TL;DR

Darkroom has hired Peter Gao as Senior Vice President of Growth to lead the agency’s expansion into larger mid-market and enterprise accounts. Gao - a seasoned operator from Rokt with deep experience in e-commerce tech, ad tech, and AI advertising solutions - will scale Darkroom’s commercial engine at a moment when the agency is productizing AI and software into marketing outcomes. The hire underscores Darkroom’s shift from boutique agency roots to a platform-grade partner for brands that want measurable commerce acceleration.

Why this hire matters

This is a strategic growth hire, not a headcount increase. Darkroom describes itself as the first AI-native growth marketing agency: a model that pairs senior leadership with a proprietary, AI-driven commerce layer to deliver measurable revenue outcomes. Bringing Peter Gao into the leadership team signals an explicit move to commercialize that product-grade capability for larger, more complex clients. In short: Darkroom is doubling down on sales leadership so its productized AI + human model can scale to the brands that will define the next phase of retail and social commerce.

Peter Gao: the profile that fits the momentum

Peter arrives with a resume built on partnerships, sales rigor and cross-border commerce understanding:

• Enterprise & ad tech experience: Most recently Vice President of Strategic Business Development at Rokt, where he focused on strategic partnerships and revenue performance across Retail and Marketplaces.

• Global sales leadership: At Nielsen’s SuperData, he led global sales for gaming analytics, landing enterprise customers such as Microsoft and Sony.

• Operator & founder mindset: He founded a cross-border commerce venture and began his career as an Intelligence Analyst at Point72, giving him a blend of entrepreneurial and analytical discipline.

That mix - enterprise sales chops plus product and founder experience - makes Peter well-suited to lead a sales function that must translate a technical, AI-infused product into repeatable commercial outcomes for complex clients.

What Peter will own (and why it matters)

Peter’s role is explicitly dual: unlock more value from existing clients and bring the brands that move the market.

1. Commercializing the product: As Darkroom matures its AI and software layer, Peter will map those capabilities into enterprise sales plays that enterprise procurement and procurement-adjacent buyers recognize. This means translating technical differentiation into risk-adjusted business cases: measurable uplift, predictable runway and accountable KPIs.

2. Expanding enterprise relationships: He’ll lead efforts to win larger mid-market and enterprise customers, building a pipeline based on outcomes rather than outputs. That requires consultative GTM, strategic partnerships and account orchestration.

3. Operationalizing a maturing sales function: With Darkroom hiring aggressively in 2025, Peter will scale repeatable sales processes, coaching teams to close bigger deals without sacrificing the agency’s product fidelity.

These priorities are crucial because Darkroom’s advantage depends on marrying senior growth talent, creative systems, and an AI commerce layer into a coherent product that enterprise teams can buy and operationalize. Peter’s experience at Rokt and in enterprise deals makes him a logical steward of that translation.

What clients should expect next

Clients - new and incumbent - should expect a tighter alignment between capabilities and outcomes:

• Deeper commercial hygiene: Sales motions focused on measurable uplift (MER, ROAS, LTV/CAC), not buzzwords.

• Integrated offers for enterprise buyers: Packaged services that bundle AI automation, creative systems, and commerce engineering into predictable deliverables.

• Stronger partnership models: Enterprise onboarding and post-launch governance that preserves the senior-led, experiment-driven approach Darkroom is known for.

• Faster product rollout: As the sales function scales, expect smoother roadmaps for productized features and clearer timelines for impact.

Put simply, Peter’s hiring is meant to make it easier for larger brands to evaluate, buy and scale Darkroom’s AI-native solutions.

How this fits Darkroom’s strategic arc

Darkroom’s transformation from boutique studio to an AI-native growth marketing firm has been deliberate: build a product (AI commerce layer), staff senior operators, and then scale commercially. This hire - one of 30 in 2025 and chosen from a competitive pool - marks the stage where the agency reinvests in go-to-market muscle to match its technical and creative investments. It’s an expected, but critical, next step: product + people + predictable sales process.

A leadership fit

Lucas DiPietrantonio, Darkroom’s co-founder and CEO, framed the hire around teamwork and capability: with Peter onboard, the agency expects to “unlock Darkroom’s full capabilities for our clients” and to scale the company’s ability to work with the best brands in the world. That comment underscores how closely the agency ties sales leadership to product maturity: closing enterprise deals is as much about commercial storytelling and governance as it is about technical differentiation. Peter’s steady, disciplined reputation at Rokt and in prior roles positions him to be that storyteller and systems-builder.

Final thought

Darkroom’s model - senior growth teams + AI commerce layer + productized creative systems - only reaches industry-shaping scale if the agency can sell and operationalize it with enterprise rigor. Peter Gao’s hire answers that requirement head on. For brands seeking a growth partner that pairs technical sophistication with commercial accountability, this appointment signals Darkroom’s readiness to move from fast-growing agency to strategic, scalable commerce partner.

Book a call with Darkroom to learn how this expanded leadership team and AI-native product can accelerate your retail, marketplace, and DTC growth: https://darkroomagency.com/book-a-call