Episode 239: Seth Besmertnik - Founder & CEO, Conductor

Companies strive to build a strong culture that will hopefully be the foundation for success. In the case of Seth, having a People First culture is the priority and it is why they operate with an upside down org chart. When you think about it, the upside down org chart makes a ton of sense. Aren’t leaders the ones who are ultimately working for their reports to do whatever it takes to ensure the success of each person in their position which ultimately translates into the company’s success? Another great example of Seth’s leadership and the culture at Conductor is the fact that when the company was purchased back from WeWork in 2019, every employee (which was over 250 at the time) were granted the same class of stock and were all labeled as co-founders in the company. Seth and I start out the conversation with a deep dive on this topic of a People First culture and he shares lots of useful info about its benefits. Conductor is an organic marketing platform built for enterprise SEO, Content, and Web teams— powering the organic marketing revolution. The company recently announced $150M in new funding at a $525M valuation. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Seth’s background story including his first startup called MindMD, an online therapy website that was ahead of its time. * The rise and fall of LinkExperts, a link building business for SEO that he co-founded, which ended up being the precursor to Conductor. * A deep dive into Conductor and the value of its platform for companies, plus the details on its growth plans ahead. * The story of their acquisition by WeWork in 2018 and the buy-back in less than two years. * Advice on scaling hiring and culture at the same time. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.