The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

#310 Category Creation | In this episode, Dave Gerhardt digs in with Josh Lowman , Founder & CEO of Gold Front, to unpack what “category creation” actually takes, why most companies get it wrong, and how the best brands win by owning a spot in the customer’s mind. They get into the four real paths to category leadership, the trap of “fake” category design, why vibe and soul still beat spreadsh...

#309 Product Positioning | This episode is from a Drive 2025 (our annual Exit Five event) session with April Dunford (Founder, Ambient Strategy). April pulls from working with 300+ tech companies to unpack the real patterns behind winning positioning from calling out competitors’ nonsense to teaching buyers what actually matters, avoiding category-creation traps, and fixing the sales messes that w...

#308 Sales Alignment | In this session from Drive 2025 titled “ Building Pipeline in the Shiny Object Era”, Jen Allen Knuth unpacks why deals stall even when your product is objectively better, how the explosion of shiny tools and AI noise is making it worse, and why most teams are unintentionally fueling the problem with me-centric messaging. Jen shares the two zero-dollar exercises every team sh...

#307 Building Community | In this episode Dave joined Ali Orlando Wert (Director of Content Marketing & Brand at Databox) on their podcast called Move the Needle. She did an interview with Dave focused on community building. They cover how Exit Five grew 80 percent by operating more like a startup than a Slack group. Dave gets into the truth of building community, why most companies should not...

#306 Executive Insights | This episode was recorded live at our annual event, Drive 2025. I hosted Sylvia LePoidevin (CMO, Kandji), Trinity Nguyen (CMO, UserGems), and Natalie Taylor (Head of Marketing, Capsule) for a leadership panel breaking down what’s working in B2B marketing. They get into events that reliably create pipeline, outbound that still converts, media plays LLMs keep citing, and th...

#305 Influencer Marketing | This episode is a live session from Drive 2025 with Brianna Doe , where she breaks down why influence is now shaping every step of the buying journey, how smart B2B brands are borrowing plays from B2C, and what it really takes to build a creator program that doesn’t flame out on day one. She gets into the messy reality of picking the right creators and measuring impact...

#304 | AI Buying Shift | This episode is from a recent Exit Five live session where I pulled together Lindsay O'Brien (Head of Marketing & Operations, Predictiv), Tom Wentworth (CMO, incident.io ), and Aditya Vempaty (VP of Marketing, MoEngage) for a real talk on how AI is completely rewiring the B2B buying journey. We got into why buyers no longer need your pretty funnel, how AI-powered resea...

#303 Storytelling | This episode is from Drive 2025, our 2-day in-person event for B2B marketers in Burlington, VT. Harry Dry , creator of Marketing Examples and one of the best copywriters on the internet, shared a masterclass on storytelling, creativity, and writing marketing that actually connects—showing how to find great ideas, turn real stories into memorable campaigns, and make people feel...

#302 Growth | Dave is joined by Priscilla Barolo , former head of comms at Zoom (for nearly 10 years, including the pandemic) and current VP of Marketing at Neat , an Oslo-based video tech company. Neat’s tech is used around the world from major enterprises like Atlassian to the White House . With a decade-long career at Zoom, including during its hypergrowth through the pandemic, Priscilla is a m...

#310 Leadership & Strategy | I sat down with Maura Rivera, CMO at Qualified, to talk about what it’s like leading marketing at one company for six years (and why most of her team has been there just as long). We got into how product launches are the glue that hold their marketing together, what agentic marketing really means for the future, why outbound is actually working for them right now,...

#300 Drive | This episode is from Drive 2025, our 2-day in-person event for B2B marketers in Burlington, VT. It features Diane Wiredu , Founder of Lion Words and expert in B2B messaging and positioning. She shared a killer talk on “What Your Messaging Is Missing,” breaking down why most B2B copy sounds the same and how to close the meaning gap by focusing on clarity, balance, and buyer context. He...

#299 Drive | This episode is from Drive 2025, our 2 day in-person event for B2B marketers in Burlington, VT. Our first speaker was Sangram Vajre , Co-founder and CEO of GTM Partners and expert in GTM strategy. He shared a great session on building a repeatable GTM Operating System for sustainable growth, offering insight from 100 companies on what separates teams that scale from those that stall....

#298 Q&A | OK I asked my team for some questions; a bit of a mailbag type of episode. So I sat down solo for this one and answered 15 questions from the Exit Five team about work, life, marketing, and everything in between. We got into everything from my daily routine and how I think about LinkedIn, to the best career advice I’ve ever gotten, what I’m reading, and a few personal stories I’ve n...

#297 Leadership | I sat down with Kelly Cheng, CMO at Goldcast, to talk about her path from growth marketer to marketing leader, how she’s built and scaled Goldcast’s marketing org, the shift from PLG to sales-led, and why she believes great CMOs play the long game. Timestamps (00:00) - – Intro (02:00) - – Kelly’s path from Hong Kong to Boston (05:00) - – Joining Goldcast and the PLG pivot (08:00)...

Hey it's me live from the airport, LGA to be exact. Sorry for the poor audio, my AirPods make it way worse than just talking into the phone, now I know. But we cleaned it up a bit. Recapping our NYC event if you missed it, talking about the ROI of hanging out in person and what's next. Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter Learn more about Exit Fiv...

#295 Messaging | Dave is joined by Emma Stratton , founder of Punchy, where she helps B2B tech companies sharpen their positioning and write messaging that actually connects. Emma’s worked with hundreds of teams to cut through vague, abstract copy and turn it into language buyers instantly get. Dave and Emma cover: How to go from vague to punchy using specificity and buyer empathy Why most B2B mes...

#294 Event Strategy | First time podcast guest alert! I invited Allison and Anna from the Exit Five team on for a conversation post Drive 2025 - to talk about lessons learned and behind the scenes from our annual marketing conference in Vermont. Snag your tickets for next year now exitfive.com/drive Timestamps (00:00) - – Intro (01:00) - – Why events are making a comeback in B2B marketing (05:00)...

#293 Email Marketing | I'm trying to make my way from Vermont to New York and back with a mini episode talking about email (is email dead?), direct mail, the Dream 100, and a smart lesson from a non-B2B marketer. Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/ *** Brought to...

#291 In-Person Events | I decided to break the pattern with a solo podcast, just me and my phone, walking around the woods at my home in Vermont on a damp October morning before heading to NYC for the Exit Five meetup. I talk about my goals for the week, our plans, why we're hosting a dinner, the value of meeting in-person, remote vs. in office work, and other ramblings. *If you listened to this:...

#290 AI Workflows | In this episode, Dave is joined by Dan Guenet , GTM Engineer at Compound Growth Marketing, and Eoin Clancy , Head of Growth at AirOps. Both guests are at the forefront of building AI workflows that make marketing more efficient and scalable, from content creation to sales enablement. Dave, Dan, and Eoin cover: How to use Clay, Zapier, and AirOps to build repeatable GTM systems...

#289 Strategy | Dave is joined by Sydney Sloan , Chief Marketing Officer at G2, where she’s leading the charge on integrating AI into marketing, rethinking team structures, and modernizing how B2B brands build trust. Sydney brings decades of experience from companies like Adobe, Alfresco, and Salesloft, and now oversees one of the largest software marketplaces in the world. Dave and Sydney cover:...

#288 AI in Marketing | In this episode, Dave is joined by three B2B marketing leaders: Sara Ajemian , Head of Brand & Communications at SOCi, Jennifer Delevante-Moulen , CMO at Knak, and Tara Robertson , CMO at Bitly. Together they share real-world perspectives on how AI is actually shaping marketing teams today—what’s working, what’s not, and how leaders are adapting. Dave and the panel cover...

#287 Brand Marketing | In this episode, Matt is joined by Amrita Gurney , a veteran B2B marketing leader who has scaled some of Canada’s fastest-growing startups and now works as a fractional CMO. At Float, she led bold offline campaigns, from billboards and buses to TV spots, that helped the company stand out against major banks and build lasting brand recall. Matt and Amrita cover: Why offline a...

#286 Growth | In this episode, Dave is joined by Kevin White , Head of Marketing at Common Room, a leading customer intelligence platform for go-to-market teams. Kevin shares insights from his experience helping teams capture and act on digital breadcrumbs to optimize their marketing and sales efforts. Dave and Kevin cover: How to be a good marketer even when you're not the Subject Matter Expert S...

#285 Creative Strategy | In this episode, Dave is joined by Pranav Piyush , Founder & CEO of Paramark, a measurement platform helping B2B and B2C companies run smarter marketing experiments. Pranav is known for turning strategy documents into repeatable creative processes that generate campaigns, ads, and content tied directly to a company’s story. Dave and Pranav cover: How to translate your...