Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers

Hey hey hey listeners hope everyone's kicking off a great week. I asked Katie Perry to come back on the show and jam with me some more (check out Ep. 51 “Bringing Humanity into the App Experience”). Katie is General Manager, Investor Relations Innovation at Public (she moved from the B2C side to the B2B side).  Prior to this role Katie was VP of Marketing at Public. Prior to Public, Katie held leadership roles at media/creative agencies including 360i and Comscore, and she was Head of Brand Marketing at Suzy (a Series C tech startup). Public was founded in 2019, has ~200 people and is based out of NYC with offices in Copenhagen. They've raised $308.5M total in funding. Public is an investing app on a mission to make the public markets work for all people. They're focusing on features built for retail investors, like Town Halls with public company leaders to discuss trades and trends, and a live audio feature called Public Live where you can get your market news in the same place that you invest. Here's what we hit on: You're on the B2B side of the business now, what are you in charge of and what have you carried over from the B2C side; What does “creative” mean to you; In our last episode we talked about some creative plays at Public, what made these plays successful; How would you have approached marketing and creativity if Public started out as B2B; How do you balance creativity with results; Let's take one of your creative ideas, how did it come alive, who picked it; How often does the team have creative brainstorms; Katie asks me her burning question (HINT: what's the role of AI in marketing). You can find Katie on LinkedIn. You can learn more about Public. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review! And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes that will make you smile guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

I asked Tyler Lessard to come back on the show and jam with me some more because their marketing approach is super creative and as you know, I'm pushing more into creativity and marketing innovation for Season 3. Welcome back Tyler Lessard! (check out Ep. 115 “Why You Need To Hire A TikTok Creator Instead of Another Writer” if ya haven't yet). Tyler is VP of Marketing and Chief Video Strategist at Vidyard (he's been there 8+ years). Prior, Tyler was CMO at Fixmo (a mobile security startup) and held leadership roles at Blackberry (10+ years). Vidyard was founded in 2011, has 300+ people, and has raised $75.7M total. Vidyard is virtual sales made human. The easiest way to create, host, and share videos so you can keep connecting with customers and colleagues. Here's what we hit on: What does “creative” mean to you (HINT: it requires stepping back from our day to day status quo and it requires that we be intentional); Some cool creative approaches and experiments at Vidyard over the years (HINT: random creative concepts can become big results); How do you sell the CEO on the creative stuff; How to infuse creativity into your demand-led marketing programs plus those things that just seem interesting; How are startups doing on the creative meter, are they experimenting enough (HINT: Tyler is optimistic here); Why highly resonant content has a niche content focus and how startups should leverage this. You can find Tyler on LinkedIn. Learn more about Vidyard. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review! And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes that will make you smile guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

WOWZA. Guess who came on to jam with me? YUP. Dave.  You're gonna love this episode as we dive into what it means to be creative at your startup, why it's so important today and way more. We ran over because there was just so much to talk about (thanks Dave!). Dave Gerhardt is Founder of Exit Five. He's a former marketing exec at Drift ($1B valuation) and Privy (Series A) and now he's got his company of one. Exit Five (started as DGMG back in the day) is a community for B2B marketing pros with 3,000+ paying members. The main premise: “You didn’t go to school for B2B Marketing, but you can learn through the Exit Five community + podcast.” Dave also does some 1:1 consulting work with a small group of high-growth B2B startups like Metadata and Goldcast and Equals. His book "Founder Brand" was released in 2022 and was an instant #1 best-seller on Amazon in Marketing. He's got 150k+ followers on LinkedIn. Here's what we hit on: What does “creative” mean to you (HINT: it doesn't necessarily mean crazy and wild); Some creative ideas from Dave's time at Drift; How to have really good taste for what your audience wants; How to sell the CEO on the creative stuff (HINT: the key to brand building and marketing is not 100% direct response); When it's OK to have a feeling but not a growth plan; How to balance creativity with results; Why and how marketers need to make their ideas and expertise more public inside their company; Are startups being creative enough? (HINT: No.) What's stopping startups from being more creative; Which specific startups ARE being more creative, pushing boundaries, and experimenting with their marketing; When Dave was at his creative peak (HINT: at Drift we created a lot of demand and raised money); Why moving fast is so important (not just ideas); Dave asks me his burning question. You can find Dave on LinkedIn. Learn more about Exit Five. Visit Dave's website davegerhardt.com. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review! And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes that will make you smile guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Season 3 kicks off!! Happy New Year to all of my listeners, and cheers to a wonderful and fulfilling 2023! So with a new season, I brought on a special guest to kick things off. Mark Schaefer is a Marketing strategist, keynote speaker, university educator (at Rutgers University), and bestselling author of "Marketing Rebellion" and "Cumulative Advantage." His podcast, The Marketing Companion, is one of the top 10 marketing podcasts on Apple. And his blog {grow} is often cited in lists of the top marketing blogs of the world. Huge respect. Here's what we hit on: We covered an important blurb that I read from Mark's blog that begins with "Feeling content comes from a sense of awe. To make people feel awe you need to touch an internal chord that is deep and unique." So what exactly is awe, and how can startups make people feel awe with their content; Leading into the topics I'll be covering in Season 3 of the show, I ask Mark for his take on the podcast pivot (HINT: this is the most important question you could be asking right now); How ChatGPT is changing Marketing forever (HINT: it turns everyone into an excellent content creator); How we can use creativity in a way that creates competitive advantage. You can find Mark on LinkedIn. Visit Mark's website Businesses Grow. Check out Mark's podcast The Marketing Companion. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review! And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes that will make you smile guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

It’s the last podcast episode of 2022! I just wanted to say thanks for listening, thanks for sticking with me, I appreciate you. In this episode I'm also sharing where I'm taking the show for Season 3 (I've already started recording episodes that I can't wait to share with ya'll). Season 1 and 2 I brought on startup founders, marketing and sales leaders to explore brand, demand, what approaches work well, challenges and category design. For Season 3 we’re going deep into messy creative experiments, marketing innovation, pushing boundaries, how to make creativity achievable at a growing startup, why it’s so important today, balancing creativity with results, and how to sell the CEO on the creative stuff. I’ll also talk to creatives like artists and writers to understand their approach to creativity and what we can learn + apply to marketing at our startups. Happy New Year and I hope you get to enjoy some good old fashioned down-time before we jump right back into things next year! This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months. This episode is also sponsored by Riverside, your online recording studio. Visit Riverside.fm to learn more and use the code HOLIDAYS22 for a 30% discount on your subscription. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review! And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes that will make you smile guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Final full episode of 2022!! Hope you've been having a wonderful holiday season and Happy (almost) New Year! I asked Will Allred (co-founder & COO at Lavender) to join me for this episode and cover some good ole' sales topics that may be top of mind for folks going into 2023. Will is a LinkedIn Top Sales Voice (47K+ followers). Prior to Lavender, Will was co-founder and COO at Sorter and prior to that he was Senior Associate at TopRight, a marketing consulting firm. Lavender was founded in 2020 and based out of NYC. They've got 8 people on the team and hiring for 2 more marketing roles. Lavender is the #1 sales email assistant. Write better emails, get more replies. 9.9/10 on G2 with 10k+ users. Here's what we hit on: Let's start with your website, that homepage header banner (play-doh wizard, listeners please go check it out) it's amazing, who came up with that and how's the performance of your website (HINT: our website converts 15-20% of all traffic); What’s the biggest but not as widely known mistake salespeople make when they write outbound emails; You’re PLG-focused so what’s been working really well for you for growth, how do you increase the chances of spreading WOM. You can find Will on LinkedIn. Find out more about Lavender. This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months. This episode is also sponsored by Riverside, your online recording studio. Visit Riverside.fm to learn more and use the code HOLIDAYS22 for a 30% discount on your subscription. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review! And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I'll make you chuckle/smile/both guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

I thought it might be cool for listeners to hear from a startup that I've worked with. I asked Emilia Herman (Co-Founder and CEO of Seed Classroom) and Zac Herman (Co-Founder and COO of Seed Classroom) to join me on the show and talk about our work together. Maybe some listeners will connect with what they're building, challenges they were having and the value they got from working together. I was Emilia and Zac's coach (together with my colleague Daniel O'Reilly) during a 7-week EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp that included instruction on both marketing + sales. We did a bunch of 1:1 feedback sessions as Emilia and Zac implemented some of the strategies and drafted a playbook for scalable growth. Seed Classroom was founded in 2017 and provides schools with live data on the amount of time students spend in and out of class through the automation of attendance-taking and hall pass request processes. This is great because it allows teachers to make learning their main priority. Here's what we cover: Background on Seed Classroom; Why'd they decide to do the GTM Bootcamp; What's been the biggest lesson/value from the bootcamp; How have they started to implement the learnings. Find out more about Seed Classroom Find out more about the EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months. This episode is also sponsored by Riverside, your online recording studio. Visit Riverside.fm to learn more and use the code HOLIDAYS22 for a 30% discount on your subscription. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review! And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I'll make you chuckle/smile/both guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Guess who came back on the show? YUP. One of my faves, Latané Conant. Check out Episode 116 where we dig into how they've been running no forms, no spam and no cold calls at 6sense. Guess who I ran into at Trader Joe's after having her on the show? YUP. You guessed right. Turns out she's my neighbor. It was a wonderful surprise! Latané is CMO at 6sense (4+ years). Prior, she held sales and marketing leadership roles at Appirio (B2B SaaS, raised $111.7M in funding). The new edition of her book (No Forms, No Spam, No Cold Calls) is out now so you can check it out. 6sense was founded in 2013, has 1,000+ people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series E ($200M total). The 6sense mantra: you can’t guess your way to quota. For sales and marketing teams, 6sense uses AI to capture anonymous buying signals, targets the right accounts at the ideal time, and recommends the channels and messages to boost revenue performance. Here's what we hit on this time around: We talk about the new edition of the book (HINT: there's a new chapter from their Head of Sales and his perspective on the "no forms, no spam, no cold calls" methodology); 2023 Marketing Plan - where are you putting your dollars, what channels (HINT: we're introducing a PLG motion in 2023); How do you measure pipeline? Does marketing-sourced vs. sales-sourced actually matter; What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with (HINT: when the market changes, your message needs to change); What are your top marketing challenges right now (HINT: this is true across the tech industry, I worry about the team and staying enthused); Goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2023 (HINT: what makes me want to play?); Latané asks me her burning question to round out the episode. You can find Latané on LinkedIn. Find out more about 6sense. This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review. And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I'll make you chuckle/smile/both guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Another unique episode for the show! I've never done this before but thought it might be cool for listeners to hear from someone that I've worked with. I asked one of my customers, Matt Barinholtz (Founder of FutureMakers), to join me on the show and talk about our work together. Maybe some listeners will connect with what he's been building and the challenges that he was experiencing. I was Matt's coach (together with my colleague Daniel O'Reilly) during a 7-week EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp that included instruction on both marketing + sales. We did a bunch of 1:1 feedback sessions as Matt implemented some of the strategies and drafted a playbook for scalable growth. FutureMakers was founded in 2011 and sparks playful hands-on learning for a future fueled by makers. Basically they've created these cool machines that students can make in the classroom and then get to keep. Here's what we cover: Background on Matt's business; Why'd he decide to do the GTM Bootcamp; What's been the biggest lesson/value from the bootcamp; How has he started to implement the learnings. Find out more about FutureMakers: www.kidsmakethingsbetter.com Find out more about the EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review. And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I'll make you chuckle/smile/both guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Can you believe 2023 is just around the corner? Trying to pack in a few more awesome episodes for ya before the new year AND before Season 3 of the show kicks off. For this episode I brought back Patrick Campbell (founder and CEO at ProfitWell). I’ve had Patrick on before, Episode 54 (that was 1 year ago!). Go check it out if you haven't yet. We talked a lot about “inbound media” (vs. inbound marketing) and how ProfitWell was building up their marketing engine. ProfitWell got acquired by Paddle (Series D startup) in May 2022. ProfitWell was founded in 2012. They've been bootstrapped all the way through acquisition. ProfitWell helps recurring revenue (SaaS + subscription + DTC) businesses with their monetization and retention strategies. Their tagline: “Drive subscription revenue while you sleep.” Here's what we hit on in this follow-up episode: ProfitWell's Marketing Plan before being acquired, what was your planning process like? Where did you put your dollars; Paddle acquisition - what did you have to get right on the marketing + sales side in order to set yourself up for being acquired? And what allowed you/the team to get those things right. You can find Patrick on LinkedIn. Find out more about ProfitWell by Paddle. This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review. And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I'll make you chuckle/smile/both guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov