Growth Led Podcast

Today, we're peeling back the layers on a concept that's crucial for early-stage startups but often flies under the radar: Founder Led Growth. For many of us in the startup world, the early days are a blend of excitement and uncertainty. It's a time when 'growth hacking' isn't just a buzzword—it's a survival tactic. Before the marketing budgets expand and the sales teams grow, there's a critical phase where the founder's touch turns the gears of progress. This topic hits close to home for me. It reminds me of the hustle, the late nights, and the relentless pursuit of that first batch of loyal customers. It's the story of how I, and many of you, began the journey to what our companies are today. In this episode, we're going to explore what Founder Led Growth really means, why it's indispensable, and how embracing it can set the foundation for all the growth that follows. So whether you're just starting out or looking to inject new life into your venture, stay with us as we uncover the essence of Founder Led Growth, inspired by insights from industry leaders and my own trenches of startup life. Now, let's set the scene and dive into the world of Founder Led Growth, where every small step counts and every effort can lead to that big break we're all striving for.Support the show

This week on the Growth led Podcast we revisit some of the best bits and clips from past episodes including special guests Jeanne L. Hopkins and Christian Brown. 00:09 - Clip from Activation Strategies with Craig Zingerline05:26 - Clip from Insights on Culture and Team Building with Christian Brown11:52 - Clips from Experimentation with Craig Zingerline18:03- Clip from Sharing the Wins and Losses of Growing Businesses with Jeanne L. Hopkins24:18 - Clip from Retention with Craig ZingerlineCraig Zingerlinehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/craigzingerline/@craigzingerlineSupport the show

Welcome to the Growth Led Podcast. This week I am talking about Experimentation, the six steps I follow when carrying out experiments and some case studies and examples. To access the materials referenced by Craig, please go to bit.ly/vgmodels.00:00 - Introduction00:33 - Episode Overview and Access to Materials01:06 - Examples of Experimentation04:27 - The Experimentation Framework09:39 - How do Experiments Work in Practice16:43 - Future Experiments and Next Steps Craig Zingerlinehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/craigzingerline/@craigzingerlineSupport the show

Welcome to the Growth Led Podcast. This week I am talking to Christian Brown,  Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Glewee and Forbes 30 under 30 2023. Glewee the easiest and fastest all-in-one influencer marketing platform that connects brands and creators through collaboration and paid social media brand deals. As a co-founder and leader of marketing, Brown worked closely with the CEO, Dylan Duke, to scale Glewee from its early days of sticky note ideas into the fully-fledged brand it is todayCentered around community, innovation and fluidity, Glewee’s entire brand evolution and refinement have been the labor of love for Brown since the company’s founding.00:00 - Introduction08:55 - What Inspired The Creation of Glewee: Influencer Marketing Platform12:10 - Christian Shares Difficulties and Importance of Teamwork16:15 - The Role of Team in Business Growth and Reflections26:52 - Team Culture and its Resilience: Dealing with Employee Turnover29:29 - Entrepreneurial Lessons: The Value of Customer Feedback and Embracing Failure31:12 - Reflecting on the Past vs Looking at the FutureCraig Zingerlinehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/craigzingerline/@craigzingerlineSupport the show

Welcome to the Growth Led Podcast.This week I am talking about Product Market Fit.  Some key points I touch on are:Why understanding Product Market Fit is important How to know when you have itDeveloping, testing, Iterating and improving your product02:16 - Introduction to Product Market Fit03:57 - Understanding the Importance of Product Market Fit04:27 - Measuring Product Market Fit: Quantifying Your Success09:43 - Accelerating the Journey to Product Market Fit12:24 - The Power of Proxy Metrics15:00 - The Tough Reality of Product Market Fit16:10 - Common Causes of Failure in Achieving Product Market Fit19:09 - Key Indicators of Successful Product Market FitCraig Zingerlinehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/craigzingerline/@craigzingerlineSupport the show

Welcome to the Growth Led Podcast. This week I am talking to Jeanne L. Hopkins about times in her career where she experienced some lows and how she learned from them. Jeanne is the Founder of Salty Marketing Group, working as a fractional CRO and CMO, offering GTM planning for B2B tech companies.  In additional to many other roles, she served as CMO for spend management software company Lola.com, founded by Paul English and acquired by Capital One in 2021.00:56 - Introduction2:46 - AI and the Present Market5:41 - The Importance of Editing9:01 - Trusting Your Team10:17 - Conference Failures15:13 - Leveraging Team Expertise16:30 - Life & Career Struggles22:19 - Starting Fresh at a Startup23:21 - Campaign Failures & Lessons28:59 - Efficient Funnel Management33:12 - Why Customer Retention is Critical38.01 - Aligned Product & Marketing41:45 - Breaking Free from PerfectionCraig Zingerlinehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/craigzingerline/@craigzingerlineSupport the show

Welcome to the Growth Led Podcast.This week I am talking about Activation Strategies.  I chat about what Activation is, why it is important for businesses as well as sharing real life successful activation strategies. I also discuss some common mistakes and how to avoid them. 00:28 - Introduction00:46 - Overview of Activation01:42 - Where Does the Activation Occur?03:04 - End-Point Acquisition Goal06:40 - Key Factors in Activation: Intent and Leverage10:00 - Product Led Growth: Can it be relied upon?11:10 - Common Activation Pitfalls14:08 - Miro: A Successful Activation ExampleCraig Zingerlinehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/craigzingerline/@craigzingerlineSupport the show

Welcome to the Growth Led Podcast. This week I am talking about Retention Strategies.  I discuss why retention is important for businesses, the common retention challenges as well as providing examples of businesses with proven retention strategies. 00:00 - Introduction00:49 - Definition of Retention01:26 - Retention Rate & Models02:28 - Core Metrics to keep customers from churning03.48 - Why is Retention So Important06.17 - How Do You Impact Retention08.34 - Having a Retention First Point of View09.49 - Ways You can to Influence Retention10.52 - The Most Common Challenges11:27 - Core and Proxy Retention Metrics15:34 - Retention Benchmarks Per Industry 16:37 - Plotting an Activation Curve18:41 - Easy Ways to Improve Your Retention23.32 - RecapCraig Zingerlinehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/craigzingerline/@craigzingerlineSupport the show

Welcome to the Growth Led Podcast, where we discuss entrepreneurship through the lens of growth and marketing. I’m your host Craig Zingerline, and today I’m going to discuss the art of the pivot - knowing when it’s time to pivot, what leading indicators to look out for, and how to pivot. Stay tuned - this episode goes into the weeds of how we’ve approached pivoting ourselves at Velocity Growth.Support the show

Hi everyone! Exciting announcement here that I'll be back soon with new episodes of the Growth Led Podcast. But in the meantime, please check out my other podcast: Triggered.On Triggered, myself, Aoife Jacob and Jen Bryan from the Velocity Growth team discuss the things that trigger us from within the startup and marketing space. It's fresh, fun, and maybe just a bit over the top.Hope you enjoy!https://velocitygrowth.com/trigged/Support the show

In this solo episode, I outline what I think around the iOS 14.5 changes and if we're heading into "Advergeddon" with these changes or not, what the changes mean for advertisers, and...most importantly, why I think this is a huge opportunity for great marketers to up their game, work more closely with product managers, and use the product and activation strategies to do more post-click.Some resources to read include:https://9to5mac.com/2021/04/22/apple-expanding-its-app-store-ads-business-rolling-out-suggested-app-ads/https://www.cnet.com/how-to/ios-14-5-lets-you-stop-iphone-apps-from-tracking-you-and-it-takes-less-than-a-minute/https://9to5mac.com/2021/04/28/leaked-facebook-memo-reveals-how-advertisers-will-be-impacted-following-ios-14-5-release/Visit us at growthuniversity.io for upcoming programs and events!Support the show

Today I interview Hillary Weiss. Hillary is the Founder of Statement Piece Studios, is a Creative Director, Messaging Strategist, Coach and Speaker. The topics we discussed were:Working with small business owners on what makes them unique How to package your products and services to make more money, get invited to talk at conferences, and create & sell your own frameworks. Transitioning from being a tactician to strategy and coaching. Should entrepreneurs and CEOs build their own personal brands?How to build your personal brand?Should you close a business because you don’t enjoy it ?Support the show

In this interview, I spoke with Marcus Bullock, CEO of Flikshop. This is an incredible story and journey that Marcus has been on.  After spending eight years in prison and experiencing the depths of despair after realizing he wasn't getting out early, Marcus found the strength to make it through his sentence, get out into the world again, and build a wildly successful business from scratch. All the while helping other formerly incarcerated people build up their lives again after serving time.After selling that business, he found his calling helping families stay connected when a loved one is incarcerated via Flikshop. We walked through the incredibly difficult journey of life in prison, what it felt like to be on the inside, and what the nexus of Flikshop was.This was a powerful and eye opening discussion, and I'm grateful that Marcus spent so much time on the show. Learn more about Marcus and Flikshop at https://www.flikshop.comSupport the show

In this episode, Jen Bryan and I discuss all things Apple iOS 14 changes, what it means for advertising, and why Facebook is up in arms.We go deep into the ways to navigate these changes. Enjoy!Support the show

Today's episode features Brian Kardon, CMO of Invision. We covered a lot of ground. Topics include:How Brian handles a large organizational role leading both marketing and sales - this was fascinating to see how he approaches thisWe cover product led growthWhat main metrics he tracks across the organization to ensure growth is on trackThe $5 million dollar launch failure and the mindset of experimentationHow massive companies keep reinventing themselves to continue growthWhat the future of remote work looks likeWhy companies need to see the light - pulling a quote from Amanda Gorman's inspirational inauguration poemAnd so much more!Brian can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.Support the show

In this episode I interview Jay Woodard. Our main topic was one of overcoming failure as an operator and entrepreneur, learning how to rebound, and ensuring we don't make the same mistakes again. Jay's donut shop - Huckleberry donuts - in Ireland became so popular he had 400+ people waiting in lines around the block, and was selling out donuts within minutes.This demand was so great that it prompted scale, only to be met with countless challenges. Tune in to hear how Jay rebounded and is now building something great again.Jay has now gone on to found a brand & storytelling agency: https://www.ad32agency.com/Support the show

In this episode I interview Shane McCarthy. Shane is the Chief Marketing Officer at Sandboxx, and has been at the company since its earliest days - taking it from startup to scale. We discuss everything from chess (fun fact - Shane was an Irish champion as a child) to channel marketing and partnership marketing.We dive into what is stressing CMO's and other leaders at this point in time, and dive into community building and a whole lot more!Tune in for a really fun chat!Support the show

In today's podcast I interviewed Angela Ferrante. Angela is the founder at Laudable - a startup that helps B2B companies remotely capture high quality video in the form of customer testimonials that drive growth through social proof.We discuss topics such as:The state of marketing going into 2021The race to try to capture attention, and the tradeoffs between content production and content distributionPersonal brands becoming the norm and also supporting companiesBrand authenticityHow to know what channels to market inLinkedIn becoming more crowded, and what we think may happenAnd so much moreLearn more about Laudable here.Support the show

Apple IDFA is coming soon – what marketers need to know.View the video version of this episode here.Support the show

What is Twitter and Snapchat doing to try to compete with the likes of Instagram and TikTok?  Here's my quick take.Support the show