Dean Gunsolus
Visionary & Founder. Client strategy, business development, and the long-term agency vision. Owns the strategic "why" on every engagement.
Dean's full bio →
The Team
Built by operators.
Critical Marketing is a small, senior team. The person who scopes the work is the person who does the work. No pyramid staffing, no rotating account managers, no junior strategists hiding behind their boss's title on the proposal.
Critical Marketing is led by three co-founders: Dean Gunsolus (Visionary & Founder, client strategy), Richard Baker (Operations, internal systems), and Tristan Addi (Co-Founder, executional lead on every account). We supplement with vetted contractors for production work that exceeds in-house capacity. The senior team is the team. The person you talk to on the proposal call is the person who runs your account every week thereafter.
The leadership team.
Richard Baker
Operations. Client onboarding workflows, project management, financial operations, internal tooling rollout. Owns the operational "how" on every engagement.
Richard's full bio →Tristan Addi
Co-Founder, Creative & Strategy. Hands-on lead on every active client. Google Ads, SEO, web design, content marketing, brand identity, video production. The "what" of every engagement.
Tristan's full bio →How we structure work.
Most agencies separate sales from delivery. A new business development person closes you with a senior strategist on the call, then hands you off to a junior account manager who does the actual day-to-day work. You feel the gap immediately. The strategist promised certain things; the account manager either does not know about them or does not have the authority to deliver them.
We do not do this. The person who sells you is the person who does the work. If you talk to Tristan on the pitch call, you talk to Tristan on every weekly review for the duration of the engagement. If Dean closes you, Dean is in your strategy conversations every quarter.
The tradeoff is that we cannot scale like a big agency. We cap our active client roster intentionally. When the roster is full, we either decline new business or grow the senior team by hiring (not by adding junior staff to existing accounts). This means our pricing is higher than commodity agencies and our capacity is lower. It also means clients get senior attention every week, not just on quarterly review calls.
Frequently asked questions.
The person you talk to on the pitch call is the person who runs your account every week. Dean, Richard, or Tristan, depending on the scope. We do not hand engagements to junior staff.
Yes, for specific executional work that exceeds in-house capacity (e.g., specialized photography, animation, voice-over talent, paid media spend management at very large scale). Senior strategy and account ownership stay in-house.
We cap intentionally to maintain senior attention on every account. Current roster sizes and active capacity vary — ask us directly when you reach out.
We hire senior people opportunistically. We do not hire junior staff. If you are a senior marketer with operator experience and you want to work where every engagement has senior attention from start to finish, reach out.
Yes. Tristan and Dean both work fractional engagements where appropriate. See the Strategy & Consulting page for details.
Get in touch
Let's talk.
Tell us about the business. The person who responds is the person you will work with.