Sudarshan's Podcast

Mukil Ganesan, Director of Marketing at Konsark, joins me to talk about building marketing functions from 0→1, why he keeps choosing early-stage startups, and how AI is fundamentally changing the way marketers work.

Mukil's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mukilganesan/
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudarshanbaskar/

Mukil has 11+ years of experience in SaaS marketing, having worked across Zoho, Facilio, Zluri, and now Konsark. He has built demand generation teams, marketing operations, positioning systems, and marketing functions from the ground up.

• Why Mukil keeps choosing 0→1 startups
• What makes a great early-stage marketer
• Why execution speed matters more than processes
• How AI is changing the role of marketers
• Why marketers should stop chasing tools and start building systems
• Building an AI-powered marketing operating system
• Using AI to create context-rich sales and marketing assets
• Why positioning and messaging come before demand generation
• How AI agents are changing SaaS workflows
• Why marketers need to think beyond MQLs and vanity metrics
• Bayesian thinking and how it can change the way marketers evaluate evidence
• How to approach joining an early-stage startup
• Why marketers need a broader understanding of business, economics, and AI

What actually changes when AI reshapes the B2B marketing playbook?

In this episode, I spoke with Raghav, Head of Marketing at Beacon.li, about how AI is changing discovery, SEO, outbound, MQLs, customer marketing and the way modern B2B teams should think about growth.

We also get into what it takes to market an emerging category, how Beacon.li differentiates itself from similarly named companies, and why customer advocacy can become one of the strongest growth engines for a B2B company.

Raghav's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raghavkz/

My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudarshanbaskar/

About Raghav:
Raghav is a B2B SaaS marketing leader who has worked across technically complex companies including Beacon.li, Locus and CleverTap. His experience spans product marketing, customer advocacy, growth and marketing strategy.

We discussed:

• How AI is changing the B2B marketing playbook
• Why SEO traffic is becoming less important
• What happens when buyers research companies through LLMs instead of Google
• Why marketers need to start thinking about AI citations
• Whether MQLs are becoming a vanity metric
• Why original research and proprietary data matter more than ever
• Customer advocacy as a growth engine
• How to build a customer advocacy program from scratch
• Why video testimonials can be more powerful than written case studies
• How CleverTap built 200+ customer advocates
• How to approach category creation
• The challenge of differentiating Beacon.li from Beacons.ai
• Why ICP clarity matters more in an ABM world
• What modern marketing teams should measure
• Raghav's "Smash or Pass" on modern B2B marketing tactics
• Advice for someone starting their career in 2026

In this episode, I sat down with Avadhoot (AP) Patwardhan, a B2B marketing leader with over two decades of experience across companies like IBM, Informatica, Mindtree, Druva, Bicycle AI.

We discussed what modern B2B marketing actually looks like in the AI era—from founder-led marketing and branding to experimentation, GTM, websites, analyst relations, and why AI is changing workflows, not replacing marketers.

Avadhoot's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avadhoot-patwardhan/

Sudarshan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudarshanbaskar/

• Why founders need to understand marketing

• What modern B2B branding actually means
• Why your website is your first salesperson
• Founder-led marketing vs thought leadership
• How AI is changing marketing (and what won't change)
• Why marketers should embrace failed experiments
• How to onboard and train junior marketers
• Deal-based marketing explained
• Analyst relations & Gartner Magic Quadrant
• Building marketing systems that scale
• Common mistakes B2B startups make
• Advice for aspiring B2B marketers

If you enjoyed this conversation, consider subscribing for more deep dives with founders, operators, and marketers building great B2B companies.

In this episode, I sat down with Thomas Abraham, Director of Strategy & Growth at Pixis, to understand how the best performance marketers think about experimentation, AI, hiring, and building high-performing marketing teams.

Thomas's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-abraham-29349310b/
Sudarshan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudarshanbaskar/

Thomas started his career as a mechanical engineer before transitioning into digital marketing. Over the last 8+ years, he has worked with global enterprise brands and agency networks like Dentsu, WPP, Omnicom, GroupM, and today leads Strategy & Growth at Pixis, helping marketers leverage AI to scale performance.

We discussed why speed of experimentation is becoming the biggest competitive advantage, how AI is changing the role of performance marketers, and the mindset that separates good marketers from great ones.

• Why faster experimentation beats bigger budgets
• How to build better marketing hypotheses using data
• The hiring framework Thomas uses instead of textbook interviews
• How to identify marketers with strong fundamentals
• Why AI adoption is still difficult inside marketing teams
• The biggest mistakes companies make while introducing AI
• How AI is transforming data analysis, creative workflows, and strategy
• Why marketers should focus on reducing effort—not adding more tools
• How communication changes as you move into leadership
• The future of performance marketing in an AI-first world

In this episode, I sat down with Ananda Narasimhan, Head of Marketing at Amura Health, to understand how AI is reshaping Marketing Operations (MarkOps).

Anand's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simhan911/
Sudarshan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudarshanbaskar/

Anand has spent over a decade building marketing systems at companies like Zoho, Freshworks, Sprinklr, CleverTap, Zuddl, Sirion, and now Amura Health. We discussed why marketers need to think beyond tools and automation and how AI is changing the way modern marketing teams operate.

• How Marketing Operations has evolved over the last five years
• Why AI is shifting us from tool orchestration to agent orchestration
• Why more output doesn't always mean better outcomes
• Production → Consumption → Measurement: a framework for using AI effectively
• The role of humans in an increasingly autonomous marketing stack
• AI agents every marketer should build today
• How reporting, dashboards and analytics are changing
• Why marketers need to unlearn and relearn continuously
• How to break into Marketing Operations
• Brand vs Operations: why Anand wishes he had spent more time in brand marketing
• Companies that have built memorable brands in B2B SaaS

In this episode, I spoke with Amrapali Shetty (Polly), Marketing Leader at Yellow.ai, about what has fundamentally changed in B2B marketing in the AI era.

We explored why content has become infinite, why most thought leadership fails, how modern marketing teams should be built, and why marketers need to think beyond attribution dashboards. Polly also shared her Demand Triangle framework for balancing demand creation, demand capture, and trust.

Towards the end, we also discussed reading, writing, creativity, and why becoming a better marketer starts outside of marketing.

• Why content has become infinite in the AI era
• Fighting for attention instead of impressions
• Why most thought leadership fails
• Why executive content can't be outsourced to AI alone
• Building a startup marketing team from scratch
• Hiring generalists vs specialists
• The Demand Triangle framework
• Why attribution isn't a startup's biggest marketing problem
• Choosing the right marketing stack without tool overload
• Why marketers need to think end-to-end
• Reading outside your interests to become a better writer
• Creativity, critical thinking, and learning outside work

• Infinite content makes attention the scarcest resource.
• Great thought leadership comes from lived experience, not AI prompts.
• Small marketing teams win by hiring adaptable, end-to-end thinkers.
• Marketing should balance creating demand, capturing demand, and building trust.
• Attribution matters, but alignment, people, and execution matter more in the early stages.
• Reading widely and learning outside your domain improves storytelling and strategic thinking.
• The best marketers build systems for learning, not just campaigns.

In this episode, I spoke with Adithya , first GTM hires at Everstage, where he helped build the marketing function from the ground up as the company scaled from its early days to a Series B SaaS business.

We explored why brand matters more than ever in an AI-first world, how Everstage approached community building, thought leadership, ABM, events, podcasts, and social proof, and why trust is becoming the most important currency in B2B marketing.

• Transitioning from RevOps to Marketing
• Why great brands reduce buyer risk
• Building trust through communities and thought leadership
• How Everstage grew its newsletter and content engine
• The role of social proof in B2B buying decisions
• ABM lessons after years of experimentation
• Why podcasts became a key GTM channel
• AI's impact on content, trust, and marketing distribution
• Why "verifiably human" content may become more valuable than ever
• The future of brand building in B2B SaaS

• Brand is not your product positioning; it's the story buyers associate with your company.
• Social proof often matters more than feature differentiation.
• ABM takes years to mature, not months.
• In an AI-saturated world, authentic human interactions become a competitive advantage.
• The best marketing channels often compound slowly before producing outsized results.

In this episode, I spoke with Chirag Parmar, Head of Marketing at Sharpsell and founder of Brand Pro, about how AI is reshaping modern marketing teams, workflows, SEO, demand generation, and distribution.

We discussed:
• Why distribution/owned media matters more than content creation now
• AI-generated content & SEO myths
• Hyper-personalized email marketing workflows
• Brand trust & community building
• Why marketers should learn tech
• The future of marketing roles in the AI era
• Which marketing roles could boom or become obsolete

In this episode of Sudarshan’s Podcast, I spoke with Rangarajan Nallappa about B2B marketing, partner-led GTM, brand building, demand generation, AI’s impact on marketing teams, and what it really means to deeply understand your ICP.

Ranga shares his journey from tech → advertising → growth marketing, and explains how modern marketers need to balance creativity with business impact.

🎙️ Talks about:

• Transitioning from builder/creative thinking to business thinking
• Becoming a “numbers-driven” marketer
• Brand vs demand generation
• Why only ~5% of buyers are actively looking for solutions
• Understanding ICPs deeply (“live a day as your ICP”)
• Partner-led GTM and enterprise sales motions
• AI’s impact on hiring, workflows, and marketing teams
• Building trust in enterprise partnerships
• Marketing tool stacks, workflows, and experimentation
  

Follow Rangarajan Nallappa on LinkedIn: Rangarajan Nallappa LinkedIn

Follow me on LinkedIn: Sudarshan Baskar LinkedIn

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Sudarshan’s Podcast for more conversations with founders, operators, marketers, and builders shaping the future of SaaS and technology.

Follow me on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudarshanbaskar/Follow Arnob on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamarnob6543/In this podcast, we spoke about,00:00 - Introduction to Arnob Mukherjee02:09 - Podcast Experience04:45 - Builder to Entrepreneur10:11 - Evolution of Olvy22:38 - Catering PM as ICP32:15 - Brand Building43:17 - Future of Design & Artists in AI Era54:26 - Importance of Quality in Product Development58:54 - Building in PublicStay tuned, will meet you soon !!