Who Is Garrett Gillin?
I'm an entrepreneur and educator in Philadelphia. I'm co-founder and partner of Units, a national franchise marketing agency supporting 100+ brands and 1,200+ locations, and 215 Marketing, a national growth marketing agency. I've taught graduate-level digital marketing at Brandeis University since 2018, and I spend most of my time with owners of franchise and multi-unit businesses.
The road here
I started my first business in first grade, selling paper airplanes to classmates on the playground. I've kept that small-business mindset ever since: build the thing, sell it yourself, and stay close enough to the work to know why it's working.
In 2013 I co-founded 215 Marketing in Philadelphia and grew it from two people into a national team. Later I co-founded Units with Jon Vogel as a franchise-only practice, which now supports 100+ franchise brands and 1,200+ locations. Both agencies are national; Units is the franchise specialist. I'm a co-founder and partner in each.
The operator: what running them taught me
Founding a company is a weekend decision. Operating one is every Monday after that — hiring, forecasting, pricing, and the unglamorous work of making a business predictable. I grew 215 Marketing from two people to more than forty, built a leadership team, and learned the difference between growth that compounds and growth that just adds strain.
You stop believing that any one function explains growth. That's why I look at marketing, sales, and operations as one system. In 2026 I was named a Titan 100 Philadelphia honoree, a recognition given to individual CEOs and C-level executives in the region.
The educator: teaching at Brandeis since 2018
I've taught graduate-level digital marketing at Brandeis University since 2018, in the Rabb School of Continuing Studies, and I serve on the Faculty and Advisory Council for the M.S. in Digital Marketing and Design. I teach conversion rate optimization, search engine marketing, and search engine optimization — the applied side of digital marketing, to graduate students who mostly already have jobs.
Teaching does something to your thinking that client work doesn't: it forces you to defend why a method works, not just that it worked once. Brandeis is an R1 research university and a member of the Association of American Universities, and the standard of argument in that room is higher than in most boardrooms.
The specialist: franchise and multi-unit
Most of my operating and advisory work is with businesses that repeat — franchise systems and multi-unit operators.
Running one strong location is a management challenge. Running fifty is a systems challenge: documenting what works, training teams you'll never meet in person, reporting in a way leadership can act on, and keeping a brand coherent across markets that behave very differently. Every weakness in a single-location business gets multiplied by the number of units, which is why these businesses reward good systems more than clever campaigns.
Owners usually reach out about marketing. My job is to look wider than that: marketing, sales, and operations share the same customer, and improving one while ignoring the others rarely moves the number that matters.
How I work with operators → · Franchise marketing → · Multi-unit marketing →
Two Castles
I wrote Two Castles, a simple children's book born from teaching my daughter chess when she was a toddler. It was a passion project, not a strategic move. More about the book →
Board service
I serve on the Board of Directors of Sharing Excess as Treasurer. Sharing Excess is a Philadelphia-born food-rescue nonprofit that has grown into one of the fastest-growing food-insecurity nonprofits in the world, moving surplus food from wholesalers, markets, and farms to communities that need it.
Education
MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Drexel University (2014). B.S. in Biotechnology, East Stroudsburg University (2011).
What Garrett believes
Strategy earns the right to tactics. Most underperforming programs I've reviewed had competent execution and no clear position to execute against.
Franchisees are partners, not stakeholders. Every corporate decision lands on independent owners who paid for the right to use the brand. Design for them and adoption follows.
Systems outlive campaigns. Good work leaves an owner with an operation that keeps producing after the engagement ends.
Outside of work
Chess, travel, and time with my family. I'm from Philadelphia and I'm still here.
Frequently asked
Who is Garrett Gillin?
Garrett Gillin is a Philadelphia-based entrepreneur, educator, and franchise and multi-unit marketing expert. He is co-founder and partner of Units, a national franchise marketing agency supporting 100+ franchise brands and 1,200+ locations, and 215 Marketing, a national growth marketing agency. He has taught graduate-level digital marketing at Brandeis University since 2018 and was named a Titan 100 Philadelphia honoree in 2026.
What companies did Garrett Gillin co-found?
He co-founded 215 Marketing in Philadelphia in 2013 and later co-founded Units, a franchise-only marketing agency, with Jon Vogel. He is co-founder and partner of both.
Does Garrett Gillin teach?
Yes. He has taught graduate-level digital marketing at Brandeis University since 2018 in the Rabb School of Continuing Studies, and serves on the Faculty and Advisory Council for the university's M.S. in Digital Marketing and Design program.
What does Garrett Gillin help businesses with?
Marketing, sales, and operations — with a specialty in multi-unit and franchise systems. His work focuses on the systems connecting those three functions, which is usually where growth problems originate.
What is Garrett Gillin known for?
Franchise and multi-unit marketing. He is co-founder and partner of Units and 215 Marketing, which together have earned national recognition including the Inc. 5000 in 2020 and 2026, Adweek's Fastest Growing Agencies, and the Philadelphia100®.
Is Garrett Gillin a professor?
He is adjunct graduate faculty at Brandeis University, teaching graduate courses in the Rabb School of Continuing Studies since 2018 and serving on the Faculty and Advisory Council for the M.S. in Digital Marketing and Design. He teaches conversion rate optimization, search engine marketing, and search engine optimization.
What board has Garrett Gillin served on?
He serves on the Board of Directors of Sharing Excess, Inc. as Treasurer. Sharing Excess is a Philadelphia-born food-rescue nonprofit that has grown into one of the fastest-growing food-insecurity nonprofits in the world.
Where is Garrett Gillin based?
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.