Coffee Meets Bagel CMO Delbert Ty exits, goes fractional

Coffee Meets Bagel’s (CMB) chief marketing officer Delbert Ty has stepped down after leading the dating app’s marketing efforts for the past few years. The company has yet to announce a replacement, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands. 

Ty joined CMB at a critical stage in its growth and helped scale its global marketing function, implement a four-day work week across the company, and build a lean but high-performing team spread across San Francisco, Singapore, Bangkok and beyond, said Ty in conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. During his time, the company saw more than 50% growth, which he described as sustainable and efficient.

At CMB, his key initiatives included shifting the brand’s creative strategy to focus entirely on user-generated content, allowing the team to scale paid performance marketing while remaining cost-effective. He also rebuilt the company’s martech stack without engineering support, using automation and tools such as Supermetrics to streamline reporting and free up time for analysis.

Don't miss: StarHub chief of consumer business group steps down 

Before joining Coffee Meets Bagel, Ty made his mark at Circles.Life as its head of marketing where he led unconventional marketing stunts. Ty also held earlier roles across tech and FMCG including marketing and brand director at Duracell and regional design brand manager at Procter & Gamble. 

Speaking with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Ty said the transition came as Coffee Meets Bagel moves in a new direction. “I’ve been really lucky to have joined CMB at the time that I did. With that said, CMB is now headed in a different direction and I thought it was a good time to start my own thing," said Ty. 

Among his proudest achievements were the “boring but essential” operational changes. “Scaling marketing with creator content, building a globally aligned team across time zones, and patching together a sustainable martech stack without bothering engineering — that’s the stuff I’ll remember,” he said.

Ty will now operate as a fractional CMO. “I’ve actually rejected some full-time gigs to go fractional. I’ve always wanted to try it out because of the ownership of time and diversity of projects it brings," stated Ty. 

In fact, Ty is already working on several projects, including helping an eCommerce brand scale its creator content pipeline, supporting an AI startup focused on marketing agents, and advising a DTC brand on a bold market entry.

“My career has been a series of jumps into the unknown, from FMCG to tech to dating and now being fractional. What’s common across all these choices is a choice to bet on myself and a healthy dose of luck! Hopefully that continues,” added Ty. 

Ty said he plans to share more about his journey into fractional work to help others who may be considering the path.

Over the past few years, CMB has seen several noteworthy updates, particularly concerning product features and user engagement strategies. In 2023, it rolled out a series of updates to help serious relationship-seekers meet someone special faster. This includes the ability to send flowers to anyone, anywhere, as well as to view and match with users who sends flowers for free. 

It also phased out less popular features such as instant likes, skip the line and the ability to send a message with a like. 

Related articles:  
Meta APAC VP Dan Neary exits after a decade  
Wendy's names Corina Black as first CMO, as US brand returns after 40-year absence  
ZALORA SEA CMO steps down