A Gotham ETF entrepreneur recently added a marketer, and now he's building out his distribution team.

Will Rhind, CEO of New York-based GraniteShares [profile], confirms that Brian Guerra joined GraniteShares on June 25 as marketing director, GraniteShares' first marketing team member. Watch for more new hires soon.

"At the moment our focus is on building our distribution," Rhind tells MFWire. "We're looking to expand the sales side. It's all about making sure that we get the right distribution access.

Rhind and his team brought some allies to the NYSE this morning, where Rhind rang the opening bell of the exchange in celebration of one of their ETFs, the GraniteShares Gold Trust (BAR).

GraniteShares launched its first funds in May 2017. The private-equity-backed startup now has a team of seven people working with five ETFs with a combined AUM of $320 million. The firm is all about going "beyond beta" by "focusing on the non-core area of the portfolio."

Looking ahead, the GraniteShares team is "always working on products," Rhind says.

"We're trying to develop the commodity fund range that we have more," Rhind says. "We have a bitcoin ETF in filing that we're also trying to launch."

GraniteShares is also working on equity ETFs, Rhind confirms. And they're looking across the Atlantic, too.

"We're also trying to launch a business in Europe," Rhind says.

As for Guerra, Rhind describes adding a marketing specialist as "really important" to GraniteShares.

"It was a hire that we were looking to make for a while," Rhind says. "Now we're in a much better spot in terms of having an in-house marketing resource."

Rhind describes Guerra as standing out from other marketers because of his mix of skills and experience, including his work as a journalist.

"We interviewed a lot of candidates who were probably quite strong but didn't have a grounding in finance," Rhind says. "Brian [Guerra], he had a financial background but also could write."

An alumnus of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Guerra most recently worked at at Contino as U.S. content manager. Prior to that he worked at Interactive Brokers, AAM, and PA SportsTicker. 

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