Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers – Details, episodes & analysis

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.

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

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

*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

*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

*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

*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

*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

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

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA

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