Building With Buyers - podcast cover

Building With Buyers

You're a startup founder. You think your product is amazing and feel like more people should be buying. But the road is long and slow. It feels like you're stuck. There's always one thing I ask startup founders: have you talked to your customers? This is a show about early stage startup growth but unlike other shows about early stage startup growth, only we explore the role customers play in helping startups build to the next round. Hosted by Anna Furmanov. Anna turns customer insights into compelling positioning and messaging for startups, visit furmanovmarketing.com to see how.

Episodes

133 - The Most Creative Startups Build Marketing Into Their Company DNA (Dave Gerhardt, Founder of Exit Five)

WOWZA. Guess who came on to jam with me? YUP. Dave.  You're gonna love this episode as we dive into what it means to be creative at your startup, why it's so important today and way more. We ran over because there was just so much to talk about (thanks Dave!). Dave Gerhardt is Founder of Exit Five. He's a former marketing exec at Drift ($1B valuation) and Privy (Series A) and now he's got his company of one. Exit Five (started as DGMG back in the day) is a community for B2B marketing pros w...

Jan 09, 20231 hr 5 minSeason 3Ep. 133

132 - How AI Is Changing Marketing Forever And Why Creativity Matters More In 2023 (With Special Guest Mark Schaefer)

Season 3 kicks off!! Happy New Year to all of my listeners, and cheers to a wonderful and fulfilling 2023! So with a new season, I brought on a special guest to kick things off. Mark Schaefer is a Marketing strategist, keynote speaker, university educator (at Rutgers University), and bestselling author of "Marketing Rebellion" and "Cumulative Advantage." His podcast, The Marketing Companion, is one of the top 10 marketing podcasts on Apple. And his blog {grow} is often cited in lists of the top ...

Jan 02, 202329 minSeason 3Ep. 132

131 - BONUS Anna Raw Unfiltered Last Episode of 2022 And What's Coming in 2023

It’s the last podcast episode of 2022! I just wanted to say thanks for listening, thanks for sticking with me, I appreciate you. In this episode I'm also sharing where I'm taking the show for Season 3 (I've already started recording episodes that I can't wait to share with ya'll). Season 1 and 2 I brought on startup founders, marketing and sales leaders to explore brand, demand, what approaches work well, challenges and category design. For Season 3 we’re going deep into messy creative...

Dec 30, 20225 minSeason 2Ep. 131

130 - How We Get 35%-50% Response Rates From Our Sales Emails (Will Allred, Co-Founder & COO at Lavender)

Final full episode of 2022!! Hope you've been having a wonderful holiday season and Happy (almost) New Year! I asked Will Allred (co-founder & COO at Lavender) to join me for this episode and cover some good ole' sales topics that may be top of mind for folks going into 2023. Will is a LinkedIn Top Sales Voice (47K+ followers). Prior to Lavender, Will was co-founder and COO at Sorter and prior to that he was Senior Associate at TopRight, a marketing consulting firm. Lavender was founded in 2...

Dec 26, 202223 minSeason 2Ep. 130

129 - BONUS EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp Customer Conversation (Seed Classroom)

I thought it might be cool for listeners to hear from a startup that I've worked with. I asked Emilia Herman (Co-Founder and CEO of Seed Classroom) and Zac Herman (Co-Founder and COO of Seed Classroom) to join me on the show and talk about our work together. Maybe some listeners will connect with what they're building, challenges they were having and the value they got from working together. I was Emilia and Zac's coach (together with my colleague Daniel O'Reilly ) during a 7-week EdTech Founder...

Dec 23, 202214 minSeason 2Ep. 129

128 - Your Buyers Are Hungry, So Where's Your Product Snack? (Latané Conant, CMO at 6sense)

Guess who came back on the show? YUP. One of my faves, Latané Conant. Check out Episode 116 where we dig into how they've been running no forms, no spam and no cold calls at 6sense. Guess who I ran into at Trader Joe's after having her on the show? YUP. You guessed right. Turns out she's my neighbor. It was a wonderful surprise! Latané is CMO at 6sense (4+ years). Prior, she held sales and marketing leadership roles at Appirio (B2B SaaS, raised $111.7M in funding). The new edition of her book ( ...

Dec 19, 202249 minSeason 2Ep. 128

127 - BONUS EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp Customer Conversation On Challenges, Value And Impact (Matt Barinholtz)

Another unique episode for the show! I've never done this before but thought it might be cool for listeners to hear from someone that I've worked with. I asked one of my customers, Matt Barinholtz (Founder of FutureMakers), to join me on the show and talk about our work together. Maybe some listeners will connect with what he's been building and the challenges that he was experiencing. I was Matt's coach (together with my colleague Daniel O'Reilly ) during a 7-week EdTech Founders GTM Bootcamp t...

Dec 16, 202222 minSeason 2Ep. 127

126 - How We Created A Valuable Content Machine And Then Got Acquired (Patrick Campbell, Founder and CEO at ProfitWell)

Can you believe 2023 is just around the corner? Trying to pack in a few more awesome episodes for ya before the new year AND before Season 3 of the show kicks off. For this episode I brought back Patrick Campbell (founder and CEO at ProfitWell). I’ve had Patrick on before, Episode 54 (that was 1 year ago!). Go check it out if you haven't yet. We talked a lot about “inbound media” (vs. inbound marketing) and how ProfitWell was building up their marketing engine. ProfitWell got acquired by Paddle ...

Dec 12, 202226 minSeason 2Ep. 126

125 - Podcasting Helps Our Startup Think Out Loud And Informs Our Product Roadmap (Andy Mowat, Co-Founder and CEO at Gated)

Hello listeners! I love love love bringing on early stage startups onto the show and Gated is no exception. The thing I love about Gated's team is that they're small and nimble and they ooze good marketing from their bones. Andy Mowat is co-founder and CEO (Chief Email Officer!) at Gated. Prior to Gated, Andy was VP of GTM Ops and Growth Marketing at Culture Amp (Series F employee engagement SaaS, he was there 4+ years) where he drove 10X growth in ARR, and prior to that he led marketing and cus...

Dec 05, 202226 minSeason 2Ep. 125

124 - Your Content Should Be Building Fans Instead Of Leads (Annette Cardwell, VP of Corporate Marketing at Lattice)

Hello to my wonderful listener peeps! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and your turkeys all turned out moist and delicious. I am so excited to share this episode with you, this is one you'll want to listen all the way through. I reached out to Annette Cardwell because I read this article on why brands have been investing in podcasts and I saw her quote in there and it really resonated with me. I’m fascinated by how podcasts are becoming part of the entire company strategy and helping...

Nov 28, 202254 minSeason 2Ep. 124

123 - Virtuance's Curb Appeal Podcast (Interview w/ Rachel Gombosch)

Happy Thanksgiving to all my listeners! I don't think I need to say this because you already know but I will say it - I am super thankful for you. For listening to the episodes I put out, for sharing your favorite episodes with others, for being a part of this podcast community that I started back in 2020. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. And if you're making turkey, I'll be thinking of you because I'm going to be making turkey too. May our turkeys turn out ...

Nov 21, 202251 minSeason 2Ep. 123

122 - How We Built An Elevated Lifestyle Brand And Hit 1 Million Rides (Emily Dale, Performance Marketing Manager at Alto)

I welcomed Emily Dale, Performance Marketing Manager at Alto, onto the show because it was a unique opportunity to talk about paid ads and measuring attribution coupled with brand and creative. Emily is a paid marketing guru. Her past clients include Fossil, PayPal, Michelin, Starbucks, The Bouqs Co., Lagunitas, Ferrero Brands, and Organic Valley. Alto is Series B funded ($59.5M total) and based out of Dallas, TX. Alto is ride-sharing, redefined. From their website: “Some people get there. Other...

Nov 14, 202244 minSeason 2Ep. 122

121 - How To Earn The Right To Get More Budget, Push Into Failure And Be More Creative (Josh Ades, Head of Marketing at DwellWell)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA Josh Ades is Head of Marketing at DwellWell. Prior, Josh was the Marketing Director at mPulse Mobile (a healthtech startup that has raised $42M in funding). Josh wrote me asking to get on the show and typically I don't bring people on that way but then I asked him some questions and he wrote back a very lengthy, thoughtful and interesting response so of course I said yes. Plus t...

Nov 07, 202259 minSeason 2Ep. 121

120 - How Our Early Customer Pioneers Took Hunters From $1M to $5M ARR In One Year (Sarah Breathnach, Head of Demand Gen at Hunters)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA Sarah Breathnach works with early stage SaaS companies to build a strong marketing foundation for fast growth. She's currently Head of Demand Generation at Hunters. Prior, Sarah was Demand Generation Lead at Tamr, a SaaS startup backed by Google Ventures and others that has raised $69.2M. I happened to stumble upon Sarah while listening to her speak in a recorded webinar and tho...

Oct 31, 202251 minSeason 2Ep. 120

119 - BONUS Anna Raw Unfiltered Thoughts On Creating Demand From Your Content And My Podcast 2023 Strategy (In Progress)

Hi listeners! I decided to post this quick raw TikTok video on the podcast as a BONUS episode ( I posted it on LinkedIn with more info/commentary on what I'm thinking about for my podcast strategy for next year if you wanna check it out).  This is going to hit close to home for many startups that are running the content creation engine. How does our content tie back to business results? It should. To create demand you need to create content. But just because you're creating content doesn't ...

Oct 28, 20223 minSeason 2Ep. 119

118 - Start Building Your Community Before Trying To Book Demos (Anthony Kennada, Co-Founder and CEO at AudiencePlus)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA Anthony Kennada is a B2C marketer trapped in a B2B body (I can SO relate). I met Anthony through Pavilion where he was teaching a course in CMO School about how and why companies are increasingly becoming media companies. Anthony is co-founder and CEO at AudiencePlus where the team is building software, content, and community to help every company become a media company. Prior t...

Oct 24, 202258 minSeason 2Ep. 118

117 - Marketing & Sales: Show Some Respect (Real Talk With Daniel O'Reilly, Founder of FuelSales and FuelK12)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show for ya: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA Oftentimes you'll hear marketers hating on cold outbound - it's not efficient, it's spammy, etc. And sometimes they're right. But what is truly the best approach?  So I brought on a long-time friend and (now) business partner Daniel O'Reilly (aka Dano) to help set the record straight. He's CEO and Founder of Fuel Sales and FuelK12. He's got a TON of sales experience ...

Oct 17, 202231 minSeason 2Ep. 117

116 - How No Forms, No Spam, No Cold Calls Is Working For Series E Startup 6sense (Latané Conant, CMO at 6sense)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA I had the pleasure of bringing Latané Conant onto the show. She's pretty amazing and let me tell you why. Latané is CMO at 6sense (4+ years). Prior, she held sales and marketing leadership roles at Appirio (B2B SaaS, raised $111.7M in funding). She wrote a book called " No Forms, No Spam, No Cold Calls " (I read it, you should check it out). She's big on pushing the boundaries i...

Oct 10, 202223 minSeason 2Ep. 116

115 - Why You Need To Hire A TikTok Creator Instead Of Another Writer (Tyler Lessard, VP of Marketing at Vidyard)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA When I asked Tyler to join me on the show, I thought I was bringing on a marketing leader from a video company (true) but I was also bringing on an amateur comedian, plus video expert, plus all around great personality and person to talk with! Tyler Lessard is VP of Marketing and Chief Video Strategist at Vidyard (8+ years). Prior, Tyler was CMO at Fixmo (a mobile security start...

Oct 03, 202255 minSeason 2Ep. 115

114 - Marketing-Led Growth Via The Buyer Centric Revenue Model (Interview w/ Nelson Gilliat)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show! https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA In this episode I’m getting interviewed by Nelson Gilliat (Founder of the Marketing-Led Growth™️ movement and community modernizing and liberating B2B from Sales-Led Growth from the 1980s).  Nelson wrote a book called Marketing-Led Growth via the Buyer Centric Revenue Model. He’s been advocating for a more Modern B2B Marketing and Sales model built for today, not 40 years a...

Sep 26, 202249 minSeason 2Ep. 114

113 - BONUS 15-Minutes Jam Session With Sarah Breathnach (Head of Demand Gen at Hunters) on INBOUND

*hey listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA HubSpot's INBOUND conference took place a couple weeks ago so I invited one of their speakers, Sarah Breathnach (Head of Demand Generation at Hunters, she was also on my show before this but that episode hasn't released yet) to jam on some of the highlights and topics covered during the conference. Of course our conversation took some winding turns! That's the point of these...

Sep 23, 202216 minSeason 2Ep. 113

112 - Can Marketers Fall In Love With Outbound? (Pete Lorenco, VP of Marketing at Alyce)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA Guys, you're gonna love this episode. I finally got to bring on Pete Lorenco (VP of Marketing at Alyce) to join me on the show. I'm a big fan and you'll soon be too. Prior to Alyce, Pete was VP of Marketing at Avid Technology (a public company) and several other enterprise companies including Iron Mountain and EMC (prior to their acquisition by Dell). Alyce was founded in 2015, ...

Sep 19, 202256 minSeason 2Ep. 112

111 - Why Startup Celebrity Partnerships Are Becoming More Popular (Gil Eyal, Founder of Stardust Ventures)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA Milestone Episode! I asked Gil Eyal (Founder of Stardust Ventures) to come back and talk with me on the show about startup celebrity partnerships which happens to be a very fascinating topic. In general we talk a lot about and even implement some of the (micro) influencer marketing strategies but I bet you never thought about working with a well-known celebrity to help grow your...

Sep 12, 202224 minSeason 2Ep. 111

110 - BONUS 2-Minutes Anna Unfiltered: New GTM Bootcamp For EdTech Founders Launches Next Week!

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA Here's a TikTok video I made for LinkedIn this week, also sharing with my listeners on here. I'm launching the new EdTech Founders Go-To-Market bootcamp next week (together with Dano who I worked with previously) in case you're an EdTech founder and listening and interested. Companies like Seesaw, Branching Minds, Pear Deck, Yoga Ed, Thimble, Graspable Math, Marker Learning and ...

Sep 09, 20222 minSeason 2Ep. 110

109 - How We Grew 10K Followers And 25K Downloads Within Two Weeks (Frankie Scerbo, Co-Founder and CMO at Elude)

Happy Labor Day to my US listeners! *listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA On this episode I invited Frankie Scerbo (co-founder and CMO at Elude) to join me to talk about the cool travel startup he's helping to grow, their 2022 marketing plan, creative ideas, some challenges, and favorite places to travel. Prior to Elude, Frankie was West Coast Regional Director for EON, a hardware accessory company for the gaming te...

Sep 05, 202251 minSeason 2Ep. 109

108 - Why Most Business Content Is 100% Content Free And How Non-Obvious Ideas Can Help (Christopher Lochhead, 3X Silicon Valley CMO)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA I asked Christopher Lochhead (3X Silicon Valley public company CMO) to come back and talk with me on the show about the things we did not get to cover last time, so here's round 2! Christopher makes content (podcasts, books, newsletters) for entrepreneurs and marketers with a different mind. He's got a newsletter called "Category Pirates" and podcasts (Follow Your Different, Loc...

Aug 29, 202248 minSeason 2Ep. 108

107 - If Your Marketing Sucks, There's A Crack In Your Business Strategy (Terri Avnaim, CMO at Boulevard)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA I had Terri Avnaim, CMO at Boulevard, on the show and we talked about how her experience as Chief Customer Officer (CCO) has impacted the way she runs marketing, her 2022 marketing plans plus biggest learnings in B2B marketing tech from 25+ years experience. Prior to Boulevard, Terri was Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Sauce Labs ($151M funded SaaS).  Boulevard was ...

Aug 22, 202249 minSeason 2Ep. 107

106 - How To Navigate Through Marketing Chaos (Interview w/ Spyros Tsoukalas at GrowthMentor)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA In this episode I’m getting interviewed by Spyros Tsoukalas (Head of BD at GrowthMentor) and we talk through how to navigate through marketing chaos by prioritizing marketing efforts for early stage startups. I've been a mentor on GrowthMentor for 8 months and have really enjoyed having 1:1 conversations with founders and marketers that have very specific marketing and growth qu...

Aug 15, 202216 minSeason 2Ep. 106

105 - BONUS: Why Big And Bold Is Not Always The Answer For Brand Design (Lina Erez, Lead Designer at Talina Design)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA A bit of a different flavor for this episode! I had my friend Lina Erez on the show, she works with brands and people that are pushing for positive change, to design their story and spark action. Lina's got a whole slew of clients including Adler Planetarium, BallotReady and Birthright Israel. Here's what we hit on: When you say “pushing for positive change” what does that actua...

Aug 12, 202221 minSeason 2Ep. 105

104 - There's More To Positioning Than Just Talking To Your Customers (April Dunford, Founder & CEO of Ambient Strategy)

*listeners: please fill out this short 3-min. survey to help me level up the show: https://forms.gle/iporNXSgtfuoHSPJA I'm such a big fan of April Dunford. I've read her book "Obviously Awesome - How to Stand Out in Noisy Crowded Markets" and consider her the startup positioning pro. April Dunford is founder and CEO of Ambient Strategy, a consulting firm that specializes in positioning for tech companies. April has worked with 200+ companies across the globe. For early stage startups her focus i...

Aug 08, 202229 minSeason 2Ep. 104