Podcast Owners on the Experience-focused Leaders

Podcast Owners on the Experience - focused Leaders See how they connect and spark conversations .

Season 1

See our interview with Josh Elledge Josh Elledge Josh Elledge is a renowned entrepreneur , media expert , and advocate for financial empowerment . With a passion for helping people save money and maximize their potential , he is best known as the founder of SavingsAngel . com , a platform dedicated to assisting individuals in achieving significant savings through practical strategies and couponing . Founding Partner of FLOODGATE

S 01 Ep 1 | Innovative Customer Experiences are What Differentiates Business In this inaugural episode of Experience - Focused Leaders , Josh Ellege turns the tables and interviews Alex Shevelenko , founder and CEO of RELAYTO and the man behind the microphone for this show . Alex shares the vision driving both the podcast and the platform . The most valuable ideas are often communicated in the worst possible ways , and he wants to change that by featuring practitioners , thought leaders , and researchers who create experiences that genuinely connect with audiences and drive real outcomes . When it comes to ideal guests , Alex is looking for leaders who measure success by outcomes over vanity metrics , brand - conscious professionals whose content has fallen behind audience expectations , and intellectually curious thinkers who enjoy connecting dots across disciplines . Alex also gives listeners a look at RELAYTO , a tool that converts static PDFs and presentations into interactive , measurable microsites , democratizing substantive B2B content the way Canva did for design .

See our interview with Abhinav Kumar Abhinav Kumar Abhinav Kumar stands as an award - winning Global Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at one of the world ’ s foremost technology service giants , overseeing operations across 55 countries and steering a workforce of over 626 , 000 employees . His visionary leadership has propelled the firm to unparalleled heights , boasting a staggering revenue of US $ 29 billion . Award - winning Global Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at TCS .

S 01 Ep 2 | Transform Businesses with Technology Alex Shevelenko sits down with Abhinav Kumar , Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at TCS ( Tata Consultancy Services ), one of the world ' s leading IT services firms with over 630 , 000 employees across 46 countries . Abhinav traces the foundation of TCS ' s brand growth to a simple but deeply held principle : customer centricity . Every internal decision , from hiring to entering new markets , starts with the same question : which customer does this benefit ? That culture , he argues , is what turned a 2 . 3 billion dollar brand valuation in 2010 into over 17 billion today . This episode covers a wide range of topics including the tension between measurable digital spending and long - term brand building , the complexity of communicating across personas from C - suite executives to daily project contacts , and how TCS ' s marathon sponsorships in cities like New York , London , and Amsterdam have created genuine community and trust outside of traditional marketing channels .

See our interview with Scott Wharton Scott Wharton Scott Wharton is a seasoned executive and visionary leader renowned for his instrumental role as the General Manager of Logitech ' s Video Collaboration Group . With a profound understanding of technology and a keen eye for market trends , Wharton has been a driving force behind Logitech ' s prominence in the video collaboration landscape . General Manager of Logitech ' s Video Collaboration Group .

S 01 Ep 3 | The Future of Digital and Hybrid Experiences Scott Wharton shares how he grew a 62 million dollar division into a two billion dollar operation by keeping it structurally separate from Logitech ' s consumer business . His core argument is that focus beats scale almost every time , and that new ideas fail when they are spread too thin across a large organization . Logitech ' s vision for the future of meetings is built around making video better than being there , with multi - camera AI systems and real - time analytics modeled after the experience of watching live sports . Scott explains how his team stays innovative at scale by getting in front of customers directly , building quick prototypes , and treating internal meetings and traditional market research with healthy skepticism . He also walks through Logitech ' s approach to product development , using the Logi Dock as an example of solving problems people had but never thought to articulate , and how AI is already reshaping content creation , training , and workforce workflows across the organization .

See our interview with Michael F. Schein Michael F . Schein Founder and CEO of MicroFame Media , a renowned marketing and strategy agency . With a passion for storytelling and marketing , Schein has established himself as a leading authority in crafting compelling narratives for businesses and individuals . Writer of " The Hype Handbook : 12 Indispensable Success Secrets from the World ' s Greatest Propagandists , Self - Promoters , Cult Leaders , Mischief Makers , and Boundary Breakers ". In his book , Schein explores the tactics used by influential historical figures and applies them to modern - day marketing and branding strategies . CEO of MicroFame Media

S 01 | Ep 4 Hyping Up Idea - Driven Businesses Michael Schein joins Experience - Focused Leaders to explore what rock managers , cult leaders , and savvy entrepreneurs have in common when it comes to building momentum for their ideas . Drawing on years of research across biography , crowd psychology , and mass persuasion , Michael argues that great content alone rarely breaks through . What separates ideas that spread from ones that fall flat is the strategic layering of theater , positioning , and human psychology around them . He walks through case studies ranging from the Rolling Stones deliberately positioning themselves as the anti - Beatles , to Elon Musk turning electric cars into a status symbol before making them widely affordable . One of the episode ' s sharpest insights is about framing new ideas . When something is truly novel , wrapping it in familiar language dramatically lowers the barrier to adoption . When something is not that novel , it needs flash and theater to seem weightworthy . Michael also shares his recommended reading for anyone serious about persuasion and communication , including Gustav Le Bon ' s century - old work on crowd psychology , which he credits as the spark behind the book .

See our interview with Paul Pritchard Paul Pritchard Paul Pritchard is the Group CEO of Overdose , a leading high - growth digital commerce agency operating across nine countries . Paul stands as a luminary in the realm of digital leadership , leveraging extensive expertise to catalyze business growth within an interconnected landscape . With a proven track record spanning numerous industries , Paul specializes in guiding enterprises toward embracing technology and leveraging the internet to craft innovative customer experiences . CEO of Overdose

S 01 | Ep 5 Cultivating Connection , Ownership , and Accountability in Distributed Teams with Paul Pritchard Paul Pritchard , Group CEO of Overdose , a global commerce consultancy with over 500 people across nine countries , shares how a business that started in the back office of a New Zealand merchant grew into a team working with brands like Patagonia , Goodyear , and Karl Lagerfeld . Paul credits much of that growth to one core lesson : learning how to build trust , ownership , and accountability across a team distributed around the world . He talks through the cultural infrastructure that holds it together , from anonymous internal surveys to dual leadership structures , and why he believes repeating simple values out loud is one of the most underrated leadership tools available . The conversation also gets into how Overdose helps clients find their unique place in the market , pushing back on the instinct to fit in rather than stand out . On AI , Paul offers a grounded take , cautioning against both hype and paralysis , and arguing that the real opportunity lies in using it to extend capability rather than race everything toward the same place .

See our interview with Godard Abel Godard Abel Godard Abel is a seasoned entrepreneur renowned for his influential contributions to the tech industry , particularly in the realm of sales software and cloud - based solutions . As a Co - founder of BigMachines , Abel played a pivotal role in establishing the company as a leader in cloud - based sales software , steering its growth and eventual acquisition by Oracle . Founder & CEO of G2

S 01 Ep 6 | Where You Go for Software : Reach Your Peak Goddard Abel built G2 to solve the issue of software buyers not being able to find the tools that would best solve their problems , and sellers having to wait nearly a decade for analyst validation that never came fast enough . In this episode , Goddard covers why buyers no longer trust marketing claims and what that means for how software companies need to go to market today . He breaks down how G2 built its organic SEO strategy from the ground up , why starting narrow and doing one job well is still the right move for most startups , and how negative reviews build more buyer confidence than a perfect score ever could . He also touches on how AI is changing the way buyers discover software , moving from rigid category searches toward conversations about what they actually want to accomplish . Goddard gets honest about building culture at scale , making the case that performance and kindness are not at odds , and that authentic in - the - moment feedback is how you actually help people grow .

See our interview with Blaine Graboyers Blaine Graboyers Blaine Graboyers is a category pioneer , an idea - stage investor and advisor , an artist , and an inventor . He has nearly 30 years of experience launching and commercializing innovations in the technology , media , and gaming industries . Founder , Investor , Artist , Inventor

S 01 | Ep 7 Crafting Compelling Stories in Startups and Show Production with Blaine Graboyes Blaine Graboyes has spent his career at the intersection of film , video games , esports , and early stage investing , and this episode draws on all of it . The conversation centers on a few ideas that cut across every industry Blaine has worked in . Storytelling is the most transferable skill from entertainment to startups , particularly at the idea stage when a compelling story is often the only asset a company has . The pitch deck , he argues , is the single most important asset of any early stage business and should be updatable , openable in seconds , and digestible in under five minutes . Blaine also introduces the concept of fewest best , the discipline of stripping everything down until it could not possibly be less , whether that is lines of code , slides , or product features . The most expensive feature , he points out , is the one you did not need . The episode ends on something worth sitting with . The root cause of a problem matters more than the problem itself , and the best solutions are built around those underlying reasons rather than the surface symptoms .

See our interview with Dean Stoecker Dean Stoecker Dean Stoecker is a visionary leader and influential entrepreneur in the field of data analytics and business intelligence . He is widely recognized as the co - founder , Chairman , and CEO of Alteryx , a leading data analytics company that empowers organizations to transform data into actionable insights . Under Stoecker ' s guidance , Alteryx experienced significant growth and innovation , pioneering a platform that democratizes data analytics and enables users across various industries to make informed decisions through intuitive analytics tools . Executive Chairman at Alteryx & author of The Masterpiece Book , a Manual for Entrepreneurs

S 01 Ep 8 | Turning Your Customers Into Your Biggest Champions Dean Stoecker spent 14 years building Alteryx without outside capital , survived the dot - com crash , 9 / 11 , and the 2008 financial crisis , and still refused to raise venture money until he had proven product market fit . That stubbornness turned out to be the strategy . This episode covers how Dean landed Alteryx ' s first customer by staging a mariachi party in a 600 square foot office and walking a prospect through a wireframed product that didn ' t fully exist yet . Why he believes no one will ever love your idea as much as you do , and why getting over that fact early is essential . The astronauts , pilots , and passengers framework for thinking about user personas and how it helped Alteryx expand from two million trained statisticians to hundreds of millions of potential users . Dean also makes the case that leaders are defined not by how many followers they have but by how many leaders they create , and that the only job of a CEO before product market fit is to make sure the money outlasts the search .

See our interview with Ben Guttmann Ben Guttmann Ben Guttmann is a marketing communications expert and the author of “ Simply Put : Why Clear Messages Win and How to Design Them ” book . He ran as a co - founder and managing partner of Digital Natives Group for 10 years , which is an award - winning agency , and worked with the likes of the NFL . He ' s teaching marketing for undergrads at Baruch College in New York City .. Advisor and Fractional CMO of UniSphere Ideas & Author

S 01 | Ep 9 Mastering Effective Marketing Communication Principles with Ben Guttmann Ben Guttmann spent a decade running a marketing agency , watched countless clients struggle to communicate genuinely valuable ideas , and wrote a book trying to figure out why . His book Simply Put lays out five principles for messages that actually work : beneficial , focused , salient , empathetic , and minimal . The through line connecting all of them is cognitive fluency , the idea that things easier to perceive , understand , and act on accumulate positive associations in ways we rarely notice but consistently respond to . There is research on stock ticker symbols , font choices , and lawyer name pronunciation to back this up . The episode also gets into the responsibility gap in communication . Ben argues it falls entirely on the sender , not the receiver , to make a message land . That framing has sharp implications for anyone in sales enablement , content marketing , or really any role where the temptation is to blame the audience for not paying attention .

See our interview with Peter Fader Peter Fader Dr . Peter Fader is a professor at Wharton Marketing Department , researching things such as : the lifetime value of the customer , sales forecasting for new products , using behavioral data to understand and forecast shopping / purchasing activities across a wide range of industries , and managerial applications with focus on topics such as customer relationship management . Wharton School Marketing Professor

S 01 | Ep 10 Turning Your Marketing Into Dollars Peter Fader is a Wharton marketing professor , co - inventor of modern customer lifetime value modeling , and founder of Zodiac , which was acquired by Nike . He is also one of RELAYTO ' s earliest backers , which gives this conversation an unusual level of candor . The episode covers a lot of ground but keeps returning to one central argument : not all customers are created equal , and companies that treat them as if they are will waste money acquiring the wrong ones , misread their own growth , and eventually run out of runway . Peter ' s work gives marketers the quantitative tools to make that case internally , particularly to Finance , which is where he believes marketing credibility is won or lost . He also takes aim at a few persistent bad habits . The tendency to let technology lead strategy rather than the other way around . Attribution models built on incomplete touch points that tell a convincing but inaccurate story . The organizational disconnect between teams that acquire customers and teams that serve them , which he sees as one of the most expensive structural problems in modern marketing . His framework for the Renaissance CMO is straightforward . Lead with analytics , earn the right to talk about creativity , and make lifetime value a language the whole organization speaks .

See our interview with Aaron Au Aaron AU Aaron served as the president of SAP Gem Collaboration Division , boasting over 50 million subscribers . He is a true pioneer in the software as a service ( SaaS ) revolution , and his journey offers invaluable insights for anyone interested in the world of tech startups and SaaS . Co - founded SuccessFactors

S 01 Ep 11 | Driving Business Growth Through People - Centric Strategies and Successful Partnerships Aaron Au co - founded SuccessFactors with Lars Dalgaard in 2001 , took the company public in 2007 , and sold it to SAP for 3 . 4 billion dollars , at the time the highest multiple ever paid for a SaaS company . He later ran SAP Jam , a collaboration platform with over 50 million subscribers . This episode traces the full arc of that journey , starting from a lesson Aaron learned at his first failed startup : a product screenshot taken nine months ago means nothing when your engineering team ships every two weeks . That disconnect between what salespeople were selling and what the product actually did became the founding logic of SuccessFactors . Aaron talks about why HR was considered an unlikely category to build a cloud company around , why utilization and adoption mattered more to him than revenue , and how he approached collaboration at SAP Jam differently by asking which enterprise tasks are collaborative by nature and which ones are not .

See our interview with Kyle Poyar Kyle Poyar Kyle Poyar is the creator of Growth Unhinged , a weekly newsletter delivering software growth insights to 80 , 000 + subscribers . With 15 years of experience helping startups scale , he now works 1 : 1 with startups and scale - ups as a full - time solopreneur specializing in growth advising and pricing and packaging consulting . Previously an Operating Partner at OpenView ($ 2 . 4B AUM ), Kyle partnered with portfolio founders on scaling revenue from $ 1M to $ 100M + ARR — and his team coined the term " product - led growth ." He also served as a Director at Simon - Kucher & Partners , the leading consulting firm in pricing strategy . Creator of Growth Unhinged

S 01 | Ep 12 The Most Effective Strategy for Software Companies to Achieve Rapid Growth Kyle Poyar knows the product - led growth playbook better than almost anyone . This episode is a thorough breakdown of how it actually works . The conversation covers what PLG is and what it is not , starting with the core shift from selling to executives through long sales cycles to putting the product directly in the hands of end users and letting them pull deals upward from the inside . Kyle walks through how companies like Calendly and Figma built viral growth loops , why PLG is not anti - sales , and what product - qualified accounts look like compared to the product - qualified leads that most companies mistakenly chase instead . He also gets into the SEO tactics that work specifically for PLG companies , particularly programmatic approaches that turn existing product data into hundreds of long - tail landing pages , and why chasing top keywords is often the wrong place to start .

See our interview with Steve King Steve King Steve King is a five - time CEO with many exits to boot and now sits on the boards of exciting companies . With more than 25 years of leadership experience in the information technology sector , he has demonstrated a wealth of experience and complementary strengths , notably his proven expertise in Sales , Marketing , and Financial Leadership , and ability to execute in highly competitive environments . Before joining DocuSign , King led venture - backed Virtela and ZANTAZ as president and CEO . Former President & CEO of DocuSign

S 01 Ep 13 | Navigating Markets and Relationships for Growth Steve King has been a CEO five times , pioneered cloud - based enterprise software before the infrastructure existed to support it , and led DocuSign from an unproven category to a company with roughly 70 percent market share . This episode feels less like a formal interview and more like the kind of conversation you would want to overhear . The stories alone are worth the listen . Building Zantaz into the go - to email archiving platform for Wall Street before AWS existed , which meant speccing and building their own hardware and data centers . Joining DocuSign in 2009 when e - signature still had no Gartner research behind it and making the counterintuitive call to pull back from Enterprise and double down on mid - market , where the product had real momentum and lower acquisition costs . However , the deeper thread running through the episode is about how to make decisions under uncertainty . Steve ' s approach is disciplined : set a three - year vision with your team , back it into quarterly and monthly actions , then revisit it every six months with new data . Not as a planning exercise but as a way to give yourself permission to course - correct without losing confidence in the direction .

Mark Osborne Mark Osborne is an influential communicator , relationship builder , and team leader with hands - on experience researching markets and decision - makers , navigating competitive positioning , and executing Go - To - Market strategies that leverage creative content for Demand Generation , Lead Generation , and Revenue Growth through Account - Based Marketing , Sales , and Customer Advocacy programs . Best - Selling Author See our interview with Mark Osborne

S 01 | Ep 14 Revolutionizing B2B Sales in a Post - COVID Landscape The core argument in Mark Osborne ’ s book Are Your Leads Killing Your Business is that most B2B companies are chasing the wrong opportunities , treating every white paper download as equally qualified , burning sales resources on prospects that were never going to convert , and ending up with customers who pull them away from their core product rather than validating it . Meanwhile , competitors who have adapted to how modern buyers actually research and decide are quietly taking the best opportunities off the table before anyone else gets a look . This episode goes deep on what the alternative looks like . Building a shared scorecard across marketing , sales , and customer success so that the quality of revenue matters as much as the quantity of leads . Mapping the customer journey not as a funnel but as a series of questions buyers are trying to answer at each stage , then creating content that gets them to the next question rather than pitching too early . And understanding that trust in B2B is built from two things simultaneously : sincerity , meaning you do what you say , and competence , meaning you can actually do it .

Glenn Poulos Glenn Poulos is the Vice President and General Manager of NWS , a leading product and service distributor for the mobile broadband and wireless markets . He is also the author of the Never Sit in the Lobby book . It ' s a guide that provides fifty - seven factors for navigating the interpersonal dynamics of selling and the art of negotiation to help entrepreneurs sidestep common , costly mistakes . Vice President and General Manager of NWS See our interview with Glenn Poulos

S 01 | Ep 15 The Art of Building Rapport and Using Humor in Sales In this episode Glenn Poulos gives a practical yet comical masterclass in what actually moves deals forward . The conversation covers the tactics that separate good salespeople from forgettable ones . The mini tour , the power of remembering names before you walk in the door , and why humor works best when it names the exact thing the other person is silently worried about . Glenn also breaks down his Punch Perfect Pitch and Close framework , which starts by changing the room ' s energy before a single slide goes up , presents everything in groups of three , and ends only when the customer is asking how to buy . But the more durable lessons are about knowing when to stop . Glenn makes a sharp case for why being second is the most expensive loss in sales , why you should quit a bad brand faster than you think , and why the reverse Midas Touch kills more entrepreneurs than bad luck does .

Kevin Mahaffey As a successful angel investor , Kevin also helps others build durable companies . Ten of the startups in his portfolio grew their private - market valuations to $ 1 billion or higher , including the workplace data - management startup People . ai . Founder of Lookout & Investor in 9 Unicorns See our interview with Kevin Mahaffey

S 01 Ep 16 | Cracking the Code : Achieving Product - Market Fit with Customer Centric Solutions Kevin Mahaffey co - founded Lookout , built it into a mobile security leader , and has since invested in over a hundred early - stage companies , ten of which became unicorns . This episode traces the full arc of building a consumer product that used green logos and reassuring language at a time when every competitor was trying to scare people into buying . The design philosophy behind that decision that trust compounds and fear doesn ' t , turns out to apply well beyond security software . Kevin draws a clean line between analyzing , which is what public market investors do with past metrics , and underwriting , which is what early - stage investing actually requires . He walks through what he was underwriting when he backed Airtable , and why bottom - up thinking about individual customers is a more reliable signal than top - down market size estimates . Kevin makes a case that the principles of a good business have not changed , and that the historical record on technology and human prosperity is a lot more encouraging than the current anxiety cycle suggests .

See our interview with Sabine VanderLinden wa Yifan.Jane Sabine VanderLinden Sabine VanderLinden AKA " InsurTech Queen " is CEO of Alchemy Crew . With 25 years in insurance innovation , she was recently the CEO & a co - founder of Startupbootcamp InsurTech & Hartford ’ s InsurTech Hub Accelerators , where she worked with over 30 corporate insurers and accelerated over 100 startup ventures . CEO of Alchemy Crew & Co - Founder of Startupbootcamp InsurTech & Hartford ’ s InsurTech Hub Accelerators

S 01 | Ep 17 A Journey Through the Insurance Technology Landscape with The InsurTech Queen Sabine VanderLinden has spent 25 years at the intersection of insurance and innovation , building startup accelerators , connecting global insurers with emerging technology , and most recently running Alchemy Crew while hosting the Scouting for Growth podcast , which hit 170 , 000 downloads in just two years . The conversation covers why insurance , despite its reputation as a slow - moving industry , is actually one of the most interesting places to watch technology play out . Insurance touches everything from climate risk to health to enterprise data , and the pressure to make complex information consumable and trustworthy is more acute there than almost anywhere else . Sabine makes the case that the next wave of differentiation in the industry will not come from pricing or product features alone but from branding , storytelling , and the ability to communicate with specific customer segments in ways that actually feel human . She also shares how she built the kind of trust that lets her work across continents with some of the world ' s largest financial institutions . The answer is less strategic than it sounds . Read a lot , give generously , focus on other people ' s success , and stay in the room long enough for it to compound .

See our interview with Scott Brinker Scott Brinker Scott Brinker is the VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot and one of the biggest influencers in the MarTech Community . Also , the creator and editor of the Chief MarTech blog . He is also the founding Program Chair of the MarTech Conference and author of the book ' Hacking Marketing : Agile Practices to make marketing smarter , faster , and more innovative '. VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot

S1 Ep 18 | Navigating the Business Landscape This episode begins with a question Scott has been thinking about since the agency days : what happens after the click ? His company ion Interactive was built around the idea that marketers were pouring enormous resources into winning attention and almost nothing into what happened when someone actually showed up . That observation eventually became the interactive content category , and the episode traces how that category evolved from landing pages to calculators to full - blown experience design . Scott makes a clear - eyed case that the first - order effect of generative AI is more content , and the second - order effect is audiences becoming even more overwhelmed and defensive . His argument is that this actually creates a significant opportunity for anyone willing to invest in experience rather than volume . This episode also covers the citizen creator movement and why Scott believes proximity to the problem and genuine passion matter more than technical skill in most cases , the persistent tension between marketing and sales and why cross - team collaboration remains one of the hardest things for any organization to get right .

See our interview with Anthony Coppedge Anthony Coppedge Anthony Coppedge leads the vision , strategy , and execution for how business agility is infused in Global Digital Sales at IBM . His leadership focuses on composing a strategic symphony , orchestrating iterative work prioritization , and coaching leaders , managers , and teams on delivering outcomes over outputs . Global Digital Sales Leader IBM

S 01 | Ep 19 IBM ' s Winning Formula Anthony Coppedge talks about what agile selling really means in practice , and it is not standups and sticky notes . Anthony ' s model is built around shifting managers from directing to serving , replacing the quota - at - all - costs mentality with a genuine focus on client value , and using aggregated feedback as actionable intelligence rather than just decoration . The caterpillar - to - butterfly metaphor he uses for organizational change is one of the better framings in the series : same DNA , radically different expression , entirely by design . He also makes a distinction that cuts through a lot of noise in the sales world . Real agility asks better questions rather than having better answers . If you are running purely on metrics without validating them against direct feedback from the people closest to the problem , Anthony argues you are guaranteed to be wrong about something important .

See our interview with Mike Folgner Mike Folgner Mike Folgner is a serial entrepreneur in the video space with exits to Twitter / X and Yahoo ! Most recently , he founded SnappyTV , later bought by Twitter / X . His first video venture , Jumpcut , Mike sold to Yahoo ! Currently , Mike is the founder / CEO of the Scenery , a video collaboration platform backed by Greylock , Craft , and Figma . CEO of the Scenery

S 01 | Ep 20 Venturing Into the Future of Video Technology Mike Fogner traces the full arc from Jump Cut in 2005 , when simply sharing a video file without making someone download it into Windows Media Player was a genuine technical achievement , through Snappy TV , which helped sports leagues and broadcasters get highlights onto Twitter and Facebook within seconds of live events rather than hours . The Snappy story is particularly interesting because it centers around digital rights actively being rewritten in real time , and Mike ended up advising general counsel at major networks on what digital rights they actually wanted in their new agreements . The conversation gets honest about pivots and the costs people underestimate . With Snappy , the engineering cost of building for two directions at once was manageable . The harder cost was having to reintroduce the company to the same people it had already pitched , which added roughly two years to the path to product market fit .

See our interview with Guillaume Cabane Guillaume Cabane Guillaume Cabane , also known as G , is ' the Godfather of Growth ' in the B2B world . Having previously run growth at high - profile B2B companies like Drift and Segment , G now shares his experience and insight through his platform HyperGrowth Partners , which supports B2B companies in accelerating their growth . Co - Founder of Hypergrowth Partners

S 01 Ep 21 | Understanding Growth as a Function within Organizations Guillaume Cabane has spent two decades doing B2B growth at companies like Drift and Segment , and now runs Hyper Growth Partners , an advisory firm that takes equity stakes in exchange for access to a curated network of senior growth operators . The episode starts with a history of growth as a discipline , tracing it from Facebook ' s massive AB testing infrastructure in the mid - 2000s through the demand gen era of B2B , and arriving at the current moment where product - led growth has brought things nearly full circle . Growth teams exist because they operate like angel investors , running many experiments and accepting a high failure rate in exchange for the occasional outsized winner . Marketing teams , by contrast , are rewarded for not failing , which quietly selects for mediocrity . The organizational tension this creates is real , and Guillaume is candid about why standalone growth teams tend to have a limited lifespan inside larger companies regardless of how well they perform .

See our interview with Gayle Terry Gayle Terry Gayle Terry is the Chief Marketing Officer and President of Domestic & General ' s U . S . operations . With over 20 years of experience in customer strategy and marketing , she has been instrumental in shaping D & G ' s U . S . strategy , focusing on customer experience and marketing innovation . Before joining D & G in 2014 , Gayle held leadership roles at British Gas , including positions in marketing , commercial operations , and business transformation . She holds a Master ' s degree in Economics from the University of Glasgow . Chief Marketing Officer and President of Domestic & General ' s U . S . operations

S 01 Ep 22 | From Operational Roles to Marketing Genius This episode is a good one for anyone who thinks great marketing leaders come up through marketing . Gail started in operations , running contact centers and field engineering teams , which gave her something most CMOs never have : direct exposure to what actually happens when a customer ' s washing machine floods their kitchen and someone shows up to fix it . That foundation shapes everything about how she approaches brand , data , and the spaces in between . The conversation covers what it means to sit in the middle of a B2B2C business , where marketing ' s job is to simultaneously serve the retailer or manufacturer partner and the end customer , often without being visible to either . Gail makes the case that this position , which could feel marginal , is actually where the real leverage is . When marketing owns the brand experience across the full customer lifecycle , from the first interaction after purchase through repair , replacement , and renewal , it becomes the connective tissue that keeps large contracts alive . There is also a genuinely interesting conversation on sustainability . Domestic and General prevents roughly two million appliances from going to landfill annually in the UK alone , and Gail talks about how that mission has become a recruitment and retention tool as much as a brand story because it happens to be true .

See our interview with Mark Organ Mark Organ Mark Organ is the author of ‘ The Messenger is The Message ’ book . He ’ s also a Founder & CEO at Influitive , helping B2B companies mobilize their army of advocates for more rapid and profitable revenue growth . They have raised close to $ 50m in VC funding from some of the best in the business including the likes of Lightspeed , First Round Capital , and Gainsight . Prior to Influitive , Mark was the founding CEO of Eloqua that invented what is now known as the Marketing Automation space which spawned competitors like HubSpot , Marketo and Pardot . Founding CEO of Influitive and Eloqua

S 01 Ep 23 | Enhancing the Buying and Selling Experience Mark Oregan founded Eloqua , which created the marketing automation category , then founded Influitive , which created the customer advocacy category , and now coaches B2B founders on category creation at Category Knights . In this episode Mark discusses Eloqua and how it did not start as marketing automation . The original product was a proactive chat tool , the company nearly went bankrupt four times , and the real category breakthrough came when Mark discovered that open source companies did not need more leads , they needed to know which leads mattered . Mark talks about Influitive and his core observation is that customer advocacy is not the same thing as customer satisfaction . A seven out of ten customer can be a more enthusiastic advocate than a ten out of ten customer , depending on whether you have given them a reason to care . The three things that actually drive advocacy , feeling like part of the team , seeing the impact they are making , and having their own career advanced by the association , are surprisingly durable and surprisingly underused .

See our interview with Mark Organ Thomas Smale Thomas Smale has closed over 1 , 500 deals with a combined value of over $ 50bn throughout their careers working with investors and founders all over the globe . With experience dating back to the early 2000s , he offers technical , diligence , and negotiation advice to early - stage and seasoned business owners alike SaaS , ecommerce , cloud . Founder and CEO of FE International

S 01 | Ep 24 The Most Effective Strategies for Small Business Owners in the M & A Market This episode is a useful corrective to a lot of the noise around exits , valuations , and what it actually means to build a sellable business . Thomas ' s core argument is simple and worth repeating : the best thing you can do to maximize your exit options is to build a genuinely good business , not one that has been engineered to look attractive on a spreadsheet . Thomas covers what the current M & A environment actually looks like for smaller businesses , which turns out to be more stable than headlines suggest . The slowdown has been concentrated in large deals , while profitable businesses under one hundred million in value still have significant buyer demand , including from private equity firms that have started looking at smaller transactions they would have dismissed two years ago . There is also a discussion on the specific ways businesses become unsellable , and the most common culprit is not bad strategy but complacency . A business that coasts on a single channel , underinvests in team , and avoids the hard work of managing people tends to plateau and then quietly decline . By the time the owner wants to sell , the window has often closed .

See our interview with Wes Bush Wes Bush Over 500 , 000 people have read his ‘ Product - Led Growth : How to Build a Product That Sells Itself ’ book and listened to the ProductLed Podcast . Wes Bush ' s journey is marked by a deep commitment to empowering businesses to thrive in an ever - evolving market . Through his thought leadership , he has become a beacon for companies seeking to harness the potential of their products to drive organic growth , foster user engagement , and build lasting relationships with their clientele . Founder of ProductLed

S 01 | Ep 25 Unveiling Value and Transparency in Product - Led Strategies with Wes Bush In this episode , Wes is honest about the gap between the concept and the execution , and a lot of the episode is spent on that gap rather than on the theory . The core argument is simple : how you sell is just as important as what you sell . A product that delivers genuine value upfront removes the friction that kills most B2B buying journeys , builds trust faster than any sales conversation , and scales in ways that hiring more salespeople never will . The opposite of this , the gated PDF leading to an SDR call leading to a demo request leading to an account executive , is not just inefficient . It is increasingly a brand liability . The episode gets more interesting when Wes talks about the organizational side and how companies know they want to be product - led . He notes that what they are less good at is being honest about whether their team , their org chart , and their actual resource allocation reflect that ambition or contradict it .

See our interview with Laura Gitman Laura Gitman Laura Gitman is a global expert on corporate sustainability with two decades of experience in strategy consulting . She has advised senior executives at global companies on sustainability issues . Laura has also been a leader in BSR ’ s organizational growth and impact . She launched BSR ’ s financial services practice and New York office , and she is currently the Chief Impact Officer — the first in the organization ’ s 30 - year history . Chief Impact Officer BSR

S 01 | Ep 26 Sustainability in Action Laura Gitman has spent over 30 years working directly with large corporations to drive sustainable and socially responsible business practices . With more than 300 member companies drawn from the global Fortune 2000 , BSR sits in a genuinely rare position : close enough to business to speak its language , independent enough to push back when companies fall short . This episode is a useful antidote to both the cynics and the idealists . Laura ' s core argument is that sustainability and profitability are not in tension , and in fact the companies most likely to sustain long - term commitments are the ones doing it because it makes business sense . A company that sees real ROI in sustainable practices keeps investing . A company doing it purely for optics eventually stops . The regulatory discussion is worth paying attention to even for audiences outside corporate sustainability . European compliance requirements are effectively setting a global floor , and Laura ' s observation that companies now have to describe what they are actively doing , not simply disclose what they are not doing , marks a meaningful shift . Transparency around action is replacing transparency around data .

See our interview with Llyoed Lobo Lloyed Lobo Lloyed Lobo , an entrepreneur , podcast host , author of a WSJ best - selling book , and a community builder . He experienced the Gulf War as a young refugee in Kuwait , witnessing the strength of the community in evacuating the population to safety . As the co - founder of fintech platform Boast . Al , leveraged the Community - Led Growth model to bootstrap the company to $ 10 million in annual recurring revenue while also co - founding Traction , a community empowering more than 100k innovators through connections , content , and capital . Co - Founder of Boast . Al

S 01 | Ep 27 Bootstrapping to $ 10M + with community - led growth This episode is genuinely energizing and pushes back on a lot of the ambient startup mythology in a way that feels earned rather than contrarian for its own sake . Lloyd ' s central argument is that there is more than one way to build a successful company , and the obsession with unicorn outcomes has left most founders optimizing for someone else ' s definition of success before they have even clarified their own . The most useful framework Lloyd shares is the one he calls starting with a service . Rather than building software and then finding customers , Boast started by delivering the outcome manually , learned exactly what the painful and repetitive parts of the process were , and then built software to automate what they already understood deeply . This is the opposite of building in a vacuum , and it explains why so many well - funded companies launch products that nobody actually wants .

See our interview with RJ Grimshaw RJ Grimshaw RJ Grimshaw is a bona fide expert in business leadership . Coached at a young age by his father , who owned several different companies , RJ learned the ins and outs of business growth and management when he built a million - dollar company at age 22 . After spending twenty years in corporate America , RJ worked his way to the top and , in 2013 , became the President and CEO of UniFi Equipment Finance . Under RJ ’ s leadership and executive direction , UniFi grew from $ 13 million to $ 120 million in 6 years . Founder of The AI CEO

S 01 | Ep 28 Managing a high - growth organization in a mature industry Most leadership conversations orbit the same territory : hire well , communicate clearly , know your customer . RJ Grimshaw covers that ground too , but the engine underneath his approach is something more specific . A certain type of person exists inside almost every organization , quietly taking on problems that are not in their job description , and most companies either ignore them or accidentally drive them away . He calls this person an intrapreneur , and at UniFi he built an entire operating system around finding them , activating them , and keeping them challenged enough to stay . The results were concrete : $ 13 million to over $ 100 million in revenue , 87 % reduction in turnover at one company after deploying the framework , and a payment portal built in ninety days by a salesperson who had no mandate to build anything . The 80 / 20 breakdown he describes , functional employees who execute reliably versus the vital minority who think in systems and seek ownership , is genuinely useful precisely because it resists the startup - world pressure to make everyone a visionary . Too many intrapreneurs and nothing gets finished . Too few and the company stops generating ideas from the people closest to the actual work .

See our interview with Eric West Eric West Eric West is a Strategy and Operations Executive at Kodi Collective , a global leader in traditional and digital printing , print - related services , logistics , and office products . Kodi Collective is currently on a mission to provide innovative solutions for storytellers around the world . Kodi Collective Strategy & Operations Executive

S 01 | Ep 29 The role of customer , buyer , and employee experience in standing out and winning Eric West has spent his career doing something most people only talk about : actually getting new ideas adopted inside large organizations , first at Omnicom and now at Cody Collective , where he leads growth and strategy for a company built from the legacy of RR Donnelley . The conversation is less about any single innovation and more about the conditions that make innovation possible at all . Eric ' s view is that inertia is the real opponent , not skepticism or budget constraints . People default to what they know because it feels safe , and the way to overcome that is not a better pitch deck but a smaller , lower - risk first step that creates visible evidence before anyone has to commit to anything bigger . Eric discusses how companies routinely sell transformation while delivering the opposite experience to the very people they are trying to convince . Eric ' s point is that the first interaction is not just a sales moment , it is a live demonstration of what it will feel like to work with you , and most organizations have not thought seriously about that .

See our interview with Alan Lazaros Alan Lazaros Alan Lazaros is the host of the Next Level University podcast and CEO of Next Level University . With over 1 , 500 episodes broadcast , his podcast ranks among the top podcasts for self - development . Alan ' s expertise extends beyond the mic ; he ' s a peak performance business coach , using his background in computer engineering and an MBA to offer unique insights . Boasting 900K + listens , and a global presence in 160 + countries , Alan Lazaros is a powerhouse in the world of self - improvement and entrepreneurial guidance ! CEO , Founder , & Co - host of Next Level University

S 01 | Ep 30 Breaking the Mold Alan Lazarus built Next Level University over nine years , recorded more than 1 , 500 podcast episodes , and now coaches clients across 160 countries on what he calls the integration of personal and professional development . In this episode the central tension he keeps returning to is one most people quietly recognize but rarely name : career success and life satisfaction are treated as separate projects , and the people who excel at one tend to neglect the other . The most professionally polished person he has ever coached had never read a book on relationships . Some of his most emotionally intelligent listeners are struggling financially . His argument is that the split is artificial and increasingly costly . He discusses his pushback on how happiness gets sold . The version circulating on social media , the frictionless life , the perfect family photo , the optimized morning routine , is not just unrealistic . Alan concludes that it is actively misleading because it suggests meaning is available without struggle , which he thinks is simply false . Struggle creates growth , growth creates meaning , and anyone looking for a life without difficulty is going to be permanently confused about why something feels wrong .

See our interview with Clare Price Clare Price Clare Price is the president and CEO of Octain Growth Systems and the author of the book “ Smart Marketing Execution : How to Accelerate Profitability , Performance , and Productivity ”. This book teaches you how to turn a $ 1 million company into a $ 10 million one , then into a $ 100 million or even a $ 1 billion company . It answers the two key questions for those wandering in the marketing desert : " Where do I go ?" and " How do I get there ?" President and CEO of Octain Growth Systems

S 01 | Ep 31 The Most Important Marketing Execution Strategies for Business Growth Claire Price asks whether there is a strategic blueprint , and the answer is almost always no . From there , most things about a company ' s marketing stagnation make sense . Her book , Smart Marketing Execution , is organized around the gap between having a growth ambition and having a system capable of achieving it . The companies she works with are not failing because of bad ideas . They are failing because ideas without architecture produce chaos , and chaos cannot scale . Claire and Alex spend a meaningful portion of the episode on something most marketing conversations avoid entirely : why good content still fails . Their shared conclusion is that the message and the experience of receiving that message are two completely separate problems , and most companies only solve the first one . A well - researched white paper delivered as an 80 - page PDF is not a content asset . It is a barrier . The dating metaphor they build together is worth the listen on its own . The point is not just that content should be gradual , it is that each interaction should be informed by the previous one . B2C brands have been doing this for years through behavioral data . B2B companies , with far more expensive sales cycles and far more at stake in each relationship , mostly still send the same generic follow - up to everyone .

See our interview with Mitchell Levy Mitchell Levy Mitchell Levy is a TED speaker and an international bestselling author of over 60 books . Mitchell created dozens of businesses in the Valley , including 4 publishing companies that have published over 850 books . Mitchell has also provided strategic consulting to hundreds of companies and has been the Chairman of a NASDAQ - listed company . He is one of the top hundred coaches in Marshall Goldsmith ’ s organization . 2x TEDx Global Credibility Expert at Credibility Nation

S 01 | Ep 32 Fostering Strong Connections and Credible Messaging through Gratitude Mitchell Levy has spent years thinking about why smart , capable people fail to communicate what they actually do , and his answer is simpler than most people want it to be : they lack clarity before they lack anything else . The live exercise in this episode is worth experiencing rather than just reading about . Alex sits down thinking he has a clear sense of what RELAYTO does , and Mitchell walks him through a ten - word framing exercise that exposes how much ground a confident communicator can cover while still leaving the listener uncertain about who exactly is being served . The process is not about reducing a complex business to a slogan . It is about finding the specific words that make the right person lean in and ask to hear more . Mitchell draws a distinction that runs through everything he does : credibility is not a credential , it is a quality built from being trusted , known , and liked . Those three things cannot be faked , which is why his critique of " fake it till you make it " is so direct . His alternative is not slower or more cautious . It is more honest , finding someone who already trusts you and offering to do the work at low or no cost while being transparent about where you are in your learning . That approach tends to build advocates rather than skeptics .

See our interview with Greg Head Greg Head Greg Head is a software industry veteran with three CRM startups under his belt , including one IPO . He has been in the software Tech startup space for over 30 years . Greg is an advisor to 40 practical SaaS Founders all over the world . He hosts the weekly Practical Founders podcast , interviewing successful entrepreneurs who grew valuable software companies without big funding . Greg also publishes the “ Greg ’ s list ”, his curated up - to - date list of software companies in Phoenix , Dallas , Toronto , and other cities outside Silicon Valley . Founder of Practical Founders

S 01 | Ep 33 The Power of Positioning and Narrative in Marketing Greg Head spent three decades building software companies , took one to IPO , and now spends his time talking to hundreds of founders a year who are doing something the startup press rarely covers : building valuable software businesses without venture capital . Greg proposes that VC funding is not ingerently bad , however the model has changed in ways most founders do not fully understand . Funds got bigger , which means minimum check sizes got bigger , which means the pressure to deploy capital early and grow fast got more intense . The result is founders getting rocket fuel before they have built a rocket , and the predictable explosions that follow . What he is seeing instead , across forty companies in his peer group and conversations with hundreds more , is that the experimentation phase that leads to genuine product - market fit actually requires time and tries , not money . The Canva founders built related companies before Canva . The Webflow founders shipped two earlier versions .

See our interview with Timothy Chou Timothy Chou Dr . Timothy Chou consults for Fortune 500 companies and serves on the public company board of Teradata . He was one of only three people to ever hold the title of President at Oracle . While at Oracle , he authored his first landmark book , ' The End of Software '. Dr . Timothy Chou has been a lecturer at Stanford University for 30 - plus years . He is also a Founder of Pediatric Moonshot and BevelCloud startups . 3x Oracle President , Director or Teradata

S 01 | Ep 34 How to Leave a Lasting Impression with Storytelling in Business and Life Dr . Timothy Chu has spent four decades at the center of technology transitions , from the early days of enterprise computing through the cloud revolution he helped lead at Oracle , and now into what he sees as the beginning of a fifteen to twenty year AI journey . He teaches at Stanford , sits on public company boards , and is currently building what he calls the Pediatric Moonshot , a distributed AI platform for children ' s healthcare . In this episode Tim states that most pitches fail not because the product is bad but because the presenter spends all their time explaining why their baby is beautiful rather than explaining why the current situation is broken . Martin Luther King ' s actual job , in this reading , was convincing people not to judge his children by the color of their skin . The dream was the payoff . The not was the work . The structural insight he draws from analyzing great speeches and great films is that conflict is not decorative . Without it there is no story , only a product brochure . The oscillation between where we are and where we could be , repeated and escalated , is what creates the tension that makes people lean in and , more importantly , retell the story to someone who was not in the room .

See our interview with Pete Flint Pete Flint Pete Flint is a British entrepreneur and investor , best known for co - founding Trulia , an online real estate platform , where he served as CEO until its $ 3 . 5 billion merger with Zillow in 2015 . Before Trulia , he was part of the founding team at lastminute . com , a European online travel marketplace acquired for $ 1 . 1 billion . Currently , Flint is a founding partner at NFX , a venture capital firm specializing in early - stage investments in network - effect businesses . He is also involved in several boards and was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) in 2021 for his entrepreneurial achievements . 2x Unicorn Founder , Co - Founder & Former CEO of Trulia , Founding Partner at NFX

S 01 Ep 35 | Navigating Market Disruptions and Making Strategic Decisions Pete Flint built Trulia from a Stanford dorm room to a $ 3 . 5 billion exit , raising only $ 33 million before going public , and now runs NFX , a fund whose entire thesis is organized around network effects . The conversation covers the full arc honestly , from early fundraising mistakes where Pete learned that investors cared more about consumer interface than data infrastructure , through the 2008 financial crisis that accidentally revealed a better business model when inbound complaints from real estate agents turned into a high - converting sales channel nobody had planned for , to a clear - eyed account of why he chose to sell a company he loved once the competition shifted from product differentiation to marketing spend . In this episode Pete reframes network effects not as a Silicon Valley concept but as something closer to a law of nature , visible in medieval trade routes and B2B software alike , and argues that the vast majority of durable value creation on the internet traces back to them . For founders the practical message is about sequencing : solve a real problem first , establish honest unit economics , then build the layer on top that makes you genuinely hard to displace .

See our interview with Victoria Pelletier Victoria Pelletier Victoria Pelletier is a C - Suite Transformational Leader , speaker , and author . By the time Victoria was 24 years old , she was a COO of a multinational corporation . Now with 20 + years in corporate leadership , Victoria has held senior roles in companies such as Accenture , IBM , and American Express . Victoria was named one of the 50 most influential business leaders in technology by Insight Success . She is the author of the book “ Influence Unleashed ” which is about harnessing the power of your unique story to create a brand that stands the test of time . C - Suite Transformational Leader , Speaker , & CEO .

S 01 | Ep 36 Authenticity Unleashed Victoria Pellier was a CEO of a multinational corporation at 24 , spent decades leading at Accenture , IBM , and American Express , and has spent the years since trying to articulate what she wishes someone had told her earlier : that the parts of yourself you are most tempted to hide are usually the parts that make you most effective . The conversation moves between personal brand , resilience , and authentic leadership , but the thread running through all of it is the same . Victoria spent years showing up as the Iron Maiden , all business , no vulnerability , and it worked up to a point . The course correction came when she realized that trust , the thing that actually moves careers and client relationships forward , requires the courage to share something real . Her three practical tips for building genuine connection are deceptively simple : be intentional about creating space for it , find the specific point of commonality quickly , and offer a small vulnerability first to signal that the other person can do the same . What makes the episode worth listening to is that Victoria does not make any of this sound easy or costless . She talks about baby steps , about earning comfort with your own story by telling it in small settings before large ones , and about giving yourself permission to evolve publicly without treating that as a failure of consistency .

See our interview with Jay Johnson Jay Johnson Jay Johnson is the CEO of Coeus Creative Group – a professional training , coaching and management consulting firm . Jay has spent more than 15 years guiding leaders in organizational culture , working with companies such as Ford Motor Company , NASA , General Dynamics , Stellantis , Kentucky Fried Chicken , Johns Hopkins and Nikon . He is an active keynote speaker , author , and he has many millions of views on his TEDx talk on how to deal with difficult people . CEO of Coeus Creative Group

S 01 | Ep 37 Unleashing the Power of Communication Jay Johnson studies why people find each other difficult , and his answer is more interesting than you might expect . Most friction between people comes not from bad intentions but from mismatched underlying drives , the biological motivations that shape how we work , decide , and communicate . Someone wired to acquire and learn will clash with someone wired to bond and defend , and both will be convinced the other person is the problem . This episode moves from that foundation into something more practical : how do we communicate in ways that actually land , especially asynchronously ? Jay ' s framework is built around the uncomfortable fact that only seven percent of communication comes from the words themselves , with the rest carried by tone , body language , and context that digital formats routinely strip out . His solutions are low - tech but underused : name your tone explicitly at the top of an email , send a short voice note alongside a message with ambiguous content , and read your own proposals out loud to check whether they sound like someone you would want to listen to . Jay and Alex build toward a shared belief that the monologue model of communication is failing people at the exact moment when the ideas that need communicating are most complex .

See our interview with Brett Putter Brett Putter Brett Putter is an author and specialist in the field of organizational culture development . He is the founder and CEO of CultureGene , a Culture Leadership Platform supporting companies to build high - performance hybrid and digital - first cultures . Brett has published two books on company culture : " Culture Decks Decoded " and " Own Your Culture ". Founder & CEO of CultureGene

S 01 | Ep 38 Revolutionizing Company Culture Brett Putter has spent years studying how the best remote - first companies actually operate , not the pandemic version of remote work where everyone moved their office habits onto Zoom , but organizations like GitLab , Buffer , and Hotjar that built their cultures from scratch around distributed teams . His core argument is that most companies are running a post - pandemic reality on a pre - pandemic operating system , and the gap is quietly grinding them down . In this episode Brett introduces the concept of emotional proximity as the remote substitute for physical proximity , and argues it is not a consolation prize but a genuinely powerful tool when used intentionally . Leaders who recognize the moments that matter for their people , birthdays , project milestones , a difficult week , and call them out specifically , build the social capital that makes everything else move faster . The CEO who sends a handwritten note to a new employee ' s partner is not doing something sentimental ; he is building a bond that will survive a thousand Slack messages .

See our interview with Alex Theuma Alex Theuma After 11 years of sales experience in IT , Telecoms & Cloud , Alex Theuma started a blog on SaaS called SaaScribe . This soon caught on , and he built a powerful network across the SaaS founder and investor community . The blog led to the creation of the first - ever podcast on B2B SaaS , called The SaaS Revolution Show . That led to the first exclusively SaaS - themed meetups in London , Dublin , and Berlin . Since then , SaaStock has become the biggest B2B SaaS Conference in Europe . It has become the world ’ s most impactful conference for SaaS founders on the journey to $ 10M + Annual Recurring Revenue and beyond . Founder SaaStock

S 01 | Ep 39 Elevating SaaS Events Alex Theuma built SaaStock from a bedroom podcast into Europe ' s largest B2B SaaS conference , drawing around 4 , 000 attendees to Dublin each year and expanding into the US . The conversation is part founder story , part pattern recognition from eight years of conversations with hundreds of SaaS CEOs and CMOs . This episode covers a lot of ground but the most useful parts are the observations that come from that kind of accumulated exposure . On marketing leadership , Alex is direct : the CMO role has the shortest tenure in the C - suite , often because companies hire wrong and lose patience fast . The exceptions , like the CMO who joined Muse . com at $ 10M ARR and was still there at $ 100M , tend to be the defining factor in a company ' s trajectory . On ICP , he notes a shift happening right now where SaaS companies that used to sell to one clear persona are suddenly selling to the CFO , the CRO , and the CMO simultaneously , which multiplies messaging complexity in ways most teams are not prepared for . His advice for founders on the path to $ 10M ARR distills to three things : build a genuine support network of peers and coaches rather than going it alone , stay relentlessly curious and learning , and stay close to customers because they hold the answers .

See our interview with Kristjan Vilosius Kristjan Vilosius Kristjan Vilosius is the Co - Founder and CEO of Katana – manufacturing ERP software for total visibility . Before Katana , Kristjan was the CEO of one of the largest investment firms in Estonia and had been an angel investor for nearly a decade in technology and manufacturing . He was excited by the impact of these two worlds merging and could see the need for a more modern solution to the outdated business suites of the 90s . With this inspiration , a 10 - slide presentation became the beginning of Katana . Co - Founder and CEO of Katana Cloud Inventory

S 01 Ep 40 | Unleashing the Power of Passion Kristjan Vilosius co - founded Katana after a frustrating personal experience trying to find inventory management software for a direct - to - consumer manufacturing business . What he found was an industry dominated by expensive , slow - to - implement enterprise suites that treated usability as an afterthought . Seven years later , Katana serves customers in 80 countries and has raised $ 50 million to keep chipping away at what SAP and Oracle have built over decades . The conversation is grounded in two origin stories that turn out to be related . Estonia ' s remarkable startup density traces directly to Skype , whose Estonian engineering team created a spillover effect that seeded dozens of subsequent companies , including Bolt and Wise . The shared cultural trait running through all of them , Christian argues , is resourcefulness born from constraint . No home market forces you to go global from day one . Soviet - era scarcity builds a DNA of doing more with less . Bolt competes with Uber not by outspending it but by running leaner . Katana applies that same logic to a market where the incumbents have historically competed on comprehensiveness rather than experience .

See our interview with Oren Klaff Oren Klaff Oren Klaff is a seasoned investment banker and author of the bestselling books Pitch Anything and Flip the Script . He is the Director of Capital Markets at Intersection Capital , where he has raised over $ 400 million using his unique pitching methods . Klaff ' s approach combines sales psychology and neuroscience to teach professionals how to control conversations , establish authority , and close high - stakes deals . Bestselling Author

S 01 Ep 41 | Discovering Sales and Negotiation Secrets through Innovative Pitching Strategies Oren Klaff wrote Pitch Anything , which has sold a million copies and become standard reading at most major business schools and across Silicon Valley . He has closed over 250 equity transactions . The episode is less an interview than a live demonstration of everything he teaches . In this episode the conversation centers around the fact that most deals are lost not because of the product or the price but because of what is happening beneath the surface of every negotiation : status , frame control , intrigue , and the unspoken social dynamics that determine who is chasing whom . Oren explains why starting a pitch with company background and product features is exactly backwards , why the only close that actually works is " looks like we ' re running out of time , what should we be doing here ," and why giving someone certainty about their own industry ' s future is more powerful than any value proposition . Oren constructs a live pitch for RELAYTO mid - conversation , reframing the product not as a presentation tool but as the answer to a world where AI has driven the cost of content to zero and context has become the only thing that matters .

See our interview with Mary Poppen Mary Poppen Mary Poppen is President and Chief Customer Officer of HRIZONS Employee Experience and Professor of Practice at Michigan State University , teaching in the Customer Experience Management ( CXM ) Master ’ s Degree program . She is also a CS Angel investor . Mary has experience building world - class teams and processes for early startups including SuccessFactors , Glint and Involve . ai , as well as large organizations including SAP and LinkedIn . She is also the author of a book entitled “ Goodbye , Churn . Hello , Growth !” President and COO of HRIZONS

S 01 | Ep 42 Revolutionizing Customer Experience Mary Poppin grounds the conversation in decades of watching what actually separates companies that retain customers from those that lose them . Most organizations intellectually accept but operationally ignore : employee experience and customer experience are not parallel tracks but a single system . Disengaged employees produce disengaged customers , and the loop runs in both directions . The companies that treat this as a shared accountability problem rather than a departmental one see measurably better outcomes in retention , revenue , and culture . On building customer centricity across functions , Mary emphasizes that clarity about the shared mission matters more than role definitions , and that employees often need explicit permission to act on behalf of customers rather than assuming they already have it . On scaling customer success , she describes the natural inflection point around $ 20 to $ 30 million in revenue where high - touch support becomes unsustainable and segmentation becomes necessary , and how to navigate that transition without making customers feel abandoned . On handling feedback from employees and customers alike , she returns repeatedly to the same principle : being heard is a fundamental human need , and acknowledging input honestly , even when you cannot act on it , is what keeps people engaged .

See our interview with Nathan Beckord Nathan Beckord Nathan Beckord is the CEO of Foundersuite , a solution for startups looking to raise money , and Fundingstack for VCs and I - Bankers . Prior to starting Foundersuite , Nathan spent ten years working with over 150 startups as interim CFO , Business Developer and Advisor . CEO of Foundersuite

S 01 | Ep 43 Understanding Investor Communications Nathan Beckord built FounderSuite to solve a problem he understood from both sides , having worked in investment banking before building tools for the startup ecosystem . The episode is a practical walkthrough of what actually works in fundraising communications , filtered through hundreds of interviews on his podcast " How I Raised It " and the behavioral data from thousands of founders using his platform . Investors are processing hundreds of intros per day , often on their phones between meetings , and they are spending seconds not minutes on each one . The founders who break through send short emails that surface one compelling signal and link to a five - slide teaser . Everything else comes later , progressively , as the relationship deepens . Sending a 45 - slide deck in the first email is not thorough , it is disqualifying . The investor feedback problem is handled with characteristic directness . VCs are smart and opinionated and frequently wrong about your specific business . The right move is to look for patterns across multiple conversations . If six out of seven investors are confused by your go - to - market is a signal worth acting on , but one VC ' s suggestion to pivot your entire market is usually noise Nathan suggests weighing customer and user feedback ten times more heavily than investor feedback .

See our interview with Barry LaBov Barry LaBov Barry LaBov is the President and CEO of LaBov Marketing Communications and Training . He is a former rock musician as well as a globally recognized and respected author , speaker , brand strategist and channel engagement specialist . Barry is a two - time Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year recipient and an inductee into the Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame . His book ” The Power of Differentiation ” provides real - world experiences and actionable recommendations for leaders seeking to differentiate their brands and products . President & CEO of LaBov Marketing Communications & Training

S 01 | Ep 44 The Power of Aligning Marketing , Customer Experience and Team Engagement Barry Labov has spent his career helping companies escape what he calls the commodity monster , the trap where undifferentiated brands have only one direction to move : cheaper , faster , lower quality . His book is The Power of Differentiation , and his central argument is captured in a single phrase : marry the message to the experience . The episode opens with a deceptively simple observation that most companies violate constantly . A brilliant product can be destroyed by a bad experience , and customers do not distinguish between the two . They do not walk away thinking " the car was great but the dealership was terrible ." They walk away thinking the brand is terrible . Barry is quick to separate differentiation from perfection , which he calls its own trap . Customers are not looking for flawless execution . They are looking for sincerity and respect . When something goes wrong , how a company responds is actually the highest - leverage moment in the entire customer relationship . Research consistently shows that a problem well - resolved creates more loyalty than no problem at all .

See our interview with Miruna Dragomir Miruna Dragomir Miruna Dragomir is the Chief Marketing Officer of Planable , a content collaboration tool for social media teams . Miruna has been leading the growth efforts at Planable for the past six years and in that time the company went from 50 to 6K active customers . Prior to Planable , Miruna was part of Uber ' s marketing team and Oracle ' s social media team . CMO of Planable

S 01 | Ep 45 How to Thrive in the Ever - Changing Landscape of Social Media Marketing Miruna Draghici grew Planable from 50 to 66 , 000 customers as CMO , which gives her a useful vantage point on what actually works in B2B marketing when you are both resource - constrained and marketing to marketers who can see through every tired tactic . In this episode Miruna describes a simple cold / warm / hot framework that forces every campaign to answer the question " what does this audience already know about us ?" before deciding on messaging . An AI feature launch means something completely different to an existing power user than it does to someone who has never heard of the product . On product adoption , she makes the counterintuitive point that churn prevention starts at onboarding , not at the renewal conversation . By the time someone is leaving , the decision is already made . The first two or three months of usage determine whether a customer ever builds the habits that make the product sticky . She also talks about building in public as a content strategy , specifically the lift - conversion effect of showing what is actually happening behind the scenes rather than producing polished thought leadership .

See our interview with Daniel Melkersson Daniel Melkersson Daniel Melkersson is a former CEO and is now a Board Member of PinMeTo . PinMeTo is a location marketing platform for multi - location enterprises , including Starbucks , DHL , H & M , 7 - Eleven , Volvo and Hertz . Co - Founder of PinMeTo

S 01 | Ep 46 Navigating Cultural Differences and Consensus in the Retail and Multi - Location Space Market Daniel Melkersson , former CEO and current board member of PinMeTo , a location marketing platform serving global retail giants like Starbucks , H & M , and DHL , joins the show to share what it takes to build a successful B2B tech company from Sweden . In this episode Daniel reflects on his unconventional path from band member and experience agency founder to leading a SaaS company now operating in 120 countries . He explains how PinMeTo grew by first dominating the Swedish market before pursuing global brands , using a disciplined outbound sales strategy to break into enterprise accounts . Daniel discusses the art of selling to marketers , including the importance of showing customers their own problems visually rather than describing them in abstract terms . He shares how PinMeTo built a multicultural sales hub in Gdansk , Poland , and why strong customer success has been a bigger competitive advantage than chasing the latest technology trends . Daniel also offers a candid take on why European companies should think carefully before pouring resources into the US market . He closes with a piece of advice he lives by personally and professionally , which is to never be afraid to try something new , even if it means starting from scratch .

See our interview with Stan Christensen Stan Christensen Stan Christensen is a Lecturer at Stanford University teaching a legendary Negotiations class . After graduating from Harvard Business School he joined consulting arm of The Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School . In this capacity he traveled to over 75 countries and worked with corporations and governments , negotiating transactions and mediating conflicts . And most recently he applied these lessons as a founder and managing partner of an entrepreneur - focused investment bank . Standford University Lecturer

S 01 | Ep 47 The Power of Proactive Engagement in Successful Negotiation Processes Stan Christensen , consulting professor at Stanford University and founder of Arbor Advisers , joins the show to share lessons from a career spent negotiating some of the world ' s most complex conflicts across more than 75 countries . In this episode Stan reframes negotiation not as a tactical game of winning and losing , but as the foundation of building lasting relationships over time . He explains why preparation and having a clear framework puts anyone ahead of most people they will ever negotiate with , and walks through how entrepreneurs can take control of fundraising and acquisition conversations by running parallel processes rather than reacting to investors and buyers . Stan also breaks down the critical difference between interests and positions , showing how understanding what people actually care about opens up solutions that a rigid back and forth never would . Stan discusses the importance of building trust slowly and being trustworthy rather than simply looking for trustworthy counterparts . He closes with book recommendations including works by David Brooks , Michael Sandel , and Jonathan Haidt , and reflects on why stronger relationships and a spirit of genuine inquiry matter more than ever in an increasingly polarized world .

See our interview with Dmitri Alperovitch Dmitri Alperovitch Dmitri Alperovitch is the Co - Founder & CTO of CrowdStrike ( NASDAQ : CRWD , Market Cap : $ 85bn ), Chairman at Silverado Policy Accelerator , National Bestselling Author ( World on the Brink ), and Host of the Geopolitics Decanted podcast . He is the host and creator of Silverado ’ s popular “ Geopolitics Decanted ” podcast , dedicated to expert analysis of the war in Ukraine and as well as broader issues related to great power competition with China and Russia , security in the Indo - Pacific , industrial policy , semiconductors and cybersecurity . Co - Founder & CTO of CrowdStrike

S 01 | Ep 48 Deep Dive : Navigating the Complexities of Global Power Dynamics Dmitri Alperovitch , co - founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike and author of the national bestselling book World on the Brink , joins the show to share his perspective on cybersecurity , geopolitics , and what he calls Cold War II . This episode covers Dmitri as he traces his path from immigrating to the United States to becoming one of the most influential voices in both cybersecurity and foreign policy , explaining how his early insight that America does not have a cyber problem but rather a China , Russia , Iran , and North Korea problem became the foundation for CrowdStrike ' s success . He walks through the five factors he identified months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine that convinced him Putin was not bluffing , and draws a direct parallel to why he believes China intends to invade Taiwan before 2028 . Dmitri explains why Taiwan matters far beyond semiconductor manufacturing , arguing it represents the key to whether China can break free of its geographic containment and project naval power globally . He also addresses where American foreign policy has gone wrong , why moralizing about democracy has pushed neutral nations toward China and Russia , and why deterrence in the next few years is the single most important action the United States can take to avoid a catastrophic war .

See our interview with Dmitry Shevelenko Dmitry Shevelenko Dmitry Shevelenko is the Chief Business Officer at Perplexity AI , which has raised $ 165 million in funding and is valued at over $ 1 billion . Its investors include big names like Jeff Bezos , Nvidia , Databricks and others . Previously , Dmitri served as a co - founder and President at Tortoise . He gained experience by working at various leading mobility and future of work companies : Uber , LinkedIn and Meta . Chief Business Officer at Perplexity AI

S 01 | Ep 49 Balancing Act Dmitri Shevelenko , Chief Business Officer at Perplexity AI , joins Alex for a conversation about building products people love , the art of timing in startups , and what it takes to compete at the highest level in the AI industry . Dmitri talks about his career path through Facebook , LinkedIn , and Uber , identifying a common thread across each stop , he only joined companies whose products he genuinely loved using himself . He explains how Perplexity arrived at exactly the right moment , when large language models became sophisticated enough to deliver natural language answers at speed , and why that timing made all the difference . Dmitri walks through the core product priorities of accuracy , speed , and readability , and how the team constantly balances those tensions to create an experience that saves users time while activating their natural curiosity . He discusses how a lean team with an obsessive focus on execution has allowed Perplexity to outpace much larger competitors , and why adding headcount often slows companies down rather than speeding them up . Dmitri also shares lessons from founding Tortoise , a robotics startup that ultimately did not succeed , and what that experience of pivoting , persevering , and eventually knowing when to stop taught him about resilience and ownership .

See our interview with David Karel David Karel David Karel is the CMO at CrunchTime and Zenput . Previously , he was the CMO of Bizo , which was bought by LinkedIn , where David spearheaded and led B2B marketing solutions , and Clari , a unicorn in the sales productivity space . CMO at CrunchTime and Zenput

S 01 | Ep 50 Navigating the Evolving Landscape of AI David Carell , four - time B2B CMO and current CMO at CrunchTime , joins the show to share lessons from over two decades of building marketing engines from the ground up . In this episode David reflects on his early days as the first marketing hire at Bizo , the B2B adtech company that was later acquired by LinkedIn . He explains why his first two hires were a strong writer and a graphic designer rather than demand generation specialists , and how that bet on content and brand credibility paid off far more than chasing leads ever would have . David discusses the critical importance of building marketing and sales as a single go - to - market team from day one , sharing how shared KPIs , attending sales quarterly business reviews , and a culture of shared credit have made the difference between teams that trust each other and teams that spend their energy fighting over attribution . He challenges the marketing industry ' s obsession with low - bar tactics like gated ebooks and form fills , arguing that the highest goal of any campaign should be changing the way a prospect thinks , not collecting an email address . David also reflects on how the democratization of marketing tools has created more noise than ever , and why deep audience prioritization combined with genuinely substantive content is the only real way to break through .

See our interview with Jim Yu Jim Yu Jim Yu is the founding CEO and now Executive Chair of BrightEdge , which is the number one enterprise search engine optimization platform . It has over $ 100 million in revenue and is used by 57 Fortune 100 companies . Founding CEO & Executive Chair of BrightEdge

S 01 | Ep 51 Exploring the Complex Landscape of B2B Marketing Jim Yu , founding CEO and executive chair of BrightEdge , the number one enterprise SEO platform used by over half of the Fortune 500 , joins the show to share lessons from 16 years of building a category - defining marketing technology company . Jim opens with the origin story of BrightEdge , including how he bootstrapped the company ' s data infrastructure by cycling machines through Costco ' s return policy while his co - founder slept on his couch , and reflects on how growing up as the son of immigrants in a South Dakota trailer park gave him the resilience and creative problem - solving instincts that carried him through the hardest moments of building the company . He explains how the fundamental purpose of search has never changed even as the technology around it has , and walks through what the rise of generative AI search engines means for enterprise marketers , including why brand authority , topical relevance , and proper schema tagging are just as critical in an AI - powered search world as they were before . Jim discusses the challenge of gated content and PDF - heavy content strategies , explaining why companies that lock their most substantive work behind forms are undermining their own authority in both traditional and AI - driven search .

See our interview with JD Schramm JD Schramm JD Schramm has over 20 years of experience teaching graduate - level courses on communications at Stanford , USC , Columbia , and NYU . He ' s written the book “ Communicate with mastery : Speak with conviction and write for impact ”. JD helps clients prepare for venues like Davos or TED Talks , secure a round of funding , nail a job interview or win a pitch . NACD Certified Board Director Candidate , Communication Edcuator , Author

S 01 | Ep 52 Breaking Barriers JD Schramm , communications professor at Stanford , USC , Columbia , and NYU and author of " Communicate with Mastery ," joins the show to share practical frameworks for leaders who want to communicate with greater clarity , conviction , and impact . JD opens by challenging the common assumption that communication is a soft or delegable skill , arguing that leadership failures almost always have a communication failure underneath them . He walks through the AIM framework , which stands for audience , intent , and message , explaining why so many presentations and documents fall flat because they were built around what the creator wanted to share rather than what the audience actually needs to hear . JD and Alex explore the idea that the experience of consuming content is itself part of the message , discussing how the mismatch between substantive B2B content and friction - heavy delivery formats quietly undermines the trust companies are trying to build . JD offers three immediately actionable pieces of advice for anyone wanting to improve their visual communications : know your AIM before creating anything , eliminate clutter ruthlessly , and replace topic headers with genuine headlines that contain a verb and a point of view .

See our interview with Craig Rosenberg Craig Rosenberg Craig Rosenberg is a Chief Platform Officer at Scale Venture Partners where he helps over 50 portfolio companies build go - to - market machines . He co - founded and was a Chief Analyst at TOPO , which really defined the sales tech space . That company was acquired by Gartner where Craig was one of the leaders in the sales practice . Chief Platform Officer at Scale Venture Partners

S 01 | Ep 53 The Evolution of B2B Content Craig Rosenberg , Chief Platform Officer at Scale Venture Partners and co - founder of TOPO , joins the show to share lessons from over a decade of defining , analyzing , and advising on go - to - market strategy for B2B technology companies . Craig reflects on how the earliest marketing automation companies like Marketo , Eloqua , and HubSpot won by treating content as a competitive battlefield and committing fully to category - defining moves rather than cautiously testing small bets , and argues that same go - big mentality is even more necessary today when noise is everywhere and AI can instantly generate generic content for anyone . He introduces the idea that specificity wins , explaining why the most valuable content has always been actionable , detailed , and focused on genuinely vexing problems rather than broad topics that everyone is already covering . Craig discusses the enduring paradox of content density , observing that buyers claim to want short and digestible formats but consistently assign more credibility to longer , denser materials , even when they never read them fully . He walks through the evolution of demos and product tours , arguing that automation and self - selection tools are finally giving buyers the relevant , use - case - specific experiences that top sales reps used to create manually through days of preparation .

See our interview with Tim Ash Tim Ash Tim Ash is a highly - rated keynote speaker , presenter , and bestselling author of “ Unleash Your Primal Brain ” and “ Landing Page Optimization ” ( over 50 , 000 copies sold worldwide and translated into six languages ). Keynote Speaker , Best Selling Author

S 01 | Ep 54 The Role of Social Proof and Defaults in Influencing Consumer Choices Tim Ash joins the show to share lessons from two decades of applying evolutionary psychology to marketing and digital growth . Tim opens by explaining why neuromarketing is simply psychology applied to marketing , and why understanding how emotions drive decisions , rather than rational thinking , is the most important foundation any marketer can build . He argues that the rational brain never actually makes decisions on its own , it only supplies options that our emotional and subconscious systems rank and choose from , meaning that marketers who rely purely on data and features are fundamentally misunderstanding how people buy . Tim introduces the concept of the full customer journey as a sequence of micro - conversions , pushing back against the instinct to focus all energy at the bottom of the funnel and arguing that content supporting awareness and education , long before a company can make money , is where trust is won or lost . He discusses choice architecture , smart defaults , and social accountability as the most reliable tools for nudging lasting behavior change rather than one - time conversions .

See our interview with Mike Maples Mike Maples Mike Maples Jr . is a co - founding Partner at Floodgate . He has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade . Before becoming a full - time investor , Mike was a founder with an exit . Some of his investments include Twitter , Twitch . tv , Okta , Chegg , and Demandforce . Mike also co - authored the book “ Pattern Breakers : Why Some Start - Ups Change the Future ”. Founding Patner at Floodgate

S 01 | Ep 55 Mastering the Art of Seed Investing and Startup Innovation Mike Maples Jr ., co - founding partner of Floodgate and eight - time Forbes Midas List honoree , joins the show to share the framework behind his book " Pattern Breakers " and what separates startups that change the future from those that merely compete in the present . Mike opens with the origin story of seed investing , explaining how he identified a gap between angel checks and Series A rounds at a moment when lean startup thinking was beginning to emerge , and how he used that insight as a pitch filter to quickly find investors who were ready to believe in a new future rather than wasting time convincing skeptics . Mike walks through his three - part breakthrough framework : the insight breakthrough , which requires a non - consensus view of the future powered by real inflections ; the product - market fit breakthrough , defined as finding what you can uniquely offer that people are desperate for ; and the growth breakthrough , which is the exponential word - of - mouth escape velocity that follows when the first two are right . Mike also unpacks founder - future fit , the idea that certain founders are authentically matched to certain futures , and why the right kind of disagreeableness looks very different depending on who you are .

See our interview with Whitney Boyer Whitney Boyer Whitney Boyer is a dynamic force in marketing , with high - impact roles like Chief Marketing Officer at LHD Benefit Advisors , Vice President of Marketing & Driver Recruitment at Celadon Group Inc ., and Director of Marketing at Quality Companies , LLC . She expertly manages marketing budgets , creates lead generation campaigns , oversees social media teams , coordinates trade shows , and optimizes Google Analytics and Adwords . CMO at LHD

S 01 | Ep 56 From Confusion to Clarity Whitney Boyer , CMO of LHD Benefits , joins the show to share how a small marketing team is using technology to transform employee benefits communication for hundreds of clients across the country . Whitney opens by explaining the unique challenge her team faces : serving a value chain that runs from insurance carriers through employers , HR teams , and finance leaders all the way down to individual employees and their families , each of whom needs to understand complex benefit decisions in a way that is accessible and relevant to them . In this episode Whitney explains how embedding AI - powered chat into these experiences has become one of the company ' s biggest differentiators , allowing employees to ask specific questions and get answers sourced directly from plan documents , with citations , rather than waiting on hold with a carrier or putting the burden on an already - stretched HR team . She also walks through how the same approach transformed LHD ' s RFP process , turning 45 - page documents into interactive hubs that prospects can navigate and query , which the company credits for winning new business because finalists can experience the technology rather than just hear about it .

See our interview with Park Howell Park Howell Park Howell is an Emmy Award - winning business storytelling coach at the Business of Story and the author of The Narrative Gym for Business and Brand Bewitchery . Emmy Award - Winning Business Storytelling Coach & Author

S 01 | Ep 57 Mastering the Art of Customer - Centric Storytelling in Business Park Howell , award - winning business storytelling coach , author of " Brand Bewitchery " and " The Narrative Gym for Business ," and host of the Business of Story podcast , joins the show to share why the most important shift any marketer or leader can make is moving from a brand - centric to an audience - centric story . Park opens by explaining how studying Hollywood screenwriting frameworks in the early 2000s , while his son attended film school , led him to realize that the hero ' s journey was the ideal template for a customer journey , and that brands consistently make the mistake of casting themselves as the hero when it is always the customer who plays that role . He introduces the ABT framework , which stands for and , but , therefore , a three - part narrative structure built on agreement , contradiction , and consequence that mirrors how the brain ' s pattern - seeking , problem - solving limbic system naturally wants to receive information . Park and Alex have a spirited exchange about whether compelling narrative or compelling visual experience is the more powerful differentiator .

See our interview with Roger Dooley Roger Dooley Roger Dooley is the best - selling author of Friction , one of the best - in - class books on customer experience , and Brainfluence , a book that defines how we use neuromarketing . Best Selling Author

S 01 | Ep 58 The Neuroscience of Marketing Roger Dooley , bestselling author of " Friction " and " Brainfluence ," joins the show to explore how understanding the brain can be applied practically to improve marketing , customer experience , and employee communications . Roger opens by broadening the definition of neuromarketing beyond lab tools like fMRI and EEG to encompass any use of brain science to improve marketing , including accessible behavioral science principles from researchers like Robert Cialdini , Daniel Kahneman , and BJ Fogg that any business can apply at little or no cost . In this episode Roger and Alex discuss how the most powerful results come from combining behavioral science with neuroscience , using the example of a scarcity message that only works if it also commands visual attention through contrast and placement . Roger walks through how companies dramatically underestimate the value of reducing friction , citing research showing that the gap between the best and worst banking experiences ran from 21 clicks to open an account all the way to 120 , and from two days to get operational up to 36 business days . Roger closes with a discussion of trust as the most fundamental friction reducer , drawing on Paul Zak ' s oxytocin research linking high - trust cultures to high performance , and connecting it to practical examples from Amazon ' s return policy to Netflix ' s no - rules employee handbook .

See our interview with Andy Cunningham Andy Cunningham Andy Cunningham is the founder and president of Cunningham Collective and the author of the bestseller “ Get to Aha !: Discover Your Positioning DNA and Dominate Your Competition ”, which was recently featured in Times Square . Andy has played a key role in the launch of numerous technology categories and products , including the Apple Macintosh she worked on with Steve Jobs . Author , Founder & President of Cunningham Collective

S 01 | Ep 59 Positioning vs . Branding Andy Cunningham , founder of Cunningham Collective , author of " Get to Aha !" and one of the key figures behind the launch of the original Apple Macintosh , joins the show to share decades of hard - won lessons on positioning , brand building , and what separates companies that define markets from those that get left behind . Andy opens by defining positioning as owning real estate in the mind of the customer , a specific and defensible space on the competitive landscape that only you can fill , and explains why the biggest mistake most technology companies make is assuming a great product will sell itself . Andy draws a sharp distinction between positioning and category creation , pushing back against the idea that companies can simply invent new categories through willpower and budget , and arguing instead that the most successful moves involve entering an existing space in the customer ' s brain and then differentiating from within it , the way Dodge created the minivan or Tesla created the Cybertruck as a subcategory of its own existing brand . She discusses the growing importance of emotional connection in B2B marketing , noting that while procurement and engineering cultures push companies toward purely data - driven decisions , the CMO and CHRO are often the only people inside large organizations thinking about the human needs that actually drive adoption and loyalty .

See our interview with Kellie Richter Kellie Richter Kellie Richter is the EVP , Chief Marketing and Client Experience Officer at First Command Financial Services , serving U . S . military families in their pursuit of financial security . EVP , Chief Marketing and Client Experience Officer at First Command Financial Services

S 01 | Ep 60 From Soldiers to Savvy Savers Kellie Richter , EVP and Chief Marketing and Client Experience Officer at First Command Financial Services , joins the show to share how a mission - driven financial services company has built a differentiated brand by putting military families at the true center of everything it does . Kellie introduces her three C ' s framework from her American Express years , built around clarity of mission , consistency of experience , and the honest acknowledgment that control of the brand now belongs to customers who can say anything about you online . Kellie shares one of the most counterintuitive findings from First Command ' s sixteen years of monthly research , which is that four out of five military spouses are the primary financial decision - makers in the family , not the active duty service members the company had originally built its model around , a discovery that came not from internal analysis but from deliberately including spouses in their military advisory board sessions . Kellie addresses the challenge of communicating complex financial information under heavy regulatory constraints , arguing that the goal is always to be understood rather than to push a message , and that transparency about fees and service models is the foundation of trust in financial relationships .

See our interview with Pamela Wilson Pamela Wilson Pamela Wilson is a leading voice in marketing and the author of two must - read books : Master Content Marketing and Master Content Strategy . As the Chief Marketing Officer at DCS : Dental Claim Support , Pamela has 35 years of experience helping businesses generate leads and profits . CMO of Dental Claim Support

S 01 | Ep 61 Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Content Marketing Pamela Wilson has been writing about content marketing since 2010 , authored two books on the subject , and is currently the CMO at Dental Claims Support , where she runs a content operation producing over 450 pieces of structured content that is now ranking highly on AI search tools like Perplexity . In this episode , she is direct about where B2B content keeps failing . AI has made the volume problem significantly worse , flooding the web with what she calls over - caffeinated intern output . Her team uses AI throughout production but treats it as a starting point , layering in real client quotes , accurate numbers , and a human voice before anything goes out . For tone consistency , she feeds detailed customer information into AI prompts and edits heavily , stripping out the hyperbole and the robotic openers . She breaks down how she targets beginner , intermediate , and advanced audiences differently , why the highest - performing content at her company tends to be comparison posts and objection - answering pieces sourced directly from sales conversations , and why gating strategy should flip the conventional logic : give generously at the top , but remove every possible barrier the moment someone is close to a buying decision .

See our interview with Georgiana Laudi Georgiana Laudi Georgiana Laudi is a prominent figure in the SaaS and B2B marketing world , best known as the co - founder of Forget the Funnel ( FTF ), a company dedicated to helping SaaS businesses develop and implement customer - centric growth strategies , and the author of Forget the Funnel book . Co - Founder & Chief of Forget the Funnel

S 01 | Ep 62 Understanding the Non - Linear Buyer Journey Georgiana Laudi , co - founder of Forget the Funnel and former VP of Marketing at Unbounce , has spent years helping B2B SaaS companies stop organizing their marketing around a model that was never built for recurring revenue businesses in the first place . In this episode , she makes a pointed case against funnel thinking , arguing that it strips away the context that actually drives customer decisions . One client ' s customers were sitting in vehicles on job sites when they searched for a solution . No funnel model captures that , and without it , the entire marketing strategy is built on assumptions . Her customer - led growth framework starts instead from deep research into how real customers experience the problem , make the decision to change , and find value after they sign up . She also gets into the state of product marketing , which she believes is one of the most misunderstood functions in tech . In too many companies , product marketers are handed a stack of sales collateral requests and not much else . Her version of the role looks more like a connective tissue across the whole organization , pulling customer intelligence from research and feeding it into content , sales , product , and onboarding decisions .

Season 2

See our interview with Nick Jain Nick Jain Nick Jain is a CFA and the CEO of IdeaScale , an innovation software company that serves everyone from NASA to federal government agencies across the country to McKinsey . CEO of IdeaScale

S 02 | Ep 1 From Idea to Impact : How to Make Your Innovations Actually Stick Nick Jain is a CFA , former McKinsey consultant , and CEO of IdeaScale , the largest innovation management software platform in the world , with clients ranging from NASA to federal agencies . Before IdeaScale , he ran a trucking company and a shoe company , brought in by private equity firms and founders to take businesses to their next stage . His core argument is that large organizations do not fail at innovation because they lack good ideas . They fail because hunger fades once survival is no longer at stake , bureaucracy buries the ideas that do exist , and senior leaders routinely override crowdsourced data with gut instinct . He also pushes back on the Eureka myth , pointing out that those flashes of insight only arrive after thousands of hours of prior thinking , and that organizations can accelerate that process by pooling small bits of knowledge across large groups of people . The conversation also gets into why good ideas so often die at the communication stage . Nick ' s observation is blunt : B2B companies forget they are still selling to human beings , not to legal entities , and they build their messaging accordingly . His own team learned this the hard way when an unannounced four - minute product video outperformed a heavily promoted hour - long webinar on every metric .

See our interview with Oleksandra Matviichuk Oleksandra Matviichuk Oleksandra Matviichuk is the head of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties , an organization established 15 years ago to protect human rights in Ukraine . This organization , led by Oleksandra , won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 . Time magazine has featured Oleksandra as one of the 100 most influential people , and former U . S . Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Oleksandra as living proof that women are not just victims of war — they can be agents of peace and justice . Head of the Center for Civil Liberties

S 02 | Ep 2 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Oleksandra Matviichuk : How One Person Can Change the World Oleksandra Matviichuk leads the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties , a human rights organization she helped build over 15 years , and the recipient of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize . Her database now holds more than 80 , 000 documented episodes of war crimes , each one a story of a real person and a real family . She does not talk about these numbers in the abstract . She talks about what it means to document them , to carry them , and to keep going anyway . In this episode Oleksandra reflects on the tension Ukraine faces between fighting a war and simultaneously building the democratic institutions the war is being fought to protect . And she makes a clear - eyed argument that what is happening in Ukraine is not a bilateral conflict between two countries but a collision between two systems , one built on human rights and accountability , the other on control and repression .

See our interview with Geoffrey Reid Geoffrey Reid Geoffrey Reid started on the ground floor of Marcus Evans Group , became its CEO , and has now taken that 25 years of experience and brought it together into a book that we ' ll talk about called Revenue Catalyst : Mastering the Art of Sales . Best Selling Author , Former Global CEO

S 02 | Ep 3 The Biggest Myths Holding Back Your Sales Team Ask most business school graduates about their sales coursework and you will likely get a blank stare . That gap is exactly what Geoffrey Reid spent 25 years at Marcus Evans Group trying to fill , and it is the reason he wrote The Revenue Catalyst : Mastering the Art of Sales . Geoffrey built his career from the ground floor of Marcus Evans , eventually becoming its CEO and overseeing a global operation running over a thousand B2B events annually . What he found again and again was that talented , educated people were entering sales roles with almost no framework for what they were actually supposed to do . His argument is not that sales cannot be taught , but that the academic world has largely refused to teach it , leaving an entire profession to figure things out through trial , error , and the occasional Wolf of Wall Street viewing . The conversation covers a lot of practical ground . Geoffrey pushes back hard on the idea that great salespeople are born rather than made , arguing that the real differentiator is understanding how your product is positioned in the market and choosing a sales approach that matches it . A company selling something scarce and in demand plays by completely different rules than one fighting for attention in a crowded category , and confusing the two is one of the most common and costly mistakes sales organizations make .

See our interview with Shane Neman Shane Neman Shane Neman is a serial entrepreneur , venture capitalist , and real estate developer . He has had an incredible journey . After dropping out of NYU Medical School , he built JoonBug , a nightlife digital events powerhouse . He later wrote a book called NightLife Lessons and , more interestingly , founded and exited EZ Texting , the largest business SMS SaaS platform in the U . S . Today , Shane is a prolific startup investor and manages a real estate portfolio that includes properties like the Santa Monica Pier . 2x Exited B2B Founder

S 02 | Ep 4 How to Build , Exit , and Build Again : Shane Neman ’ s Formula for Growth Shane Neman is a serial entrepreneur , venture capitalist , and real estate developer who built two bootstrapped businesses from scratch , exiting both profitably . After dropping out of NYU Medical School , he founded JuneBug , a full - stack operating system for the nightlife industry that predated most of the tools venues now take for granted . That business eventually revealed the opportunity behind his second company , EasyTexting , which became the largest business SMS platform in the United States before he exited that as well . In this episode , Shane discusses how each venture grew out of a problem he watched someone struggle with firsthand , and why that pattern continues to drive his investment decisions today . He talks candidly about what it took to sell software to nightclub owners in 2001 , including taking meetings at 3 in the morning and accepting cash payments , and how becoming the incumbent in a niche nobody else wanted eventually gave him the leverage to set his own terms . He also unpacks his barbell investment strategy , placing bets on deep tech categories like AI , quantum , and robotics on one end , and on physical assets he believes are essentially disruption - proof on the other . That thinking led him to acquire the operations of the Santa Monica Pier , which he describes as a forever asset in one of the country ' s top tourist markets .

See our interview with David Siegel David Siegel David Siegel is the former CEO of Meetup , Investopedia , and Seeking Alpha . He ’ s led these companies to 7X and 5X exits . He ’ s the author of the bestseller Decide and Conquer , a professor at Columbia , and a fellow alum of the University of Pennsylvania , Class of ’ 97 . Former CEO of Meetup , Investopedia , & Seeking Alpha

S 02 | Ep 5 CEO Lessons from Scaling Meetup , Investopedia & More David Siegel has built and led some of the most recognizable names in digital media , serving as CEO of Meetup and Investopedia and president of Seeking Alpha , guiding each to exits of 5X to 7X . He is also a Columbia professor and author of the bestselling book Decide and Conquer . In this episode , David opens up about his career from early days at DoubleClick , one of New York ' s most influential early internet companies , through his time at IAC and eventually WeWork , where he led Meetup before executing a management buyout of the company . He shares what made Seeking Alpha ' s community so unusually rich , pointing to a contributor network of deeply engaged financial thinkers whose comment sections became a kind of open - source equity research forum . On Meetup , David speaks with genuine conviction about the loneliness epidemic and what happens when people are separated from the community - driven existence humans are wired for . He shares stories of people who found jobs , spouses , and life - changing support groups through in - person gatherings , and makes a case for why authentic connection , both personal and professional , is not a soft priority but a fundamental human need .

See our interview with Luke Tobin Luke Tobin Luke Tobin is a serial entrepreneur who ' s exited three companies , including Digital Ethos , the UK ' s fastest - growing marketing agency , which was sold to Cadastra . As co - CEO of Cadastra EMEA , Luke oversaw 900 employees and a $ 50 million revenue portfolio , working with small clients like Samsung , Unilever , and the NHS . He now leads Tobin Capital , focused on scaling high - potential companies , with a portfolio that includes well - known companies like SpaceX and RELAYTO . Founder , Tobin Capital

S 02 | Ep 6 From Churn to 95 % Retention : The New Agency Growth Playbook Luke Tobin is a serial entrepreneur who has exited three companies , including Digital Ethos , the UK ' s fastest growing marketing agency , which he sold to Cadastra . As co - CEO of Cadastra EMEA , he oversaw 900 employees and a 50 million dollar revenue portfolio with clients including Samsung , Unilever , and the NHS . He now runs Tobin Capital , a firm focused on scaling high - potential businesses with a portfolio that includes SpaceX . In this episode , Luke traces his path from founding an agency on a deeply integrated client model to scaling it internationally across Germany and Canada , and eventually into an investor and advisor role . He argues that in a commoditized market , the relationship between agency and client is the real differentiator , and that most agencies avoid the frank conversations that would actually build trust and drive long - term retention . He also shares his approach to pitching , including the value of personalization and simplicity in standing out against a sea of identical PDF proposals . Beyond business , Luke opens up about the pattern he has noticed across his own exits and those of other founders . Financial success and milestone achievements tend to raise more questions than they answer , and purpose rarely arrives automatically on the other side of an exit .

See our interview with Aaron Dun Aaron Dun Aaron Dun is the VP of Marketing at Thoropass . He is a go - to - market leader with 15 years of experience in growth product marketing — CMO , VP of Marketing , demand generation — you name it . He led teams at Datto and SnapApp , one of the pioneers of interactive content . He is also one of the top 50 CMOs to follow on Pavilion ' s list from last year . VP of Marketing at Thoropass

S 02 | Ep 7 Content That Sells : Short - Term Ammo , Long - Term Impact Aaron Dunn , VP of Marketing at Thoropass and former marketing leader at Snap App , brings 15 years of go - to - market experience to a candid conversation about why B2B content still struggles to hold attention and what marketers can do about it . Aaron traces the evolution of interactive content from its early days , when companies like Snap App challenged the dominance of static PDFs , to the current moment where generative AI has lowered the cost of content creation while flooding buyers with even more noise . He argues that the core problem has not changed much over the past decade . Marketers are still producing content designed around their own workflows rather than around the experience of the person receiving it . He makes the case for delaying content gates rather than scrapping them entirely , explaining how giving buyers access upfront leads to higher quality leads and more meaningful engagement down the funnel . Aaron also shares his perspective on community - led growth , pointing to companies like Six Sense that have found ways to participate in buyer conversations without dominating them . Throughout the episode , Aaron pushes back on the idea that producing more content is the answer , and makes a strong argument for designing experiences that earn attention rather than demanding it .

See our interview with Melissa Reaves Melissa Reaves Melissa Reaves is the founder and CEO of Story Fruition , a public speaking and storytelling training company . She helps leaders in both large enterprises and startups apply her mind movie method , which is also described in the bestselling book and audiobook . Founder & CEO of Story Fruition

S 02 | Ep 8 Mind Movies for Leaders : Persuade , Inspire , Connect Melissa Reaves is the founder and CEO of Story Fruition , a public speaking and storytelling training company , and the author of The Storyteller ' s Mind Movie . She has spent her career helping founders , executives , and enterprise leaders do something most business communication conspicuously avoids , which is making audiences actually feel something . In this episode , Melissa breaks down the neuroscience behind why charts and statistics rarely stick while a single well - drawn character can carry an entire investor pitch . Her Mind Movie Method is built on the insight that the brain ' s analytical and emotional systems are not the same , and that most business presenters spend all their time in the wrong one . She walks through how to build a story around a character whose problem mirrors the data you want your audience to remember , a technique she calls putting heart behind the chart . She also draws a sharp distinction between three types of decks , the internal data dump , the shared leave - behind , and the speaker ' s deck , and explains why confusing them is one of the most common ways presenters lose their audiences before a single slide lands . The episode includes a live story coaching session where Melissa helps shape a founder narrative in real time , demonstrating how quickly raw material can be turned into something vivid and memorable .

See our interview with Sami Inkinen Sami Inkinen Sami Inkinen is the co - founder and CEO of Virta Health , a unicorn that ’ s helping 100 , 000 people reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity through clinically proven nutrition and digital care . Sami previously co - founded Trulia , scaled it to an IPO , and then sold it for $ 3 . 5 billion . And on top of all that , he ’ s a rockstar athlete , a super Ironman , a father , and a genuinely good human being . Co - Founder & CEO of Virta Health

S 02 | Ep 9 From Trulia ’ s $ 3 . 5B Exit to Virta Health : Rethinking Leadership That Lasts Sami Inkinen is a co - founder and CEO of Virta Health , a company on a mission to reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity in one billion people . He previously co - founded Trulia , scaled it to an IPO , and sold it for $ 3 . 5 billion . He has also completed the Hawaii Ironman World Championship seven times and rowed unsupported across the Pacific Ocean with his wife . In this episode , Sami talks about what happens after the milestones arrive . After Trulia went public , with financial security and every reason to feel content , he found himself consumed by anxiety over something as trivial as a broken washing machine . That moment sent him to a ten - day silent meditation retreat in Taiwan and began a twelve - year practice that has shaped how he leads , competes , and lives . He shares his philosophy on building teams around self - motivated people rather than trying to engineer motivation from the top , and why authenticity matters far more than modeling yourself after a particular leadership archetype . He also unpacks how Virta approaches one of the hardest problems in healthcare , convincing people who have failed five or ten previous programs that the failure was not theirs . The science matters , but what actually moves doctors to refer patients , he reveals , is seeing one of their own patients come back transformed .

See our interview with Haider Alleg Haider Alleg Haider Alleg is a strategist , entrepreneur , and investor helping regulate an industry ' s scale through innovation and brand performance . As the founder of Kainjoo , a marketing and strategy consultancy for regulated industries , and GP at Allegory Capital , Haider can bring us some really interesting perspectives on what it takes to innovate in sectors that are notoriously hard to innovate in . GP at Allegory Capital , Founder at Kainjoo

S 02 | Ep 10 Rewriting the Rules : Innovation and Brand Performance in Healthcare and Beyond Haider Alleg has spent two decades helping regulated industries do something they are notoriously reluctant to do , which is communicate with the same care and creativity that consumers now expect from every brand they encounter . As the founder of Kainjoo , a marketing and strategy consultancy for regulated sectors , and a GP at Allegory Capital , he brings a practitioner ' s eye to one of the most overlooked gaps in modern business . In this episode , Haider makes the case that the bar for experience in industries like pharma , financial services , and healthcare has not actually changed . He walks through what a genuine content strategy looks like for these industries , including his concept of the content vortex , where a single foundational asset like an annual report or scientific symposium gets systematically broken down into white papers , blog posts , short - form clips , and social content . The model creates coherence across channels without demanding endless original production . He also addresses the emerging challenge of AI search , arguing that pharma and healthcare brands need to start thinking now about how to influence what large language models surface in response to clinical and consumer questions , before the algorithm makes those choices without them .

See our interview with Christopher Lochhead Christopher Lochhead Christopher Lochhead is a three - time public company CMO and best - selling author of Play Bigger , Niche Down , and The Existing Market Trap . He is recognized as one of the leading voices in category design , helping companies create and dominate new markets rather than compete in existing ones . Christopher is also the host of the top - rated business podcast Follow Your Different , where he interviews founders , innovators , and thought leaders shaping the future of business and technology . Entrepreneur & Best Selling Author

S 02 | Ep 11 Owning the Problem : Christopher Lochhead on Why the Best Product Doesn ’ t Win Christopher Lochhead is a three - time public company CMO , bestselling author of Play Bigger and Niche Down , and the godfather of category design . His latest book , The Existing Market Trap , argues that roughly 13 trillion dollars of AI investment is headed for destruction because founders keep chasing existing demand instead of designing entirely new categories . In this episode , Christopher breaks down the core discipline of category design , starting with the idea that markets are not the weather . They are not things that happen to you . They are things you build . He explains why the greatest competitive advantage any company can have is owning the problem , not the product , and why the moment you position yourself as a better version of something that already exists , you have already lost . He traces how this played out at companies like Zoom , Netflix , and SuccessFactors , and where it went wrong for others who fell into the horizontal tool trap or the 2 . 0 trap .

See our interview with Erik Carlson Erik Carlson Erik Carlson , president and CEO of Notified , a leading technology partner for investor relations , public relations , and all communications professionals . He brings over 15 years of experience in private equity , M & A , strategic finance . President & CEO of Notified

S 02 | Ep 12 What Leadership Looks Like When Trust Is Your Currency Erik Carlson stepped into the CEO role at Notified , a leading technology partner for investor relations and public relations professionals , at the same time he became a first - time father . In this episode , he reflects on what both experiences have taught him about trust , presence , and building the right network around you before you need it . Notified carries heritage from Legacy NASDAQ , Thomson Reuters , and Marketwired , and now operates under Equiniti following a recent acquisition that Erik believes creates a genuinely differentiated position in the market . For the first time , a single provider can combine real - time share registry data with the full suite of communications tools IR and PR teams rely on , from earnings events and investor days to press release distribution through Globe Newswire . Erik shares a sharp perspective on how AI search is reshaping the communications landscape , including a striking statistic that less than 19 % of content surfacing in AI search overlaps with traditional Google results . He explains why the structured , authoritative nature of the press release makes it unusually well - suited for LLM ingestion , and what communicators need to do now to remain visible in a world where agents are replacing search bars .

See our interview with Randy Wootton Randy Wootton Randy Wootton led revenue acceleration at Microsoft and Salesforce , steered RocketFuel and Percolate through successful exits as CEO , and helped shape Seismic ’ s strategy through multiple acquisitions exceeding $ 300M in value . Most recently , as CEO of Maxio ( a company formed through the integration of SaaSOptics and Chargify under Battery Ventures ) he built a leading financial operations platform serving 2 , 200 + B2B SaaS customers . Today , Randy leads CEOx , his advisory firm helping AI - first and Agentic AI companies build scalable go - to - market engines and organizational infrastructure . 3x CEO

S 02 | Ep 13 The Human in the Loop : Why Great Marketing Still Needs One Randy Wootton has spent his career at the intersection of content , marketing , and revenue growth , holding CEO roles at three SaaS companies and building his career at places like Salesforce , Percolate , and Seismic . In this episode , he brings that experience to bear on one of the most persistent tensions in B2B business , the gap between marketing and sales . In this episode , Randy traces the evolution of content marketing from its social media roots through the rise of content orchestration platforms , and explains why the promise of true sales and marketing alignment has so rarely been fulfilled . He argues that the problem is structural , rooted in separate budgets , disconnected tech stacks , and a fundamental mismatch between what different types of marketers are actually built to do . His take is that the companies getting it right tend to be the ones where marketers are working in tight pods directly alongside sellers , rather than operating at arm ' s length through dashboards and reports . He also shares a pointed view on where content is headed , as AI drives the cost of creation toward zero and LLM optimization replaces traditional search as the new battleground for brand visibility .

See our interview with Federico Marchetti Federico Marchetti Federico Marchetti is the creator of Yoox Net - a - Porter , which was a listed company and sold for $ 6 billion . He is on the board of Giorgio Armani , and he most recently published a book that should be required reading for anyone interested in innovation : The Geek of Chic . Creator of Yoox Net - a - Porter

S 02 | Ep 14 From Armani to Regenerative Cotton : Federico Marchetti ’ s Vision for Responsible Fashion Federico Marchetti built the only tech unicorn in Italian history by doing something no one in Silicon Valley was thinking about in 1999 , putting luxury fashion on the internet . As the founder of YOOX Net - A - Porter , which eventually sold for nearly $ 6 billion , he spent two decades proving that creativity and technology are not opposites but essential partners . In this episode , Federico shares the origin story behind his company , from escaping a difficult childhood in Ravenna to studying at Columbia Business School and returning to Milan with nothing but a bold idea and one available venture capitalist . He opens up about the costly mistakes he made after merging with British rival Net - A - Porter , including waiting too long to restructure the leadership team and overcomplicating a technology migration that became , in his words , a bloodbath . Now in what he calls his second life , Federico advises King Charles III on sustainability through the Fashion Task Force of the Sustainable Markets Initiative , where he has championed practical tools like the digital product passport and regenerative cotton agriculture with Armani . He reflects on what he learned from both the king and the late Giorgio Armani about matching creative vision with decisive action .

See our interview with Donna Griffit Donna Griffit Donna Griffit is a world - renowned corporate storyteller and pitch alchemist . She has worked with over a thousand startups , Fortune 500 companies , and leading investors across 30 countries . She ' s helped them raise over a billion dollars by transforming complex ideas into clear and compelling narratives that win funding , customers , and markets . She is the author of Sticking to My Story : The Alchemy of Storytelling for Startups . Communication Coach , Stanford GSB , Best Selling Author

S 02 | Ep 15 Show , Don ’ t Tell : Donna Griffit on Breaking Through with Product Demos What separates a brilliant idea from one that actually wins funding , customers , and markets ? According to Donna Griffith , it almost always comes down to story . Donna is a corporate storyteller and pitch alchemist who has worked with over a thousand startups , Fortune 500 companies , and investors across 30 countries , helping them raise more than a billion dollars . In this episode , she breaks down the most common and avoidable mistakes founders make when pitching , starting with the failure to share a personal origin story . In this episode , Donna explains why investors remember narratives far longer than financial projections , and how a compelling story creates an emotional connection that data simply cannot . She also unpacks her four - act framework for building investor and sales decks , drawing on her background in theater to show why structure actually frees founders to be more creative , not less . Donna discusses how to stand out in an era of AI - generated pitches that are starting to sound identical , the parallels between a first investor meeting and a first date , and why getting genuinely curious about your audience is the most underrated skill in communication . She also shares a live pitchback with Alex , offering a real - time example of how she listens to a story and reshapes it on the spot .

See our interview with Kevin Lee Kevin Lee Kevin Lee is a digital marketing pioneer who has spent decades helping companies grow revenue through smarter execution , not bigger budgets . Before Google existed , he was already building the tech and the playbooks many of us still rely on . He co - founded Didit , grew it into one of New York ’ s top agencies , wrote four books , and somehow found the time to raise millions for nonprofits like Giving Forward . He ’ s proof that smart marketing can fuel both growth and impact . Executive Chairman & Founder , Didit President , Giving Forward

S 02 | Ep 16 Why leaders shouldn ’ t be the smartest person in the room Kevin Lee founded Didit in 1996 , before Google existed , and has spent nearly three decades at the intersection of search , paid media , direct mail , and now generative engine optimization . He is also the founder of the e - Marketing Association and its nonprofit arm , the e - Marketing Foundation , where he creates hands - on marketing opportunities for international graduate students navigating the US immigration system through optional practical training . Kevin discusses what makes agency work sustainable , which is deep subject matter expertise in each channel rather than one generalist trying to do everything , and a trust - first model of entering client relationships by solving the problem they already know they have before pitching anything bigger . This episode gets into one of B2B marketing ' s most persistent tensions , the practice of gating content behind lead forms and then delivering it in formats that almost guarantee people will not read it . Kevin argues that friction in the form of registration walls , downloadable PDFs , and disconnected video links actively undermines the trust that marketing is supposed to build . His view is that information wants to be free , and that the companies who make their expertise easy to find and consume will always outperform those who try to lock it down .

See our interview with Stephan Kuhnert Stephan Kuhnert Stephan Kuhnert , co - founder and co - CEO of Empower , the leading software suite for Microsoft Office . With over 3 million users worldwide , including more than half of Germany ' s DAX companies — Germany ' s largest enterprises — he helps organizations save time , boost productivity , and ensure brand consistency in every document they create . An interesting note : one of their customers is Microsoft itself . Co - Founder & Co - CEO of Empower

S 02 | Ep 17 Your Documents Speak Louder Than You Think Stefan Kuner is the co - founder and co - CEO of Empower , a software suite for Microsoft Office with over three million users worldwide , including more than half of Germany ' s DAX companies and , notably , Microsoft itself . Built over 16 years , Empower helps organizations enforce brand consistency , reuse content efficiently , and produce professional documents without requiring design expertise from the people creating them . Stefan starts the episode with a candid observation that most enterprise software adoption fails not because of the technology but because people are reluctant to change how they work . When Microsoft 365 made a billion users comfortable with bullets and default templates , it also made off - brand , visually inconsistent documents the norm . His research found that in more than half of enterprise documents , brand guidelines are not even closely followed . The conversation explores why this matters beyond aesthetics . Stefan cites a study showing that 94 % of people report some loss of trust when they receive a low - quality document , and that even highly analytical audiences , such as financial analysts , are measurably more persuaded by well - designed content , an effect that is strongest in industries where good design is least expected .

See our interview with Iliana Oris Valiente Iliana Oris Valiente Iliana Oris Valiente is the Managing Director and Head of Innovation Centers for the Americas at Accenture . A CPA , investor , and board member , she leads teams driving innovation in AI and emerging technologies while advising executives and boards on strategic transformation . Iliana previously founded Deloitte ’ s first blockchain practice , helping major organizations explore the Web3 landscape . Managing Director , Accenture

S 02 | Ep 18 From Design Sprints to Boardrooms : Turning Human - Centered Insights into ROI Iliana Oris Valiente is Managing Director and Head of Innovation Centers for the Americas at Accenture , where she bridges the startup world , the corporate world , and the investor world with what she describes as a translator ' s mindset . She is also a chartered accountant who discovered blockchain by recognizing it as a distributed ledger system , a detail that says a lot about how she thinks . The episode begins with a frank observation that most large organizations fail at technology adoption not because of the technology itself but because no one ever asked the people who have to use it whether it actually works for them . Iliana ’ s teams spend significant time facilitating what she calls human - centered design sprints , bringing cross - functional stakeholders into alignment before a single dollar gets spent on implementation . The conversation moves into her parallel work as an angel investor , LP , and informal advisor to family offices that want exposure to venture capital but have historically lacked the language and context to get started . She makes the case that family offices are structurally well suited for early - stage investing , particularly in deep tech and science , where timelines to exit now average 11 to 12 years .

See our interview with Nicole Alvino Nicole Alvino Nicole Alvino is a co - founder , CEO , and now chairwoman of FirstUp . Nicole pioneered the market for digital employee experience , scaling this AI - first SaaS company to hundreds of millions in ARR , 25 % EBITDA margins , and a global reach — over 20 million employees across 100 countries . Co - Founder , CEO , & Chairwoman of FirstUp

S 02 | Ep 19 How to Connect Frontline Workers to Strategy and Culture Nicole Alvino is the co - founder and former CEO of FirstUp , the AI - first SaaS platform she built into a company serving over 20 million employees across 100 countries with hundreds of millions in ARR . Her career began at Enron , where two of her recommendation letter writers later went to prison , and that experience set her on a path to only build companies where she could control the culture herself . FirstUp was founded on a simple but overlooked observation : 80 % of the world ' s workforce is on the front line , and virtually no enterprise technology had been built with them in mind . Nicole saw what consumer marketing had mastered , which was personalized , multi - channel communication that meets people where they are , and asked why nothing like it existed for employees . Her answer became the foundation of a platform that now serves companies like Boeing , Tesco , Hilton , and Hyatt . This episode covers how internal communications evolved from a function without its own technology stack into a boardroom priority , and why Nicole believes employee engagement is ultimately a CEO problem . She also shares the unexpected path that led her there , including a spa business she ran after Stanford that gave her a ground - level education in how frontline workers either make or break a customer experience .

See our interview with A.J. Thomas A . J . Thomas A . J . Thomas , the CEO of Troublemaker Lab and Founder and General Partner of Good Trouble Ventures , where she helps extraordinary founders build enduring companies through coaching , strategy , and mindful innovation . She ran global talent and human experience design groups at X — the " moonshot factory " known as Google X — and served as CXO - in - residence at A . Team . CEO of Troublemaker Lab & Founder , General Partner of Good Trouble Ventures

S 02 | Ep 20 The Last Frontier is Ourselves : Leading from the Inside Out AJ Thomas is the founder of Troublemaker Lab and general partner of Good Trouble Ventures , an all - female fund investing at the intersection of technology , creativity , and culture . Before launching both , she led global talent and human experience design at Google X , the Moonshot Factory , where she developed a deep appreciation for constraint - driven experimentation and the difference between chasing metrics and reading signals . AJ opens with a framework she calls the courage to be curious , drawing on the four - fold way developed by Dr . Angeles Arrien , which centers on showing up with presence , listening for what truly matters to people , telling the truth without blame , and staying open to unexpected outcomes . She argues that the most fulfilled leaders she works with are not the ones who have the most external success but the ones doing the most internal work . In this episode AJ covers the relationship between self , health , and wealth as she defines it through her coaching practice , where wealth encompasses time , relationships , and purpose , not just financial outcomes . She also shares her own story of arriving in America as an undocumented immigrant , living out of her car while attending graduate school , and how those experiences shaped a lifelong commitment to creating access for people who have been left outside the door .

See our interview with Shannon McClenaghan Shannon McClenaghan Shannon McClenaghan is the CEO of StartX , Stanford ' s secretive and " super - weapon " of a startup community for alumni , faculty , and serial founders . CEO of StartX

S 02 | Ep 21 The $ 120 Billion Founder Community You Have Never Heard Of Shannon Lanahan is the CEO of StartX , Stanford ' s nonprofit founder community that has quietly helped build over 20 unicorns and 10 decacorns without taking a single dollar of equity from the companies it supports . With 2 , 700 founders across its ecosystem and an average portfolio company raising $ 42 million , StartX has become one of the most consequential yet least talked - about programs in Silicon Valley . In this episode Shannon walks through what makes StartX structurally different from traditional accelerators . Because it is a nonprofit with no financial stake in outcomes , the entire program is built around founders helping founders , with no investors , no equity agreements , and no hidden agendas in the room . That purity of mission , she argues , is what creates the trust that makes the community function . Shannon explores what founders at every stage actually need but rarely find elsewhere , namely a space where they can be honest about what is not working without managing perceptions or protecting their narrative . Shannon also discusses why some of the most experienced and successful founders in the ecosystem keep coming back to StartX not because they need validation but because peer learning never stops being valuable .

See our interview with Magali Anderson Magali Anderson Magali Anderson is a global sustainability and innovation leader . She is a former Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer at Holcim . She now serves on the boards of Anglo American and the Capitalist Coalition , mentors startups through the Creative Destruction Lab , and invests in ESG - focused ventures . Board Member

S 02 | Ep 22 Stop Passing the Hot Potato : Leadership in Sustainability Magalie Anderson spent her early career on offshore oil rigs before rising to become Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer at Holcim , one of the world ' s largest construction materials companies . She now serves on the board of Anglo American and the Capitals Coalition , and mentors startups through Creative Destruction Lab . Her work sits at the intersection of deep operational experience and long - term systems change . Magalie opens with a frank assessment of where the sustainability conversation has stalled , from greenwashing backlash to the growing fatalism she sees among people who have simply stopped believing meaningful change is possible . She argues that the real obstacle is not a lack of scientific awareness but a failure to align financial incentives with sustainability goals at every level of an organization . Using examples from concrete manufacturing to washing machines to lighting , Magalie makes the case that shifting from selling products to delivering services fundamentally rewires what companies are motivated to build and how long they want it to last . She also shares the internal influence strategies she used to get Holcim ' s net zero pledge approved , including building grassroots support before ever entering the boardroom and framing the proposal through the lens of ambition rather than obligation .

See our interview with Stephen Josephs Stephen Josephs Stephen Josephs is a leadership coach and author of Leadership Agility and Dragons at Work . His work helps senior leaders recognize the inner lives and patterns that emerge under pressure , helping them learn how to lead with more awareness , agility , and choice when it matters most . Executive Coach , Consultant , Author

S 02 | Ep 23 The End of the Hero : Why the Smartest Person in the Room is Often the Most Limited Dr . Stephen Josephs is a leadership coach , author of Leadership Agility and Dragons at Work , and a meditation teacher whose work sits at the intersection of psychology , contemplative practice , and executive development . His clients are senior leaders who have achieved significant success and are ready to ask harder questions about what is driving them . Stephen introduces the concept of post - heroic leadership , the shift that happens when accomplished people stop needing to be the smartest person in the room and start genuinely opening to the intelligence of those around them . He walks through a specific coaching technique he uses to prepare clients for high - stakes conversations , one that involves stepping fully into the perspective of the other person before saying a word .

See our interview with Serguei Netessine Serguei Netessine Serguei Netessine is Senior Vice Dean of Innovation and Global Initiatives at the Wharton School and the Durbani Armani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship . He is an expert in business model innovation , venture capital , and corporate - startup collaboration . Serguei also serves as an Amazon Scholar , applying academic insights to real - world strategy and operations . An active investor and educator , he teaches programs on business model innovation , venture capital , and lifelong learning for executives and students worldwide . Senior Vice Dean , Professor of Innovation

S 02 | Ep 24 From Wharton to Amazon : Business Model Innovation in Action Serguei Netessine , Senior Vice Dean of Innovation at the Wharton School and Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship , brings a rare combination of academic rigor and real - world application to this conversation . As an Amazon Scholar and active venture investor , he has spent years studying what separates companies that successfully reinvent themselves from those that quietly stagnate . Serguei walks through two of Wharton ' s newer initiatives , the Global Youth Program targeting students ages 15 to 19 and Wharton Academy , a non - degree offering for undergraduates and working professionals seeking short - form business education . Both reflect a broader shift he sees away from traditional degree programs toward stackable , skills - based credentials . The conversation gets into the mechanics of business model innovation , where Serguei argues that most large organizations lack any structured process for it and that culture , not technology , is the primary obstacle to change . He shares observations from his work at Amazon , including published research on the economic impact of fulfillment centers on local communities .

See our interview with Luke Giancarlo Luke Giancarlo Luke Giancarlo is the Director of the FinTech Innovation Lab in New York , a global incubator connecting early growth - stage startups with leading financial institutions . He is also an executive at Accenture , where he leads digital currency and AI initiatives , helping enterprises adopt innovative technologies . With deep experience in fintech , innovation programs , and startup ecosystems , Luke combines strategic insight with hands - on guidance for founders , enabling practical , real - world impact . Director , Tech Innovation Strategy , Sr . Manager FinTech Innovation Lab

S 02 | Ep 25 The Double - Edged Sword of AI in Financial Services Luke Giancarlo , Director of the New York FinTech Innovation Lab and executive at Accenture , pulls back the curtain on one of the most well - connected startup programs in financial services . The lab pairs early - stage companies with tier one institutions like Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan , and BlackRock for three months of mentorship , product refinement , and real enterprise feedback . Luke explains how the lab operates as a civic , non - dilutive program co - founded with the Partnership Fund for New York City , meaning startups pay no fees and give up no equity . He shares what separates companies that land real deployments from those that stall in pilot purgatory , including the importance of solving one problem exceptionally well rather than positioning a platform as an all - purpose solution . This episode focuses on the trends Luke sees shaping financial services over the next several years , from agentic AI and AI ops infrastructure to stable coins powering agent - to - agent commerce . He also shares his perspective on the convergence of blockchain and AI as complementary technologies . For founders considering applying to the program , Luke offers candid advice on building the right network , moving with urgency , and using available tools to stay competitive in enterprise sales cycles .

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