Why hustle won’t scale – Anna Baird (Madrona, Semrush)

Hustle and fire drills got you here, but they won’t get you to the next stage. As a marketing leader, you need an operating system.

This is exactly where Anna Baird (Venture Partner at Madrona, Board Member at Semrush) has been.

She’s held the C-suite trifecta (CFO, COO, CRO) at hyper-growth companies and shares the exact systems to move from reactive chaos to a predictable, scalable growth engine.

This is a masterclass in building the “rhythm of the business” that allows you to scale marketing, align with your board, and finally prove your team’s ROI.

What You’ll Learn

Build Your Marketing “Rhythm”: How to build an “operational rhythm” (AOPs, KPIs, and decks) that scales your marketing team’s output and proves its value to the board.

The “Relationship Bank” Framework: A system for VPs of Marketing to get buy-in from Sales, Product, and the C-suite before you need it.

“Intellectual vs. Budget Buy-In”: The critical difference between a customer thinking your marketing is “cool” and them actually having the “budget buy-in” to pay for it.

When to Scale Your Team: The truth about why a company’s hyper-growth outpaces a person’s competency (and how to scale your marketing org effectively).

The “Mouse & Cookie” Problem: Why you must say “no” to a huge customer’s “one-off” marketing or product request—and how to make the strategic case internally.

Connect with AnnaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-baird-38966513/

Madrona: https://www.madrona.com/

Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/

Join the AI-Led Growth Community

Join 500+ marketing leaders from companies like Ramp, Reddit, and Webflow who are building scalable marketing systems.

We give you the exact playbooks, frameworks, and network to build a compounding growth engine—and join a community of operators doing it in the real world.

Get the playbooks: https://www.ailedgrowth.com

Follow AI-Led Growth

Jason Gong (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgong/

Marcel Santilli (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelsantilli/

Drop a comment: What’s your single biggest challenge in building an “operating system” for your marketing team?