
From Employee #4 to CMO: The Path to Marketing Leadership with Sylvia Lepoidevin, CMO at Kandji
The Dave Gerhardt Show
Advertisement
Mid-episode sponsor segment promoting Walnut interactive demos and deal rooms to center product-led marketing experiences.
#283 Marketing Leadership | In this episode, Dave is joined by Sylvia Lepoidevin, CMO of Kandji, a leading platform for managing and securing Apple devices in the workplace. Sylvia shares her journey from employee #4 to CMO at Kandji, driving the company’s growth to a $850M valuation. She talks about her experience building efficient marketing teams, leveraging AI, and creating impactful brand experiences.
Dave and Sylvia cover:
- How AI is reshaping marketing roles and enabling smaller, more efficient teams
- Strategies for internal marketing that align and energize cross-functional teams
- Product launches and creative campaigns for brand-driven growth
Timestamps
- (00:00) - - Intro to Sylvia
- (05:32) - - From Marketing Hire to CMO
- (10:17) - - Understanding Equity and Financial Outcomes
- (12:59) - - Wealth and Career Growth
- (15:39) - - Why It’s Important to Have a Clear Career Narrative
- (20:31) - - Mastering Storytelling in Team Meetings
- (23:49) - - How to Engage Your Team
- (24:25) - - Leveraging Feedback Loops to Build a Successful Team
- (31:20) - - AI Is Enabling Smaller, More Efficient Teams
- (35:03) - - AI’s Impact on Marketing
- (38:03) - - How Kandji Is Expanding Their Team
- (40:54) - - Achieving 10x Growth Through Product-Led Strategies
- (44:34) - - Leveraging Competitor and Apple-Specific Keywords
- (47:58) - - Minimizing Hiring Risk: Test Roles First
Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Get a free, personalized 45-minute AI workshop to help you identify the best AI use cases for your marketing team and map out where agents can save you time at optimizely.com/exitfive.
AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.
Visit exitfive.com/retreat to apply for Exit Five’s first-ever, in-person Marketing Leadership Retreat, March 18–20, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Join 100 CMOs and VPs of Marketing from companies like like Zoom, Snowflake, Manychat, Bitly, G2, HP, and more for two days of thinking bigger around a trusted group of peers in marketing.
***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
- They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
- Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
- Visit hatch.fm to learn more


