#42 Sten Õitspuu, Head of Marketing at Karma Ventures: Marketing & Comms in VC: the Karma Method [Live at Latitude59]

What is VC marketing? And how what is the 'Karma Method'? Sten Õitspuu once recorded two fully-produced podcast episodes for Karma Ventures, then decided not to release a single one. That instinct, knowing when to walk away from your own work, sits at the heart of how he thinks about marketing for venture capital.Sten is Head of Marketing at Karma Ventures, the Tallinn-based fund backing European deep-tech software startups at late seed and Series A. He came to VC the long way round: with experience across media and publishing, telecom and the creative industries, building marketing teams and producing large-scale events. He was the first marketing hire Karma ever made, and built the function from the ground up.Recorded live on the podcast stage at Latitude59 in Tallinn, JJ and Mauro sit down with Sten for one of the rare conversations about what marketing actually does inside a VC firm.In this episode, we explore:🎯 What is VC marketing and why VCs do marketing in the first place👂 How to build a marketing function from zero by listening first instead of rushing to rebrand ⚖️ The Karma Method: turning values into decision-making strategies🎙️ The podcast Sten killed🏋️ Forklifting vs weightlifting tasks: where AI belongs in your workflow and where it absolutely doesn't 😬 The "founder friendly" trap and why so many European funds sound identical 🤝 The role of eventsGive it a listen. Follow Sten Õitspuu on LinkedIn and sign up for Karma's quarterly newsletter at karma.vc.Show note links:Sten Õitspuu (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/stenoitspuuKarma Ventures (website): https://www.karma.vcKarma Ventures (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/company/karma-ventures=================================================================Thanks for listening! For more, follow us on LinkedIn.Runway is a podcast started by Black Unicorn PR co-founders Julija Jegorova and Mauro Battellini to help startup founders, company builders and business leaders with insights, tools and advice from specialists in sales, marketing, PR and more.Black Unicorn PR is a London-based tech PR agency focused on startups, scaleups and VC.For more information visit: https://www.blackunicornpr.com/For even more advice, especially on PR, visit the Black Unicorn PR blog