
Kevan Lee — Transparency, Integrations as Marketing, and Scaling From $5M to $20M+ ARR
05/03/21 • 56 min
On the show today is Kevan Lee. Kevan is the VP of Marketing at Polly and was previously the VP of Marketing at Buffer.
I wanted to bring Kevan on because Kevan helped Buffer scale from $5 million in revenue all the way past $20 million in revenue. Buffer is a pioneer for transparency and the Open Startups movement. They're also an amazing case study on content marketing with three different publications and two podcast series.
You'll hear about how they leveraged engineering as marketing with projects like Stories Creator, Remix, and Pablo, leadership lessons from growing and managing a team with radical transparency, and his process for finding and evaluating new jobs.
More on Kevan:
Mentions:
Sponsored by Ahrefs — with their new free tool, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, you can make tangible improvements to your SEO completely for free for any sites that you own. You can monitor your SEO health, keep track of backlinks, do basic keyword research, and get automated email alerts straight to your inbox. Sign up for a free account at ahrefs.com/awt
🙌 Thank Kevan for coming on the show with a quick tweet
If you've got a question or takeaway you want to share from this episode, you can do so in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membership
I write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.com You can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning.
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!
Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs.
★ Support this podcast ★On the show today is Kevan Lee. Kevan is the VP of Marketing at Polly and was previously the VP of Marketing at Buffer.
I wanted to bring Kevan on because Kevan helped Buffer scale from $5 million in revenue all the way past $20 million in revenue. Buffer is a pioneer for transparency and the Open Startups movement. They're also an amazing case study on content marketing with three different publications and two podcast series.
You'll hear about how they leveraged engineering as marketing with projects like Stories Creator, Remix, and Pablo, leadership lessons from growing and managing a team with radical transparency, and his process for finding and evaluating new jobs.
More on Kevan:
Mentions:
Sponsored by Ahrefs — with their new free tool, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, you can make tangible improvements to your SEO completely for free for any sites that you own. You can monitor your SEO health, keep track of backlinks, do basic keyword research, and get automated email alerts straight to your inbox. Sign up for a free account at ahrefs.com/awt
🙌 Thank Kevan for coming on the show with a quick tweet
If you've got a question or takeaway you want to share from this episode, you can do so in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membership
I write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.com You can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning.
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!
Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs.
★ Support this podcast ★Previous Episode

Sean Cannell — YouTube Secrets, Storytelling Hooks, and Personal Media Empires
On the show today is Sean Cannell. Sean is a YouTuber, international speaker, founder of Think Media, and host of the Video Influencers podcast.
I wanted to bring Sean on because no one knows YouTube like Sean. Sean's YouTube channels have over 1,000,000 subscribers, his videos have been viewed over 100 million times.
You'll hear about YouTube SEO and what it takes to rank for competitive keywords, the patterns of viral videos, the metrics you need to know and how to turn analytics into action, and advanced strategies for growing your YouTube channel from scratch.
More on Sean:
Mentions:
- SignalFire’s Creator Economy Market Map
- Who Not How
- Repurpose House
- Hook Point
- Daily Dose Of Internet
- The Psychology of Money
- vidIQ
- Valuetainment
- Evan Carmichael
- Charisma on Command
- Philip DeFranco
- Emily D. Baker
- The Joe Rogan Podcast Formula: How to Start a Video Podcast the Smart Way!
- Ruslan KD
Sponsored by Ahrefs — with their new free tool, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, you can make tangible improvements to your SEO completely for free for any sites that you own. You can monitor your SEO health, keep track of backlinks, do basic keyword research, and get automated email alerts straight to your inbox. Sign up for a free account at ahrefs.com/awt
🙌 Thank Sean for coming on the show with a quick tweet
If you've got a question or takeaway you want to share from this episode, you can do so in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membership
I write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.com You can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning.
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!
Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs.
★ Support this podcast ★Next Episode

Madhav Bhandari — Affiliate Marketing for B2B SaaS, Hiring vs Outsourcing, and Budget Allocation
On the show today is Madhav Bhandari. Madhav leads marketing at Bonsai and previously worked for Hubstaff and Close. He’s also the host of the Remote Marketing Podcast.
I wanted to bring him on because he’s worked at three great SaaS companies that have experienced amazing growth.
You'll hear about his philosophy around hiring and outsourcing, how they approach affiliate marketing for B2B SaaS, and what it takes to scale and grow into a large, profitable SaaS business.
More on Madhav:
Mentions:
Sponsored by SavvyCal — SavvyCal is a new scheduling tool that removes the strange power dynamics of sharing your scheduling link. While most scheduling tools definitely make your life easier, they can still be inconvenient for the person you're sending your link to. With the ability to create personalized links and allow recipients to overlay their calendar right on top of yours, that strange power dynamic can be a thing of the past. Create a free account at savvycal.com/eim and also get your first month of a paid account free by using the code EIM.
🙌 Thank Madhav for coming on the show with a quick tweet
If you've got a question or takeaway you want to share from this episode, you can do so in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membership
I write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.com You can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning.
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!
Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs.
★ Support this podcast ★If you like this episode you’ll love
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