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Hey MSM listener! Anna here, host of the show. I hope you enjoyed Season 4 of Modern Startup Marketing.

I'm officially wrapped with this season, but will be back for more in the future.

In the meantime, make sure you follow me on LinkedIn where I’ll continue to share top highlights from past pod episodes, and you can sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing frameworks and insights and cracking some jokes.

Peace and love.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Fractional Head of Marketing for early stage startups⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. Sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get marketers interested in your product

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing frameworks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building.

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Ryan Staley is Founder and CEO of Whale Boss where he does sales consulting and AI consulting. I heard Ryan present for an AI session earlier this year and thought “I gotta have him on my show.” So here we are.

Here’s what we cover:

What AI tools are you mostly into right now;

Biggest value use cases from AI for sales and marketing teams;

What are you still weary about when it comes to using AI;

AMA: Ryan asks me his burning question which actually inspired me to test something. Learn more about the AI experiment here.

Ryan's on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-staley

Check out his website:⁠ ryanstaley.io

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Sam Dunning is the Founder at Breaking B2B and host of the Breaking B2B podcast (Top 2.5%, 377 episodes). Sam came onto my podcast to talk more about the company he's building, plus:

The Breaking B2B podcast is 377 episodes and Top 2.5%. How do you decide what to talk about and who to talk to? Do you have Seasons? How has the show changed over time? What’s been the impact on your business;

Sam has been testing outbound cold calling and got surprised by the results;

AMA: Sam asks me his burning question which I actually do answer in this episode! Wait for it...

Sam's on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/samdunning

Check out Breaking B2B: ⁠www.breakingb2b.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Hope you're having a meaningful Memorial Day if you're in the US.

Sam Dunning (Founder at Breaking B2B) asked me to come onto his podcast "Breaking B2B" via a live session where we talk about the top deadly B2B startup marketing sins, how to avoid them, practical advice you can use right away, and we answer an audience question.

Check out more of Breaking B2B: www.breakingb2b.com

Here's the full video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRBg1qG3XjI

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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For this BONUS episode I brought on a friend. Friend episodes are great because you've talked to this person so many times and they just hit different. Come hang out with us.

Meredith Hein is the Founder of Unicorn Content & Growth Marketing where she works with growth stage companies, she also went to Kellogg.

Here’s what we cover:

On writing books for her clients and what books accomplish;

Udi Ledergor (Gong) once said "marketing’s goal is to make sales easier” and that still makes me cringe. What is the goal of marketing, and why;

Content creation when you’re creating a new category - what’s your biggest advice;

AMA: Meredith asks me her burning question which I answer in this episode.

You can find Meredith on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/heinmeredith

Check out her website: www.growwithunicorn.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Ian Faison is CEO and Founder of Caspian Studios where they create shorts, shows and moonshots (with podcasts and videos) for B2B companies. Ian wrote to me and said “I have an idea for your show…” and when Ian writes with an idea, I will of course say yes.

Here’s what we cover:

The old and dusty content marketing strategy;

The new content marketing strategy and why companies are adopting an Owned Media Portfolio;

Examples of shorts, shows and moonshots;

How do you create a podcast that breaks through the noise;

What goes into a Moonshot like Murder in HR;

How does an Owned Media Portfolio create ROI and how do you measure it;

How can early stage startups best leverage this new way of creating content;

AMA: Ian asks me his burning question which I answer at the end of our episode.

You can find Ian on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaison

Check out Caspian Studios: www.caspianstudios.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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In the last episode, Drew Brucker asked me “What are some creative marketing ideas that you or someone on the show has shared that are 100% worth experimenting with?” Drew, you’re in luck because I focused on creativity in Season 3 of the podcast and then I wrote a whole article called “36 Startups Share Their Top Creative Marketing Ideas” so in this episode I pull out those I believe startups should test.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Drew Brucker is the Founder and Creative Director at brainchild, a solo agency that helps brands with their creative and marketing execution. He's also master of Midjourney (genAI that generates beautiful images).

Here’s what we cover:

Why are you going big on Midjourney;

What are some of your best prompts;

How will Midjourney impact photography in the future;

Why images are so important for standing out and how to leverage that;

How can early stage startups incorporate Midjourney into their workflows;

AMA: Drew asks me his burning question which I will answer next week.

You can find Drew on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drewbrucker

Join Drew’s Midjourney workshop: https://tally.so/r/meRrR0

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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There are so many skills you need in a rockstar marketing hire, plus so many marketing channels. It's really challenging for a company to spend $120k+ and hire one single marketer and be happy with the result. It also takes time to find just the right (full-time) person.

Traditionally, companies had to choose between hiring an in-house marketing person or an agency. With the rise of remote work and solopreneurs, many of the best marketers are now working for themselves.

How can startups best leverage this growing trend? I asked Ryan Bettencourt (Co-Founder of Growth Collective) to join me on the show to discuss.

Growth Collective connects high-growth startups, agencies, and VC firms with vetted and highly experienced fractional marketing experts.

We also cover:

Why "Workforce" is changing into more of a "Work Web" and what that means for the future of the workplace;

Companies that use Growth Collective's network of fractional marketers, what are they loving the most about the experience;

What are companies still skeptical about when it comes to hiring fractional;

AMA: Ryan asks me his burning questions.

Quick note: I mention at the end of the episode that working for myself is amazing and yes it is but it's also challenging! Don't want to give the impression that it's always rainbows and roses :)

You can find Ryan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ryanbettencourt

Learn more about Growth Collective: www.growthcollective.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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I was on Marketerhire's podcast (The Marketer Show) where Blake Emal asked me to talk about MaaS Method, the 10-step systematic approach I built and use after working with dozens of early stage startups.

Here’s what you’ll learn:- Why you should start with the customer in your marketing research

• How to think about positioning and messaging at your early stage B2B startup

• How to build a content strategy "wedge"

• Creating your custom GTM strategy

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Erin Balsa (Founder of Haus of Bold) asked me this question in our last episode:

“What is the #1 improvement area when you work with new startup clients?”

So I'm going to answer it now.

Happy Friday!

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get marketers hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy Passover!

In my work with early stage startups, I've seen some of the ways that they approach their content strategies. Sometimes there's structure, but usually it's all over the place. It's not their fault, though. I haven't really seen any visual diagrams that would help startup founders and marketing teams build this out. Nothing too fancy, but at least some kind of easy to use, systematic approach that brings it all together.

So I brought on Erin Balsa to help hash this out. Erin Balsa is Founder of Haus of Bold where she builds and executes content marketing strategies for B2B SaaS startups that sell complex, enterprise-ready solutions.

If you want to see the Content Strategy Canvas, you can now because I wrote up an article to show you.

We also cover:

AMA: Erin asks me her burning question which I will answer in the next BONUS episode.

You can find Erin on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/erinbalsa

Haus of Bold: hausofbold.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Shane Murphy-Reuter (CMO at Webflow) asked me a question in our last episode: "If you were the CMO at Webflow, what would you do differently?" Well that is a loaded question, isn't it. First, let me just say Shane you’re doing an amazing job. Leading a team of 70 people! I just have a couple of things to suggest. Well, I have 13 things. I hope we can still be friends.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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I've been talking about websites quite a bit on the show, on LinkedIn, and I just came off a project where I looked at close to 200 B2B websites (!) and realized that being a B2B buyer in 2024 is kind of still awful. I wanted to explore why that is with Shane Murphy-Reuter, CMO at Webflow.

We also cover:

Who's on the marketing team at Webflow;

Why do B2B websites still suck in 2024;

Going beyond your website copy, how else can companies think about improving their websites today? (HINT: make it a memorable experience);

What marketing big bets are you taking in 2024 and why;

AMA: Shane asks me his burning question which I will answer in the next BONUS episode.

About Webflow:

• Founded: 2012
• Funding: Series C (($334.9M total)
• Description: Webflow is the way to design, build, and launch powerful websites visually — without coding.

You can find Shane on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shanemurfy

Learn more about Webflow: https://webflow.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy solar eclipse Monday! Hope you've got your special sunglasses handy.

Modern Startup Marketing just reached 200 episodes!!! Wild. 🦁Do I feel tired?Does it feel like a lot? Will I be doing 100 more episodes?What's been the hardest thing about podcasting for 4 years?What’s been the most surprising thing about podcasting for 4 years?What are the most important Qs to ask if you're doing a pod?What are my most favorite episodes?How do you know if your podcast strategy is working?How am I celebrating 200 episodes?What mistakes did I make?I answer ALL these questions in this 200th episode. Oh, and there are some pretty funny bloopers.Come for the bloopers, stay for the insights.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Just got back from a (mostly) relaxing Spring Break and eager to jump back into things. Hope you're doing well!

Anthony Pierri is Co-Founder and Partner at FletchPMM. He helps founders market hard-to-market products and specifically focuses on Homepages.

We cover:

What’s wrong with so many Homepages today;

How to fix those specific problems;

A specific example in the HR tech space;

Why does this Homepage (and website) work matter?

AMA: Anthony asks me his burning question which I will answer in the 200th episode comin' up!!

Find Anthony on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/anthonypierri

FletchPMM: www.fletchpmm.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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I’ve often wondered about how influencer partnerships work. I've been involved in a couple, so I get to see examples from the inside. But I wanted to see more examples, so I brought on Emily Steele, Co-founder and CEO at Hummingbirds (Seed funded).

She’s actually built a business around helping brands discover and work with hyper-local content creators. Some of these brands are working with 50-100 creators at once. A lot of what we talk about is very relevant for B2B influencer partnerships.

What does a good partnership look like? How do you know it’s working? Do you need to partner with people that have huge followings? And what are some of the best content creators doing really well?

We also cover:

Hummingbirds' positioning in sales conversations (it's not what you think);

The nuances of measuring the impact of influencer partnerships;

What differentiates an amazing content creator from just a mediocre one;

What marketing big bets are you taking in 2024 and why;

AMA: Emily asks me her burning question.

About Hummingbirds:

• Founded: 2022
• Funding: Seed ($4.4M)
• Description: Grow your business with hyper-local content creators.

You can find Emily on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/emilysteele12 ⁠

Learn more about Hummingbirds: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thehummingbirds.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Gaetano DiNardi is the Growth Advisor for 10 B2B startups. Something you may not know about him is that he spent 5 years as a music producer & songwriter in NYC.

I first learned about Gaetano back in 2020 when he was doing Demand Gen Live sessions with Chris Walker. What I love about his content on LinkedIn is that it’s not fluffy and he's honestly trying to be helpful.

We cover:

Gaetano's past life as a music producer and songwriter;

The MaaS Method (Marketing as a System) has 10 steps, or 3 parts. What do you think early stage startups should focus on out of these 3 parts;

Define lead gen vs. demand gen and pitfalls you see with lead gen strategies;

Advice for early stage startups that are prioritizing SEO as part of their content strategy;

AMA: Gaetano asks me his burning question.

Find Gaetano on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/officialg

His website: https://officialgaetano.com

Link to the LI posts I mentioned in this episode: This post and This post

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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It doesn’t take magic to make content that resonates. You just have to be real. Show your audience that you get them by understanding their cares, frustrations, and the reality of their day-to-day lives. But to do this, you really have to know your audience and their life experiences.

I was invited onto the Remarkable! podcast to share B2B content lessons from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It's a children’s book series about a boy named Greg Heffley. More than 290 million copies have been sold globally.

So what can B2B startups learn from Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Keep listening to find out. It’s pretty remarkable.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy International Women's Day!

I promised to answer this question for ya and I always deliver. Ari Yablok, Head of Brand at Island (Series C), was on the show (Ep. 194) and he asked me: "Founders that are not Marketing-driven or not appreciative of the role, what are some of the things you do to help them buy-in to marketing?" I answer in this 2-min. bonus episode.

If founders ARE bought-in to Marketing but don't understand how to measure brand, or don't know what to prioritize first, or aren't sure how marketing fits into their GTM strategy, etc., well that's different.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Ari Yablok is Head of Brand at Island (Series C). He joined Island in the very early days, back when they didn’t even have their name out in public. His job was to build the brand from zero.

You rarely get the chance to pitch to a CIO/CISO (their target buyer) so the founders knew they needed to enter that world in a way that sent a very clear signal that this is actually a new conversation.

How do you send that signal? What kind of message did they use? How do you attract the C-Level with your product when they're so hard to reach? Why did they need to go against all the playbooks in the industry? How do you prove the impact of Brand on business growth? We tackle these important questions with Ari.

We also cover:

What did Ari work on as Head of Brand early stage;

Who was on the GTM team early stage;

Their unique approach to hiring salespeople;

How Island's brand has evolved over the years;

Why building a new category meant they spent more time educating and less time pushing the product;

What marketing big bets they're taking in 2024 and why;

Why they spent years ignoring Demand Gen;

How sales and marketing can play nice and respect their differences;

AMA: Ari asks me his burning question which I will answer in the next BONUS episode.

About Island:

• Founded: 2020
• Funding: Series C ($385M total)
• Description: The Island Enterprise Browser has all the core security IT and productivity needs of the enterprise built into the browser, so work is naturally smooth and secure.

You can find Ari on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/ariyablok

Learn more about Island: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.island.io

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building and how it's going >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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In a world where using AI to do more, automate more, get more leads (more more more!) is celebrated, one thing that early stage startups have as the upper hand over larger companies is the permission and ability to do those things that don’t scale. Build community and relationships in unique ways (like with events), be creative, test wild ideas, learn and pivot quickly, etc.

Why might a focus on doing more with AI and automation actually hurt early stage startups?

That's the focus of my conversation with Corrina Owens (Chief Evangelist Officer at Purple Cork). Corrina worked at Gong where she focused on ABM programs and on a Super Bowl ad. Now she's the GTM Advisor for companies like Navattic, GTM Partners, Aptivio and Postal.io.

Purple Cork helps B2B companies create polished events that drive revenue through virtual wine tastings.

We also cover:

The nuances of when it's appropriate to use AI so that you still stand out;

Which AI tools Corrina has been using;

When GenAI tools overpromise but underdeliver;

AMA: Corrina asks me her burning question.

You can find Corrina on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/corrina-owens

Learn more about Purple Cork: ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.purplecork.wine

Direct w/ Corrina and Taylor podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/direct-with-corrina-taylor/id1688175099

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing frameworks, insights, cracking some jokes and keepin' it real

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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ABM often gets a bad rap, especially with early stage startups. People think ABM means you’re just running ads to a list of people, or that you need really expensive tech.

A couple of weeks ago I had Trinity Nguyen (VP of Marketing at UserGems) on the podcast and we talked about how she joined an early stage startup and decided to go the route of Scrappy ABM which ended up being super successful for them (90% of their pipeline was generated from this play).

There’s something about ABM when you run it scrappy and Mason Cosby (Founder of Scrappy ABM) joined me on the show to explore.

We cover:

What is Scrappy ABM;

Where does it fit in your business strategy;

When’s the best time to run a scrappy ABM program;

Multiple examples from Mason and from me;

How to create new ABM ideas;

Why did Mason decide to focus on Scrappy ABM instead of Scrappy Marketing or Scrappy Sales;

AMA: Mason asks me his burning question.

You can find Mason on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/masoncosby

Learn more about Scrappy ABM: ⁠https://scrappyabm.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy Presidents Day 🇺🇸 🎉

Does your CEO like the content your marketing team is producing? Does your CMO? Does your head of Sales? Do you know the answer for sure? Does it matter?

John Bonini (Founder of Some Good Content) has been meeting with founders and marketing execs that have said some variation of the following regarding their content marketing: “We’re doing SEO, but the content is not good, and it’s just not working very well anymore.”

So what’s broken with our content efforts? And how can we fix it? How do you ensure that your content isn’t just being created for the sake of content, but that it actually produces pipeline and revenue?

We also cover:

John's Content Motivation Framework that focuses on buyer motivation instead of a company's funnel;

AMA: John asks me his burning question.

You can find John on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/jbonini

Learn more about Some Good Content: www.somegoodcontent.com

John's podcast: Louder Than Words

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Picture this. You’re the first business hire at a 4-person early stage startup. Head of Marketing. So you get hired, and you’re trying to follow the Hubspot Playbook. The problem is, it’s taking too long. You’re impatient. The founders are impatient. You want to see something faster. You need to prove yourself. How do you cut through the noise? How do you get your target buyer to pay attention?

Trinity Nguyen (VP of Marketing at UserGems) was in exactly this situation and shares what happened next. And how what happened next was tied to more than 90% of their pipeline in those early days.

We also cover:

What was the turning point from Seed to Series A;

Why early stage you need to loosen up your attribution model to get big wins;

Why does marketing fail at the early stage;

AMA: Trinity asks me her burning question. Here's a helpful resource that my SEO expert sent me after this episode was recorded.

About UserGems:

• Founded: 2019
• Team: 80 people
• Funding: Series A ($20M)

You can find Trinity on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/trinitynguyen

Learn more about UserGems: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.usergems.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy Friday ya'll.

I just finished a 3-part series of episodes where I explored 3 topics:

1. positioning
2. strategic narrative
3. category design

I hear these concepts being thrown around all the time but I wanted to get to the heart of them. What are the key differences? When should you use one approach over another? And finally, what’s my take? Which one do I think is actually the most helpful for me and WHY? That's what I'm covering in this BONUS episode.

Check out the prior episodes where I actually went through each of these approaches and tried to apply them to my own business.

What’s your take? If you listened to this BONUS episode I’d love to hear from you. Leave me a message on Spotify or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is the 3rd in a 3-part series of episodes where I explore 3 topics:

1. Positioning (two episodes ago)
2. Strategic Narrative (last episode)
3. Category Design (this episode)

I hear these concepts being thrown around all the time but not always fully understood.

What are the key differences?

When should you use one method over another?

What’s my take on them? Which one do I think is actually the most helpful and WHY? That's comin' in a BONUS episode this Friday.

This episode was recorded for the Category First podcast. Josh Lowman (Founder and CCO at Gold Front) invited me on the show to literally help me category design my business. I love this episode because we are going deep on internal strategy. So I take a first pass and Josh has so much feedback for me, you gotta hear it.

Also in this episode:

Gold Front’s category strategy;

The unique problem my business solves;

Giving the problem a name that CEOs and Founders will connect with;

How to get more specific with language.

You can find Josh on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/joshlowman

Check out Gold Front: www.goldfront.com

Category First podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://pod.co/category-first

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Hiya! This episode is the 2nd in a 3-part series of episodes where I explore 3 topics:

1. Positioning (last episode)
2. Strategic Narrative (this one)
3. Category Design (next time)

I hear these concepts being thrown around all the time but not always fully understood.

What are the key differences?

When should you use one method over another?

What’s my take on them? Which one do I think is actually the most helpful and WHY?

Andy Raskin is the master of strategic narrative. He helps CEOs align their teams around a strategic narrative to power success in sales, marketing, fundraising, product and recruiting. Clients include VC-backed companies funded by top VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Google Ventures, and First Round Capital.

Also in this episode:

Quick review of strategic narrative;

What's the best way to write it down;

Strategic narrative is one story to rule it all, from the old way to the new way, but in many cases there are multiple new ways, so how do you convince someone that your way is the best new way;

Investors and employees love old game vs. new game thinking and creating a movement but do prospects actually get it in a sales meeting;

Should you position yourself as an expert and "teach" on a sales call;

Why don’t more companies adopt the Strategic Narrative mindset;

What’s the difference between Strategic Narrative and Category Design;

Andy asks me his burning question.

You can find Andy on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/andyraskin

Andy's website: andyraskin.com

Andy's podcast: ⁠andyraskin.com/podcast

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy New Year! I'll keep saying that until we're well into February. Winter is so much easier when there's something to celebrate!

This episode kicks off a series of episodes where I’m going to explore three topics in-depth:

1. Positioning
2. Strategic Narrative
3. Category Design

I hear these concepts being thrown around all the time but not always fully understood.

What are the key differences?

When should you use one method over another?

What’s my take on them? Which one do I think is actually the most helpful and WHY?

We start off with Positioning. I am a huge fan of April Dunford and the work that she does so I asked her to come back on the podcast for Round 2. This time we talk about how your Positioning feeds smoothly into your Sales Pitch.

Also in this episode:

April talks about her recent experience launching a podcast;

The goal of a great sales pitch;

What do great sales calls have in common;

How to structure your sales pitch so that prospects are confident making choices;

WHY does structuring your sales pitch in this way work better than other approaches out there;

Applying the Sales Pitch process to my own business;

Why companies hire April (HINT: alignment).

You can find April on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford

April's website: www.aprildunford.com

April's podcast: Positioning with April Dunford

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Gotta love a BONUS on a Friday!

In the last episode (Ep. 184) I didn’t get a chance to answer Merci and Derek's burning questions so I decided to put together this quick BONUS episode and do just that.

Questions:

1) What are you seeing that’s working (with marketing) with your clients?

2) Which channel or method are startups underutilizing?

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy MLK Day!

So I did this once before where I had a couple of startup founders join me on the show (check out Ep. 168) and I super loved the dynamic (listeners did too!) so I did it again.

These are a couple of companies that, at first glance, look and seem similar. They’ve got similar sized teams. They both talk about Growth or GTM which are seemingly similar concepts. But after digging deeper, I realize that they’ve got a bunch of differences. Who they’re for, what they do for their target buyer, pricing structures, etc.

So one of the big takeaways from this episode is I ask a lot of clarifying questions. This is a helpful process, to bring in someone that doesn’t live and breathe your startup, tell them who you’re for and what you’ve built, and then see how much they understand.

We also cover:

Who's on their GTM team and hiring their first marketer;

Why did they decide to go Freemium or Self-Serve right from the start;

What marketing big bets are they taking in 2024 and why;

What's been the hardest thing about marketing;

Why aren’t prospects inspired to take action, how do you get people to care about what you’re building;

Merci and Derek ask me their burning questions and I'll answer them in this week's BONUS episode.

About Panobi:

• Founded: 2022
• Funding: Seed
• Description: The platform for growth. Metrics, experiments and reports in one place.

About Ignition:

• Founded: 2021
• Funding: Seed
• Description: The GTM Ops platform. AI-powered Research, Roadmapping, and GTM Enablement.

You can find Merci on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/merci

Learn more about Panobi: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.panobi.com⁠

You can find Derek on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/derekosgood3

Learn more about Ignition: www.haveignition.com

Link to MKT1 marketing org hiring article that I talk about: https://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/marketing-org-chart

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy New Year! I'll keep saying that until we're well into February, and you can't stop me.

I feel like I could talk to Emily for hours every time she comes on the pod. Emily Kramer is Co-Founder at MKT1. MKT1 helps founders and marketers build and scale their marketing functions through investing (MKT1 Capital fund) and advising. Emily was on the pod before, listen to Ep. 141 “Mistakes To Avoid When Hiring Your First Head of Marketing.” It’s a Top 5 most listened to episode of all time.

In this episode:

What are some warning signs you look for before you invest in or advise an early stage startup;

What does "win on GTM" actually mean;

GTM strategy is more than just marketing so why'd you decided to focus all your energy on positioning around "marketing excellence" when you communicate your positioning and messaging and content with MKT1;

I wanted to dig into the MKT1 Capital Fund, specificallyreturn on investment expectations with this fund and what makes you different from other funds;

AMA - Emily asks me her burning question.

You can find Emily on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/emilykramer

Learn more about MKT1: www.mkt1.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com/⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy New Year! Wishing you a year filled with gratitude and grace, light over darkness.

After 3 years of podcasting and 180+ episodes, I'm sharing with you what I've learned.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

OK, final episode of 2023! I swear this time, this was just too important to leave until next year.

Just coming off the last episode with Natalie Marcotullio (Navattic) we talk a lot about measuring our marketing efforts. Huge challenge for marketers and founders and will continue to be a huge challenge because the methods we use for marketing continue to change over time: is the stuff we’re doing actually working? Should we start this marketing effort? Should we keep doing this marketing program?

A lot of times we hear the question: "What's the ROI on this?" If you’re hearing that question and it makes you cringe, you’re not alone.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com/⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

Merry Christmas! You can snuggle up to the fireplace with this final episode of 2023.

I’ve been working with the Navattic team for 1+ years now as an advisor, great team and super love the space they're playing in and the problem they're solving.

I’ve had Natalie on the show before, check out Ep. 139 “To Be The Company That Seems To Be Everywhere, You Need To Eliminate The Funnel Mindset.”

This time we focused on the loaded question "what's the ROI?" on various marketing initiatives.

About Navattic:

• Founded: 2020
• Funding: Seed ($5.4M total)
• Description: Create interactive product demos to let prospects get hands-on with your product (without bugging engineering).

In this episode:

Why did you podcast;Why did you stop;Will you start back up again with the podcast;LinkedIn Thought Leadership Ads vs. traditional paid ads and top learnings;The interactive demo space is so competitive, how’re you thinking about your positioning;

AMA - Natalie asks me her burning question.

You can find Natalie on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-marcotullio/⁠

Learn more about Navattic: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.navattic.com/

Check out their podcast Revenue on the Rocks: https://pod.co/revenue-on-the-rocks

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com/⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

It's Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast and this episode is me continuing to share ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MaaS⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Marketing as a System) which is the systematic approach to marketing that I built over almost 4 years of working with VC-backed early stage startups.

In this episode I cover Step 10: GTM Strategy including what it is, why it's important, who should own this work, and how to do it right. This is the last step of the MaaS process! Let me know if you ever want to dig deeper into any of the steps #1-#10, happy to do that.

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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing and advising for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

Peter Light is Co-Founder and CEO at Lumen Energy. Peter and I worked together back in 2021 and at that time Lumen was just a handful of people and they were building out their GTM strategy, positioning, messaging, and team.

About Lumen Energy:

• Founded: 2020
• Funding: Series A ($15.3M total)
• Description: Lumen enables commercial buildings to generate new income from clean energy.

In this episode:

The early days of Lumen Energy (Seed stage) - who did you bring onto the GTM team, what was your GTM strategy;

How did you build trust with prospects as an early stage startup;

What were the high points and what were the struggles at Seed stage;

How much advice did you follow from your early investors;

Why is marketing important and why do you think marketing can be so misunderstood;

AMA - Peter asks me his burning question.

You can find Peter on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/pelight/

Learn more about Lumen Energy: ⁠https://getlumen.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

Josh Lowman (CCO and Founder at Gold Front) joined me on the show for the second time for this BONUS episode. Check out Ep. 84 “What I've Learned From Category Designing 50+ Startups” where Josh shares how he's helped startups like Robinhood, Newsela, Uber, Bizzabo, and Clari create and own their category.

In this episode:

Why we leave happiness out of the business equation;

Why happiness matters;

Josh shares two mind tools that can help;

Tying it back to category design (HINT: the world is telling us to be reasonable);

Josh and I category design my own business.

You can find Josh on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/joshlowman

Learn more about Gold Front: www.goldfront.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 if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing and advising for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠

2. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> ⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

It's Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast and this episode is me continuing to share ⁠⁠⁠⁠MaaS⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Marketing as a System) which is the systematic approach to marketing that I built over almost 4 years of working with VC-backed early stage startups.

In this episode I cover Step 9: Case Studies including what it is, why it's important, who should own this work, and how to do it right. I'll be mixing in some more ⁠⁠⁠⁠MaaS⁠⁠⁠⁠-focused episodes over the course of the season.

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing and advising for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. ⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit ⁠⁠pdcflow.com/flow-billing⁠⁠ to learn more.

Krish Ramineni is Co-Founder and CEO at Fireflies.ai and he joined me in this episode to dig into growing from Seed to Series A, top focus areas for growth, their PLG approach from the early days, differentiation in a crowded space, and more.

About Fireflies:

• Founded: 2016
• Funding: Series A ($19M total)
• Description: Automate your meeting notes. Transcribe, summarize, search, and analyze voice conversations.

In this episode:

The early days of Fireflies.ai (Seed stage) - who was on the team, what was your GTM strategy;

What were the high points and what were the struggles at Seed stage;

How do you differentiate from other players in a crowded space (what if your competition can build a better product with better features);

Top 3 things that you focused on to get you from Seed to Series A;

Why is marketing important;

How do you balance talking about the problem (education) vs. talking about your solution with your marketing content;

Why do you think marketing can be so misunderstood;

AMA - Krish asks me his burning question.

You can find Krish on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramineni/

Learn more about Fireflies: https://fireflies.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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit ⁠⁠⁠pdcflow.com/flow-billing⁠⁠⁠ to learn more.

It's Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast and this episode is me continuing to share ⁠⁠⁠MaaS⁠⁠⁠ (Marketing as a System) which is the systematic approach to marketing that I built over almost 4 years of working with VC-backed early stage startups.

In this episode I cover Step 8: Designing Other Website Pages including what it is, why it's important, who should own this work, and how to do it right. I'll be mixing in some more ⁠⁠⁠MaaS⁠⁠⁠-focused episodes over the course of the season.

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing and advising for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠

2. ⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> ⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit ⁠pdcflow.com/flow-billing⁠ to learn more.

Brad Pedersen is Co-Founder and Chairman at Lomi and Pela. We're focusing on Lomi in this episode (B2C). I always get so many takeaways from talking to B2C startups that I can carry over into B2B, and that's why I love this convo.

About Lomi:

• Founded: 2022
• Funding: crowdfunding using Indiegogo ($7.2M!) and then got VC backed
• Description: electronic device which turn your food scraps, organic waste, compostable packaging and home bioplastics into compost (plant food); they've already shipped 20,000+ units

In this episode:

Why does story matter with your marketing;

How to listen for the problem your customers actually want to hear about;

What is marketing and why does it work;

Why do superfans love Lomi and how do you further leverage that to create more superfans;

What can B2B early stage startups learn from the way that Lomi approaches marketing;

AMA - Brad asks me his burning question.

You can find Brad on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-pedersen-77075012/

Check out his book coming out in November: https://startupsantabook.com/

Learn more about Lomi: https://lomi.com/

Learn more about Pela:https://pelacase.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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov⁠

3. ⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit ⁠⁠pdcflow.com/flow-billing⁠⁠ to learn more.

It's Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast and this episode is me continuing to share ⁠⁠MaaS⁠⁠ (Marketing as a System) which is the systematic approach to marketing that I built over almost 4 years of working with VC-backed early stage startups.

In this episode I cover Step 6 + 7: Homepage wireframe + design including What it is, Why it's important, Who should own this work, and How to do it right. I'll be mixing in some more ⁠⁠MaaS⁠⁠-focused episodes over the course of the season.

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing and advising for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠

2. ⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> ⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit ⁠pdcflow.com/flow-billing⁠ to learn more.

Devin Reed is the Head of Content at Clari. Devin was also at Gong for almost 5 years and what's interesting about Devin's background is that he's got both the deep Sales (AE) + Marketing (Content) experience which made for a really great convo.

In this episode:

From AE to Head of Content at Gong, how were you using content as part of your role as an AE in those early days;

What have you learned as an AE that you’re bringing into the way you approach Content (HINT: nobody cares about your product);

How late is too late to talk about your product;

Why you don't need the product to enjoy content and advice;

What scrappy things did you pull off at Gong that worked to drive pipeline and revenue;

How do you think about the interplay of Process for sales plus the Creativity of marketing;

Why is one marketing approach better than another given your company size, team skills, industry, audience, etc;

Why did Devin write his new digital playbook Content That Converts (use the code ANNA for a discount!);

AMA - Devin asks me his burning question.

You can find Devin on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinreed/

Learn more about Clari: ⁠https://www.clari.com/

The Reeder: https://thereeder.co/

Content That Converts playbook: https://convert.thereeder.co/ Use the code “ANNA” for a discount!

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing and advisor for early stage startups >> ⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠

2. ⁠sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello and tell me which episodes you've listened to >> ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit ⁠pdcflow.com/flow-billing⁠ to learn more.

It's Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast and this episode is me continuing to share ⁠MaaS⁠ (Marketing as a System) which is the systematic approach to marketing that I built over 3+ years of working with early stage startups.

In this episode I cover Step 4 + 5: Brand Design Guide + Mood Boards including What it is, Why it works, Who should own this work, and How to do it right. I'll be mixing in some more ⁠MaaS⁠-focused episodes over the course of the season. Here's the link to a sample Brand Design Guide, you can make a copy and edit for your own company.

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠

2. ⁠sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to ⁠https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna⁠ and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit ⁠pdcflow.com/flow-billing⁠ to learn more.

I’d just like to take a brief moment of silence to remember those innocent lives that have been lost during the terrorist attacks committed by Hamas in Israel. Especially the children, babies, and families that were asleep in their homes. For all the victims of unspeakable terror, let’s please take a moment.

Daniel O’Reilly (CEO and Founder of Fuel Sales and FuelK12) joined me on the show for the second time for this BONUS episode. Dano is an edtech sales guru and my partner in crime for the Edtech GTM Bootcamp we run for edtech startup founders. I’ve had Dano on before, you should also check out Ep. 117 “Marketing & Sales: Show Some Respect.”

In this episode:

Why does fully understanding your buyer’s pain matter so much for salespeople AND marketers;

How do you know if you really do understand your buyer’s pain;

What results should you expect from a conference if you’re an early stage startup, and should conferences even be part of your GTM strategy;

When is the right time to bring in SDRs versus Head of Sales at your early stage startup;

AMA - Dano asks me his burning question.

You can find Dano on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/danoreilly/

Learn more about Fuel Sales including the GTM Bootcamp: ⁠https://gofuelsales.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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠

2. ⁠sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello and tell me which episodes you've listened to >> ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit pdcflow.com/flow-billing to learn more.I’d just like to take a brief moment of silence to remember those innocent lives that have been lost during the terrorist attacks committed by Hamas in Israel. Especially the children, babies, and families that were asleep in their homes. For all the victims of unspeakable terror, let’s please take a moment.I ran a bit of an experiment and decided to have two guests on the show with me this time, and learned twice as much. Tyler Wells (Co-Founder and CTO at Propel) and Natan Yellin (CEO at Robusta) joined me on the show. About Propel: Founded: 2021 Funding: Seed Description: Analytics Platform as a Service (APaaS)About Robusta: Founded: 2021 Funding: Seed Description: For DevOps to Monitor their cloud and kubernetes so they can respond faster.In this episode:We all define what is marketing from our POVs;Tyler talks about Propel's most recent conference experience;People don't realize how hard it is to create good content;Why do marketing at all;What has been the hardest thing about marketing;On measuring your content efforts; AMA - both Tyler and Natan ask me their burning questions.You can find Tyler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerswells/Learn more about Propel: https://www.propeldata.com/ You can find Natan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natanyellin/Learn more about Robusta: https://home.robusta.dev/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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> www.furmanovmarketing.com2. sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes3. Sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanovYou can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me which episodes you've listened to >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit pdcflow.com/flow-billing to learn more.

It's Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast and this episode is me continuing to share MaaS (Marketing as a System) which is the systematic approach to marketing that I built over 3+ years of working with early stage startups.

In this episode I cover Step 3: Keyword Research including What it is, Why it works, Who should own this work, and How to do it right. I'll be mixing in some more MaaS-focused episodes over the course of the season.

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> www.furmanovmarketing.com

2. sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit pdcflow.com/flow-billing to learn more.

Mary Keough (Head of Marketing at Map My Customers) joined me on the show. Season 4 I’m bringing on mostly startup founders but with Mary I made an exception and you'll understand why when you listen. She's the solo marketer at a Seed stage startup.

About Map My Customers:

• Founded: 2015
• Team: 24 people
• Funding: Seed ($2.9M)
• Description: The mobile-first CRM loved by outside sales teams.

In this episode:

What did you prioritize as the new head of marketing when you started;

How Mary's strategic marketing approach happens to align with mine;

How Mary measures their marketing strategy while still staying creative and without getting bogged down in attribution;

How to plan for and how much time to invest in “marketing moonshots” or those crazy wild ideas vs. things you kinda know will work aka "boring marketing";

The importance of Time and Effort at an early stage startup;

With marketing, why do some people get it while others don’t;

AMA - Mary asks me her burning question.

You can find Mary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-keough-437824a2/

Learn more about Map My Customers: https://mapmycustomers.me/

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> www.furmanovmarketing.com

2. sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello and tell me which episodes you've listened to >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit pdcflow.com/flow-billing to learn more.

It's Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast and this episode is me continuing to share MaaS (Marketing as a System) which is the systematic approach to marketing that I built over 3+ years of working with early stage startups.

In this episode I cover Step 2: Marketing Foundation Deck including What it is, Why it works, Who should own this work, and How to do it right. I'll be mixing in some more MaaS-focused episodes over the course of the season.

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> www.furmanovmarketing.com

2. sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit pdcflow.com/flow-billing to learn more.

I'm welcoming my first guest for Season 4 of the show, Hayes Davis (Co-Founder and CEO at Gradient Works). I had Jenn Davis (Co-Founder and CMO at Gradient Works) on the show (Ep. 137 - “Pitfalls to Avoid When Designing Your Startups New Category) so check that out if you haven't yet.

About Gradient Works:

• Founded: 2020
• Team: 16 people
• Funding: Seed ($4.25M)
• Description: Right rep, right account, right time. Dynamic sales book management software to help sales manage their territories.

In this episode:

Why do so many people love Gradient Works;

Why do marketing at all;

AMA - Hayes gets to ask me his burning question;

We talk about Market Map which is something new the Gradient Works team has built to help sales.

You can find Hayes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayesdavis

Learn more about Gradient Works: https://www.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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> www.furmanovmarketing.com

2. sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello and tell me about which episodes you've listened to >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit pdcflow.com/flow-billing to learn more.

It's Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast and this episode is me kicking off MaaS (Marketing as a System) which is the systematic approach to marketing that I built over 3+ years working with early stage startups.

In this episode I cover Step 1: Voice of Customer Research including What it is, Why it works, Who should lead it, and How to do it right.

You can get the link to the playbook I mention in the episode here and I'll be mixing in some more MaaS-focused episodes over the course of the season. Next time I do, I’ll talk about MaaS Step 2: Marketing Foundation Deck which includes the persona(s), messaging, positioning, competitive landscape, and more.

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 if you're lovin' the show! I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> www.furmanovmarketing.com

2. sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

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, definitely say hello >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

View Details

This episode is sponsored by Riverside, your all-in-one podcast and video platform. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/Anna and use the code MSM23 for 15% off.

This episode is also sponsored by PDCflow, payment management made easy. Visit pdcflow.com/flow-billing to learn more.

Happy Labor Day to my listeners in the US!! Hope you're enjoying the time off. Great day to sneak in a little Modern Startup Marketing :)

Welcome to Season 4 of the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. I’m so happy you decided to join me and hear more about where this season is going.

This episode is just me. I do a quick look-back on prior seasons and ask some really important questions to kick things off for Season 4. Let's go!

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. I would love that so much.

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> www.furmanovmarketing.com

2. sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes >> 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, definitely say hello >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Ok, I know I said the last episode was the LAST one, but I just wanted to slide this BONUS one in here if ya don't mind.

I asked Christina Pawlikowski (CEO and Co-Founder at Causal) to join me on the show so we could talk about what they're building, the value they've gotten from working with me as their fractional head of marketing, and why they decided to hire marketing before sales.

About Causal:

• Founded in 2021
• Funding: Seed
• Description: Causal is product optimization in a box for data obsessed teams.

You can find Christina on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cpawlikowski/

Check out Causal: https://causallabs.io/

I’m officially wrapping up this season but will be back for more in the future, don't forget to leave a review if you've been enjoying the show!

You can sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba

You can also find me hanging on LinkedIn, tell me what you're up to this summer >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Hey MSM listeners! Anna here, the host of the show.

I hope you enjoyed Season 3 of Modern Startup Marketing and all the incredible guests and conversations I brought you. I'm officially wrapped with this season but will be back for more in the future.

In the meantime, make sure you follow me @AnnaFurmanov on LinkedIn and you can sign up to get my monthly startup marketing newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes.

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Usually I'm asking my guests all the questions, but sometimes they have a question for me. So I created an episode that’s just guests asking me their burning question and then I answer their question. Some really great, thought-provoking questions in here. People do not hold back.

Here's the full list of people that had questions for me (in order) along with the episode number in case you want to jump back and listen to the full episode:

• Chris Walker (Refine Labs, Ep. 154)
• Lee Anne Grant (babylist, Ep. 103)
• MJ Smith (CoLab, Ep. 144)
• Terri Avnaim (Boulevard, Ep. 107)
• Dave Gerhardt (Exit Five, Ep. 133)
• Frankie Scerbo (Elude, Ep. 109)
• Sarah Breathnach (Hunters, Ep. 120)
• Drew Brucker (LASSO, Ep. 157)
• Jenn Deering Davis (Gradient Works, Ep. 137)
• Josh Ades (DwellWell, Ep. 121)
• Latane Conant (6sense, Ep. 128)
• Emily Dale (Alto, Ep. 122)
• Annette Cardwell (Lattice, Ep. 124)
• Anthony Kennada (AudiencePlus, Ep. 118)
• Katie Perry (Public, Ep. 135)
• Natalie Marcotullio (Navattic, Ep. 139)
• Jay Acunzo (Creator Kitchen, Ep. 151)

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 startup marketing 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 >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Sprinkling in another customer conversation (love doing these) I asked Tyler Wells (CTO and Co-Founder at Propel) to join me on the show so we could talk about what they're building, what stage they're at, the value they've gotten from working with me as their fractional head of marketing, and how they're ramping their marketing efforts.

Tyler is also the host of the podcast "Data Chaos!" so check that out.

About Propel:

• Founded in 2021
• Funding: Seed ($4.6M)
• Description: 99% of product dev teams waste their time and money when they plan, build and support customer dashboards. Propel helps you ship your customer-facing analytics without hiring more people. Beyond dashboards, they're an API platform to build data applications.

We discuss:

Why'd the team decide to work with me, what were they looking for help with;

What are some of the marketing plays you're running now and how's it going;

Why'd you decide to start the podcast;

How are you thinking about category design for Propel.

You can find Tyler on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tylerswells

Check out Propel: www.propeldata.com

This episode is sponsored by 43North, a seed-stage startup accelerator that's on the hunt for its next cohort. This year, 43North will make five $1 million dollar investments, each at 5% equity. Visit 43North.org to learn more. Applications close on June 23rd, so get on it!

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 startup marketing 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 >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy Juneteenth to all my listeners!

Drew Brucker (VP of Growth at LASSO, first marketing hire) has been a longtime listener of the podcast and he's one of the people that's given me some great feedback about the show. I decided to invite him on to talk about what he's been building, creative marketing plays, and more.

Prior to LASSO, Drew was the first marketing hire at Fullsteam (a tech payments company) and prior to that he was Head of Brand and Digital at Rubicon (had a successful unicorn exit).

About LASSO:

• Founded in 2014, based out of Nashville, 80 people
• Funding: Series A ($7.5M total)
• Description: all-in-one project and workforce management platform where event and entertainment companies work.

In this episode we talk about:

Unpacking this simple equation: Marketing = Creative + Revenue and what does a bowl of cereal have to do with it;

What does "creative" mean to you;

Top 1-2 creative marketing ideas at LASSO (HINT: using AI, podcast, video);

Drew asks me his burning questions.

You can find Drew on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drewbrucker/

Check out LASSO: www.lasso.io/

This episode is sponsored by 43North, a seed-stage startup accelerator that's on the hunt for its next cohort. This year, 43North will make five $1 million dollar investments, each at 5% equity. Visit 43North.org to learn more. Applications close on June 23rd, so get on it!

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 startup marketing 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 >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Udi Ledergor is Chief Evangelist at Gong. He went from marketer #1 to Gong's Chief Marketing Officer and has been there for over 6 years. Udi led the creation of the Revenue Intelligence category, and led the company from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue. He's a 5X marketing leader in B2B startups AND he's also really good at playing the piano.

About Gong:

• Founded in 2015, based out of SF, 1300+ people
• Funding: $583M total
• Hit unicorn status August 2020
• Description: The revenue intelligence platform. Gong unlocks reality to help people and companies reach their full potential.

In this episode we talk about:

What does "creative" mean to you;

When have you personally been the most creative (HINT: finding creative ways to solve challenges);

How did you run marketing and create content in the very early days at Gong;

How do you know that your content is actually good;

Are you thinking about content monetization;

How do you balance creativity with results;

Things you focused on as Marketer #1;

On hiring great people to compensate for your weaknesses;

When, why, and how did you decide to define your new category Revenue Intelligence;

How long does it take to build a new category.

You can find Udi on LinkedIn >> www.linkedin.com/in/udiledergor

Check out Gong >> www.gong.io

This episode is sponsored by 43North, a seed-stage startup accelerator that's on the hunt for its next cohort. This year, 43North will make five $1 million dollar investments, each at 5% equity. Visit 43North.org to learn more. Applications close on June 23rd, so get on it!

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 >> www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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I’ve cracked the nut on exactly what early stage startups need help with from a marketing and business perspective, and I wanted to share it with you in this episode. I built a systematic approach, and what’s cool is I can use the system I’ve built over and over in many different contexts.

For example:

• client work
• GrowthMentor calls
• friend calls
• VC calls
• accelerator workshops
• EdTech GTM bootcamp sessions
• high school presentations (yep, I’ve done this a couple times too)

I always wanted to “productize” my knowledge. So now I’ve got a product and it's called Marketing as a System (MaaS). I just want more early stage startups to apply this system as they're building their companies. Because the results will be MaaSive. Yea. I did that.

Here is MaaS in a nutshell:

1. Voice of customer research
2. Marketing foundation deck
3. Keyword research
4. Brand/design guide
5. Mood boards
6. Homepage wireframe with copy
7. Homepage design
8. Other website pages
9. Case studies
10. GTM strategy
11. GTM execution

In this episode, I dive into each part of the system.

This episode is sponsored by 43North, a seed-stage startup accelerator that's on the hunt for its next cohort. This year, 43North will make five $1 million dollar investments, each at 5% equity. Visit 43North.org to learn more. Applications close on June 23rd, so get on it!

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 week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy Memorial Day!!!

I asked Chris Walker to join me for a second round on the show. Last time he was on was Episode 35 (called “Over-prioritizing sales is your SaaS startup’s biggest mistake”) and that was also a really good one. Towards the end of the episode, Chris has some great questions for me to answer.

Chris is Founder and CEO at Refine Labs. Prior, Chris was the Dir. of Mktg at Eversound, a wellness startup. And prior to that he was at Vapotherm, a global medtech startup that IPO’d in 2018. He's got 128k followers on LI and he's the host of the Revenue Vitals podcast (formerly State of Demand Gen).

Refine Labs is a demand strategy and research firm focused on growth-stage B2B SaaS companies.

In this episode we talk about:

What does "creative" mean to you;

When have you personally been the most creative;

What's your advice for startups that want to experiment more;

How do you create the best marketing content;

What's your stance on category design, is it worth the effort;

Chris asks me some of his questions.

You can find Chris on LinkedIn >> www.linkedin.com/in/chris-walker-41597028/

Check out Refine Labs >> www.refinelabs.com/

This episode is sponsored by 43North, a seed-stage startup accelerator that's on the hunt for its next cohort. This year, 43North will make five $1 million dollar investments, each at 5% equity. Visit 43North.org to learn more. Applications close on June 23rd, so get on it!

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 week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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There's been a lot of buzz around PLG vs. Sales-led GTM models. Companies that started with one GTM method are exploring others. So I thought this conversation would be super interesting for many as they're thinking about a more blended approach.

Sei Suriyakumar is Head of Marketing at Superhuman. Prior, Sei was Director of Product Marketing at Dropbox and prior to that he held marketing leadership positions at HelloSign (acquired by Dropbox).

About Superhuman:

• Founded 2015
• 100+ people
• Funding: Series C ($108M total)
• Description: Superhuman is the fastest email experience ever made. Customers fly through their inbox twice as fast as before and save an average of three hours every week. More than half hit Inbox Zero within 4 hours of starting. They've recently expanded from an individual product (B2C) to one that's optimized for teams (B2B).

In this episode we talk about:

How Superhuman has a part PLG + part sales-led model;

How that model started with humans and evolved over time;

First 90 days at Superhuman;

What's working well, what's not;

Sei's thoughts on category creation;

One big thing Sei learned from his experience at Dropbox that he's bringing into his role at Superhuman.

You can find Sei on LinkedIn >> https://www.linkedin.com/in/seiyonne/

Check out Superhuman >> https://superhuman.com/

This episode is sponsored by 43North, a seed-stage startup accelerator that's on the hunt for its next cohort. This year, 43North will make five $1 million dollar investments, each at 5% equity. Visit 43North.org to learn more. Applications close on June 23rd, so get on it!

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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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Obaid Durrani is Head of Content at HockeyStack. He's also Creator Advisor at Cognism (a Series C startup) and he's the co-host of the Cheat Codes podcast with Todd Clouser who I also had on the show (check out Ep. 148).

Prior, Obaid was Associate Creative Director at Refine Labs. Prior to that he bootstrapped a 5-person content + animation team to $420k ARR.

In this episode we cover:

What does “creative” mean to you;

When Todd was on the show with me (Ep. 148) he talked about 3 content types. Can you help me understand what else is part of your "Easy Mode" framework to build a marketing content engine;

Top 1-2 creative marketing ideas from your past experience;

Where do you get your creative ideas.

You can find Obaid on LinkedIn >> www.linkedin.com/in/obaid-khan-durrani

Check out HockeyStack >> https://hockeystack.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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Andy Raskin is the storyteller of Silicon Valley, the master of strategic narrative. Andy helps CEOs align their teams around a strategic narrative in order to power success in sales, marketing, fundraising, product and recruiting. Clients include VC-backed companies funded by top VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Google Ventures, and First Round Capital. He’s also led strategic narrative training at Salesforce, Uber, Square, Yelp, VMware, Intel, General Assembly and more.

On Andy's podcast "The Bigger Narrative" he talks to CEOs from companies like Zuora, Grin, 360Learning, and Contentful about the power and impact of strategic narrative.

Andy was on the show before - Episode 61 - “How To Tell A Different Story And Create A Movement” back in 2021! So check that one out too.

In this episode we cover:

Quick reminder re: what is strategic narrative;

What does creativity mean to you;

Why startups that are using strategic narrative tend to be more creative (they’re using story as the groundwork for everything they do);

How to run an effective brainstorming session (need to separate idea generation + evaluation);

Andy's creative inspirations.

You can find Andy on LinkedIn

Check out his website

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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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.

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

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I love bringing on other startup marketing experts and Emily Kramer is no exception. Plus she's just super down to earth and was fun to talk to.

Emily Kramer is Co-Founder at MKT1 (helps founders and marketers build and scale their marketing functions through their fund MKT1 Capital, advising & consulting, and content and courses). She's like a “CMO investor” because she's got a fund (MKT1 Capital) that’s focused on early-stage B2B startups. Prior, Emily led and built marketing teams from the ground up at Carta (now Series G), Asana (IPOd), Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly (acquired by Eventbrite).

Emily shares really useful articles that have to do with startups and marketing and I'm going to link to them in the show notes down below in case you want to check them out.

In this episode we cover:

What does “creative” mean to you (HINT: most people think brand and design, but it goes way beyond that);

First marketing hire at a Seed vs. Series A vs. Series B startup - what matters;

As the first marketing hire 4X, what is one thing you learned and then changed about your approach to heading up marketing;

How did you balance creativity with results;

Why you need to be saving time to make big bets;

When you’re setting goals (OKRs) you can’t just set KPI goals (e.g. leads + conversion rate) because your creative big bet projects won’t succeed.

You can find Emily on LinkedIn.

You can learn more about MKT1.

Here's a great article that Emily wrote on how to organize your early stage SaaS marketing org and here's another one about marketing goal-setting.

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

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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

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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

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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:

2. for the sake of creativity (in art, writing, music, etc.) and

3. in business

4. 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.

5. Creative doesn’t necessarily mean “stunt” or “wild and crazy”

6. Something that’s creative evokes emotion (like awe) which makes it more likely to be shared

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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It’s the last podcast episode of 2022! I just wanted to say thanks for listening, thanks for sticking with me, I appreciate you.

In this episode I'm also sharing where I'm taking the show for Season 3 (I've already started recording episodes that I can't wait to share with ya'll).

Season 1 and 2 I brought on startup founders, marketing and sales leaders to explore brand, demand, what approaches work well, challenges and category design. For Season 3 we’re going deep into messy creative experiments, marketing innovation, pushing boundaries, how to make creativity achievable at a growing startup, why it’s so important today, balancing creativity with results, and how to sell the CEO on the creative stuff. I’ll also talk to creatives like artists and writers to understand their approach to creativity and what we can learn + apply to marketing at our startups.

Happy New Year and I hope you get to enjoy some good old fashioned down-time before we jump right back into things next year!

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

This episode is also sponsored by Riverside, your online recording studio. Visit Riverside.fm to learn more and use the code HOLIDAYS22 for a 30% discount on your subscription.

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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Final full episode of 2022!! Hope you've been having a wonderful holiday season and Happy (almost) New Year!

I asked Will Allred (co-founder & COO at Lavender) to join me for this episode and cover some good ole' sales topics that may be top of mind for folks going into 2023. Will is a LinkedIn Top Sales Voice (47K+ followers). Prior to Lavender, Will was co-founder and COO at Sorter and prior to that he was Senior Associate at TopRight, a marketing consulting firm.

Lavender was founded in 2020 and based out of NYC. They've got 8 people on the team and hiring for 2 more marketing roles. Lavender is the #1 sales email assistant. Write better emails, get more replies. 9.9/10 on G2 with 10k+ users.

Here's what we hit on:

Let's start with your website, that homepage header banner (play-doh wizard, listeners please go check it out) it's amazing, who came up with that and how's the performance of your website (HINT: our website converts 15-20% of all traffic);

What’s the biggest but not as widely known mistake salespeople make when they write outbound emails;

You’re PLG-focused so what’s been working really well for you for growth, how do you increase the chances of spreading WOM.

You can find Will on LinkedIn.

Find out more about Lavender.

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

This episode is also sponsored by Riverside, your online recording studio. Visit Riverside.fm to learn more and use the code HOLIDAYS22 for a 30% discount on your subscription.

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'll make you chuckle/smile/both 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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I thought it might be cool for listeners to hear from a startup that I've worked with. I asked Emilia Herman (Co-Founder and CEO of Seed Classroom) and Zac Herman (Co-Founder and COO of Seed Classroom) to join me on the show and talk about our work together. Maybe some listeners will connect with what they're building, challenges they were having and the value they got from working together.

I was Emilia and Zac's coach (together with my colleague Daniel O'Reilly) during a 7-week EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp that included instruction on both marketing + sales. We did a bunch of 1:1 feedback sessions as Emilia and Zac implemented some of the strategies and drafted a playbook for scalable growth.

Seed Classroom was founded in 2017 and provides schools with live data on the amount of time students spend in and out of class through the automation of attendance-taking and hall pass request processes. This is great because it allows teachers to make learning their main priority.

Here's what we cover:

Background on Seed Classroom;

Why'd they decide to do the GTM Bootcamp;

What's been the biggest lesson/value from the bootcamp;

How have they started to implement the learnings.

Find out more about Seed Classroom

Find out more about the EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

This episode is also sponsored by Riverside, your online recording studio. Visit Riverside.fm to learn more and use the code HOLIDAYS22 for a 30% discount on your subscription.

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'll make you chuckle/smile/both 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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Guess who came back on the show? YUP. One of my faves, Latané Conant. Check out Episode 116 where we dig into how they've been running no forms, no spam and no cold calls at 6sense.

Guess who I ran into at Trader Joe's after having her on the show? YUP. You guessed right. Turns out she's my neighbor. It was a wonderful surprise!

Latané is CMO at 6sense (4+ years). Prior, she held sales and marketing leadership roles at Appirio (B2B SaaS, raised $111.7M in funding). The new edition of her book (No Forms, No Spam, No Cold Calls) is out now so you can check it out.

6sense was founded in 2013, has 1,000+ people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series E ($200M total). The 6sense mantra: you can’t guess your way to quota. For sales and marketing teams, 6sense uses AI to capture anonymous buying signals, targets the right accounts at the ideal time, and recommends the channels and messages to boost revenue performance.

Here's what we hit on this time around:

We talk about the new edition of the book (HINT: there's a new chapter from their Head of Sales and his perspective on the "no forms, no spam, no cold calls" methodology);

2023 Marketing Plan - where are you putting your dollars, what channels (HINT: we're introducing a PLG motion in 2023);

How do you measure pipeline? Does marketing-sourced vs. sales-sourced actually matter;

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with (HINT: when the market changes, your message needs to change);

What are your top marketing challenges right now (HINT: this is true across the tech industry, I worry about the team and staying enthused);

Goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2023 (HINT: what makes me want to play?);

Latané asks me her burning question to round out the episode.

You can find Latané on LinkedIn.

Find out more about 6sense.

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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'll make you chuckle/smile/both 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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Another unique episode for the show! I've never done this before but thought it might be cool for listeners to hear from someone that I've worked with. I asked one of my customers, Matt Barinholtz (Founder of FutureMakers), to join me on the show and talk about our work together. Maybe some listeners will connect with what he's been building and the challenges that he was experiencing.

I was Matt's coach (together with my colleague Daniel O'Reilly) during a 7-week EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp that included instruction on both marketing + sales. We did a bunch of 1:1 feedback sessions as Matt implemented some of the strategies and drafted a playbook for scalable growth.

FutureMakers was founded in 2011 and sparks playful hands-on learning for a future fueled by makers. Basically they've created these cool machines that students can make in the classroom and then get to keep.

Here's what we cover:

Background on Matt's business;

Why'd he decide to do the GTM Bootcamp;

What's been the biggest lesson/value from the bootcamp;

How has he started to implement the learnings.

Find out more about FutureMakers: www.kidsmakethingsbetter.com

Find out more about the EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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'll make you chuckle/smile/both 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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Can you believe 2023 is just around the corner? Trying to pack in a few more awesome episodes for ya before the new year AND before Season 3 of the show kicks off.

For this episode I brought back Patrick Campbell (founder and CEO at ProfitWell). I’ve had Patrick on before, Episode 54 (that was 1 year ago!). Go check it out if you haven't yet. We talked a lot about “inbound media” (vs. inbound marketing) and how ProfitWell was building up their marketing engine. ProfitWell got acquired by Paddle (Series D startup) in May 2022.

ProfitWell was founded in 2012. They've been bootstrapped all the way through acquisition. ProfitWell helps recurring revenue (SaaS + subscription + DTC) businesses with their monetization and retention strategies. Their tagline: “Drive subscription revenue while you sleep.”

Here's what we hit on in this follow-up episode:

ProfitWell's Marketing Plan before being acquired, what was your planning process like? Where did you put your dollars;

Paddle acquisition - what did you have to get right on the marketing + sales side in order to set yourself up for being acquired? And what allowed you/the team to get those things right.

You can find Patrick on LinkedIn.

Find out more about ProfitWell by Paddle.

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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'll make you chuckle/smile/both 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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hello listeners! I love love love bringing on early stage startups onto the show and Gated is no exception. The thing I love about Gated's team is that they're small and nimble and they ooze good marketing from their bones.

Andy Mowat is co-founder and CEO (Chief Email Officer!) at Gated. Prior to Gated, Andy was VP of GTM Ops and Growth Marketing at Culture Amp (Series F employee engagement SaaS, he was there 4+ years) where he drove 10X growth in ARR, and prior to that he led marketing and customer success at Box.

Gated was founded in 2020 and has raised Seed funding ($3.3M total). Gated is noise canceling headphones for email. You get too many junk emails. Gated is a free solution that challenges unknown senders to donate in order to reach you.

Here's what we hit on:

Gated is a free tool and the way you make money is you’re getting a cut from those that donate - how are you growing users;

You’ve got a podcast called "Finding Focus" - why’d you start it and what's your goal with it (HINT: our vision is broader than just email, it's about defending your attention);

Looking ahead at your 2023 Marketing Plan, where are you putting your dollars;

What are your top marketing challenges right now (HINT: we are trying to change behaviors which is difficult);

What are 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team have been rolling with.

You can find Andy on LinkedIn or send him an email (no, really): andy@gated.com

Find out more about Gated.

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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'll make you chuckle/smile/both 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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hello to my wonderful listener peeps! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and your turkeys all turned out moist and delicious.

I am so excited to share this episode with you, this is one you'll want to listen all the way through. I reached out to Annette Cardwell because I read this article on why brands have been investing in podcasts and I saw her quote in there and it really resonated with me. I’m fascinated by how podcasts are becoming part of the entire company strategy and helping startups get deep insights, expertise, help build out their thought leadership, impact their product roadmap plus also drive sales.

Annette is VP of Corporate Marketing at Lattice. Prior, Annette was VP of Content at Brit and Co. which is one of the largest digital media companies for women with a community of 175M+!!

Lattice was founded in 2015 and has raised Series F funding ($174.2M total). Lattice is the complete people success platform that helps you put people first. When people succeed, your business succeeds. Customers include Slack, Imperfect Foods, Reddit, and Asana.

Here's what we hit on:

Tell me more about your show “All Hands,” why’d you start it, who’s it for, what content are you sharing (HINT: it's grown from 10k downloads to 49k downloads through Season 3);

What have been the podcast results, why are you going to continue doing it;

What were you working on back when you first started at Lattice summer 2019 - just closed Series B (HINT: "There were buyers but without an audience for why anyone should care, there’s not much you can do.");

How has your marketing evolved since then;

Looking ahead at your 2023 Marketing Plan, what are you starting to think about for Q1 next year (HINT: 18K members Slack community);

What’s working really well for marketing/growth - specific channels, specific content (HINT: 25K HR professionals subscribed to our newsletter);

How do you break through the noise (HINT: make them feel like you're paying attention);

What are your top marketing challenges right now;

What are 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team have been rolling with;

Goals you want to accomplish before 2023;

Annette asks me a cool question.

You can find Annette on LinkedIn.

Find out more about Lattice.

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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'll make you chuckle/smile/both 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

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy Thanksgiving to all my listeners! I don't think I need to say this because you already know but I will say it - I am super thankful for you. For listening to the episodes I put out, for sharing your favorite episodes with others, for being a part of this podcast community that I started back in 2020. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. And if you're making turkey, I'll be thinking of you because I'm going to be making turkey too. May our turkeys turn out flavorful and moist.

In this episode I’m getting interviewed by Rachel Gombosch (Community and Content Marketing Manager at Virtuance). Virtuance is a real estate tech-focused company based out of Denver, CO. They’re building out their podcast as part of their content marketing strategy which of course I love.

Specifically we talk about:

Why is going digital and investing in content creation so important today;

What is the value of content and how can people think about content as useful;

Why is there such a disconnect or hesitation with creating content or investing in digital marketing;

Where do most people or businesses go wrong when measuring their content/marketing efforts;

Obviously content takes time to gain traction, how can people judge the success of their content during this phase of waiting;

Is there any way for businesses to get a faster ROI while they wait on their content to start gaining traction;

What are some unconventional ways that someone who isn’t a marketer by trade can approach marketing? Said another way, how can people reposition their mindset for how they approach content.

Find out more about Virtuance: www.virtuance.com/

You can follow them here:

• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/virtuance/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/virtuance_photography/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/virtuance

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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'll make you chuckle/smile/both 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

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I welcomed Emily Dale, Performance Marketing Manager at Alto, onto the show because it was a unique opportunity to talk about paid ads and measuring attribution coupled with brand and creative. Emily is a paid marketing guru. Her past clients include Fossil, PayPal, Michelin, Starbucks, The Bouqs Co., Lagunitas, Ferrero Brands, and Organic Valley.

Alto is Series B funded ($59.5M total) and based out of Dallas, TX. Alto is ride-sharing, redefined. From their website: “Some people get there. Others arrive.” By hiring vetted, professional drivers and managing a dedicated fleet of 5-star crash rated luxury vehicles, Alto offers the safest, most consistent, and most personalized passenger experience on the market today.

Here's what we hit on:

Your marketing plan - where are you putting your dollars in Q4 and what are you starting to think about already for Q1 2023;

What’s working really well for your marketing/growth (HINT: influencers);

Paid ads - what have you tested and what have you found works well (HINT: our brand is our car);

Top marketing challenges right now (HINT: attribution);

How do you think about paid media attribution vs. other marketing tactics (HINT: we use a variety of metrics and trial/error);

What are 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team have been rolling with (HINT: gold boots involved);

What are some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) before 2022 is over;

Emily asks me her burning question "what are some of the trends you’re noticing for startups + marketing?"

You can find Emily on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/emilygreen12/

Find out more about Alto: www.ridealto.com/

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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. GTM bootcamp for EdTech Founders (sign up for the next cohort) >> https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

Josh Ades is Head of Marketing at DwellWell. Prior, Josh was the Marketing Director at mPulse Mobile (a healthtech startup that has raised $42M in funding). Josh wrote me asking to get on the show and typically I don't bring people on that way but then I asked him some questions and he wrote back a very lengthy, thoughtful and interesting response so of course I said yes. Plus the company is very cool.

DwellWell is Seed funded ($6M total) and based out of LA in California. DwellWell is an end-to-end platform that guides homebuyers through their home buying journey. They provide education, decision-making tools, and personalized connections to vetted partners (agents) so instead of feeling frustrated and confused, DwellWell gives users a way better homebuying experience.

Here's what we hit on:

Your marketing plan - where have you been putting your dollars this year;

Josh's 30-60-90 day plan when he joined DwellWell ~1.5 years ago;

Fast learning from early mistakes with paid ads;

How they use TikTok to build a complete customer funnel (ad, landing page, form, CTA);

How to earn the right to get more marketing budget;

Creative ideas we tried that failed but still helped us understand who we are as a brand;

Creative ideas we tried that worked;

Top marketing challenges (HINT: email is a challenge for us, also how to create urgency);

Josh started in standup comedy - how his background has impacted his approach to marketing;

Josh asks me his burning question "How would you summarize your marketing philosophy at a high level?".

You can find Josh on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/josh-ades/

Find out more about DwellWell: www.dwellwell.com/

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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. GTM bootcamp for EdTech Founders (sign up for the next cohort) >> https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

Sarah Breathnach works with early stage SaaS companies to build a strong marketing foundation for fast growth. She's currently Head of Demand Generation at Hunters. Prior, Sarah was Demand Generation Lead at Tamr, a SaaS startup backed by Google Ventures and others that has raised $69.2M. I happened to stumble upon Sarah while listening to her speak in a recorded webinar and thought "woah, I gotta bring her on the show."

Hunters is a Series C ($118.4M total) security tech startup based out of Tel Aviv, Israel.

Here's what we hit on:

Generating leads versus generating demand - what’s the big difference between the two and the big "aha!" for startups, why can’t you do both;

People think you need a big team and lots of money to generate demand - how many people do you really need and how much money do you really need;

What are some smart ways to approach demand generation when you’re lean and have a small budget (HINT: focus on the innovators and risk-takers);

We setup "kiosks" at trade shows and events to find out if we were selling to the right person;

How did marketing help 5X revenue (HINT: early on marketing built those important foundations);

Why we decided to focus on the "2 opportunities goal" from any demand generation effort we did;

Top marketing channels for Hunters;

From Chris Walker (CEO at Refine Labs): "It’s time to get out of the tech. Top marketing teams will be talking with customers every week and leaning into marketing fundamentals.” Are we too much in the tech and not enough in the fundamental, foundational marketing work;

Sarah asks me her burning question "what is the hardest thing about being a marketer today."

You can find Sarah on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbreathnach/

Find out more about Hunters: www.hunters.ai/

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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. GTM bootcamp for EdTech Founders (sign up for the next cohort) >> https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hi listeners! I decided to post this quick raw TikTok video on the podcast as a BONUS episode (I posted it on LinkedIn with more info/commentary on what I'm thinking about for my podcast strategy for next year if you wanna check it out).

This is going to hit close to home for many startups that are running the content creation engine. How does our content tie back to business results? It should.

To create demand you need to create content. But just because you're creating content doesn't mean you're creating demand. Companies fall into this trap - they're creating content and so they check the content marketing box. And then someone goes "wait, the content isn't doing anything. It's not working" (or maybe nobody says anything and they just keep rolling with the content production, yikes).

So here's me thinking out loud.

My podcast is doing well - after 2 years (happy anniversary today!!) listenership continues to grow 100%+ YoY. Most episodes get 100-200 plays with the top episodes getting 300+ plays. I've also got a great sponsor. I'm getting a lot of positive feedback that people are enjoying the material and like listening to episodes regularly.

But just because I created a podcast and invite amazing guests onto the show and people love it and it’s growing doesn’t mean I’m creating demand for my offerings. It's really hard for someone listening to make the connection and go "I need HER help."

Why?

Because there's this thing called status quo + other marketing consultants out there. Also I never really talk about how I help my clients, it's just not really the type of content I share on the show. You can visit my website for that kinda thing (just built a new landing page called "Love" it's like a customer love wall).

A few weeks ago I thought "in order to monetize the podcast beyond sponsors, just include an ad about my offerings."

Yea maybe. But that's not going to work because people listening (startup founders, startup marketers) don't think they need what I offer. Because I'm not creating any demand.

Now we've come back full circle: How can your content create demand? What should I be doing differently?

Here's what I think I’m missing:

Sharing a strong POV. A strategic narrative. Old way to New way. Unique expertise on a specific topic. Obvious + non-obvious insights.

OK, I do some of that, I give myself some credit! But not enough to where it feels like MY thing.

And so I got to thinking. What's MY thing? Well, that's what I'm figuring out these next few weeks as I plan for 2023.

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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. GTM bootcamp for EdTech Founders (sign up for the next cohort) >> https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

Anthony Kennada is a B2C marketer trapped in a B2B body (I can SO relate). I met Anthony through Pavilion where he was teaching a course in CMO School about how and why companies are increasingly becoming media companies.

Anthony is co-founder and CEO at AudiencePlus where the team is building software, content, and community to help every company become a media company. Prior to AudiencePlus, Anthony was CMO of Hopin and Front. He's worked at Box, LiveOffice and Symantec. Anthony was the founding CMO at Gainsight where he and the team created the Customer Success category and fueled the company’s growth from $0 to $100M+ ARR, and eventual acquisition by Vista Equity at a $1.1B valuation.

Here's what we hit on:

Why are companies increasingly becoming "media companies," why it's easier today more than ever and will continue into the future;

Why gating content is no longer necessary or preferred;

Instead of gating content, what can companies do instead (HINT: emails are important so you do need emails, you just need a better way for people to share their email address);

"Community-led marketing" - what's all the fuss, let's define what this means and explain how this works and how can early stage startups leverage this marketing play;

You gotta hook them on social media with video clips (demand creation) then bring them back to your website (demand capture) - but how to best run this play and who's doing this well;

Why engagement with your company's content is an important leading indicator to EVERY business outcome (e.g. sale, renewal, expansion, adoption, etc.) and not just a TOF strategy;

Anthony shares more about building AudiencePlus;

At the very end, Anthony asks me his burning question.

You can find Anthony on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/akennada/

Find out more about AudiencePlus: https://www.audienceplus.com/

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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. GTM bootcamp for EdTech Founders (sign up for the next cohort) >> https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

3. Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show for ya:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

Oftentimes you'll hear marketers hating on cold outbound - it's not efficient, it's spammy, etc. And sometimes they're right. But what is truly the best approach?

So I brought on a long-time friend and (now) business partner Daniel O'Reilly (aka Dano) to help set the record straight. He's CEO and Founder of Fuel Sales and FuelK12. He's got a TON of sales experience -- 30+ years to be more exact. Dano and I met back in 2018 at Elevate K-12 and now we're running the Edtech Founders GTM Bootcamp together.

Dano is one of the few sales leaders I know that understands marketing and the interplay between sales and marketing to impact business growth.

Here's what we hit on:

Dano's got 40 SDRs working the phones, email, and LinkedIn outbound cadences and seeing good results. But many people show hate for cold outbound. Why is that, and what's the best approach;

What makes someone a really good SDR (and not spammy);

We discuss how paid ads and SDR outreach can have some similarities, here's the link to the LI post I mention;

How does Dano help SDRs transition from inside Fuel Sales and integrate well within companies;

What's the best approach to align marketing + sales to amplify business impact.

You can find Dano on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danoreilly/

Find out more about the EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp: https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months!

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. GTM bootcamp for EdTech Founders (sign up for the next cohort) >> https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

3. (NEW) Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

I had the pleasure of bringing Latané Conant onto the show. She's pretty amazing and let me tell you why. Latané is CMO at 6sense (4+ years). Prior, she held sales and marketing leadership roles at Appirio (B2B SaaS, raised $111.7M in funding). She wrote a book called "No Forms, No Spam, No Cold Calls" (I read it, you should check it out). She's big on pushing the boundaries in B2B marketing which I love. We didn't get to cover everything during this episode so I'll be bringing her back on again soon.

6sense was founded in 2013, has 1,256 people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series E ($200M total). The 6sense mantra: you can’t guess your way to quota. For sales and marketing teams, 6sense uses AI to capture anonymous buying signals, targets the right accounts at the ideal time, and recommends the channels and messages to boost revenue performance.

Here's what we hit on:

What made you decide to write your book (HINT: customer and prospect experiences);

What steps have you taken to really nail sales+marketing alignment at 6sense (HINT: I don't care where it's sourced from, I'm going to make sure we hit our numbers);

If you're thinking like a salesperson, how do you hold true to marketing mindset vs. fall into sales mode (they're different disciplines);

What's your recommendation for early stage startups that don't have a lot of data points and can't rely on trends analysis to make decisions.

You can find Latané on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/latane-conant/

Find out more about 6sense: https://6sense.com/

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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. GTM bootcamp for EdTech Founders (sign up for the next cohort) >> https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

3. (NEW) Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

When I asked Tyler to join me on the show, I thought I was bringing on a marketing leader from a video company (true) but I was also bringing on an amateur comedian, plus video expert, plus all around great personality and person to talk with!

Tyler Lessard is VP of Marketing and Chief Video Strategist at Vidyard (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 and has 300+ people. They've raised $75.7M total funding. 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:

How has being an amateur comedian helped shape your career as a marketer (HINT: only use comedy if you're selling to humans);

What are your top customers doing with video (HINT: LinkedIn is where ADULTS watch TikToks);

Where do people go wrong with creating video content as part of their marketing strategy;

Your marketing strategy during this downturn - where are you putting your dollars, where are you spending time and energy (HINT: we're investing more in PLG programs and growing our base of users);

What marketing channels and content are you leaning into;

Top marketing challenges;

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with;

What are some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022.

You can reach Tyler on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tylerlessard/

Find out more about Vidyard: www.vidyard.com/

This episode is sponsored by UMSO, the website builder for startups. Visit umso.com/MSM to learn more and use the code MSM20 for a 20% discount on your first three months.

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. (NEW) GTM bootcamp for EdTech Founders (sign up for the next cohort) >> https://gofuelsales.com/edtech-bootcamp/

3. (NEW) Sponsor my Top 10% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show!https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA*

In this episode I’m getting interviewed by Nelson Gilliat (Founder of the Marketing-Led Growth™️ movement and community modernizing and liberating B2B from Sales-Led Growth from the 1980s).

Nelson wrote a book called Marketing-Led Growth via the Buyer Centric Revenue Model. He’s been advocating for a more Modern B2B Marketing and Sales model built for today, not 40 years ago.

Main topics we cover:

First I put my B2B buyer flip flops on to talk about the kind of buyer experience I enjoy (vs. don’t enjoy);

Then I put my on my Marketing hat and we talk about what’s broken with the system today;

We also talk about proper, modern, non-spam marketing (which I love).

Check out his website: www.buyercentricrevenue.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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hey listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

HubSpot's INBOUND conference took place a couple weeks ago so I invited one of their speakers, Sarah Breathnach (Head of Demand Generation at Hunters, she was also on my show before this but that episode hasn't released yet) to jam on some of the highlights and topics covered during the conference. Of course our conversation took some winding turns! That's the point of these shorter unfiltered episodes and that's what makes them so fun to do and share.

Here's the link to HubSpot's new community that Sarah mentioned in the episode: https://connect.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!

People call me (Anna) the "Marie Kondo of startup marketing" because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also find me regularly posting on LinkedIn and join the convo: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

Guys, you're gonna love this episode. I finally got to bring on Pete Lorenco (VP of Marketing at Alyce) to join me on the show. I'm a big fan and you'll soon be too. Prior to Alyce, Pete was VP of Marketing at Avid Technology (a public company) and several other enterprise companies including Iron Mountain and EMC (prior to their acquisition by Dell).

Alyce was founded in 2015, has 174 people and is based out of Boston, MA. They've raised Series B funding ($46M total). Alyce provides a better way to do outbound B2B marketing by transforming from transactional touch-points to delivering personal experiences using gifting, swag, and direct mail.

Here's what we hit on:

I had Dan Frohnen (former CMO at Sendoso) on the show, Episode 16, and we talked about gifting. There are other players in the space, how do you compete;

How does gifting work effectively within the buyer journey;

Some people will not agree with our POV and why that's a good thing;

How is outbound broken today, and what should we do about it;

Why certain goals matter in order to create an experience people will love, and what those goals should be;

At Alyce you’re sourcing 70% of total new logo pipeline & revenue from inbound marketing - what's your 2022 marketing plan;

What channels are you leaning into;

How're you setting up effective ABM at Alyce, from your target list of accounts to winning deals;

What are your top marketing challenges;

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with.

You can reach Pete on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peter-lorenco

Find out more about Alyce: www.alyce.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

Milestone Episode! I asked Gil Eyal (Founder of Stardust Ventures) to come back and talk with me on the show about startup celebrity partnerships which happens to be a very fascinating topic. In general we talk a lot about and even implement some of the (micro) influencer marketing strategies but I bet you never thought about working with a well-known celebrity to help grow your startup. Stardust invests in early stage consumer startups that want to leverage celebrities to grow their brand.

Gil is a long-time friend I met back in business school and was my very first guest on the podcast (Episode 1!) so go back and listen to that one if ya missed it. It's still one of my more popular episodes.

In THIS episode we hit on:

What makes celebrity partnerships with startups so effective;

How does it work;

How much do startups pay celebrities;

What KPIs are startups looking at;

As a startup that wants to partner with a celebrity, where do you even start;

In what ways does working with micro-influencers differ from a celebrity collaboration.

You can reach Gil on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gileyal/

Check out Stardust Ventures: www.stardustventures.us

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!

People call me (Anna) the "Marie Kondo of startup marketing" because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also find me regularly posting on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show:* https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA**

Here's a TikTok video I made for LinkedIn this week, also sharing with my listeners on here.

I'm launching the new EdTech Founders Go-To-Market bootcamp next week (together with Dano who I worked with previously) in case you're an EdTech founder and listening and interested. Companies like Seesaw, Branching Minds, Pear Deck, Yoga Ed, Thimble, Graspable Math, Marker Learning and more have loved the program but it was very sales-focused so now we're adding the marketing side to round it out.

Classes start Sept 14th, running for 7 weeks. 90-min sessions plus 1 on 1 time. You'll get homework and resources. You can learn more and apply by going to the website.

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!

People call me (Anna) the "Marie Kondo of startup marketing" because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also find me regularly posting on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy Labor Day to my US listeners!

listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA*

On this episode I invited Frankie Scerbo (co-founder and CMO at Elude) to join me to talk about the cool travel startup he's helping to grow, their 2022 marketing plan, creative ideas, some challenges, and favorite places to travel.

Prior to Elude, Frankie was West Coast Regional Director for EON, a hardware accessory company for the gaming tech industry.

Elude was founded in 2019, has 21 people and is based out of CA. They've raised Seed funding ($7.1M total). Elude is the app that helps you wander more and wonder less. You might be wondering “where could we go for $600?” and the app helps you answer that question with a personalized trip list based on your travel preferences and goals.

Here's what we hit on:

Where did the idea for the startup come from;

10K+ followers on Instagram and 25K+ downloads in the app store within your first 2 weeks of launching – how’d you do that;

What did your social media look and feel like;

2022 Marketing Plan - where are you putting your dollars (HINT: downloads and revenue comes much easier from Instagram and email and WOM - events);

Our influencer strategy and what content they're sharing;

Top marketing challenges;

Creative marketing ideas ("The Boring Campaign);

Favorite places to travel;

Goals that Frankie wants to accomplish this year;

Frankie asked me a question to round out the conversation.

You can reach Frankie on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/frankie-scerbo-bba2ba81/

Find out more about Elude: https://elude.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I asked Christopher Lochhead (3X Silicon Valley public company CMO) to come back and talk with me on the show about the things we did not get to cover last time, so here's round 2! 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, Niche Down).

Last time he was on the show was last summer! Episode 44. We talked 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.

In THIS episode we hit on:

Given all that's happening in the world, is this still an amazing time to be an entrepreneur;

Some startup marketing leaders that have done it are saying you shouldn't create a category! Why are they saying this, what's your take;

What's the best way to scale your business fast (HINT: category design, understand the power of WOM and super consumer and having a strong POV);

How does one actually go about creating legendary content;

What's the difference between obvious vs. non-obvious content;

Why solopreneurs (versus corporate) are actually really good at putting out great content;

How to generate non-obvious ideas.

You can reach Christopher on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christopherlochhead/

Check out the website: www.categorypirates.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

Don't forget to follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I had Terri Avnaim, CMO at Boulevard, on the show and we talked about how her experience as Chief Customer Officer (CCO) has impacted the way she runs marketing, her 2022 marketing plans plus biggest learnings in B2B marketing tech from 25+ years experience.

Prior to Boulevard, Terri was Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Sauce Labs ($151M funded SaaS).

Boulevard was founded in 2016, has ~309 people, and is based out of CA. They've raised Series B ($38M total). Boulevard is a platform that’s helping to streamline the operations of appointment-based self-care businesses (e.g. salons, spas, barbershops). From a customer: “Boulevard is the Apple of salon software.”

Here's what we hit on:

Terri's background as Chief Customer Officer and how that impacts her approach to marketing;

2022 marketing plan during the downturn (HINT: we tripled our marketing team in 6 months);

What marketing channels are you leaning into;

What marketing content are you leaning into;

Top marketing challenges (HINT: this is a very emotionally charged industry);

Biggest learning from 25+ years in B2B marketing tech;

What has changed with marketing and what do marketing leaders need to do to adapt to this change (HINT: the best marketing is invisible, but make sure your effort doesn't disappear);

Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022;

Terri asked me a question to round out the conversation.

You can reach Terri on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/terriavnaim

Find out more about Boulevard: www.joinblvd.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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In this episode I’m getting interviewed by Spyros Tsoukalas (Head of BD at GrowthMentor) and we talk through how to navigate through marketing chaos by prioritizing marketing efforts for early stage startups.

I've been a mentor on GrowthMentor for 8 months and have really enjoyed having 1:1 conversations with founders and marketers that have very specific marketing and growth questions related to what they're building and I can spend 30 minutes just helping them out. It's a wonderful community and I highly recommend it whether you're a founder/marketer looking for help or a mentor looking to help.

Main topics we cover:

The problem with startups' approach to marketing efforts;

What to do instead, how to prioritize your marketing;

What types of things should be done first, second, etc;

How marketing buzzwords confuse founders and marketers and how to think about it instead.

The original podcast show notes appear here: www.growthmentor.com/podcasts/prioritizing-marketing-efforts/

GrowthMentor's website: www.growthmentor.com/

My profile on GrowthMentor: app.growthmentor.com/mentors/anna-furmanov

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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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A bit of a different flavor for this episode! I had my friend Lina Erez on the show, she works with brands and people that are pushing for positive change, to design their story and spark action. Lina's got a whole slew of clients including Adler Planetarium, BallotReady and Birthright Israel.

Here's what we hit on:

When you say “pushing for positive change” what does that actually mean (aren't we all pushing for positive change);

How do you help brands design their story for action, what’s your process;

What do many companies get wrong when it comes to brand design (HINT: a lot of times they're looking for BIG and BOLD but that's actually not what you want to do, you want to think about your BIG idea);

What has been your favorite project;

Goals for this year.

You can reach Lina on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/linaerez/

Check out her website: www.talinadesign.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Thanks for listening and don't forget to leave a review!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I'm such a big fan of April Dunford. I've read her book "Obviously Awesome - How to Stand Out in Noisy Crowded Markets" and consider her the startup positioning pro.

April Dunford is founder and CEO of Ambient Strategy, a consulting firm that specializes in positioning for tech companies. April has worked with 200+ companies across the globe. For early stage startups her focus is on GTM strategy, she also works with large companies on new product intros and market positioning. Prior, April held executive roles in a series of successful startups as CEO, COO, VP Marketing and VP Marketing and Sales.

Here's what we hit on:

Where most companies go wrong with their positioning;

April's approach to positioning for early stage startups (HINT: ask customers to "take me back before you bought our stuff, what was the trigger");

There's a handful of things that are important early stage when you only have your first few customers;

After you get your first customers that love you and learn more about why, then start working on your GTM strategy;

What are your top challenges, what are you trying to figure out these days.

You can reach April on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/

Check out her website: www.aprildunford.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I invited Lee Anne Grant, Chief Growth Officer at babylist, onto the show and we unpacked some very cool stuff happening at their startup.

Prior to babylist, Lee Anne held sales roles at Google, AOL, POPSUGAR and Brandless.

Babylist was founded in 2011, has 212 people, and is based out of CA (also remote). They've raised Series C ($40.7M total). Babylist is the leading vertical marketplace and commerce destination for baby, driving purchase decisions for more than 8 million people each year! Babylist is way more than a baby registry and we talk about those different revenue streams.

Here's what we hit on:

You’ve been in sales for much of your career and now you’re CGO. What does that mean, what are you in charge of, and how does that impact how you lead;

Babylist is a commerce company that has a media business - tell me more about how this works and how that affects your marketing decisions (HINT: having 3 revenue streams is incredibly intellectually interesting);

Tell me more about your growth strategy during this downturn, where are you putting your dollars, what marketing channels are you leaning into;

Their Halsey influencer story and how that has impacted their growth;

What kinds of marketing content are you leaning into;

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: in-person plays plus the metaverse);

What are your top marketing challenges;

Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022;

Lee Anne asked me a question to round out the conversation.

You can reach Lee Anne on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leeannegrant/

Find out more about babylist: www.babylist.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Have you ever met a workplace futurist before? Well, let me tell ya, they're pretty awesome and very helpful in exploring what's to come in the future of (all) work plus specific to marketers.

Marti Konstant is a workplace futurist and best-selling author of “Activate Your Agile Career: How Responding to Change will Inspire Your Life's Work.” She's also the owner of Konstant Change. Prior, Marti held marketing and demand gen roles at Samsung and Open Kernel Labs (acquired by General Dynamics). Try typing in "career agility" into Google and her article still comes up #1 in the results.

Here's what we hit on:

What in the world is a workplace futurist;

What has made you successful in this field;

Marti explains her DNA framework for how to bring your future into your present (HINT: Disrupt the model, Notice the signals, Act);

How do you stay ahead;

What does the Marketer of the future look like, what will they need to do and know (HINT: the expiration date for your set of skills is 4 years or less);

How do we continue to stay relevant in the field of marketing as we get older;

Why today’s workforce is no longer a "workforce," it’s really a “work net” (different people that are augmenting your team);

What does the Metaverse have to do with all of this;

What are your top challenges, what are you trying to figure out these days.

You can reach Marti on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/martikonstant/

Check out her website: www.martikonstant.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!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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A request I've gotten from listeners is to bring on a VC firm to talk through “the view from the VC side” so here we go (again)!

I invited Andrew Bluestein, Managing Partner at Bluestein Ventures, to join me on the show and talk about the future of food, how the pandemic has affected food startups, what they're looking for before they decide to invest in a startup, and so much more.

I know Andrew from our days at Kellogg! And we recently saw each other at Kellogg's 10-year reunion.

More about Bluestein Ventures:

• investing in the future of food
• founded in 2014
• based out of Chicago
• early stage investments typically Seed and Series A
• portfolio companies include Crafty, FoxTrot and Factor_ (acquired)

Here's what we hit on:

Why the focus on the future of food, what's so cool about food;

How the pandemic has impacted the food industry;

What VCs want to see before they decide to invest in an early stage startup (HINT: an innovative GTM strategy);

What marketing and growth opportunities can B2B learn from B2C;

What do you look at to confirm if there's product/market fit (HINT: things are still happening despite all the shortcomings);

What are those unique ways that startups can reach customers (HINT: post COVID, we need to go offline again);

On building brands and acquiring customers, what seems to work really well;

Which 1-2 portfolio companies are you personally really excited about and why.

You can reach Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbluestein/

Check out Bluestein Ventures: https://www.bluesteinventures.com/

For more content like this, 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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Thanks for your patience, I usually post these episodes on Mondays MUCH earlier but we just got back from a road trip and I rushed over to the computer almost as soon as we got back :)

WOW! 100 episodes, I can't even believe it. Thank you to all my listeners, my fans, my guests, for being a part of something that I wanted to build so I could share what top startups and leaders are doing, what’s working, what’s not, just being very transparent. Truly a labor of love.

Don't forget to leave a review if you've been joining me!

In this 100th episode I’m getting interviewed (again) by Kap Chatfield (CEO at Rveal Media and host of B2B Podcasting) and we talk through modern approaches to digital content strategy for startups.

Main topics we cover:

Why your B2B startup needs a digital content strategy;

What goes into your digital content strategy;

Digital marketing needs to work for you so that you don’t need to hire more salespeople to do that work for you;

Gartner’s Future of Sales research shows that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions with buyers will occur in digital. This is because 33% of all buyers desire a seller-FREE sales experience – a preference that climbs to 44% for millennials - what that means for you going forward;

How to assess the value of your content strategy (HINT: not through vanity metrics);

What it takes to create great content;

Your content strategy includes both content creation and distribution;

Your customer's sales experience is not a linear journey and what that means for you.

Here's the article I wrote mentioned in this episode: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/modern-digital-content-strategy-startups-playbook-anna-furmanov/

You can find Kap on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kapchatfield/

Rveal's website: https://site.rveal.media/

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, and don't forget to leave a review!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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To all my US listeners, Happy 4th of July 🎉🎉

I first heard Jay Acunzo speak on Mark Schaefer’s podcast Marketing Companion and have been following him ever since. Jay says "Don't market more. Matter more." I agree so so so much with that statement.

Jay is a content entrepreneur, host of the podcast Unthinkable, writes the weekly newsletter Playing Favorites, author of the book Break the Wheel, and develops podcasts and docuseries for B2B brands. In his prior lives, Jay worked in marketing and media roles at Google, HubSpot, ESPN, and the VC firm NextView.

Ann Handley (CCO at MarketingProfs and bestselling author of Everybody Writes) says about Jay: “You can go ahead and create more content. Or you can create something special that stirs hearts and engages minds. If you are the kind of person who wants your work to really matter, listen to Jay. He’ll be your perfect guide.”

Here's what we hit on:

Resonance is today’s top marketing skill - tell me why this is so important today;

The art of storytelling - how to write stories that people connect with emotionally, and can you share your specific process;

How do you measure what resonates;

Great marketing is not about who arrives...it's about who stays;

How to tie storytelling concepts to the startup world, how can marketers level up (HINT: marketers create a lot of stuff but it’s not gripping);

How Lessonly and Kyle Lacy developed an original POV;

Why being their favorite makes you completely change-proof;

How do we tie storytelling back to ROI and revenue, how do we know we're really good at it;

Intuition should lead and data should course correct;

What are your top challenges, what are you trying to figure out;

Goals (personal/professional) for 2022.

You can reach Jay on LinkedIn: https://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.

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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This was my most engaging LinkedIn post across 2 years of posts

Time for another solo episode! I started creating TikTok videos and posting them to LinkedIn. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast.

People asking me: “Anna, does your podcast drive leads?"

Me: “No."

People: "Then WHY are you doing it??"

Most people think about marketing in terms of "will this get me leads" (lead gen)

Few think about marketing in terms of "will this be really good content for my target audience"

And then there's the trickle down effect.

Bc if you have really good content for your target audience

then they will be more likely to want to know, like and trust you

they'll refer people over to watch/listen to your stuff

they'll refer people over to work with you

A podcast is just part of it

Can be a podcast, events, webinars, unique internal data, etc.

Most of it is HOW you'll develop high-quality content that stands out bc you have a unique POV you want to share out that your target audience cares about

Most of it is your strategy.

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, and don't forget to leave a review!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I brought back Amy Volas, founder and CEO of Avenue Talent Partners, to talk about how marketing and sales have fundamentally changed (and also what has remained the same). Last time I had Amy on was last summer, Episode 40! So I was so glad to have her back. Love her.

Amy helps startups hire sales leaders without the cringe. She has been a sales leader at ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Yahoo!, she has personally closed $100MM+ in revenue and counting, and she's got 70+ recommendations on LinkedIn. Saweeet.

Amy also co-hosts the #1 weekly virtual sales happy hour (Thursday Night Sales), link in the show notes below.

Here's what we hit on:

Top ways sales has changed due to the pandemic;

Top ways marketing has changed due to the pandemic;

What hasn't changed?

You can find Amy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas

Find out more about Avenue Talent Partners: www.avenuetalentpartners.com

Link to join Thursday Night Sales: www.thursdaynightsales.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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A request that I've gotten from listeners is to bring on a VC firm to talk through “the view from the VC side” so here we go!

I invited Elaine Zelby, Partner at SignalFire, to join me and talk about all things investing in startups, building a strong relationship with port companies, product market fit and what that actually means and how that's changed over time, and more. I’ve helped advise and have also worked with SignalFire’s portfolio companies on their marketing efforts.

More about Elaine:

• on the Board of Directors at SVEN (Silicon Valley Executive Network)
• worked on the product and marketing side at Zazzle, Capriza (Series C), Slack and Consensys (Series D)
• host of the (un)sexy podcast - ranked Top 3% globally - an exploration of just how sexy unsexy industries can be!
• sends a weekly newsletter called “3 Things” - a dive into 3 rabbit holes and you can join her if you want

More about SignalFire:

• founded in 2013
• based out of San Francisco
• invests in startups Seed through Series B

Here's what we hit on:

What VCs want to see before they invest in an (early stage) startup, what matters (HINT: Team, Market and Product and it's very rare to find companies with tech moats so you should be creating brand and distribution moats);

What do you want to see during the relationship (HINT: be an A+ at 1-2 things and B- in everything else and we'll help get you A+ support in those other things);

What does product market fit mean today, how do you know, what do you look for (HINT: customers rip it out of your hands faster than you can sell it);

Which 1-2 portfolio companies are you personally super excited about and why.

You can reach Elaine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainezelby/

Check out SignalFire: https://signalfire.com/

Check out the (un)sexy podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/un-sexy/id1527034265

For more content like this, 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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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TL;DR

If you love mac n' cheese and you haven't tried Goodles yet then you're in for a wild ride. Seriously, just had them this weekend and my tummy is happy and my body is thanking me.

I invited Jen Zeszut, co-founder and CEO at Goodles, onto the show and we talked about how their small startup has grown so much, so fast.

Prior to Goodles, Jen was CEO at Cerebelly (baby food for healthy brain development). Prior to that she was co-founder and CRO at Beckon (SaaS, raised $44M).

Goodles was founded in 2021 (!), based out of Santa Cruz (CA) and has 24 people. Seed funding ($6.4M). Goodles is noodles, gooder. PROTEIN-PACKED, VEGGIE-BOOSTED mac n' cheese. Yum.

Here's what we hit on:

This is cool because Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot co-launched with you - why did you decide to bring her on the team? What were the results? How's it going;

Why a celebrity is not the brand;

How do you organize your marketing budget (HINT: we have "big noodles" or big rocks launching monthly);

What marketing channels are you leaning into;

Why you started the Make, Be and Do Gooder Community and how's it going;

What content are you leaning into;

Having a celebrity partner is like having a megaphone;

How we measure what marketing content is working (HINT: we’re pretty meticulous measurers and turn things on and off in a staggered way);

What paid ads creative seems to be working the best for you (HINT: our ads are weird like the 3D rendering of cheese dripping);

Why knowing "what is your soul" (why you do what you do) is so important for startups;

What are your top marketing challenges;

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: we're a lifestyle brand so we're selling all sorts of fun things like a stuffie and we just had a stuffie drop which was our biggest sales day other than launch day);

Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022 (HINT: it’s not the focus on the outcome. Do great work with great people that you love working with. I’m bringing personal joy to my every day and we are laughing and joking and having a fun time. I feel like I can taste the joy in this food.)

You can reach Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenzeszut/

Find out more about Goodles: https://www.goodles.com/

For more content like this, 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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Time for another solo episode! It's fast but packs a punch. I started creating TikTok videos and posting them to LinkedIn and so far it's going well and I love how it takes less than 5 minutes to record, add a title, and add captions and do it all myself. Talk about scrappy AND engaging. Video works, ya'll. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast.

I was asked on a recent discovery call: “Where should we prioritize marketing in the funnel, TOF? Middle? Bottom to help close? With Customers to grow WOM and referrals?”

Answer: Yes.

The cool thing is your content strategy can hit ALL those levels (even with a very small team) if you’re being thoughtful about it.

I like to use a 1-page marketing plan that includes specific marketing plays across the funnel.

For example:

TOF to Engage: podcast, social media video clips

MOF to Nurture: podcast, social media video clips, newsletter, 1:1 sharing on LinkedIn, weekly virtual events

BOF to Convert: case studies, testimonials, testimonial videos

Customer Success: surprise and delight e.g. super responsive Slack channel, case studies / video testimonials from superfans, give them a platform to share their expertise >> get them on your podcast to discuss wins and challenges

And then for each stage, also have objectives (e.g. increased website visitors MoM, 50% OR and 20% CTR for email, 5 new customers per month, etc.) How is your content strategy impacting your objectives?

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, and don't forget to leave a review!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I had the pleasure of talking to Maya Grossman, Founder of Maya Grossman Consulting, about her experiences as VP of Marketing and how she prioritized her marketing efforts in those critical first 90 days.

Maya has 15+ years of marketing experience building brands and driving growth at companies like Microsoft, Google, and most recently Canvas. As the VP of Marketing at Canvas she built the marketing team, grew qualified pipeline 3X Q/Q, doubled ARR Y/Y, and helped secure Series C at $400M valuation. She was also the VP of Marketing at Colu ($40M VC backed startup).

Here's what we hit on:

What's your process for getting prospects to go from "what is this?" to "I want this!" (HINT: sell the CHANGE, this is the core of product marketing);

As VP of Marketing at Canvas, how did you build out the team, build out demand gen, build pipeline and sales, help secure Series C funding...all the things. How you prioritized that role the first 90 days and the results from there (HINT: start by talking to all different people and teams within the company about product, customers, positioning, etc. and see if there's a consistent message at home);

How to handle ambitious goals as VP of Marketing (HINT: there will always be ambitious goals, but how to balance that with being realistic and also having quick wins);

What would you have done differently while at Canvas;

How did you build out your marketing team early stage (HINT: product marketing, content manager, demand gen manager and this took 5-6 months);

How did you handle marketing attribution early stage (HINT: you don't have to measure everything, we didn't gate our content, we launched a podcast, community, created demand, created resources);

We stopped doing Instagram and Twitter and instead focused on LinkedIn > doing one thing really well versus a bunch of things not well;

Now your focus is "how to build a thriving career in marketing" - why did you decide to help people with this;

Maya shares her strategy/steps for how to build a thriving career.

You can reach Maya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayagrossman/

Check out her website: https://www.mayagrossman.com/

Check out her book: Invaluable

For more content like this, 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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Time for another solo episode! It's fast but packs a punch. I started creating TikTok videos pretty much weekly and posting them to LinkedIn and so far it's going well and I love how it takes less than 5 minutes to record, add a title, and add captions and do it all myself. Talk about scrappy AND engaging. Video works, ya'll. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast.

As a mentor at Growth Mentor I talk to a few startups every Friday about their marketing challenges and specific questions they have for me. Recently I was asked "as you work across startups, what marketing channels approach seems to work the best?" Cool thing about working across early stage startups is I get to see their top challenges and also help prioritize top marketing channels (based on talking to customers and finding out where they hang out online, how easy it will be to implement and based on potential impact). My answer is "it depends" but I know that's not helpful so I share more in this quick audio.

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, and don't forget to leave a review!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy Memorial Day if you're in the US!

WOWZA these episodes are popular...so let's keep this going! Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, resources and so much more.

Kyle Lacy is SVP of Marketing at Seismic (Series G). Prior, Kyle was CMO at Lessonly (Series C) for almost 5 years where he 20X’d revenue growth (70% sourced by marketing).

I've had Kyle on before - check out Episode 31 where we talk about “the power of irrational ideas and golden llamas” among other things.

Seismic was founded in 2010, has ~1,175 people, is based out of San Diego, CA, and Series G funded. Seismic is the #1 global sales enablement solution. Lessonly got acquired by Seismic in 2021. Lessonly is focused on training and coaching sales teams and Seismic does way more.

Here's what we hit on:

2022 Marketing Plan, budget splits (HINT: the board really cares about the one metric LTV/CAC so as long as that stayed in the lane we can do whatever with our budget);

Marketing channels you're leaning into this year (HINT: organic should be primary, and should always be primary);

Marketing content you're leaning into this year;

How you're planning to build out resources;

What's your secret sauce to managing such a big (marketing) ship?? (HINT: hire people that understand how to move quickly but also have empathy/EQ because it's easier to have those difficult conversations;

You need to build the marketing plan that's right for YOUR team, resources, etc;

Goals that Kyle wants to accomplish in 2022.

You can find Kyle on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy

Find out more about Seismic: https://seismic.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 or visit my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I invited Kathleen Booth, SVP Marketing at Tradeswell, to the show and we had a blast talking about how to do marketing the way it SHOULD be done - with a customer/audience-first approach focused on community, great content, and building a brand that people love, whether they buy from you or not.

Prior to Tradeswell, Kathleen served as CMO at clean.io (Series A). She's also the host of The Inbound Success Podcast and Board-level advisor to several tech startups.

Tradeswell was founded in 2019, is based out of Baltimore (MD), and has 38 people. They've raised Series A ($18.8M). Tradeswell is the real-time operating system for e-commerce. Like "mission control" for growing e-commerce businesses. Tradeswell is creating a new category called “real-time operating system”.

Here's what we hit on:

How buyers used to buy and how buyers are buying today (HINT: they go to peers, communities, Slack, LinkedIn, etc.) and how "meh" marketing still follows the old approach;

To truly succeed you need to win the hearts and minds of the buyer and the people they’re talking to;

How we organize our budget (HINT: it's not the usual 10% of revenue is spent on marketing);

What marketing channels are working well (HINT: podcasts, community, niche newsletter ads);

What marketing content are you leaning into this year (HINT: your content should shine a spotlight on your audience PLUS we have data that nobody else has access to);

How are you building out resources this year;

What are your top marketing challenges (HINT: saying no can be hard AND we're creating a category and that's a challenge for sure but there are things we are looking for in the short-term);

How we're aligning really well with sales (HINT: don't pit marketing against sales, it's about the channel and not the team);

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: niche Substack newsletter sponsorship, check out the link below to learn more);

Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022.

You can reach Kathleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenslatterybooth/

Find out more about Tradeswell: https://www.tradeswell.com/

Check out Swapstack for niche newsletter advertising: https://swapstack.co/

For more content like this, 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 and you can also subscribe to Anna's monthly newsletter by going here:https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Time for another solo episode! This one's fast but packs a punch. I started creating TikTok videos weekly and posting them to LinkedIn and so far it's going well and I love how it takes just 4 minutes to record, add a title, and add captions and do it all myself. Talk about scrappy AND engaging. Video works, ya'll. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast.

In this quick episode, I cover my conversation with someone I know at a super cool VC firm that helps his portfolio of companies with marketing and growth. He said something and at first I was offended, and then I realized there's some nuance that needs to be unpacked and I do it right here.

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 and you can also subscribe to Anna's monthly newsletter by going here: https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hi and welcome or welcome back!

You're going to love this episode. I've known about Justin Welsh since I saw him in a video clip with Chris Walker about 2 years ago, and I've been following his journey ever since.

Justin Welsh is the founder of Justin Welsh Media. He's an angel investor in B2B SaaS and an advisor for healthcare SaaS. He has built digital courses for how to get followers and customers from LinkedIn and Twitter. He would know. Justin has almost 200k followers on LI and almost 65k on Twitter AND tons of engagement.

In the past, Justin helped to build two $50M+ ARR companies and raise over $300M in venture capital (SVP of Sales at PatientPop, a Series C SaaS where he still serves as strategic advisor, and Director of Strategic Sales at ZocDoc).

Here's what we hit on:

Writing can be harder and take longer versus (for example) talking on a podcast. How do you have so much content to write every single day? What are those systems you use to produce 10-15 pieces of high-quality written content every single day;

Top books and creators Justin follows and recommends;

Most people push content out and don’t analyze it...you do have to study it;

What are the specific tools you use as part of your system;

Justin's mission is to be a "diversified entrepreneur" and he's creating operating systems to do just that. Can you help explain what diversified entrepreneur means? What’s your WHY;

Justin built The Content OS digital course, what are your top learnings to share for folks that want to be successful at productizing their knowledge (HINT: Justin has a 5-step process);

How to build and execute from $0 to $50M+ ARR at your startup...thinking back to PatientPop and ZocDoc, what were the milestones for the different stages, e.g. hiring, running experiments, marketing + sales collaboration, etc. What matters at each stage;

What are your top challenges, what are you trying to figure out;

What are 1-2 big sales trends you're seeing today that startups should be aware of (HINT: there's a big missed opportunity to empower your team to create content where your buyers are hanging out online);

What are some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022.

You can reach Justin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinwelsh/

On Twitter: @JustinSaaS

Find out more about Justin by visiting his website: https://www.justinwelsh.me/

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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When I say "no fridge needed and 90 second convenience" what comes to mind? Well soon, my friend, you will be seeing Proper Good everywhere.

I invited Christopher Jane, co-founder and CEO at Proper Good, to talk about his delicious company and what they're working on with their marketing efforts. Prior, Christopher was co-founder and CEO at Montana Mex (clean label seasonings, sauces and oils carried by Whole Foods, H-E-B, Albertsons and more).

Proper Good was founded in 2020, is based out of Austin (TX) and has raised Seed funding ($1.5M). Proper Good is 90-second tasty meals with clean ingredients delivered direct to your door. Check out their keto, vegan & low-calorie options. I tried 'em and they're tasty!

Here's what we hit on:

Proper Good was on Shark Tank! How'd it go? (HINT: got a lot of interest from just the viewership but also a lot happened AFTER the show aired);

How'd you come up with that name, what's the backstory;

2022 Marketing Plan - budget, channels, resources (HINT: reduced spend on Insta and FB, increased spend on sampling and top of funnel);

How's TikTok working out for you;

What types of content are you leaning into (HINT: simple and focused messaging, customer reviews and testimonials, and emotional messaging);

Who's your competition (HINT: competition really "lifts all boats");

We grew 400-500% in 2021 with the same base team, who's on the team;

What are your top marketing challenges;

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: it involves food donations and creating an enormous flywheel effect);

Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022;

How new product innovation works at Proper Good (HINT: we have a private Slack channel for feedback and our Broccoli Cheddar has been revised 5X over 2 years!

You can reach Christopher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisofthejane/

Find out more about Proper Good: https://eatpropergood.com/

For more content like this, 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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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WOW these episodes are popular...so let's keep this going! Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, resources and so much more.

Rob Singer is CMO at Remitly. Prior, Rob was CMO at Ancestry.com, and at Smule, and at Habit.

I've had Rob on before - check out Episode 17!

Remitly was founded in 2011, has 1,264 people (WOAH) and is based out of Seattle. And guess what?! They IPO'd September 2021!! Remitly helps people send money across borders. There are millions of immigrants around the world that make the huge sacrifice of leaving their families behind to live and work in another country. Remitly makes international money transfers easy.

Here's what we hit on:

2022 Marketing Plan (HINT: being public doesn’t matter, what’s gotten us here will enable us to keep moving forward);

For new customer acquisition and revenue growth, we spend to a certain payback;

Now we're focusing more on organic growth (creating demand in lower cost channels);

Marketing channels we're leaning into (HINT: audio, TV);

Marketing content we're leaning into (HINT: music and food);

Rob's personal and professional goals.

You can reach Rob on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rob-singer-313131/

Find out more about Remitly: www.remitly.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 or visit my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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We talk about how important storytelling and emotional connection is for really great marketing. But can banking be emotional?

You betcha.

I brought on a creative leader to talk about how and why it's important to nail this.

Matthieu Silberstein is VP of Creative Marketing at Lili. Matt works on commercials, PR, influencers, podcasts, social, content, media partnerships, OOH, and creative writing including voice and storytelling. Matt also owns his own business, creating video content for companies like FOX STUDIOS, HEARST DIGITAL, CONDE NAST, FUSE, THE NEW YORK POST, POPSUGAR, and more.

Prior to Lili, Matt served as video content director for Spoon U, a media-tech startup (acquired by Scripps Networks for $11M, and then Scripps was acquired by Discovery for $14.6B) and video director and marketing producer for Popsugar.

Lili was founded in 2018, is based out of NYC, and has 84 people. They've raised Series B ($80M total). Lili is the all-in-one banking app designed for freelancers. Your checking/savings account, taxes, invoices, expense reports – all in one app.

Here's what we hit on:

You joined Lili in 2019 as a contractor, what were you focused on then as Head of Content;

What is the stigma around the term "freelancer" (HINT: it's not a job title, it's a status);

2022 Marketing Goals (HINT: I'm inspired by seeing real people, not by looking at my phone);

What content marketing are you leaning into this year (HINT: trying to make taxes sexy);

What marketing channels are you prioritizing (HINT: we created a cool TV ad, link in the show notes below);

What is Lili’s unique Voice and how do you use Storytelling as part of your creative efforts (HINT: Lili’s voice is my voice because it’s so organic to me);

What are your top creative challenges;

What does “creative'' mean to you and which brands are most creative;

Some goals Matt wants to accomplish in 2022 (HINT: go back out into the world and rekindle inspiration, find that fire).

You can reach Matt on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/matthieusilberstein/

See Matt's creative work: www.matthieusilberstein.com

Find out more about Lili: https://lili.co/

Here's the "I Need This" commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGuDgvx0EWo

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Welcome back!

As you may have heard, I'm intrigued by category design. I've had both Christopher Lochhead and Andy Raskin on the show to chat more on the topic, and those are actually some of the more popular episodes on the podcast.

Josh Lowman helps startups (like Robinhood, Newsela, Uber, Bizzabo, and Clari) create and own their category. I wanted to bring Josh onto the show and dig into exactly HOW he helps startups design categories and learn about some specific examples.

Josh is Founder and CCO at Gold Front, a category design studio based in San Francisco and LA. He's also the host of the Category First podcast.

Here's what we hit on:

What does category creation mean to you (HINT: it's a whole company strategy);

Exactly how you’ve helped different brands like Robinhood, Newsela, Uber, Bizzabo and Clari with category design. Where do you start? What does that process look like (HINT: everyone has a different context, but in common is to disrupt the old way of doing things);

Why the CEO collaboration is key;

What are the pitfalls or watch-outs if you’re a startup planning to create and own a category;

How does timing play into successful category creation? What needs to click out there in the world for this to work;

Can everyone be a category creator (HINT: we're just keeping people honest. As a startup you're not telling your investors that you have something incrementally better);

How did you bring category creation into Gold Front’s business strategy;

What are some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022.

You can reach Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshlowman/

Find out more about Gold Front: https://www.goldfront.com/

Check out the Category First podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/category-first/id1601824968

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I'm SO excited to bring you this episode on the MSM podcast. Many marketers are struggling to prove the ROI/value from their audio/video content but deep down we KNOW it's the good stuff. It's why we became marketers in the first place! The gems dropped throughout this episode are so valuable.

Holly Pels is VP of Marketing at Casted. Prior, Holly was Director of Marketing at Emarsys (Series B SaaS acquired by SAP).

Casted was founded in 2019, already has 58 people, and they've raised Series A ($9.5M). Based out of Indianapolis (IN). Casted is the first Amplified Marketing Platform and the only audio and video podcast solution designed for enterprise marketers. With Casted, marketers can unlock the power of audio and video by getting access to use your most valuable content across every channel, AND prove the ROI of your audio and video content. Customers include PayPal, OpenView, Salesforce, Hubspot, Auth0, ZoomInfo, Drift, and more.

Here's what we hit on:

What in the world is amplified marketing;

Audio and video and being a media powerhouse - that’s table stakes for startup marketing these days. We know it’s important, but it can be 1) hard to do especially as you get bigger and 2) hard to prove the ROI of content like podcasts (downloads vs. how’s it actually impacting sales??) so that you can build in more budget and resources for it. What’s your recommendation for how to get this going and prove ROI;

Why content marketers are undervalued and overworked and what can we do instead;

Content is created for different purposes (e.g. get people engaged, excited, educated) and not necessarily linear to the sale. Still, you can prove the impact;

Who's on Casted's marketing team;

2022 Marketing Plan - budget, channels, content;

How are we building predictable pipeline;

What are your top marketing challenges (HINT: educating people on the new category “Amplified Marketing” takes time and effort);

You went from Director of Marketing to VP, what were those most important things you did that led to a promotion (HINT: making use of what was created before, not necessarily focused on net new);

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with (HINT: our new Marketing Therapy show);

Holly's personal/professional goals for 2022.

You can reach Holly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollypels/

Find out more about Casted: www.casted.us

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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WOW these episodes are popular...which tells me that folks are lovin' the series...so let's keep this going! Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, resources and so much more.

Alvaro De La Rocha is CMO at Bespoke Post. Previously he held roles at Ogilvy and Microsoft on the product/marketing side. We also went to business school together.

I've had Alvaro on before - check out Episode 30!

Bespoke Post was founded in 2011, has 80 people now, and is based out of NYC. They've raised Series B! ($48.9M total) Bespoke Post is goods and guidance, delivered monthly. Upgrade your day-to-day life through themed boxes full of gear – shaving sets, shoe shine kits, home bar essentials - for men.

Here's what we hit on:

2022 Marketing Plan - how are you organizing your budget (HINT: it's been a challenging year from paid ads perspective, so getting more creative);

How and why we've changed our attribution model (HINT: our new model includes relevant inputs like "how did you hear about us" survey);

What did we put in our TV ad (HINT: it's a kind of testimonial spot which performs really well)

What marketing channels are you leaning into (HINT: includes TV and radio);

What content are you leaning into (HINT: we're reinforcing the lifestyle to build the brand);

Some goals that Alvaro wants to accomplish this year, personal and professional.

You can reach 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 or visit my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hello and welcome back! On this episode of MSM not only do we talk startup marketing, but Dean also throws in some great life advice. We talk money. We talk kids. We chat about how parents traditionally handle money with their kids and why it's time to revamp that approach.

Dean Brauer is co-founder and president at GoHenry (US). Prior, Dean held senior roles at leading advertising and digital agencies for PlayStation, Unilever and O2 (a large European telco).

GoHenry was founded in 2012, is based out of London and New York, and has 200+ people. Funding: $66.2M total. GoHenry is the kids’ debit card and financial learning app that helps you nurture money confidence in your kids. Meant for kids ages 6-18 years old.

Here's what we hit on:

Chase has a banking service for kids (I just got a mailer recently and my friend mentioned she’s using Chase with her kids). How do you think about GoHenry (startup) vs. the big banks offering something similar? How do you step up as the challenger brand? (HINT: the biggest competition is cash, not banks);

2022 marketing planning - what marketing channels are you leaning into this year? Where have you seen the most success (HINT: organic growth is always happening and if you can deliver delight then people will tell other people);

What content (marketing) are you leaning into (HINT: our content efforts drive storytelling and inspires people);

How do you think about ROI from content marketing (HINT: give yourself 6 months of discovery with resources, figuring out KPIs, and to see how your hypotheses turn out);

How are you planning to build out resources this year;

How do you successfully change the status quo (HINT: build on the frictions);

What are your top marketing challenges;

What have you learned about the UK vs. US consumer and how does that help inform your marketing efforts;

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with (HINT: the Money Missions concept was a really creative approach to tackling financial literacy, we had product + marketing working very closely together);

What are some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022.

You can reach Dean on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-brauer-a3a2126/

Find out more about GoHenry: www.gohenry.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I had the pleasure of welcoming Nairi Hourdajian (VP of Communications, Content and Community Marketing at Figma) to the show. Nairi is also the founding member of All Raise (programs to accelerate the success of female founders and funders to build a more prosperous, equitable future). She has held marketing leadership roles at Canaan (early stage VC firm) and Uber.

Figma was founded in 2012, has 550 people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series E funding ($332.9M total). Figma is a design platform for teams who build products together. Customers include Slack, Twitter, DropBox, Square, AirBnB, Netflix, Zoom, Uber, and more.

Here's what we hit on:

Figma’s Marketing team, what are the different groups, who and how many people on your team;

How does your team integrate campaigns together across other teams within Marketing? Internal communications - how do you make sure the whole company knows and is excited about what you’re working on? What processes are in place (HINT: preview those BIG initiatives internally first, this gets people excited and talking which is more leverage for your company);

Your 2022 Marketing Plan. How are you thinking about and splitting your budget for content and community;

To build your content/community, what marketing channels are you leaning into;

What specific content are you leaning into;

What have you learned from your expert designers so far;

You're an expert in PR. Tell me about your experience with PR, what has changed, what has stayed the same? What are startups doing wrong with their PR efforts (HINT: if you’re the PR head at your startup, tell it straight to your founder "here’s what’s possible, here’s what’s not");

What are your thoughts on building a brand successfully for early stage vs. for later stage startups? What tends to happen and what should be done instead (HINT: your website is a channel and it's worth taking a beat to really think about your positioning, where you fit in the competitive landscape, what kind of response from customers are you looking for, that foundational brand work, what is the core narrative, what is the brand promise);

What are your top marketing challenges? (HINT: make sure there's philosophical alignment at your company around ROI from brand marketing efforts);

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with.

You can reach Nairi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nairi-tashjian-hourdajian-37601411/

Find out more about Figma: https://www.figma.com/

Check out the Figma store: https://store.figma.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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These episodes are pretty popular, which tells me that folks are lovin' the series, so let's keep this going! Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. I get questions from startups about this a lot (especially as the marketing landscape has changed so much throughout the pandemic). We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, resources and so much more.

Kristi Annes is VP Marketing Strategy at IMO (Intelligent Medical Objects). Prior to that she was a marketing leader at IBM Watson.

I’ve had IMO on before - Michael Klozotsky, CMO at IMO, came on for Episode 4 back in November 2020! We talked about how IMO’s marketing plan shifted after the pandemic hit (instead of scrambling to get their in-person even over to virtual, IMO ran a really creative marketing campaign around how it’s so great we don’t have to travel called “No Travel Required.” We talk about that and so much more.

IMO is based out of Chicago, has ~270 employees, and received significant investment from Warburg Pincus (IMO's PE firm) and leading U.S. health systems in 2016. IMO has developed the most widely-accepted medical terminology solution for the management of medical vocabularies and software applications at healthcare organizations worldwide. IMO's solution is used by more than 3,500 hospitals and 450,000 physicians daily.

Here's what we cover:

IMO's 2022 Marketing Plan - what's your budget split;

What marketing channels are you leaning into (HINT: we talk about the importance of in-person events and some other channels they're testing);

What content are you leaning into;

Who's on the marketing team to help put the plan into action;

Anything else that's unique about your plan;

Some goals that Kristi wants to accomplish this year, both personal and professional.

You can reach Kristi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristiannes/

Find out more about IMO: https://www.imohealth.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Megan Bowen is COO at Refine Labs. If you don't know her, you're missing out because she's a smart, kind and genuine leader. Prior to Refine Labs, Megan was VP of Customer Success at Platterz, COO at Managed by Q, and held leadership roles at GrubHub and ZocDoc.

I’ve had MJ Peters, now at Refine Labs, on the show (Episode 9 - we talked a lot about voice of customer research and insights) and of course Chris Walker (Episode 35 - “over-prioritizing sales is your SaaS startup’s biggest mistake”). Now Megan!

Refine Labs is a demand accelerator for B2B SaaS companies. They help companies increase marketing’s contribution to qualified pipeline and revenue while lowering CAC.

Here's what we talk about:

Customer onboarding, success, retention is SO important but often we create our marketing plan and we leave that part out, we’re so focused on creating awareness and acquiring new customers. What does strong customer success look like for an early stage startup (HINT: it's NOT customer support);

When is the best time to hire a dedicated customer success person or team (HINT: as soon as you have customers);

Who should you hire (HINT: Megan shares a framework for building your team);

What are the most common pitfalls when it comes to customer onboarding/success;

How to ensure customer success + sales + marketing + product is fully aligned, and on what things do they need to align on;

What does Customer Success look like at Refine Labs (HINT: we've recently revamped our onboarding);

Megan embraces a “human-first” leadership approach - what does this mean and what are top 1-2 leadership lessons to share;

What are some goals Megan wants to accomplish (personal, professional) this year.

You can reach Megan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganwhitebowen/

Find out more about Refine Labs: www.refinelabs.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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These episodes are pretty popular, which tells me that folks are lovin' the series, so let's keep this going! Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022.

I get questions from startups about this a lot (especially as the marketing landscape has changed so much throughout the pandemic) so I know this is on people's minds. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, resources and so much more.

Kristina Simonson is Director of Demand Gen at Privy. Prior to that she was at Wordstream managing full-funnel marketing and sales results.

I’ve had Privy on before, Episode 55 - Dan Murphy, VP of Marketing at Privy. We talked about TikTok! Listen to that episode too.

Privy was founded in 2011, has 94 people, and is based out of Boston. Funding: Series A ($4.3M total). Privy is the leader in e-commerce marketing. Email & SMS for online brands that need the tools & coaching to grow sales. Privy is used by over 600,000 stores in 180 countries today, helping to generate $6B in sales. WOA.

Here's what we cover:

What does Demand Gen mean at Privy? (HINT: top of funnel + full funnel);

Privy's 2022 Marketing Plan - what's your budget split? (HINT: a big focus on plugging gaps, not just bringing in more);

What marketing channels are you leaning into;

How we're thinking about using TikTok strategically;

What content are you leaning into (HINT: working with influencers, building on our podcast);

How does the podcast help to impact your funnel;

Who's on the marketing team now and how will you plan to build out resources;

Anything else that's unique about your plan;

Some goals that Kristina wants to accomplish this year, both personal and professional.

You can reach Kristina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinasimonson/

Find out more about Privy: https://www.privy.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hey everyone. So I have not done a solo episode in a WHILE and I thought "hey, it's time."

I did a OneGuide Marketing Roundtable a while back and answered these 10 questions from CEOs of tech companies. What's OneGuide? OneGuide is like your on-demand advisory board >> expert calls and written how-to guides for fast-growing B2B companies. Check them out here: https://askoneguide.com/

Here are the questions I answer in this episode:

1. What are best practices to convert leads into customers with minimal direct human interaction (e.g. focusing on digital)?

2. How do you stay current with the latest marketing trends?

3. What is the difference between demand generation and lead generation?

4. What do you need to set a foundation for your demand generation?

5. Interested in learning how to get the biggest bang for the buck?

6. Nowadays creating and posting “expert content” is all the rage. However, most companies that do that seem to outsource composing such content to agencies without the expertise in the area. Does that work? Is it worth it to improve company visibility?

7. As we establish the marketing department with scarce resources, which strategies should we be focusing on?

8. Does inbound marketing have an impact on outbound sales?

9. How to effectively implement online demand generation in a business that is primarily offline?

10. We have a good foundation (SEO, paid search, analytics, CRM, content) - how to scale effectively?

Resources mentioned during this episode:

• How to Prioritize your Startup Marketing is Episode 15

• My content creation conversation with Devin Bramhall (CEO at Animalz) is Episode 63

• Modern Demand Gen Playbook: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/modern-demand-gen-for-startups

• VoC Research Playbook: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/use-these-6-steps-to-build-personas-like-a-boss

• 1-Page Marketing Plan Playbook: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/3-steps-to-create-a-winning-marketing-plan

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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. Anna's monthly newsletter: subscribe by going here: https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba

Thanks for listening!

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I got a chance to speak with Jen Root, co-founder and VP of Marketing at Manifest Commerce, and it was a great convo with an early stage startup that's got some exciting stuff in the works plus a "sprint and fix" mentality. It's such an exciting time. They've also been the podcast's sponsor!

Manifest Commerce was co-founded in 2021 by a team of four people including George Wojciechowski (ShipBob's co-founder, ShipBob has raised Series E and the company is valued at over $1B). Together, the team at Manifest Commerce has a passion for climate action. Manifest is earth-friendly e-commerce fulfillment and they're leading the logistics movement towards a greener supply chain.

Here's what we hit on:

Your 2022 marketing plan - how are you organizing your marketing budget, what channels are you leaning into (HINT: Partnerships);

What's the difference between a merchant and a sustainability-focused merchant;

What are your top marketing challenges right now (HINT: understanding CAC and CLTV plus finding the time to engage with our community on social);

How has the pandemic affected your marketing strategy (HINT: we're still focusing on in-person e.g. April/May sustainability summit where merchants can learn from other merchants);

What are the last couple of really good marketing ideas you've come up with;

What’s a tough question you’ve had to ask yourself recently (HINT: "what if this doesn't work?");

What are some goals you want to accomplish in 2022 (HINT: once we're bigger, one of our big goals is to speak at the United Nations!);

I found out that Jen is a singer so I asked her to sing a bit for us at the end.

You can reach Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-root-70249051/

Find out more about Manifest Commerce: https://manifestcommerce.io/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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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What a cool company! I recently spoke with Mitch Wainer, Co-Founder and CMO at Welcome Homes. Prior to Welcome Homes, Mitch was CMO at Clubhouse (renamed to Shortcut, a Series B SaaS startup), CMO and Co-Founder at DigitalOcean, and he's also a Techstars alum.

Welcome Homes was founded in 2020, has 49 people, and is based out of New York. They've raised Seed funding ($5.4M). Order your dream home, online! Build the home you want, where you want for a guaranteed, all-in price. Right now it's available in the NY metro area, with more cities coming soon.

Here's what we hit on:

Mitch's 2022 Marketing Plan - budget, channels, content and resources;

Online AND offline channels;

Paid is faster, sure, but here's why you need to invest in organic from Day 1 (HINT: it takes time, the content compounds, and your audience grows);

Why it's important to have reps and sets on a daily basis;

The content we're leaning into (HINT: create value without asking for anything);

The last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas we've come up with (HINT: brand partnerships and the broker/agent channel. One big creative idea is great but it's more important to do reps and sets);

Why we're treating home buyers (B2C) as B2B;

Mitch's goals for 2022.

You can reach Mitch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchwainer/

Find out more about Welcome Homes: https://welcomehomes.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Well, well, well. Another startup from NYC that is growing FAST! I explored a slightly different angle with Wes Yee (Head of Integrated Marketing at Ramp) specifically how to make sure your marketing efforts are truly integrated at a fast growing startup.

Prior to Ramp, Wes was the Senior Director of Growth at Guru (Series C tech startup). Wes has 10+ years experience building and scaling revenue-focused marketing teams at early-stage (Series A -> Series D) B2B tech startups. His teams have grown ARR from less than $5M to $15M+ and less than $10M to $50M+.

Ramp was founded in 2019, is already at Series C ($620M total), has a unicorn valuation of $3.9 billion, and 220 people strong.

Ramp is a finance automation platform designed to save businesses time and money. “The only corporate card and spend management platform designed to help you spend less.” More than 2,000 businesses are using Ramp already.

Check out this UX (web page) for "Why Ramp?" I love this reader experience and how the problem is explained.

Here's what Wes and I cover:

What marketing trends should startups be aware of or exploring (HINT: how to measure what's hard to measure, also "intrinsic advertising" in gaming);

You sell to startups, small business, and enterprise, so how does your marketing need to change for each of these segments;

What's been working well for marketing/growth;

Creating a culture around radical accountability;

What's your key metric (HINT: his job is to translate copywriting into revenue);

What are the big challenges right now;

How do you integrate your marketing efforts;

What's the one question you'd ask 100 of your peers in marketing leadership;

What are some goals you want to accomplish this year.

You can reach Wes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesyee/

Find out more about Ramp: https://ramp.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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This was a fun interview I had with Kap Chatfield, Host of the B2B Podcasting podcast.

In this episode, Kap and I talk about:

Marketing needs a mindset shift to evolve in today’s digital age;

How to find your ICP (ideal customer profile) and what questions to ask;

Most common marketing problems that I hear from startup founders;

Biggest issues startups have with their marketing;

Why you should start your own thought leadership podcast;

Why storytelling is so important for startups;

How video clips from your podcast help you reach your target audience;

How your business will grow from the influence of your podcast.

Here's a link back to the original episode with the full transcript: https://blog.rveal.media/why-you-need-to-treat-your-startup-like-a-media-powerhouse-with-anna-furmanov

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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. Anna's monthly newsletter: subscribe by going here: https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba

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Yaaaaas! Looks like folks are lovin' the series, so let's keep this going. Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022.

I get questions from startups about this a lot (especially as the marketing landscape has changed so much throughout the pandemic) so I know this is on people's minds. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, and resources and so much more.

Dan Frohnen is CMO at UpKeep. Prior to that, he was CMO at Sendoso. Welcome back to the show, Dan!

UpKeep was founded in 2014, has 176 people, and is based out of LA. Funding: Series B ($48.8M total). UpKeep is the #1 software for maintenance and facility management teams, a platform developed for technicians and maintenance workers that provides them with a computerized maintenance management system. Customers include McDonalds, Pepsi, Shell, and Marriott.

Here's what we cover:

Dan recently joined UpKeep and the first 7-8 months have been spent on laying down the (marketing) foundation, learning what’s working versus not, plus figuring out what’s going on in the world;

2022 marketing plan - budget, channels, and resources;

Roughly 80% of the budget is direct to pipeline and revenue (paid ads, events, SEO, content) and the other 20% is for stuff like content production, agency support, analysts and brand;

Dan is helping to support more of a demand gen motion (versus inbound lead gen);

Who’s on the marketing team now, and how are you planning to build out resources for 2022;

Why the designer is UpKeep's secret weapon;

UpKeep is a leader in a bunch of product categories with slightly different buyers and value props. How Dan is thinking about category creation moving forward (HINT: you need to think about it as a business strategy and not just something that marketing is doing);

What's the "market narrative framework" and how it ties into ongoing thought leadership that the team rallies around;

Some goals that Dan wants to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022 (HINT: being happy personally will make everything in your life amazing).

You can reach Dan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danielfrohnen/

Find out more about UpKeep: www.upkeep.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hi to my amazing listeners! This episode kicks of the beginning of what I'll call the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. I get questions from startups about this a lot (especially as the marketing landscape has changed so much throughout the pandemic) so I know this is on people's minds. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, and resources and so much more.

Cassidy Shield is VP Marketing at Narrative Science. Prior to that, he was VP Marketing at Gogo, VP Marketing at NetCracker and spent 13 years at Alcatel Lucent, purchased by Nokia. He also went to Kellogg (woop woop!).

Narrative Science was founded in 2010, has 85 people, and is based out of Chicago. Funding: Series D ($43.4M total) and they just got acquired!! Narrative Science allows you to humanize analytics with data storytelling (not dashboards).

Here's what we cover:

2022 marketing plan - budget, channels, and resources;

How are you splitting your budget organic vs. paid;

What channels are you leaning into and why (NOTE: 90% of revenue is marketing sourced);

They launched their first event (Data Storytelling Summit) and realized "hey, we're good at this";

Who's on the marketing team now and how you're planning to build out;

Planning can't start until you know the goals of the business (HINT: we do this every 3-6 months on a rolling basis);

Cassidy shared some other unique/helpful things related to marketing planning e.g. galvanize around your "big rock" items;

Some goals (personal/professional) for Cassidy going into 2022.

You can reach Cassidy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cassidyshield

Find out more about Narrative Science: www.narrativescience.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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This was a free-flowing interview with Harry Duran, Host of the Podcast Junkies podcast. He did not send me questions in advance! :)

In this episode, Harry and I talk about:

My background in business and marketing;

How I think about marketing and the psychology behind the field;

Why I decided to start my podcast;

My passion for helping startups build powerful brands and businesses;

How I have grown as a podcast host since launching in November 2020;

Why I would NEVER sell to the guests that come on my show;

What do people misunderstand about me (I think?).

Here's a link back to the original episode: https://podcastjunkies.com/280

You can subscribe to Podcast Junkies here: https://podcastjunkies.com/subscribe

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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. Anna's monthly newsletter: subscribe by going here.

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Happy New Year to all my fantastic listeners!!

I hope everyone enjoyed some time off with family and friends while staying safe and healthy. Cheers to 2022!

I spoke with Zineb Layachi on the topic of ATTENTION. How little time we focus on the attention part of our marketing efforts. People have to NOTICE the content, ad, video, email, etc. that you're sharing with them. How do we get the right people to notice?

Zineb works heavily with startups. She's the founder and chief marketer of Raise The Runway and she's co-host of PitchSLAP (private pitch mentoring for startups to nail their pitch).

Here's what we covered:

Let's take a step back...how do people actually notice something;

What's the real challenge for startups (HINT: not enough of the being different in all the RIGHT ways);

What are the best ways to get attention with your marketing (HINT: start with understanding your customer, know what thought leadership matters to them, take a stance, fire people up, create content that resonates, and be consistent).

You can find Zineb on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zineblayachi

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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. Anna's monthly newsletter: subscribe by goinghere.

Thanks for listening!

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I knew I had to get them on as soon as I stumbled onto their website (check it out if you haven't heard of them yet).

Aleksandr Volodarsky is CEO and Founder (and now Chief Twitter Officer, almost 12k followers) of Lemon.io. Prior to Lemon, Aleks held sales roles at various companies.

Lemon.io was founded in 2015, has 39 people, and is based out of Ukraine. They've raised an angel round ($60k).

Lemon.io connects early-stage startups with vetted offshore engineers. In 48 hours or less, they can help find the (remote) developer of your dreams. And I can see how this offering is only getting more popular now as more people are looking for devs and more devs are looking for good companies to work for.

Here's what we cover in this episode:

The website is killer, it still makes me chuckle. I’m a huge fan. Who made it? What does it take to create something so different that it stands out from everything else? What kind of mindset do you need to have;

How do you ensure that this voice carries through other parts of the company e.g. sales, customer experience, marketing;

How did you get your first customers? What has been your approach to building the brand and community;

What channels are working the best for you right now (HINT: Twitter and influencers);

What are your biggest challenges (HINT: finding that balance between supply and demand);

You grew Lemon from $2.7M to $7M in 2021 - awesome - we talk about building in public and why/how you do it;

What Aleks asked 500 people on Twitter and used that as insights for growth.

You can reach Aleksandr on Twitter: https://twitter.com/volodarik

Find out more about Lemon.io: https://lemon.io/

Follow Aleksandr’s growing the company in public - subscribe by going here: https://volodarik.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Evan Davies is Head of Marketing, Partnerships, and Solutions at Coda (almost 5 years!). Prior to Coda, Evan was at Box, and prior to that he was a product manager at Accenture.

Coda was founded in 2014, has nearly 200 people, and is based out of SF. They've raised Series D ($240M total).

The problem: for years, our teams have been split across documents, spreadsheets, and apps. Time to bring us back together!

The solution: Coda is a new doc that brings words, data and teams together. It's making a doc as powerful as an app.

Here's what we hit on:

“Document collaboration platform” vs. “project management tool” - how are you thinking about the market category you play in;

Evan shared a couple of big marketing/content trends that startup founders and marketing leaders need to be aware of (HINT: the maker generation is one topic we explored, and we also discussed the resurgence of OOH ad buys);

I asked Evan to tell me more about the Gallery content on the website, what's the goal;

We talked about how Arianna Huffington used Coda to build the Power Of Reset doc;

Marketing and creator growth: what’s working well for Coda right now? What channels? (HINT: user generated content, SEO/SEM, paid);

Marketing challenges? (HINT: how to build strategy full funnel, how to build a good product led motion)

Evan has been through multiple funding rounds. How has the team and focus areas shifted over the past 5 years;

What worked the best for Coda early-stage;

What's Evan's favorite startup stage and why;

People that have worked for Evan say he's a super strong leader, so I asked Evan what's his leadership formula and he said 3 things: 1) knowing enough to be dangerous 2) create autonomy while driving alignment 3) build empathy on teams with "yes and" approach.

You can reach Evan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/evanpdavies/

Find out more about Coda: www.coda.io

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I have so much respect for Camille Trent, make sure you follow her on LinkedIn to get a taste of her content.

Camille Trent is Head of Content at Dooly. She’s also an advisor for Swpely. Prior to Dooly, Camille was Managing Editor at MarketerHire and prior to that she was founder and lead copywriter of her own company, Camille Trent Consulting.

Dooly was founded in 2016, has 87 people, is based out of Vancouver, and has raised Series B ($102.3M total).

So here's the problem that Dooly solves for: only one third (!) of sellers are actually hitting quota. Imagine you had the best instincts from every person across the revenue team (including marketing) to help you close deals so you could hit your number. That's what Dooly helps with. Also they're not really into that "hustle and grind" sales culture, so that's kinda cool too.

Here's what we hit on in the episode:

What does marketing mean to you? What about content;

Big marketing/content trends that startups need to start/keep exploring (HINT: community, conversations, and don't forget to just ask your target buyer questions that matter e.g. what they like to read, who they follow, podcasts they listen to, etc.);

What content does Dooly's target audience (salespeople) like;

How do you balance the qualitative data vs. quantitative data when you look at content's impact on the business;

Dooly's "Fire Talks" - what happened to them, are they coming back (I added a link to that below if you're interested);

Marketing content - what has worked well for Dooly? What content across what channels? (HINT: double down on LinkedIn, memes, teardowns, webinars, analyze existing content to find what's working);

How big is your marketing team and how'd you create a content system;

Marketing content - what are the challenges, what are you trying to figure out (HINT: scaling, building a repeatable system, finding the right writers and designers);

How did you find your top writers? Camille shares her tips;

How Camille thinks about good copywriting that "works";

Camille's son Teddy said hello at the end of the show! What a treat!

You can reach Camille on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/camillehansentrent/

Find out more about Dooly: https://www.dooly.ai/

Check out Dooly's: Fire Talks

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Ah, newsletters. You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em. Either way, they’re important if you’re a marketer (an email subscriber is like getting an invite to someone’s backyard during COVID!) so you gotta know how to do them well. It seems like everyone plus their mother is coming out with newsletters. How do you make yours shine?

Ashley and I met on Chris Walker’s weekly Tuesday night Demand Gen Live!

Ashley is the Director of Marketing at Simple Focus Software (portfolio of SaaS tools). She gets to work with newsletter creators via the Curated brand. She's got 15+ years of experience in marketing and journalism, and she also manages her newsletter Opt In Weekly.

Here's what we hit on:

How to handle newsletter subject lines and how to think about them over time (HINT: over time people will open your emails not because of your SL but because they TRUST you);

What are some of my top subject lines over the past 2 years and what I think that means;

Newsletter content should include consistent buckets so your readers get used to that outline, I share the buckets I use;

Content strategy - play into your strengths, humanize yourself, make it feel like a letter;

Ask "does this serve my target audience?" when you're thinking to add content;

Create a moat - we are the top source for this type of content;

Think about your newsletter similarly to a blog, create content categories and track those category metrics to see what is most engaging your readers.

You can find Ashley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyguttuso/

Ashley's Opt In Weekly Newsletter: https://optinweekly.com/

Anna's monthly newsletter: subscribe by going here and you'll get to see this episode content in action!

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here:www.manifestcommerce.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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I had Devin Bramhall, CEO of Animalz, join me for this episode to talk about content marketing - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Devin is CEO of Animalz, a content marketing agency based out of NYC. Customers include enterprise companies, startups, and VC firms.

Before Animalz, Devin was Director of Content at Help Scout (Series B SaaS startup). She's also the former Executive Director of Boston Content, the largest community group and career development resource for content marketers in Boston.

Here's what we hit on:

How has the concept of content marketing changed (or not) over time;

Devin's journey from VP to CEO of the agency;

Companies are trying to lead with their thought leadership, to create new and unique content - but how do you do this successfully?

To create really good content, you need to analyze what's happening in your arena and write deeply about it;

Do you need to hire a writer with domain expertise?

What does "founder brand" mean and how can it work as a strategy;

How should startups structure their content marketing for success;

Hire a marketing leader first, and outsource your marketing execution (if you hire a team that reports to the founder, they'll suck up a lot of time);

About Animalz - who you help and what you help with;

Focus on consistency vs. stunts even though it seems less sexy;

Produce content with a "limited series" mindset vs. the volume play and see how much better your content will be;

How do you stay creative?

You can reach Devin on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall

Find out more about Animalz: www.animalz.co

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I recently spoke with Nadia Masri, founder and CEO at Perksy (for 6+ years). Prior to that, she was co-founder and CMO at foursixty (a digital marketing platform for e-commerce retailers).

She's Forbes 30 Under 30. She's CNBC's Top 100. She's also a TEDx Speaker. And now, she's building the next gen of consumer insights.

Perksy was founded in 2015, has 24 people, and is based out of NYC. It's a next-gen market intelligence platform that leverages the power of mobile to drive real-time insights from hyper targeted, hyperlocal audiences of Millennials & Gen-Z. With their mobile-first surveys, your company can drive research with younger audiences at unprecedented scale. Customers include Airbnb, Pepsi, and Ogilvy.

Here's what we hit on:

There are other players. How do you successfully differentiate your company + solution in your space;

Your customers NOW believe you're high-quality (because they became your customers), but how do you actually use that knowledge as part of your marketing efforts for new prospects that "won't believe it until they see it";

What are some big and important marketing/content trends you're seeing today (HINT: trends are not as important as knowing who your customer is and where they spend their time);

Tell me more about Perksy's "COVID 19 Pulse" (HINT: internal data that tripled their business during COVID);

What marketing channels are working the best for Perksy right now (HINT: the focus is on organic, and we take a very human approach to marketing, so being on podcasts and speaking on stage is a big part of it, content also plays a big part);

What are some bad recommendations you've heard floating around that relate to startups and marketing?

You can reach Nadia on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nadiagenevievemasri

Find out more about Perksy: www.getperksy.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Andy Raskin is the master of strategic narrative.

Andy helps CEOs align their teams around a strategic narrative — to power success in sales, marketing, fundraising, product and recruiting. Clients include VC-backed companies funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Google Ventures, First Round Capital, and other top investors. He has also led strategic narrative training at Salesforce, Uber, Square, Yelp, VMware, Intel, General Assembly and more.

Here's what we cover:

Why Andy decided to invite his mom to co-create LinkedIn video clips;

What does "strategic narrative" mean exactly, and how is it different from our traditional approach to "positioning";

What questions you should be asking customers to help craft your strategic narrative (HINT: they're not about your product);

What's the difference between "creating a category" and "creating a movement";

Why is your startup’s “origin story” not the same as your “strategic narrative”;

So you want to create your strategic narrative - where do you start? What are the most important steps?

Not every business is there to "help you play a new game". For more established companies that want to re-invent themselves, what do they need to do?

What led Andy to be master of strategic narratives;

What are some strategic narrative pitfalls to avoid?

You can reach Andy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/andyraskin

Find out more about Andy and his work: www.andyraskin.com

The Bigger Narrative podcast: https://andyraskin.com/podcast

Why Great Pitches Come From Customers (referenced during the episode): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-great-pitches-come-from-customers-andy-raskin

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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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Alright, folks. People that know me know that I'm a super, duper positive person. But sometimes? It's OK to vent a little!

So, if you want to come join me (and Sergey) vent on some marketing topics, we'd love to have you. Take a little break, grab a cup of coffee.

Sergey works on podcast and video production at Crowdlinker. He's also the host of the Media Camp podcast plus he's building out his Youtube channel (SRE Live).

Here's what we're venting about in this short episode:

People telling you to get on ALL the social media (pshhhhhhhh);

People that are not marketers by trade telling you what to do;

CEOs that don’t get marketing (they typically get sales…so what’s the difference?);

Just because you like it or understand it, doesn’t mean your target buyer does;

Having to work under someone that doesn’t get marketing.

You can find Sergey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergeyrosslive/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here:www.manifestcommerce.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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I'm excited to bring Workvivo onto the show because...SO many reasons. They're doing some very cool things with their marketing with a very nimble team (5 people!), plus they've got the right marketing mindset, plus it's perfect timing because of all these trends coming together - the great resignation, the great awakening, remote work, workplace disconnect, etc. Their growth is through the roof.

Gidi Pridor is CMO at Workvivo. He's also on the advisory board for Zowie (customer service seed funded startup). Prior to Workvivo he was VP of Marketing at TravelPerk and Perfecto Mobile. He's also angel investing in various early stage startups like Lance and Storydoc.

Workvivo has raised Series A ($16.6M).

Founded in 2017 and currently with 69 employees, Workvivo brings your people together, wherever they are. It’s your intranet, internal comms tool, employee app, all merged into one familiar social experience at the very heart of your digital workplace. With annual growth of over 200% YoY, 1M+ users across more than 90 countries, and customers ranging from Fortune 500 companies to tech startups, Workvivo is on a mission to elevate everyone’s workplace experience.

Here's what we discuss:

There’s a very real need to connect at work...how is Workvivo perfectly positioned to help with that;

How'd you get users across 90 countries;

Why are stories so important, and especially for SaaS startups (HINT: telling your story is NOT about your tool, but rather about your belief system, how you think about your ecosystem, how that helps to build the space that you want to excel in);

Marketing and content - what's working really well for Workvivo (HINT: we're bullish on thought leadership, we're building our own internal media company);

Some good examples of paid social ads;

The good ole' MadMen days, the art of marketing, and how it's so unfortunate that SaaS companies are missing the human aspect and power of using emotional connection in their marketing;

What are some bad recommendations you're hearing in marketing (HINT: leading with SEO is not a good idea, also don't hire a "growth hacker");

Gidi generously shared a mistake he made while at TravelPerk and what he's learned from it;

Who's on Workvivo's marketing team and how does Gidi lead them (HINT: team meetings are usually just 15 minutes because he hired extreme owners).

You can reach Gidi on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gpridor/

Find out more about Workvivo: www.workvivo.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Ann Handley is THE digital marketing and content expert. It's like meeting a rockstar. But better because she's a rockstar marketer! She's a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Keynote speaker. Writer. She's the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs.

In addition:

• 428k followers on LinkedIn (woah)

• author of the book Everybody Writes (I have that one)

• the Total Annarchy newsletter goes out every couple weeks with a focus on writing, marketing, and living your best life

AND Ann helped me land one of my first clients back in 2020! Listen in to hear how that happened.

Here's what we cover:

Voice - for companies and startups, how should they think about developing their voice for content creation?

What are the big marketing/content trends you're seeing today that every startup needs to be on top of (HINT: don't skimp on your newsletter);

Tell me more about MarketingProfs;

Marketing and content - what’s working well for you right now? what channels?

Events - the B2B Forum recently took place in October 2021. How are you planning to handle events this year and next (HINT: the biggest mistake is you take your in-person event and you shove into an online construct)

You can reach Ann on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annhandley

Find out more about MarketingProfs: www.marketingprofs.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hi everyone! We're back with something a little different, fun and fast. Sorry about the sound on my side, it's totally my fault and we've since fixed it for future episodes, but I had a glitch connecting my microphone for a few episodes. Forgive me!!

This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Jess Goss on how to find your content "tilt" and differentiate from a sea of sameness. Jess joined me from Australia and it was midnight her time, so you KNOW this is gonna be good. Jess is Marketing Director at Tribal Habits (ed-tech). She’s a marketer, designer, and developer. We met on Tuesday’s Demand Gen Live with Chris Walker (so many cool people, you should check it out).

Here's what we hit on:

Different is important, but RELEVANCE is key - you need to fill a need;

Some ideas on how to find your content tilt;

Stop looking at what others are doing, and start with having a deep understanding of your customer so you know exactly what they'd find helpful.

You can find Jess on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jess-goss

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Marc Brown is the founder of Byta. Before Byta, Marc was the owner of Fore! an independent promotion company. Marc worked with bands like Spoon, Yoko Ono, and Wilco, trying to get them on radio and TV.

Byta was founded in 2015 and has raised seed funding ($1.4M). Up until 2020, the company was totally bootstrapped, which in hindsight is crazy but that has also informed their marketing strategies which is awesome.

Byta is a (SaaS) platform that's enabling people to send and receive digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Byta helps music artists, their teams and collaborators share new mixes, rough demos, streams and downloads quickly and securely.

We dived right into it and covered:

Content marketing efforts - what’s working well for you right now? What’s the goal? (HINT: you do need creative ways to reach people, but you also need to make sure you know how you did it and create those repeatable systems);

We discuss the microsite (where Byta can be the authority on music), their monthly online events, their weekly interview series, and SEO;

What are the marketing challenges, what are you trying to figure out? (HINT: making decisions that help us stay on the right track);

Remember what the goal is for you. We’re not just trying to have a good month. We’re trying to bring value to our target audience. Build something and give it to people who need it;

What are the last 1-2 really good marketing ideas you/your team has come up with (HINT: a whitepaper around music sharing, nobody has done this, and a PhD music writer is writing it so you know it's gonna be good);

What are some bad recommendations you hear a lot in your field;

If you could ask one question to 100 of your peers, what question would you ask them?

You can reach Marc on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/viznomics

Find out more about Byta: https://byta.com/

Check out the microsite: https://byta.com/howwelisten/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Dan is VP of Marketing at Privy.

He’s a startup marketing leader with 8+ years of experience helping SaaS startups grow. Before Privy, Dan led product marketing at Drift, and demand generation at Onshape.

He also created TheProductLaunchMasterclass.com, a course that 200+ people have taken to learn how to turn product launches into their marketing team's secret weapon.

Privy has raised Series A ($4.3M). Privy is the leader in e-commerce marketing. Providing the tools, education, and support that small e-commerce brands need to grow their online stores and build thriving businesses. Used by over 500,000 stores in 180 countries, helping to generate $5B in sales.

Here's what we covered:

Marketing...what’s working well for you at Privy right now? What channels? (HINT: TikTok is part of it, and Dan explains how this came to be organically);

Marketing...what are the challenges (HINT: hiring);

What are the last really good marketing ideas you/your team has come up with (HINT: they launched this thing so quick they didn't even measure the ROI, they were just trying to bring value to their target audience);

You became VP of Marketing by age 30. What was most important to do, to get there;

If you could ask one question to 100 of your peers in marketing leadership, what question would you ask them?

You can reach Dan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/-danieljmurphy/

Find out more about Privy: www.privy.com

Find out more about the product launch course: www.TheProductLaunchMasterclass.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Hey listeners, quick note that the audio on my side for this one is wonky - sorry about that! Technical snag but we figured it out.

Patrick Campbell is CEO at ProfitWell. Prior to ProfitWell, Patrick led Strategic Initiatives for Boston based Gemvara and was an Economist at Google and the US Intelligence community (very cool).

ProfitWell was founded in 2012, has 83 people, and is based out of Boston, MA.

And get this - it's completely bootstrapped. Wow.

ProfitWell helps recurring revenue (SaaS + subscription + DTC) businesses with their monetization and retention strategies. All of the metrics you need to grow your subscription business.

Here's what we hit on:

What does marketing mean to you? (HINT: Patrick's a math guy and actually changed his mind about this over time);

Big marketing/content trends that startups need to be aware of (HINT: here's where we talk about the difference between inbound marketing and inbound media and why the media strategy is more effective);

What marketing were you doing in the early days to grow the company;

What marketing channels are working well for you right now (HINT: we cover their content strategy, podcasts, videos, books, thought leadership etc.);

How adding video + audio to their pillar blog posts increased audience engagement;

How creating short books allows the ProfitWell team to make sure they have their talking points around the problem their target audience faces, plus helps evangelize the thought leadership inside and outside the team;

How does ProfitWell create so many shows with just 83 people?? (HINT: one of the ways is they shoot 1 season in 1 day);

We talk about events, specifically how can we do 100 dinners a year and not want to die (HINT: the team cracked the code right before COVID on how to do successful events and personalized dinners, and it involves thinking about what are the plays we’re doing to drive traffic to our booth and to our event);

How did Patrick's experience as Economist at the US Department of Defense help in his future roles;

Patrick wrapped a van with the ProfitWell logo and copy, and now he's going to drive it around the country to test if people are willing to meet up and also use this for content creation + awareness building. Super cool!

You can reach Patrick on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/patrickccampbell

Find out more about ProfitWell: www.profitwell.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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And we're back with something a little different, fun and fast!

This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Kourtney Simons on making marketing content without having a solid strategy.

I met Kourtney way back in 2006 at Accenture. Kourtney has worked on marketing at MSNBC, Disney, and Netflix. And now she's at MasterClass (Series F) helping them with brand marketing!!

Here's what we hit on:

Making content without a purpose or strategy - what's the risk;

What does a good marketing/content strategy look like;

What does a bad content strategy look like;

Examples of companies doing it right;

We also talked about the term "playbook" to make sure we were on the same page on the definition.

Link to the digital content strategy playbook I wrote and referenced in the episode: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/modern-digital-content-strategy-for-startups

You can find Kourtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourtney-simons-83456b4/

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Blake Emal is CMO at Copy.ai. Prior to that, Blake was Senior Manager of Demand Gen at TalkDesk (a Series D SaaS startup that has raised almost $500M). Copy.ai was founded in 2020, has 18 employees, and is based out of … nowhere, bc it's a distributed team! Makes sense.

Copy.ai is seed funded ($2.9M).

The tool helps you write better marketing copy, faster. Who doesn't love that? And it’s not just about writing marketing copy. It's a full-on creativity suite to help you start and grow a business.

Here's what we hit on:

What is marketing? (HINT: ideas that people collect about your brand);

What are some of the biggest content trends that startups need to be on top of? (HINT: don’t worry so much about trends, or be aware of them and go against them proactively);

Copy.ai has 13k followers on TikTok - why is a B2B company focusing on TikTok;

How Blake thinks about personal brand, and why companies that are just starting out need to leverage personal brands;

Top channels for Copy.ai 7 months into the game (HINT: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook Group, and now TikTok which is proving to be a bigger opportunity versus Youtube);

How long does it take to really see some traction (HINT: traction is directly proportional to how interesting the thing you’re sharing is);

Blake has been "doing Twitter" (his personal Twitter) since 2013, and he's still got room to improve;

How long should you test a channel before you know whether or not to continue (HINT: you have to show up every single day and give it your all, and this is more important than being different);

When you’re building an audience, it takes years of heavy work;

How do you differentiate when there are so many others in the same space;

We talked about the creative use of UGC (user generated content) on the Copy.ai homepage (where users are explaining the product);

Marketing and growth challenges - what are you still trying to figure out (HINT: focus focus focus!);

How has a failure / mistake set you up for later success.

You can reach Blake on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/uxblake

On Twitter: @heyblake

Find out more about Copy.ai: www.copy.ai

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Katie Perry (no, not the singer) is VP of Marketing at Public.com.

I'm so pumped about this episode because Public has plowed through and grown SO much since launching in 2019. They've raised $310 million to date at a $1.2 billion valuation. 100 employees and based out of New York. No wonder they're so fast.

Prior to Public, Katie held leadership roles at media and creative agencies including 360i and Comscore, and was Head of Brand Marketing at Suzy (a Series C tech startup).

Public is an investing app on a mission to make the public markets work for all people. They're taking a different approach by focusing on features built directly for retail investors, like Town Halls with public company leaders, a community of 1 million members to discuss trades and trends, and a live audio feature called Public Live. They reached 1 million members in Feb 2021.

Here's what we hit on:

What are some of the big marketing/content trends you're seeing today that every startup needs to be on top of (HINT: start with why you exist and who you're for, then build customers and turn them into loyal fans);

You joined Public in 2019 - what did your marketing efforts look like early stage (HINT: packing SWAG boxes while watching TV);

What worked early stage that surprised you (HINT: partnering with micro-creators);

We covered some really cool marketing campaigns including creative ads and limited-edition Airbnb IPOats cereal boxes...that CEO Brian Chesky tweeted about;

Marketing and growth: what’s been working well for you;

Who’s on the marketing team now;

Marketing and growth: what are the challenges, what are you trying to figure out (HINT: we talked about strategies for creating more focus);

There are others in the space. How do you differentiate?

How has a failure / mistake set you up for later success (HINT: the story involves posting on the company's Twitter account instead of personal account).

You can reach Katie on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/katherineperry

Find out more about Public: https://public.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Allan Dib is Managing Dictator at Successwise.

Also:

• he's the bestselling author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan (Amazon’s #1 global marketing book). I have basically memorized how this 1-page plan looks because I look at it so much. I have used it for my own business and for every single client I work with. Because it’s simple AND powerful. Link to this book is at the end of the show notes.
• he's helped over 250,000 businesses around the world clarify their marketing strategy
• he's built several multi-million dollar businesses in the IT, telecommunications, and marketing fields

Here's what we hit on:

What does marketing mean to you;

How much planning should you be doing with your marketing? (HINT: loose goals and tight systems);

We dug deeper into the 1-Page Marketing Plan (e.g. why is it built this way, how are people using it really well);

Top marketing trends every entrepreneur needs to be on top of;

What marketing is working really well for you at Successwise;

Some of the worst marketing recommendations;

Allan talked about mistakes he made and how that led to his later success (HINT: marketing is NOT an event but rather a process);

Cold outreach vs. Inbound (HINT: cold outreach is "hunting" and inbound is "farming").

You can reach Allan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/allandib/

Find out more about Successwise: https://successwise.com/

Check out the 1-Page Marketing Plan book: https://www.amazon.com/1-Page-Marketing-Plan-Customers-Money-ebook/dp/B01B35M3SM

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Prepare for something different, fun and fast!

This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Sergey Ross on the fastest ways to understand how marketing works. Because when your marketing is working, you'll know it. And this goes beyond attribution.

Sergey is the host of the Media Camp podcast and now he's building out his Youtube channel (SRE. live) Sergey works on podcast and video production at Crowdlinker.

Here's what we hit on:

Don't forget to ask your customers "where did you find me?"

WOM is still the biggest driver;

Seeking out qualitative signals from the right people;

We run through examples of shopping at Costco and some of the basic psychological principles at play that get you to buy.

You can find Sergey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergeyrosslive/ 

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Eric and I go way back.

Eric Rasmussen is Head of Consumer Insights at 23andMe. Prior to that, Eric led research at Groupon, Shutterfly, eBay, and Yahoo!

We both worked at Groupon a few years ago. We used to meet 1:1 to talk insights - I would share what we were working on with the growth marketing team, and Eric would share his team's research.

23andMe was founded in 2006, has 700+ employees and is based out of CA. They raised Series F ($868.6M total) and recently went public. 23andMe is the leading consumer genetics and research company. The mission of the company is to help people access, understand, and benefit from the human genome.

Here's what we hit on:

Marketing vs. insights - what’s the difference? How does insights fuel marketing?

What you're working on insights-related at 23andMe and how that has changed since your earlier days;

How does the marketing team use the insights your team gathers? How do you make this handoff successful?

How early stage startups should approach insights and research and customer-centricity;

Where do companies get insights wrong, and what's a better way (HINT: they want to cut right to the chase and make it about the product);

We talked about where Eric's insights/research impacted the various companies he's been at on a large scale;

How has a failure set you up for later success? (HINT: half the job is to answer Qs and the other half the job is to give it to people so they can go do something with it)

You can reach Eric on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ericrasmussen

Find out more about 23andMe: www.23andme.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I'm intrigued by the blend of sales and marketing in business, and that's one of the reasons I had Scott on the show. He's also just an all-around great person.

Scott Leese is sales consultant and strategic advisor to startups around the world. He's got deep experience building and scaling sales orgs at SaaS companies. Scott founded Scott Leese Consulting in 2016 with a focus on companies scaling from $0 - $25m ARR. He also wrote a book - Addicted to the Process (2017) - that’s rated 4.7/5 stars on Amazon. Oh, and he's co-founder of Thursday Night Sales (with Amy Volas, I had her on the show as well).

Here's what we hit on:

Where you’ve scaled startups, what does marketing look like? (HINT: brand and community) What does the partnership with sales look like?

What does sales mean to you? What does marketing mean to you?

Why can’t marketing take customers through the entire buyer journey, especially now that we’ve gone remote and more digital?

How’d you grow your LinkedIn followers? (Scott has 70k+ now) (HINT: it took years);

How do you monetize your audience?

What are the big problems you're seeing that your customers have, on repeat? What's your advice? (HINT: you don't need big brands on your website for social proof);

What kind of sales leader (or team) do you need for Seed/Series A (earlier stage) vs. Series B+? (HINT: don't hire the VP of Spreadsheets);

What’s your methodology for scaling startups from $0-25M? Walk me through your process;

How has an apparent failure set you up for later success?

You can reach Scott on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottleese/

Find out more about Scott Leese Consulting: scottleeseconsulting.com/

Check out TNS: www.thursdaynightsales.com/

Get the book Addicted to the Process: www.amazon.com/Addicted-Process-Transactional-Confidence-Consistency-ebook/dp/B071SB4FZN

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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This is one of those episodes where I definitely clicked with the guest. I think the feeling is mutual because if you listen to the very end, Kate says "love you."

Kate Bradley Chernis is Founder & CEO of Lately. As a former marketing agency owner, Kate created the idea for Lately out of spreadsheets for then-client Walmart, and got them a 130% ROI, year-over-year for three years. Now at Lately, they're getting 98% sales conversion using organic marketing.

Lately was founded in 2014, has ~17 people, and is based out of New York. They've raised seed funding ($3.23M). Lately uses AI (e.g. what does my audience want to hear?) to turn blogs, videos, podcasts and more into dozens of social media posts. Customers include SAP, VaynerMedia, DHL, and PWC. Gary Vee is an advisor.

Here's what we hit on:

Prior to Lately and the marketing agency, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. I ask what she loved and hated about that experience;

What were your marketing efforts early stage at Lately (HINT: the best product doesn't win);

Who's on the marketing team;

We talk about AI and that humans are good at the pull, robots are good at the push;

Recently hit $1M ARR - how? What matters most?

What marketing channels are working really well;

Creating marketing content with an "underdog" tilt;

What are your biggest marketing challenges right now (HINT: stress of COVID is part of it).

You can reach Kate on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/katebradley/

Find out more about Lately: www.lately.ai/

Check out Gary V’s Twitter channel to see Lately in action: @GaryVeeTV

View a 60 second sneak peek here: https://youtu.be/RlbRiAwwBiQ

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Prepare for something different, fun and fast!

This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Sergey Ross on what you need to know and do when you're hired to head up marketing at an early stage startup.

I met Sergey on LinkedIn! Sergey is the host of the Media Camp podcast and now he's building out his Youtube channel (SRE. live) Sergey works on podcast and video production at Crowdlinker. He's been makin' podcast video clips for me for months...he's my go-to for video.

Here's what we hit on:

Do not assume anything;

What questions does the head of marketing need to ask;

Who else needs to be on the team and why;

Building out a marketing foundation is key (yes, I feel like a broken record but I don't care);

Create "beautiful rooms" for where you live online (using your marketing foundation info);

Then tell people about your "beautiful house";

What goals and metrics are you responsible for? Agree with your boss and make sure you align on timeline;

Ask some people in your target audience if the messaging on your website resonates.

You can find Sergey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergeyrosslive/

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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When I started recording the episode with Christopher Lochhead, I immediately felt like I was in the (virtual) room with a legend.

Christopher is a retired entrepreneur and 3X Silicon Valley public company CMO. He makes content (podcasts, books, newsletters, links to all those at the end of the show notes) for entrepreneurs and marketers with a different mind. I found out about Christopher from LinkedIn, left a comment on a post, and he invited me to read the Category Pirates newsletter. This is when I began diving more deeply into category design. I'm currently reading his book Play Bigger.

Here's what we hit on:

Explain category design like you're speaking to a 7-year-old;

Most companies compete for existing demand vs. create new demand and this is a trap;

Why most marketers waste their time in their career;

Companies that are great examples of category design leaders and what are they doing right;

What makes a legendary entrepreneur? (HINT: they force choice between past vs. future);

Companies that lead with category design are valued at 5x more;

Companies that lead with category design get 76% of market share (Source: HBR);

What are the most important steps to build category design and create a legendary company;

What are some bad recommendations about category design (HINT: people don't like change);

Why you need problem/category fit vs. product/market fit;

Why this is such an amazing time to be an entrepreneur.

You can reach Christopher on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christopherlochhead

Find out more about Category Pirates: www.categorypirates.com

Also check out these podcasts: Follow Your Different and Lochhead on Marketing

And these books: Play Bigger (on category design) and Niche Down (become legendary by being different)

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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You can and should do voice of the customer research at your startup, ongoing.

Ongoing, because things change pretty quickly in the world, and you want to have a good pulse on what's happening in the world of your target audience.

In this episode I spoke with Nicholas Scalice, host of the top-rated Growth Marketing Toolbox podcast, on the topic. Nicholas and I talked about the process to use to better understand your target audience including:

What is voice of the customer research;

How to collect feedback (I created a resource for you that's linked below);

What questions matter;

How the process works for B2B and B2C;

Tools for conducting better customer interviews;

Where companies go wrong.

Here's a link to the playbook I wrote for you to use, including the questions google doc: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/use-these-6-steps-to-build-personas-like-a-boss

Here's a link to where you can find more info: https://growthmarketingtoolbox.com/anna-furmanov-customer-research/

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Ramli John is the Managing Director at ProductLed (community for PLG professionals) and host of Growth Marketing Today (top 5% podcast). ProductLed has a Slack community of 6,500+ product-led growth enthusiasts and world-class PLG practitioners.

If you're trying to get both a high-level understanding plus dig deeper into PLG, this is the episode for you to listen to.

Some more fun facts about Ramli:

• he's the author of Product-Led Growth and Product-Led Onboarding

• he's got an array of skills including marketing, design, and software development

• he's in Canada

Here's what we hit on:

What is product-led growth (PLG) and how does it fit into the context of marketing/sales? How do each of these teams work together;

Why is PLG so important for SaaS companies? What’s been happening in the market? (e.g. selling to the modern buyer);

What are the benefits of PLG;

What’s the right price point for PLG;

How Ramli got into PLG and marketing and growth (from software development);

PLG is not for every SaaS startup. Which startups NEED to embrace PLG if they want to grow;

When is the right time to build in PLG into your SaaS startup;

What are the top 3 things companies get wrong with PLG? (1. They think PLG is the Product team’s job and 2. They offer FREEMIUM and think they’re product-led, when users don’t even experience the value of the product)

How does Ramli help SaaS companies analyze their whole customer's journey and funnel to identify growth opportunities to 2-3X their MRR;

You can reach Ramli on LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/ramlijohn

Find out more about ProductLed:https://productled.com/

OpenView Partners was mentioned on the show:www.openviewpartners.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Prepare for something different and fun and fast!

This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Kourtney Simons on perfectionism.

I met Kourtney way back in 2006 at Accenture. Kourtney has worked on marketing at MSNBC, Disney, and Netflix.

Here's what we hit on:

What does perfectionism mean;

I asked Kourtney if she's a perfectionist...and also shared myself;

Why perfectionism is particularly hard when you're a marketer at a startup;

How do you know you're stuck in the "perfectionist" mindset;

Why is perfectionism killing your marketing;

What's a better approach?

You can find Kourtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourtney-simons-83456b4/

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Amy Volas, founder and CEO of Avenue Talent Partners, joined me on the show. She's such a fun lady.

Amy helps startups hire sales leaders without the cringe. Amy has been a sales leader at ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Yahoo! She has personally closed $100MM+ in revenue (and counting). She's got 70+ recommendations on LinkedIn. Woah.

Amy also co-hosts the #1 weekly virtual sales happy hour (Thursday Night Sales).

This is a marketing podcast. Why am I bringing on Amy Volas, sales rockstar, on the show? Well, my experience has shown that Marketing + Sales is SUPER intertwined. Marketers need to understand how sales works (and vice versa) in order to accomplish business growth. Personally, after starting my own business, I’ve been straddling both marketing AND sales and it’s becoming almost a blur. Like I’m doing marketing, but I’m also getting customers. So I must be selling otherwise people wouldn’t know to buy. It's a natural progression. What I have realized over time (and as we move more into digital) is that there is no buyer journey anymore. I've been asking founders and marketing leaders the same question and they have a hard time pinpointing exactly what journey their buyers take before they become a customer. There are many different steps, and the point is to be there with the right content to help build the relationship and the trust.

Here's what we hit on:

What does sales mean to you, what does marketing mean to you;

How has sales changed over the last 10 years;

How is growth in digital impacting sales;

What are the big problems you're seeing that your customers have, and what's your advice;

What kind of sales leader (or team) do you need for Seed/Series A (earlier stage) vs. Series C+;

You’ve personally closed $100MM+ in revenue...what are top 3 things that you’ve done/learned to make this happen;

What’s working well for you right now at Avenue Talent Partners, in terms of sales + marketing strategies;

Top tips on growing LinkedIn followers (Amy has 43k+);

Top mistakes or failures and how that has impacted how you lead.

You can find Amy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas

Find out more about Avenue Talent Partners: www.avenuetalentpartners.com

Link to join Thursday Night Sales: www.thursdaynightsales.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Prepare for something different and fun (and fast!). Switching it up like I love to do, this is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Kourtney Simons on how to do marketing when you have a shoe-string budget or no budget.

I met Kourtney way back in 2006 at Accenture. Kourtney has worked on marketing at MSNBC, Disney, and Netflix. She has a wonderful personality and is a wonderful person.

Here's what we hit on:

Starting from a place of "let's get our foundation right, first" vs. marketing channels;

Marketing includes both content + channels;

For content, figure out your "content tilt";

For channels, list them all and prioritize based on a) easy and b) impact.

You can find Kourtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourtney-simons-83456b4/

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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In this episode I was interviewed by Tristan Pelligrino, host of Recorded Content and co-founder of Motion, about a hidden treasure that’s within every podcast episode – beyond just the audio file.

A podcast provides a way to have amazing conversations. And it also provides a way to present raw & unfiltered thoughts through solo episodes.

But that’s as far as most podcasters go. B2B podcasters don’t realize there’s often a hidden treasure within every episode – beyond just the audio file.

Here's what we hit on:

Your unique voice is what makes your marketing "modern";

Talking is an essential part of business strategy, and podcasts are a good way of starting to hear yourself;

How and why I decided to start this podcast;

Startups start with the marketing activity that they’re supposed to do, like ‘we need to get blog posts up. Look at the competition. They’ve got tons of blog posts up. We need to be on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter. We need to do ads.’ This is a problem and here's what to do instead;

Podcasts with guests are different from the ones you do solo;

Creativity is important, but there should be a system behind it;

Companies spend a lot of time updating their website, but for digital to work, you have to be everywhere where your target audience hangs out.

Here's a link to where you can find more info and clips: https://motionagency.io/episode/sharing-your-point-of-view-in-solo-podcast-episodes-with-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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Christina Mautz, CMO and head of sales at Moz, joined me on the show.

This is an interesting episode because Christina has that unique experience - a CMO that also heads up the sales team.

Christina's been a marketing executive at Amazon and Yahoo!, as well as a few Seattle VC-backed SaaS startups where she earned the nickname “Chief Problem Solver.”

Moz was founded in 2004, has ~170 people, and is based out of Seattle, WA with offices in Vancouver, BC and Cork, Ireland. They've raised Series C ($29.1M total).

Started by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig, Moz is a source of robust, reliable data, with accessible training and easy-to-use software to help SEOs. The folks at Moz believe there's a better way to do marketing. A more valuable way where customers are earned rather than bought.

Here's what we hit on:

“Customers are earned rather than bought” - what does that mean;

Quick pitch on Moz - why you exist, who you’re for (what segments are most popular), problems you solve;

SEO is not dead, but it’s changing. You can’t just write blog posts and expect to rank high in search. Ranking on Google is hard, especially for startups. Reaching your target audience through other channels like social media can be faster. What’s Christina's advice?

Christina joined 3 years ago - what stage was the company in with their marketing back then, and what was her team working on back then vs. focused on now;

What does Christina's (marketing) team look like;

I asked Christina to explain how she's both CMO and head of sales - how does that work? (HINT: very well);

We talked about MQLs and SALs and what's effective for shortening the sales cycle.

You can find Christina on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christinamautz

Find out more about Moz: www.moz.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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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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 adigital 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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Peep Laja, founder of 3 companies (Wynter, CXL and Speero) joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Peep has been building companies for years. He founded a SaaS startup back in 2009 for building and selling online courses (it didn’t work out) and now running these companies.

Peep has really grown his audience on LinkedIn and Twitter. 37k followers on Twitter and almost 26k followers on LinkedIn. Wow. People (including me) are following Peep's thought leadership on building companies, experimentation, storytelling and content marketing.

Wynter is a messaging optimization platform for B2B companies. What messaging hits home? What falls flat? Customers include Drift, Unilever and GoToMeeting.

CXL is a skill-building platform for marketers that uses the world’s top 1% practitioners as instructors. Customers include Google, Cisco, and Hilton.

Speero is a customer experience optimization agency. They do CX research and experimentation to measure and improve your customer experience.

The short story here is Peep sent out a Tweet: “A podcast booking company is pitching me, saying they can get me on 2 shows/week and nobody else can match their success rate. Let's see about that.” Clearly Peep is an experimenter. And then someone emailed me about it and so here we are :)

Here's what we hit on:

How many podcast shows have you booked so far? What's your goal with being on so many podcasts;

What did you learn from your 2 years building the SaaS startup (that failed) that has helped you succeed with Wynter and CXL and Speero;

What are your thoughts on content marketing and how it has changed over the years? What exactly has changed since 2010? What do marketers need to stop / start doing;

Who's doing innovative things with their content (HINT: Harry Dry and also Growth.Design with their comic book style case studies growth.design/case-studies);

Recommendations for startups on how to differentiate when sameness is the default...what’s the strategy (HINT: innovation, brand and strategic narrative);

How Peep stays creative;

Some bad recommendations that Peep has heard and wants to set the record straight;

Do user research but BE CAREFUL;

Top tips for posting content and building an audience on LinkedIn and Twitter.

You can find Peep on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peeplaja

On Twitter: @peeplaja

Find out more about Wynter:wynter.com

Find out more about CXL:cxl.com

Found out more about Speero:speero.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Grace Woods, VP Global Head of Marketing at Patreon, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Prior to Patreon, Grace held executive roles at Flexport, Kloudless (Series A startup), and Salesforce (for 5 years).

Patreon was founded in 2013, has over 200 people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series E ($258.3M total).

Patreon is a creator-founded membership platform that helps creators change the way their art is valued through a direct relationship with their fans. Thousands of video makers, podcasters, musicians, writers, game developers, and other creators are making a salary on Patreon. Creators offer their fans a monthly membership.

So I’ve been part of DGMG’s Patreon ($10/mo.) for months. $10 seems like nothing, but when you have thousands of fans, that’s amazing recurring revenue.

Here's what we hit on:

How Grace made her way over to Patreon and the personal significance of working there;

First days and weeks at Patreon, what she focused on and then COVID hit and brought various challenges;

Marketing is 40 people across Creative, Brand, Demand Gen, Product Marketing, Web Engineering, Marketing Operations, Customer Marketing and Events. How Grace gets the pulse on everything;

What it means to set the bar on content (when your customers are content creators themselves);

Patreon's very successful creator ambassador program that fuels their content engine;

Frequent content is not as important as authentic, valuable content;

Grace offers up tips on how to approach virtual events;

Top Patreon creators (including While She Sleeps with a link to their PR video);

Some super creative marketing ideas from Grace's creative and social team (including visually celebrating creativity plus spreading the word about what we offer);

How Grace continues to stay creative;

The idea of having a "village of advisors" to help solve different problems;

New ideas have to run through the customer obsession litmus test;

Grace's story on failures and learnings going forward (HINT: listen to your customer vs. push your own message);

How to approach website redesign in a balanced way;

How to balance both brand + demand to drive growth;

Grace's marketing pet peeve;

Grace's mantra to "do what you suck at" and how that relates to marketing.

You can find Grace on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gracewoods

Find out more about Patreon: www.patreon.com

Link to While She Sleeps creative PR video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5mKa0r8Fjk

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Jared Jost, VP of Marketing at PatientPop, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Prior to PatientPop, Jared was at Twistlock (cybersecurity startup that got acquired by Palo Alto Networks) and Smarsh (SaaS).

PatientPop was founded in 2014, has ~450 people and is based out of Santa Monica, CA. They've raised Series C ($125M total).

PatientPop makes it easy for healthcare providers to attract more patients, manage their online reputation, modernize the patient experience, and automate the front office. From searching for a provider online, to checking their website + reviews, to booking an appointment, to getting an alert, then getting an automated survey, and finally leaving a review online. Enhancing every digital touchpoint along the patient journey.

Here's what we hit on:

Jared was VP of Demand Gen at PatientPop for almost 2 years, then became VP of Marketing - so what does marketing mean to him;

What Jared focused on with marketing efforts when he joined PatientPop 3.5 years ago (they were at Series A);

How to thread marketing into the sales process to create pipeline, opportunities, and revenue;

How the marketing team is structured now;

Marketing channels that are working really well (HINT: PPC + organic but there are nuances);

During COVID we learned that breaking up the content funnel makes us better marketers;

How we used internal data and thought leadership to increase trust and propel the brand;

Challenges related to staying relevant and scaling the company;

Taking the company from Series B to Series C funding and what that means for marketing;

Building a simple tool to use on your website that addresses the buyer's pain point (quickly) and propels growth faster;

Some bad marketing recommendations that Jared can't stand (HINT: it's about leads);

How Jared defies convention and tries to take a different approach.

You can find Jared on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaredjost

Find out more about PatientPop: www.patientpop.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Are you ready for this? A twist on the typical Anna + guest format! One of my listeners suggested I ask myself the same questions I typically ask my guests...so basically interview myself. If you ever wanted to learn more about me personally, this will help! And as an added bonus, I ask my 7-year-old daughter some of the same questions. The result is sometimes hilarious and always super cute.

In this episode I cover:

What does marketing mean to me;

Quick pitch about my company, who I'm for, what problems I help solve;

How did I start this company;

Who's on the team;

What's working really well from my own marketing and channels perspective;

Quick note on lead gen;

Challenges I'm trying to figure out;

How has COVID affected my marketing strategy;

What did I do early stage (given limited resources) to stand out (HINT: focus on your superpowers);

The last 2-3 good ideas I've come up with;

How I keep my marketing fresh and stay creative;

What's my "favorite failure" (HINT: not just one!);

What are some bad recommendations in sales/marketing;

Sharing something more personal about myself, maybe a little strange.

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Aaron Pollack, CMO at Nanit, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Prior to joining Nanit in 2017, Aaron held various marketing roles at global brands such as Canary, BlackBerry, GreatCall and SiriusXM.

Nanit was founded in 2016, has ~65 people, and is based out of NYC. They JUST finished raising Series C! ($75M total)

Nanit has created an HD baby monitor that lets you track your baby’s sleep, breathing motion, and growth. So you get the sleep analysis, personalized tips, and immediate alerts, and of course the 1080p overhead view of your baby. And there’s even a digital baby album that's tracking milestones that you can share with your family. An entire baby monitoring solution.

P.S. Aaron doesn't have any kids, and that may be the secret to being so successful with his marketing and growth efforts - not falling back on assumptions and continuously learning more from Nanit's buyers.

Here's what we hit on:

Aaron's "lean and mean" marketing team of 7 people and what they're responsible for;

Nanit as both a product + SaaS company and how they think about pricing;

Using stage + lifestyle as part of their targeting efforts;

How they're using Pinterest successfully (vs. just the typical Facebook and Insta);

Working with partners like The Bump that have highly targeted marketing capabilities;

Using Criteo for retargeting;

Some challenges within the category (customer journey is 4-5 months!) which makes marketing/educating difficult;

How Nanit's personalized sleep coaching for parents increases WOM;

How parents and the category has changed over the last 5 years so that more people want this (pricier) baby monitoring solution;

How Aaron helped take the company from Series B to Series C;

Some of Aaron's top marketing ideas;

Why the pandemic fundamentally changed the type of plan consumers buy (more than 25% of users are not parents!);

How Aaron and team keep their marketing fresh (HINT: there's a Super Parents group);

People make recommendations based on what works for them - most of the time it doesn't work for Nanit;

What's wrong with being obsessed with "going viral" (HINT: going viral should never be the goal but can be a nice result);

Aaron's "favorite failure";

Aaron's secret special ingredient for his winning chili recipe.

You can find Aaron on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aaronpollack

Find out more about Nanit: www.nanit.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Mark Kilens, VP of Content and Community at Drift, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Drift was founded in 2015, has ~400 people, and is based out of Boston, MA. They've raised Series C ($107M total). Drift helps companies (specifically, marketing and sales) engage in real-time, personalized conversations so they can build trust and accelerate revenue. Drift combines chat, email, video, and automation to remove the friction from business buying and make it more enjoyable and human. They came up with the categories “conversational marketing” and “revenue acceleration” and just announced a year of record-breaking growth.

Here's what we hit on:

3 different eras and the evolution of brand, demand gen, and now a revenue focus across marketing and sales;

What are the pain points that sales/marketing teams have where Drift comes in;

Sales/marketing team alignment vs. actioning;

How the marketing team is structured inside Drift - the hub of the customer experience AND employee experience;

What makes Drift unique (from other martech SaaS companies);

What marketing channels are working really well for Drift (e.g. LinkedIn, virtual events);

How to think about SEO in an effective way - narrow targeting and entertaining media formats;

LinkedIn marketing means using the power of real people within your business;

Drift on gating content (HINT: they don't);

Just because someone reads your content does not mean they're qualified - what else matters;

Drift's marketing challenges (e.g. expansion, focus, etc.);

You can't just buy martech and expect revenue to follow - need the strategy;

Some of Mark's best marketing ideas (micro-content, reposition your content to different audiences);

The vast majority of websites suck because they serve the marketer vs. customer;

How Mark stays creative.

You can find Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markkilens/

Find out more about Drift: www.drift.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Jonathan Metrick, Chief Growth Officer (CGO) at Portage Ventures and Fractional CGO at Wealthsimple, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Lots of gold nuggets shared in this episode because Jonathan brings the insights from both a VC firm and startup perspective on growth.

Portage Ventures is an early stage fintech investor, formed in 2016 and with a presence in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Europe and Southeast Asia. Wealthsimple is one of their portfolio companies.

Wealthsimple was founded in 2014, has ~500 people, and is based out of Toronto, CA. Wealthsimple is "investing on autopilot." They build you a personal, low-cost portfolio and put your money to work like the world’s smartest investors. Wealthsimple manages $8.4 billion and has more than 1.5 million users.

We hit on a lot of important topics, including:

Jonathan's marketing experience across brands (including P&G, Live Nation, Policygenius) and what he most enjoys about marketing and growth;

How emerging fintech companies should approach marketing, education and connecting with their users;

The need for brand + growth teams to be better integrated in order to differentiate and leave competitors in the dust;

New and emerging channels (like TikTok and Clubhouse) can help you get in front of your target buyers, cheaply;

How influencer marketing helps new brands explain themselves and build trust;

The importance of being clear about who you are and what you do so that your target audience connects with you;

Startup brands that are willing to test in new and emerging channels have a leg up over established brands;

Education and value creation as the main challenges to tackle within fintech;

How will consumer behavior evolve in another year or two, and making sure your marketing and growth efforts align;

Startup fundraising and advice from Jonathan (HINT: people really matters, here);

Jonathan's marketing and growth efforts for Portage Ventures.

You can find Jonathan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanmetrick

Find out more about Portage Ventures: p3vc.com

Find out more about Wealthsimple: www.wealthsimple.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Michelle Heath, Founder and CEO at Growth Street, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Mixing it up! I usually have venture-backed startup founders and marketing leaders come on as guests. This time I brought on a fellow marketing superstar to share her experience and wisdom.

Michelle and I are clearly spirit animals, once you listen to this episode you'll understand why.

Michelle started Growth Street in 2013, based out of Boston, MA. When businesses need to achieve the next level of growth, Growth Street is the growth strategy consulting firm that creates the tailwind for success. Moving quickly is a big-time competitive advantage. They don’t like wasting time or money. No politics, BS or over-processed approaches. And their motto: giddy up!

We hit on a lot of brand, marketing and growth concepts, including:

Growth Street's very own growth story;

Brand strategy vs. branding vs. marketing, the key differences and why does it even matter, especially for startups;

Michelle's new book about the power of brand as business value and how brand is often misunderstood;

The holy grail of brand is consistency;

How to prove that your brand strategy is working (HINT: what do you want brand to do for your business?);

3 big mistakes that Michelle sees companies make repeatedly;

How to get the marketing flywheel going (HINT: start with the customer mindset);

Do you actually need an industry-specific consultant (with experience in your industry) to help with your marketing and growth.

You can find Michelle on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michelleheath

Find out more about Growth Street: www.getgrowthstreet.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Sometimes I like to sprinkle in some raw and unfiltered thoughts. 

In this episode I cover:

The purpose of content;

Before you come up with a content strategy, you need to figure out what your target buyer cares about, their challenges, goals, where they spend their time, etc;

What is a content engine and how to think about creating content for the full funnel;

Daily/weekly marketing ops activities to feed your content engine;

How to think about sales materials as part of your content strategy;

How to measure your content efforts;

How to measure your podcast efforts.

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Rob Singer, CMO at Remitly, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Remitly was founded in 2011, they've raised Series F (just raised another $85M July 2020), and have ~900 people.

Remitly is a fintech company that leverages digital channels, including mobile phones, to send money internationally. There are millions of immigrants around the world that make the huge sacrifice of leaving their families behind to live and work in another country. Remitly is helping them send money across borders.

Here’s what we covered:

Rob's experience joining and growing companies during key inflection points;

How getting traction across geographies shook up the marketing team's structure;

What marketing channels worked well for getting traction early stage;

Architecting the marketing team for scale;

How Rob leads marketing at 900+ people company (HINT: includes a daily morning spreadsheet update and hiring phenomenal people);

Rob's background in marketing (HINT: his first job as a marketer was straight to CMO);

As CMO, you're the head of HR for marketing - hire, retain and engage world class talent;

As CMO, you're helping the team stay focused and prioritize;

Rob's experience and advice when the data tells you an incomplete story;

Rob's magic spreadsheet - exactly what does he track and update every morning??;

How to measure and think about CAC across geographies;

Marketing channels working well today;

Transitioning from an app-first to an app company;

From static marketing to video creative to cut through the noise;

Positioning the brand around 'peace of mind';

Marketing is analytics + connection + emotion;

Rob's personal opinion on building brand early stage (including his experience at Ancestry.com);

Rob's advice on how to approach marketing early stage vs. later stage companies;

Rob's approach to staffing (e.g. early stage use boutique agencies as your marketing team).

You can find Rob on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rob-singer-313131/

Find out more about Remitly: www.remitly.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Dan Frohnen, CMO at Sendoso, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Sendoso was founded in 2016, they've raised Series B ($54M total), and have ~370 people.

Sendoso provides new ways to engage with customers throughout the buyer journey, including with personalized gifts, branded swag, eGifts, Cameos, virtual experiences & more. This directly impacts pipeline and revenue.

Here’s what we covered:

How to approach gifting prospects effectively (to help with relationship-building, reminders, and just as a nice surprise);

What marketing was up to 1.5 years ago when Dan joined a team of 4 people;

Why Brand and Demand is synonymous;

What the marketing team looks like today (7 distinct groups);

How to think about the marketing team vs. SDRs for pipeline coverage;

How Sendoso uses an account-based approach involving SDRs, Marketing, and AEs;

The customer journey is not linear, but your messaging and value props must be consistent at all touch points;

Education creates urgency with prospects;

How different companies like Sendoso and Gong are killin' it with engagement/gifting plays;

Sendoso's philosophy around marketing - don't focus on the channel, focus on the engagement;

Which marketing channels are working really well for Sendoso;

How Sendoso uses pillar content and thought leadership which amplifies their organic SEO;

How Sendoso leverages their exec team for PR and thought leadership;

Dan's approach with his team, to help them feel comfortable with being uncomfortable;

Marketing's approach throughout COVID - educate, educate, educate;

Creating brand "micro-moments";

Dan's experience at Skedulo (Series A) and hitting revenue milestones to help bring in $28M (Series B);

Failures that have helped shaped how Dan leads as CMO.

You can find Dan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danielfrohnen

Find out more about Sendoso: www.sendoso.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Sometimes I like to sprinkle in some raw and unfiltered thoughts. 

In this episode I cover:

Startups don't have a lot of people, time or money. So how should you think about prioritizing your marketing efforts? I break it down into three parts;

1. Foundation - clean up your house;

2. Owned Channels - create beautiful spaces within your house;

3. Awareness - let people know you have this clean, amazing house;

Quick note about the 1-page marketing plan, not being overly complex so that it's useful for you and team;

Quick note about the Bullseye Framework from the book Traction for testing marketing channels.

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Paige LaNasa, Head of Marketing at Forager, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Forager was founded in 2018, they've raised Series A ($10M), and they're 75 people strong.

Here’s what we covered:

Logistics is the backbone of global e-commerce. Millions of dollars of goods move between the US, Mexico and Canada (cross-border). Despite that, it still happens to be a logistical nightmare to move commerce across these countries;

What Paige worked on with Forager's marketing efforts in the early days to stand out;

The "Make Good Stuff" philosophy around content creation for your target audience;

Low hanging marketing fruit, including email marketing and blogging 2-3 times per month, to drive engagement and traffic to the site;

You don't need to spend a lot of money on good marketing - it starts with a compelling story and being consistent;

The small and nimble marketing team that Paige oversees;

Floating resources and how to leverage for the marketing team;

How they're using paid search (Google Ads) successfully with a very niche target audience;

Diving in a bit deeper on the (painful) experience of shipping goods from the US to Canada or Mexico (or vice versa);

The challenge with finding your niche target audience, and potential ways to solve this (HINT: foster a space for them);

How COVID has impacted Forager, and how they're thinking about virtual events;

Paige's background in marketing and how that has prepared her to head up marketing and build a team at Forager;

Your first marketing hire should be a builder vs. steering big ships;

Paige has over 400 books (!) and you'll never guess on what topics;

The over-reliance on China as a hub of exports, and how companies will need to be more strategic on where they source their goods. More on this here.

You can find Paige on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/paige-lanasa

Find out more about Forager: www.foragerscs.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

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Nemanja Zivkovic, CEO at Funky Marketing, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Mixing it up! This episode is a little different. I usually have venture-backed startup founders and marketing leaders come on as guests. This time I brought on a fellow marketing business owner to share his experience and wisdom.

Nemanja started Funky Marketing in Jan. 2020, with a total of 6 employees at the time of the conversation. Funky Marketing is based out of Novi Sad, Serbia. They're helping B2B tech companies generate revenue growth, primarily through inbound and content strategies and scale.

We covered a lot of juicy stuff, including:

The term “agency” vs. “team” to describe the business;

Nemanja’s role as CEO at Funky Marketing;

Who they look for in their ideal client (3 buckets);

The types of packages that Funky Marketing offers to customers;

Nemanja’s past experience in B2C and now focusing on B2B (because there’s so much to shake up);

Where most clients get marketing and growth wrong (the big challenges that he’s seeing repeatedly);

Why to go after SQLs (not MQLs) and how to succeed by building a content machine;

The problem with creating a content machine that’s optimized for SEO, and why using social media to have direct conversations with prospects can be more meaningful;

Marketing is not sales, so the timeline is not the same;

How to shorten the time to close (HINT: use ads);

Creating sales and marketing alignment (up to revenue);

Starting a marketing company in Serbia - opportunities and challenges;

Creating an event for marketers to do everything besides marketing;

Tips from Nemanja - read comics to get better at marketing, get used to putting yourself into uncomfortable situations, and more.

You can find Nemanja on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zivkovicnemanja

Find out more about Funky Marketing: www.funkymarketing.net

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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Anna McVeigh-Murphy, Marketing Manager at Curacubby, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Curacubby was founded in 2016, has 20 people, and is based out of Berkeley, CA. They are seed funded and preparing to raise Series A. Curacubby is an integrated business and payments platform for schools of all sizes. School management shouldn’t be a headache. With Curacubby, schools can focus less on administrative tasks and more on the students. Hurray!

We covered:

How to prove your company’s expertise through podcasting;

How podcasting directly impacts followers on social media;

Marketing = relationship-building and providing value through education;

Being hired as the first marketer at a 20-person startup with a clean slate - what do you start doing;

Who else do you bring onto your marketing team;

How to use email marketing with a lean team;

Being impatient (to 10x your growth) is normal when you’re at a startup;

How COVID has impacted Curacubby's audience targeting and their product roadmap;

The concept of giving value, building trust, and growing your audience before you ask them to do something;

How to think about differentiating your company and offerings in a cluttered market;

Feeling stuck in your marketing role and what to do next (including a mindset shift).

You can find Anna M. on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anna-lillian-murphy

Find out more about Curacubby: www.curacubby.com

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna F. on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

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George Wojciechowski, Co-Founder at ShipBob, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

ShipBob was founded in 2014 and has raised Series D ($130.5M total). Based out of good 'ole Chicago, IL, ShipBob has ~650 people. ShipBob is a tech-enabled 3PL (3rd party logistics) that fulfills e-commerce orders for direct-to-consumer brands. You can outsource your logistics, from warehousing to delivery (and more) so you can focus on other aspects of your business. ShipBob was recently ranked #1 on Crain's Chicago 'Fast List' of the Fastest-Growing Companies in 2020.

We covered:

What George focuses on now in his role as co-founder of a ~650 person company (versus early-stage);

How ShipBob differentiates itself vs. other players;

Marketing as an expression of your broader mission and values (going beyond utility and features);

How ShipBob incorporates culture and trust throughout the entire customer experience;

Structuring of teams (a triangle of Revenue, Ops, and Engineering) including Marketing in more detail;

Marketing channels that are working well now, as well as in the early days (hint: lots of low-hanging fruit);

COVID impacts on the business - both positive and negative - and how ShipBob has leveraged internal data to provide value to customers;

George's intriguing career journey, from equity and derivatives and futures to co-founding ShipBob.

You can find George on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/george-wojciechowski-870b814

Find out more about ShipBob: www.shipbob.com

Also check out:trends.shipbob.comandcarriers.shipbob.com

George also talked about: www.pachama.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Matt Bendett, Co-Founder and VP of Ops & Strategy at Peerspace, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Peerspace was founded in 2014 and has raised Series B ($34.8M total). The team was ~85 people at their peak (currently a leaner team due to the impacts of COVID-19). Peerspace is your little black book for finding unique and undiscovered places to meet, create, or celebrate. Whether it’s a photo shoot, birthday bash, pop-up shop, or team brainstorm, Peerspace gives people the keys to our cities’ best spaces.

We covered:

How to think about marketing through the lens of Simon Sinek's "start with why";

The marketing team's specific roles and responsibilities (at their peak ~85 people);

Brand vs. performance marketing - you shouldn't get started on performance-based marketing if you don't have your brand house in order;

The marketing channels that are driving the business - SEO, content marketing, paid and community;

How Peerspace does content marketing - blogs, resources, whitepaper, user generated content (UGC);

Partnering with United - why it made sense to partner and their go-to-market plan specific to the partnership;

How Matt is thinking about riding the content creation wave;

How company focus (forced from COVID) is more of an opportunity vs. a challenge;

Experimentation as part of your overall marketing efforts;

Matt's (almost 9 years!) experience at Electronic Arts and the impact on his work at Peerspace;

Some introspection and life changes coming out of this crazy year.

You can find Matt on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bendett

Find out more about Peerspace: www.peerspace.com

Find out more about their partnership with United: https://teamtogether.peerspace.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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MJ Peters, VP of Marketing at Firetrace, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

We covered:

MJ's talent at challenging industrial companies to think differently about marketing;

Marketing's focus shifting from trade-shows and sales enablement to driving strategy, segmentation, positioning and demand gen;

A unique team structure that includes product marketers focused on specific customer segments;

How to use LinkedIn ads effectively;

How to think about and test PR successfully at a startup (HINT: think of it as a content channel);

Why it makes sense to continuously talk to customers in non-sales scenarios;

Building out your team with "generalists" vs. "specialists";

How to integrate your marketing across channels and teams;

How to know when to stop testing a marketing channel (keep it or kill it) (HINT: use small data);

Small marketing teams may not want to place their bets on virtual events or webinars.

MJ Peters is VP of Marketing at Firetrace, founded in 2001 and acquired by Halma PLC in 2015 for $110M.The team is 75 people strong. Firetrace creates fire suppression systems that keep businesses, people, and equipment safe by automatically detecting & suppressing fires.

You can find MJ on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mjpeters1

Find out more about Firetrace: www.firetrace.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 or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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I created a new podcast this year. Want to learn how I did it? Everything from outreach to setup to content and more, I'm sharing it all here. Consider this your ultimate easy-to-understand podcast creation learning module.

Why did I start this podcast? For me, it all boils down to this.  I love reading books. In a way, having your own podcast is like having a never-ending library of books. Every time I talk to my podcast guest, I feel like I'm reading a book. And I get to ask the book questions. And the book is a real person (so they answer my questions!) And I get to share this book (person) with you. To me, this is beyond amazing.

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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Nikolaus Volk, co-founder and CEO of Kyte, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Here's what we covered:

How the Kyte team formed in 2019 and is already onto their second round of funding (wow!);

How they've been able to achieve 20-40% MoM growth;

Their sharp focus on retaining current customers through paid search, paid social, PR, email reactivation, and partnerships;

Exciting opportunities with business travel for next year;

Challenges with figuring out the Kyte-specific brand DNA;

Challenges with multi-touch marketing and long-term strategy;

The making of the (scrappy and fun) surfer video - you need to check it out here;

The power of story and how Nikolaus is investing in himself to nail Kyte's story internally and with their target audience.

Nikolaus is co-founder of Kyte, founded in 2019 and based out of San Francisco (CA). Prior to Kyte, Nikolaus was an engineer at Uber. They've raised $3.8M+ in funding so far, and are about to close another round! What is Kyte? Glad you asked. Let’s say you don’t want to buy/own a car. Kyte gives you easy access to cars on demand. Rental cars delivered to your door. Kind of like ordering food, but instead you’re ordering a car.

You can find Nikolaus on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nikolaus-volk

Find out more about Kyte here: www.drivekyte.com

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify podcasts (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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Jen Saxton, Founder and CEO of Tot Squad, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

Here's what we covered:

Partnerships and relationships as a growth hack (versus paid ads);

Intriguing and funny founder's story on how the company got started;

The case for doing more of those things that you're passionate about on the job (versus not so much);

Growth that's dependent on marketplace liquidity (enough demand and enough supply);

Marketing strategy to help clear the noise, prioritize and create a structured approach;

When working with partners, give them your marketing materials (make sure it's meaningful to their audience);

Questioning your customer targeting assumptions based on traction signals coming from another direction;

COVID's impact on family dynamics - running a business, taking care of a toddler and another baby on the way.

Jen is Founder and CEO of Tot Squad, founded in 2010 and based out of Los Angeles (CA). They've raised $3.3M+ funding and the baby gear cleaning part of the business just got acquired this year! Tot Squad is a baby services marketplace that connects new parents with health, wellness and safety services like car seat installation, lactation consultants, sleep consultants and more. Tot Squad offers virtual and in-home consultations which can be purchased through Amazon and Walmart.com when buying a related baby product. Because every parent needs a squad!

You can find Jen on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jenbsaxton

Find out more about Tot Squad here: www.totsquad.com

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify podcasts (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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Laura Kendall, VP of Marketing at MadKudu, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

We covered a lot, including:

The team you need to set up in your company - the Customer Love & Community team;

Who your first marketing hire should be (reporting into the Head of Marketing);

How to ensure your brand is seen and heard in a noisy world, and especially during COVID;

Narrow your focus on your specific target segment and pick 2-3 main growth levers;

Using webinars effectively to engage with prospects;

Personalization wins over automation, especially for follow-up;

Transitioning jobs during COVID and how to make that process smooth;

Using empathy during crisis (and beyond) to see your prospects as a whole person (not just employees).

Laura is VP of Marketing at MadKudu (www.madkudu.com). MadKudu was founded in 2014 and is based out of Mountain View, CA with a total of 30 people. They've raised Series A funding ($5.5M). MadKudu is a lead scoring platform for marketing teams looking to create frictionless B2B customer journeys. So you can do things like identify the 10% of accounts that will make 90% of the revenue, put VIP visitors in touch with sales without friction, or personalize outreach based on what the customer needs. Customers include Outreach, Drift and InVision.

You can find Laura on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/laura-kendall-48556911/

Find out more about MadKudu here: www.madkudu.com

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify podcasts (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov) or visit this website (www.furmanovmarketing.com)

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Michael Klozotsky, CMO at IMO, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

We covered:

How storytelling makes the marketer's work authentic;

On team building and starting from a place of care;

How to swim downstream with your marketing when others are swimming upstream;

How to ensure your MQLs are quality leads that the sales team will follow up with;

How sales and marketing can become successful partners in crime;

Marketing simplicity will allow you to more easily shift and steer your ship;

How marketers will need to think about engaging buyers differently going into 2021;

Using ABM to approach key decision-makers;

How to systematically make the time to be creative.

Michael is CMO at IMO (www.imohealth.com). IMO is based out of Chicago, IL with ~270 employees. IMO received significant investment from Warburg Pincus (PE firm) and leading U.S. health systems in 2016. They've developedthe most widely-accepted medical terminology solution for the management of medical vocabularies and software applications at healthcare organizations worldwide.

You can find Michael on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michaelklozotsky

Find out more about IMO here: www.imohealth.com

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify podcasts (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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Alexander De Ridder, Co-Founder and CTO of INK, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

We covered:

Marketing is a competitive sport and marketing campaigns can be as awe-inducing as great art;

Why have 15 software developers at a 30-people total bootstrapped startup;

Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to organize the inner-workings of the business;

How 64 blog articles brought 100,000 site visitors in 5 months;

Top marketing channels used to launch and grow INK including Product Hunt and contests;

How to leave "trail of breadcrumbs" so people can find your company;

How to think about and get exponential growth;

The future of sophisticated content creation and how search engines will need to morph.

Alexander De Ridder is the Co-Founder and CTO of INK (www.inkforall.com). INK is based out of Houston, TX, started in 2019 and has been completely bootstrapped (so far). INK is patented AI software meant for content creators and writers. Writing your content with INK increases your chances of ranking on the first page in Google by 400% - and it’s completely free.

You can find Alexander on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/adridder/

You can get INK for yourself for free: www.inkforall.com

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify podcasts (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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Lenny Lebovich, Founder of Pre Brands, came on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

We covered:

Why people misunderstand marketing and branding;

How to solve a problem differently through your hiring efforts;

The most effective ways to get people to try your (food) product;

How to manage the power struggle with retailers, leveraging consumer love of your product;

What to look for when you're hiring your startup dream team.

Lenny Lebovich is the Founder and former CEO of Pre Brands (www.eatpre.com). Pre is a Chicago-based consumer brand started in 2012 that has raised multiple rounds of financing and become a national leader in the fresh beef category. Pre is Beef Done Differently™ providing consumers with the very best tasting steaks, roasts, and ground beef that is sourced through its unique global supply chain and also happens to be grass fed and finished. You can find Lenny on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lennylebovich

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify podcasts (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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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Gil Eyal, Founder of HYPR, came on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast.

We covered:

How your marketing will change 100x from early stage to exit;

What happens when you find the right investor;

What drove the decision to get acquired;

Doing marketing by the book slows you down, you have to think a step further to get a higher level of attention;

How to get prospects to drop their status quo reality and buy your product.

Gil Eyal is the founder of Starfund (www.starfund.io) which invests in early stage consumer startups. He is the former President and Founder of HYPR (sold to Juliusworks in April 2020). HYPR is a NY-based company started in 2013 and has raised $13M in funding (Series A). HYPR is the market leader in data-driven influencer marketing automation solutions, a tool that’s redefining the influencer industry. You can find Gil on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gileyal or at gil@starfund.io.

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Spotify or Apple podcasts (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!

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

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