#195: Marketing Leadership | Paddle CMO Andrew Davies on The First Principles of B2B Marketing

10 snips

Nov 21, 2024

In this discussion, Andrew Davies, CMO at Paddle and former VP at Optimizely, shares his insights on the core principles of B2B marketing. He emphasizes the importance of foundational strategies over trends and explores how to structure and scale a marketing team. Andrew discusses differentiating in a crowded market and the significance of being a helpful brand. He also touches on innovative marketing initiatives like Paddle's AI Launchpad and the evolving role of AI in shaping effective marketing campaigns.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Founder Advantage in Marketing

Understanding the value chain, market dynamics, and unit economics is crucial for marketing leaders.
Davies' founder experience enables him to connect with Paddle's target audience of software founders.

ADVICE

First Principles of Marketing

Focus on a tightly defined market and a compelling message before worrying about tactics.
With a clear market and message, various marketing tactics become effective.

ANECDOTE

Paddle's Rebranding Journey

Paddle rebranded as the "revenue delivery platform", but it confused customers.
Andrew Davies, after joining Paddle, used customer feedback and testing to reposition Paddle as "complete payments infrastructure for software".

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

In this episode, Dave is joined by Andrew Davies, CMO at Paddle, a company providing complete payments infrastructure for 4,000+ software businesses globally. Prior to Paddle, he was VP of Corporate Marketing at Optimizely, following the acquisition of his startup. Dave and Andrew talk about the marketing strategy at Paddle, managing a team of 30 marketers, the fundamentals of effective B2B marketing, and their mission of being the most helpful brand in their space.

Dave and Andrew also cover:

The importance of first principles in B2B marketing
How to structure and scale a marketing team
How to differentiate in a crowded market

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Intro to Andrew
(08:33) - - From Startup Founder and CMO to Head of Marketing
(14:08) - - Starting Out at Paddle
(16:54) - - First Principles for Building Out Marketing
(19:32) - - Positioning and Messaging in a Crowded Market
(20:47) - - Leading a 30-Person Marketing Team at Paddle
(26:26) - - The Key to Being an Effective Leader
(28:55) - - Distributing and Prioritizing Tasks on the Marketing Team
(34:22) - - Marketing Strategy at Paddle
(36:03) - - What is Your Marketing Team NOT Doing That is Considered a Best Practice for Every Other Company?
(39:35) - - AI in B2B Marketing
(42:28) - - Closing Remarks

Join 50,000 people who get our Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Today’s episode is brought to you by Paramark.

It’s November. 2026 planning is already here. And the stuff you’re doing right now will decide how next year plays out.

But here’s the problem: most teams are still planning next year's marketing strategy based on the WRONG DATA because of broken attribution and a misleading gut feel. And you can’t make smart budget calls if you’re just guessing what’s working, what’s not, and where to put your next dollar.

That’s where Paramark comes in. They help you replace the guesswork with actual insight backed by $2 billion in analyzed marketing data. They’ve figured out what actually drives incremental growth across every channel including LinkedIn, Meta, TikTok, Google, CTV, even OOH.

And right now, they’re offering a private 1:1 consultation with their CEO and CMO, Pranav and Sam, who have led marketing teams at companies like Dropbox, Adobe, Microsoft, and Shutterfly.

In this 45-minute strategy session, they’ll help you measure the real impact of every marketing dollar, pull insights from your current media mix, and design a 2026 roadmap that’s rooted in data, not gut.

This is a heck of an offer. And it’s real. And will go fast. So if you want to future-proof your marketing strategy for 2026, don’t miss out on this offer.

Grab your spot at paramark.com/brand-consult.

***

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