Building With Buyers

I asked Jay Acunzo to join me (again) on the show because he's a writer and content creator and I believe that we (startup marketers) can learn a lot from people that focus on creative work. Jay is a writer, podcast host, speaker, and lifelong storyteller on a mission to help you make what matters most. Here's what Jay is up to: Host of the podcast Unthinkable Newsletter “Playing Favorites” that's helping people push themselves creatively Co-Founder of the Creator Kitchen, a membership program helping people push themselves creatively  Prior, Jay worked in marketing and media roles at Google, HubSpot, ESPN, and VC firm NextView. Also check out Ep. 99 “What Does It Really Take To Resonate With People?” where we talk about resonance as a top marketing skill, how to write stories that people connect with emotionally, why great marketing is not about who arrives but rather about who stays, how to tie storytelling concepts to the startup world and how can marketers level up (HINT: marketers create a lot of stuff but it’s not gripping). In this episode we cover: What does “creativity” mean to you; Some of the unfortunate impacts of tools like ChatGPT on content creation (HINT: AI is just your intern); You should care about the results from your content but you also need a space to get better; Where do many people get stuck in the creative process and what to do about it; How can marketers bring more of themselves into the work that they’re putting out; What are you reading and listening to; Jay asks me his burning question. You can find Jay on LinkedIn >> 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, 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 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

I got connected to David through Gidi Pridor (Workvivo) who I super respect, David and Gidi both worked at TravelPerk and Gidi raved about David so of course I wanted to bring him onto the show. (Check out Ep. 146 where I talk to Gidi about why many startups stop being exciting too early and the advantages of hiring a Creative Director early. Workvivo just got acquired by Zoom.) David Hooker is Brand Lead at Printify. Prior, David was Head of B2B Content at Gett (a Series F startup). David also built Prezi’s Evangelism and Creative Services teams and he built the Brand and PR function at TravelPerk. About Printify: Founded 2015 Funding: Series A ($54.1M total according to Crunchbase) Description: Create and sell custom products. The tech platform that's made it possible for millions to become global entrepreneurs selling high-quality merch online. In this episode we talk about: What does “creative” mean to you; Top 1-2 creative marketing ideas at Printify; What makes for an awesome Creative Director / Head of Brand; What’s your advice for startups that want to push more on the creative side. You can find David on LinkedIn >> www.linkedin.com/in/hookerdj Check out Printify >> https://printify.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 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

There is so much I love about Goodles and so much that both B2C and B2B startups can learn from them. So I brought on Paul Earle because he was very deeply involved in Goodles' creative work. Paul works with brands on their creative and he teaches innovation, new ventures, and new brand creation at the Kellogg School of Management (go Kellogg!!). Prior, Paul was the co-founder and executive director of global creative agency Leo Burnett’s “Farmhouse” (its innovation and new venture center). Jen Zeszut (Co-Founder and CEO at Goodles) joined me for Ep. 95 “This Is Huge: How To Take On Billion Dollar Companies When You're Small” so listen to that one too. About Goodles: founded in 2021, based out of Santa Cruz (CA) and has 42 people now! (was 24 people last episode). Funding: Seed ($10.2M total). Goodles is noodles, gooder. PROTEIN-PACKED, VEGGIE-BOOSTED mac n' cheese. Yum. In this episode we cover: Why the brand name is such pure magic; Why companies that succeed do so because there's this intense emotional connection created with people; Why large companies have a hard time launching new products and being creative; How did you make the Goodles creative so amazing; What’s your advice for startups that want to push more on the creative side (HINT: great creative pulls your product development forward). You can find Paul on LinkedIn >> https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulearle/ Check out Goodles >> https://www.goodles.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. I can be your startup's fractional head of marketing (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com 2. You can 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. You can sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Todd Clouser is The Worst Marketer In The World at Lavender. He's also Co-Host of the Cheat Codes podcast. Prior, Todd held marketing leadership roles at Refine Labs (demand strategy and research for B2B growth stage startups). Why would I bring on the worst marketer in the world? I guess a better question to ask is, why would you want to call yourself the worst marketer in the world? Well, maybe you should just listen to this episode. Will Allred (Co-Founder and COO at Lavender) joined me for Ep. 130 (this was before their next round of funding was announced) and it's called “How We Get 35%-50% Response Rates From Our Sales Emails.” About Lavender: founded in 2020, 18 people now, and on the funding side they've raised Series A ($13.2M total). A quick description: The #1 sales email assistant. Write better emails, get more replies. 9.9/10 on G2. 10k+ users. In this episode we cover: What does “creative” mean to you (HINT: there are 3 types of content and you have to think about the purpose of your content so that you pick the best type); A lot of people make educational content on LinkedIn but Todd makes entertaining content that actually gets people to chuckle and engage, what's Todd's creative process; How does that creative process translate into results; Top 1-2 creative marketing ideas from past roles; What’s your advice for startups that want to push more on the creative side. You can find Todd on LinkedIn >> www.linkedin.com/in/toddclouser/ Check out Lavender >> www.lavender.ai/ 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 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend! Lately I've been thinking about this simple equation: Marketing = Experience + Revenue (credit: Drew Brucker) I just love the simplicity of it. Something you can explain to a 7-year-old. I brought back Kyle Lacy (CMO at Jellyfish) to talk about creativity, testing new ideas, brand vs. demand, giving your team the space to be creative, and more. Kyle is also an advisor to startups including Demandwell and Postal.io. Prior, Kyle was the CMO at Lessonly (got acquired by Seismic). Kyle has led teams at Seismic, OpenView, Salesforce, and ExactTarget. Check out our past podcast episodes: Ep. 31 - “Kyle Lacy, CMO at Lessonly, Talks About The Power of Irrational Ideas and Golden Llamas” Ep. 91 - on marketing planning (this is when Kyle was leading marketing at Seismic) Jellyfish has 209 people, Series C funding ($114.5M total) and a quick description: Jellyfish helps engineering leaders translate and maximize the business impact of their teams. In this episode we cover: What does “creative” mean to you; How do you know if an idea is worth testing; Why a great experience is the only thing that makes us relevant as marketers - it's our job; How do you separate brand + demand efforts effectively (HINT: if 75% of the effort goes to Demand, that allows your team to be more creative); How do you handle the creative experience on the Demand side; How do you give your team the space to be creative; What are 1-2 top creative marketing plays you’re running at Jellyfish. You can find Kyle on LinkedIn >> https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy/  Check out Jellyfish >> https://jellyfish.co/ 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 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Hey listeners! Hope you had a wonderful Spring Break and if you're still on it enjoy those last few days!! I brought back Gideon Pridor (CMO at Workvivo) because he is just the coolest to jam with. We always have a great time. Prior to Workvivo, Gidi was the VP of Marketing at TravelPerk and prior to that he was the VP of Marketing at Perfecto Mobile. Check out Episode 59 “Your Story Impacts Your Go-To-Market And Inspires Your Product Development.” That was when Workvivo was Series A (now they're Series B). We talked about how their small marketing team of five was doing some really cool things to impact growth (now the marketing team is 20 people). Workvivo was founded in 2017, has 136 people, and $38.5M total funding (Series B). They've managed to achieve a really long runway (3+ years). Workvivo is the digital heart of your organization. The employee app that keeps your team connected. Here's what we cover in this episode: Why many startups stop being exciting too early, why that's a concern and how to avoid it; Moving from Series A to Series B - how have the marketing team and goals changed; What older and wiser Gidi would tell young Gidi if he could go back 20 years; What do you look for when hiring creative people; How did you decide that you needed to build a category, and how to balance that with demand capture; How did you come up with the category name "Digital Employee Experience Platform"; How did you change your marketing strategy during the downturn. You can reach Gidi on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gpridor Find out more about Workvivo: www.workvivo.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 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Katie Mitchell is one of the smartest brand and content marketers I know. She was the Sr. Director of Marketing (Product Marketing, Content Marketing, and Brand/Communications) at Sprig for 2+ years and in 2023 she's taking some time off before she jumps back into things. I met Katie back in 2020 on Chris Walker's Demand Gen Live (DGL) Tuesday night virtual events. Sprig is a Series B startup based out of San Francisco that has raised $88M in funding total. Here's what we cover: What does creativity mean; How the team approached creative marketing at Sprig; How to figure out what marketing experiments to run; How much time to spend on marketing experiments; Being creative means you're able to reposition something so it feels different (e.g. I never do a webinar); What startups are being creative with their marketing; What's comin' up next for Katie. You can find Katie on LinkedIn 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, I'm like your fractional head of marketing (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 5% 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 week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

One of the big reasons why I love working with startups is because they're so nimble and fast! Having a small team is a huge benefit to moving quickly. I asked MJ Smith (VP of Marketing at CoLab) to join me on the show again. She’s been VP of Marketing 3X. Prior, MJ was VP of Growth at Refine Labs and prior to that she was VP of Marketing at Firetrace. Please also check out Episode 9 “MJ Peters, VP of Marketing at Firetrace, challenges industrial companies to innovate their marketing.” It was one of my very first episodes but still has some super relevant content in there. CoLab was founded in 2017 and has 84 people. They've raised a total of $19.6M in funding (Series A). Engineers need better tools for working together, so they use CoLab to engage in meaningful, productive design conversations to catch preventable mistakes and get to market faster. Here's what we cover in this episode: What does “creative” mean (HINT: finding the best solution to a problem); Creativity is tied to feelings, so how do you get people to feel something with your marketing (HINT: break it down into logical steps); MJ talks to me about some cool creative approaches and pushing marketing boundaries at CoLab (as well as the results); MJ shares some startups we should be watching this year based on a few trends like TikTok and humor, offers, and data storytelling; MJ asks me her burning question. You can find MJ on LinkedIn. You can learn more about CoLab. 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 5% 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

Join Andy Raskin, a master of strategic narrative who helps CEOs navigate their storytelling, as he dives into the essence of creativity in startups. He discusses how a compelling narrative can boost innovation and sets the stage for effective brainstorming sessions by separating idea generation from evaluation. Andy shares personal anecdotes and highlights the importance of authenticity and teamwork in fostering a creative environment. Tune in for insights on harnessing storytelling for marketing success!

A bit of a different flavor for this episode, I wanted to share answers to the top 15 questions I get in a kind of rapid-fire model. I asked Nick Bennett to join me for this episode, Nick is the Sr. Director of ELG & Evangelism at Airmeet (Series B startup). He’s also host of the podcast "The Anonymous Marketer." Prior, Nick was the Director of Evangelism and Customer Marketing at Alyce (Series B startup). I’ve known Nick for a while, he's always sharing useful content on LinkedIn, he's always trying to be super helpful, and thinking about startup trends and how they’re shaping the future of marketing and customer marketing.  Here are the Top 15 Questions we cover: 1. I get this question all the time: We’ve been so focused on growing our sales team. Is it OK to delay marketing? 2. We have multiple target buyers and influencers that would champion our product. Who should we focus on with our marketing efforts? 3. Our growth has plateaued. What are some fresh ideas for where we can focus our marketing efforts? 4. What’s a week in the life of a solopreneur like you? 5. How’d you launch a successful podcast? 6. I’m a startup. What should be the profile of my first marketing hire? 7. What are my options for hiring my first marketing hire in 2023? 8. Where do most people go wrong when they develop their marketing strategy? 9. Why are my social media posts not engaging my target audience? 10. What’s the most important thing to focus on when it comes to content marketing? 11. What are some important questions to ask my customers in VoC research that I might be forgetting? 12. What do startups typically get wrong with their website? 13. What do startups typically get wrong with their marketing plans? 14. What is something that startups don’t leverage as much as they should? 15. How do I know if I have a really good Marketing Strategy planned for 2023? Here's the article I mention how to organize your early stage SaaS marketing org in question 6. Find Nick here www.tacknetwork.com or here www.tackgtm.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, I'm like your fractional head of marketing (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 5% 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