Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers

Rob Snyder is founder and advisor to b2b startups, Fellow at Harvard Innovation Labs, and Operating Partner at Grix VC. He wrote a book called The Power of PULL which I recommend to folks that are building 0 to 1 (and beyond). We discuss: Quick explanation of PULL; Anything less than "Hell Yes!" is a no, but this is not what we learn in sales; The Rule of One and focus on one person when you’re cr...

Maitri Sheth is Senior PMM at Hubspot, previously PMM at Gong. We discuss: From B2C to B2B marketing, me too! How has b2c shaped your approach to b2b product marketing; Previously Gong, now Hubspot. What did you do in your first 90 days; One PMM workflow that you’re excited about; Do you feel like you have a good grasp on how AI workflows tap into meaningful business results; Marketing is using cr...

Natalie Marcotullio & Mark Kilens invited me on their podcast GTM News Desk. We discuss: How do you build messaging that actually sticks across every team that touches it? How do you know when an "insight" is genuinely worth acting on or when it's just a pattern dressed up in fancy words? What does it take to teach AI to think like you, not just write like one version of you? Moj...

Hi, we need to talk. This is important. One of the worst things that AI is doing to PMMs right now: making pattern recognition look like insight. I've been surprised how many tools give you dozens of "insights" without anything to back it up other than pattern recognition and quotes. Just because something came up multiple times doesn't make it an insight! Please hear me out, we...

Eric Holland is a recovering product marketer who quit his job to focus on custom messaging assistants + interactive demos. Founder @Mojo PMM: Burn your boring messaging doc. Mojo is your custom messaging assistant that creates bold, persona-specific messaging for anything you need, that your whole team wants to use. I recently joined Eric at Mojo PMM as their first ever Messaging Whisperer. Co-Fo...

In the last episode (270), Caitlin Sullivan (AI + Customer Research expert) asked me "what would have to change for you to feel that AI is trustworthy?" It's a really good question and I answer it in this short episode. Subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, message me what you're listening to, and don't forget to leave a review...

I know, I know. Season 5 wrapped up. But I couldn't help myself. Caitlin Sullivan is an expert in AI for Customer Research. She trains growth-ready product & design teams to know their customers faster. Clients include YouTube, Spotify, Ramp, Meta, and Canva. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Introduction to AI in Customer Research 03:41 The Shift in AI Usage for Customer Research 09:25 Buildi...

Thanks for being here, for listening, for collaborating, thanks for sharing episodes with others, for sharing stuff with me - when people DM me on LI with their fave episodes - for leaving a review, thank you for all of it. Here's the link to the article " 35 Creative Customer Marketing Plays ". Wishing you a warm + connected holiday season and positive, fresh beginnings for 2026. Su...

To wrap the year, my client Navattic invited nine of their marketing advisors (including me!) for an open panel on what’s working and what’s worn out from 2025, and where we're placing big bets for 2026. ~300 ppl registered. A few highlights - Worn out: Being a part of every over-saturated channel. AI hype. Talking about how SEO traffic is “collapsing.” Instead, focus on channels where you are...

Everyone's been telling me "you gotta talk to Kevin!" Kevin Lau is VP Global Customer Marketing at Freshworks. Freshworks provides AI-assisted IT and customer service software to 75k+ companies. 9,500+ employees, IPO’d back in 2021. Here’s what we cover: 01:58 Why Customer Relationships are so important especially going into next year 05:40 The Customer Marketing Team at Freshworks 0...

Melanie Paddock is Sr. Manager, Customer Marketing & Advocacy at Gainsight. Gainsight is the world’s leading Customer Success platform. 1,100 ppl, $156M+ total funding, Series E. Here’s what we cover: 02:48 The Importance of Customer Love 05:34 Building an Advocacy Program from Scratch 08:24 Gamification and Customer Engagement 11:16 Creating a Community for your Advocates 14:20 Leveraging Cus...

Shannon Howard is Senior Director of Customer & Content Marketing at Intellum. Intellum is AI transformation for enterprise learning. $25M in funding, 139 people. Here’s what we cover: 05:35 Shannon shares some Creative Customer Marketing Strategies 08:41 Building the Foundation for Customer Marketing 11:09 The Role of Data in Customer Marketing 14:00 Surprise and Delight 16:49 Empowering Cust...

If you're in the US, Happy Thanksgiving. When I look back at 2025, one thing is very clear: my clients taught me more than any book, course, or conference ever could. Here are the six lessons I learned from the leaders I worked with this year. Subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, let me know what episodes you're into, and don't forget to...

Aditya Vempaty is VP of Marketing at MoEngage. MoEngage is a consumer engagement platform used by 1350+ consumer brands globally. $180M funding, 869 ppl. Here’s what we cover: 02:46 Team Structure and Regional Dynamics - including why one PMM reports under the CEO 05:33 Steering the Ship & Gaining Buy-In for Strategic Initiatives 11:10 The Role of Customer Feedback in Marketing 13:48 Repositio...

Jess Cook is Head of Marketing at Vector. Vector is the only way to build ad audiences by name. Contact-based ads platform so your ads reach the right people (those that want to buy). Here’s what we cover: 02:39 Understanding Vector's (new!) Positioning 05:30 Customer-Centric Growth Strategies 08:16 Repositioning and Messaging Evolution 11:04 Incorporating Customer Feedback and why we brought...

Anthony Pierri helps founders market hard-to-market products as Co-Founder and Partner at FletchPMM. We're both in the Chicago area, Anthony is just a (trail) bike ride away. I asked Anthony to join me for round 2, also listen to Ep. 199 “Why Your Homepage Is A Great Predictor of Your Startup's Future Success...Or Failure.” Here’s what we cover: “Let’s fix your confusing positioning” why y...

Mark Huber is VP of Marketing at UserEvidence. UserEvidence is a Customer Evidence Platform that lets you collect feedback, curate success stories, and create content that credibly proves the value of your product. Don’t beg for case studies. Get customer proof at scale. Mark and I are both Navattic advisors. Here’s what we cover: Tell me about your team, what’s everyone doing; Tell me about how y...

This is a geeking out episode. If you love customer research as much as I do and know how important it is for marketing and business growth, this is the episode you'll want to hear. Hannah Shamji is a former Therapist and now Consumer Psychology Researcher. Hannah digs deep to uncover the emotional and psychological reasons your customers buy, stay, or leave in order to help inform retention,...

Mark Schaefer is keynote speaker, university educator, futurist, and bestselling author of books like Marketing Rebellion, Audacious, and most recently How AI Changes Your Customers . Mark also joined me a couple years ago, listen to Ep. 132: How AI Is Changing Marketing Forever & Why Creativity Matters More. Here’s what we cover: What’s changing with our customers, and how do we change alongs...

After 5+ years working with early and growth stage companies, I created the Customer Insights Roadmap , a 4-phase process that helps founders/CEOs and their teams understand their customers deeply, translate those insights into clear and compelling positioning and messaging, and then scale growth in a way that works for your specific target buyer. It’s the exact process I take my clients through a...

So ya know how I’m exploring the role that customers play in helping companies build to their next level of growth? My goal is to invite on more superstar customer marketers and this episode is no exception. Why such an obsession with customer marketing? people don’t stop to consider how important their customers are; we always seem to be chasing net new; trust is peer-led and most growth (still)...

I reached out to Denny Hollick on GrowthMentor as a mentee. Denny was a good match because I wanted to ask him some questions I’ve had for a while around customer marketing and customer advocacy. Yes, most people agree that understanding customer needs can transform product development, but what’s often overlooked is how customer advocates can significantly influence your market success and GTM pl...

Lately, I’ve been intrigued by “State of The” reports. Many of them are examples of what good content looks like. Tommy Walker created his State of (Dis)Content report so naturally I wanted to learn exactly how he did it. Tommy is founder at The Content Studio. The Content Studio is a content marketing consultancy focused on creating, developing, and improving content programs for growth-stage B2B...

Shoshana Kordova joined me to talk about some of my favorite customer research and insights topics, she's founder of Peel Product Marketing and 3X founding product marketer with over a decade of journalism experience. Here’s what we cover: How does your journalism background help you with customer research; There are many Product Marketers, how do you differentiate; How do you know something i...

Gianna Scorsone is co-founder and COO at ChampionHQ. ChampionHQ is the customer-led growth platform. Turn your customers into your No. 1 growth engine. Seed funded. Here’s what we cover: Customer-led growth vs. customer marketing and why both are important; How to turn customers into your No. 1 growth engine; How do you incorporate customers as part of your own growth efforts; Who’s doing customer...