Kathleen Estreich and Emily Kramer are the co-founders of MKT1. They advise founders, recruit and advise marketers, and invest in SaaS startups, and join Dave on this episode of the Exit Five podcast to talk about early-stage marketing strategy and hiring (Kathleen and Emily have held roles at Facebook, Box, Intercom, Scalr, Asana, Carta). They also have strong opinions about marketing compensation and how to understand your comp and equity package if you're a Seed or Series A marketing leader.
Timestamps
- (00:00) - Intro
- (07:55) - Guest Intro: Kathleen Estrich and Emily Kramer, co-founders of MKT1
- (12:55) - Early Stage Marketing Compensation and Benchmark Insights
- (17:55) - Hiring First Marketers: Traits and Skills to Look For
- (22:55) - Building a Marketing Team: From Hiring to Scaling
- (30:20) - Equity Compensation: Understanding and Negotiating Your Stake
- (35:20) - The Role of a Marketing Leader: Hiring, Building a Brand, and Setting Strategy
- (40:20) - MKT1's Mission: Supporting Marketers in the Startup Ecosystem
- (45:20) - The Future of Startup Marketing and Compensation Trends
- (50:20) - Advice on Career Growth and Navigating Startup Challenges
Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership
***
Today’s episode is brought to you by Walnut.
Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?
Come on, today’s buyers don’t want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.
That’s where Walnut comes in.
Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond.
That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.
And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what’s actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.
Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA?
Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!
The Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt) 