Category Visionaries Marty Kausas, CEO & Co-Founder of Pylon: $20 Million Raised to Build the First B2B Support Platform
Pylon is pioneering the first customer support platform purpose-built for B2B companies, securing $20 million in funding to transform how B2B companies interact with customers post-sale. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Marty Kausas, CEO and Co-Founder of Pylon, about his journey from Airbnb software engineer to category creator. Marty shares how Pylon evolved from a Slack connector tool to a comprehensive platform challenging incumbents like Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud by addressing the unique challenges of B2B support.
Topics Discussed:
- Pylon's evolution from a Slack connector to a full B2B support platform
- The fundamental differences between B2B and B2C customer support needs
- How B2B companies struggle with disconnected post-sales teams (support, success, solutions, professional services)
- The pivot process: from failed ideas to finding product-market fit
- Leveraging LinkedIn for marketing and pipeline generation
- Using "villain brands" as positioning targets (positioning against Zendesk)
- Founder-led marketing strategies that drive growth
- The process of creating and evangelizing a new category
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
- Customer discovery through direct outreach: Marty's team sent 120 personalized LinkedIn messages daily to potential customers before landing on their product idea. Rather than starting with their own problems, they systematically researched market gaps by targeting professionals with newer job titles that might indicate emerging workflows.
- Follow emerging communication trends: Pylon identified a key trend where B2B companies were supporting customers through Slack and Teams channels but lacked tools to track, measure, and integrate these conversations with their existing systems. B2B founders should look for similar shifts in how their target customers are working and identify the gaps in tooling.
- Identify "villain brands" in your space: Positioning against an incumbent that customers are frustrated with can be powerful. Marty's team positions Pylon as "building the next Zendesk," which immediately resonates with prospects tired of tools built for B2C use cases being forced into B2B environments.
- Double down on what works: When Pylon discovered LinkedIn was generating half their pipeline, they intensified their efforts rather than diversifying too early. Marty now spends 5+ hours every Sunday batch-writing LinkedIn posts for all three co-founders.
- Embrace founder-led marketing for early-stage B2B: Personal brands drive B2B buying decisions. Marty emphasizes that people connect with people, not companies. His most successful content combines build-in-public transparency (showcasing Pylon's growth) with personal storytelling that humanizes the brand and creates emotional connections with prospects.
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.