Billion Dollar Tech

Tom Furr is the VP of Branding at Vonage, one of the largest cloud-based communication providers. Vonage has built a celebrated brand that's kept a consistent focus on communicating with their clients and answering the "why" marketing factor. Tom has over ten years of marketing and continues to help brands build a better relationship with their consumers and find the balance between brand and demand.

What makes a brand stand out from the others? Is it bombarding potential clients with ads? Or a clever catchphrase that stands the test of time? Maybe, instead, it's their ability to innovate?

According to Tom Furr, VP of Branding at Vonage, it's none of the above.

Tom Furr sits down with Brendan Dell on this episode of The Hook to discuss the power of a well-developed brand. For Tom, the VP of Branding at Vonage, remarkable marketing happens when we have a strategy in place, focus on long-term retention over the short-term, and rely on experts' knowledge rather than gimmick marketing. His advice to his 21-year-old self is something we can all use: cultivate what you are good at and the rest will follow.

Derek Gillette is the VP of Marketing at Leadr, a people management software that facilitates leader development at every organizational level. Derek has taken a new approach to building internal engagement and crafting organic conversations that strengthen teams and advance leadership characteristics. He has over 13 years of management and leadership experience, which has helped him craft a career evaluating how to make better leaders.

In an industry that already has all the books on leadership and management, what makes a new product successful in that space? How do you answer the age-old question of how to develop leaders in the workplace while offering new insight?

Derek Gillette, VP of Marketing at Leadr, and his team have developed a people management software that does all of the above. The software takes into account the human element of what makes great leaders while providing strategies on how to create a workplace where employees can grow and develop their skills. Leadr also takes the shift to remote work into consideration, continuing to help managers make connections and lead their teams to higher heights.

In this episode of The Hook, host Brendan Dell talks to Derek Gillette, VP of Marketing at Leadr. They discuss understanding the market, the purpose of marketing, and the importance of having unbiased interviews to understand the customer more. Derek highlights how he uses his expertise to create opinionated questionnaires for building company-wide engagement. He also recalls how his marketing failures have helped him develop a message that sells and stands the test of time—leadership that motivates.

Martin Aguinis is the CEO and Co-Founder of AccessBell. AccessBell is a video conferencing platform focused on changing the future of video communication for students and professionals alike. Martin has worked with YouTube on VR, Google on Flutter, and several other projects including GreekRide, EventList, and more. His dedication to understanding the user and the product has named him one of Forbes 30 under 30: Marketing and Advertising.

Building a great app starts with more than a few lines of coding—it takes constant feedback and understanding of the user. What most marketers miss in their conquest to dominate an industry is the ability to connect with their desired user. Enter Martin Aguinis.

While at Google, Martin led Flutter from 0 to 2 million users through his marketing efforts. Martin is also the CEO and Co-Founder of AccessBell, an application that allows users to connect through video conferencing and a simple AI.

In this episode of The Hook, host Brendan Dell sits down with the CEO of AccessBell, Martin Aguinis. They discuss what makes a lollipop moment, how feedback can change our marketing approach, and the lessons Martin learned as the Global Marketing Lead at Flutter for Google. Martin also shares why he thinks the "not sexy" parts of copy are important and how "pay per click" is still a logical marketing format.

Rand Fishkin is the Co-Founder and CEO of SparkToro, a software company that puts audience intelligence at every marketer's fingertips. Before this, Rand was the CEO of Moz, an SEO software business and inbound marketing community that he co-founded in 2004. He is also the author of Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World, as well as a frequent keynote speaker on marketing and entrepreneurship topics around the world.

Is SEO still as powerful for growing a business as it was 15, 10, or even five years ago? According to Rand Fishkin, the Co-Founder and former CEO of Moz, the answer is no. When Rand left Moz to start SparkToro, he took with him the valuable insights and lessons he learned from years in the marketing industry. But to get ahead of his competition, Rand also had to adapt to a changing industry and find his own process. So what modern tactics did he take advantage of to successfully market his brand?

Join host Brendan Dell in this episode of The Hook as he interviews Rand Fishkin, the Co-Founder and CEO of SparkToro, about the best ways to effectively market your brand in 2020. Tune in to hear Rand's thoughts on omni-channel marketing, blitzscaling, and episodic content, and discover the common marketing and startup myths that simply aren't true. Keep listening!

Hila Segal is the VP of Product Marketing at Clari. She has more than 15 years of experience designing and executing GTM strategies for innovative, high-growth software solutions. Before her role at Clari, Hila worked for other high-growth tech companies, including Vendavo and Kapow Software. She has made a name for herself in the industry by building high-performance teams that foster cross-collaboration between product sales and marketing.

At the core of any good marketing campaign is the audience. Yet, many companies fail to keep their audience in mind when creating sales decks and instead focus on themselves: their founders, their company mission, their success stories. According to product marketing leader Hila Segal, this company-first approach is not an effective way to drive value to your customers. That's why her team at Clari innovated their product marketing strategy, starting with the way they interact with their audience.

In this episode of The Hook, host Brendan Dell sits down with Hila Segal, the VP of Product Marketing at Clari, to chat about the ins and outs of her audience-first marketing approach. Hila shares her strategies for putting the customer in the lead role and promoting collaboration between her marketing and sales teams. Keep listening to discover how to deliver value (and drive sales) with every audience interaction!

Marcus Andrews is the Product Marketing Group Lead for Marketing Hub at HubSpot. During his time at HubSpot so far, he has designed narratives, created go-to-market strategies, and launched various products. Before HubSpot, he brought AdWords and YouTube products to market while working at Google. Marcus was also part of the team that grew Wildfire, which was acquired by Google in 2012.

Creating your own marketing strategy can be an uphill battle. Not only are you fighting against old beliefs, but you are also pushing against the current narrative. At the end of the day, the world is changing and becoming a more data-driven society; we need to adapt to survive. Marcus Andrews, the Product Marketing Group Lead for Marketing Hub at HubSpot, believes in creating narratives and the ability to change your consumers' minds.

Marcus Andrews says out with the old template of selling a product and in with the new process of crafting stories to give life to those products. The Product Marketing Group Lead for HubSpot's Marketing Hub sits down with Brendan Dell to discuss why so many companies miss out on marketing opportunities. Marcus delves into what makes a narrative successful and how to create a unique voice. Keep listening.

Kristina McMillan is the Vice President of Research for TOPO, an analyst firm that helps sales and marketing organizations achieve scalable revenue growth. They collect data from the world's fastest-growing companies to identify how they're driving exceptional revenue growth, using that insight to help B2B companies boost revenue through sales, marketing, and sales development excellence. Outside of TOPO, Kristina is a mentor at Santa Clara University's Miller Center, Global Social Benefit Institute, where she provides executive mentorship to social entrepreneurs.

What changes the nature of a brand and how you approach the market? For many, it's the product. But, for those who excel at gauging consumer concerns, it's the ability to adapt and leverage your insight to answer your customers' needs. This is what Kristina McMillan, VP of Research at TOPO, shares with us in our conversation about what works and what doesn't in client engagement.

Join us as host, Brendan Dell interviews Kristina McMillan, VP of Research at TOPO, an analyst firm that helps sales and marketing organizations achieve scalable revenue growth. They discuss the purpose of marketing, where companies fail to connect with their customers, and how to pivot in times of crisis. Kristina explores the importance of knowing when to push and pull in any market and the future of sales. Keep listening.

Burt Rosen is the Chief Revenue Officer at Empowered Education and a veteran CMO with over 20 years of direct marketing experience at companies like HealthSparq, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, NextHealth Technologies, and Knowledge Universe. Burt is not your cookie-cutter CMO; he is a passionate storyteller who believes in the emotional bond between a brand and a customer while driving results and experiences. He has rebranded bathrooms, sponsored events, launched online storytelling conferences, sent videos through the mail, and elevated the drastically increasing enrollment of education companies in the process.

Innovation for innovation's sake is always risky. The purpose of innovative marketing is to leave a lasting impression that can alter your brand's course. According to Burt Rosen, Chief Revenue Officer of Empowered Education, digging into the problem and understanding the story behind the brand can be a formative step in the right direction.

Marketing isn't about who yells the loudest: it's about answering the right question for your customer at the right time. In this week's episode of The Hook, host Brendan Dell sits down to talk with Burt Rosen, Chief Revenue Officer at Empowered Education. They discuss great marketing campaigns, the power of storytelling, and the importance of transparency between marketing agencies and their clients. Burt also delves into what drives his creativity and desire to explore various angles in a campaign.

Rebecca Sadwick is the founder of Strategica Partners, an award-winning go-to-market strategy consulting firm that helps forward-thinking companies launch innovative products.

Rebecca has gained recognition for her work with early-stage tech startups and creative positioning strategies that build organic audience platforms and drive value. Her firm, Strategica Partners, advises tech companies like Qatch, Flux Biosciences, and CapSwan

What drives you to buy a product? Maybe it was placed on the webpage you were browsing, or a friend recommended it to you; either way, each has acted as a source of influence when it comes to purchasing a new product. In turn, this generates data on how our peers and strategic placement influence our decisions to acquire a new product. Rebecca Sadwick, a Managing Partner at Strategica Partners, places great importance on market research in her bid to help clients and customers develop long-term relationships with a genuine product.

Host Brendan Dell is joined by Rebecca Sadwick, Managing Partner of Strategica Partners, as they discuss the significance of tracking the right data points and the influence of consumer preferences on product design. She shares her insight on what questions to ask when launching a new product and the power of tracking both flawed and paired data. Rebecca also explains common mistakes companies make when analyzing the response to a new product. Keep listening.

Maya Grossman is a Strategic Marketing Advisor, Product Marketing, and Brand Strategist as well as the author of a soon-to-be-released book, Invaluable.

Maya has held executive and strategist roles in companies like Microsoft, AnD Ventures, Google, and SodaStream. In her new book, Invaluable, Maya shares her journey from an entry-level position to VP of Marketing, and how she cemented herself as an invaluable employee. With over ten years of industry knowledge, Maya's expertise in marketing and how to position yourself as irreplaceable is, for lack of a better word, invaluable.

The stories we tell connect us all to one goal: creating value in the world around us. How we share those stories is equally impactful.

The rise of marketing in uncertain times is met with a look of disdain; it costs too much money, people aren't interacting with our content as much, we don't have a way to create new channels of income. Yet, there is still an opportunity to make yourself invaluable while growing your current skills and developing new ones. According to Maya Grossman, VP of Marketing and Brand Strategist, making yourself an invaluable employee could mean creating new opportunities for your company to reach a broader audience through simple means.

In this week's episode, Brendan Dell interviews Maya Grossman, Brand Strategist and VP of Marketing. She discusses creating great content, managing channels of communication with your audience, and adding value to not only yourself but your company as well. Maya also recounts the lessons she learned when engaging with different clients and the importance of learning soft skills in your profession.