THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE ENGINE
BUILT BY
PERFORMANCE MARKETERS.
Tom Ferrara has spent decades building, operating and advising businesses where advertising has to produce measurable outcomes.
01 / FOUNDER'S PERSPECTIVE
OWNERS.
OPERATORS.
Tom Ferrara has followed customer acquisition from traditional direct response through internet leads, search, inbound calls, automation and AI.
His perspective is shaped by operating businesses in competitive markets. Marketing competes for capital. Every campaign, channel, lead provider and agency initiative should be judged by the opportunities, customers and revenue it produces.
Founder / TradePropel
TOM FERRARA
Tom Ferrara is a performance-marketing executive, entrepreneur and investor whose work has influenced more than 500 companies.
View LinkedIn profile ↗THE EXPERIENCE
Tom Ferrara is a performance-marketing executive, entrepreneur and investor whose work has influenced the marketing, lead-generation and revenue performance of more than 500 companies across education, technology, home services, career services and other growth-focused industries.
Tom was co-founder and CEO of CUnet, a performance-marketing and full-service digital agency serving the education sector. CUnet worked with more than 400 colleges and universities, helping institutions improve student acquisition through digital marketing, lead generation, media strategy and performance analytics before the company was acquired by Nelnet, Inc.
At CUnet, Tom helped pioneer systems designed to bring greater accountability to performance marketing, including an early Vendor Lead Management System that enabled organizations to track, manage and measure leads from multiple marketing sources. The platform helped marketers better understand lead quality, source performance and return on marketing investment.
He later co-founded and led Edufficient, a performance-focused digital marketing agency built around measurable customer acquisition and marketing efficiency. Edufficient was acquired by PX, where Tom subsequently served as Chief Commercial Officer, working across lead generation, customer acquisition, marketplace strategy and commercial growth.
Earlier in his career, Tom was Founder and CEO of CareerEngine, which was taken public on the American Stock Exchange under the ticker CNE, and held senior management roles at Career Education Corporation, Remote Lojix and CMI. Across these businesses, his work has consistently focused on customer acquisition, digital marketing, lead generation, sales performance, distribution and scalable growth.
Tom has also invested in, advised and served on the boards of companies across performance marketing, advertising technology, SaaS, education technology, home services, lead generation, marketplaces and career services, giving him experience from both the operator and investor sides of high-growth businesses.
Tom is also Managing Partner of New Enterprise Partners, an accelerator and strategic marketing partner for growing companies.
He is the author of Job Seeker Services (Thomson Learning, 2002) and Permission to Pivot (Freiling Press, 2026). His work and commentary have been featured by NBC, MSNBC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Institutional Investor.
Tom earned his B.A. from Bucknell University.
Areas of expertise
02 / HOW WE THINK
THE NEXT DOLLAR
HAS A JOB TO DO.
The objective determines the strategy. Not the service we happen to sell.
Sometimes the right answer is more media. Sometimes it is better creative, a different lead source, a stronger website, faster response or improved conversion. TradePropel connects those decisions to the full path from consumer intent to customers and revenue.
See the Managed Growth approachLET’S TALK GROWTH
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TO WORK.
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