Finding Market Fit: Marketing Leaders in Tech

Rebranding Brex for growth and the steps they took to get there | Kira Klaas (Notion, Brex, Gusto)

Kira has led global brand teams at Notion, Gustom Brex, and Kiva. She’s won awards on Adweek and she’s the co-creator of Reforge’s Brand Marketing program. 
She talks about her experience leading the rebranding efforts at Brex where they looked to expand up market. She broke down her experiences into five areas specifically:
Recognizing the need to rebrand
Building a consensus across the leadership team that a change was needed
Building the brand together
Validating the process along the way
Evaluating success 
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Where to find Kira 
Kira's LinkedIn
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Kira's Brand Template on Notion
Rebranding with Research
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Where to find Patrick 
Patrick's LinkedIn
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(2:30) The high level structure of rebranding Brex and the need to rebrand 
(6:57) When to know when a rebrand is warranted 
(9:38) Multiple phases of the journey and process 
(13:31) Driving consensus and alignment with the right stakeholders 
(16:20) Brand discussion guide and the listening tour - interviewing prospects and customers
(22:34) Building the brand together
(25:01) Partnering with product through the process 
(26:40) Having both co-founders invested and involved from the beginning and managing them 
(28:20) When they brought in an agency  
(31:34) What worked and didn't work with agencies  
(35:12) Validating the rebrand, ensuring they were on the right track 
(37:43) The importance of developing a feedback loop 
(39:03) Evaluating success, figuring out how you know it's working
(41:47) How long the process lasted 
(43:11) The secret weapon of leveraging research to question biases and connect back to the customer
(44:40) Why brand gets a bad wrap in tech and how it's associated with growth
(46:46) Where to find Kira! 
 

Strategic development and structuring an optimal marketing organization as the CMO of Coursera | Kim Caldbeck (Coursera, Meta)

Kim was most recently the CMO at Coursera where she played an instrumental role in driving the company’s revenue from $95M to over $500M in 5 years. The org she led helped shaped the brand, optimized the monetization model, and launched and expanded key initiatives globally as she helped guide the company through it’s IPO. Kim is currently a startup marketing and growth advisor and board member. She specializes in marketplaces across both B2C and B2B models. 
We talk about: 
The strategic planning process at Coursera 
Building the marketing operational structure to scale across B2C, B2B, and Partnership motions 
Establishing the right culture and values 
Finding 10X marketing leaders 
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Where to find Kim
Kim's LinkedIn Profile
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Where to find Patrick 
Patrick's LinkedIn Profile
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(2:28) Marketing as a service to the business 
(5:09) The strategic planning process at Coursera 
(8:04) How the 3-year planning process started
(9:45) The product-market fit sprint. Using a 6-8 week window to further validate customer hypotheses and nail the right go to market and marketing motions 
(12:50) Building the right operational culture to effectively execute
(15:39) When to inject the strategy and ops function 
(16:58) Strategy and ops should live within Marketing
(19:00) Establishing and evolving the values and culture at Coursera 
(22:57) Integrating values in performance plans    
(25:19) The org structure within the B2C, B2B, and Partnership focal areas 
(28:30) The key variables and planning for a re-org 
(32:10) Planning out hiring with other teams and regions 
(34:29) Executing on company growth bets within the marketing org
(37:51) Finding 10X marketing leaders
(38:57) Where to find Kim! 
 
 

Unpacking SEO, using social signals, and developing network effects | Jordan Koene (Previsible, Searchmetrics, eBay)

Jordan is the CEO and Cofounder of Previsible, a search education and consulting practice. They currently support Fortune 100 companies who investment in organic search. He was previously the CEO of Searchmetrics and the Director of SEO at eBay. 
We go through: 
When to and not to invest in SEO 
The foundational elements 
Varying approaches depending on vertical 
Programmatic-led, product-led, and editorially-led approaches 
Leading and lagging KPIs
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Where to find Jordan 
Jordan's LinkedIn
Jordan's email
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Where to find Patrick 
Patrick's LinkedIn
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(2:09) The impact of investing in SEO after product market fit
(4:14) Market making positions for new product launches 
(6:31) The foundational elements - tech stack, resources, developing the content strategy
(8:49) Web stacks, and use cases for specific third party platforms 
(12:08) The verticalization of SEO and the different priorities and motions that apply to them
(13:32) Technical vs Content components 
(14:33) Separating the strategic implementations to the core fundamentals of SEO
(16:30) Programmatic-led, product-led, and editorially-led SEO 
(20:25) The importance of owning the tone and voice of the content 
(23:10) Content quality as the mystery meat of the space. The use social signals to determine quality
(26:43) Authority scores are more for established companies. But look for resonance instead 
(28:50) Leading and lagging KPIs 
(32:53) Focusing on leading KPIs as an earlier staged company
(33:50) Misguided decisions due to gaming backlinks
(37:57) The biggest miss of all size of companies is the radical underinvestment of SEO
(39:11) Where to find Jordan!     
 
 
  

The modern Martech Stack across B2C and B2B, through various company phases | Austin Hay (Ramp, mParticle, Runway)

Austin is the Head of Marketing Technology at Ramp. He was an early employee at Branch metrics and eventually built a consulting company where he worked with companies like Walmart, AirBnB, Postmates and JPMorgan on their Martech initiatives. He sold that company to mPartcle and consequently became their Executive Vice President. 
In this episode, we go through: 
The evolution of Martech 
The core components of a Martech Stack 
Differences between a B2C and a B2B stack 
How to approach Martech through different stages  
Ideal org structures and profiles 
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Where to find Austin
Austin's LinkedIn Profile
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Things we discuss: 
Reforge Martech
ETL vs CDP
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Where to find Patrick
Patrick's LinkedIn
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(2:46) The evolution of Martech and it's main phases 
(6:05) The core components of a Martech stack 
(10:09) How the core value prop of a CDP has changed and the newer solutions of modern stacks 
(14:45) What an ETL can do in lieu of a CDP  
(18:31) Identifying problems before figuring out the right tools
(18:58) Tooling through various company stages 
(21:16) Going deeper into company stages and investments that need to be made as companies grow and scale 
(25:00) Ownership especially across product, engineering, and marketing
(26:26) The differences between a B2C and a B2B stack
(28:57) The complexities of a B2B stack which also encapsulates B2C motions 
(31:50) Using a CDP for real time data change access as opposed to using ETLs 
(33:50) Slicing tool sets between pre and post conversion motions
(36:40) Org structure and Martech owners in B2C and B2B orgs
(40:21) The ideal profile of a person leading or in Martech 
(43:23) Where to find Austin!  
  

Becoming a Growth CMO, focusing on growth loops, and driving engagement cross functionally | Sigal Bareket (Fast Growing Trees, Afterpay, Lyft)

Sigal was formerly the CMO of Fast Growing Trees, the worlds largest online nursery. Prior to that she held leaderships roles at Afterpay, as their VP of Growth Marketing, and at Lyft as their head of growth Marketing. 
We go through: 
Growth loops, retaining and engaging valuable users 
What it means to be a growth CMO 
The impact of cross functional org structures
Deciphering between valuable users and those who came in for other promotional reasons
The importance of asking "why?" rather than only using a data driven approach   
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Where to find Sigal
Sigal's LinkedIn Profile
Email: sigalgrowthcmo@gmail.com 
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Where to find Patrick 
Patrick's LinkedIn Profile
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(3:25) Developing a fundamental understanding of the healthy user experience 
(9:30) How healthy users are defined 
(12:14) Getting users to an aha moment and who to focus on to prevent churn 
(18:33) How to approach churn prevention. The propensity of a user to be the right fit to the product  
(20:24) Determining effectiveness and approaching measurement and the layers of higher level to tactical level to derive impact   
(26:26) Sustainable feedback and growth loops. What it means to be a growth oriented CMO  
(31:27) Starting with a business problem and solving for growth challenges cross functionally across brand, product, and growth at Afterpay 
(39:08) Getting the org structure out of the way for driver growth at Lyft. Having cross functional teams owns a KPI 
(44:20) Working with pod structures at Lyft and sponsors of cross functional teams at Afterpay 
(46:18) People like talking about themselves. Advice on understanding audience motivations 
(50:37) Where to find Sigal! 
 

Strategic readiness, persona development, and the important considerations of a Go To Market strategy | Mary Sheehan (Adobe, Google, AdRoll)

Mary is an accomplished product marketing leader and author of The Pocket Guide To Product Launches. She's held marketing leadership roles at Adobe, Google, AdRoll and other startups. She is also the co-creator of a new course with Reforge and hosts the popular Women In Product Marketing podcast.
 
We go through: 
The core components of a Go To Market Strategy 
Splitting up different launch tiers 
Audience persona definitions 
Defining positioning across multiple teams 
Why it's important to derive shared goals
The 10% internal communications rule  
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Where to find Mary: 
Mary's LinkedIn Profile
Mary's Twitter Profile
The Pocket Guide to Product Launches
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Where to find Patrick 
Patrick's LinkedIn
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(2:28) The main components of a Go To Market strategy 
(4:10) Variables to consider before launch
(6:59) When to separate the shipping moment and the launch moment
(9:22) Defining the different launch tiers
(14:09) Examples of the different tiers 
(18:05) Developing personas and jobs to be done to define target audiences 
(23:55) Getting the right group together to develop customer journey mapping 
(26:12) Ensuring the right teams are represented 
(27:01) The right way to approach positioning 
(30:50) Partnership with the product team at the earliest stages of development 
(33:58) Goals, metrics, and effectiveness 
(37:29) Using a northstar goal to inform downstream KPIs
(40:30) Shared goals and outcomes across teams 
(42:20) The 10% rule and an internal go to market plan 
(44:19) Where to find Mary! 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 

Going beyond attribution and redefining Media Mix Modeling for consumer products | Michael Kaminsky (Recast)

Michael is the co-founder and co-CEO of a startup called Recast, a service that develops Media Mix Modeling for consumer products and services. They also have a great blog on all things measurement which is linked below. Michael spoke about the changing measurement needs of companies as they scale spend, the discipline around ensuring you have your ROI and payback periods defined before you go out and measure, and some specific challenges with only using  multi-touch attribution and/or incrementality to inform approach. He also provides a great perspective on how to gauge the effectiveness of brand advertising.  
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Where to find Michael and the Recast blog
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-the-data-guy-kaminsky/
https://twitter.com/Mike_Kaminsky
https://getrecast.com/blog/
https://getrecast.com/attribution-stack/
https://getrecast.com/long-term-brand/
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Where to find Patrick 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcmoran/
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(2:32) Measurement approaches by company stage
(5:24) Starting with unit economics and cash position 
(7:41) Going from publisher reported to incrementality to media mix modeling  
(11:49) Approaching audience overlaps 
(14:35) The flaws and limitations of Multi Touch Attribution
(17:38) Operationalizing the impact of incrementality and its shortcomings
(22:44) Being thoughtful and robust around multipliers 
(25:37) How to triangulate attribution the right way 
(29:53) The current methodologies of Media Mix Modeling
(33:49) How the MMM model works
(38:05) Measuring brand advertising 
(41:07) The relationship between short term and long term impact
(42:36) Optimizing for conversions 
(45:42) How to find Michael!  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Scaling an influencer economy at IPSY to become the largest global beauty subscription brand | Jenna Habayeb (Ipsy, 7 for all Mankind)

Jenna is the CMO of IPSY, a direct to consumer business which happens to be the largest beauty subscription brand in the world. Prior to that, she was the CMO for 7 for all mankind, the denim brand, and was recognized as Forbes top 50 Entrepreneurial CMOs. 
Jenna talks about how the creator economy and developing a tiered approach with influencers has been a significant growth driver for IPSY. She goes into the KPIs that are important to them like Earned Media Value and how that ties to organic traffic which is a direct source for acquisition and how these partnerships serve as a primary communication vehicle for product announcements and earned media to drive existing subscriber AOV. One of the sources IPSY has at their disposal is an influencer network that reaches north of 20M brand proponents. Not only do they have distribution at scale, but the brands and personalities of their creators, also then drive even more brand loyalty. So it’s two feedback loops. One for distribution and another for brand sentiment. 
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Where to find Jenna: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennahabayeb/
Where to find Patrick: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcmoran/
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Sources we discuss:
https://www.tribedynamics.com/blog/earned-media-value
https://www.ipsy.com/about
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(2:42) A description of IPSY as a business and when it got started   
(4:14) Brand Partnerships as a supply source of products, Marketing Partnerships for amplification, and Creator Partnerships
(7:21) The differences between Marketing Partnerships and Creator Partnerships
(9:11) How IPSY got started building their creator economy 
(11:44) Breaking down the creator economy into three tiers 
(16:35) Using Earned Media Value to determine effectiveness
(19:34) Impacting new subs and driving engagement 
(21:29) Building non-transactional and authentic relationships with creators 
(24:03) The emergence of de-influencing 
(25:26) Using the community and customer forums for real time feedback and establishing deeper relationships    
(28:26) How the internal teams leading creators, the community, and paid acquisition work with each other
(30:25) How brands and companies can get started with a strong influencer strategy and build larger and stickier communities 
(33:51) Defining effectiveness by aligning to business objectives 
(37:14) Investment approach for influencers and tying to the right KPIs
(38:45) Starting small and thinking about creators as partners in both distribution and content    
 
    
 
     

Developing an effective brand strategy beyond advertising and a splashy new design | Josh Grau (Yext, Wealthfront, Twitter)

Josh has been a leader at some of the biggest brands in technology like Twitter, YouTube, Wealthfront and was most recently the CMO of Yext. He moonlights in education, having taught at Stanford's graduate school of business and is a long-time faculty member of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. He is also one of the creators of the Brand Marketing program at Reforge.
Josh and I talked about Brand and what that means in the context of Marketing. Josh talks about how he differentiates the Brand Strategy from Brand Advertising and Brand Expression and why that’s important. I enjoyed this conversation because Josh provided some context into how to think about Brand as not just as a function of advertising, but as an approach to ensuring consistency across all touchpoints including product, customer service and marketing.
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Where to find Josh:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshgrau/
https://twitter.com/grauface
joshgrau.com
Where to find Patrick: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcmoran/
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Sources we talk about: 
https://www.reforge.com/previews/growth/brand-strategy-development
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(3:00) Why Josh hates the question around whether he’s a brand based or a performance based marketing leader
(6:17) Requiring a holistic approach to marketing to ensure a consistency
(7:51) Brand isn’t just top of funnel advertising and the reductive nature of that definition
(10:14) A holistic perspective on total experience
(11:10) The components of a brand strategy and going beyond just its expressive nature
(15:19) The brand architecture and how it supports retained and engaged customers
(18:03) Aligning the company objectives, the vision, and how to bring the brand to life for the customer
(21:17) The longer and shorter term variables that adjust to the changing needs of the customers
(23:18) Consistency across all touch points including product and customer service
(26:29) How to start, where to look, and running a listening tour internally and externally
(30:08) Governance across multiple teams and ensuring the brand strategy doesn’t get shelved
(34:44) Brand expressions and how this informs product marketing and growth marketing
(36:10) How to think about measuring the brand strategy
(38:38) How to find Josh!
 
 

How to not fall victim to averages when managing growth marketing channels | Mark Fiske (HIG Capital, Credit Karma, Ancestry)

Mark is an operating partner at HIG capital, an investment firm focused on global alternative assets with over 150 portfolio companies, which he supports with marketing and digital strategies. Prior to that, Mark was the VP of Marketing at Credit Karma where he helped scale them from 40M members to 100M members.
Mark talks about the dynamics of performance media and lifecycle marketing. He provided his thoughts on what’s going on in the current landscape of paid media, he talks about his definitions of the variables that make up unit economics, customer lifetime value, customer acquisition costs, and payback period, and then we dive into how he’s structured his teams around lifecycle marketing. We end the conversation around his preferences for martech and tooling.
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Where to find Mark: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markfiske/
https://twitter.com/thefiske
https://www.thefiske.com/
Where to find Patrick: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcmoran/
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(02:38) Why Google and Facebook have become less efficient over the last few years
(05:21) Understanding conversion signals to inform the algorithms  
(06:29) Training the algorithm with the variety of signals to send back and channel diversification
(08:10) Channel understanding and the operational implications
(09:51) Prioritization and risk adjusting initiatives 
(12:21) Looking at granularity, incrementality, and diminishing returns to optimize for profitability 
(15:16) Defining LTV and CAC
(18:51) Using a payback window relative to what the business is optimizing for 
(21:17) Budgeting for experimentation  
(24:10) Building great lifecycle marketing teams
(26:04) Organizational structures for lifecycle marketing and using cross functional pods 
(29:09) Managing the hierarchy of KPIs 
(32:32) Segmentation, parameters, and use cases to inform personalization approaches 
(34:48) Tooling and philosophy on tech stack 
(37:45) How to find Mark!