. There are certain instances where you have to be a detail-oriented person, but you also have to be that person that people want to approach and talk to and lead. It’s a leadership position, but you must be humble and able to work in a team.
What’s the next exciting thing coming up for you?
There are two really exciting things coming up for us. One, No Fixed Investments is thinking of bringing one of our clients from a B2B to B2C business. Also, we had an exciting project this year with one of our clients and a bunch influencers. We were working with a lot of amazing people, and we actually worked with Notable on that which is really cool. My personal business for YNOT, we used to have retail stores on Queen West but we have switched to being fully online and are showing that a fully online model and manufacturing company in Canada can work. We have some exciting new collaborations in the works with some of Canada’s biggest fashion brands.
Where can we connect with you?
You can connect with me through LinkedIn.
Finish this sentence: I couldn’t do what I do without…
I couldn’t do what I do without my dog Luna.
