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Building With Buyers

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Jun 14, 2021 • 44min

36 - What We Can Learn From A Tomato Fridge Ad - Meghan Hurley, Head of Marketing at Farmer's Fridge

Meghan Hurley joined me on the show to talk about yummy food and marketing. Meghan Hurley is Head of Marketing at Farmer’s Fridge. She's also a founding member of Chief (the private network of women leaders that are helping and supporting each other). Meghan has held marketing leadership roles at Trunk Club, Peet’s Coffee, McCain Foods, and Whole Foods. Farmer’s Fridge was founded in 2013, has ~150 people, and is based out of Chicago, IL. They've raised Series C ($42M total). Farmer’s Fridge is on a mission to make it simple for everyone to eat well. They've developed a rapidly growing network of 350+ user-friendly smart Fridges stocked with chef-curated, restaurant-quality meals and snacks. Besides the vending machines, they've also recently started offering delivery. PLUS a recent partnership with Rick Bayless. Lots goin' on. Here's what we hit on: Who eats Farmer's Fridge (besides me); Who's on the marketing team; What marketing channels are working well (HINT: leveraging UGC is part of it, also email); Partnering with Dunkin' Donuts; Being scrappy during COVID with photos, iPhone videos, motion, colors, etc.; "People are fickle" so how do you approach looking at your marketing data; The "tomato fridge" ad - this UGC story is fascinating; What are the top challenges (HINT: growing the team that supports the growth of the org); Why it makes sense to invest in a marketing TEAM vs. just one person; What is the Head of Growth in charge of? (HINT: supports email - lifecycle marketing, SMS/Push, and soon Web - SEO) How Meghan's experience at Starbucks, Whole Foods, McCain, Peet's, and Trunk Club has impacted the way she understands ops, brand + growth (HINT: observing consumer behavior is a BIG part of it); Bad marketing recommendations (HINT: the pendulum has swung too far to analytics and paid, so that brand is underdeveloped); Chicagoans love to connect with others and play the "who do you know?" game; Meghan gets a little introspective and talks about some mistakes as a leader. You can find Meghan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-hurley-a4b4532/ Find out more about Farmer's Fridge: www.farmersfridge.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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!
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Jun 7, 2021 • 52min

35 - Over-Prioritizing Sales Is Your SaaS Startup's Biggest Mistake With Chris Walker, CEO of Refine Labs

I'm a huge fan of Chris Walker. He's actually one of the main reasons I launched this podcast. Chris started a company - Refine Labs - a demand accelerator for B2B SaaS companies. Chris started a weekly event, Demand Gen Live, about 1 year ago and still going strong with 45+ attendees every week. Chris has 60k+ followers on LinkedIn. Most importantly, he's such an inspiration to all sorts of marketers, all different ages, and different walks of life, that all understand this idea of "the modern era of marketing has arrived" but know that so many companies are stuck doing things the old way.  We want to get out of the muck. So here's what we hit on: A bit more about Refine Labs and the types of customers he works with; What does marketing mean to you now and what has shifted for you over time; Seed/Series A B2B startups' biggest mistake is over-prioritizing sales; Series B+ B2B startups' biggest mistake; Why startup founders need to do their own marketing first; What kind of marketing leader needs to be hired early stage (HINT: the team should not be just one person); Brand (organic) vs. Demand (paid) marketing activities that are working really well for Refine Labs (HINT: for paid, deliver high-quality content instead of lead gen); #1 problem with focusing on SEO; Why are marketers still so frustrated at their startup and how it starts with the Marketing Mindset; Business challenges at Refine Labs; When you narrow your niche, your TAM is smaller but your marketing and growth is better; How do you keep your marketing fresh and avoid getting passive (HINT: it involves driving the narrative, being active on social, using intuition and listening, and experimenting); You need 1-2 things to work with your marketing and not a million things to drive growth; How Chris balances his LinkedIn thought leadership posts and activity within his work day; "I talk so that I can listen" - this is powerful and this is what Chris does; Mistakes that Chris has made and learned from; Top learnings from starting the company (HINT: know your strengths and weaknesses and hire accordingly); Chris shares something unique about his personal life (and it's not Kombucha!). You can find Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chris-walker-41597028/ Find out more about Refine Labs: www.refinelabs.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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!
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May 31, 2021 • 46min

34 - How Events Have Grown Our Customers By 5X+ with Sara Kinsey, Head of Digital, Demand and Events at Gem

Sara Kinsey is Head of Digital Marketing, Demand Generation, and Events at Gem. She's been there for 2+ years.  Prior to Gem, Sara was at Unifi Software (acquired) and Alteryx (IPO’d). Sara is a true B2B SaaS leader. Gem was founded in 2017, has 110 people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series B ($48M total). Gem is the platform for modern recruiting. Like what Hubspot does for marketers, Gem does for recruiters and hiring teams (find, engage, and nurture top talent). It all started when co-founders Steve Bartel and Nick Bushak were working as engineering managers at Dropbox and Facebook and were using spreadsheets to track the best talent (they called them “gems”). They realized they needed to build something better. Here's what we hit on:  What did Sara and team focus on early stage given limited resources (HINT: they built their first significant marketing asset and then promoted it); Events turned out to be a BIG driver of marketing sourced leads - how did they track TOF all the way to Customer; You’re growing! What does your (marketing) team look like now; Marketing: what’s been working well for you? what channels (HINT: heavily focused on events including webinars, demo day, happy hour, Talent Talks, round tables, etc.); What does the team do with the recorded content from events; Leading with need vs. leading with content; What failure(s) have you had that have shaped you as a person; Experimentation is key to successful marketing at startups; How do you stay creative, keep your marketing fresh, keep from getting passive with your marketing/content. You can find Sara on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kinseysara Find out more about Gem: www.gem.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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com  Thanks for listening!
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May 24, 2021 • 51min

33 - Inbound and Outbound Lessons From The Trenches With Daniel Huerta, Digital Marketing Manager at Udacity

Daniel Huerta is Digital Marketing Manager at Udacity. Before that, Daniel headed up marketing at Workify (HR tech startup) for 4+ years, running their content and demand generation efforts. Daniel is also the co-host of The Modern People Leader podcast. We covered both Udacity and Workify during this podcast session.  Udacity was founded in 2011, has 2000+ people, and is based out of Mountain View, CA. They've raised $235M in funding. Udacity’s mission is to train the world's workforce in the careers of the future. Learn digital, data science, programming, AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity and more. 200+ industry experts build the content. 100+ enterprise customers globally.  Workify was founded in 2014, has 11 people, and is based out of Austin, TX. Workify has raised $1.3M in funding. Workify helps you unlock the power of your people. Analytics for modern employee engagement.  Here's what we hit on:  Dug a bit more into Workify, who it's for and the problem they're solving;  Daniel is helping traditional orgs become more like tech companies - what does that mean;  How does Udacity differentiate from other players in the space;  Demand gen the old way, and transforming to the new way (HINT: they're working with the Refine Labs team!);  Does a bigger budget mean better marketing;  At Workify, how did you grow ARR from $40k to $1.2M from your content and demand gen efforts;  If you could go back in time at Workify, how would your run marketing differently (HINT: we talked about all the effort that went into outbound and then getting low conversions, we also talked about inbound and what were some of the pitfalls);  For inbound to work you need 1) unique POV 2) value prop 3) customer obsession 4) brand trust;  We touched on The Modern People Leader podcast and some different ideas to grow the audience.  You can find Daniel on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-huerta-74661390/  Find out more about Udacity: www.udacity.com  Find out more about Workify: www.getworkify.com  And here's The Modern People Leader podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-modern-people-leader/id1545875052  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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com  Thanks for listening!
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May 17, 2021 • 46min

32 - Ninety Percent Of Our Revenue Is Marketing Sourced With Cassidy Shield, VP of Marketing at Narrative Science

Cassidy Shield is VP of Marketing at Narrative Science.  Before Narrative Science, Cassidy served as VP of Marketing at Gogo, VP of Marketing at NetCracker, and spent 13 years at Alcatel Lucent (purchased by Nokia). He's also a fellow Kellogg alum! Narrative Science was founded in 2010, has 88 people, and is based out of Chicago, IL. They've raised Series D ($43.4M total). Narrative Science humanizes analytics with data storytelling (not dashboards). Data should be understandable for everyone. Stop creating unused dashboards and start data storytelling. Here's what we hit on: More about Narrative Science, who you’re for, what problem you solve; The challenge with finding early adopters/visionary leaders (that's the target buyer) and how they’re trying to figure this out; Who’s on the Marketing team, anything unique? (HINT: the people in the roles have never done the specific work before - instead, Narrative Science sets a high bar and looks for specific behavioral traits); Podcast "Leading With Data" - what are you trying to do with it? What’s the purpose and how’s it going; Cassidy has 20+ years of experience. I asked him to explain his quote “the key to digital is great content that leads the buyer to what you sell”; Narrative Science doesn’t have a PR agency, and that's because startups should do their own PR (if they can); Marketing: what’s working well for you right now? what channels? (HINT: paid media - FB and Instagram, building community through events and the podcast); Marketing: what are the challenges, what are you trying to figure out; How do you track marketing’s impact on revenue? (HINT: the company's revenue is 90% marketing sourced! The team has not had much consistent, repeatable success with outbound sales); What are the last 2-3 really good (marketing) ideas you've come up with; What are some bad recommendations in your area of expertise. You can find Cassidy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cassidyshield Find out more about Narrative Science: www.narrativescience.com And here's the Leading With Data podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leading-with-data/id1535701027  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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!
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May 10, 2021 • 44min

31 - Kyle Lacy, CMO at Lessonly, Talks About The Power of Irrational Ideas and Golden Llamas

Kyle Lacy, CMO (and Chief Mario Officer!) at Lessonly, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. Kyle has been recognized as one of Indiana’s Forty-under-40, is the author of 3 books, built the content marketing team from scratch at ExactTarget (acquired by Salesforce for $2.6B), led marketing at OpenView Venture Partners, and advises a couple of tech startups besides his full-time role. Lessonly was founded in 2012, has 200+ people, and is based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. They've raised Series C ($30.2M total). Lessonly is the powerfully simple way for teams to learn, practice, and Do Better Work. Enabling busy teams (like Sales, like Customer Service) to get on the same page, stay ahead of change, and deliver amazing experiences to customers and prospects. This is NOT your ordinary training software. Here's what we hit on: You updated your title on LinkedIn to Chief Mario Officer - why? What was that for?; Irrational ideas can sometimes work; How we tie marketing to revenue and why that's important; About Lessonly in your own words; What's unique about your marketing team; You've been at Lessonly for 4 years. What did you do in those early days that was critical for success? Kyle introduced an agile marketing framework with 2-week sprints - we dive into why and how this is done; Lessonly moved their outbound sales development (SDR & BDR teams) under marketing - why and how this makes you more successful; Marketing: what’s working well for you right now, what channels (HINT: direct mail is part of it); Marketing: what are the challenges, what are you trying to figure out (HINT: hiring while remote is part of it, how to keep the culture); We talk about Ali Llama - who is this llama? Who came up with this? What's the story?; How do you differentiate from other (online training) players in the space; B2C can help inform B2B marketing; Write how you talk when creating content; Having the space to be creative vs. proving ROI on each creative campaign; How to lose money responsibly in order to differentiate; Favorite failures. You can find Kyle on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy Find out more about Lessonly: www.lessonly.com Here's the e-commerce site to get your llama gear: https://olliellama.co/  Do Better Work was mentioned in the episode: dobetterwork.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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!
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May 3, 2021 • 50min

30 - More Creators And Less Control On Paid Social with Alvaro De La Rocha, CMO at Bespoke Post

Alvaro De La Rocha, CMO at Bespoke Post, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.  Another Kellogg connection on the show! Plus the co-founders are also from Kellogg. What a team!  Alvaro has held previous roles at Ogilvy and Microsoft, on both the product and marketing side.  Bespoke Post was founded in 2011, has 73 people, and is based out of NYC. They've raised $8.9M in funding.  Bespoke Post is goods and guidance, delivered monthly. Themed boxes full of enviable gear – shaving sets, shoe shine kits, home bar essentials. They partner with under-the-radar brands so you can discover the coolest selection of goods and gear. And to help out during the Covid-19 crisis, they've purchased over $38,412,000 of products just from small businesses.  Esquire magazine says "You can't put a price on the fun you'll have opening the boxes."  Here's what we hit on:  What does that mean, goods AND guidance;  Quick pitch about your company, who you’re for, what problem you solve (if there’s anything I missed);  Who's on the (marketing) team? Anything unique in the way that you’re structured;  You've been at Bespoke Post for 8+ years, started as the Director of Marketing. What were you doing in those early days to stand out? (HINT: getting featured on podcasts back in 2012?!);  Promoted to VP of Marketing, then to CMO. What did you have to take on for each role? What do you need to do to be successful? (HINT: good hiring + knowledge sharing to speed up your learning curve);  Marketing: what’s working well for you right now? what channels? (HINT: FB/Insta, podcasting, and TikTok);  How are you making FB/Insta/TikTok work for you, specifically? (HINT: more creators for social ads + less control);  What’s the brand personality;  How are you specifically leveraging podcasts? (HINT: more testing and not so worried about CAC);  How do you differentiate from other players, other subscription boxes;  Top items purchased from Bespoke Post in the past year;  What are the last 2-3 really good (marketing) ideas you've come up with;  What’s your “favorite failure”?  You can find Alvaro on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alvaro-de-la-rocha-2549b3/  Find out more about Bespoke Post: www.bespokepost.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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!
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Apr 30, 2021 • 26min

29 - Modern Demand Gen Interview With Lesley Crews on the B2B Growth Podcast

I spoke with Lesley Crews from Sweet Fish Media on the B2B Growth podcast.  They've been going deep into the world of demand generation for the month of April - sweet! In this episode we discuss modern demand gen for startups and the playbook I wrote up that outlines key themes in more detail, including: The difference between lead gen and demand gen; Old vs. new demand gen and the key differences that will get you results; Your demand gen strategy should focus on the buyer, not you; How to be revenue-oriented...not leads focused; Sales & marketing collaboration. Here's the demand gen playbook covered in the episode: www.linkedin.com/pulse/modern-demand-gen-startups-anna-furmanov 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  on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!
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Apr 26, 2021 • 53min

28 - Jeroen Corthout, Co-Founder of Salesflare, Shares Why He's Been On 100+ Podcasts

Jeroen Corthout, co-founder at Salesflare, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. Salesflare was founded in 2014, has 8 people, and is based out of Belgium. They've raised Seed funding ($406K). Salesflare is the perfect CRM for any startup or small B2B business that wants to make more sales with less work. No more manual data entry. The CRM fills itself out by synchronizing with your email, calendar, phone, social media, and organizes all this data for you. There’s a free trial (no CC required) for those interested in test driving. Here's what we hit on: Why Jeroen decided to get on 100+ podcasts and the impact he's looking for from this effort; Who's on the team and what they're focused on; What marketing channels are working really well for them; Deeper dive into SEO and how they're making it work with a lean team; Marketing challenges they're trying to figure out; How they differentiate from other sales tech/CRM players out there (HINT: WOM, customer support, and relationships); How they’re automating social media distribution across 3 channels; How Jeroen keeps his marketing fresh and stays creative; What are some bad recommendations Jeroen has heard in the startup/marketing/sales space; We talk about Doctura, the other company that Jeroen founded, and the learnings he got to help build Salesflare. You can find Jeroen on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeroencorthout Find out more about Salesflare: www.salesflare.com Link to StoryChief mentioned in the episode: https://storychief.io  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!
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Apr 19, 2021 • 47min

27 - Tera Hudson From The Mom Project Talks About Testing + Learning + Adapting and Creating Content Gold

Tera Hudson, Senior Marketing Manager of Demand Gen at The Mom Project, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. Prior to The Mom Project, Tera was at InStride (reinventing the education of today’s workforce in partnership with leading global universities) and TeleSign (communications platform as a service or CPaaS, a Series B tech startup). The Mom Project was founded in 2015, has ~270 people, and is based out of my personal favorite, the hard-working Chicago, IL. They've raised Series B ($35.6M total). The Mom Project is a digital talent marketplace and community that connects professionally accomplished women with world-class companies - companies like Accenture, DropBox, Pinterest, Etsy, Facebook. They're changing the way women work and redefining career structures by providing women with opportunities that are in balance with their personal goals. This is HUGE and especially during COVID times. That respect that’s so desperately needed for work + life integration. I'm a big fan of the mission of The Mom Project. Here's what we hit on: Tera's fascinating story of landing at The Mom Project; Those first days and weeks at TMP - what did Tera focus on; How the marketing team is structured; What's working well with their marketing efforts and how they're making it work (HINT: paid and organic social); The challenges of marketing for a 2-sided marketplace (companies vs. talent); Why they decided to pause with Facebook and go big with LinkedIn; How they're using proprietary research and leading insights to generate demand; Is there a clear buyer journey at TMP, or not; Bad recommendations related to attribution; Tera's personal story of sacrificing her well-being to get the job done, and what she decided to do instead; Tera's obsession with crime stories. You can find Tera on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/terahudson Find out more about The Mom Project: www.themomproject.com Link to the Werklabs research: https://work.themomproject.com/resources/tag/werklabs 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!

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