Why Sales and Marketing Should Be In Harmony for Early Stage Startups -- Michael Young, CEO at Photon Commerce

TIMESTAMPS00:52 - Introduction of how he entered the start-up world02:35 - How Photon Commerce Started04:05 - Where is Language Monetizable?10:38 - Difference between marketing and sales12:09 - How do you find your market?18:15 - Success in finding the right people/customers19:37 - How do you know when to adapt your messaging based on the feedback you are gettingGUEST BACKGROUNDMichael Young is the founder & CEO of Photon Commerce. Photon accelerates customer acquisition for fintech leaders using instant payments and invoicing through AI and is supported by a venture firm funded by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. After dropping out of a Stanford PhD, Michael led advanced R&D programs funded by the Department of Defense, created hundreds of jobs, raised $50M across his venture-backed startups, and took them to acquisitions.MORE FROM PHOTON COMMERCEPhoton Commerce’s financial AI platform empowers fintech leaders to instantly process B2B payments, invoices, statements, and receipts. Photon's intelligent platform understands and harmonizes data, down to even line-item purchase analytics and prediction. Learn more at photoncommerce.comReach out to Michael at linkedin.com/in/michaelyoungphotonMAIN INSIGHTSales and marketing should blend together, especially for an early-stage startup, so you can learn more about your customer and find a product-market-fit fast.KEY TAKEAWAYSMarketing is all about communicating the problem you are solving to the worldMarketing is a job of story-telling amazing stories to your team, your investors, your customers, and the worldExperiment and try different things to see what will work for your companyContent should be optimized for SEO and engagement, and repostLook for a direct marketing strategyDistributing content and getting more traffic is as important as producing contentTreat every single market conversation as uniqueTest your messagesCreate different landing pagesUtilize email marketingVisual thumbnail and title are two of the most important components of your contentEngagement is as important as creating contentA/B test your contentPRACTICAL STEPSFind the biggest problem that is worth solvingIdentify your WHY for solving this problemShare your why to your team and customer to inspire and motivate themTIPS FOR SUCCESSUnderstand what tools you should useTest your websites and landing pagesUse Hotjar to see heatmaps on your website and the behaviors of your usersEncourage your marketing team to be analytical and technicalDon’t hesitate to share some of your content directly and add a personal touch to itTiming on presenting the content is also importantGive feedback on this episode by sending the host a text message.SIGN UP FOR THE EMAIL NEWSLETTER at forwardlaunchdigital.com/podcast