Kieran Flanagan, SVP Marketing at Hubspot discusses the practical use of AI in tech, emphasizing the importance of human collaboration with AI. Topics include AI in strategy, user interfaces, customer service, and the challenges of leveraging AI in marketing. Key takeaways: AI requires human input for optimal results, can improve interactions but may lead to isolation, and marketers need a deep understanding of their business before implementing AI.

Dennis R. Mortensen, founder of LaunchBrightly, discusses the importance of owning your data set for competitive advantage. He rejects the idea that successful entrepreneurs must become investors, emphasizing the motivation derived from genuinely hating a problem. The podcast touches on the future of user interfaces, highlighting the potential of voice-first products and more intelligent assistants.

Andrew Ettinger from Appen discusses community-led growth in enterprise sales, emphasizing cross-functional collaboration, AI impact, and evolving sales strategies. Insightful topics include lead scoring, content transformation, and aligning incentives for sales success.

Guest Dani Grant discusses the in-person community building approach at Jam.dev, emphasizing the importance of being close to users in a product-led growth startup. They prioritize community building, utilize an R&D framework for marketing, and gain insights from events to connect with their target audience.

Experienced high achiever Andy Johns discusses burnout in tech, chasing external validation, and the cycle of success not bringing happiness. Tech industry perpetuates burnout. Importance of vulnerability and self-discovery. Andy shares personal struggles and lessons learned. Tech parallels human mind. Importance of addressing trauma and true authenticity. Embracing vulnerability for personal growth. Addressing suppressed emotions and seeking support for healing.

Erik Allebest shares the Chess.com success story, from 0 to 150 million ARR. They discuss making chess accessible to all, the challenges of scaling, importance of passion in hiring, and balancing CEO responsibilities. Chess.com aims to engage users beyond the chess community, focusing on growth for the game's sake.

Jason Fried and Leah discuss motivation, forming habits, and challenging traditions. They emphasize real-world experience, consistency in forming habits, and protecting one's time. Jason highlights the importance of hands-on learning for new employees and using intuition along with metrics for decision-making. They engage in a lively debate about calendars and time management, showcasing their unique perspectives.

Former CRO of G2, Mike Weir, discusses using a churn model with highly correlated variables to reduce churn and drive expansion revenue. The importance of product and marketing in customer education, aligning sales, customer success, product, and marketing in a PLG organization, and rewarding behaviors that lead to long-term revenue are highlighted. Founders should stay involved in sales to refine market understanding and product-market fit.

Anthony Pierri, Partner at FletchPMM, shares insights on positioning B2B startups through targeted messaging and value propositions. He emphasizes the importance of narrowing down target audience, using qualitative feedback, and balancing features with outcomes in marketing. Startups should focus on specific use cases and leverage their flexibility to offer unique solutions that larger companies cannot provide.

Adam Robinson, CEO of Retention.com & RB2B, is the CEO who builds in public on LinkedIn and is crushing it by discovering the power of product-led growth as he is doing it. He’s very specific about what works and what doesn’t and how he got started.He explains the power of organic reach through LinkedIn and building a personal brand through social media, particularly LinkedIn, and how important it is to not be too rigid in your assumptions. Adam shares his experience with video content and its impact on building trust and affinity with his audience to sell and scale an impressive B2B product-led flywheel.We talk about the concept of freemium product-led growth (PLG), the value of free users, and why it’s worth it to keep them around, even if they never buy.TakeawaysBuilding a personal brand through organic reach on social media platforms like LinkedIn can create trust and affinity with the audience, especially in B2B.Video content allows for a richer and more dynamic connection with the audience, enhancing the impact of your brand.Retaining free users is valuable for organic distribution and building domain authority.The combination of AI and influencer-type founders can enable bootstrapped startups to scale and compete with larger companies. We are just at the beginning.Point solution products with a massive free offer and a focus on viral expansion can disrupt traditional SaaS models.Sound Bites"I want to challenge myself to just keep adding value to the paid plan until we get decent conversion rates instead of taking value away from the free one.""I think video builds an affinity for you in a way that nothing else can because people are sitting there, they're observing your mannerisms and the way that you say things and like the sound of your voice and everything.""No user is a free user. You get something from everyone."Chapters02:16 The Impact of Video Content on Building Trust and Affinity08:45 Understanding Customer Churn and Market Dynamics23:38 The Value of Offering a Free Product to Build Brand Presence24:07 Freemium PLG and the Actual Value of Free Users25:37 What can and should you “automate” about personal connections?33:00 The Importance of Retaining Free Users35:26 The Future of AI and Bootstrapping, hyper-efficiencyAdam's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/retentionadam/Send us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube