Scaling B2B Marketing at an AI Startup: Channels, Strategy, and Team Ops with Holly Xiao

Aug 4, 2025

Holly Xiao is the Head of B2B Marketing at HeyGen, an AI video generation platform. She discusses the four key channels her lean team focuses on for driving enterprise pipeline and shares insights on using AI video for event marketing and sales enablement. Holly explains the dynamics of running marketing without a CMO and the benefits of adopting a sprint-cycle approach. With practical tips for leveraging AI in marketing, she encourages marketers to rethink team structures and strategies to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape.

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ANECDOTE

Marketing Ops Career Origin

Holly discovered her passion for marketing ops by solving real problems at a residential solar company.
Creating automated customer email triggers led to positive feedback and became a career turning point.

INSIGHT

Unique AI Startup Marketing Structure

HeyGen splits marketing between creator-focused growth and enterprise B2B sales.
Holly leads enterprise marketing without a CMO, reporting directly to the CEO with an engineering mindset.

ADVICE

Focus on Key Marketing Channels

Focus marketing bets on channels like paid social, account-based marketing, webinars, and field events.
Be selective with marketing engines especially as a startup to maximize impact.

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#270 Strategy | Dave is joined by Holly Xiao, Head of B2B Marketing at HeyGen, an AI video generation platform that helps teams produce personalized, high-quality content, fast. Holly has led marketing at high-growth startups and now runs the enterprise GTM motion at HeyGen, where she blends strategy, creative execution, and AI-powered workflows to reach modern B2B buyers.

Dave and Holly cover:

The 4 channels her lean team is betting on to drive enterprise pipeline (and what’s not working anymore)
How B2B marketers are using AI video for event marketing, sales enablement, onboarding, and beyond
Why SEO is falling short and how HeyGen is shifting focus to webinars, events, and YouTube instead

If you’re figuring out how to use AI in your marketing or just trying to do more with less, this one’s full of practical ideas to help you think differently about team structure, channels, and strategy.

Timestamps

(00:00) - – Intro
(03:44) - – Holly’s nonlinear path to marketing
(06:44) - – Getting started in marketing ops
(08:44) - – Why she joined an AI startup
(10:44) - – How HeyGen’s marketing org works
(13:44) - – PLG vs SLG: Key differences
(15:44) - – The 4 channels driving pipeline
(17:44) - – What’s working: Events + webinars
(19:44) - – Booth strategy that stands out
(24:08) - – Brand vs demand events
(26:08) - – Building community and user events
(27:38) - – SEO is declining. Now what?
(30:08) - – Running marketing in 2-month sprints
(33:08) - – Aligning product and marketing cadence
(35:08) - – Her daily AI tools
(36:38) - – ChatGPT vs Gemini workflows
(38:08) - – Real AI video use cases
(40:08) - – Personalized event promos with avatars
(41:08) - – Support, training, and onboarding videos
(42:08) - – Fortune telling and music videos?!
(43:08) - – Why AI won’t replace marketers

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