Building With Buyers

Emily Kramer, Co-Founder at MKT1, shares insights on hiring first head of marketing, importance of creativity in marketing beyond design, differences in marketing roles at different startup stages, balancing creativity and results, and unique approach to article structure and newsletters with diagrams.

A twist on the typical episode!  This is something I did two years back with Episode 23 (Reverse Podcast Episode with my then 7-year-old daughter where we talked about marketing) and so I decided to do it again but have a different flavor. I brought on my 9-year-old daughter to ask her some questions around creativity...and I answer those same questions. It's so fun to compare how we answer. The result is sometimes hilarious and always super cute. In this episode we cover: What does being creative mean to you; How do you know that something is creative; What are some things you do that help you be more creative; When have you been the most creative; Anything else that we each want to share. 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

Natalie Marcotullio is Head of Growth and Ops at Navattic. I’ve been working with Natalie and the Navattic team for 4+ months now as a Marketing Advisor so I personally have seen some of the creative work they’re putting out, and especially as an early stage B2B startup! Prior, Natalie held various roles including Marketing Director and Chief of Staff at Map My Customers (a Series A SaaS). Navattic was founded in 2020 and is based out of NYC. They've raised $5.4M funding (Seed). Navattic helps you instantly create interactive product demos. Customers include Mixpanel, Google Cloud, DropBox and more. Here's what we cover in this episode: What does “creative” mean; What are some cool, creative approaches and experiments at Navattic; How do you balance creativity with results (HINT: look at down-funnel conversions, you should be getting faster, easier deal cycles); How are startups doing on the “creative meter'' (HINT: a lot of marketers can’t be creative because they’re doing too much); Why marketing inputs are just as important as outputs; When has Natalie personally been the most creative; Natalie asks me her burning question. You can find Natalie on LinkedIn. You can learn more about Navattic. 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’ve been having some very insightful conversations on the podcast about creativity, pushing boundaries, marketing experiments and innovation 
and I’ve had some time to think about the stuff we covered so far and just wanted to share these 5 points with you guys:   1. Creativity comes in two forms:    - for the sake of creativity (in art, writing, music, etc.) and   - in business   2. Creative means: trying new things, sharing new ideas, connecting seemingly unrelated concepts to share new ideas. It's gotta be NEW TO ME and hopefully to you as well.    - Creative doesn’t necessarily mean “stunt” or “wild and crazy”  - Something that’s creative evokes emotion (like awe) which makes it more likely to be shared   3. More successful startups are more creative, and less successful startups are less creative.   A creative/innovative/experimental startup celebrates creativity at its core and creativity is part of its DNA.   4. An over-reliance on measurement has made startups less creative, because it doesn’t allow for the full freedom needed to have creative ideas  I’ve heard about examples of startups that do creative/experimental things without the need to measure impact (on sales) only to find that the creative thing actually did impact growth, but not in a linear way that we’re used to measuring (e.g. during COVID those startups that brought value to their customers and prospects in unique ways)  In business, the goal is always revenue, but we need to revisit how we’re going to get there.  I’m curious what kinds of things we (at our companies) can learn from creatives like writers and artists and will be exploring that more on the show. 5. During an economic downturn, it’s even more important to be creative because we are more resource and people constrained. So we need to get creative with how we approach growth.   Great marketers thrive on creativity and innovation and experimentation. Mediocre marketers just follow the rules someone else made. Great marketers are curious and constantly questioning the rules.   
So, more to come. 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

What is up everyone? Sharing out another amazing episode with ya'll. I asked Jenn Deering Davis to join me on the show. Jenn is Co-Founder and Head of Marketing at Gradient Works. I actually first listened to Jenn talk to Cassidy Shield on the Stacking Growth podcast (always got my eye out for innovative early stage startups!) and I really wanted to bring her on because she has a lot of experience with category design which is a creative process in and of itself. Prior to Gradient Works, Jenn co-founded Union Metrics, a social media analytics startup, that was acquired in 2018 by TrendKite and then TrendKite was acquired by Cision (a global media intelligence company). Gradient Works was founded in 2020 and has 20 people. They've raised Seed funding ($2M total). Quick description: Right rep, right account, right time. Dynamic sales book management software to help sales manage their territories. Here's what we hit on during the episode: What does creative mean to you; Cool creative approaches and experiments at Gradient Works; How they built their audience before they had a product and now they get 20K inbound website visitors; How the team builds creativity into how they work; What's Jenn's advice on how to turn technical concepts into stories that help people understand each other; Why they decided to design a new category at their early stage startup (HINT: it's never too soon); Pitfalls to avoid when creating your startup's new category; How to know that the category design process is working; Why now is the best time for startups to get more creative; Which startups should we be watching in 2023; When has Jenn personally been the most creative; Jenn asks Anna her burning question. You can find Jenn on LinkedIn. You can learn more about Gradient Works. 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 Christopher Lochhead to come back on the show (3rd time!) because I'm a really big fan and I know my listeners are as well. This time we talked about creativity, plus got a little personal!  (please note there's some swearing so listen to this one without the kiddos) Christopher makes content (podcasts, books, newsletters) for entrepreneurs and marketers with a different mind. He's got a newsletter called "Category Pirates" and podcasts (Follow Your Different, Lochhead On Marketing) and books ("Play Bigger" is on category design, "Niche Down" is about how become legendary by being different and "Snow Leopard" is on why legendary writers create a category.) After this one also check out Episode 44 where we talk about “Why 98% Of Startups (And Marketers) Waste Their Time”, how companies that lead with category design are valued at 5x more, what makes a legendary entrepreneur, and how to explain Category Design to a 7-year old. This is still one of my most popular episodes. And also check out Episode 108 where we talk about  "Why Most Business Content Is 100% Content Free And How Non-Obvious Ideas Can Help." In THIS episode we cover: What does “creative” mean to you (HINT: category design is actually very creative); Why creativity requires thinking about thinking; We talk about guns (yep); When have you felt the most creative; Christopher's process for getting creative + achieving flow; Podcasting is special because it's the only medium today for real, unedited human conversation; Balancing creativity with results (HINT: creative in business that doesn't drive revenue is not creative, but sometimes not making the money is the answer when you approach creative marketing projects). You can find Christopher on LinkedIn. You can learn more about Category Pirates. 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 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

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