Building With Buyers

A request I've gotten from listeners is to bring on a VC firm to talk through “the view from the VC side” so here we go (again)! I invited Andrew Bluestein, Managing Partner at Bluestein Ventures, to join me on the show and talk about the future of food, how the pandemic has affected food startups, what they're looking for before they decide to invest in a startup, and so much more. I know Andrew from our days at Kellogg! And we recently saw each other at Kellogg's 10-year reunion. More about Bluestein Ventures: investing in the future of food founded in 2014 based out of Chicago early stage investments typically Seed and Series A portfolio companies include Crafty, FoxTrot and Factor_ (acquired) Here's what we hit on: Why the focus on the future of food, what's so cool about food; How the pandemic has impacted the food industry; What VCs want to see before they decide to invest in an early stage startup (HINT: an innovative GTM strategy); What marketing and growth opportunities can B2B learn from B2C; What do you look at to confirm if there's product/market fit (HINT: things are still happening despite all the shortcomings); What are those unique ways that startups can reach customers (HINT: post COVID, we need to go offline again); On building brands and acquiring customers, what seems to work really well; Which 1-2 portfolio companies are you personally really excited about and why. You can reach Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbluestein/ Check out Bluestein Ventures: https://www.bluesteinventures.com/ For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Thanks for your patience, I usually post these episodes on Mondays MUCH earlier but we just got back from a road trip and I rushed over to the computer almost as soon as we got back :) WOW! 100 episodes, I can't even believe it. Thank you to all my listeners, my fans, my guests, for being a part of something that I wanted to build so I could share what top startups and leaders are doing, what’s working, what’s not, just being very transparent. Truly a labor of love.  Don't forget to leave a review if you've been joining me! In this 100th episode I’m getting interviewed (again) by Kap Chatfield (CEO at Rveal Media and host of B2B Podcasting) and we talk through modern approaches to digital content strategy for startups. Main topics we cover: Why your B2B startup needs a digital content strategy; What goes into your digital content strategy; Digital marketing needs to work for you so that you don’t need to hire more salespeople to do that work for you; Gartner’s Future of Sales research shows that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions with buyers will occur in digital. This is because 33% of all buyers desire a seller-FREE sales experience – a preference that climbs to 44% for millennials - what that means for you going forward; How to assess the value of your content strategy (HINT: not through vanity metrics); What it takes to create great content; Your content strategy includes both content creation and distribution; Your customer's sales experience is not a linear journey and what that means for you. Here's the article I wrote mentioned in this episode: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/modern-digital-content-strategy-startups-playbook-anna-furmanov/ You can find Kap on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kapchatfield/ Rveal's website: https://site.rveal.media/ For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!

To all my US listeners, Happy 4th of July 🎉🎉 I first heard Jay Acunzo speak on Mark Schaefer’s podcast Marketing Companion and have been following him ever since. Jay says "Don't market more. Matter more." I agree so so so much with that statement. Jay is a content entrepreneur, host of the podcast Unthinkable, writes the weekly newsletter Playing Favorites, author of the book Break the Wheel, and develops podcasts and docuseries for B2B brands. In his prior lives, Jay worked in marketing and media roles at Google, HubSpot, ESPN, and the VC firm NextView. Ann Handley (CCO at MarketingProfs and bestselling author of Everybody Writes) says about Jay: “You can go ahead and create more content. Or you can create something special that stirs hearts and engages minds. If you are the kind of person who wants your work to really matter, listen to Jay. He’ll be your perfect guide.” Here's what we hit on: Resonance is today’s top marketing skill - tell me why this is so important today; The art of storytelling - how to write stories that people connect with emotionally, and can you share your specific process; How do you measure what resonates; Great marketing is not about who arrives...it's about who stays; How to tie storytelling concepts to the startup world, how can marketers level up (HINT: marketers create a lot of stuff but it’s not gripping); How Lessonly and Kyle Lacy developed an original POV; Why being their favorite makes you completely change-proof; How do we tie storytelling back to ROI and revenue, how do we know we're really good at it; Intuition should lead and data should course correct; What are your top challenges, what are you trying to figure out; Goals (personal/professional) for 2022. You can reach Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayacunzo/ Check out his website: https://jayacunzo.com/ For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!

***This was my most engaging LinkedIn post across 2 years of posts*** Time for another solo episode! I started creating TikTok videos and posting them to LinkedIn. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast. People asking me: “Anna, does your podcast drive leads?" Me: “No." People: "Then WHY are you doing it??" Most people think about marketing in terms of "will this get me leads" (lead gen) Few think about marketing in terms of "will this be really good content for my target audience" And then there's the trickle down effect. Bc if you have really good content for your target audience then they will be more likely to want to know, like and trust you they'll refer people over to watch/listen to your stuff they'll refer people over to work with you A podcast is just part of it Can be a podcast, events, webinars, unique internal data, etc. Most of it is HOW you'll develop high-quality content that stands out bc you have a unique POV you want to share out that your target audience cares about Most of it is your strategy. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!

I brought back Amy Volas, founder and CEO of Avenue Talent Partners, to talk about how marketing and sales have fundamentally changed (and also what has remained the same). Last time I had Amy on was last summer, Episode 40! So I was so glad to have her back. Love her. Amy helps startups hire sales leaders without the cringe. She has been a sales leader at ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Yahoo!, she has personally closed $100MM+ in revenue and counting, and she's got 70+ recommendations on LinkedIn. Saweeet. Amy also co-hosts the #1 weekly virtual sales happy hour (Thursday Night Sales), link in the show notes below. Here's what we hit on: Top ways sales has changed due to the pandemic; Top ways marketing has changed due to the pandemic; What hasn't changed? You can find Amy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas Find out more about Avenue Talent Partners: www.avenuetalentpartners.com Link to join Thursday Night Sales: www.thursdaynightsales.com For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

A request that I've gotten from listeners is to bring on a VC firm to talk through “the view from the VC side” so here we go! I invited Elaine Zelby, Partner at SignalFire, to join me and talk about all things investing in startups, building a strong relationship with port companies, product market fit and what that actually means and how that's changed over time, and more. I’ve helped advise and have also worked with SignalFire’s portfolio companies on their marketing efforts. More about Elaine: on the Board of Directors at SVEN (Silicon Valley Executive Network) worked on the product and marketing side at Zazzle, Capriza (Series C), Slack and Consensys (Series D) host of the (un)sexy podcast - ranked Top 3% globally - an exploration of just how sexy unsexy industries can be! sends a weekly newsletter called “3 Things” - a dive into 3 rabbit holes and you can join her if you want More about SignalFire: founded in 2013 based out of San Francisco invests in startups Seed through Series B Here's what we hit on: What VCs want to see before they invest in an (early stage) startup, what matters (HINT: Team, Market and Product and it's very rare to find companies with tech moats so you should be creating brand and distribution moats); What do you want to see during the relationship (HINT: be an A+ at 1-2 things and B- in everything else and we'll help get you A+ support in those other things); What does product market fit mean today, how do you know, what do you look for (HINT: customers rip it out of your hands faster than you can sell it); Which 1-2 portfolio companies are you personally super excited about and why. You can reach Elaine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainezelby/ Check out SignalFire: https://signalfire.com/ Check out the (un)sexy podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/un-sexy/id1527034265 For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

TL;DR If you love mac n' cheese and you haven't tried Goodles yet then you're in for a wild ride. Seriously, just had them this weekend and my tummy is happy and my body is thanking me. I invited Jen Zeszut, co-founder and CEO at Goodles, onto the show and we talked about how their small startup has grown so much, so fast. Prior to Goodles, Jen was CEO at Cerebelly (baby food for healthy brain development). Prior to that she was co-founder and CRO at Beckon (SaaS, raised $44M). Goodles was founded in 2021 (!), based out of Santa Cruz (CA) and has 24 people. Seed funding ($6.4M). Goodles is noodles, gooder. PROTEIN-PACKED, VEGGIE-BOOSTED mac n' cheese. Yum. Here's what we hit on: This is cool because Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot co-launched with you - why did you decide to bring her on the team? What were the results? How's it going; Why a celebrity is not the brand; How do you organize your marketing budget (HINT: we have "big noodles" or big rocks launching monthly); What marketing channels are you leaning into; Why you started the Make, Be and Do Gooder Community and how's it going; What content are you leaning into; Having a celebrity partner is like having a megaphone; How we measure what marketing content is working (HINT: we’re pretty meticulous measurers and turn things on and off in a staggered way); What paid ads creative seems to be working the best for you (HINT: our ads are weird like the 3D rendering of cheese dripping); Why knowing "what is your soul" (why you do what you do) is so important for startups; What are your top marketing challenges; What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: we're a lifestyle brand so we're selling all sorts of fun things like a stuffie and we just had a stuffie drop which was our biggest sales day other than launch day); Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022 (HINT: it’s not the focus on the outcome. Do great work with great people that you love working with. I’m bringing personal joy to my every day and we are laughing and joking and having a fun time. I feel like I can taste the joy in this food.) You can reach Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenzeszut/ Find out more about Goodles: https://www.goodles.com/ For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Time for another solo episode! It's fast but packs a punch. I started creating TikTok videos and posting them to LinkedIn and so far it's going well and I love how it takes less than 5 minutes to record, add a title, and add captions and do it all myself. Talk about scrappy AND engaging. Video works, ya'll. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast. I was asked on a recent discovery call: “Where should we prioritize marketing in the funnel, TOF? Middle? Bottom to help close? With Customers to grow WOM and referrals?” Answer: Yes. The cool thing is your content strategy can hit ALL those levels (even with a very small team) if you’re being thoughtful about it. I like to use a 1-page marketing plan that includes specific marketing plays across the funnel. For example: TOF to Engage: podcast, social media video clips MOF to Nurture: podcast, social media video clips, newsletter, 1:1 sharing on LinkedIn, weekly virtual events BOF to Convert: case studies, testimonials, testimonial videos Customer Success: surprise and delight e.g. super responsive Slack channel, case studies / video testimonials from superfans, give them a platform to share their expertise >> get them on your podcast to discuss wins and challenges And then for each stage, also have objectives (e.g. increased website visitors MoM, 50% OR and 20% CTR for email, 5 new customers per month, etc.) How is your content strategy impacting your objectives? For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!

I had the pleasure of talking to Maya Grossman, Founder of Maya Grossman Consulting, about her experiences as VP of Marketing and how she prioritized her marketing efforts in those critical first 90 days. Maya has 15+ years of marketing experience building brands and driving growth at companies like Microsoft, Google, and most recently Canvas. As the VP of Marketing at Canvas she built the marketing team, grew qualified pipeline 3X Q/Q, doubled ARR Y/Y, and helped secure Series C at $400M valuation. She was also the VP of Marketing at Colu ($40M VC backed startup). Here's what we hit on: What's your process for getting prospects to go from "what is this?" to "I want this!" (HINT: sell the CHANGE, this is the core of product marketing); As VP of Marketing at Canvas, how did you build out the team, build out demand gen, build pipeline and sales, help secure Series C funding...all the things. How you prioritized that role the first 90 days and the results from there (HINT: start by talking to all different people and teams within the company about product, customers, positioning, etc. and see if there's a consistent message at home); How to handle ambitious goals as VP of Marketing (HINT: there will always be ambitious goals, but how to balance that with being realistic and also having quick wins); What would you have done differently while at Canvas; How did you build out your marketing team early stage (HINT: product marketing, content manager, demand gen manager and this took 5-6 months); How did you handle marketing attribution early stage (HINT: you don't have to measure everything, we didn't gate our content, we launched a podcast, community, created demand, created resources); We stopped doing Instagram and Twitter and instead focused on LinkedIn > doing one thing really well versus a bunch of things not well; Now your focus is "how to build a thriving career in marketing" - why did you decide to help people with this; Maya shares her strategy/steps for how to build a thriving career. You can reach Maya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayagrossman/ Check out her website: https://www.mayagrossman.com/ Check out her book: Invaluable For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Time for another solo episode! It's fast but packs a punch. I started creating TikTok videos pretty much weekly and posting them to LinkedIn and so far it's going well and I love how it takes less than 5 minutes to record, add a title, and add captions and do it all myself. Talk about scrappy AND engaging. Video works, ya'll. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast. As a mentor at Growth Mentor I talk to a few startups every Friday about their marketing challenges and specific questions they have for me. Recently I was asked "as you work across startups, what marketing channels approach seems to work the best?" Cool thing about working across early stage startups is I get to see their top challenges and also help prioritize top marketing channels (based on talking to customers and finding out where they hang out online, how easy it will be to implement and based on potential impact). My answer is "it depends" but I know that's not helpful so I share more in this quick audio. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!