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Lindsey Slaby
Company
Sunday Dinner
Location
New York, New York, United States
Bio
Lindsey Slaby is the founder of Sunday Dinner. From the first 90 days to full re-orgs, Sunday Dinner partners with CMOs and brand leaders to accelerate decision-making, reset ways of working, and unblock creative momentum. Designed for the real pace of modern marketing. Each engagement is custom—but often involves stepping in as an external chief of staff: clarifying priorities, designing team structures, pressure-testing strategy, or getting work over the finish line when it matters most. Lindsey has received industry recognition for her impactful work, including prestigious awards such as a Titanium Cannes Lion, D&AD’s first white pencil, and being named to Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 list in 2020.
Lindsey Slaby is the founder of...
description
Sunday Dinner is a brand consultant that acts as an extension of the marketing department to offer insights on how to tackle today's marketing & business challenges in new ways. Top Contribution areas - Building a better GTM approach - Marketing operational excellence - Hands-on development of marketing & comms strategies - Organizational design and creative services models - Helping our leaders stay informed, connected, and inspired.
Sunday Dinner is a brand consultant...
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Actionable Takeaways
Cross-sector application thinking is powerful:
Sasha and his co-founder identified how learning methodologies that worked in athletics could apply to military training and beyond. B2B founders should regularly explore how their core technology could create value in adjacent or seemingly unrelated sectors, as the principles that make a solution effective in one domain often translate to others when properly adapted.
Leverage educational institutions' innovation programs:
Sasha and his co-founder identified how learning methodologies that worked in athletics could apply to military training and beyond. B2B founders should regularly explore how their core technology could create value in adjacent or seemingly unrelated sectors, as the principles that make a solution effective in one domain often translate to others when properly adapted.
Traditional marketing doesn't work in non-traditional markets:
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Revenue split strategy between government and commercial:
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Balance innovation with insider knowledge:
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Conversation Highlights
Lindsey Slaby, founder of Sunday Dinner, has spent 12 years as one of marketing’s best-kept secrets: a solo consultant and CMO advisor who comes in when leaders start new roles, earns their total trust, and becomes so embedded that she says “we” when talking about her clients’ companies — and means it. Built from actual Sunday night dinners she hosted at her home for a diverse mix of creators and makers, Sunday Dinner has evolved into a solo practice, a Slack community with a 15,000-person waitlist and 400 active members operating under Chatham House rules, and a model where Lindsey is the product. In this episode, she talks about the CMO sparring partner problem nobody names, why boards are now the real power center in marketing strategy, and why learning never stops when you’re selling your judgment as the service.
Topics Discussed
- Origin of Sunday Dinner: actual salon-style dinners at Lindsey’s home 10-12 years ago, diverse guests, “is that URL available?” moment
- The Sunday Dinner model: solo CMO advisor who comes in when leaders enter new organizations
- Going with the leader through their career moves — cars today, coffee tomorrow
- Why new CMOs bring 2-3 trusted advisors with them and why Lindsey is often one of them
- Her role: bridging between new leader’s vision and the existing team; helping the team understand how to communicate with the new boss
- The sparring partner problem: new CMOs on an island, afraid to challenge their own team, needing someone to push back honestly
- Client experience (partial): Union Pacific, Goldman Sachs, Target, Converse, Allergan (Botox)
- No specific industry — it’s about the leader, not the category
- Ideal client profile: board-empowered CMOs with their own budget, clear vision, high curiosity for new technology
- 12-year track record; business development through relationships, speaking events, and writing
- The Sunday Dinner Slack: 15,000+ waitlist; ~400 active members; Chatham House rules; world’s best marketers, agency owners, media and tech leaders
- Solo operation: Lindsey is the product; AI has allowed her to scale what she does without adding headcount
- AI use: agents for everything; built a custom social media sentiment dashboard in Claude (GitHub code + Claude); Claude Cowork for file organization
- The C-suite AI knowledge cliff: senior leaders have extraordinary access to training; the rest of the org is falling behind
- Coding background from childhood (IBM, Lotus Notes database as a kid); came back to help her navigate AI tools
- 2026 goal: finish a personal AI-powered travel tool she’s been building; find creative balance in a heavy transition year
