GABA Team Interview: Jock Breitwieser
Jock Breitwieser helps German-speaking companies get noticed in the US. On the GABA SoCal team, he brings more than 20 years of Silicon Valley marketing experience to our global marketing strategy, and he also serves as CMO and Board Member of GABA NorCal. In this interview, he shares what an hour of talking about Mars showed him about GABA, and which sport is taking him to Abu Dhabi.
Please tell us a bit about yourself and what you do!
I’m the Founder and Chief Marketing Strategist of SocialSellinator, a San Jose-based B2B marketing agency named a 50Pros Top Firm in 2026. We help B2B companies, many from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, get found by US buyers in Google and in AI answers like ChatGPT, and turn that visibility into a pipeline.
I have 20+ years in Silicon Valley marketing, at tech companies such as Arcserve, TriNet, Dell SonicWALL, and CallidusCloud, and at global agencies including Edelman, Havas, and The Hoffman Agency.
I’m a Ruhr University Bochum graduate turned Silicon Valley lecturer at UC Berkeley Extension and San Jose State University, and a longtime mentor to European companies entering the US through German Accelerator and Advantage Austria.
What’s a fun fact about you?
I’m a competitive age-group triathlete and qualified to represent the US at the 2026 World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Abu Dhabi this November. Swim, bike, run: apparently, one sport wasn’t enough to keep me out of trouble.
What’s been your most memorable experience with GABA so far?
Hosting our GABA LinkedIn Live with NASA’s Randii Wessen. Not many marketing people get to spend an hour talking about Mars on company time. It was also a reminder of GABA’s reach: one conversation, with people tuning in from both sides of the Atlantic.
What are you passionate about?
Helping great companies get the attention they deserve. A German engineer describes a breakthrough product as “not bad.” An American describes a decent one as “game-changing.” Guess who wins the deal. Today, US buyers often ask ChatGPT or Google for a shortlist before they ever talk to a salesperson, and if you’re not in that answer, you’re not in the deal. Closing that gap for German-speaking companies, through smart and strategic marketing and through GABA, is what drives me.