The positioning, strategy,
and systems to
amplify your growth.

Clarity on your brand positioning. Momentum in your lead pipeline. Architecture for your organization. Built on your strengths — and designed for where you're going.

Let's Talk How I Work

$3.2M in MQL revenue generated in 18 months

20+ years from startup founder to global executive

1K+ retail doors built from zero as a founder

Areas of Expertise

Strategy and structure,
built from the ground up.

Most growing companies already have more working than they realize.

I start by finding and amplifying your bright spots — before diagnosing what's missing and building a plan to close the gaps.

Four areas where that approach consistently moves the needle:

Brand Strategy & Positioning

Know exactly what your brand stands for and how your customers perceive it. Clear positioning, sharp messaging, community engagement, and the story that makes you the obvious choice in your category.

Demand Generation & Product Marketing

Full-funnel strategy, product marketing programs, sales tools and training, and the measurement frameworks that prove what's working — and keep it compounding.

Organizational Design & OKRs

Clear goals, aligned teams, and the planning architecture that transforms ambition into focused execution and actions. Built for founders who have the vision and are looking for the optimal structure to channel it.

Content & Storytelling

Give your brand a voice people recognize and trust. Content strategy, narrative architecture, and editorial direction that builds your audience and your authority — while you focus on running the business.

How I Work

Boutique attention.
Enterprise results.

I keep my client roster intentionally small. That's not a limitation — it's a commitment. Every engagement gets my personal presence, senior strategic thinking, and the founder's urgency that makes things actually move. No junior teams. No handoffs. Just the work.

My work starts with your bright spots.

Before we talk about what's missing, I want to know what's already working — the product customers love, the message that resonates, the team member who always finds a way. Every business has pockets of undeniable excellence that rarely get the attention they deserve. We find those first. We amplify them. Then, and only then, do we diagnose the gaps and build the plan to close them.

It's a more energizing way to grow. And it compounds faster.

Engagement 01

Fractional
Leadership

I embed in your business as a part-time Head of Marketing or fractional CMO — showing up weekly, owning the strategy, and working alongside your team to build and execute.

Right for you if: You need senior marketing leadership but aren't ready — or don't want — a full-time executive hire.

Engagement 02

Project
Partnership

Defined scope, clear deliverables, set timeline. We solve a specific problem together — a brand positioning, a launch strategy, a demand gen foundation — built to last after I hand it off.

Right for you if: You have a specific challenge and want a partner who will actually build the answer with you.

Engagement 03

Strategic
Advisory

Ongoing access to senior thinking — a sounding board, a strategic review, a second opinion from someone who's scaled marketing at every level.

Right for you if: You have a capable team and want a senior voice in the room for the decisions that matter most.

What's Possible

Numbers that
tell the story.

A selection of results from my career — as a solo founder, a team leader, and an executive. Every number reflects work I was responsible for driving.

Full case studies available upon request →

Demand Generation · Medical Devices

Full-Funnel Marketing Engine Built from Zero

Nanosonics · Americas · 2023–2026

Joined as the first dedicated demand generation leader in the Americas. Built the strategy, team, and programs from scratch. President's Club winner.

1,875 MQLs · 946 SQLs · $3.2M closed-won in 18 months

Product Launch · Life Sciences

Award-Winning Instrument Launch: SeqStudio Flex

Thermo Fisher Scientific · 2022

Led the global marketing team behind the go-to-market strategy, positioning, and commercial launch of the SeqStudio Flex genetic analysis instrument — delivering above-plan results and earning a Best New Life Science Product industry award.

$4.6M above revenue plan · Best New Life Science Product 2022

Retention Marketing · SaaS · Surf Industry

Diagnosing Churn, Rebuilding a Retention Engine

AkuShaper CAD Software · 2019–2020

Identified the root causes of churn, built a data-driven retention program, and created automation sequences that transformed the customer experience and boosted MRR for the business.

35% improvement in retention · 62% lift in trial-to-paid conversion

Brand Building · Entrepreneurship · Surf

Built a Women's Surf Media Brand from Zero

Surf Life for Women Magazine · 2000–2006

Founded, published, and distributed an independent surf magazine for women — building it from a blank page to global retail presence recognized by the International Periodical Distributors Association.

1,000+ global retail locations · 200% subscription growth · 400% newsstand growth

My Story

Built from
the water up.

I've been the scrappy founder with no playbook and the global executive with a dedicated team, budget, and revenue target. That combination — and knowing when to use which — is the whole point.

Founder — Surf Life for Women Magazine · 6 years

Brand Manager — Teamwork Athletic Apparel

Marketing Manager → Director — Thermo Fisher Scientific (Fortune 200) · ~10 years

VP of Marketing, Americas — Nanosonics (ASX 200)

President's Club — 2025

View full profile on LinkedIn →

In 2000, I founded Surf Life for Women — an independent magazine at a time when women in surf were mostly an afterthought. No playbook. No budget. I built the team, the strategy, and the distribution from scratch — growing it to 1,000+ global retail locations, with subscriptions up 200% and newsstand sales up 400%. It was proof that the right story, told with conviction and built on community, can build a business and make positive impact.

Surf Life for Women Magazine · Issues from the run, 2000–2006

What came next was nearly a decade at Thermo Fisher Scientific — a Fortune 200 company — growing through progressive roles into global Marketing Director. Launching award-winning products, building channel programs that drove double-digit international growth, and learning how the world's best marketing organizations are designed and run.

Then a VP of Marketing role at Nanosonics (ASX 200), where I built the entire Americas demand generation function from scratch and delivered $3.2M in closed-won revenue within 18 months and was recognized with President's Club in 2025.

Sunshine Makarow at Thermo Fisher Scientific — in the genetics lab

Thermo Fisher Scientific · Genetics Science Division

Sunshine Makarow at Nanosonics — APIC trade show

Nanosonics · APIC Conference

Along the way, there was brand management work at Teamwork Athletic Apparel — where I got formative reps building a brand identity with real commercial intent. And time in the surf industry's SaaS world — helping AkuShaper diagnose its churn problem and build the systems to solve it. That's where I remembered what I love most: the mix of rigor and instinct. Frameworks and feel. The founder's urgency applied to a real strategy.

That combination — the discipline of a Fortune 200 director, the instincts of a founder, and the VP-level experience of someone who's built teams, managed budgets, and carried real revenue targets — is what I bring to your business. I work with a small roster of clients by design, so every engagement gets my full attention. And I always start the same way: by finding what's already working, and building everything else from there.

Featured Podcast

Heard on Razor Branding™

The Sunny Side of Branding with Sunshine Makarow — Razor Branding Podcast

He Said, She Said · Razor Branding™ · Dec 29, 2025 · 52 min

The Sunny Side of Branding: Emotion, Evidence, and Marketing That Works

A conversation about marketing in highly regulated healthcare — balancing emotional connection with scientific proof, persona-driven messaging, and why measuring marketing is non-negotiable.

Healthcare Marketing Persona Strategy Brand Building ↗ Listen Now

What People Say

From the people
who know.

I have had the pleasure to work alongside Sunshine for nearly a decade in various roles — most recently in a SME context with Nanosonics as regional marketing leads, but mostly in the Genetics Science Division of Thermo Fisher Scientific. She has over the years transformed from a highly experienced and accomplished marketing individual contributor to an infectiously energetic, positive global marketing leader. She remains keenly focused on customer propositions to drive growth with digital activities, and creates a creative environment for her teams to find the best ways to enable sales team effectiveness in the field. Sunshine is collaborative, resourceful, and routinely seeks team and peer feedback to determine the best approach. She then coaches her team to decide what's worth doing for highest return on investment and highest impact. For the Nanosonics business, her impact in support of NA regional growth has been substantial — she built a strong marketing team and best practice from the ground up.

Martine Wylie, Senior Marketing Leader Nanosonics · Thermo Fisher Scientific · Colleague

I worked with Sunshine when she owned and operated Surf Life for Women magazine. She is an outstanding human being to work with — very knowledgeable about marketing, running a magazine, and the sport of women's surfing. Her innovative thinking and high energy would be valuable for any company.

Mary Osborne, Owner Mary Osborne Inc · Surf industry colleague

Let's Work Together

Ready to build something
worth amplifying?

I keep my roster small on purpose — so every client gets senior strategic thinking with boutique-level attention. If you're building something ambitious and want a partner who's done this at every scale, let's start a conversation.

Connect on LinkedIn →

The positioning, strategy,and systems toamplify your growth.

Strategy and structure,built from the ground up.

Boutique attention.Enterprise results.