growth path

In this episode of grow path, Andy interviews Sam Dunning, founder of Breaking B2B, discussing his journey in building a successful agency focused on SEO for SaaS companies. They explore the importance of niche marketing, founder-led growth, and the evolving landscape of sales and marketing strategies. Sam shares insights on the differences between SEO and AEO, the changing buying journey for software, and practical tips for leveraging existing content to drive quick wins in SEO. The conversation emphasizes the need for continuous improvement in processes and the significance of understanding customer intent in today's competitive market.

Talking points:

Ana-Maria Banta has spent her career working closely with AI companies. Before moving into marketing, she trained in clinical psychology and worked as a practicing clinical psychologist, a background she draws on heavily in how she leads under pressure today.

Ana came onto growth path to talk about the psychology behind high-pressure marketing roles, why the classic MQL/SQL funnel breaks down in enterprise B2B, and why the AI era is putting brand and trust back at the center of how companies win deals. 

➡️Key topics 

• Ana's background in clinical psychology, and how it shapes the way she handles pressure, burnout, and difficult stakeholders in marketing Working hard is often mistaken for burning out – real hard work is working smart, not just working more 

• Marketing as the department everyone thinks they could do better, and often the "doormat" for sales and the C-suite Unrealistic expectations are frequently set before a marketing leader even signs – and shift again once they start the role Why marketing leaders need to scrutinize expectations during the interview process itself, not just after joining 

• The myth of the pure MQL funnel: in enterprise B2B, relationships close deals – not marketing-sourced volume 

• What marketing should actually own in enterprise deals: competitive intelligence, sales enablement, case studies, and account-based "air cover" rather than a percentage of pipeline 

• Measuring account awareness (impressions, air cover) instead of vanity conversion metrics 

• The AI era as "the revenge of the brand": buyer anxiety is higher with AI purchases, so trust and brand recognition outweigh product claims CEO-led selling (e.g. Sierra) as proof that founder-level trust closes AI deals 

• AEO/GEO and the collapse of website-driven research: buyers now ask Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini before ever visiting a website, and measurement tools (e.g. Otterly) are still catching up 

• Why the old MQL/SQL model isn't dying because it's wrong – it's dying because buyer behavior changed, and company mentality hasn't caught up 

• AI's double edge for product-led growth: it collapses time-to-value, but breaks the free-tier economics that PLG was built on, since every free user now burns real inference cost 

• The disconnect between hiring for "disruptive" marketing leaders and actually hiring for candidates who've run the same old playbook before Case study: a CMO who got budget to "burn" on long-term brand building (working with Chris Walker at Refine Labs) and saw it pay off over years Why companies want the reward of a bold brand bet without the risk and patience it requires 

• Ana's experience as a purple path client, feeling like an embedded part of the team rather than an external vendor 

Talking points:

Melody is a growth and GTM leader with 15 years of experience helping B2B SaaS companies grow beyond their size. Today, she’s the Co-founder of EspyGo and host of the Unfair Advantage podcast. 

Melody came onto Growth Path to chat about how to scale high-quality content without losing the founder's voice and why the future of B2B growth lives somewhere between authentic storytelling and LLM-friendly publishing.

➡️ Key topics

• Publishing good quality content at also a high volume

• Weaving the founder’s voice & unique insights and expertise into the content, and producing at scale

• Stance on using AI in creating content

• How to scale out authenticity?

• Capturing the insights and natural language from the business owner, the founder, and the actual experts

• Balancing wiring for the humans reading your content vs. wiring for the LLMs.

• Ultimately reaching for volume and PLG model

• Challenges of building a PLG based business

• Sales strategies and customer acquisition

• Future ventures at EspyGo

Talking points:

Janessa Drainville is a senior demand generation content specialist at Atlassian, working within Central AI, the team responsible for every touchpoint users have with Atlassian's AI products.

She came onto growth path to talk about how she pulls customer feedback from sales calls, Gong, Reddit, and help channels to find sticking points, then turns those insights into content like community posts and webinars that build brand trust while addressing real customer pain points in AI marketing.

➡️ Key topics

• Janessa's role in Central AI and how it spans every AI touchpoint at Atlassian

• Pulling customer feedback from Gong calls, Reddit, and help channels to find sticking points

• Turning sticking points into content: community posts, webinars, and demand gen touchpoints

• The fast pace of AI marketing and the need for quick adaptation

• Data quality's direct impact on AI performance - "trash in, trash out"

• Why transparency in AI marketing has helped manage customer expectations

• Setting realistic expectations with AI solutions instead of overpromising

• The unique value human marketers bring that AI can't replicate

• Navigating CEO expectations and pressure to "just AI it"

• Understanding the technical side of AI to feel empowered rather than intimidated

• The goal: listen to customers first, then frame information as a story that makes sense

Talking points:Liam Dunne, from Discover Labs, shares a powerful truth: good SEO isn’t just about keywords and links anymore. It’s a mindset shift that embraces AI and the evolving landscape of search.He discusses how traditional SEO tactics may not cut it in the age of AI. Instead, it's about consistency and relevance in your messaging across platforms. As we dive deeper into organic search, understanding the nuances between traditional SEO and AI-driven strategies is crucial for success. Listen on to see how your current strategy might stack up.➡️ Key topics- Discovered Labs - an organic search agency working with B2B SaaS companies- Growing a young, 8-9 month old company from 3 to 20 employees- Tactical priorities in traditional search vs AI search- Consistency - is what is on your website consistent with other sources online?- Developing Citable - an open source tool to structure content- Finding that 1, 5, 10% area to change the strategy to gain an edge over competitors- Recommendations on ways to measure AEO / GEO success- AI visibilities tools - 3 key metrics to measure AI visibility tools - mention rate, citation rate, and share of voice- Change in buyer behavior - zero-click research- Tracking page-level engagement when LLM provides the same information- Using self-reported attribution - Trying to gather intent data - Are we writing for machines or for humans?- Biggest differentiator - product marketing- Technical SEO’s importance in building a strong marketing foundation- Leaning into AEO and GEO by focusing on RedditWhere to find Liam:https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamdunne05/🧐 Learn more- Subscribe to the podcast ► https://open.spotify.com/show/6h3X5P0kWkt62woYZRWDZU- Learn more about purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io- Get more content ► https://www.purplepath.io/content- Contact purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io/contact- [Free B2B SaaS GTM Guide] ► https://go.purplepath.io/guides/b2b-saas-state-of-the-union

Talking points:Emer Mc Ginley spent over 20 years at the top of global customer service operations, most recently at Amazon where she oversaw everything from vendor management across 230 million annual contacts to leadership development for 56,000 leaders. Emer came onto growth path to chat about the stuff most companies get wrong about customer experience, why she deliberately took jobs she wasn't qualified for, and what 20+ years inside Amazon actually taught her about building something that lasts.➡️ Key topics- Whirlwind journey of beginning work for Amazon when the company was quite small- Her passion and focus in customer service- Taking the opportunity to doing jobs she was unqualified to do and learning from the experiences- Maintaining the company culture of a company of 22,000 employees- Culture of Amazon persevered for so long because it was embedded into how business was done- Celebrating failures- Tenets - curated sets of ways to perpetuate decision making within an organization- One of her biggest failures launching Amazon Logistics- Making something feel delightful that others might assume is a headache- Frontline empowerment - Adjusting to a change of pace after semi-retirement- Serving on a charity board and providing support for start-ups and scale-upsWhere to find Emer:https://www.linkedin.com/in/emermcginley/🧐 Learn more- Subscribe to the podcast ► https://open.spotify.com/show/6h3X5P0kWkt62woYZRWDZU- Learn more about purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io- Get more content ► https://www.purplepath.io/content- Contact purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io/contact- [Free B2B SaaS GTM Guide] ► https://go.purplepath.io/guides/b2b-saas-state-of-the-union

Talking points:

Gotti Eisenberger is an Austrian curator, art fair advisor, and former World Cup champion swimmer who took an unlikely path from the pool to the gallery. He built and sold art-tech startup scan.art before pivoting into large-scale exhibition production, most recently bringing NASA astronaut Terry Virts’ photography from space to 15,000 visitors.He came on growth path to talk about going from professional athlete to art world curator, building a tech startup to bridge the gap between art and younger audiences, and the chaotic, sleepless grind of pulling off a 1,500 square meter NASA photography exhibition in just weeks.➡️ Key topics- Starting a career as a professional athlete into the art world- Noticing that there was a barrier between art world and younger audience, and bridging the divide.- Using image recognition technology for art and turning it into a startup- Challenges of working the technology into bigger art fairs and pivoting into curating his own exhibitions- The View from Above exhibition - coordinating with Terry Virtst to showcase his photography from space- The story of a tech startup to an on-site exhibition- Could the future be more entertainment oriented with AI freeing up time?- Going from concept to a 1500 square meter exhibition with 15,000 visitors in two month- The time crunch he dealt with of filtering through 300,000 images and recording the audio guide in one months time.- Spending 17 to 18 hour days going through thousands of images, defining the sizes, and editing the raw images- Overcoming the stress of hanging the artwork the day before the opening of the exhibit- The enormous logistical challenge of setting an exhibition of this sizeWhere to find Gotti:https://www.linkedin.com/in/gottfriedeisenberger/🧐 Learn more- Subscribe to the podcast ► https://open.spotify.com/show/6h3X5P0kWkt62woYZRWDZU- Learn more about purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io- Get more content ► https://www.purplepath.io/content- Contact purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io/contact- [Free B2B SaaS GTM Guide] ► https://go.purplepath.io/guides/b2b-saas-state-of-the-union

Rob Pryce is a senior business leader with over 20 years of sales, commercial, and operational experience in the technology and digital sectors, having held senior positions at global companies including Microsoft, where he served as European lead for Sales Strategy and Brand. He currently serves as Chief Revenue Officer at Xtremepush, a global multi-channel customer experience and engagement marketing platformRob came onto Growth Path to chat about how to successfully transition from enterprise to startup, the critical role of people, culture, and process in scaling a business, and the hard-won lessons behind Xtremepush's remarkable 1000% growth over six years.➡️ Key topics- Relying on skillsets and core pillars to move from enterprise businesses to startup world- Key importance of working with, trusting and building relationships with people- Strengthening the ability to make a decision and execute - Teething pains of scaling Xtremepush- Understanding where you want to be and how to get there- Building the organizational structure. Implementing the process,s and upskilling the existing team- Knowing your goals, assess , and changing direction if needed- How to implement process to make sure the company scales effectively- Process doesn’t mean deliberate for hours - it means who does what, how, and whos accountability- Important for every brand to know; why are you different? Why should people choose you?- Culture: super important for any business - challenging times are inevitable, but with good culture you’ve got each other’s back. - How to a focus on the interview process is key in building a strong culture- Getting the right people and investing in them- Balancing scaling with the team supporting each other and avoiding burnout- How Xtremepush has grown over 1000% growth in 6 years- Importance of pushing back and understanding it won’t be linear growth.- Winning large businesses - be accurate with pipeline and forecasting, but drive business and growth as if you won’t win the tier zeros / whales.Where to find Rob:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-pryce/🧐 Learn more- Subscribe to the podcast ► https://open.spotify.com/show/6h3X5P0kWkt62woYZRWDZU- Learn more about purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io- Get more content ► https://www.purplepath.io/content- Contact purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io/contact- [Free B2B SaaS GTM Guide] ► https://go.purplepath.io/guides/b2b-saas-state-of-the-union

Paige Tyrrell is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Prefixbox AI, an AI powered product solution for retailers. She is also an adjunct professor of digital marketing at the IE Business School. She came onto growth path to talk about unified revenue leadership, balancing short- and long-term KPIs, and how AI agents are transforming sales and marketing teams.➡️ Key topics-B eing head of marketing for one company for 9 years- Aligning sales and marketing- Pros and cons of having one leader overseeing marketing and sales- How does having one unified person at the top of marketing impacts overall growth?- Balancing the KPIs and the short and long-term goals for a sales & marketing team- The classes she teaches as an adjunct professor from the angles of marketing, sales, and corporate entrepreneurship- How can large companies emulate the processes that make startups successful?- Leveraging digital tools - AI agents for sales and marketing- Importance of literacy in AI tools and best practices- Teaching masters level classes of 50-60 students and the diverse perspectives- Journey from Texas to Salzburg, Budapest, and Madrid- Expanding Prefixbox out of Europe, into US, Emirates with a team of 25- Next steps in the conversational and agentic commerce spaceWhere to find Paige:https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigetyrrell/🧐 Learn more- Subscribe to the podcast ► https://open.spotify.com/show/6h3X5P0kWkt62woYZRWDZU- Learn more about purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io- Get more content ► https://www.purplepath.io/content- Contact purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io/contact- [Free B2B SaaS GTM Guide] ► https://go.purplepath.io/guides/b2b-saas-state-of-the-union

Scott Brinker is an analyst and advisor at chiefmartech, widely known as the “godfather of martech,” with over two decades of experience shaping the Martech landscape through research, writing, and industry leadership.Scott came onto growth path to chat about the future of MarTech, cutting through the hype on AI agents, the rise of AEO and GEO beyond SEO, and the major structural shifts reshaping marketing and search.➡️ Key topics- Completing the 2026 MarTech report- What’s happening with the technologies, especially AI agents- Taking a non-hype lens on what’s happening with AI agents- The Three different categories of AI agents and marketing- AEO - monster engine optimization and GEO - generative engine optimization, the successors to traditional SEO- Are AI searches trackable for marketers?- How things have changed since 2008 when he first started in the industry- Will AI give us a new layer in how the internet will be in the future?- How big is the AI agent bubble?- Concerns and hopes for the future of marketing with AI- Playing musical chairs in the AI race- Possibility of tremendous structural change in an unprecedented timeframe- The potential for creators to have immense succeess with the help of AIWhere to find Scott:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjbrinker/🧐 Learn more- Subscribe to the podcast ► https://open.spotify.com/show/6h3X5P0kWkt62woYZRWDZU- Learn more about purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io- Get more content ► https://www.purplepath.io/content- Contact purple path ► https://www.purplepath.io/contact- [Free B2B SaaS GTM Guide] ► https://go.purplepath.io/guides/b2b-saas-state-of-the-union