Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers

Lately, I've been thinking about email newsletters. I paused my own newsletter back in March because I was like "is this thing even working?" Turns out it is (builds trust, brings clients) so I'll be bringing it back, but I wanted to talk to an expert, learn about what's working, and ask my email questions. Enter: Marc Thomas. Marc has led Growth at various companies and currently helps $1M-$10M A...

It's a bittersweet moment. My kids are officially back at school. And that means summer is over (is it though? I'm in denial). Evan Quinn is Co-Founder and CEO at hiyo. Hiyo is a stress-relieving social tonic (new category) mindfully crafted with natural adaptogens, nootropics, and functional botanicals to be a better-than-alcohol alternative. Founded in 2021, they're DTC and also in 6...

Okay, it's time we discussed customer case studies. Like really discussed them. So I invited Em Thomas to join me, she's founder of StackCat Content (full-stack case study services for B2B SaaS companies). Here’s what we cover: What do the worst case studies have in common; What about the best case studies; How to structure customer calls to pull out the right info for case studies; What format pe...

Sandhya Simhan is Head of Customer & Growth Marketing at Glean. What's Glean? Work AI for all. Give every employee an AI Assistant and Agents that put your company’s knowledge to work. Glean has exploded, and their customers play a big part. Series F, $150M raised, $7.2B valuation, 850+ people. Here’s what we cover: Tell me about your team, especially Customer Marketing; What are your goal...

Teryn Thomas is Founder and CEO at EdLight. EdLight is your AI Math Co-Teacher, they're Seed funded. I worked with the EdLight team using the Customer Insights Roadmap process which included customer research, insights, positioning, messaging, competitor analysis, GTM strategy, website, social channels, sales emails, and conference materials. I’m doing a bit of my own customer research with th...

Foti Panagiotakopoulos is Founder at GrowthMentor. GrowthMentor helps you get unstuck quickly with 1:1 advice from vetted startup mentors. Growth is tough, and sometimes you just want to talk to someone. I’ve been mentoring on GrowthMentor since 2022 and have recently started using it as a mentee as well. Here’s what we cover: How you incorporate customers as part of growth efforts; Insights from...

Brendan Hufford is Founder at Growth Sprints where he helps take SaaS companies from $10M to $100M ARR using the SaaS Growth Sprint Framework. Brendan is also a Navattic advisor and that's how we met. He has 4 kids which is double what I have so already a ton of respect. Here’s what we cover: Simon Sinek and AI ramblings (oh so good); What's different with SEO today and how Brendan helps companies...

Hey builders, it's Anna! This BONUS episode is a focused growth clinic for Georgia Austin, Founder & CEO at Wordbrew. Wordbrew makes it simple for teams to create unique content with expert insights. They have 20 paying customers. In our last episode, Georgia talked about her main challenges: positioning, packaging, distributing, lean team, small budget, and limited manpower for posting on...

Georgia Austin is Founder and CEO at Wordbrew. Wordbrew makes it simple for teams to create unique content with expert insights. Collaborate with experts on the platform (and AI) to create unique content at scale. They have 20 paying customers at the moment. How I met Georgia: she reached out to me on LinkedIn to see if I could help them with something as they're building their product and of...

It's my birthday week and I'm droppin' an episode where I explore my career, why I went solo, on landing my first client, on noticing the seasons after leaving corporate, solo business ups & downs, adapting to market shifts, turning perspectives into sales momentum, future goals and reflections, what would be my last meal, and more. I recorded this episode with Nick Bennett on his...

Amanda Natividad (VP of Marketing at SparkToro) asked me her burning question in this week's episode and I do my best to answer it. Also check out Jeremy Enns, he's Founder of Podcast Marketing Academy and he knows his podcast creation and growth stuff. Jeremy Enns on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-enns For more content, subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spoti...

Amanda Natividad is VP of Marketing at SparkToro. SparkToro is a free-to-try market research & audience intelligence tool. Been a big fan of Amanda and Rand Fishkin (Co-Founder and CEO) for a while. Founders like to hide behind their products, but the thing that makes you unique is not your product. There are so many companies solving the same problem you’re solving, and they have customers to...

Greg Portnoy is CEO and Co-Founder at Euler. Euler allows you to manage your partner programs, end to end. Founded in 2023, bootstrapped, 60 customers, they just doubled their business in Q1. They've never done a single outbound sales message. Here’s what we cover: What's working well; What’s hard right now; How do you incorporate customers as part of your growth efforts; How do you incorp...

Emily Kramer is creator of the MKT1 Newsletter and new Dear Marketers podcast. I am a huge fan. Emily was on the show before: Ep. 141 “Mistakes To Avoid When Hiring Your First Head of Marketing” is a Top 5 most listened to episode. Ep. 183 “If Your Startup Can't Win On GTM, We Won't Invest” Here’s what we cover: How's the pod going; In what (creative) ways have you seen companies lever...

Jennifer reached out to me after listening to me speak on Riverside’s content repurposing panel. Jennifer Tsay is CEO and co-founder at Shoott. Shoott is a marketplace connecting photographers with customers. Founded in 2018, they've grown from $800K to $10M. Here’s what we cover: What does it take to go from $800K to $10M; What’s hard right now; How do you incorporate customers as part of gro...

Hey, it’s Anna, and today I want to talk about something I’ve been quietly refining over the last five years, working with founders and marketing teams. It’s called Whole-Person Customer Research and it’s the foundation for how I help startups get clarity on their positioning, messaging, GTM and content strategy. For more content, subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever y...

It was really fun recording this episode with my longtime friend! We go waaaay back. Anna Baskin is Co-Founder and CEO at Hightail. Hightail is a low-dose THC infused beverage for when you want to sip in some fun. Here’s what we cover: What you're building; Wow I’m just so proud of you; How’re you growing your customer base; What’s hard right now; How you incorporate customers as part of your grow...

Christopher Lochhead is 3X Silicon Valley public company CMO, the father of category design, and makes content for entrepreneurs and marketers with a different mind. I invite Christopher on the show to talk about certain topics but I always know we will be twisting and turning to other topics which is why it's so fun to hang with him. Listen to these other episodes if you want more with Christ...

Always fun when folks refer me to founders building cool products, and that's exactly how I met Melissa. Melissa Rosenthal is Co-Founder at Outlever. Outlever helps companies become the #1 news source in their industry. They're self-funded and $5M in revenue. Here’s what we cover: What you're building; How many customers; Sales cycle length; What’s hard right now; How do you incorporate customers...

Every so often I like to set the record straight on some terms that people like to toss around. Erin Balsa (Founder of Bland To Bold) and I were emailing back and forth about Positioning, Messaging, Category Design, and Strategic Narrative. And then I realized, hey, I really just want to talk this through. Erin was on the show before, you can listen to Ep. 203 "Hashing Out The Perfect Content...

Georgiana (Gia) Laudi is co-founder and chief strategist at Forget The Funnel. She's author of the book "Forget The Funnel" that's about Customer-Led Growth and a customer-led approach for driving predictable, recurring revenue. Here’s what we cover: I have to ask why did Gia and April Dunford bash Voice of Customer (VoC) on April's podcast because I'm honestly curious; How to pick the right insig...

I'm answering Udi Ledergor's questions in this BONUS pod episode: 1. How is AI changing the work that we do on customer research? 2. How should we as consultants and advisors prepare for this change? 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 ta...

Udi Ledergor is Chief Evangelist and former CMO at Gong. You can centralize all your revenue workflows in Gong’s Revenue AI Platform. Gong is a Unicorn (last valuation was $7.25B). Total funding $583M. Also check out Ep. 156 “Gong’s Marketing Evolution From Early Stage To Unicorn”. Here’s what we cover: In what ways have customers helped Gong build to the next round; How to create raving fans; Whe...

Natalie Marcotullio is Head of Growth & Product Marketing at Navattic. Navattic makes buying easier with interactive demos. Seed funded. Also check out Ep. 139 (be the company that seems to be everywhere), Ep. 180 (podcast, ads, positioning, what’s the ROI) and Ep. 218 (launching the free forever plan). Here’s what we cover: The Navattic Fanatic Customer Event in NYC, what was your goal for th...

Taylor Jennings is lead UX Researcher at Chili Piper. Chili Piper is your all-in-one Demand Conversion Platform. The only solution that consolidates Chat, Routing, and Scheduling all in one platform. They've raised $54.4M. Here’s what we cover: How do you incorporate customer research at Chili Piper; Product research and goals with this research; Pricing research, goals with this research, how...