Pier 45 is led by founder and CEO, Katie Higgins, a B2B SaaS marketing leader who has more than 15 years of experience at both high-growth technology companies and Fortune 500 corporations. Most of this experience is US-based – she spent a decade living and working in New York. 

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Most notably, Katie was the Senior Director of Communications at New York Proptech unicorn VTS, the fastest-growing technology company in the history of commercial real estate. 

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In this role, Katie led the company's communications and content strategies globally and was on the Marketing leadership team, reporting directly into the CMO. She joined VTS in 2016, when the company had around 150 employees, with a marketing team of four, and was valued at US$300M. When she left in August 2021, VTS had more than 500 employees, had reached unicorn status (the last publicly disclosed valuation was $1.7B in 2022), and had a marketing team of more than 30 people. 

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Katie developed integrated communications and content strategies that established VTS as the category leader in the "leasing and asset management" software category, fueling VTS’ growth. Achievements of note include:

• Led company rebrand, overhaul of company messaging, and website rebuild 

• Oversaw the team that developed of demand-generation content, including webinars, case studies, infographics, videos, eBooks, whitepapers, research studies, blog articles, and more. 

• Led the communications strategies for milestone announcements including:

  • US$90M Series D funding round - the largest in the sector at the time, propelled the firm to unicorn status 

  • 3 acquisitions (Hightower, Property Capsule, Rise Buildings) 

  • Countless product announcements, including VTS Market (the industry's first integrated online marketing platform) and VTS Data (the industry's first and only forward-looking market data solution)

• Established the VTS Blog – the industry-leading news source with more than 10,000 subscribers

• Led a cross-functional team (Data, Market Research, Marketing/PR, Design) that created the VTS Office Demand Index (VODI) - the first and only leading monthly market indicator of tenant demand for office space in the US, which has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, CNBC, Fast Company, Business Insider, Bloomberg, and more.

 

Under Katie’s leadership VTS' media presence grew significantly – from 2016 to 2021, media mentions grew more than 100% year over year. In total, she achieved more than 600 press mentions in top tier outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Business Insider, Fortune, and Fast Company, as well as key property industry publications including The Real Deal, the Commercial Observer, and Property Week. 
 
Katie also worked closely with VTS CEO and co-founder, Nick Romito, to establish him as an industry thought leader and visionary in the commercial property space. As a result, Nick is regularly quoted in the business and trade press, appears on TV to discuss industry trends, is a highly sought after keynote speaker at both property and technology events, and was honored as a prestigious EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019. 

 

Katie was also Head of Marketing at The Mintable, a Sydney/Denver-based learning and growth platform for managers. 
 

Katie recently returned to her hometown of Sydney with her family and started Pier 45 so that she can leverage her deep marketing experience (and scar tissue!) to help local Australian tech startups grow faster and smarter.