223 - Customer Research Is Useless Without Action (Emily Steele and Mari Tippman, Hummingbirds)

03/12/25 • 27 min

Emily Steele is Co-Founder and CEO at Hummingbirds. Mari Tippman is Head of Sales at Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds helps brands drive awareness and sales with hyper-local content creators. The platform connects brands with “hummingbirds” who are trusted friends and neighbors with buying power and local influence.

Hummingbirds recently raised Seed funding ($10M total!).

Emily has been on the show before, check out Ep. 198 Impressions vs. Engagement: Why Partnering With Smaller Creators Can Actually Be More Effective.

Here’s what we cover:

Your recent funding round - what did it take to get there;

How do you incorporate customer research at Hummingbirds and what have been the results;

How do you incorporate customers in your marketing;

Why is customer research important

What are your challenges with customer research;

Emily shared that they have a podcast and what they use it for.

Emily on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/emilysteele12

Mari on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/maritippmann

Hummingbirds: ⁠www.hummingbirds.com

For more content, subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show.

Music by my talented daughter.

Anna on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com

Hummingbirds recently raised Seed funding ($10M total!).

Emily has been on the show before, check out Ep. 198 Impressions vs. Engagement: Why Partnering With Smaller Creators Can Actually Be More Effective.

Here’s what we cover:

Your recent funding round - what did it take to get there;

How do you incorporate customer research at Hummingbirds and what have been the results;

How do you incorporate customers in your marketing;

Why is customer research important

What are your challenges with customer research;

Emily shared that they have a podcast and what they use it for.

Emily on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/emilysteele12

Mari on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/maritippmann

Hummingbirds: ⁠www.hummingbirds.com

For more content, subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show.

Music by my talented daughter.

Anna on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com

Previous Episode

222 - How Our Customers Helped Us Build To Series B (Peter Mollins, VP Marketing at Nooks)

Peter Mollins is VP of Marketing at Nooks.

Nooks just raised Series B funding in October. Woop!

With Nooks you can boost pipeline with AI assistants that automate the busywork of dialing, coaching, and prospecting, so sales reps can focus on the human side of selling.

Here’s what we cover:

Your recent funding round - what did it take to get there;

How do you incorporate customer research at Nooks and what have been the results;

How do you incorporate customers in your marketing;

Oh my gosh you need to try to sell to Jim Hard*ss, your AI coaching assistant;

Peter asks me his burning question.

Peter on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/petermollins

Nooks: www.nooks.ai

For more content, subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show.

Music by my talented daughter.

Anna on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com

Next Episode

224 - How To Practice Whole-Person Customer Research (Ivan Barajas Vargas, Co-Founder & CEO at Muuktest)

Ivan Barajas Vargas is Co-Founder and CEO at Muuktest, world-class QA 100% done-for-you. Seed funded.

Here’s what we cover:

What is Service-as-a-Software;

How do you incorporate customer research at Muuktest;

The Mom Test;

What are some of your goals with customer research;

What questions are you asking;

How are you using research insights;

Do you ask customers where do they learn and hang out;

Why understanding “whole-person” with your research is important and goes beyond just your product;

Why is customer research important;

What are your challenges with customer research;

There are so many voices, who should you listen to when you do this research.

Ivan on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/ivanbarajasvargas

Muuktest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠muuktest.com

For more content, subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show.

Music by my talented daughter.

Anna on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠⁠⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com