Key Points:

• How ScreenCloud came to be (01:11)
• Mark describes the early competitive landscape of digital signage (03:07)
• My opinion on how low-cost copycats could improve their messaging (04:33)
• I explain why becoming irrelevant is a bigger risk than making a mistake (07:10)
• ScreenCloud’s approach to content marketing (08:11)
• My thoughts on why evangelizing category over product in a new category can help you win (09:10)
• Why Mark knew moving upmarket was the right move for ScreenCloud (12:38)
• I address the advantages of strategic pivots (14:09)
• Mark goes through ScreenCloud’s acquisition channels (17:02)
• Mark explains the moats ScreenCloud is relying on to stay competitive (19:52)
• I unpack why brand marketing is importing for targeting out-of-market customers (21:58)
• Mark predicts what consumer behavior will look like in 10 years (26:13)
• Wrap up (27:57)

Mentioned:

Mark McDermott LinkedIn

Mark McDermott Twitter

ScreenCloud

Educating your target market with Appcues' Jackson Noel

Yamini Rangan LinkedIn

Paul J. D’Arcy LinkedIn

HubSpot

Miro

My Links:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

Wynter

Speero

CXL

Key Points:

• Dave explains why having a visible founder can set you apart (01:20)
• I explain why nepotism is not a thing of the past, and how to cultivate yours (02:50)
• Dave unpacks how founder story made a difference at Drift (03:22)
• My thoughts on brand storytelling, and why your story is your strategy (06:02)
• How Privy approached developing founder brand (07:44)
• How Ben Jabbawy used his podcast as a content cache (09:30)
• I explain why I put myself at the forefront when starting my company, CXL (10:33)
• Dave explains the unquantifiable ROI of personal branding (13:05)
• Dave dives into the risks of building a brand on an individual (16:04)
• Dave talks about quality vs. quantity when it comes to social media (20:02)
• My advice on social media strategy when you’re first starting out (22:10)
• Why you should be prioritizing meaningful content on social media (25:15)
• Wrap up (26:50)

Mentioned:

Dave Gerhardt LinkedIn

Dave Gerhardt Twitter

DGMG

“Founder Brand” by Dave Gerhardt

David Cancel Twitter

Drift

Ben Jabbawy Twitter

Privy

Andy Raskin Twitter

Rand Fishkin Twitter

Gary Vaynerchuk Twitter

My Links:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

Wynter

Speero

CXL

Key Points: 

• How Appcues got their start (01:13)
• What to do when you realize you’re not that different from your competitors (03:06)
• Why Appcues found early success through content marketing (05:45)
• My thoughts on content marketing as a long-term play (07:15)
• How Appcues approaches competitor awareness (08:30)
• I explain why studying your competition is key to differentiating (09:38)
• Why Appcues is focused on being the best experience builder in the market (11:57)
• My take on how small brands can compete with dominating, big brands (13:30)
• Appcues’ pricing strategy (14:48)
• I explain why pricing is a huge growth lever, and why it’s hard to get right (15:51)
• What Appcues is doing with the money they raised in their successful Series B round (17:21)
• Why Jackson regrets betting on the ubiquity of product analytics (19:11)
• I unpack why high-profit business models include high customer value (22:55)
• Wrap up (26:28)

Mentioned:

Appcues Website

Appcues LinkedIn

Jackson Noel LinkedIn

Jackson Noel Twitter

Ben Horowitz Twitter

Ryan Law Twitter

“Love your competitors - how great businesses do strategy” Alex Smith

Twilio

Datadog

Patrick Campbell LinkedIn

Mixpanel

Kissmetrics

Google Analytics

Prof. Jonathan Byrnes

Pendo

My Links:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

Wynter

Speero

CXL

Key Points:

• The origins of Postscript (01:05)
• Why Postscript chose to build on top of Shopify’s platform (02:15)
• My thoughts on the advantages of attaching yourself to a growing ecosystem (03:34)
• Postscript’s initial, rapid growth (06:38)
• Alex’s thoughts on the SMS marketing channel opening up(08:45)
• I explain the law of double jeopardy, and how B2B buyers are satisficing (09:40)
• Why Postscript’s product strategy is to stay ultra-focused (12:57)
• My take on differentiating by building for a specific audience (13:56)
• Postscript’s hiring strategy through a year of explosive growth (18:02)
• My insight into common hiring missteps, and how to avoid them (20:43)
• Why Alex wishes they’d built out Postscript’s go-to-market strategy sooner (23:51)
• My thoughts on pricing strategy, and the advantages of a usage-based model (25:15)
• What Postscript is building to carry them into the future (26:57)
• Wrap up (27:50)

Mentioned:

Postscript

Alex Beller

Y Combinator

How SaaS investor Andrew Chen of a16z is helping entrepreneurs use network effects to tackle the cold start problem

Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science

Michael Seibel

Ezra Firestone

Kyle Poyar

Hubspot

Klaviyo

Hotjar

Drift

My Links:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

Wynter

Speero

CXL

Key Points:

• How Verblio got their start (01:02)
• Steve explains who (and what) Verblio is competing against (04:35)
• How Verblio is attracting top talent (07:33)
• Steve talks about scaling while maintaining content quality (08:08)
• What Verblio is doing to build brand reputation (08:37)
• My thoughts on the importance of story-based marketing over fact-based marketing (09:06)
• Steve talks about the sales channels Verblio is exploring at this stage in their growth (11:42)
• My take on why timing is so important when entering a rapidly growing market (13:42)
• Steve’s thoughts on product strategy and competing on value (15:00)
• I explain why identifying your company’s uniqueness can lead to success (16:12)
• Why Verblio chose to focus on digital marketing agencies (17:58)
• Verblio’s strategy for future growth (20:14)
• My thoughts on avoiding commoditization in mature categories (21:21)
• Wrap up (24:20)

Mentioned:

Verblio

Steve Pockross

Scott Yates

Wade Green

How Ross Hudgens focused on high quality clients, content and services to grow Siege Media

Mimi Turner

The magical science of storytelling, David JP Phillips

“Only the Paranoid Survive” by Andrew Grove

Roger Martin

My Links:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

Wynter

Speero

CXL

Key Points:

• How Gil pivoted from a marketing career to starting tech company Metadata (1:12)
• My thoughts on innovation as a transient advantage (04:19)
• How Metadata is competing on innovation (06:56)
• Why Gil made an early marketing investment in G2 Crowd (10:46)
• Why Metadata opted to tap into pre-existing demand for ABM software (12:41)
• How Gil and Metadata are differentiating by prioritizing transparency (14:49)
• My thoughts on gaining customer trust through transparency (18:13)
• Why Gil’s initial strategy did not focus on brand (20:31)
• My take on building brand as a sustainable asset (21:47)
• My view on defining your target market (24:46)
• Gil’s predictions for the future (27:44)
• Wrap up (28:57)

Mentioned:

Metadata

Category Creation and Product-led Differentiation with Drift's David Cancel

G2

DemandBase

Terminus

6sense

Bigger than This by Fabian Geyrhalter

Tamara Grominsky on how Unbounce are pairing marketer and machine to create a new category and fend off the competition

My Links:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

Wynter

Speero

CXL

Key Points:

• David talks about category creation and conversational marketing (01:05)
• I give my thoughts on category creation and category design, with a quote from Chris Lochhead (03:50)
• David talks about the downsides of category creation, and Drift's success was a bet (4:50)
• I give my thoughts on the pitfalls of category creation, with a clip from Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta (07:40)
• David discusses the cost of category creation, and how Drift had to look for low-cost, high-reward ways to build mental availability (09:45)
• I give my thoughts on the surround sound effect, with a quote from Alex Birkett (15:10)
• I give my tops tips on generating mental availability, with a clip from Les Binet on the 60/40 rule(17:10)
• David gives his thoughts on commoditization and competition emerging in the category (20:25)
• David talks about the cycle of technology in SaaS (21:55)
• David discusses the death of product-based differentiation (23:30)
• I give my thoughts on product-led growth as a transient competitive advantage (24:15)
• David discusses Drift's failure to create a 'revenue acceleration' category (24:55)
• I give my thoughts on Drift's learnings and strategic narrative, with a clip from Andy Raskin (26:30)
• David gives his thoughts where the market is going next (27:50)
• David talks about how SaaS has to pivot to become customer-centric, not business-centric (29:20)
• David discusses their next milestones and the value of teams and the human component (30:10)
• Wrap Up (31:00)

Mentioned:
Hubspot
Gainsight
Slack
Google Ads
Facebook Ads
SaaStr
Chris Lochhead

My Links:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
Wynter
Speero
CXL

Key Points:

• Tapping into pre-existing demand (00:40)
• Listening to customer demands with Alina Vandenberghe - Co-Founder of Chili Piper (01:45)
• Moving away from feature-based differentiation with Guy Yalif, CEO of Intellimize (03:25)
• Niching down and focusing on a specific audience with Nathan Barry, founder and CEO of ConvertKit (06:00)
• Out-innovating the competition with Colin Nederkoorn, founder and CEO of Customer.io (08:10)
• Doubling down on organic content marketing with Patrick Campbell, founder and CEO at ProfitWell (10:05)
• Educating your customers with Patrick Campbell (13:45)
• Creating a community with Alex Kracov, former VP of marketing at Lattice (15:10)
• Perfecting your operations and processes with Devin Bramhall, CEO at Animalz (16:50)
• Creating a category with Tamara Grominsky chief strategy officer at Unbounce (18:50)
• Creating a great offer or freemium plan with Patrick Campbell, founder and CEO at ProfitWell (21:10)
• Piggybacking on growing ecosystems such as Shopify or Chrome with Ben Jabbawy, CEO of Privy (22:05)
• Attracting the best talent (24:10)
• Building moats with Morgan brown, VP Growth at Shopify (24:50)
• Building long-term relationships (25:45)
• Wrap up (26:10)

My Links:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
Wynter
Speero
CXL

Key Points:

• Andrew talks about moats and how he identified network effects as a valuable growth tool (01:17)
• Andrew gives his thoughts on how collaborative use and networking have improved enterprise software across the board in the last decade (04:26)
• I give my thoughts on sustainable vs transient competitive advantages, with a clip from Rita McGrath (07:07)
• Andrew discusses how network effects can be used to revolutionize industries in surprising ways, for example AirBnB taking on hotels (09:00)
• Morgan Brown, VP of growth at Shopify, gives his thoughts on utilizing network effects (10:30)
• We discuss the Cold Start Problem, and how businesses need to work out what a network looks like to them, and kick start it with clever marketing and growth strategies (12:00)
• Tinder co-founder Sean Rad explains how Tinder targeted a specific use-case to make sure its atomic network grew the way they needed it to (14:00)
• We talk about the importance of establishing the minimum network to make your product viable, formulas for success, and some of the ways major firms like AppSumo and Uber built their atomic networks (15:45)
• Andrew talks about low-cost strategies for developing your atomic network (18:30)
• We discuss network effects in relation to web 3.0, crypto and NFT's (20:05)
• I ask Andrew about why some established companies struggle to build or maintain network effects (22:10)
• Author of the Innovator's Dilemma Clayton Christensen explains sustaining innovations (23:12)
• Andrew gives his thoughts on the failure of Google+ and the lessons we can learn (24:30)
• I give my thoughts on working out what an atomic network looks like for Wynter, and how different companies have taken advantage of (or failed in) network effects (26:30)
• Andrew talks about how he uses data to inform his potential investments, breaking down networks to see if a company is growing organically, has global appeal, or is more of a localized niche product (27:30)
• Wrap up (30:40)

Mentioned:
Notion
Asana
Slack
Tinder
Ebay
Craigslist
Appsumo
Convoy
Dropbox
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

My Links:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
Wynter
Speero
CXL

Key Points:

• Peter talks about how Databox has pivoted its business model to target a more sustainable market (00:56)
• Peter discusses how the company is targeting marketers, but open to find new SaaS revenue streams (02:36)
• I give my thoughts on Peter's strategy of not niching down (04:38)
• Peter gives his thoughts on trying to find the right mix of investment in search and content-based acquisition (05:34)
• I give my thoughts on causality, complexity science, and businesses working in a complicated ecosystem, with a clip from Steven Levitt and Freakonomics (08:37)
• Peter talks about content strategy how Databox grew its domain ranking with only a small marketing team, by pulling in expert contributions to contribute to blog posts in exchange for links (11:01)
• I give my thoughts on mental availability, with a clip from Byron Sharp (14:32)
• Peter talks about how they function as a bootstrapped company, even though they are VC funded (15:42)
• I question Peter on their plans to disrupt the business analytics industry, and he shares Databox long-term strategic goals (17:11)
• Peter discusses how focusing on a freemium plan helps their business by being an attractive offer, and functioning as a learning tool for clients (18:51)
• I give my thoughts on self-serve freemium as an offer with a clip from Patrick Campbell of Profitwell (21:05)
• Peter talks about their strategy of building the product, and the company, one block at a time (24:00)
• I give my thoughts on increasing customer value footprint (26:11)
• Peter gives his thoughts on informing the product roadmap with customer feedback (27:49)
• Peter discusses Databox's long-term competitive strategy, and how they plan to stay ahead of the competition (31:26)
• I give my thoughts on building a product around APIs and integrations, with a clip from Neha Sampat, CEO of ContentStack (32:47)
• Peter talks about moats, and how they are maintaining and building their competitive advantage (33:41)
• Wrap up (34:59)

Mentioned:
Hubspot
Monday.com
ActiveCampaign
SEMrush
Constant Contact
Mailchimp
Wistia
Marketo
Salesforce
Hotjar

My Links:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
Wynter
Speero
CXL