Explore every episode of the podcast Brandformance

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Elaine Zelby shares the real levers behind startup growth — and it’s not just product or GTM strategy. Elaine dives into how culture, hiring, and operational systems shape whether a marketing engine can actually scale.

From building trust and clarity across teams to designing systems that don’t break at $10M ARR, Elaine breaks down what most founders miss. She also shares why brand is often an output of culture, how to hire for execution and alignment, and why growth marketing fails without shared values at the core.

About the guest:
Elaine Zelby is the Co-Founder and CRO of TofuHQ, and a growth advisor to early-stage startups. With leadership experience spanning marketing, operations, and product, she brings rare clarity to the intersection of brand, culture, and scale.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Dyan Khor shares the strategy behind Cash App’s explosive growth, and why true scale requires more than channel hacks. Dyan built Cash App’s full-funnel growth engine, developed user-level LTV models, and implemented incrementality testing before iOS 14 changed the game.

We dive into how brand, creative, and product come together to drive results; why “growth” isn’t a department , it’s a company strategy; and how AI is reshaping team workflows, content pipelines, and experimentation velocity.

About the guest:

Dyan Khor is a growth advisor and fractional marketing leader who scaled Cash App through its hypergrowth phase. With deep experience in data modeling, cross-functional growth, and performance strategy, she’s now helping top tech startups build marketing systems that last.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Nik Sharma and Ari Murray of Sharma Brands break down how they manage one of the most creative and data-driven growth machines in e-commerce. From launching up to 1,000 ads a week to testing across every stage of the funnel, they share how smart systems — not just instincts — drive results.

We dive into the shift from DTC to retail, why attribution is mostly noise, how incrementality testing is changing everything, and why creative velocity (done right) beats any channel hack. They also unpack the impact of AI on workflows, how they keep a swipe file in Slack, and why truly understanding your customer is still the ultimate unlock.

About the guests:
Nik Sharma and Ari Murray lead Sharma Brands, a full-service growth engine helping consumer brands scale through sharp creative, efficient media buying, and relentless experimentation. Their work spans eComm, retail, and content — and they’ve built one of the most respected voices in the DTC space.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Amrita Mathur, former marketing leader at Superside, ClickUp, and Zapier, shares hard-earned truths about startup growth, product-market fit, and why creativity — not just tactics — drives sustainable success.

Amrita challenges the common myths around growth hacking, breaks down why product strategy is inseparable from marketing strategy, and explains how smart brands are navigating the AI disruption without losing their edge. She also dives into the importance of differentiation, the hidden power of creative obsession, and why building your own brand “universes” is the future of marketing.

About the guest:
Amrita Mathur has scaled some of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world and now advises early-stage startups on brand, marketing, and growth strategy. With deep hands-on experience from 0 to 1 and beyond, she brings a rare, practical lens to what really works — and what’s just noise.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Ian Martins, Managing Director of Zenith, joins us for a no-filter look at the modern agency world. Ian unpacks why the creative/media divide is still costing brands big money, how the traditional agency model is ripe for reinvention, and why the current obsession with AI-driven cost savings is missing the point.

We explore the rise of "Power of One" models, why media teams need a seat at the creative table, and how smart brands are blending brand + performance thinking. Ian also shares practical insights on creative testing, algorithmic buying, and why most media metrics are still chasing the wrong goals.

About the guest:
Ian Martens is the Managing Director of Zenith , part of the Publicis Groupe. With a career that spans scrappy independents to global HoldCos, Ian brings a uniquely candid perspective on what’s broken — and what’s possible — in media, creative, and marketing leadership today.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Keith Putnam-Delaney, CEO of Primer, reveals how his company is reinventing B2B audience targeting across channels like TikTok, Instagram, and even Amazon. He unpacks the limitations of traditional ad targeting, the misconceptions around "dead" channels, and why marketers need to rethink attribution and incrementality. Keith also dives into the evolving role of AI in advertising, shares a spicy take on LinkedIn ads, and explains how creative and audience experimentation is still the ultimate unlock.

About the guest: Keith Putnam-Delaney is the co-founder and CEO of Primer, a fast-growing startup transforming how B2B marketers activate audiences across social and programmatic platforms. With a background in data and growth strategy, Keith brings a sharp and opinionated view on what’s broken in modern marketing—and what’s coming next. From holdout tests to AI-driven targeting, he's helping companies navigate the future of ad performance with clarity and precision.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Kerry Cunningham, former Forrester analyst and now Head of Research at 6sense, unpacks the broken state of B2B marketing. He explains why most MQLs are a dead-end, how the concept of “buying groups” is transforming the demand funnel, and how third-party intent data—when combined with AI—can actually deliver real insight. Kerry also shares the backstory behind the famous Demand Unit Waterfall, reveals what most marketers get wrong about in-market signals, and offers a data-backed strategy for winning more high-intent buyers.

About the Guest:

Kerry Cunningham is a leading B2B marketing strategist and researcher, currently serving as Head of Research at 6sense. Previously, he helped design the Demand Unit Waterfall during his time at SiriusDecisions and Forrester. With decades of experience in B2B marketing innovation, Kerry brings unmatched insight into intent data, marketing measurement, and the science of modern revenue generation.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientist Podcast, Pranav Piyush, CEO of Paramark, breaks down the flaws of traditional marketing attribution and why Incrementality Testing is the key to smarter budget decisions. He explains why Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) often misleads marketers, how Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) compares, and why most brands are wasting money on ad spend without realizing it.

Pranav shares insights on why marketers should rethink their brand search ad spend, how to run effective marketing experiments, and the role of causality in measurement. He also discusses how top brands are using incrementality testing to prove real ROI, optimize budgets, and drive efficient growth.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Matt Bahr, CEO and co-founder of Fairing, dives into the transformative power of post-purchase surveys. He explains how brands can use these surveys to validate marketing attribution, uncover hidden customer insights, and make smarter advertising decisions. Matt also shares his journey from e-commerce operator to SaaS founder, the challenges of attribution in today’s fragmented landscape, and why first-party data is more important than ever.

Tune in to learn how innovative brands are leveraging Fairing’s insights to optimize ad spend, improve customer trust, and drive revenue growth.

About the Guest:

Matt Bahr is the CEO and co-founder of Fairing, a leading post-purchase survey platform that helps brands unlock better attribution insights and optimize their marketing spend. With a background in e-commerce and logistics, Matt transitioned from being an operator to building a SaaS company that serves thousands of DTC and SaaS brands. Under his leadership, Fairing has pioneered new approaches to measuring marketing effectiveness using first-party data. Passionate about data science and consumer insights, Matt is on a mission to help brands make smarter, data-driven decisions.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientist Podcast, Neha Mittal, CEO of Just Words and former Head of Growth at Twitter and Pinterest, explores how AI-powered experimentation is transforming lifecycle marketing. She discusses the challenges of traditional A/B testing, the importance of high-velocity experimentation, and how generative AI is unlocking new opportunities for growth teams. Neha also shares insights on messaging fatigue, the impact of micro-copy changes, and the future of real-time optimization.

About the Guest:

Neha Mittal is the CEO and co-founder of Just Words, an AI-driven experimentation platform for lifecycle teams. Previously, she led growth and retention at Twitter and Pinterest, where she pioneered large-scale messaging optimization strategies. With deep expertise in user engagement and AI-driven marketing, Neha is at the forefront of innovation in the growth space.

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, Kyle Poyar, author of Growth Unhinged, discusses the limitations of traditional attribution models and emphasizes the importance of focusing on incrementality to drive revenue growth.  He also delves into the evolving landscape of SaaS pricing models, highlighting the shift towards usage-based pricing and the need for companies to adapt.  Additionally, Kyle shares his insights on the critical role of customer success in driving SaaS growth and the importance of early customer adoption.   
About the guest:
Kyle Poyar, a former VC at OpenView and the author behind Growth Unhinged, is a leading voice in the SaaS growth space.  With his extensive experience working with startups and his deep understanding of growth metrics, Kyle offers invaluable insights for businesses looking to scale.    

In this episode of the Marketing Scientists Podcast, David Herrmann discusses the importance of community building in e-commerce marketing, the evolving role of organic marketing, and how to effectively leverage AI in media buying without losing the human touch. He also shares his insights on creative diversity, the future of measurement in a privacy-first world, and the delicate balance between brand and performance marketing.  

About the guest:
David Herrmann, President of Herrmann Digital, has managed billions of dollars in ad spend across various platforms like Facebook, Google, TikTok, and more. David shares his incredible journey from the music industry to becoming a seasoned media buying expert.

Today's guest is Bill Macaitis, the former CMO of Slack and Zendesk. Here are three things that I think you'll enjoy learning about in this episode: 

- A great debate on the role of marketing in B2B orgs.

- Setting clear priorities with the V2MOM framework. 

- How CEOs should hold their CMO or marketing leader accountable.

Today's guest is Ashley Haus. Ashley leads Lifecycle Marketing at Atlassian. Here are three things that I think you'll enjoy learning about in this episode: 

- The art of storytelling and persuasive communication. 

- How Ashley thinks about measuring the impact of her Lifecycle team's work

- How Lifecycle is embedded in everything that Atlassian does.

Today's guest is Matt Henderson, Head of Growth Marketing at Sentry, a popular and high-growth developer tool. Here are three things that I think you'll enjoy learning about in this episode: 

-Why Sentry killed all cookies on their website.

-How Sentry was still able to grow the business through marketing without invading their audience's privacy. 

-How Sentry measures the success of their marketing. 

Today's guest is Rishabh, the CEO and Co-Founder of FERMÀT. He founded FERMÀT to help brands seamlessly integrate commerce into every piece of content, driving commerce distribution at the speed of content creation. He has worked with popular brands like True Classic, Nood, OpenStore, and Mind Body Green, achieving notable success, such as a 50% lift in ROAS. Before FERMÀT, Rishabh developed three new businesses at LiveRamp, gaining extensive knowledge in online advertising and measurement. He holds a PhD from MIT.

Three things that I think you'll enjoy in this episode:

1. How all the privacy changes have changed the game for brands

2. The right and the wrong way to experiment in marketing

3. More discussion on brand and performance when it comes to measurement

Today's guest is Sahil Mansuri, the CEO of Bravado, the better way to hire sales talent. Sahil led sales teams since 2008 at companies like Meltwater, Glassdoor, before starting Bravado to change sales hiring for the better. Here are three really interesting conversations I had with Sahil today. 

•  Are CMOs better positioned to be CROs?
• What do sales leaders think about brand versus performance marketing? 
• Is the ZIRP Era growth over?

Today’s guest is Drew Neisser, the CEO of CMO Huddles, a community and learning & development platform for B2B CMOs. Drew has spent the past three decades in the marketing industry, working at renowned firms like Dentsu and JWT before founding his own agency, Renegade. Here's what I learned from Drew:

• Are humans or AI better at acquiring traffic through content?
• The top challenges CMOs are currently facing and strategies to overcome them
• How to help your CEO understand the value of marketing

Today’s guest is Mayur Gupta, the CMO of Kraken, and former growth and marketing leader at iconic companies like Spotify, Gannett, and Kimberley Clark. He has also been recognized as a top 50 CMO by Forbes. Here’s what Mayur and I talked about: 

• Switching careers from engineering to marketing 
• The four eras of marketing 
• How to balance brand and performance, including a behind the scenes of the F1 sponsorship 

Today’s guest is Rand Fishkin. Rand is the co-founder of SparkToro and the founder of Moz. He was also the co -founder of inbound .org, which later sold to HubSpot. Here are three things I learned from Rand:

• Al the ways marketing attribution is broken.
• How SparkToro is bringing a new level of audience research to marketers everywhere.
• How best to optimize your marketing mix.

Today's guest is Sujani Dwarak. 

Suj leads paid media acquisition at Thumbtack and is a full-stack performance brand leader. Here are three things I learned from Suj: 

• You don't need fancy shoots and budgets to make an impact with a brand. 
• How to avoid false accuracy in marketing measurement. 
• How to measure brands' impact with incrementality testing. 

Todays guest is Matt Kaufman. Matt was the founding marketing leader and eventually the VP of Marketing at Qualia, a unicorn B2B enterprise real estate startup. Here are three things that I learned from Matt.

• How adaptability, mediation, and advocacy helped him during his time at Qualia
• His go-to motions for Qualia: thought leadership, events, and customer and community marketing.
• The comeback of the First Principles Thinking

Today's guest is Ben Dutter, the Chief Strategy Officer at Power Digital, a full-service digital agency providing customized performance marketing strategies to empower business growth. Ben has worked with brands and agencies throughout his career and also led a turnaround at Power Digital itself. Here are three things that I learned from Ben:

• How he led Power Digital's transformation after his arrival. 
• If 95% of marketing tasks are going to be done by AI.
• The importance of creativity in modern marketing.

Today’s guest was Kishore Kothandaraman. Kishore is the Co-Founder at Goldcast, an event and video marketing platform for B2B marketers. After a stint in Consulting, Healthcare, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, Kishore started Goldcast nearly 4 years ago and has raised 10s of millions of dollars. Here are three things I learnt from Kishore:

• What makes an event successful
• How events, content, and video are morphing into one unit
• Where AI is having the most impact in video and events

Today’s guest is Omer Malchin. Omer was the CMO of Netflix back before the streaming wars and has worked on brands like Diageo, Wix.com, and Reali. More recently he has run an agency called Moxie Method which has worked on brands like Looker, Melio, SkinnyGirl, and even VC brands like Sequoia! Here are three things I learnt from Omer:

• The difference between a vendor and a partner when it comes to marketing agencies
• Serendipity through diversity
• A structured process for naming

Today’s guest is Austin Hay. Austin, the co-founder of Clarify, brings a wealth of experience from roles in Martech at Ramp,  and operations and go-to-market positions at Runway, mParticle, and Branch. With a focus on flexibility and intelligence, Austin is revolutionizing the CRM space with Clarify. Here are three things I learnt from Austin:

• Significant changes in the MarTech landscape  
• Resetting expectations on what is trackable in marketing
• How the traditional concept of the Customer Data Platform is evolving 

Today’s guest is Maya Spivak. Maya is a marketing leader known for her expertise in building beloved developer brands. She has worked on brands like Mux, Segment, Wealthfront, Gretel, and Google contributing to growth through the power of brand. Maya now leverages her experience to help tech businesses with brand strategy. Here are three things I learnt from Maya:

• Embracing unconventional paths 
• Timing & stage sensitivity for brand investments 
• Hyper-regional out-of-home advertising strategies

Today’s guest is Mustafa Ibrahim. Mustafa currently spearheads Global Marketing Data at HelloFresh. With a robust background in Marketing Science and Customer Analytics, he leverages data-driven strategies to optimize unit economics and drive product expansion. Here are three things I learnt from Mustafa:

• How different sectors approach marketing science
• Agility over specialization
• Educating teams about the significance of testing in marketing strategies 

Today’s guest is Barbara Galiza. Barbara is a growth strategist (ex Dentsu and WeTransfer) known for her expertise in data-driven decision-making and analytics, having worked with top tech firms like Microsoft and WeTransfer as well as leading marketing agencies. Here are three things I learnt from Barbara:

• The importance of campaign taxonomy establishment
• We talked about the ML based optimization on ad platforms
• Growing awareness of attribution gaps 

Today’s guest is Tido Carriero. Tido, Co-Founder at Koala, leverages his engineering and product expertise gained from roles at Segment, Dropbox, and Facebook to steer Koala's vision and innovation. With Koala, Tido spearheads a platform that identifies engaged leads and discerns buying signals in real time, revolutionizing how businesses engage with their best prospects.. Here are three things I learnt from Tido:

• The difference between first and third party intent data
• What the common sources of third party data are and how does reverse IP look up work
• How are folks leveraging Koala to grow

Today’s guest was Mark Huber. Mark, VP of Marketing at UserEvidence, a platform that supports brands to collect stats, intelligence, and proof from their customers to use in their go-to-market motion. Mark’s been in the startup ecosystem for ages including working at Metadata and advising Navattic. Here are two things I learnt from Mark:

• Importance of social proof using available intelligence
• How Mark built the pipeline model at UserEvidence and how it’s changed the game.

Today’s guest is Shirin Oreizy, Shirin is the founder and CEO of Next Step, an acclaimed Behavioral Design Agency. Shirin and her team employ The Science of Design™, a mixed-method research model, to craft superior outcomes for clients in marketing and product development. She's a sought-after speaker, spotlighted in Forbes, and has recently collaborated on projects with researchers from Harvard and Duke. Here are three things I learnt from Shirin:

• What is behavioral science and what does it take to design successful experiments?
• How can teams start with this methodology?
• How we should think about the recent controversies about replicability in scientific studies?

Today’s guest is Seth Matlins. Seth is the Managing Director of the Forbes CMO Network. Seth is also a board member of the American Advertising Federation. He has held various executive positions at CAA, LiveNation, and more. Here are three things I learnt from Seth:

• Don't use celebrity and media just for the sake of it.
• How the CMO needs to become the CEO of the function and what that means. 
• The best definition of marketing!