B2B community building + how dbt Labs built a 25,000+ member community with Janessa Lantz, VP of Marketing

Janessa Lantz is VP of Marketing at dbt Labs an open source data transformation tool used by ~9000 companies. Prior to dbt Labs Janessa worked at HubSpot as Senior Manager, Communications and Director of Marketing at RJ Metrics. Dave and Janessa talk about how dbt Labs has built a community of 25,000+ professionals in analytics and data engineering, lessons as a first-time startup marketing leader, building a relationship with the CEO, transitioning from specialist to generalist, the power of building a training program for customers, and how to build your own publishing company as a B2B SaaS brand. Be a part of the Exit Five B2B marketing community at exitfive.comThis episode is brought to you by Metadata: https://metadata.io/Metadata helps demand gen. marketers automate paid campaigns and drive more revenue. Learn why more B2B SaaS companies are using Metadata to grow revenue at Metadata.io.Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest. Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn how to build an ABM program that scales at vector.co/exitfive.Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more