The Changemakers

Whenever the conversation at Shaped By HQ turns to our favourite B2B brands, the same one always crops up: Drift.This unapologetically bold SaaS startup broke all the moulds when it created the category of Revenue Acceleration, and launched a vibrant and expressive new visual identity last year. So we were stoked when Andrea Carrillo, the firm’s Associate Creative Director, agreed to jump into the Changemakers hot seat and give us the inside story on Drift’s creative ethos.Originally from Colombia, Andrea and her family moved to New York as a child. Her parents - both engineers - landed jobs in the Big Apple, which sparked a keen interest in tech from an early age. This was matched by an equally enthusiastic passion for design when she joined a high school class that was effectively a mini creative agency for community projects.Dave chats with Andrea about how those influences shaped Andrea’s career and led to her becoming a creative leader at one of the SaaS world’s most recognised and loved brands.They also discuss:why internal creatives should think more like marketers to understand business goals and objectivesthe value of having a creative team that has a voice in conversations across the businesshow to retain the essence of a strong brand, and still be able to evolve and progress as the company growsthe influence of Drift’s founders David Cancel and Elias Torres on the brand’s creative expressionhow their background as Latinx founders is so inspirational to Andrea as a member of the Latinx community.Find out more about Drift on their site, and follow Andrea on LinkedIn here.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

How can the application of creativity enhance product marketing?If there’s one thread that’s been running consistently through the 29 previous episodes of The Changemakers, it’s that product marketing is the unsung hero of B2B tech business growth.All of our guests who have spent time in PMM roles have said that time was invaluable to their success. Many product marketers go on to have successful leadership careers. So when the time finally came for a discussion on creativity in product marketing, we knew exactly who to call on.Shobhana Viswanathan is a Silicon Valley-based chief marketing officer who has held numerous product marketing and B2B marketing executive roles at companies including IBM, Oracle/Sun, VMware and Automation Anywhere and startups.Shobhana started her career as a developer but found her true calling post-MBA at advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather. That stint in advertising and persuasive copywriting paid future dividends by allowing her to translate complex technical concepts into business benefits to help companies scale.Listen as Dave and Shobhana dive into:Why creativity is vital to product marketing, from campaign design to human-centric copywriting and messagingWhy nailing product marketing is especially crucial for category creatorsWhy product marketers’ skillsets make them perfect candidates for CMO positionsHow to use data to enhance your stakeholder management…and much more besides.Shobhana is the host of a great podcast on the future of work called The Change Alchemist, which is wonderful listening. Check it out here, and go connect with/follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

Design leaders in tech don’t come much more visionary than this week’s Changemakers guest, Nando Costa. Nando is a Brazilian-American designer with an extensive background in visual design, branding, digital products and animation production. After spending the first part of his career in the agency world, Nando joined Microsoft in 2013, spending the next nine years working on projects such as the creative development of the HoloLens, various Mixed Reality projects and cross-platform versions of Office apps. After a stint at Google Design in 2022, he returned to Microsoft, where he currently works on immersive experiences for Microsoft Mesh and explores the potential applications of generative AI.This may well be news to you, but to our Dave it isn’t. He’s followed Nando’s career for a long time, fascinated by his incredible Microsoft and Google animation pieces and ongoing experiments with Midjourney’s AI design tool. So, to have the chance to discuss all that with the man himself… let’s just say fanboy Dave was pretty excited. Their wide-ranging chat covers: Nando’s early influences growing up in Rio de Janeiro, how he wound up joining Microsoft, and staying at the firm for so long, why maintaining a consistent pace of learning and progression is so important to him, how to “find your tribe” in a company of 200,000 people, why impactful design at huge global brands relies on “thoughtful rule-breaking” the future of AI-powered design. This is one that any fan of truly world-class design and branding will really enjoy.Find out more about Nando at nandocosta.com.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In these 'soundbite' episodes, we'll be sharing moments from our Changemakers podcast that have made us stop and think, and we think will be valuable to you.This is from Episode 24 and our chat with Alan Cohen. During our conversation, he talks about cybersecurity and gives his thoughts on what businesses can do to stand out and make an impact in a world where their target audiences are often so bombarded by vendors, salespeople, and marketing activity.To cut through and make an impact on a very busy audience, you need to get so many things right to make a good impression.Listen to this episode to see if it changes your approach to cybersecurity marketing.Check out our content hub on how to stand out in a crowded cybersecurity market here. shaped-by.com/cybersecurity-marketingSend us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

Heidi Joy Tretheway is one of those marketing leaders who, in her words, would “rather build a ship than sail it”.That’s why she’s always gravitated towards startups with huge growth potential. The challenge of creating a marketing function virtually from scratch, and turning that into a pipeline-building, the revenue-generating machine is one that Heidi Joy absolutely thrives on.It’s also a challenge that we haven’t really tackled on The Changemakers until now. So Dave gets deep into it with Heidi Joy, exploring what makes a truly effective startup marketing leader, and why she gets such a buzz out of being one. They also chat about:why Heidi Joy was drawn to her current role at Gardenhow to approach your first 100 days in the rolehow to build out a messaging/positioning frameworkhow to create a content engine from scratchthe differences between building and scaling marketing at a Series A startup vs Series CDave and Heidi Joy also get into the art of storytelling - which as an author of a dozen kids and adults books, Heidi Joy certainly has a valuable perspective on.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

Being a CMO these days is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a role that is fraught with challenges. Yes, many have a seat at the top table, which certainly wasn’t the case a decade ago. But in return, the pressures on performance are enormous, even at the best of times - let alone in uncertain climates like this one.Some just aren’t cut out for it. But others thrive on those pressures because they know exactly how to inspire their teams to perform. That’s the mark of a true marketing leader - and Dillon Nugent recognised early on in her career that she had those qualities.Dave sat down with Dillon to find out how that self-awareness led her to be named the CMO of customer engagement firm Khoros last year. Where did her journey start, when did she realise she had leadership potential - and how did she turn that potential into the actions that proved she was a natural fit for the CMO role?We also chat about:Why being in sync with sales and product teams is so important for marketers at every levelThe importance of always being able to step back and see the bigger picture as a leaderHow to build a thriving team that is greater than any one individualKeeping her team focused on their goals during a year of seismic changeWhy it’s more important to fail and learn than always play it safeYou can follow Dillon on LinkedIn here, and find out more about Khoros here. Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In the second of our cybersecurity mini-series, Dave sits down with Mike O’Malley, seasoned tech marketing executive and recently-appointed CMO of API security specialists Noname Security.Mike joined Noname in the summer of 2022 to lead its marketing team into the next phase of the company’s rapid and impressive growth. Prior to that, he was Senior VP, Global Marketing at CyberArk, another pioneering cybersecurity firm. Mike’s career has also taken in senior marketing roles at VMware, CA Technologies and a number of other leading technology firms.As Mike tells Dave, he’d been fascinated by the challenges, innovation and fast pace of cybersecurity long before he moved into it - as well as the opportunity to play a pivotal role in the fight against the scourge of cybercrime.So now he’s immersed himself into the cyber world, what are Mike’s top tips on making a positive impression on one of the most under-pressure and vendor-bombarded technology buyers of all: the cybersecurity professional?No spoilers of course, but tune in and you’ll find out:why security marketers must understand their buyers much faster than in other tech categorieshow to go beyond your customers’ basic pains and really get inside their heads on an emotional levelhow to flip cybersecurity’s obsession with fear, uncertainty and doubt into honest, positive and benefit-driven messaginghow to use data and research to highlight genuine and immediate security problems, and position your solutions as the answerthe challenges of API security, and why addressing them is so important right nowEnjoy the chat, and leave us a review if you liked it!Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In the first episode of our cybersecurity mini-series, Dave chats with Donna Estrin, a PR and communications expert with vast experience at cyber firms large and small. After cutting her comms teeth in the PR agency world, Donna moved into tech, beginning her cybersecurity career handling analyst relations for McAfee. She then helped Neustar transform from a traditional telecommunications company to a high-tech security, data and marketing services company, before working on WhiteHat Security’s acquisition by NTT and VMware’s acquisition of Lastline.Most recently, Donna led comms for ReliaQuest when they acquired Digital Shadows, before departing to launch her new consultancy firm, Estrin Communications.From analyst, press and media relations to thought leadership, the role of communications is so vital in growing brand reputation and equity. Dave and Donna chat about:how to achieve this in a market that’s as saturated as cybersecuritywhat really matters to CISOs, and how to engage them by being helpful and adding valuewhat genuine and authentic thought leadership really meanswhy analysts are so important, and how to build successful relationships with themthe key cybersecurity trends that we need to be aware of going into 2023Not only is Donna the perfect guest to get insight into all of the above and more - but she hails from Shaped By’s home city of Bristol! We’ve invited her for one of our famous local craft beers next time she’s over from her home in California.Stay tuned for more cybersecurity specials coming very soon, as we dive deeper into this fascinating industry that’s so integral to protecting the way we all live and work.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

We’re in the midst of volatile times right now. So who better to provide a true perspective on what really matters, and how to focus on building for long-term success, than one of tech go-to-market’s most experienced and accomplished leaders?Alan Cohen has been at the forefront of game-changing tech GTM for over 30 years.During his early days at IBM and Cisco, he was pivotal to commercialising the technology that was building the very backbone of the internet.Following a series of VP-level product and marketing roles, helping disruptive innovators successfully upset some of the biggest tech incumbents, he rejoined Cisco, leading GTM for their $25bn Enterprise portfolio.After 25 years in “big tech”, Alan became product leader and frontman for 4 iconic, industry-transforming start-ups, before turning investor as a partner at DCVC, where he currently works with entrepreneurs using AI and science to build breakthrough companies in parts of the economy not touched by the tech revolution.Join Dave and Alan as they spend nearly an hour (our longest episode by a long way, but for good reason - it’s all gold!) chatting on a range of GTM-related subjects including:Building the foundations of internet communication at IBM and CiscoWhy the psychology of why people buy and use technology is so importantThe issues that CMOs are facing at the moment, and how to navigate themTips for challengers to dethrone the incumbents in their spaceWhat makes a successful founder from a GTM perspectiveSend us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

Jessica Rosenberg is one of the most inspiring creative leaders that you’ll find in tech.Having cut her teeth as a creative in the ad agency world, she had a brief spell in startup-land before her career really took off through spells at Twitter, Cloudflare, Mural and now Webflow, where she leads the brand design team.Leading teams like Jessica’s has multiple challenges. How do you structure the team for optimum results? How do you keep them motivated? How do you get great work done remotely? How do you collaborate with other teams? And how do you create an environment where these uber-talented, uber-creative individuals feel inspired to show up and do their best work every day?Dave chats with Jessica to explore how she solves these challenges on a daily basis, using her vast experience and expertise to empower her team to deliver consistently outstanding work.Follow Jessica on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicarosenb/Enjoy!Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️