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Modern Startup Marketing

Modern Startup Marketing

Anna Furmanov

If you’re at an early stage startup, you're in the right place. A lot of stuff out there focuses on the WHAT (tactics) and is not tailored to your critical early stage so you're not sure what to do. If you do try some things, you're not sure WHY you're doing them. Welcome to Season 4 where I'll be asking WHY to help bring more clarity to the messy world of early stage startup marketing. Learn more about the host at furmanovmarketing.com.
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Top 10 Modern Startup Marketing Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Modern Startup Marketing episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Modern Startup Marketing for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Modern Startup Marketing episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

I got connected to David through Gidi Pridor (Workvivo) who I super respect, David and Gidi both worked at TravelPerk and Gidi raved about David so of course I wanted to bring him onto the show.

(Check out Ep. 146 where I talk to Gidi about why many startups stop being exciting too early and the advantages of hiring a Creative Director early. Workvivo just got acquired by Zoom.)

David Hooker is Brand Lead at Printify. Prior, David was Head of B2B Content at Gett (a Series F startup). David also built Prezi’s Evangelism and Creative Services teams and he built the Brand and PR function at TravelPerk.

About Printify:

  • Founded 2015
  • Funding: Series A ($54.1M total according to Crunchbase)
  • Description: Create and sell custom products. The tech platform that's made it possible for millions to become global entrepreneurs selling high-quality merch online.

In this episode we talk about:

What does “creative” mean to you;

Top 1-2 creative marketing ideas at Printify;

What makes for an awesome Creative Director / Head of Brand;

What’s your advice for startups that want to push more on the creative side.

You can find David on LinkedIn >> www.linkedin.com/in/hookerdj

Check out Printify >> https://printify.com/

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com

2. Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes that will make you smile guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba

3. Sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn every single week: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

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

Milestone Episode! I asked Gil Eyal (Founder of Stardust Ventures) to come back and talk with me on the show about startup celebrity partnerships which happens to be a very fascinating topic. In general we talk a lot about and even implement some of the (micro) influencer marketing strategies but I bet you never thought about working with a well-known celebrity to help grow your startup. Stardust invests in early stage consumer startups that want to leverage celebrities to grow their brand.

Gil is a long-time friend I met back in business school and was my very first guest on the podcast (Episode 1!) so go back and listen to that one if ya missed it. It's still one of my more popular episodes.

In THIS episode we hit on:

What makes celebrity partnerships with startups so effective;

How does it work;

How much do startups pay celebrities;

What KPIs are startups looking at;

As a startup that wants to partner with a celebrity, where do you even start;

In what ways does working with micro-influencers differ from a celebrity collaboration.

You can reach Gil on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gileyal/

Check out Stardust Ventures: www.stardustventures.us

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review!

People call me (Anna) the "Marie Kondo of startup marketing" because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also find me regularly posting on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

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

Here's a TikTok video I made for LinkedIn this week, also sharing with my listeners on here.

I'm launching the new EdTech Founders Go-To-Market bootcamp next week (together with Dano who I worked with previously) in case you're an EdTech founder and listening and interested. Companies like Seesaw, Branching Minds, Pear Deck, Yoga Ed, Thimble, Graspable Math, Marker Learning and more have loved the program but it was very sales-focused so now we're adding the marketing side to round it out.

Classes start Sept 14th, running for 7 weeks. 90-min sessions plus 1 on 1 time. You'll get homework and resources. You can learn more and apply by going to the website.

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review!

People call me (Anna) the "Marie Kondo of startup marketing" because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can also find me regularly posting on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

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Happy Labor Day to my US listeners!

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

On this episode I invited Frankie Scerbo (co-founder and CMO at Elude) to join me to talk about the cool travel startup he's helping to grow, their 2022 marketing plan, creative ideas, some challenges, and favorite places to travel.

Prior to Elude, Frankie was West Coast Regional Director for EON, a hardware accessory company for the gaming tech industry.

Elude was founded in 2019, has 21 people and is based out of CA. They've raised Seed funding ($7.1M total). Elude is the app that helps you wander more and wonder less. You might be wondering “where could we go for $600?” and the app helps you answer that question with a personalized trip list based on your travel preferences and goals.

Here's what we hit on:

Where did the idea for the startup come from;

10K+ followers on Instagram and 25K+ downloads in the app store within your first 2 weeks of launching – how’d you do that;

What did your social media look and feel like;

2022 Marketing Plan - where are you putting your dollars (HINT: downloads and revenue comes much easier from Instagram and email and WOM - events);

Our influencer strategy and what content they're sharing;

Top marketing challenges;

Creative marketing ideas ("The Boring Campaign);

Favorite places to travel;

Goals that Frankie wants to accomplish this year;

Frankie asked me a question to round out the conversation.

You can reach Frankie on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/frankie-scerbo-bba2ba81/

Find out more about Elude: https://elude.co/

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

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

I asked Christopher Lochhead (3X Silicon Valley public company CMO) to come back and talk with me on the show about the things we did not get to cover last time, so here's round 2! Christopher makes content (podcasts, books, newsletters) for entrepreneurs and marketers with a different mind. He's got a newsletter called "Category Pirates" and podcasts (Follow Your Different, Lochhead On Marketing) and books (Play Bigger, Niche Down).

Last time he was on the show was last summer! Episode 44. We talked about “Why 98% Of Startups (And Marketers) Waste Their Time”, how companies that lead with category design are valued at 5x more, what makes a legendary entrepreneur, and how to explain category design to a 7-year old. This is still one of my most popular episodes.

In THIS episode we hit on:

Given all that's happening in the world, is this still an amazing time to be an entrepreneur;

Some startup marketing leaders that have done it are saying you shouldn't create a category! Why are they saying this, what's your take;

What's the best way to scale your business fast (HINT: category design, understand the power of WOM and super consumer and having a strong POV);

How does one actually go about creating legendary content;

What's the difference between obvious vs. non-obvious content;

Why solopreneurs (versus corporate) are actually really good at putting out great content;

How to generate non-obvious ideas.

You can reach Christopher on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christopherlochhead/

Check out the website: www.categorypirates.com/

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

Don't forget to follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

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I invited Lee Anne Grant, Chief Growth Officer at babylist, onto the show and we unpacked some very cool stuff happening at their startup.

Prior to babylist, Lee Anne held sales roles at Google, AOL, POPSUGAR and Brandless.

Babylist was founded in 2011, has 212 people, and is based out of CA (also remote). They've raised Series C ($40.7M total). Babylist is the leading vertical marketplace and commerce destination for baby, driving purchase decisions for more than 8 million people each year! Babylist is way more than a baby registry and we talk about those different revenue streams.

Here's what we hit on:

You’ve been in sales for much of your career and now you’re CGO. What does that mean, what are you in charge of, and how does that impact how you lead;

Babylist is a commerce company that has a media business - tell me more about how this works and how that affects your marketing decisions (HINT: having 3 revenue streams is incredibly intellectually interesting);

Tell me more about your growth strategy during this downturn, where are you putting your dollars, what marketing channels are you leaning into;

Their Halsey influencer story and how that has impacted their growth;

What kinds of marketing content are you leaning into;

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: in-person plays plus the metaverse);

What are your top marketing challenges;

Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022;

Lee Anne asked me a question to round out the conversation.

You can reach Lee Anne on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leeannegrant/

Find out more about babylist: www.babylist.com

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

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Have you ever met a workplace futurist before? Well, let me tell ya, they're pretty awesome and very helpful in exploring what's to come in the future of (all) work plus specific to marketers.

Marti Konstant is a workplace futurist and best-selling author of “Activate Your Agile Career: How Responding to Change will Inspire Your Life's Work.” She's also the owner of Konstant Change. Prior, Marti held marketing and demand gen roles at Samsung and Open Kernel Labs (acquired by General Dynamics). Try typing in "career agility" into Google and her article still comes up #1 in the results.

Here's what we hit on:

What in the world is a workplace futurist;

What has made you successful in this field;

Marti explains her DNA framework for how to bring your future into your present (HINT: Disrupt the model, Notice the signals, Act);

How do you stay ahead;

What does the Marketer of the future look like, what will they need to do and know (HINT: the expiration date for your set of skills is 4 years or less);

How do we continue to stay relevant in the field of marketing as we get older;

Why today’s workforce is no longer a "workforce," it’s really a “work net” (different people that are augmenting your team);

What does the Metaverse have to do with all of this;

What are your top challenges, what are you trying to figure out these days.

You can reach Marti on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/martikonstant/

Check out her website: www.martikonstant.com/

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review!

People call me (Anna) the Marie Kondo of startup marketing because I help VC backed early stage startups clean up their marketing mess to uncover more joy (and revenue). For those startups that have already built their marketing foundation and have been testing different marketing plays but just aren't satisfied with the traction they're seeing, I created the Marketing Audit + Roadmap offering. At the end of your audit, you’ll get a custom Roadmap with improvement opportunities for the next 3-6 months. So that you can finally put the missing pieces in place to start seeing more traction and stop spending time and money on the wrong things.

You can learn more about it by visiting my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com/pricing

You can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

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A request I've gotten from listeners is to bring on a VC firm to talk through “the view from the VC side” so here we go (again)!

I invited Andrew Bluestein, Managing Partner at Bluestein Ventures, to join me on the show and talk about the future of food, how the pandemic has affected food startups, what they're looking for before they decide to invest in a startup, and so much more.

I know Andrew from our days at Kellogg! And we recently saw each other at Kellogg's 10-year reunion.

More about Bluestein Ventures:

  • investing in the future of food
  • founded in 2014
  • based out of Chicago
  • early stage investments typically Seed and Series A
  • portfolio companies include Crafty, FoxTrot and Factor_ (acquired)

Here's what we hit on:

Why the focus on the future of food, what's so cool about food;

How the pandemic has impacted the food industry;

What VCs want to see before they decide to invest in an early stage startup (HINT: an innovative GTM strategy);

What marketing and growth opportunities can B2B learn from B2C;

What do you look at to confirm if there's product/market fit (HINT: things are still happening despite all the shortcomings);

What are those unique ways that startups can reach customers (HINT: post COVID, we need to go offline again);

On building brands and acquiring customers, what seems to work really well;

Which 1-2 portfolio companies are you personally really excited about and why.

You can reach Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbluestein/

Check out Bluestein Ventures: https://www.bluesteinventures.com/

For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen.

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

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I invited Kathleen Booth, SVP Marketing at Tradeswell, to the show and we had a blast talking about how to do marketing the way it SHOULD be done - with a customer/audience-first approach focused on community, great content, and building a brand that people love, whether they buy from you or not.

Prior to Tradeswell, Kathleen served as CMO at clean.io (Series A). She's also the host of The Inbound Success Podcast and Board-level advisor to several tech startups.

Tradeswell was founded in 2019, is based out of Baltimore (MD), and has 38 people. They've raised Series A ($18.8M). Tradeswell is the real-time operating system for e-commerce. Like "mission control" for growing e-commerce businesses. Tradeswell is creating a new category called “real-time operating system”.

Here's what we hit on:

How buyers used to buy and how buyers are buying today (HINT: they go to peers, communities, Slack, LinkedIn, etc.) and how "meh" marketing still follows the old approach;

To truly succeed you need to win the hearts and minds of the buyer and the people they’re talking to;

How we organize our budget (HINT: it's not the usual 10% of revenue is spent on marketing);

What marketing channels are working well (HINT: podcasts, community, niche newsletter ads);

What marketing content are you leaning into this year (HINT: your content should shine a spotlight on your audience PLUS we have data that nobody else has access to);

How are you building out resources this year;

What are your top marketing challenges (HINT: saying no can be hard AND we're creating a category and that's a challenge for sure but there are things we are looking for in the short-term);

How we're aligning really well with sales (HINT: don't pit marketing against sales, it's about the channel and not the team);

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: niche Substack newsletter sponsorship, check out the link below to learn more);

Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022.

You can reach Kathleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenslatterybooth/

Find out more about Tradeswell: https://www.tradeswell.com/

Check out Swapstack for niche newsletter advertising: https://swapstack.co/

For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen.

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com and you can also subscribe to Anna's monthly newsletter by going here: https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba

Thanks for listening!

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Happy Presidents Day 🇺🇸 🎉

Does your CEO like the content your marketing team is producing? Does your CMO? Does your head of Sales? Do you know the answer for sure? Does it matter?

John Bonini (Founder of Some Good Content) has been meeting with founders and marketing execs that have said some variation of the following regarding their content marketing: “We’re doing SEO, but the content is not good, and it’s just not working very well anymore.”

So what’s broken with our content efforts? And how can we fix it? How do you ensure that your content isn’t just being created for the sake of content, but that it actually produces pipeline and revenue?

We also cover:

John's Content Motivation Framework that focuses on buyer motivation instead of a company's funnel;

AMA: John asks me his burning question.

You can find John on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jbonini

Learn more about Some Good Content: www.somegoodcontent.com

John's podcast: Louder Than Words

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show!

And whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I’m sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes

You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov

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FAQ

How many episodes does Modern Startup Marketing have?

Modern Startup Marketing currently has 215 episodes available.

What topics does Modern Startup Marketing cover?

The podcast is about Marketing, Podcasts and Business.

What is the most popular episode on Modern Startup Marketing?

The episode title '171 - Here's What Happens When You Emphasize Content Versus Product (Devin Reed, Head of Content at Clari)' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Modern Startup Marketing?

The average episode length on Modern Startup Marketing is 34 minutes.

How often are episodes of Modern Startup Marketing released?

Episodes of Modern Startup Marketing are typically released every 6 days, 22 hours.

When was the first episode of Modern Startup Marketing?

The first episode of Modern Startup Marketing was released on Oct 1, 2020.

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