Dan Pantelo

Dan Pantelo is the founder and chief executive of Marpipe, a New York-based advertising technology company whose platform manages dynamic product ads and catalog feed optimization for e-commerce brands running campaigns across Meta and other channels [1][2]. He is known within the direct-to-consumer and performance-marketing community for explaining the technical mechanics of catalog advertising, particularly how Meta's commerce manager accumulates optimization learnings at the level of an individual source feed, meaning that brands who upload a new, filtered version of their catalog (for example, only sale items) inadvertently force the system to retrain from scratch rather than benefiting from prior performance data [4].

Pantelo has spoken about a deliberate strategy of building a lower-cost, self-serve version of Marpipe's product alongside its existing enterprise offering, describing the effort as an attempt to create a "Judge Me version" of the company aimed at small and midsize businesses [3]. According to Pantelo, this roughly $500-to-$1,000-per-month tier began as an unannounced pilot in December, when the company emailed its list and signed up eight customers, six of whom retained for more than six months with usage patterns he described as unusually high [3]. He said the early results led Marpipe to assign a dedicated account executive to outbound sales for the offer, with a target of twenty new customers a month, and reported that this hire's compensation was covered by new revenue within the first month [3]. Pantelo said the company later expanded from one to four outbound sales hires at once rather than scaling gradually, citing early results including one representative closing eight deals in his first month and others booking multiple meetings in their first week, and he noted that cold calling had proven surprisingly effective for reaching performance marketers [3].

In discussing the trade-offs of moving down market, Pantelo argued that companies with high penetration in a low-cost segment hold a stronger competitive position than incumbents in a high-value segment, on the reasoning that expanding upmarket is easier than an enterprise player later trying to compete on price [3]. He also disclosed monthly churn of roughly 10 to 15 percent on the new lower-priced tier and described plans to test additional retention measures, including requiring a credit card upfront for free trials [3].

Beyond pricing strategy, Pantelo has positioned himself as an authority on the operational side of dynamic product ads, citing his role running Marpipe as grounds for addressing common mistakes brands make with catalog feeds and for presenting data on the broader state of the DPA market [4]. He has appeared on multiple industry podcasts to discuss these topics, including venues focused on catalog advertising, SaaS growth operations, and his own path into founding the company [3][4][5][6].

Insights & ideas

Dan Pantelo argues that go to market strategy is inseparable from product architecture, using the debate over Judge.me versus Yotpo to make his point that penetrating a market with a low cost, high quality offering creates asymmetric upside because moving upmarket later is far easier than an enterprise player moving down [1]. He believes a cheap product only works as a platform for expansion if it is genuinely good and covers most use cases, not merely a stripped down teaser, and he is candid that Marpipe is deliberately building its own lower cost, self serve tier to sit alongside its enterprise product rather than cede that segment to a future competitor [1].

On the technical side of his business, Pantelo explains that Meta's commerce manager accumulates ad learnings at the level of the uploaded source feed, so brands that launch new filtered catalogs are unknowingly forcing a full retrain from scratch, a common and costly mistake in dynamic product ads [2]. He positions Marpipe's platform around solving this kind of catalog and feed management complexity for advertisers running DPA campaigns [2].

Experience

1. 
   Founder, CEO

   MarpipeSep 2019 to Present
2. Co-Founder

   EcomFounders.comJan 2024 to Present
3. Forbes 30 Under 30: Marketing & Advertising

   ForbesDec 2021 to Dec 2022
4. Founder, CEO

   Pantelo GroupJul 2017 to Dec 2019
5. Intern

   EdelmanJun 2016 to Aug 2016

Education

• Binghamton University · Bachelor's Degree, Individualized Major Program - Financial Public Relations2013 - 2017
• Marlboro High School2009 - 2013

Media & appearances

• E18: The Secret Behind Marpipe's Growth with Dan PanteloSaaS Operators Podcast · Aug 11, 2025

  Dan Pantelo discusses Marpipe's pricing strategy and product positioning, including a new $500/month offering designed for SMBs as a lower-cost alternative to enterprise tools. He explains how Marpipe is attempting to create a 'Judge Me version' of their product while maintaining their enterprise offering, and describes upcoming experiments like requiring credit card upfront for free trials.

• S9 E5: The State of DPA: Why and How It's Growing (with Dan Pantelo)YouTube

  Dan Pantelo, CEO of Marpipe, discusses dynamic product ads (DPA) and catalog feed management, explaining how Meta's commerce manager accumulates learnings at the feed level and why uploading new source feeds with filtered products requires retraining. He details common mistakes brands make with catalog ads and describes Marpipe's DPA optimization platform and startup pricing plans.

• Dan Pantelo, Founder of MarpipeBehind Company Lines · Jun 28, 2022
• From College Hustles to Catalog Conquests: Dan Pantelo's JourneyEquation of Excellence

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