How Multimodal Turned a Research Report Into 18 Live Trials

In this episode of Marketers of Technology, we speak with Ishita Jaiswal, Head of Growth at Multimodal, an AI platform helping credit unions and community banks automate their core lending workflows. Selling AI into one of the most regulated, trust-sensitive verticals in existence forced Ishita to throw out most of the B2B SaaS marketing playbook and build something entirely different — a motion grounded in original research, institutional partnerships, and compounding trust rather than product-led growth or demand gen tactics. The result: a content and partnership engine that turned a quarterly research report into a pipeline of 17–18 live credit union trials, multi-year contracts that clients initiated, and a brand now recognized as the go-to AI vendor for community financial institutions.Topics Discussed:Why most B2B SaaS and AI marketing advice is useless in regulated industriesHow a quarterly research report opened the door to the largest credit union think tank in the USThe ICP focus pivot that tightened Multimodal's marketing and accelerated pipeline resultsBuilding trust through thought leadership, think tank partnerships, and original research publicationThe cultural and relationship dynamics of selling AI internationally to financial institutionsWhy riding the AI hype cycle is a dead end for most marketing leadersLessons for B2B Tech Marketers:Let Research Double as a Sales Funnel. Multimodal published a quarterly report on the state of agentic AI in credit unions and, as part of the research process, interviewed the incubation director at Filene Research Institute — the largest credit union think tank in the US. That outreach led to a formal proof-of-value program, which in turn gave them access to roughly two dozen credit unions trialing their platform live. The lesson: original research isn't just content. In trust-driven markets, it's a relationship-opening mechanism that no cold outreach can replicate.Narrow Your ICP Before Your Marketing Breaks You. For the first year-plus, Multimodal tried to market across all of financial services — investment banks, community banks, fintechs, insurance. Ishita is blunt about what happened: it weakened everything. When they made the deliberate decision to focus exclusively on credit unions and smaller community banks serving 144 million Americans, their messaging tightened immediately and they started seeing compounding results within two to three months — fast by enterprise standards in this space.Build Trust Infrastructure, Not Just Content. In financial services, trust isn't a brand attribute — it's a sales prerequisite. Multimodal built what Ishita describes as a "trust infrastructure": publishing original research, partnering with think tanks, running their own podcast to surface customer problems, and keeping security and compliance permanently front-of-mind in all communications. They also proactively own any incidents when they occur rather than minimizing them. This approach signals to compliance teams, CROs, and CFOs that Multimodal is a partner, not a vendor.//Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.ioThe 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//Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire. Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM