Claim OwnershipThe Makeshift CMO: Marketing, Growth & Business Podcast For Early Stage Founders & Teams
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© Bruce Chen
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This podcast is the founder's cheat code to understand marketing beyond unexplainable jargon. We talk about marketing as a strategic function and how it makes a true impact on an early-stage startup.
We don't just cover pure marketing, we also cover how marketing works with other startup functions such as sales, operations, product and more. We also do interviews with other startup founders and talk all things marketing, business and growth.
If you're a founder, this is the podcast you have been waiting for.
No fluff. Just value.
We don't just cover pure marketing, we also cover how marketing works with other startup functions such as sales, operations, product and more. We also do interviews with other startup founders and talk all things marketing, business and growth.
If you're a founder, this is the podcast you have been waiting for.
No fluff. Just value.
37 Episodes
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In this episode, Bruce has on Joshua Lipton, his buddy from the Prop Tech world who has transitioned from marketing, to sales, to Director of Product & Operations at Rentsync, which turned from a Marketing Agency to a Prop Tech, SaaS company that is a leader in multifamily marketing software & services, with 20000+ properties on the platform and over five million leads generated annually.
As we go on this episode, Josh and Bruce geek out over the prop tech market, talk career changes and talk about the differences between true SaaS GTM and how to transition out of an agency to a repeatable, SaaS model.
"It's never going to be perfect. But I'd rather have a really good product 85% of the way there today, than a 100% perfect product 2 years from now."
Josh Lipton, Rentsync: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-lipton-9756778a/
Read about how Rentsync is disrupting to the prop tech/long term rental space: https://www.rentsync.com/resources/blog
In this episode, I thought I was going to talk to Lauren about email marketing and just simply ask her to define lifecycle marketing. Instead, we stump each other a bunch on tough questions on what lifecycle marketing actually is, how she conducts her tests and how she works with her internal teams to make it really happen.
"At the end of the day, lifecycle marketing is about to try and provide an amazing, valuable experience for users and customers. If you do that, the KPIs, the money and revenue will follow. Provide value, don't take. I think in marketing in general, what value can you provide up front?"
Take five minutes to be intentional about your time this week. Get in touch with Lauren Lord: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/laurenlord
Camille Trent it the Head of Content, AKA "that one girl from dully or something" who unlike most marketers, MATH was her best subject growing up. Perhaps that's what's given her her analytical, scienc-y approach to copy and content writing. Camille works with Dooly leading their content strategy, content marketing and copywriting.
In this episode we take a deep dive through Cam's interesting work history: going from a bank to Marketer Hire to Dooly, while balancing her time as a freelancing, copywriting expert.
Learn more about what Dooly does at: https://www.dooly.ai/
Connect with Cam at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillehansentrent/
Great episode alert!!!
In this episode, Bruce chats with Jake Hirsch-Allen. Jake works with North America's governments, workforce development organizations, colleges, and universities to leverage LinkedIn Talent Solutions to close skills gaps and increase sustainable employment. His goal is to expand economic opportunities for every member of the workforce. He has an incredibly interesting background as a connector, a former lawyer, and a community builder.
If you want to connect with Jake, you can do so on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakehirschallen/
Other projects that Jake is involved in:
Workforce and academia at https://www.readworks.org/
Creator advisor at https://www.hireguide.com/
In this episode, Bruce has on Daniel Francavilla, who is passionate about helping others to create social change. He's a Marketing Advisor & Brand Strategist through his own practice, Daniel Does. After travelling to developing countries as a student, he formed a nonprofit to help children in the developing world receive an education and to empower local youth to become leaders. Today, ACCESS focuses on supporting youth who are creating their own projects and organizations for positive social change, and now offers micro-grants, hosting Bright Ideas Pitches. His main squeeze these days is at King Street Media, after the agency he founded in 2013 was acquired in 2021. As a partner and lead strategist, he collaborates with creatives and marketers to support startups, businesses and non-profit organizations. As part of the merger, he now launched Now Impact Studio. If anyone wants to reach Daniel... http://danieldoes.co/marketing https://linkedin.com/in/danielfrancavilla
Brij is a software platform that powers one-touch registration & reorder to connect brands to their customers with the simple scan of a QR code. You would think it is started by some e-commerce nerd on YouTube or maybe even a college drop out, but nope!
In today's episode I sit down with Kait Stephens, CEO of Brij. She (gasp) went to college and didn't drop out (double gasp)? More than that, in fact. She went to Harvard for her MBA, with a specific mindset and idea to come out better equipped to become a startup founder.
With a background in PE and Wallstreet, and a Harvard pedigree, Kait brings firepower and a unique mindset to Foundering (yes that's now a thing). I loved this conversation as it touched on many topics including:
The value of an MBA, even as Elon and Jack Ma are hating on it
The value of a network, even if you don't have an MBA
How to recruit talent for startups in a very specific, targeted manner
In this episode, Bruce sits down with one of the first people he has literally known, Dora Du. She is the CMO of Wynd, a clean air tech company that has gathered a team of fellow MIT, NASA engineers and renowned designers to create a clean air tech product. WYND products are sold on Amazon, their website, and more. This multitouch approach to marketing and growth has allowed Dora to parlay her experiences in the corporate world into the startup world effectively. Wynd produces smart personal air purifiers, which has given Dora an interesting product backdrop to tell an incredible story.
Want to learn more about awesome air quality? Visit: https://shop.hellowynd.com
In this episode, Bruce sits down with Chris Meador of Wistia, who joined the tech startup during a period of growth and transformation to reimagine their marketing strategy as they continued to scale. In this episode, we chat about how to revamp marketing practices and effectively transitioning marketing team to adopt a customer-first, insights-driven approach for all campaigns, leading to wins like increased lead volume increases and double digit revenue growth.
We also chat about Chris' history working with Facebook, and what it means to create a "job" within a job.
Bill gates, unstealable bikes, and false narratives about oneself as an entrepreneur. In this episode, Bruce has on Entrepreneur, Storyteller, and Strategic Marketer...Nesh Pillay! The Founder, the Robinhood of PR in the startup world, Nesh comes on this episode to build the business case for something that is oft disregarded in the tech startup world: PR. How do you get media coverage? How do you continue to educate and set expectations with founders that their baby (product) may not be something that the world wants to hear about? How do you convince boards and directors that getting more press and investing on PR is the BEST choice?
In this episode, Bruce sits down with the BOSS. Not a lady boss. Just an actual boss. I am of course talking about JACKIE HERMES. She is the Founder and CEO @ Accelity. She is the definition of "Bootstrapper" (listen to the MIDDLE about what she really means when it makes PERSONAL sacrifice for her business)
I am really unsure of how a human being can have so much time to be everything she is. A growth advisor. A keynote speaker in the local area of WI. More importantly, I discovered her for her unreal advice on growing your company and frankly, your mind as an entrepreneur.
Jackie is one of the most knowledgable LinkedIn microinfluencers out there for not just marketing, but how to build your personal brand. She is part of the reason why I decided to occasionally post videos of myself babbling on LinkedIn.
Follow her...
IG: @thejackiehermes
W: jackiehermes.com OR accelitymarketing.com
I sit down with Mark Kilens, who is VP of Content and Community at Drift where he leads the content, events, community, and learning and development teams.
He oversees Drift's content strategy, Drift Insider (35,000+ members), L&D functions, and Drift’s RevGrowth and HYPERGROWTH events.
Prior to joining Drift, he served as VP and founder of HubSpot Academy. As an enthusiastic former customer, Mark joined HubSpot in 2010 as an Inbound Marketing Consultant, where he spent two years working with thousands of HubSpot customers to scale their inbound strategy.
Text Mark at 978-226-6965
Bruce is pumped to have on Erin Blaskie, his original mentor in the world of tech startups when it comes to early-stage marketing. Erin is an incredibly astute, thoughtful storyteller of a marketer.
She's a mother, a scrappy entrepreneur and has incredible stories of how she accidentally started working with some of the world's foremost startups through Ottawa's premier startup orgs: Telfer School of Business, L-SPARK, etc.
We talk about the gritty truth of marketing and true product-revenue growth: that new acquisition channels are often overrated and most small companies are better off focusing on the foundations of their growth and marketing. You should be asking yourself:
1. Are your funnels set up properly?
2. Is your marketing website displaying the product correctly?
3. Do you know who you serve?
We also talk about what it really means to set EXPECTATIONS when it comes to startup marketing hires for CEOs and CMOs.
Follow Erin on everything at:
https://www.erinblaskie.com/
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/erinblaskie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErinBlaskie
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/erinblaskie
In this episode, Bruce sits down with Beth Wanner, a super marketer hailing from Saskatchewan who takes her history of public education marketing and communications all the way to Uberflip, a content experience platform for B2B marketers. We joke about our shared background in Telecoms (me selling crappy cellphones, her as a VP marketing for IQMetrix LOL)
From a marketing side, we talk about how to get marketing a seat at the table, some of the latest product marketing trends that lead Uberflip to create their new tool, Sales Assist and much more on the team-building side of marketing.
Beth is an incredibly disciplined intrapreneur; with many opportunities in her time and certainly the pedigree to start something on her own, I asked her what she would start if she had the money. Without a great answer, she bowed out, showing great restraint. The world is excited, holding their breath for what Beth will do next.
For now, she's crushing Product Marketing and Brand at Uberflip.
Discover Uberflip Academy: https://academy.uberflip.com/ and check out Sales Assist on Uberflip!
If you're a great marketer looking for their next role, give Beth a shout as she's always looking for great marketing talent for her team: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethwanner/
In this episode, Bruce sits down with the Co-Founders of pb+j, Tom and Kyle. They are on a mission to partner with the best, bravest DTC founders to kick-a$$ and take names in e-comm.
In this episode, we...
Talk about why we love Patagonia's brand so much
Make bad bad jokes
Talk about how Kyle and Tom fell in love (was it at first sight)
Make more poor jokes that NO ONE WAS LAUGHING at (since there was no one else on this podcast)
Like Bruce, Kyle and Tom are also podcasters of an E-Comm podcast called: https://www.commercechefs.com
Check out what PB&J are doing at: https://addpbj.com/
If you're an e-comm brand looking to up their design, brand and just overall everythingness give Tom or Kyle and shout!
In this episode, Bruce sits down for an unfiltered discussion with his first boss in the startup world, a mentor and a friend in Nishaant Sangaavi. Nishaant marks the third ex-coworker he has had on but definitely the one to offer most to founders as someone who has been in the trenches building a B2B SaaS startup for the last five years. In this pod, we go beyond the EnergyX story that I in many ways helped; we dive into the doldrums and tough parts of growing a SaaS company in a virtual world but also, what are the tough choices one must make as you go from a 2 person startup to a 20 person startup. Some burning questions we answer...
"Alright, we raised $1 million. Now what? Do we raise 5? 10?"
"If so, what do we spend it on?"
"I'm a sales focused founder, but now, my job is no longer to sell but to coach and lead. How does that work?"
Nishaant's personal growth as CEO has lead to his appointment as a coach and EIR at the Ryerson DMZ, where he now gives back to other founders who were once in his shoes.
Nishaant's CTA: https://ca.cookswhofeed.com/
In this episode, Bruce sits down with Aaron, his old coworker from EnergyX. Aaron is man who once had the stones to walk away from a big deal because he made the call that it didn't fit with the ethos of what our old company was building.
In the latest #makeshiftCMO episode, Aaron and I talk about how marketing and sales work together to...
🚴♀️Brave long buy cycles with enterprise clients
🔢Find the right metrics to focus on
👨💻How to convert in-person trust to long-lasting business relationships in a virtual world
Check out what EnergyX is doing these days at https://www.energyxsolutions.com/
In this episode, Bruce attempts to understand what IP...is. He brings on his buddy Curtis Behmann of BLG, who is recognized as one of the top 300 IP strategists in the world according to the IAM Strategy 300, Curtis is a professional engineer, registered patent agent and design expert. He has more than 20 years’ experience brings a unique combination of deep expertise and board-level strategic insights to startups, scale-ups and world-leading multinationals.
In this episode, he and I talked about his work with the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (the voice of intellectual property professionals in Canada) and treasurer of AIPPI Canada. He is a member of BLG’s Innovation Thought Leadership Committee, chair of BLG’s Ottawa Charitable Donations Committee, and a former member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee (2008-2018).
Find more about what Curtis does at: https://ipic.ca/about-us/board
In this episode, Bruce chats with his old Founders Factory pal, an experienced Head of Growth with a demonstrated history of working with SMEs and startups to enhance their growth...Kartik Krishnan. Kartik is a true startup veteran who is skilled in PPC, SEO, CRM, Hypothesis-testing, Interviewing, Business Development, Social Media, and Mobile Advertising.
He has parlayed a career in Google ads into one as a startup advisor, but also a Growth Director for Capdesk, a company focused on helping startups unlock the power of their equity.
Learn about Capdesk: https://www.capdesk.com/
In this episode, Bruce interviews his ex-colleague and amazing friend, Annie Ngu. Annie is the Lead Designer at EnergyX Solutions, but also a do-everything designer, marketer and businesswoman. She is a great writer and as this podcast learns, someone who is great at talking about the softer parts of working at a tech company. We start off by debating the Marketing Vs. UX debate, but quickly we spiral into a hilarious convo about the first time she thought she was interviewing for a UX job, but wasn't. Then, we talk about how startup benefit packages need to step up their game and have an open convo about mental health when you are somebody who hustles hard.
Learn more about what Annie does at: https://www.anniengu.com/
Learn more about the Women United Project: https://www.womenunitedproject.com/
In this episode, Bruce sits down with a refreshing take on B2B marketing from another energy efficiency ex-employee, Angela Ferrante of Laudable. Laudable is a fully remote way to produce video. We make it easy, fast, and affordable to leverage customer stories and other forms of video. We're out to kill dull company-centric case studies and make b2b marketing less boring. Learn more at: http://www.getlaudable.com/
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