Unicorn Marketers

By Frontlines.io

Conversations with B2B marketing leaders of unicorn tech startups.... more

Download on the App Store

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

FAQs about Unicorn Marketers:

How many episodes does Unicorn Marketers have?

The podcast currently has 9 episodes available.

Unicorn Marketers episodes:

September 25, 2025S2 E3: Unpacking the Huntress Growth Playbook w/ Jason Marshall: Reddit, Community, and Customer Love
Huntress has carved out a unique position in cybersecurity by staying laser-focused on SMBs while competitors chase enterprise deals. With 70% year-over-year growth and a tripling of company size in just two years, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer Jason Marshall joined us to break down their unconventional approach to building a marketing engine that scales from $45M to $500M ARR. Rather than following the typical cybersecurity playbook of chest-pounding about AI and technology superiority, Huntress has built their growth on a foundation of customer education, community engagement, and an unwavering commitment to making customers the hero of their story.
Topics Discussed:
Huntress's decision to stay focused on SMB market (up to 2,000 employees) rather than moving upmarket
The company's educational content strategy that drives 80% education, 20% product marketing
Building and scaling a 45-person remote marketing team through rapid growth
Transitioning from word-of-mouth and events to a comprehensive digital marketing engine
Reddit and community marketing strategies that actually work without getting "eviscerated"
The "Go Giver" philosophy and how it translates to measurable business results
Channel-first strategy and why Huntress will never cut out partners
Hiring and managing high-performing remote marketing teams
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Make customers the hero, not your technology: Jason emphasized that cybersecurity is full of "chest pounding" about AI and tech superiority, but Huntress flipped the script entirely. "We put the customer at the center of the story. They're the hero of this journey and we're just here to kind of support them." Instead of leading with features, they focus on customer outcomes and making IT professionals look like heroes within their organizations. B2B founders should resist the temptation to make their technology the star and instead position customers as the protagonist of their success story.
Stay in your lane and dominate it: Unlike most SaaS companies that start SMB and quickly move upmarket, Huntress has stayed committed to serving businesses up to 2,000 employees. Jason uses a car analogy: "There are some great companies out there that service the people that have Formula 1 car budgets... We built a Lamborghini or Porsche... it's still fast enough to wreck hackers, but when something goes wrong, you can take your Porsche into an Audi dealership and get it fixed." B2B founders should carefully evaluate whether moving upmarket actually serves their core value proposition or if doubling down on their initial segment creates more defensible growth.
Lead with education, not pitches: Huntress runs on the "Go Giver" principle of giving more than you take. Their content is 80% education, 20% product marketing, with Jason noting "most people are come to my webinar, book a demo, buy, buy, buy... we put the community first and we put education first." Their Reddit ads show redacted screenshots of actual attacks with the hook "If you'd like to learn how to do this yourself, click this link" rather than product demos. B2B founders should consider whether their content strategy truly educates or just sells with a thin educational veneer.
Community marketing requires authentic value-add first: Jason shared a painful lesson about Reddit marketing: traditional ads failed completely until they shifted to showing real attack scenarios and offering free cybersecurity training. "ROI was terrible... So we kind of took a step back... Let's get back to our roots... rather than putting us at the center of the story... giving back to the community." The key insight is that community platforms will "eviscerate you if you misstep" by trying to sell first. B2B founders entering community marketing must genuinely contribute value before ever asking for anything.
Screen for ownership mindset during hiring: Jason's primary hiring criterion is finding people who "act like owners" rather than focusing solely on skills. His screening method involves asking candidates to dive deep into a specific problem they solved: "You can tell the difference between people who've just read a bunch and know the surface level or like really solved the problem and understood it." He also uses homework assignments (unrelated to his actual business) to test work ethic. B2B founders should prioritize ownership mentality and intellectual curiosity over perfect resume matches, especially in high-growth environments.
Over-communicate clarity in remote environments: Managing a 45-person remote marketing team requires obsessive clarity reinforcement. Jason runs weekly 90-minute business reviews with the entire marketing team, covering every function's progress, blockers, and challenges. "It is incredibly hard when you are growing as fast as we are... making sure that you have the right people on the bus, in the right seats on the bus and they understand... this is the cadence that we are going to row at." B2B founders scaling remote teams should expect to over-communicate goals, progress, and context far more than feels necessary.

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
36min
September 12, 2025S2E2: Building Executive Thought Leadership That Actually Drives Revenue w/ Oyster’s David Gales
In this episode of Unicorn Marketers, we speak with David Gales, Head of Marketing at Oyster. David shares how he's built a lean but powerful 12-person marketing team that punches above its weight in the competitive global employment space. Starting in lifecycle marketing and evolving to lead the entire marketing function, David reveals how Oyster leverages executive thought leadership, brand authority, and customer-centric strategies to stand out in a complex B2B market. From using N-gram analysis on G2 reviews to inform messaging, to building thought leadership programs that influence revenue pipeline, David's approach demonstrates how retention-first thinking can fuel sustainable growth.
Topics Discussed
Building sustainable growth through retention-focused marketing strategies
Scaling executive thought leadership programs with CEO Tony Jamous
Using customer review data to inform brand positioning and messaging
Managing multi-persona messaging for startups vs. enterprise HR teams
Leveraging AI tools like Claude for marketing strategy development
Building brand authority in competitive spaces through authentic content
Balancing performance marketing with long-term brand investments
Creating cross-functional marketing systems that scale efficiently
Lessons For B2B Marketers
Start With Retention Logic, Scale With Acquisition Tactics: David's evolution from lifecycle to demand generation created a foundation-first approach that prioritizes sustainable growth. By building comprehensive nurture flows and lifecycle stages before focusing on top-of-funnel acquisition, Oyster created a marketing engine designed for retention from day one. This approach becomes increasingly valuable as companies move away from growth-at-all-costs models.
Turn Customer Language Into Marketing Copy Through Data Analysis: Oyster runs N-gram analysis on G2 reviews to identify specific word patterns customers use to describe their experience, then models this language across marketing channels. This ensures messaging authenticity while leveraging actual customer vocabulary rather than internal assumptions about how the market perceives the product.
Build Executive Thought Leadership as a Revenue Channel: Tony Jamous's personal brand influence shows up directly in revenue pipeline through multi-touch attribution analysis. David's team created a full content strategy around executive thought leadership, treating it as a scalable growth channel rather than a nice-to-have brand exercise. The key is having systematic backend support to make it sustainable for executives.
Use Human Intuition When Data Is Scarce: David advocates for leading with customer understanding and human intuition rather than waiting for perfect data, especially in fast-growing startups. His philosophy is that "spending too much time trying to gather data is worse than having a bad experiment," recognizing that speed of learning often trumps precision in early-stage marketing.
Create Cross-Channel Intelligence Systems: The marketing team uses insights from one channel to optimize others - taking subject lines from lifecycle emails to use as paid search keywords. This approach treats marketing channels as interconnected puzzle pieces rather than isolated campaigns, maximizing the intelligence gathered from each touchpoint.
Differentiate Through Specific Product Focus and Local Expertise: In a competitive employer-of-record market, Oyster differentiates through their B Corp certification and specific point of view on ethical hiring practices. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, they leverage their unique positioning to create specific, defensible messaging that resonates with their target market.
Balance Paid Efficiency With Long-Term Brand Plays: David views paid marketing efficiency as enabling more investment in long-term strategies like SEO and brand building. Rather than seeing performance marketing and brand marketing as competing priorities, the team uses short-term efficiency gains to fund sustainable long-term growth strategies.
Expand Thought Leadership Beyond the CEO: Oyster amplifies voices from their VP of People and other internal experts to provide tactical value to different segments of their audience. This approach recognizes that different personas need different types of thought leadership - founders want scaling insights while HR professionals need tactical compliance and cultural guidance.

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
27min
July 30, 2025S2 E1: Paroma Sen: Inside Astera Labs' Marketing Strategy During Their IPO Journey ($22B+ Market Cap)
Astera Labs is a key player in AI infrastructure, providing essential connectivity components for AI servers - including chips, modules, boards, and software. As the "nervous system" of AI servers, Astera Labs works with major hyperscalers and partners closely with GPU and CPU manufacturers. In this episode of Unicorn Marketers, we sat down with Paroma Sen, VP of Corporate Marketing at Astera Labs, to discuss her experience joining the company just before their IPO and building a marketing function from scratch in a highly technical B2B environment.
Topics Discussed:
Joining Astera Labs with a tiny marketing team just two months before their IPO
Building infrastructure for marketing: people, process, technology, strategy, and execution
Breaking down complex technical messaging for seven distinct audience segments
The evolution from a two-person marketing team to a structured department
Balancing outsourced and in-house marketing capabilities
Benchmarking social media performance against industry standards
The importance of content marketing in the rapidly changing AI infrastructure space
Crafting an information journey for each audience segment
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Develop a tiered approach to building marketing functions: Paroma implemented what she calls the "Tiramisu Strategy" - layering infrastructure, strategy, execution planning, and alignment simultaneously. "You can't just do one without the others. You're simultaneously working on all of those layers," she explains. B2B founders should recognize that building marketing capabilities requires this layered approach rather than tackling each component sequentially.
Break down complex messaging for different audiences: For technical B2B companies, Paroma identifies seven distinct audiences requiring different messaging: customers, partners, investors, analysts, press, current employees, and future employees. "We don't have to say one thing and have it mean the same thing to seven different audiences," she notes. B2B founders should map out specific messaging journeys for each key stakeholder group rather than creating one-size-fits-all content.
Make the CFO your marketing ally: Paroma emphasizes, "A CFO should be your best friend... that's the first person you need to convince that the spends that you are proposing are the right place to spend all of that money." By securing CFO buy-in early, marketing leaders can avoid the traditional adversarial relationship and ensure smoother budget approvals. B2B founders should encourage close collaboration between marketing and finance from day one.
Create authentic brand presence that exceeds company size: One of Paroma's proudest achievements was when industry observers commented that Astera Labs was "showing up bigger than your brand." This perception shift demonstrates effective marketing that positions a company beyond its current scale. B2B founders should invest in brand presence that reflects their aspirations rather than just their current status.
Balance AI adoption with human expertise: When implementing AI in marketing, Paroma initially struggled with concerns about integrity and quality. Her team found balance by "using AI generating websites and being able to still add our human value on top of that." B2B founders should approach AI tools as efficiency enhancers that require human oversight and expertise rather than complete replacements for marketers.

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
33min
May 29, 2025S2 E1: Rodolfo Yiu: Inside Anyscale's GTM Strategy ($1+ Billion Valuation)
Anyscale, creator of the Ray open-source project, has emerged as a leading AI infrastructure company, providing an AI compute platform that makes ML workloads more efficient and cost-effective. Having raised over $194 million and achieving unicorn status, Anyscale is powering some of the most innovative companies in AI development. In this episode of Unicorn Builders, I sat down with Rodolfo Yiu, Head of Demand Gen at Anyscale, to understand their unique go-to-market approach in the competitive AI infrastructure space.
Topics Discussed:
Anyscale's position in the AI infrastructure landscape
Building a GTM strategy around an open-source community
The evolution from technical to executive-level messaging
Planning and executing large-scale developer conferences
Bridging sales and marketing alignment in deep tech
GTM Lessons for B2B Founders:
Leverage Open Source as a GTM Strategy: The Ray open-source community serves as Anyscale's "crown jewels" in their GTM approach. Rodolfo emphasized, "If no one uses Ray, Anyscale won't be successful." B2B founders should consider how open-source components can create a natural adoption funnel and community-driven growth.
Navigate Dual Customer Journeys: Anyscale sees two distinct paths to customer conversion: longtime Ray users upgrading to enterprise, and new customers directly adopting Anyscale. As Rodolfo explained, "The market is maturing...people have more needs of like more performance AI workloads then we actually see people just exploring Ray and they realize Anyscale is a great solution already." B2B founders should design their GTM to accommodate multiple adoption patterns.
Evolve Messaging for Enterprise Sales: As deal sizes grow, Anyscale has expanded their messaging beyond technical users to reach C-suite buyers. Rodolfo shared, "Right now we actually need to talk to like a CTO, the CPO, the CIO because the budgets are getting bigger and bigger." Founders should develop multi-level value propositions that resonate with both technical users and executive decision-makers.
Rethink Traditional Demand Gen for Developer Products: Rodolfo revealed they're moving away from conventional conversion campaigns: "I think a lot of like how I would think about a traditional like conversion campaign...is probably what I would drive less." Instead, focus on knowledge-sharing and educational content that helps developers advance their careers and expertise.
Build Sales-Marketing Alignment Through Deal-Level Engagement: To bridge the sales-marketing divide, Rodolfo advocates getting into deal-specific details: "If you are not talking about a specific account, specific people with the rep, they don't want to talk to you because you are not really helping with my accounts." B2B founders should encourage marketing teams to engage at the opportunity level rather than just high-level metrics.

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
24min
February 13, 2025S1 E5: Scaling Global Teams: Inside Deel's Marketing Strategy with Leslie Lee
In this episode of Marketing Unicorns, Leslie Lee, VP of Marketing at Deel, shares her experience in leading a remote marketing team for a global HR and payroll platform. Leslie discusses Deel’s journey as a remote-first company, the challenges of managing a globally distributed team, and the strategies they’ve used to scale while staying customer-centric.

Key Topics Discussed:
How Deel became the fastest-growing B2B startup, embracing remote work from inception.
Leslie’s biggest marketing failure and the lessons learned about community building.
The differences between leading marketing at Deel vs. Atlassian and adapting to remote-first cultures.
Strategies Deel uses to build trust in a fast-moving, remote environment.
Deel’s approach to hiring global talent outside of traditional tech hubs.
How Leslie manages a 60-person marketing team across multiple time zones and cultures.
Why Deel prioritizes customer-centricity, with leadership directly engaging with customers.
How AI tools like MidJourney and content creation automation are helping Deel’s marketing team.

Actionable Takeaways for Remote Marketing Leaders
Establish trust by understanding what the CEO cares about most and proving marketing’s alignment with those KPIs.
Instead of spreading your team thin across many small trade shows, focus on fewer high-impact events with a stronger presence.
Talent exists beyond Silicon Valley—find and develop high-potential marketers from diverse global backgrounds.
In a remote-first world, set clear expectations early on and give your team the trust and flexibility to execute autonomously.
Use AI for content creation, creative ideation, and translation to cut down manual work and accelerate campaigns.

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
33min
October 02, 2024S1 E4: Scaling a Customer-Centric Remote Marketing Team: Insights from Help Scout's VP Marketing
In this episode of Marketing Unicorns, Kristen Bryant Smith, VP of Marketing at Help Scout, shares her experiences in leading a remote marketing team for a customer support software company. Kristen discusses Help Scout’s customer-centric approach, the importance of maintaining a strong culture in remote teams, and how her team fosters innovation while delivering a seamless customer experience. [Note: this episode was originally published on our other show — The Remote CMO]

Key Topics Discussed:
Help Scout’s customer-centric marketing approach in a remote-first environment.
Building a strong, unified culture across a fully remote marketing team.
Aligning marketing efforts with customer success to enhance overall brand value.
The importance of collaboration between marketing and customer support teams.
Strategies for maintaining productivity and creativity in a distributed team.
Challenges in managing cross-functional teams remotely and how to overcome them.
Fostering innovation within a customer-first mindset in remote marketing operations.

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
26min
July 12, 2024S1 E3: Navigating From Growth at All Costs to Efficiency: JumpCloud's CMO Shares Playbook
In this episode of Marketing Unicorns, Micha Hershman, Chief Marketing Officer of JumpCloud, shares his experiences in leading a fully remote marketing team for a global IT management platform. Micah discusses JumpCloud's approach to remote work, strategies for fostering creativity and trust in a distributed team, and his views on current marketing trends. [Note: this episode was originally published on our other show — The Remote CMO]

Key Topics Discussed:
JumpCloud's marketing team structure, including the integration of SDRs into the marketing department
Strategies for driving creativity and collaboration in a remote environment
Building trust and fostering human connections in virtual teams
The importance of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between marketing and sales
Adapting marketing strategies to different business cycles and market conditions
The role of AI in B2B marketing and its current impact
Account-based marketing: reality vs. hype

Actionable Takeaways for Remote Marketing Leaders:
Be intentional about meeting types to drive creativity (fact-sharing, brainstorming, decision-making)
Prioritize human connection and small talk in one-on-ones to build trust
Implement a culture of feedback, starting with low-stakes feedback
Use the "do, try, consider" feedback model to guide team members
Create detailed SLAs between marketing and sales to improve collaboration and accountability

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
28min
June 17, 2024S1 E2: Navigating Remote Marketing Leadership: Lessons from Paddle's CMO
In this episode of Unicorn Marketers, Andrew Davies, Chief Innovation Officer (previously CMO) of Paddle, shares his insights and experiences in building and managing a global remote marketing team. Andrew discusses Paddle's marketing team structure, strategies for maintaining company culture in a remote environment, and the value of sourcing talent globally. [Note: this episode was originally published on our other show — The Remote CMO]

Key Topics Discussed:
Paddle's marketing team structure, which is split into two motions: self-serve and sales-assisted, with teams focused on brand, demand, product marketing, and BDRs
Strategies for maintaining company culture in a remote environment, including using Slack for communication, allowing flexibility in schedules and time zones, and providing clarity on organizational goals and roles
The value of sourcing talent globally, not just from traditional tech hubs, and the success stories of remote hires like Karthik, who was brought on board due to his online presence and resonance with Paddle's target market
The challenges of ensuring clarity and transparency in a remote organization, and how Paddle has addressed this through initiatives like the Paddle Operating Plan
The importance of offering a range of upskilling opportunities for remote teams, including conference attendance, learning courses, mentoring, and hands-on experience with new tools

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
25min
May 15, 2024S1 E1: Empathetic Leadership: The Key to Managing a Thriving Marketing Team (Gino Palozzi, CMO at DailyPay)
In this episode of Marketing Unicorns, Gino Palozzi, Chief Marketing Officer at DailyPay, shares his experiences and strategies for successfully leading a hybrid marketing team. Gino discusses the evolution of marketing, the importance of empathetic leadership, and how to effectively manage remote and in-office talent. [Note: this episode was originally published on our other show — The Remote CMO]

Key Topics Discussed:
The shift in marketing from an art to a science, driven by data and technology
The importance of empathetic leadership and understanding individual team members' needs and motivations
Strategies for building and managing a hybrid marketing team
Criteria for determining which roles are suitable for remote work
Sourcing and attracting talent for a hybrid work environment
Setting expectations and boundaries for remote team members to prevent burnout

//

Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
...more
33min

FAQs about Unicorn Marketers:

How many episodes does Unicorn Marketers have?

The podcast currently has 9 episodes available.