The Executive Brand Podcast

Domitille de Saint-Exupéry is the CMO and Erwan Gauthier is the VP Growth at lemlist, the multi-channel outreach platform founded by Guillaume Moubeche.They’re bootstrapped, doing mid 8-figures in revenue, added over $10m in net new ARR in 2025, have 180 employees, and recently acquired Claap, an AI meeting notetaker.In this episode, we talk about how to grow in a massively crowded market, their full marketing budget breakdown, what worked and didn’t, their biggest bet for 2026, why lemlist spends roughly 10x less on ads than competitors at their stage, and more.---Listen on: YouTube, Apple Podcast & Spotify---We discuss:* Tips on growing in an insanely crowded market* Their 2025 marketing budget: turning $1.2M total marketing spend into $31M net new ARR, broken down by channel* Spending $60k on influencers & lemlist’s Linkedin playbook* How to run a proper pilot/experiment for influencer marketing in your own company - and how to frame it to your CEO/CMO* Breakdown of lemlist’s approach to AEO (reddit agency, G2, Wikipedia, atyla.io)* How lemlist measures and attributes brand* Their biggest marketing bet for 2026---Connect with Domitille and Erwan:Dom’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/domitilledesaintexupery/Erwan’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erwanxgrowth/lemlist: https://www.lemlist.com/Claap: https://www.claap.io/---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io---Other links and resources:My interview with lemlist founder Guillaume Moubeche: https://www.executivebrand.org/p/bootstrapped-to-26m-arr-guillaume-32eMy interview with lemlist CEO Charles Tenot: https://www.executivebrand.org/p/lemlist-ceos-linkedin-playbook-33m-fb7---Some of my personal takeaways:* lemlist spends roughly 10x less on ads than competitors at their stage, because they built brand first. Domitille’s actual line: “distribution is the moat today, maybe even more important than your own product and content.” Most of their pipeline still comes from branded SEO and direct traffic, the boring metric nobody wants to hear.* “No one is writing any posts for other people at lemlist.” They don’t ghostwrite for employees. If you want to post, post. If you don’t, don’t. But they DO carefully train external influencers on narrative + use cases, and those are the posts they boost with ads.* Influencer is a brand channel, not a performance channel and it’s their biggest budget increase in 2026. Their attribution: reach * average conversion rate to estimate revenue per post, then subtract that from the brand bucket so they don’t double count. They treat it as a brand investment with a halo effect they can’t fully track. To test it yourself take 5-15 creators, 3 posts each, ~$50k starting budget.* 70% of lemlist’s own users still spray and pray because it’s easier. Their entire 2024-2025 narrative was “stop blasting, send the right message at the right time.” And yet 70% of their own users are ignoring it. This is the gap every B2B SaaS company underestimates: positioning doesn’t change behavior, enablement does. Templates, tutorials, GTM Engineer playbooks, that’s what closes the narrative-to-execution gap, not better positioning.* The AEO playbook is already running. For LLM ranking: a Reddit agency posting threads on specific subreddits (LLMs love Reddit because it’s “human advice”), heavy investment in G2 reviews, and a newly created Wikipedia page. They use atyla.io to track LLM mentions* “If you don’t have budget and you’re not in a mature market, just abort mission.” The budget x market maturity matrix:* Mature market + real budget → sweet spot, do everything* Mature market + small budget + a great AI-native product → capture existing demand, kill the competition, skip top-of-funnel entirely* Small budget + immature market → don’t bother This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Renée Shaw runs brand & social at tl;dv - an AI meeting assistant. She’s also one of the funniest people on LinkedIn. Her official job title is your mom @ tl;dv…We talk about humor, how Renée runs her content strategy, information cascades, Linkedin’s algorithm, coming up with funny ideas, and why she has content scheduled our for 4 (!!!) months ahead.---We discuss:* Why there’s no strategy behind tl;dv’s comedy skits - and why that makes it work* Renée's content system: Google Keep + Obsidian + Claude* What “information cascades” have to do with LinkedIn’s algorithm and why some posts go viral, but not others* How to correctly mention your product in comedy content* Why AI can’t write jokes - but what it’s good at instead* Her guaranteed ways NOT to be funny* Andy Kaufman, Rick Rubin, and why the best creators eventually stop caring about the reaction---Connect with Renée:Renée’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneeeshaw/Renée’s newsletter: unsupervisednewsletter.substack.comtl;dv: https://tldv.io/---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io---Some takeaways:* Renee’s whole thesis is that people can feel when you want it too much. tl;dv’s content works because she’d be posting on LinkedIn whether or not anyone was paying her and the job didn’t change the energy, it just funded it. The second “being authentic” becomes a strategy, it stops being authentic. You can’t engineer nonchalance.* When you mention your product, make it uncomfortably obvious rather than trying to blend it in. tl;dv puts tl;dv as a poll option in polls that have nothing to do with tl;dv, purely because it’s ridiculous. The logic: “If you ever need a meeting recorder, you’re going to think of us.” No faking excitement about features. No disguising it as content.* Renee having four months of content scheduled isn’t a batching trick because the queue is her editing process. If she keeps pushing a post to the back, that’s the signal it’s not that funny. Three months in and she hasn’t touched it? It dies. No formal editing pass. The delay does that work automatically.* You can’t take a real bet on being funny until you have psychological and financial safety. That’s Renee’s actual answer to “can you teach humor?”. If you’re in compliance or cybersecurity and a joke lands wrong, that’s a career problem. Wanting to be funny but also safe is a contradiction.* Threads is Renee’s comedy club because its the equivalent of a small venue where comedians work out new material before the main show. One-liners go there first, no LinkedIn reputation on the line. If something does well, it moves to LinkedIn. Every creator needs a channel where they can safely bomb. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Abhay Rajaram is the co-CEO at Sendoso, a Direct Mail and Gifting Platform doing over $100M in annual revenue with 250 employees. They raised a total of $175M, including a $100M Series C led by SoftBank in 2021 during peak ZIRP. Abhay joined in 2023 when the business was struggling, first as Chief Business Officer, then stepping into the co-CEO role to lead a full turnaround.In this episode, we talk about what it looks like to lead a SaaS turnaround after raising at peak valuations, what Abhay made the one single metric he rallied the entire company around, how to build trust with your team, board & founder when the company is walking a tightrope, and much more.---We discuss:* Why Abhay deliberately delayed focusing on new business growth when he first joined* The “trust triangle framework” that allowed Sendoso to improve employee NPS by over 50 points in 2.5 years - and why it matters so much* Managing board & investor expectations after a massive 2021 $100m Series C* The two ways to position your company in an “AI-only” world* Abhay’s 3 keys to working with founders (very important when stepping into a C-level role, especially CEO)* The tension between impatience and patience---Connect with Abhay:Abhay’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhayrajaram/Sendoso: https://sendoso.com/---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:* Sendoso had product-market fit and $175M raised, but the business was struggling when Abhay joined. Net retention had been masking gross retention issues during the ZIRP years. He made retention the one metric he rallied the entire company around. That meant deliberately delaying focusing on new business growth, at a company that had raised a massive $100M round by Softbank with very high growth expectations. He talks about how he navigated those conversations with the board and investors. Takes courage + discipline + radical candor to pull it off* The trust triangle (by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss): authenticity (are you the real you?), empathy (do you care about people’s success?), logic (is your judgment actually sound?). Abhay’s point: the first two are relatively easy. The third is the one that earns or breaks trust. You have to prove that your strategy works before people truly buy-in. One of Sendoso’s longest-tenured employees came to him after a few months and said “I didn’t know if we could pull it off, but I’m starting to believe now.” That’s the logic part kicking in. It kinda applies to exec brands too, authenticity and empathy get you attention, but it’s the logic (results, proof, specifics) that converts attention into trust* Abhay’s framework for working with founders:* match their speed, what he calls “scrappy mode” vs “scale mode” (btw scrappy does NOT mean crappy)* understand the why behind the 50 ideas they throw at you* earn credibility by actually being deep in the details - founders sniff out surface-level knowledge instantly* They improved employee NPS by 50+ points in 2.5 years. Not by plastering new “values” on their walls, but through boring, good-old consistency over a long period of time: sharing bad news honestly in All-Hands, Abhay personally following up with employees, reaching out for birthdays, giving people shout-outs, celebrating wins HARD while being honest about the current challenges.* Off topic, but his was Abhay’s first podcast EVER. Luckily only uphill from here for him. But the fact that the CEO of a $100m+ company hasn’t done a single podcast until now tells you how heads-down he’s been This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Tim Soulo is the CMO at Ahrefs. Over the last 10 years, he helped bootstrap them to now well over $100M ARR - with only 160 employees, no sales team, no outbound, and zero marketing attribution.In this episode, we talk about how Ahrefs got to $100M+ ARR while being super scrappy, why the best marketing is built on common sense rather than quarterly plan, and how Tim personally uses Claude Code and Lovable every day to keep Ahrefs lean & mean.---We discuss:* How Ahrefs got to $100M ARR and the list of things they decided NOT to do to focus* How Tim went from “AI skeptic” to vibe coding a full LinkedIn engagement tracker in a single afternoon + other vibe coded tools* Tim’s advice for CMOs who haven’t worked with Claude Code yet* How to run marketing on intuition instead of quarterly planning and reporting* The “battle webinar” format Tim created with Glenn Allsopp* Why every piece of content should be a sales page for your product - and why that sidesteps the “prove ROI on thought leadership” debate---Connect with Tim:Tim’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/Podcast: https://ahrefs.com/podcast---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:* Tim didn’t know you were “supposed to” have a sales team, he just assumed people should find your website, sign up, pay (there’s no free trial), and that’s it. Only now, at quite a bit over $100m ARR, are they starting to build out an enterprise sales motion. I think there’s a pattern where ignorance of the “best practices” can often lead to better outcomes* Ahrefs runs marketing with no Google Analytics installed, no attribution setup, no A/B testing, no retargeting, no discounting, no free trial (!!!), no quarterly plans, and no formal reporting. The fact that they’ve been able to scale to the point that they have should already be a massive wakeup call for many CMOs and marketers. Tim’s answer for how they make decisions instead? Intuition and common sense. They decide what to do based on what talent they have, what formats they’re comfortable with, what makes sense, and what sounds exciting. I’ve done 140+ episodes with founders and marketing leaders, and consistently, the companies that are doing the best marketing all seem to prioritize things that *seem fun to them*. 37signals, PostHog, Clay… Tim is another data point here* Tim’s repurposing framework is the opposite of what everyone teaches. Instead of taking a podcast and chopping it into 15 LinkedIn posts, he starts with a LinkedIn post, tests the hook, reads the comments, then turns it into an article incorporating all the feedback, then combines multiple articles into a conference presentation, then discusses that presentation on a podcast. Small → big, not big → small. The bigger the content piece, the more signal you want, and he builds that signal by layering validated, small ideas. Not sure I agree here, Garyvee and Hormozi seem to be counter examples* Tim built a full LinkedIn engagement tracker with Claude Code in one afternoon. It looks at his post engagements, enriches contacts through Apollo, pulls Ahrefs domain data, and shows him which companies are engaging with his content, sorted by ad spend and organic traffic. This is a CMO at a $100M+ company building his own social selling tool after lunch. We discover other vibe coded tools he built* Tim believes every piece of content you publish should be a sales page for your product. “Thought leadership” is overrated. If you publish an article, and within that article you mention a relevant feature of your product, and it gets 10k visits, if people don’t convert, that’s a product problem, not a marketing problem. As a marketer, you did your job: you got the attention of relevant people and showed them something relevant. It sidesteps the entire attribution/ROI debate This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

I’m trying something new. This week, instead of interviewing a founder or executive, I took my Content Director Tobi and we’re going behind the scenes at Project 33 to talk about what we’re currently building, seeing, and experimenting with - across our own content and 15+ executive clients. Thinking of making this a recurring series.---What we discuss:* The group interview format one customer pitched us that could change how we create content* Tobi’s first LinkedIn post goes live* The Clay + Jungler workflow we’re building to turn organic LinkedIn engagement into pipeline* Why TL ads with a $5k/month budget can do more for pipeline than most companies realize* Using Fibbler to connect LinkedIn ad engagement to influenced revenue* The AI-powered ideation workflow we’re building* How/why we cut our client onboarding from 3 to 1 week* The “gold standard” for executive content interviews---Connect with us:Finn’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Tobi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-moelenkamp/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

I was recently a guest on the SteadyRev podcast by Austin Futers. I rarely share my own perspectives on my podcast, and I want to change that.In this episode, I talk about how to grow on LinkedIn, what’s good content, how to get ROI from posting, the role of commenting, how I’d start from zero today, and more.---We I talk about:* Why the people who do well on LinkedIn just do the basics really well - and what “the basics” are* The 1 thing that will guarantee that your posts will tank* What a comment I left under someones posts, that hit 130k impressions & 400 likes, actually proves* Why Adam Robinson spends $20 per month in contractors, freelancers, and equipment on his Linkedin content* The false idea that “good” and “bad” content is subjective* Why most successful Linkedin creators are known for one format, not five, and why that matters to you* How I would grow my LinkedIn from 0 today---Some things I believe about LinkedIn:* Every time I get too busy and stop engaging, answering comments, DMing people, my engagement drops, even when I feel like the content is the same quality. I don’t know if that’s the algorithm or just human reciprocity. I just know it’s true, so I just make it part of my day.* If you approach LinkedIn from an ROI standpoint on day 1 and ask how many leads this is going to generate, you’re going to do it wrong. And you’re going to quit before it works. There are people who turned LinkedIn into a legit lead gen channel. Eg. Adam Robinson - but he also spends over $20,000 a month between employees, contractors, and equipment, as well as 10ish hours of his own time every week. But if that’s not you, you should think about LinkedIn as a brand play.* On the flip side, the companies that stick with us for 2+ years almost always hit a moment in the first 3-6 months where it becomes obvious it’s worth it. They generate one great demo, two VPs at a conference walk up to the CEO and mention their content, a partner forwards your videos to their sales team. Stuff like that shows you that this is working.* There is good and bad content. The false belief that it’s all random, that you just need to find what went viral and make it your own take. That is what makes people produce garbage. Your content is the product. When I write something, I ask: would a real person, like a VP of Marketing at a SaaS company doing 10m ARR, someone whose face I can actually picture, find this valuable enough to forward it? If the answer is no, don’t post it. This kind of content takes real work.* Most people who do well are known for one format, not five. There’s almost no one crushing who does a video on Monday, an infographic on Tuesday, text on Wednesday, selfie on Thursday, AND doing all of it well. They’re usually known for one thing and they just get really good at it. Anthony Pierri from Fletch for inforgraphics. Gal Aga for text-only. Chris Walker for video-only back in the day. Everything works. Video, text, infographics, carousels. Everything. But an infographic doesn’t work because it’s an infographic, it works because it’s a great infographic.* The people who do really well do the basics really well. What are the basics? (1) Add value, (2) actually engage with others, (3) be yourself, and (4) keep showing up. Do that for 12-24 months and there’s a very small chance you’ll not at least have built a decent audience that actually likes & trusts you. It’s when people think they can shortcut it, copy what went viral, say something controversial they don’t actually believe, make up stuff that isn’t true, that’s when it falls apart.---Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io/---Thanks for interviewing me Austin:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-futers/Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@AustinFuters This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Louis Grenier is the founder of Stand The F*ck Out, and one of my recent favorite new follows on LinkedIn.In this episode, we talk about what a real POV actually is (and why 99% of LinkedIn creators don’t have one), why low likes on a post don’t mean what you think they mean, the one marketing truth most companies are completely ignoring in 2026, and much much more.---We discuss:* The 4-step Stand the F*ck Out framework* Differentiation vs. distinctiveness* What a good POV actually is* How he closed six-figure contracts from Linkedin posts that got almost zero engagement* The “100% intensity” thesis to standing out* Marketing truths too many B2B / SaaS companies are forgetting (again)* Spending over $10k on a YouTube miniseries - for B2B??* Why he stopped his podcast after 2 million downloads, and what he’d do differently if he starting a new one today---Connect with Louis:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisgrenier/Stand The F*ck Out: https://www.stfo.io/Stand The F*ck Out Book: https://www.amazon.com/Stand-Out-No-Nonsense-Positioning-Business/dp/B0DVH5C8SPThe Roost Community: https://www.stfo.io/roost---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:* A point of view is not a hot take machine. Louis draws a sharp line between having random opinions and having a point of view, and most people on Linkedin are doing the first and calling it the second. A real POV is a consistent thread baked into everything you put out. His: “What you’ve been taught about marketing is mostly wrong. And it’s not your fault because you’re surrounded by b******t.” He never names names, but he calls out the culture of the category.* Louis has closed six-figure deals from posts with almost no likes. His whole LinkedIn philosophy is that posts are just a signal flare. The real value is the one DM it triggers from the right person, and that DM turns into a real conversation, which turns into a deal. He genuinely doesn’t care about like counts, because he’s watched low-engagement posts lead directly to five- and six-figure contracts.* Differentiation vs. distinctiveness are two completely different games. Differentiation is positioning: we solve a problem others don’t.Distinctiveness is branding: we get noticed through assets that could be completely arbitrary (orange profile pic, a swear word in the name). Louis’s point is that past a certain company size, true differentiation is rare, but distinctiveness is always available. Most large companies are working on a differentiation problem that doesn’t exist for them anymore, when distinctiveness is the actually problem.* Nobody buys because they're in pain. They buy when a trigger event causes them to move. Louis's example: back pain for 10 years doesn't get someone to the physio. Grandkids visiting and wanting to walk to the park does. The marketing version: stop obsessing over the pain your customer has and start obsessing over the specific moments in time that make them go from not moving to moving. He believes that a half-page of trigger events beats a 50-page strategy deck every time.* Louis’s writing advice: start by posting a lot, because the feedback loops on Linkedin are fast and you learn quickly what lands. Then move to quality, but don’t over-optimize to audience response, because chasing engagement too hard turns you into someone who only says what people already want to hear. “If you optimize the website too much, it turns into a porn site.” Once you’ve built taste, then you can think about systems and volume. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Pranav Piyush is the CEO of Paramark, a marketing measurement platform. Prior to founding Paramark, he was VP Marketing at BILL, VP Growth at Pilot.com and VP Growth at Magento during its acquisition by Adobe. After 10+ years in marketing and growth, he has strong opinions on why most marketers are getting measurement wrong.In this episode, we talk about why the brand vs performance marketing distinction is a false dichotomy, how to measure channels that don’t produce a click, the exact experiment framework Pranav is running at Paramark right now, and much more.---We discuss:* Why complacency killed brand marketing, and what a book from 1923 about broomstick-selling has to do with it* Pranav’s case for why brand marketing is a false concept* The two metrics every new CMO should align on with their CEO and CFO in month #1* Why he believes that for 90% of companies their win rate wouldn’t change if product marketing, enablement, and customer marketing all stopped tomorrow* Pranav’s “10 experiments in year 1” playbook* How Paramark is geo-testing Google competitor ads in New York only - at a small scale* Pranav’s approach to LinkedIn founder branding* Why Pranav’s posts get “only” 20-50 likes but he’s getting inbound from public companies and AI hyperscalers who never liked a single post* The signal that your organic LinkedIn has hit its ceiling and it’s time to go paid---Connect with PranavLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranavp/Paramark: https://paramark.com/---MentionsScientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins (1923): https://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Advertising-Claude-C-Hopkins/dp/1453821082---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:* Pranav on why brand is suddenly “back”: it’s not that brand became more important, it’s that digital channels saturated. When Google and Meta were growing from zero to billions of users, you could ride those channels’ growth without great creative. Now user growth is tapped out, CPMs are climbing, and the only differentiator left is - again - creative, storytelling, and emotion.* “Brand marketing” as a category is basically just “stuff that’s hard to measure” and Pranav hates that definition. It’s a self-fulfilling vicious cycle, because your measurement framework defines what counts as brand vs. performance, not anything inherent about the channel. A direct mail campaign in the 1920s selling broomsticks through artistic positioning was simultaneously brand AND performance marketing.* The two metrics a CMO should report on: search volume (Google + LLMs + everywhere else people type your name into a search bar) and hand raisers (demo requests, sign ups etc). Everything else is noise* For a new CMO’s first year: plan 10 real experiments, expect 7-8 to fail, and the 1-2 winners will fuel your growth. But the key detail is what counts as an experiment. It’s not think that could bring a 5% optimization gain, he means bets that could drive 50-100% growth. And where do you get ideas for those bets? Research your audience’s media consumption habits. Literally ask them: what’s on your phone home screen, what’s the last podcast you shared, what TV show are you watching? That tells you where to show up.* Pranav’s geo-testing experiment shows you can do incrementality at small scale. They’re launching competitor Google search ads only in New York, keeping every other state as a control. If New York traffic spikes and Texas stays flat, the only variable was the search ads* Pranav gets around 20-50 likes on his LinkedIn posts. It’s good, but far from viral. Others in his space get 10x that. He doesn’t care. Why? Public companies are booking demos. Heads of Paid Media are DMing him after his podcast episodes. An AI hyperscaler reached out who had never liked a single post. Views and likes are not the measure of success when you’re selling into enterprise. If your ICP is CMOs spending $20M-$100M+ on marketing, those people are not impressed by fluffy “10 cool ChatGPT prompts” content. They’re trying to improve their conversations with their CFO. It’s obvious when you say it, but you need to match your content to the buyer, not the algorithm. Then use thought leadership ads to amplify reach beyond your organic network. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Jess Cook and Joshua Perk are the VP of Marketing and CEO of Vector respectively, which is a marketing signal platform. They also host “This Meeting Could Have Been a Podcast”, have a combined 50,000 LinkedIn followers, and actually have fun with their marketing.In this episode, we talk about how they built one of the most entertaining podcasts in B2B marketing, how they’re using LinkedIn holistically as a growth channel, and why the things that work best in marketing are always the hardest to measure.---We discuss:* Why their first podcast concept ”Funnel Cake” flopped, and how Jess pivoted the entire show in 24 hours* The prep that goes into filming an entire season for their podcast in 2 days* Why livestreamers get the most applause, and what that means for your content strategy* How Jess uses Claude projects to turn bi-weekly interviews with her founders into LinkedIn posts + how they outgrew that* 58% of followers came from comments, not posts, and what LinkedIn is signaling us with that* How Vector… uses Vector* The micro-events strategy that closed 100% of attendees (yes, actually)---Connect with Jess and Josh:Jess Cook’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesscook-contentmarketing/Joshua Perk’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaperk/Vector: https://www.vector.co/This Meeting Could Have Been a Podcast: https://vector.transistor.fm/---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:* When Jess asked marketer friends what they’d want to hear a VP of Marketing and CEO talk about, every answer was basically what was already on their agendas for their 1-on-1s. That has become the show. Some of the best podcast concepts come from what’s already happening, not what sounds good on paper.* $4,000 for a studio day that produces a podcast 80% of open opportunities listen to vs $6,000 in Clay credits for 10,000 cold emails that get a 0.1% response rate Founders get perceived value wrong constantly.* Attribution is a mechanism of control. As companies grow, they introduce attribution, not because it makes marketing better, but because someone five layers removed from the campaign needs to prove their dollars went somewhere. Actual great marketing takes courage, taste, intuition and, partly, doing the opposite of what everyone else / best practice says is the right approach* Jess’s LinkedIn workflow for her founders: interview them every two weeks, run transcripts through AI trained on their voice, hand them posts. Once Josh understood the mechanics, and got addicted to posts doing well, he started writing more of his own content* Every single prospect from their first dinner event converted to a closed deal. They mixed in existing customers to have advocates present, kept it small, and made the whole thing feel like a fun night out rather than a networking event. Now they’re scaling it into the “Ghost Tour Tour” (see their mascot) - a dinner plus a walking ghost tour in whatever city they’re in, with concert-style merch listing all the tour stops* People should be able to become fans from a single clip (Jess learned this from Devin Reed). It happened a couple times that someone saw one 60-second clip, walked up to them at an event, and said “I love your show.” When they asked what their favorite episode is, they didn’t have one - they’ve only seen clips. Which is ok. Don’t aim for subscribers/followers, but moments that stick. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Jack Newton is the founder and CEO of Clio. He started the company in 2008 in Canada, and has since grown it to over 400,000 customers, 2,000 employees, and $400M+ in ARR. They raised a $500M Series G in 2025.In this episode, we talk about applying lessons from having navigated the Cloud Era to the AI Era, why the best SaaS companies are moving from selling software to selling work, what 17 years of building in legal tech teaches you about selling technology to skeptical buyers, and much more.---We discuss:* Jacks learnings from cloud adoption in 2008 and how they translate to AI adoption today* The Slack message Jack sent his CTO the day ChatGPT launched* Why “cool technology is less than half the battle” - and why education and movement-building are the rest* The Steve Jobs approach to product launches* How Clio went from a system of record to a system of action, and why every vertical SaaS founder should be thinking about this* The “Sell Work, Not Software” thesis and how it expanded Clio’s TAM from $20B to $1T* Why your MAUs dropping might actually be a good sign in the AI era* Jack’s advice for first-time SaaS / AI founders* Bonus - How he never missed a single day of running in over 20 years (that’s over 7,000 days in a row)---Connect with Jack:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackbnewton/Clio: https://www.clio.com/The Client-Centered Law Firm by Jack Newton: https://a.co/d/0hrcAvfAThe Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205The Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steve Blank: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steve-Blank/dp/0989200507Sell Work, Not Software by Sarah Tavel: https://www.sarahtavel.com/p/ai-startups-sell-work-not-software---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33 - LinkedIn Agency for CEOs: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:* AI is compressing a decade into a year: What took cloud adoption 10 years to achieve in legal is happening in 12 months with AI. And the impact is at least an order of magnitude bigger.* “Sell work, not software” is the new SaaS playbook: Clio’s TAM went from $20B (software + payments) to $1T (global legal services spend) by shifting from helping manage work to actually doing the work. Every vertical SaaS founder should be asking: what does my “sell work” version look like?* Education was Clio’s real moat, not the technology. When no one else in legal tech was publishing research or running events, Jack invested in white papers, a conference (ClioCon), keynotes - basically a full-blown education movement to get lawyers comfortable with change. The AI chapter is following the same playbook. He’s touring the country doing live demos of AI features in front of lawyer audiences and showing them what’s possible* Only talk about what’s shipping today: Jack’s approach (inspired by Steve Jobs) is to never announce future products, only demo what customers can use starting today. Very different to most AI startups who overpromise and underdeliver. He believes, long-term, his approach builds lasting trust when everyone else leans on hype* Five of Clio’s six acquisitions started as integrations in their app ecosystem. It’s a brilliant acquisition pipeline because you get to see real usage data, real product-market fit, and how well the team integrates before you ever write a check. Hadn’t thought about an app marketplace as a sourcing strategy for M&A, but it makes a lot of sense* Lower engagement can be a feature, not a bug. If your AI agents are automating work for customers, they might spend LESS time in your app. That breaks every SaaS engagement metric we’ve been taught to optimize for. Jack is actively rethinking what “good” usage looks like when the product’s job is to make itself invisible This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Tony Scott is the CEO of Intrusion, a publicly traded cybersecurity company. Before joining Intrusion in 2021, he served as the Federal CIO of the United States under President Obama, as CIO at VMWare, CIO at Microsoft, CIO at Disney, and as CTO at General Motors. Yes, let that sink in.In this episode, we talk about what Tony learned from working with Bill Gates, Obama, and other world leaders, what it actually takes to land a C-level role at a Fortune 5 company, and why he predicts a major AI disaster is coming in 2026.---We discuss:* The three most stressful weeks of his career (and there were many)* Why he chose to become CEO of a struggling cybersecurity company after serving as the Federal CIO* What Bill Gates really meant when he said “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” in meetings* How to actually get a C-level role at a Fortune 5 company* Tips for founders trying to sell into the enterprise or government and the phrases that immediately kill deals* Why he predicts a major AI disaster in 2026* What flying taught him about business* Why someone who’s already “made it” still invests in LinkedIn---Connect with Tony:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-scott-intrusion/Intrusion: https://www.intrusion.com/---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:* What gets you a meeting with a CIO at a Fortune 100 company is doing your homework & finding a top 3 organizational problem they're trying to solve. If you come to pitch on innovative tech, you won't get far. And if you start the conversation with "what keeps you up at night?" you've already lost. It shows you did zero research. Tony had a secret signal with his assistants to get rescued from bed vendor meetings. That question was usually the trigger.* Tony's prediction for 2026: there's going to be a very big disaster as a result of the abuse, misuse, or accidental use of AI. Something attention-grabbing. And people are going to go "oh my god, we didn't know that could happen." We're building so much on top of AI without understanding all the points of failure, so when that failure occurs, it'll bring on a bunch of governance and regulatory inspections. It happened with every big invention we've ever had.* What impressed Tony most about interacting with Obama: his questions. He’d ask surprisingly deep questions about technical topics. When Tony’s team would send in a draft white paper (about something cybersecurity related), they’d often overnight get back a markup from the president with all kinds of notes & questions in his handwriting in the margins.* At Microsoft, Tony interfaced with Bill Gates, who would often say "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard” in meetings. Tony saw it as a test to see if the person had done their homework on their idea/proposal/opinion, and were able to stand their ground. Problems happened when other executives tried to copy that style without context and without being Bill (Tony decided not to emulate it)* None of the things Tony did in his career were direct predictors of the thing he was gonna do next. He went from Sun Microsystems to startups to being the CIO at Microsoft, Disney, VMware, then Federal CIO under President Obama, and finally, CEO of a public cybersecurity company navigating headwinds. Recruiters kept finding him because he had an unusual combination of tech experience + a law degree. That made him stand out. His advice if you want unique opportunities: build a unique skill stack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Kacie Jenkins is the new Head of Marketing for Claude Code (she joined a couple weeks after this recording). Before joining Anthropic, she was SVP Marketing at Sendoso, VP Marketing at Sourcegraph, and VP Marketing at Fastly, where she helped take the company from Series A to $200M ARR and an IPO.In this episode, we talk about how she built executive brand programs before it was a thing, what actually drives pipeline from LinkedIn, and why anything that sounds corporate is dead on arrival.We discuss:- Why she felt like she had to perform a “TV version” of an executive when she first got promoted- How Fastly built their brand around their CEO’s personality and why they let him swear in F1000 meetings- How to turn LinkedIn DMs into pipeline- Where ghostwriting works & where it breaks- Anything that sounds corporate is dead on arrival- The organic content playbook that made her paid ads perform 50% better- Why developer marketing starts with credibility---Connect with Kacie:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaciejenkins/Claude Code (Anthropic): https://www.anthropic.com/---Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:1. Corporate is dead upon arrival. Anything that sounds or feels corporate, developers will write off immediately2. The worst thing you can do with a CEO who doesn’t naturally want to do founder brand: try to make them sound more formal or executive-y. Everyone will know because that’s not how they show up in person. At Fastly, their CEO swore all the time. He’d roll into Fortune 1000 meetings and drop an F-bomb when he really meant something. People found it endearing because he was exactly the same in every room. 3. She spent way too long performing a version of herself she thought should be at the table without emotion, very serious, and didn’t ask for help. People told her no one wanted to be around her anymore. What got her there was that she was different than everyone else. She was a writer, a singer, understood how to build communities and scale human connection. 4. Building trust is now more important than it even was 10 years ago. No one will listen to you if they don’t think you’re credible and trustworthy, and they can learn from you. You start with great documentation, technical writing, your subject matter experts sharing in public, and building in public5. Kacie tracks how many connections each exec has with their ICP in target accounts. She puts it on a dashboard. Most CEOs are competitive and they don’t want to be the lowest on the board in front of the whole company. It had a rising tide effect on all other channels.6. Her two tools for mining content ideas: Granola to record & transcribe every meeting, then use AI to surface patterns across calls. And a weekly brain dump call: “What pissed you off this week? What do you think needs to change? What are we hearing in customer calls that shouldn’t be happening to them?”7. Asking for help brings people closer to you. It doesn’t make them think you’re incompetent. Lean into what got you there. You don’t have to have all the answers. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Sydney Sloan was previously the CMO at G2, Drata, and Salesloft, prior to which she spent 16 years at Adobe in a variety of marketing leadership roles. She is currently an advisor at G2 and Executive in Residence at Scale Venture Partners, working with early-stage founders on go-to-market strategy.In this episode, we talk about her biggest lessons, how buyer behavior has fundamentally changed, why brand matters more than ever, and what the 2026 marketing playbook actually looks like.---We discuss:* Why this is the biggest transformation in 30 years of B2B marketing* Buyer research shifted from 29% to 50% on AI chatbots in 4 months, and what that means for you AEO strategy* Why you probably don't need marketing automation the way you used to* “Human in the loop” vs “human in the lead”* How to build brand in 2026 - and why it matters more than ever* The Show-Up-Bigger-Than-You-Are playbook* Reorganizing GTM teams around outcomes, not functions* The advice Sydney would give herself before her first CMO role---Connect with Sydney:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydsloan/* G2: https://www.g2.com/* Scale Venture Partners: https://www.scalevp.com/---Connect with Finn:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/* Project 33: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:1. The shift to AI search is happening faster than we think. Internal G2 data showed that in April 2025, 29% of buyers said they started their research in of of the AI chatbots. By August that number hit 50%, just four months later. In 2026, every company needs to focus on their AEO strategy making sure their brand is the citation source LLMs use.2. Marketing automation as we know it is dead. Companies need to capture high-intent signals using tools like Clay or Common Room, and immediately deploy AI agents to act on them. Speed is the new currency.3. Show up bigger than you are. Sydney got this advice from the CMOs of Okta and Snyk, and used it to scale Drata and Salesloft. You don’t need a massive budget, you need one anchor event or one bold move. At Drata, they bought out every ad space for two blocks around Moscone Center for RSA Conference so attendees couldn’t miss them. At Salesloft, they bought a billboard on Highway 101, but the ROI didn’t come from the traffic driving by, it came from leveraging photos of it online. Big one-off events, if properly leveraged, signal momentum to investors, customers and potential employees.4. We’re entering the “Rick Rubin Economy”, because AI lowers the barrier to entry for content and code, so the only differentiator is taste. You can’t prompt your way to good taste. We need to hire for context and judgment, or leverage advisory boards of influencers who actually understand the market. AI provides the speed, but humans provide the creative direction that determines if anyone actually cares.5. Do we need GTM Architects? Everyone is rushing to hire GTM Engineers and build AI workflows, but in software development, you need engineers and architects. They work at different levels of abstraction. Software Engineers build and maintain software, Software Architects design the system as a whole. We need this for GTM. You need someone to map the strategy, choose the agentic platforms, and decide *what* to automate before you build it. Sydney said she sees this as a separate role, likely sitting in RevOps, not something for the CMO.6. The biggest mistake new CMOs make is obsessing over their domain of the marketing department. Sydney’s advice for someone stepping into a C-level role for the first time: Spend your first 90 days building deep relationships with your peers - the CFO, CRO, CEO. If you don’t understand the business context and have alignment with your peers, the best marketing strategy in the world won’t save you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Jessica Gilmartin was previously the CMO and CRO at Calendly, Head of Revenue Marketing at Asana, and Head of Product Marketing for Wildfire at Google. Today, she works closely with founders and first-time CMOs from pre-revenue through $100M ARR, advising them on everything from hiring, org design to GTM focus and executive communication.In this episode, we talk about how AI is changing the CMO role and marketing org, where it’s wildly overhyped vs working, and many other topics.Listen on: YouTube, Spotify or Apple PodcastWe discuss:* Why CMO + CRO combo roles usually fail* Why companies now hire CMOs from smaller, scrappier startups* Where AI is truly useful vs pure hype* Why random acts of marketing kill momentum* How Calendly moved from viral PLG to focused enterprise ABM* The real reason CMOs only last 18 months* Why taste, courage, and focus still matter more than toolsConnect with Jessica:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicagilmartin/Connect with Finn:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/* Project 33: https://www.project33.io/My personal takeaways:* We’re overvaluing AI right now: Jessica believes we’ll replace most of our day-to-day work with AI in 5-10 years. But right now board members are mandating AI adoption without specific use cases. The reality is AI is making teams 10-20% more efficient and that it works as an enabler, but not as a replacement. The best use cases she’s seeing are data enrichment for lead prioritization, competitive research for product marketing, and using LLMs as synthetic customer panels.* There are three paths to CMO and CEOs keep hiring wrong. 50% of B2B CMOs come from product marketing, 50% from demand gen, brand CMOs are rare in B2B. CEOs want a unicorn who’s great at both strategic messaging and technical growth. Jessica’s advice: “It’s like asking a backend engineer why they can’t code mobile apps.” Hire for your actual problem right now, not the one you’ll have at $100M.* The only mistake with bad hires is keeping them. Jessica repeats this constantly to clients, that you will always make bad hires. Or you hire people who were good then but aren’t right now. The mistake afterwards is keeping them too long. When you bring the right person on board, your life gets 10-100x easier.* Attribution is broken and that’s okay. You’re getting 70-80% accuracy at best. Jessica’s approach is to use the 80-20 rule. Get directionally correct data so teams understand where they can make impact and then work from there. The bigger issue is that companies wait too long to implement basic data and reporting infrastructure.* Random acts of marketing kill focus. At Calendly, Jessica pivoted the entire team to one thing: repositioning for enterprise customers. Because their CAC was zero for casual users due to viral growth. Marketers hate focus and they want to sprinkle seeds everywhere. But the winning strategy is making big bets, being explicit about trade-offs, and ensuring no one does random acts of marketing. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Ashley Faus is the Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Atlassian and author of Human-Centered Marketing. Besides helping build Atlassian’s thought leadership playbook, over the last year, she built her own executive presence on LinkedIn with now over 22,000 followers.In this podcast, we cover her thought leadership framework.We discuss:1. Ashley’s approach to LinkedIn2. The 4 pillars of thought leadership3. SMEs vs. influencers vs. thought leaders4. The “Internal Influencer” strategy5. How to operationalize employee advocacy6. Understanding trust intent vs buying intent7. And much moreConnect with Ashley:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyfaus/Human-Centered Marketing book: https://a.co/d/bbd8nV2Atlassian: https://atlassian.com/Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33: https://www.project33.io/Some key takeaways:1. Ashley’s content idea generation prompts: Write about “One question I asked today” and “One question I answered today”. It anchors your content in real experiences rather than generic advice.2. The 4 Pillars Framework: Thought leadership requires credibility (being the source), profile (audience size), prolificness (showing up often), and depth of ideas (saying new things)3. SME vs. thought leader: Subject-matter experts solve gnarly internal problems but lack profile. Thought leaders are disruptive and forward-looking4. A CEO’s job is often to show the market they are steady and predictable. Thought leadership is naturally disruptive, so it can actually be better to have non-C-suite experts as your primary visionaries.5. Build up your internal influencers. Laura Erdem at Dreamdata is a good example. She built an audience of now 50k+ LinkedIn followers by talking about how she actually uses the product in her own deals.6. Don’t fear employees leaving with their audience. Careers are long and the Valley is small. Investing in them creates lifelong partners, customers, and advocates.7. The first thing to NOT do is buy an advocacy platform and force people to register. Focus on the small handful of people who are “willing and able” and pair them with a marketer to help slice and dice their ideas.8. Revenue vs. thought leadership: Revenue belongs with “buy intent”. Thought leadership is about “trust intent” and “learn intent”. If you force it to drive short-term sales, you end up with a thinly veiled sales pitch that breaks trust.9. What “human-centered” marketing means: Most marketers talk about “capturing” leads and “converting” an MQL. Human-centered marketing means solving a problem for an actual person behind the screen, even if it doesn’t fit perfectly into a dashboard. Which is a fundamental mindset shift for most marketers. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Peter Kang runs social at Clay, the GTM Engineering Platform valued at $3.1B. Peter turned LinkedIn into one of Clay’s strongest growth channels, without paid ads, without corporate content, and with a team of one. In 69 weeks, he posted 961 times and grew the Clay company page from ~14K to 120K+ followers.This episode is a deep, tactical breakdown of what actually works on LinkedIn in 2025, and why most B2B advice completely misses the point.What we cover: - Why company pages still matter and what they’re actually good for- How Peter posted 961 times in a year as a team of one (and what broke)- Why video works even when it breaks every rule- Why “taste” is the real moat in modern marketing & how to hire for it- How Clay is activating their founders on LinkedIn and the playbook they’re following- Why LinkedIn runs on ACV, not CPM- How Clay connects social engagement to pipeline- Why optimization advice creates noise, not signal- The authenticity test most content failsConnect with Peter:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhoilkang/Clay: https://www.clay.com/Connect with Finn: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33: https://www.project33.io/Chapters:00:00 — Posting 961 times in 69 weeks02:00 — Why company pages still matter04:15 — Founder profiles vs company pages06:00 — Why long-form video works on LinkedIn08:45 — Followers are a vanity metric10:25 — Running social as a team of one13:00 — Clay’s real content portfolio15:00 — How Clay films executive videos18:45 — When to activate founders (and when not to)20:05 — What “taste” actually means23:00 — Hiring creatives with taste26:45 — Why product success drives social success29:00 — Why most LinkedIn copy fails31:00 — LinkedIn vs TikTok vs YouTube35:00 — LinkedIn as scaled ABM36:00 — How to test for authenticity38:30 — Why optimization advice is noise39:00 — Designed-by-committee content40:20 — Clay’s internal prompts and style guides42:00 — Claude vs ChatGPT42:30 — Closing This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Olga Andrienko spent 12 years helping build Semrush from $5M in revenue to IPO. She led social, brand, global marketing, and eventually operations at scale. Now she’s joining a pre-seed startup as CMO to build everything from scratch:- A new product category (AI-driven corporate learning)- A founder brand- An employee advocacy system- A modern AI-powered marketing engineWe discuss:* Why Olga left Semrush after 12 years* Why enterprise marketers feel stuck right now and how AI restrictions slow innovation* What marketers should actually do in a scary job market to stay employable* The #1 skill marketers need in 2025: experimenting with AI + no-code on their own* The departments where AI creates the biggest leverage (hint: not marketing)* How Semrush cut reporting time from 10 hours down to hours using automation* The automated workflows Semrush shipped: SOV tracking, reporting, content QA* The dream content engine Olga couldn’t build and why AI quality still isn’t there* How AI will reshape marketing orgs and which roles will (and won’t) survive* Why social media managers now have more strategic leverage than ever* Why brand pages on LinkedIn are basically dead and how to fix it* How Semrush scaled employee advocacy to 10M+ impressions a year* Employee advocacy vs executive thought leadership: the real difference* The exact system Olga is using to build her founder’s brand at Foxtory* How she scrapes top founders, analyzes formats, and recreates winning post types* The outbound → founder-brand → content loop that drives traction* Why a founder brand is a multi-year compounding asset and not a 3-month projectPerfect For You If* You’re a founder building your personal brand from zero* You lead marketing inside a startup and need leverage fast* You work in enterprise and feel slowed down by approvals, rules & legacy systems* You want to build an employee advocacy program that actually scales* You want to understand how top marketers think about org design & team structure* You want a behind-the-scenes look at how a former Semrush exec builds in publicConnect with Olga:Olga’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgandrienko/Foxtery: https://www.foxtery.com/Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 — Why Olga left Semrush after 12 years02:00 — The gap in her career: building from zero03:30 — Solo vs team: why she chose a startup06:00 — How AI restrictions slow down enterprise marketers08:30 — What marketers should do when the job market feels unsafe10:50 — The biggest AI opportunities inside large organizations13:00 — Semrush’s 10h → 2h reporting automation14:30 — How they automated share-of-voice tracking16:45 — The content engine Olga couldn’t get approved20:15 — How AI changes team structure & role definitions22:00 — Why social media managers now have disproportionate leverage24:00 — Why most brand pages are a graveyard27:00 — How Sem rush scaled employee advocacy to 10M+ impressions30:30 — Advocacy vs executive thought leadership33:00 — Why Olga never touched executive accounts at Semrush36:00 — How she’s activating her new founder’s brand at Foxtery38:30 — Scraping top creators and rebuilding winning formats44:00 — Why she refuses AI-generated infographics47:30 — How she’s measuring success before product launch49:40 — Founder brand as a long-term compounding asset51:00 — What’s next for Foxtery#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Justin Levy is the Director of Social Media & Influencer Marketing at ZoomInfo, a $1.2B ARR company with 4,000+ employees. He built their first executive social program, scaled employee advocacy from 100 to 1,800 people, and grew ZoomInfo’s creator program to 40+ creators across LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Substack, newsletters, and podcasts.That program alone drove thousands of webinar registrants and millions influenced in revenue.We break it all down in this episode.What You’ll Learn• The real reason LinkedIn reach is collapsing and why the algorithm now behaves more like TikTok• Why B2B brands should stop overextending on LinkedIn and where to diversify instead• The truth about vertical video on LinkedIn and why the returns are shrinking• How ZoomInfo uses YouTube Shorts & Reddit to influence AI Overviews and search• The 5 pillars of ZoomInfo’s social + creator ecosystem and which one outperforms everything• Why ZoomInfo’s creator program drives millions in revenue with a full attribution breakdown• How to launch an influencer program with a small budget• Paid vs. earned influencer content: how B2B brands should think about it• What B2B creators get wrong: over-monetizing, low authenticity, and trust decay• How ZoomInfo built a 12-hour/day social SWAT team to handle brand attacks in under an hourPerfect For You If• You lead marketing or brand at a B2B company• You're experimenting with creator or influencer marketing• You want to diversify beyond LinkedIn• You’re building an executive social program or employee advocacy motion• You want to understand how a $1.2B ARR company runs modern social at scaleConnect with Justin:Justin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinlevy/ZoomInfo: https://www.zoominfo.com/Connect with me: Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 — Why Justin’s creator program outperforms everything else02:00 — ZoomInfo’s 5,000-registrant virtual event (and 2,000 from creators)03:07 — The biggest gap in B2B social today04:30 — How LinkedIn’s algorithm actually works in 202506:00 — Vertical video fatigue and diminishing returns06:58 — YouTube Shorts, TikTok & Reddit: new frontiers for B2B10:26 — Why LinkedIn is still #1 but shouldn’t be your only channel12:44 — ZoomInfo’s top 3 social channels14:13 — Breaking down ZoomInfo’s creator program15:57 — Why creator-driven demos outperform branded demos17:50 — Earned vs. paid: how to classify influencer marketing19:47 — Why you should combine logo placements + integrated creator content21:36 — How ZoomInfo measures millions in influenced revenue23:21 — Why every creator post gets a UTM24:55 — Why Justin ignores “the link kills reach” myth25:45 — First-touch, influenced pipeline, and attribution modeling27:34 — How smaller companies should start creator marketing29:53 — The “Top 50” organic play that gets creators on your radar33:13 — How many creators to pick for a 3-month test35:26 — Why you should always pair creator campaigns with a lead magnet37:07 — How Justin evaluates ROI when enterprise cycles are long39:35 — Why SMB-heavy leads aren’t good enough41:32 — One-to-one pipeline attribution explained43:37 — How to pick the right creators45:25 — The hidden metric Justin cares about47:18 — The authenticity problem with full-time creators50:22 — FTC rules, disclosure, and trust52:16 — Inside ZoomInfo’s 12-hour/day social SWAT team56:33 — Why consumers are shifting complaints from public to private59:00 — Closing#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

David Walsh, Founder & CEO of Limelight, is one of the few people who actually knows how B2B influencer marketing actually works. His marketplace powers creator campaigns for Clay, Webflow, HubSpot, ZoomInfo, Bill.com, and dozens of high-growth B2B companies.In this episode, we break down exactly how to collaborate with creators as a repeatable growth channel and not a one-off experiment.What You’ll Learn- The stage where influencer marketing actually works- Creator-Market Fit: the only metric that matters- The campaign structure Limelight recommends to every brand- What a good budget looks like- How to measure influencer marketing without guessing- Why organic posts are step one and paid ads are step two- How Clay built the best creator program in B2B- Why employee advocacy and creators is the real cheat code- The flywheel effect that happens when executives, employees, and influencers amplify each other- Why now is the moment to start creating content- David shares how his own content now drives 90% of Limelight’s revenuePerfect For- Founders who want real distribution, not just paid impressions- Marketing leaders tired of rising CAC and declining ad performance- Teams considering influencer marketing but unsure where to start- Anyone curious how B2B creators actually drive pipeline Connect with David: - David’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dw1232/- Limelight: https://www.limelighthq.com/Connect with me: - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/- Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 — The 2012-Instagram moment for LinkedIn02:05 — When a company is actually ready for influencer marketing03:44 — Does ACV matter?05:33 — Why LinkedIn creators are the hardest to find06:59 — Solving the creator cold-start problem09:13 — Employees vs full-time creators11:21 — Why creator partnerships are suddenly normalized13:19 — How often creators should post15:07 — The ideal campaign structure and why going wide wins17:30 — Why niche creators outperform big ones19:01 — Budget ranges for 60-post campaigns20:32 — How to measure success the honest version22:55 — The 80/20 of engagement quality25:14 — Turning creator posts into paid ads27:30 — Why creator budgets will explode over the next 5 years31:06 — Creator-Market Fit 33:10 — The campaigns David points companies to35:02 — How Clay built the new standard37:10 — How brands should think about creative control40:38 — Why over-controlling the creator kills performance42:22 — How to think about creator fatigue + competitive overlap44:28 — The transparency rules creators follow46:12 — Employee advocacy + creators = distribution48:33 — How creators help employees grow, and vice versa50:48 — Why every company will have “personality-led marketing”52:54 — Why employee content must become measurable54:34 — David’s closing message: start creating now#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Kyle Lacy is the CMO of Docebo, a publicly traded enterprise learning platform used by companies like Zoom, OpenTable, Dior, and Denny’s. Before Docebo, he led marketing at Lessonly, Seismic, Salesforce, and Jellyfish, and he’s been publishing online since MySpace.In this episode, Kyle breaks down what’s still true about personal branding in 2025, how executives should think about posting online, the mistakes leaders make when they worry too much about reach, and why story is the only thing that differentiates you.We also talk about publishing as a discipline, how to turn meetings into content, the realities of being an exec at a public company, and why Ramp and Liquid Death are raising the bar for brand in B2B.What You’ll Learn- The one thing about personal branding that hasn’t changed since 2010- How to create content as a busy executive- Why reach doesn’t matter as much as people think- The biggest mistakes executives make on LinkedIn- How to use LinkedIn for internal communication- When executive thought leadership becomes a marketing motion- The best way to pick content topics Perfect for founders, CMOs, and B2B leaders who want to:- Build a real executive brand - Understand how to post confidently without fear- Turn daily work into high-performing content- Enable your leadership team to publish consistently- Use LinkedIn for recruiting, culture, and storytellingConnect with Kyle: Kyle’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy/Docebo: https://www.docebo.com/ Revenue Diaries: https://www.therevenuediaries.com/Connect with Me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHChapters00:00 Who is Kyle Lacy?01:22 Writing one of the first personal branding books (in 2010)03:30 What’s still true about personal branding05:00 Story vs. generic content07:00 How personal to get online08:58 Why specific details make you relatable10:22 How Kyle sees LinkedIn compared to other platforms12:05 The truth about reach and algorithm changes13:42 Kyle’s workflow: how he actually creates content15:38 Posting daily as an executive17:44 The Delta incident: how a single tweet almost got him fired20:37 How executives should think about posting22:38 Why building a network matters for every leader23:58 Dealing with imposter syndrome vs. publishing fear25:39 Do people assume you’re not working?27:36 Evergreen vs. timely content29:49 Using LinkedIn for internal communication31:41 When executive thought leadership becomes a real marketing motion33:54 Using audience trust for hiring35:48 Which executives should post (and why some shouldn’t)37:58 Themes and sub-themes: Kyle’s writing strategy39:22 Hooks, structure, and intuition40:49 Framework content vs. story content42:00 Commenting, community, and consistency44:38 Why Kyle wishes he started his newsletter earlier46:15 Substack vs. Beehiiv48:04 Kyle’s current tool stack49:10 Brands inspiring him: Ramp, Liquid Death50:37 Why good taste still wins This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Melissa Rosenthal is the Co-Founder of Outlever, the company helping B2B brands build their own media properties, full newsrooms, daily publishing, real interviews, and journalism that companies actually own.Before Outlever, Melissa scaled BuzzFeed’s creative team, helped build Cheddar into a modern media brand, and later became Chief Creative Officer at ClickUp, where she helped turn the company into one of the most recognizable names in SaaS.In this episode, Melissa gives a behind-the-scenes look at how company-owned newsrooms work, why traditional PR is broken, how Outlever produces journalism at scale, and why the future belongs to brands that control their own distribution.We also talk about B2B storytelling that people actually want to read, the new rules of thought leadership, and how AI is reshaping content creation from the inside.What You’ll LearnWhy traditional PR doesn’t work anymoreHow to build a company-owned newsroomThe system Outlever uses to create journalism at scaleWhy founders should own their audience, not rent itHow AI fits into modern editorial workflowsThe ClickUp lessons: brand, creative, and B2C thinking in B2BHow to use interviews to build trust at scaleWhat happens when every company becomes a media companyPerfect for founders, CMOs, and B2B marketers who want to:Build a real moat around their brandEscape the limitations of traditional PRUse interviews to drive trust, authority, and distributionUnderstand the future of B2B mediaBlend AI + human storytelling effectivelyConnect with Melissa:Melissa’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissarosenthal5/Outlever: https://www.outlever.com/Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHChapters00:00 Who is Melissa Rosenthal? From BuzzFeed to ClickUp to Outlever02:00 Why traditional PR is broken (and what replaces it)05:06 The reality behind earned media and pay-to-play06:46 Why companies should build their own newsroom08:37 What it takes to launch a media entity from scratch10:47 How Outlever produces journalism at scale12:50 The companies doing this best today14:14 Should every company build a newsroom?16:07 AI search, AEO, and why third-party content wins17:25 How Outlever does its own marketing19:20 How direct the brand to newsroom link should be20:40 Why this model is a moat for companies22:20 Will new “gatekeepers” emerge?24:30 How Melissa explains this to CMOs26:20 Distribution: LinkedIn, newsletters, and peer networks28:21 Quality vs. quantity in content publishing29:55 How AI assists interviews and drafting31:18 Why humans will always run the interview34:07 AI-assisted interviewer workflow, explained35:38 The rise of thought leadership and personal brand building37:46 The hardest part: going from 0 to 139:23 Why POV comes from your ICP, not your boardroom41:06 What media companies can’t do anymore44:35 Forbes 30 Under 30, and what it meant at 2546:28 What makes a truly great interview This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Alex Josephson is the VP of Brand and Content Strategy for Advertisers at LinkedIn, helping brands tell better stories and run smarter campaigns on the world’s largest B2B platform.In this episode, Alex gives a behind-the-scenes look at how LinkedIn thinks about vertical video, thought-leader ads, creative strategy, and what’s next for the platform.We also talk about B2B storytelling that actually entertains, why executives should stop over-engineering their content, and how brands like Ramp and Amex are setting a new bar for creativity in B2B.What You’ll Learn:Why LinkedIn is going all-in on vertical videoHow to make executives feel natural on cameraThe three principles LinkedIn teaches top advertisersWhy “cheap reach” is the wrong metric and what actually drives ROIHow to combine brand and demand in one strategyThe rise of Thought Leader Ads and what makes them workReal examples from Ramp, Amex, ServiceNow, and MicrosoftWhat’s coming next for LinkedIn: creators, brand-link video, and original programmingPerfect for founders, CMOs, and B2B marketers who want to:Turn executives into trusted voicesCombine brand and demand effectivelyUnderstand how LinkedIn’s ad ecosystem really workConnect with Alex:Alex’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexjosephson/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/Thought Leader Ads: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/native-advertising/thought-leader-adsEnhanced Discovery for Thought Leader Ads: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/boost-reach-build-influence-enhanced-discovery-thought-m5alc/BrandLink: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/native-advertising/brandlinkServiceNow Video Case Study: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/case-studies/servicenow-kantar-ctvAmerican Express Together We Grow Campaign: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/linkedin_in-business-trust-is-key-which-is-why-american-activity-7350539632754704384-xmEo/Ramp’s “Brian's First Day As CFO” Campaign: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ramp/posts/?feedView=videosConnect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHChapters00:00 Introducing Alex Josephson, from Twitter to LinkedIn02:00 Why LinkedIn is betting big on vertical video07:00 Stories, executives, and authentic B2B content09:30 How Blackstone’s president built a following with 60-second videos11:30 The psychology behind “show vs. tell” marketing13:00 The 3 core principles for winning on LinkedIn ads17:00 Thought Leader Ads and persona-based storytelling21:00 Video vs. static and what actually performs23:00 Using video to warm audiences before retargeting26:00 How to structure your LinkedIn ad funnel like a pro30:00 Should you promote thought leadership content?32:00 Debunking the “LinkedIn reduced reach” myth34:00 The shift from SEO to AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)36:00 Ramp’s live-streamed “expense office” campaign and why it worked38:00 American Express: co-creating with real customers40:00 Why creative still wins in a world of automation41:00 The rise of executive content at LinkedIn42:00 How companies can actually enable their people to post44:00 Corporate Natalie, Rob Mayhew, and the B2B comedy era46:00 What’s next for LinkedIn → creators, shows, and premium media48:30 Closing thoughts This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Joe Ciarallo led comms at Salesforce, Toast (through IPO), and now Wellhub (formerly Gympass), a $2.4 billion corporate-wellness company.He’s seen what happens when scrappy startup PR turns into an IPO-ready machine.In this episode, Joe breaks down exactly how to build that engine. From category creation at Salesforce to crisis playbooks at Toast, and how to make your founder’s voice a real strategic asset. What you’ll learn:- How Salesforce invented the “Marketing Cloud.”- The shift from scrappy PR to strategic comms.- The new PR mix: owned + earned.- Where AI fits in comms, and why thought leadership will become more valuable, not less.- How companies like Ryanair earned trust by explaining the logic behind unpopular choices.- Why separating those functions is already outdated.- How Salesforce and Toast decide who shows up, what to say, and why empathy is non-negotiable.- Joe’s rule: just start. Post, iterate, learn, repeat.Perfect for founders who:- Want to look public-ready long before the IPO- Need to balance credibility with control- Are scaling fast and can’t afford to “wing comms” anymore- Believe the founder’s voice is part of the brand- Want to build real authority on LinkedIn without sounding corporateConnect with Joe:- Joe’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeciarallo/- Wellhub: https://wellhub.com/Connect with me: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/- Website: https://www.project33.io/- Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHChapters00:00 – “Dress for the job you want, even as a startup.”01:20 – The Salesforce Marketing Cloud story05:50 – How owned + earned media play off each other08:30 – The rise of podcasts as the new PR11:40 – Turning scrappy PR into an IPO-ready function14:00 – How Toast prepped for IPO16:15 – AI, content, and speed18:20 – Why AI can’t create thought leadership20:30 – The new transparency: explaining the why22:00 – When journalists check your LinkedIn25:50 – Internal vs external comms is outdated30:00 – The rise of the Chief Comms Officer32:00 – Coaching founders to lead industries, not just products34:00 – Crisis playbooks and empathy36:00 – Why comms leaders should post too38:10 – CEO visibility and leading by example40:00 – Wrap-up This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Udi Ledergor joined Gong as their first marketer in 2016, back when “revenue intelligence” wasn’t even a thing.Nine years later, Gong is one of the most recognizable B2B brands in the world, doing well over $300M ARR and followed by 300,000+ people on LinkedIn.In this episode, Udi breaks down the marketing playbook that made that possible, and why best practices are just boring practices. We talk about: Why best practices are boring practices and how to replace them with a sharp POVThe 3 levels of content that actually earn attention (data, surveys, opinions)Inside Gong’s Content Council and how 21 employees drive organic reachHow to safely build a “courageous” marketing culture that rewards risk-takingUdi’s biggest lessons from Gong’s Super Bowl ad (what worked, what didn’t)Balancing personal brands vs. company brands — and how Gong grew bothWhat founders should do first when building brand at $5M ARRHow Gong adapted its LinkedIn strategy as it moved upmarketThe “Punch Above Your Weight” principle that’s inspiring campaigns worldwidePerfect For:Founders building an early-stage marketing motionCMOs creating brand differentiation in crowded categoriesMarketing leaders trying to activate their team on LinkedInConnect with Udi:Udi’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/udiledergor/Gong: https://www.gong.io/ Udi’s new book: https://a.co/d/djoOhWR Connect with Finn:Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/00:00 — Intro: from Gong’s first marketer to $300M+ ARR02:00 — Why best practices lead to boring marketing03:40 — How courage creates differentiation05:00 — Examples of bold B2B marketing done right06:20 — Dreaming of product placement for B2B07:40 — The truth about ROI from Gong’s Super Bowl ads09:40 — “Show the damn product” what Udi learned the hard way11:00 — Building internal influencers: Chris Orlob & Devin Reed13:00 — Personal brands vs. company brand: how Gong balanced both15:00 — Why Gong lets employees post freely on LinkedIn17:00 — The structure and role of Gong’s “Content Council”20:00 — How onboarding includes LinkedIn training for every employee23:00 — Turning customers into advocates: Gong Love Week25:00 — Why celebration fuels consistency27:30 — How Gong’s LinkedIn content evolved as the company scaled30:00 — How to build brand at $5M ARR (Udi’s playbook)33:00 — Why paid ads don’t work for early-stage startups35:00 — The 3 levels of content: data, surveys, and opinions38:00 — Why being polarizing beats being agreeable42:00 — How strong opinions build categories44:00 — The story behind Gong’s viral “group therapy” CEO post46:00 — Building a courageous team: psychological safety in practice50:00 — Why boldness is Gong’s real competitive advantage52:00 — Writing Courageous Marketing — and what surprised Udi most54:00 — “Punch Above Your Weight”: the framework inspiring global campaigns This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Bryan Law is the CMO at SentinelOne, an AI-powered cybersecurity company that just crossed $1B ARR.Before joining SentinelOne, Bryan led marketing at Salesforce and ZoomInfo, where he learned the power of distinctive brands and founder-led storytelling.In this episode, Bryan breaks down how he helped SentinelOne become the fastest-growing cybersecurity brand on LinkedIn (up 61% YoY) — and how he’s rethinking executive content, AI, and brand-building in enterprise SaaS.What you’ll learnThe difference between being different and being distinct and why it matters more for B2B brandsHow SentinelOne doubled its LinkedIn followers in 12 monthsWhy follower growth isn’t vanity when it drives top-of-funnel awarenessHow to get executives posting consistently without forcing itBryan’s 4 stages of adopting AI in marketing teamsHow synthetic audiences and agentic AI are changing customer researchThe “Day 1 Buyer List” every marketer needs to understandWhy every brand investment should have a measurable impact on demandPerfect for Founders, CMOs, and marketing leaders who want to:Build distinctive brands that dominate the buyer’s “Day 1” listTurn executive teams into LinkedIn thought leadersBlend AI, content, and brand for measurable pipeline impactConnect with BryanBryan’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanbasdenlaw/SentinelOne: https://www.sentinelone.com/ Connect with mePodcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ Website: https://www.project33.io/ Chapters00:00 Distinct vs Different02:00 Why distinctiveness beats differentiation05:30 Brand assets that make you recognizable08:30 Using AI and synthetic audiences for messaging10:45 Why SentinelOne made LinkedIn a top priority13:00 Metrics that actually matter beyond follower count16:00 The 3 levers that drove 100K+ new followers18:00 Getting executives active on LinkedIn19:45 The Henry Schuck story on building a personal brand21:30 How executives should approach LinkedIn posting25:00 Balancing personal content vs company relevance27:00 Why CEOs should post on LinkedIn (and how to convince them)30:00 The CEO as a distinctive brand asset32:00 Inside SentinelOne’s internal brand ambassador program35:00 The “Day 1 Buyer List” and marketing to the 95%38:45 Brand investments that actually drive demand42:30 What every CMO should still do in the AI era46:00 How SentinelOne uses GenAI operationally47:30 Favorite AI tools in Bryan’s stack49:00 Closing thoughts This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Owner.com powers 10,000+ restaurants with tools to grow sales, from online ordering and loyalty programs, to marketing automation.Behind that growth is Kyle Norton, CRO and former Shopify revenue leader, who’s helped rebuild the business from zero to multi-millions ARR, twice.In this episode, Kyle opens up about the habits, frameworks, and trade-offs that drive long-term success as a leader, parent, and athlete.From rebuilding after failure to finding balance with two kids and a hyper-intense founder, this one’s packed with real talk on what high performance actually looks like.What You’ll Learn- How Owner.com rebuilt from $0 to $1M ARR in a year, twice- Why Adam Guild’s intensity sets the bar for what “founder-led” really means- How martial arts shaped Kyle’s approach to sales, discipline, and resilience- The real trade-offs between startup growth, family, and health- What separates great CROs from good ones and why “bar raising” matters- How Kyle uses AI in his revenue org (and what actually delivers ROI)- Why he doesn’t chase AI hype and how Owner’s mission keeps him grounded- Lessons from Jason Lemkin on board trust, transparency, and tough feedbackFounders, sales leaders, and executives who want to:-Scale teams without burning out- Lead with discipline, not chaos- Build brand trust that compounds- Stay grounded while chasing growthConnect with Kyle:- Kyle’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylecnorton/- Revenue Leadership Podcast: https://www.therevenueleadershippodcast.com/- Owner.com: https://www.owner.com/ Connect with me:Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 Owner.com’s story and rebuilding from $0 to $1M ARR03:00 Lessons from martial arts and disciplined practice07:00 Physical fitness as a superpower for startup leaders09:30 What makes founder-led intensity different13:00 Investing early in brand and why it paid off long-term17:30 Balancing family, health, and high performance24:00 The truth about kids, work, and “having it all”26:00 What separates elite CROs from good ones31:00 Company culture, ownership, and “the numbers too high”34:00 Why building a personal brand matters as a leader39:00 Kyle’s favorite podcasts and why he started his own42:00 AI in sales and what actually works51:00 Lessons from Jason Lemkin on trust and board management53:30 Closing thoughts and reflections#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Charles Tenot is the CEO of Lemlist, the $33M bootstrapped B2B SaaS company behind LinkedIn favorites like Lemwarm, Taplio, and TweetHunter. In this episode, he walks us through the transition from COO to CEO, what it’s like to follow a founder like Guillaume Moubeche, and how Lemlist builds brand without performance marketing.He also unpacks his personal LinkedIn writing system (including how he gets post ideas on his motorbike), why repurposing content is underrated, and why shipping features again was key to breaking their $15M ARR plateau.This one’s packed with stories and tactics from internal growth challenges to building a content-first culture that attracts top hires and drives 10:1 LTV to CAC.What we cover:- Charles’ transition from COO to CEO - The honest truth about why Lemlist stopped growing and how they broke through- How they restarted product velocity after 12 months of “tech debt”- The Lemlist brand playbook: what it actually means to build trust- Why Charles doesn’t believe in performance marketing (and what works instead)- How he writes LinkedIn posts in 10 minutes- His system for idea capture (Slack voice notes + ChatGPT for hook ideation)- Why clickbait kills audience quality- Internal content pods, incentives, and how Lemlist encourages employee posting- Why he killed their SEO blog and what they replaced it withPerfect for:- B2B founders stuck at a revenue plateau- CEOs looking to activate their teams on LinkedIn- Marketing and brand leaders scaling a bootstrapped company- Anyone trying to build trust in a noisy categoryConnect with Charles:- Charles’ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlestenot/- lemlist: https://lemlist.com/Connect with me: Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters:00:00 – LinkedIn is a game. Play it.01:16 – Lemlist, Lempire, and $33M ARR03:05 – What it’s like to take over as CEO 04:45 – The power of a “clear contract” when transitioning leadership06:40 – Biggest lesson: trust your gut (even if the founder’s still around)08:37 – Why Charles started posting on LinkedIn (and what pissed him off)10:44 – Why personal branding helps attract top hires12:38 – Can you track LinkedIn ROI? Not really. Here’s what to measure instead.13:55 – Charles’ full posting system: ideation, hooks, writing, time spent16:15 – The difference between engagement and quality (and how to balance)18:37 – How he gets ideas on a motorbike (and his Slack system for saving them)20:54 – “Done is better than perfect” The mindset for scaling content23:00 – Why Charles doesn’t repurpose content (but why you probably should)24:23 – Guillaume’s advice, and why you need your own voice26:40 – “Why should anyone care what you write?” (Especially if you're early)28:40 – Why every company should think like a niche content brand30:55 – Internal pods, incentives, and how Lemlist encourages posting34:33 – How Guillaume helps team members write—and why some say no36:57 – Why they stopped paying employees for impressions38:13 – 10:1 LTV to CAC – How Lemlist drives growth with brand40:32 – Why they killed their SEO content42:45 – What actually builds a trustworthy brand (from sales to product)44:48 – Breaking through the ARR plateau: what finally worked46:47 – Why complex orgs have lagging feedback loops48:32 – “Ship something every month that excites the customer”50:34 – How to build a personal brand when you’re just getting started52:38 – Use your lack of experience as your brand54:45 – “Do cool s**t and talk about it”—Content advice for students and juniors#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) is the co-founder & CTO of 37signals (Basecamp, HEY) and the creator of Ruby on Rails.In this episode, DHH breaks down how he built real wealth without playing the Silicon Valley game, why “f**k you money” is misunderstood, and what it really takes to stay independent for 20+ years.We talk about effort, writing, grit, parenting, and how the most meaningful success doesn’t always look like a unicorn.Topics we cover in this episode:- How Basecamp started as a side project and became a 20-year business- What most people get wrong about building “f**k you money”- Why DHH bet on Ruby when no one else cared- The 2% rule: how David outworked luck- The real cost of deferred living and why it’s not worth it- Why content creation is a byproduct, not a goal- What Europe gets wrong (and right) about work and family- Why blogging and replying to people still mattersPerfect for:- Founders who don’t want to raise $100M to be successful- Indie hackers and devs building side projects- Creators who actually ship things- Anyone tired of the same recycled startup adviceConnect with DHH: - DHH’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-heinemeier-hansson-374b18221/- DHH’s X: https://x.com/dhh- DHH’s blog: https://world.hey.com/dhh- DHH’s personal website: https://dhh.dk/- 37signals: https://37signals.com/- Basecamp: https://basecamp.com/- HEY: https://www.hey.com/- Once: https://once.com/- Ruby on Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/Connect with Finn:Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 – Intro: Why wisdom becomes platitude01:58 – The watch blog that changed lives03:20 – What “f**k you” money really means06:31 – Betting on Ruby when it made no sense09:50 – Why Building for yourself means long-term leverage11:45 – Don’t wait to live your dream14:20 – DHH’s 2% mindset (via David Goggins)16:45 – How one helpful email led to 37signals18:20 – Redrawing patterns: giving gifts with no ask20:40 – Standing out: The 0.1% effort rule23:55 – “Content creator” is an insult. Here’s why25:40 – Share your ideas *after* taking action27:15 – Marketing without ads or attribution29:40 – Gary Vee and the power of retail scale32:00 – Jim Rohn, Stoicism, and seasons of life35:10 – How to survive the storm37:05 – Platitudes only work when they land38:30 – Authenticity means being maskless41:20 – On “f**k Apple” and reputation caveats42:40 – Why compliments should be clean44:30 – Balaji, network states, and philosophy47:00 – Europe and ambition shame50:40 – Cultural change is possible (but slow)53:00 – Bringing success back home55:30 – Final thoughts: Be the 2%. Always.#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Ted Merz spent 32 years at Bloomberg. He started as reporter #15 and ended as Global Head of News Product.In this episode, Ted breaks down how storytelling became his next career. He shares the turning point after getting fired, the content habits he developed, and how that turned into Principals Media, a company helping executives build real audiences through honest stories.We talk about founder content, comms vs. brand, what most ghostwriters get wrong, and the difference between vulnerability and clarity.Topics we cover in this episode:- The truth about getting laid off at 57 (and what came next)- How LinkedIn became a proving ground for executive content- Why most founder content sounds like it was written by ChatGPT- What Bloomberg taught Ted about voice, clarity, and leadership- The difference between being vulnerable and being honest- Why memorability is more important than engagement as metric- How ghostwriters can help execs find their POV (not just polish)- The real ROI of storytelling is reputation, not reachPerfect for:- Founders and execs trying to grow on LinkedIn- Comms teams turning leadership into creators- Ghostwriters building long-term client relationships- Anyone starting over and using content to get back in the gameConnect with Ted:- Ted’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-merz-cfa-b711257/- Principals Media: https://www.principalsmedia.com/Connect with me:Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 From Bloomberg to LinkedIn: how storytelling became the next chapter02:30 Getting laid off at 57 with no plan05:00 Going viral with real stories (and no strategy)07:45 Why so much founder content feels generic09:30 What ghostwriters should be doing for execs12:15 The Bloomberg comms lessons that stuck14:45 The danger of over-polished “vulnerability”17:10 What metrics Ted cares about (and what he ignores)20:20 Starting Principals Media: from DMs to clients23:00 Helping execs write without dumbing it down25:30 Why founder content is just good leadership in public27:40 How writing helped Ted clarify what came next30:00 If you want to start posting this is what you should start with#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Amanda Zhu is the co-founder of Recall.ai, the API that lets SaaS tools access data from Zoom, Meet, Teams, and more.In just 8 months, Amanda grew her LinkedIn following to 40,000+ and turned content into a serious GTM channel, helping Recall land customers like HubSpot, Calendly, Apollo, and Datadog, while scaling past $20M ARR.In this episode, Amanda walks through her full playbook, from getting lucky with her first viral post, to building a structured, repeatable system for consistent growth. We also break down Recall’s content ops, audience targeting, and why Amanda believes credibility is earned in public, not in your pitch deck.Topics that we will cover in this episode: - The 2-week LinkedIn experiment that changed Recall’s GTM strategy- How Amanda and her marketer co-write 6 posts every week- Building a Notion database of content ideas, voice notes & pillars- Why “hook + value” is still the core formula for going viral- How to keep content fresh by varying tone, depth, and topic- What they’ve learned about the LinkedIn algorithm (and how it’s changing)- The real ROI: 20M+ impressions and customers that “already know her”- Why Amanda briefly added PS product pitches and why she removed them againConnect with Amanda: - Amanda’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhu-amanda/- Recall.ai: https://www.recall.ai/Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Amanda’s Background & What Recall.ai Does02:10 Why LinkedIn Became Their Top GTM Channel04:00 The First Posts: No Framework, Just Instinct06:15 Going Viral Early - Luck or Strategy?08:00 Reverse-Engineering What Works (And Building a System)10:00 Notion Board, Weekly Content Meetings, Hands-on Writing13:00 Voice Notes, Pillars, and Getting Granular16:00 Scheduling Posts vs. Posting Live17:45 Daily LinkedIn Routine & Why They Avoid Automation19:20 The Target Account List Strategy (Manual, Not Automated)20:45 What They Track Instead of Attribution22:00 The Unquantifiable ROI (Conferences, Familiarity, Warm Leads)24:30 Why Hooks Matter More Than Anything Else25:30 The Role of Founder Stories, Frameworks, and Granular Value27:30 Tradeoffs: Building for Founders vs. Selling to Product Leaders29:00 Why Content Only Works if You’ve Lived the Story30:30 Should Her Co-founder Post Too? Why Timing Matters32:00 Advice to YC Founders: Just Start Posting (Even If It Sucks)34:20 How to Build Your Own System36:15 The “PS Buy Our Product” Era (Why It Worked & Why They Paused It)Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/#founderledmarketing #b2bmarketing #linkedin #saas #founderbranding #executivebranding #pr This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Sylvia LePoidevin is the CMO at Kandji, where she helped grow the Apple device management company from employee #4 to 300+, scaling from the zero-to-one phase to a mid eight figure business valued at $850M.In this episode, Sylvia breaks down what it really takes to market to technical buyers, why her team now invests in the 95% of prospects who aren’t yet in-market, and how she’s scaling brand, community, and content without losing the human touch.We talk podcast flywheels, internal marketing, enabling sales reps on LinkedIn, and building a culture of experimentation even at scale.Topics we cover in this episode:- Sylvia’s journey from employee #4 to CMO at an $850M company- Why Kandji bets on the 95% of buyers who aren’t yet in market- How to earn trust with technical buyers (and why community matters)- Their content system: podcast → blog → video → flywheel- Launching The Sequence as a separate media brand (and why it works)- Empowering internal voices: from sales reps to podcast hosts- Social selling: how Kandji is doing it- Measuring brand without relying on attribution dashboards- Marketing’s new job: internal clarity and executive storytelling- How Sylvia helps her team become future CMOsConnect with Sylvia: - Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvialepoidevin/- Kandji: https://www.kandji.io/Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 From employee #4 to CMO at an $850M company01:50 The biggest lesson: Don’t wait to build brand04:00 Who Kandji sells to and how they market to them06:10 Why community works with technical audiences08:30 How they balance messaging across the buying committee10:15 Measuring brand when attribution falls short12:00 Using podcast content to power the flywheel14:30 Launching The Sequence as a standalone media brand17:10 Why “people posts” outperform company posts on LinkedIn19:40 Building a studio and enabling internal creators21:20 LinkedIn for recruiting, not just lead gen23:10 Social selling for sales reps: early wins25:45 The zero-to-one content that blew up for Sylvia28:00 How content shaped her leadership30:50 Leading a large team: what matters now33:15 Internal marketing and storytelling for executives35:00 Shark Tank pitch day + being bold in brand37:00 Giving your team space to experiment in the AI era#founderledmarketing #b2bmarketing #linkedin #saas #founderbranding #executivebranding #pr This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Adam Frankl was the first VP Marketing at JFrog, Neo4j, and Sourcegraph, all three dev-first unicorns.He’s helped dozens of early-stage DevTool startups go from “cool idea” to credible company. And now he’s written the book on it.In this episode, Adam breaks down the biggest mistakes technical founders make when they try to grow. He shares the exact process he’s used to validate real problems, build developer trust, and create go-to-market clarity, before spending a single dollar on ads or content.This is the DevTool marketing blueprint.Topics we cover in this episode:- Why the best DevTools start with a real problem, not a cool idea- How to recruit a “Technical Advisory Board” to guide your strategy- The 3 best questions to ask in early-stage user interviews- Why GitHub stars ≠ validation- What your first dev-focused marketer should actually do- How to earn developer trust without hype or paid media- The difference between a founder brand and a founder POV- How to become the go-to expert in your space, even if nobody knows you yetPerfect for:- DevTool founders figuring out go-to-market- Early-stage marketers building developer credibility- Technical leaders turning product into motionConnect with Adam:- Adam’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamfrankl/ - Adam’s book - The Developer Facing Startup: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Developer-Facing-Startup-market-developer-facing/dp/B0D4KGHQML Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 The real DevTool go-to-market playbook02:10 Why the best companies solve old problems, not invent new ones04:25 How to validate with 50+ real conversations (not downloads)06:45 What most founders get wrong about early traction08:20 GitHub stars ≠ signal10:00 The “Technical Advisory Board” strategy explained13:00 How to ask better questions in early interviews15:10 Why cold outreach work if you lead with value17:45 The biggest red flags in early-stage feedback20:30 Turning developer insight into content that actually works22:50 What your first marketing hire should focus on (it’s not leads)26:00 Founder POV vs. Founder Brand28:30 Why developers follow people—not companies30:15 Adam’s content hierarchy: 1. research, 2. insight, 3. distribution33:00 The social proof flywheel and when to start turning it35:45 Picking the right distribution channel for your audience37:20 Why forced content formats always fail40:00 Do you need a new category or just a better story?42:10 Final advice: what early DevTool teams should obsess overPodcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Meghan Barr helped build one of the most powerful CEO brands on LinkedIn. As VP of Brand, Content & Comms at ZoomInfo, she’s spent the last 5 years helping turn Henry Schuck (CEO of ZoomInfo, $1.2B ARR) into a storytelling machine, without losing authenticity.In this episode, we go behind the scenes of that process:- How Meghan transitioned from journalism to tech- The content pillars behind ZoomInfo’s CEO brand- How their “in your corner” videos are made- What happened when they took out apology billboards- Why Henry’s posts outperform ZoomInfo’s 240K-follower brand page- How she’s scaling the strategy to other executives (and what she looks for)- The playbook for brand leaders, comms teams, and CEOs who actually want their voice to cut through.- Topics we cover in this episode:- Going from Boston Globe journalist to ZoomInfo’s VP of Brand- The origin story of ZoomInfo’s LinkedIn strategy- Why they prioritize LinkedIn over blogs and press releases- How to turn a CEO’s voice into a repeatable content system- Managing risk, pushback, and post-performance conversationsThe “personal + product” content blend that works bestPerfect for:- Comms leaders building their CEO's Brand- Founders building their LinkedIn voice- Brand and content teams scaling thought leadership contentConnect with Meghan:- Meghan’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-barr-3211865/- ZoomInfo: https://www.zoominfo.com/LinkedInConnect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Meghan’s journey from newsroom to ZoomInfo02:00 Why Henry Schuck hired a journalist, not a marketer04:00 Making the jump during COVID and overcoming imposter syndrome06:30 How newsroom skills transfer to startup brand leadership08:20 Building trust with a high-expectation founder CEO10:15 When LinkedIn replaced blogs (and why)12:00 Henry’s viral obituary post: how it came together14:30 The sausage-making behind every post16:10 Content goals: Product, People, and Personal18:00 Metrics: From 100K+ impressions to today’s new benchmarks20:45 Dealing with performance pressure and pushback23:00 Risk-taking: The billboard apology stunt that paid off26:15 Turning ZoomInfo’s sentiment from negative to positive28:30 Why LinkedIn is also internal comms now30:00 Activating the rest of the executive team32:00 Why safe content doesn’t work anymore34:00 Aligning CEO messaging with company brand strategy36:00 How Henry’s scrappy product demos are made38:30 Why founder-led video works at scale40:15 The no “leaders of leaders” mindset inside ZoomInfo42:00 KPIs for executive content (followers, media, reach)44:15 The new role of PR in an AI-dominated world46:00 Why thought leader ads are a missed opportunity49:00 Inspiration from John Gray, Daniel Ek, and McDonald’s CEO51:00 What’s next: Vertical earnings videos and employee advocacy53:00 How much time Henry actually spends on content55:00 Final thoughts: Building trust and a strong internal rhythm#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Alec Paul is the CEO and Founder of SalesBrand, and behind some of the most successful CEO brands on LinkedIn.He’s helped founders like Adam Robinson (Retention.com), Gal Aga (Aligned), and Sam Jacobs (Pavilion) generate millions of views, without sounding like everyone else.In this episode, Alec shares his full playbook for building a breakout founder brand: from narrative structure and viral storytelling to POV development, content systems, and how to win on LinkedIn in 2025.If you want to build your founder's brand presence on LinkedIn this is required.Topics we cover in this episode:- What makes a founder’s POV stand out- How to build trust without “sounding like LinkedIn”- The frameworks Alec uses to structure posts that perform- Why most ghostwriting sounds like AI (and how to fix it)- The 3 post types every CEO brand needs- How to balance virality with long-term positioning- Why story + structure are more important than hooks + hacks- What Gal Aga, Adam Robinson, and Sam Jacobs are doing differently- Why most CEOs fail to commit to content (and how to change that)- The truth about engagement drops and why LinkedIn still worksPerfect for:- Heads of Brand and Coms trying to grow their CEO's brand- Ghostwriters building POV-led content systems- Content marketers helping executives show up authentically- Anyone who wants to scale founder-led marketing the right wayConnect with Alec:- Alec’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecjpaul/- SalesBrand: https://forms.gle/2SgtaT31pHDgccDM8Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters:00:00 Alec’s background and the rise of Arch Public02:00 What makes a CEO brand break out on LinkedIn04:45 The difference between viral content and thought leadership06:30 Why Gal Aga’s content strategy works08:30 Narrative design vs. “just write a hook”11:10 Storytelling frameworks that actually perform14:20 Why “pillar content” isn’t enough to scale a brand17:15 The problem with AI-generated posts19:40 How Alec thinks about trust, tone, and differentiation22:30 When founders should outsource (and when they shouldn’t)25:20 Helping execs find their voice without sounding forced28:10 The 3 formats that every executive brand needs30:45 What LinkedIn is rewarding right now34:00 What most ghostwriters miss about long-term POV36:30 Building content systems vs. chasing engagement38:15 Why LinkedIn reach is down but still worth it40:10 The power of comment DMs and mid-funnel plays42:00 Measuring success beyond vanity metrics44:15 Final advice for founders and ghostwriters in 2025#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Philippe Léhoux is the co-founder of Missive, a collaborative email app bootstrapped to $7.5M ARR with no sales team, no paid marketing, and no funding.It took six years to reach $1M ARR. Today, Missive is used by thousands of teams, and still run by just 15 people.In this episode, Philippe breaks down the journey behind one of SaaS’s quietest success stories.He shares how he ran two companies in parallel, got rejected by YC three times, and why building slow (and staying small) was the right call.Topics we cover in this episode:- Running two startups at once (and why it worked for years)- Why Missive was never a “rocketship”—and why that was okay- The moment they stopped chasing growth hacks- Reaching $1M ARR after 6 years (and $7.5M today with 15 people)- How COVID wiped out their first business overnight- Building the AI features users actually need- The emotional cost of founder life and how he managed it- Why staying small is a competitive advantage- How Missive turned email into a multiplayer productPerfect for:- SaaS founders building without outside funding- Founders trying to avoid the “VC treadmill”Connect with Philippe:Philippe’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/plehoux/Missive: https://missiveapp.com/Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Why Philippe prefers calm SaaS growth01:40 Rejected by YC (3 times)03:20 Building ConferenceBadge and Missive in parallel05:45 What happened when COVID hit07:10 Why they built Missive with no product-market fit09:30 Growing to $1M ARR in six years11:15 Staying small on purpose13:20 The mental toll of long-term building15:50 Hiring lessons from a 15-person team18:00 Where Missive is at today ($7.5M ARR)19:45 Why he creates content after 10 years of silence21:00 Launching with the help of Jason Fried23:10 Why email is still the ultimate workspace26:30 Their approach to AI (and what they won’t build)28:10 Final advice for calm SaaS builders#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Tushar Makhija is the co-founder and CEO of TeamOhana, a workforce intelligence platform that unifies finance, HR, and talent data, so growing companies can plan and manage headcount in real-time.In this episode, Tushar shares how TeamOhana is breaking into enterprise deals while still winning $15K mid-market accounts, and why he believes spreadsheets are the silent killer of scale.Topics we cover in this episode:- Why $15K is the minimum price even for tiny teams- What most SaaS founders get wrong about Workday- From 150 to 15,000 employees: scaling up-market without losing speed- The strategic manifesto Tushar wrote before writing code- Why spreadsheet workflows kill growth (and how to replace them)- How to build multi-product from day one without losing focus- Case study: landing Scale AI with a 30-day exit clause- Why you should produce your own founder podcast (and send it to every hire)- The LinkedIn + long-form strategy driving brand and pipeline- How TeamOhana frames “collaborative workforce intelligence” to win dealsConnect with Tushar:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tusharmakhija/TeamOhana: https://teamohana.comConnect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Don’t forget to subscribe for more founder-led marketing playbooks from high-growth SaaS leaders.Chapters00:00 Why TeamOhana starts every deal at $15K02:01 The hiring spreadsheet every company hates05:10 Why selling to both Finance and HR was non-negotiable08:30 Breaking into enterprise: from mid-market to 15K+ employees10:40 How Tushar priced for scale (and resisted the $1K/month trap)14:20 Building a multi-product platform with a narrow start18:30 Turning spreadsheets into cloud-native workflows22:00 The playbook for converting $15K logos into $100K ACVs24:10 How Scale AI became a customer with a 45-day escape clause28:30 Competing with Workday: why they’re a filing cabinet, not a system of action32:50 Why hiring managers must live inside your product35:00 GTM channels: website, LinkedIn, outbound—and one long-form bet38:00 The 2-hour podcast Tushar made himself (and why he did it)41:00 Every new hire watches the founder video—here’s why42:45 Final advice: pick 2–3 channels and go deep#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Kevin Dorsey (KD) is one of the most respected voices in modern sales leadership, with 137K+ followers on LinkedIn and a track record that includes leading sales at PatientPop, Bench, and now as CRO at finally.In this episode, KD shares the real reason he started posting on LinkedIn (spoiler: not to sell), how he built a magnetic hiring brand without selling to sellers, and why most founders are sitting on gold, but never reach out.If you’ve ever wondered how to write consistently, attract the right hires, or build a sales motion in SMB this one’s a masterclass.Topics we cover in this episode:- Why KD started posting on LinkedIn (and why it still works today)- How his content attracted the right hires—without recruiters- Why he never chased virality or trends (no carousels, no hooks)- The difference between leading vs. consulting—and why he came back- How to use DMs to build pipeline with 20 messages a day and zero automation- Why you should never automate what you haven’t nailed manually- The biggest mindset shifts most founders need to sell effectively- Why consistency, not creativity, drives long-term results- Building a sales motion in SMB: volume, relevance, and fast learning- Real AI workflows he’s already running as CRO, and what’s nextPerfect for:- Founders posting on LinkedIn but not seeing traction- Sales leaders scaling from 5 to 50 reps (or hiring their first few)- Solo consultants, advisors, and creators wondering what’s next- Anyone tired of “growth hacks” and looking for what actually worksConnect with KDLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kddorsey3/finally: https://finally.com/Sales Leadership Accelerator: https://salesleadershipaccelerator.com/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters:00:00 Intro & Career Highlights01:00 Why KD Really Started Posting on LinkedIn03:00 Recruiting with Content (No Sales Needed)05:30 How Posting Has Changed (and What Still Works)07:20 Why He Stuck With Text-Only Posts09:00 Going Solo: More Money, Less Fun11:15 Why He Returned to Sales Leadership14:30 His Niche: Scaling from 5 to 50 Reps16:10 The 5D Leadership Framework18:00 Writing for Agreement (Not Just Education)20:00 Why Founder Content Should Amplify ICP Voices22:40 KD’s Daily Writing System25:30 How to Pick the Right Post to Write27:00 Why You Should DM Every Liker29:00 Outreach Tactics Most Founders Miss31:45 Why You Must Master Manual Before Automating34:00 The Secret Power of Founder-to-Founder DMs36:30 The Mental Shift from Inbound to Outbound38:00 Scaling Sales in SMB: What Actually Works41:00 Why ACV Isn’t the Problem—Pipeline Volume Is43:00 Where AI Is Already Working in Sales46:00 The Leadership Gap in AI Adoption48:00 What KD Wishes He Knew 15 Years AgoPodcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Irina Novoselsky is the CEO of Hootsuite, where she’s proving that social content is a revenue driver.Since stepping in as CEO, Irina has built one of the most effective LinkedIn presences in tech leadership. Her content drives 11.6M impressions per quarter, helps influence 40% of Hootsuite’s pipeline, and breaks every “best practice” that doesn’t serve the brand or the customer.In this episode, Irina breaks down her exact playbook for building a high-performing LinkedIn strategy, how she balances authenticity with outcomes, and why every CEO should treat social as a customer channel. We also get into her journey from Wall Street to tech, the lessons she’s learned as a first-time CEO, and how Hootsuite is turning employee advocacy into real growth.Topics we cover in this episode:-Irina’s framework for content that’s personal and performs- How her posts drive 40% of Hootsuite’s pipeline- Why she avoids praise posts and what she does instead- Building 3 content pillars every CEO should have- Why video became her unfair advantage on LinkedIn- Social selling vs. brand vs. pipeline—and how she thinks about ROI- The real reason most execs don’t post (and how to fix it)- What leadership actually looks like at the topPerfect for:- Founders looking to turn LinkedIn into a revenue engine- CEOs trying to balance thought leadership with real impact- Marketing leaders trying to get executive buy-in for contentConnect with Irina:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irina-novoselsky/- Hootsuite: https://www.hootsuite.com/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders in B2B SaaS and marketing!Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 Irina’s Journey from Finance to Tech03:10 The Moment She Started Posting on LinkedIn05:45 The PET Framework for High-Impact Posts08:00 Why She Writes Her Own Content (and Always Will)10:30 Commenting at Scale: Building Relationships in the Feed13:00 The Myth of CEO Content Being “Optional”16:20 Her 3 Content Pillars and Why They Work19:15 The Real ROI of Posting: 40% Pipeline Influence22:45 How Hootsuite Scales Employee Advocacy25:50 Building a Feedback Loop Between Social and Product28:15 Why Video Became Her Superpower on LinkedIn31:10 Executing Content with Limited Time (The CEO Reality)34:00 Balancing Authenticity, Leadership, and Audience Value37:30 Advice for Founders Scared to Show Up Online40:00 Creating a Company People Want to Follow#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbrandingDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders in B2B SaaS and marketing!Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Chris Evans is the co-founder of incident.io, an incident management platform built for modern reliability teams. He started the company in 2021 with two former Monzo engineers, and they’ve raised $62M, passed $10M+ ARR, and landed customers like Linear, Vercel, and Intercom.In this episode, Chris breaks down how they built trust with technical buyers, why the co-founders chose to stay sales-led (even with developer customers), and what’s really working in their GTM motion today. He also shares the role founder content played in landing their first customers, how the team picks between SF and London, and what’s next as they scale toward enterprise.Topics we cover in this episode:- How incident.io validated their first product by building in-house at Monzo- The early traction playbook: landing logos without a sales process or billing setup- Why the team stayed in London—until Series B pulled them to San Francisco- Selling to engineers vs. executives: how they handle messaging across personas- Building a solutions engineering team instead of a self-serve motion- Why they ditched spray-and-pray for signal-based outbound- Their ACV ranges and why they haven’t hit a $1M deal (yet)- Founder-led content: how early Twitter and now LinkedIn shaped pipelinePerfect for:- DevTool and SaaS founders targeting both ICs and execs- Founders navigating early-stage traction without a formal sales team- GTM leaders balancing sales-led and product-led growth- Engineers building “tools that should exist” and want to productize itConnect with Chris:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evnsio- incident.io: https://incident.io/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders in B2B SaaS and marketing!Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 From Monzo Bank to Co-Founding incident.io01:20 Culture Shock: Scaling from London to San Francisco04:15 Why They Delayed Building a US Office06:17 How the Founders Chose Their Roles08:43 Chris on Titles, Solutions Engineering & Field CTO10:56 Building the MVP Inside Monzo (and Burning It Down Later)12:44 The First Inbound Deals—Powered by Twitter, Not LinkedIn14:21 Selling Without a Product, Billing, or Order Forms16:18 Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Sales in Developer Tools18:12 How They Balance Messaging Across Personas20:20 Why They Prioritize the Buyer, Not the Exec21:26 From 100% Inbound to Targeted Outbound23:41 Using Signal-Based Outreach to Win High-Intent Accounts25:08 ACVs, Self-Serve, and Moving Upmarket27:08 How Etsy Pushed Them to Build an Enterprise-Ready Product29:02 Advice on When to Go After Big Deals31:17 “Be Loud on the Internet” – Founder-Led Brand at incident.io33:14 Why LinkedIn Still Works for Technical Audiences35:14 Founders Chris Looks Up To & His Own LinkedIn Strategy#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Peter Caputa is the CEO of Databox, a $10M+ ARR analytics platform that helps businesses centralize their data and make better decisions.Before joining Databox, Peter was one of the early sales leaders at HubSpotwhere he helped pioneer the agency partner program that fueled the company’s breakout growth.In this episode, Peter shares his full playbook for using LinkedIn as a CEO, why most founders still underrate brand and feedback loops, and how he spends 2–3 hours a day on content that drives real business outcomes.We also get into positioning, pricing, and why staying visible yourself is one of the most underused advantages in SaaS.Topics we cover in this episode:- Peter’s system for LinkedIn: writing, feedback, and scheduling- How CEO content helped Databox navigate SEO decline- The real ROI of posting daily (and how to measure it)- Why most attribution models undervalue social- How Databox used primary research to shape their GTM- The mindset shift most founders need to publish consistently- When calling BS publicly is worth it (and how to do it right)- Positioning strategy: how Peter narrowed ICP & launched new pricing- The HubSpot lessons he’s applying at Databox- Why RevOps agencies are replacing traditional B2B marketing firmsPerfect for:- Founders wondering if CEO-led content is worth the time- SaaS execs rethinking SEO, attribution, and content strategy- Marketing and RevOps leaders selling to mid-market companiesConnect with Peter:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pc4media/- Databox: https://databox.com/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 Peter’s Background: HubSpot → CEO at Databox02:05 Why Every B2B CEO Should Post on LinkedIn04:00 The Hidden Leverage of CEO Content06:15 Attribution Is Broken—but It Still Works08:40 Measuring Word-of-Mouth and Dark Social10:30 Why Search Declined & LinkedIn Rose12:55 ROI: How Peter Tracks Impact with 3 Metrics15:00 The “Two Hour a Day” LinkedIn System17:15 Primary Research, Customer Quotes & Content Flywheels20:45 AI, GPT, and Building an Internal Content Engine23:10 Product Marketing Content → LinkedIn Posts25:10 Should You Break the LinkedIn Rules?26:45 When (and How) to Call BS Publicly29:00 The Power of Differentiated Positioning31:00 Building a Strategy Map for GTM33:15 Serving Mid-Market Customers with Pricing & Product36:45 Strategy at $10M ARR vs. Early-Stage SaaS39:40 Why CEO Content Scales Better than You Think41:15 Why It’s Hard to Scale LinkedIn Internally43:10 Incentives That Actually Work for Employees44:30 Building a Reseller Engine for Content & Growth46:00 What Kind of Content Still Performs Best?48:00 What Peter Obsesses Over (It’s Not the Algorithm)50:10 Favorite Writing Lessons, Hooks, and Storycraft51:30 The #1 Priority if You Only Have 30 Minutes a Day53:00 Can a Founder-Led Content Agency Actually Help?#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Taylor Haren is the founder of Sales Automation Systems, running high-volume outbound campaigns for companies like RB2B, Fixer AI, and Directive, sending up to 8.5 million emails per month.In this episode, Taylor breaks down what actually works in cold outreach in 2025, why most people fail with it, and how to build systems that generate PLG signups, meetings, and revenue at scale.We will talk about:- Why cold email isn’t dead—but traditional tactics are- The “Navy SEALs vs. Carpet Bombing” framework for outbound- How to get a 3X reply rate by changing one line of copy- Offers that convert: what makes a good one, and how to test it- How Taylor built a system to analyze 250+ messaging variants- Tech stack recommendations for deliverability in 2025- The real reason most campaigns fail (it’s not the copy)Perfect for:- Founders wondering if outbound still works (it does)- Growth leaders building PLG or hybrid sales models- Anyone testing cold email and struggling with resultsDon’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for more unfiltered conversations with SaaS founders and operators building differently.Connect with Taylor:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorharen/- Sales Automation Systems: https://www.salesautomation.systems/- Episode with Garrett, CEO of Directive: https://youtu.be/_ln2Tw_GFWc?si=Yw2RpVdpYLZgMjWxConnect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Intro: What Taylor’s Building02:00 Cold Email in 2025: What Still Works05:12 The “Carpet Bomb” Playbook (PLG at Scale)07:40 Why the Old Multi-Touch Sequences Are Dead09:30 How Offers Shape Everything in Cold Email12:40 Blending High-Volume and Targeted Sales15:45 Garrett from Directive’s Copy Beat the AI 18:30 When Cold Email Can Replace Ads (and Why)21:10 Why One Email Every 60 Days Is the Sweet Spot23:40 Copy That Converts: Taylor’s Full Framework27:15 Subject Lines, Hooks, and Real Personalization30:20 AI vs Human-Written Cold Emails32:00 How to A/B Test Messaging the Right Way36:00 $100M Offers and Irresistible Cold Hooks39:10 Cold Email as a GTM Testing Tool41:00 The Rule of 1,000: Why You’re Not Sending EnoughPodcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Peter Walker is the Senior Director of Insights at Carta, the leading cap table platform with over 45,000 customers and one of the most followed B2B voices on LinkedIn. In this episode, Peter breaks down how he built Carta’s insights function from scratch and how it's become one of the most effective brand-building machines in SaaS. He shares how data storytelling fuels their content engine, what makes a great graphic, and why every B2B company should have a voice in the public conversation.Topics we cover in this episode:- How Carta turned data into a brand moat- The 3 core skills behind a great insights team- Peter’s system for publishing daily, high-impact LinkedIn content- What makes a great data visualization (and what doesn’t)- How to test and scale content ideas through comments and reposts- The CTA and chart format that drives thousands of subscribers- Carta’s long-term approach to insights: not leads, just value- Why most B2B brands should stop gating data and start storytelling- Peter’s LinkedIn growth from 2K → 137K and the flywheel behind itPerfect for:- B2B marketers building thought leadership around data- SaaS founders exploring brand-led growth- Operators looking to create LinkedIn-native content systems- Anyone wondering how to turn usage data into viral insightsConnect with Peter:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjameswalker/- Carta: https://carta.com/- Data Desk Newsletter: https://carta.com/data/- How to create engaging data graphics: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peterjameswalker_the-5-step-guide-to-building-data-graphics-activity-7341517849120731136-aTKA/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters:00:00 Building the Insights Function at Carta02:10 How Carta Uses Data to Fuel Daily Content05:00 Carta’s Distribution Flywheel: LinkedIn → Email → Events08:45 Who Should Build an Insights Function12:30 What Makes Data “Interesting” Enough to Publish14:40 Usage Data vs. Market Data (and What You Can Do With It)17:10 Privacy, Contracts, and How to Handle Sensitive Data19:30 Measuring Success: The 6-Month Rule21:00 Who Should Be the Public Face of Insights?22:40 The Rise of Embedded Creators in B2B24:50 The Equity Insight That Blew Peter’s Mind27:00 LinkedIn Growth: 2K to 137K and the Tipping Point30:10 Text + Image vs. Video: What Works on LinkedIn33:00 How to Use Comments to Supercharge Distribution35:40 The Right Way to Follow Up with Creators36:40 The Three Kinds of Data Stories That Work38:45 Newsjacking, Press Coverage, and Ecosystem Relevance42:50 Visual Design: What Makes a Chart Work46:10 The Tableau → Figma Workflow Explained49:20 Use One Chart for One Story—Then Scale It52:00 The Importance of Staying Curious (and Consistent)54:00 Peter’s Final Advice for SaaS Brands and CreatorsPodcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

James Hawkins is the co-founder & co-CEO of PostHog, a dev-first product suite built to help teams build better software, faster. Since launching in 2020, PostHog has grown to 100+ people, 14 products, and a plan to hit $100M ARR by 2026, all while staying lean, shipping fast, and having fun.In this episode, James breaks down how they got early traction, why building for developers demands a different growth mindset, and what it actually takes to scale multi-product SaaS in public. Topics we cover in this episode:- Why PostHog focused on shipping speed instead of sales- The real story behind PostHog’s $100M ARR target- Building multiple products at once with 2-person teams- The value of shitposting (and why it still works)- How James thinks about brand, attention, and developer trust- Why they replaced product managers with empowered engineers- PostHog’s approach to retention, performance reviews & team design- Growing through word of mouth vs. optimizing for ROI- Lessons from building and monetizing open source software- James’ advice on fundraising, agency hiring, and long-term thinkingPerfect for:- DevTool founders scaling without a salesteam- B2B SaaS teams building multi-product platforms- Founders looking to build a brand, culture, and a presence on LinkedInDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!Connect with James:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-hawkins/- PostHog: https://posthog.com/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Intro & PostHog’s Mission01:35 Setting a $100M ARR Goal (When They Had $0)04:20 Long-Term Thinking & Taking Big Swings06:05 Why Having Fun Is Strategic07:12 Shitposting for Brand and Attention10:00 The Day They Hit Product-Market Fit13:40 Early-Stage Lessons: Why Velocity is more improtant than Validation16:00 Pricing Strategy for Open Source Tools18:30 Competing in Existing Categories (and Why)21:15 Why Product Engineers Don’t Have Deadlines24:00 No Roadmaps, No Meetings, No Bureaucracy26:30 Hiring for Ownership and Accountability28:15 How They Evaluate Performance Without Goals30:00 Product Engineer Hiring Criteria & Red Flags32:15 Talking to Users (Without Forcing It)34:40 Developer Marketing That Actually Works37:00 Four Reasons People Choose PostHog39:05 Brand, Word of Mouth, and Developer Taste41:10 Being the News vs. Chasing It43:00 When They Shipped the Wrong Product45:30 Building a Data Warehouse to Compete with Snowflake47:05 Why Hard Products Drive Retention49:00 Letting Engineers Decide What to Fix51:00 How AI Is Used Inside PostHog53:15 Fundraising Advice for DevTool Founders55:20 Final Thoughts & ClosingPodcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Santosh Sharan is the founder of ZeerAI, who helped scale companies like Apollo, ZoomInfo, and RB2B. ZeerAI is building AI agents that act like your best sales rep, engaging with buyers, answering questions, and moving deals forward without needing a human.In this episode, Santosh explains why most sales and marketing channels are failing, how LinkedIn became his #1 source of demand, and how AI agents will transform how we buy and sell software.He also walks through the exact playbook he used to go from 5K to 44K followers, run 200+ meetings, and build product-market fit, before shipping a product.Topics we cover in this episode:- The system behind 200+ meetings booked through content- Why most B2B GTM motions are broken (and how to rebuild them)- How Santosh grew from 5K to 44K LinkedIn followers in one year- What “buyer agents” are and why they’re the next GTM role- How he used content to test pricing, positioning, and demand- What it takes to get 50+ qualified calls from a single post- Why repeatable conversations are better than repeatable automations- The future of pricing, value-based offers, and go-to-market opsDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!Connect with Santosh:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssharan/- ZeerAI: https://zeer.ai/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 Santosh’s Background: From ZoomInfo, Apollo to ZeerAI02:15 Why Most GTM Motions Don’t Work Anymore05:00 What Happens When Everyone Copies the Same Tactics07:45 The LinkedIn Strategy That Replaced Outbound10:10 The System Behind 200+ Meetings Booked Through Content13:30 From 5K to 44K Followers in 12 Months15:50 How Content Became the Primary Validation Engine18:40 What to Post (And Why It’s Not About You)21:15 The Real Power of CTA Posts (And What Kills Them)24:10 Why repeatable conversations are better than repeatable automations27:30 How to Get Buyers to Come to You, without a Demo Funnel29:50 Why Buyer Agents Will Replace SDRs (And What That Means)32:00 The Death of Seat-Based Pricing34:45 How to Build a Category Without Spending $500K36:30 Building a Community Before Product39:00 The Office Hours Strategy That Drives Pipeline41:45 Advice for Founders Starting From Zero#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Gal Aga is the co-founder and CEO of Aligned, a deal room platform used by teams at HubSpot, Salesforce, Intel, and more. In the last year, Gal went from a few thousand followers to 74,000+, gets up to 1M impressions per week, and attributes 65% of Aligned’s leads directly to LinkedIn.In this episode, Gal breaks down exactly how he writes high-performing posts, the system behind his three-post-per-week cadence, and how content became the foundation for hiring, expansion, and product-market fit.Topics we cover in this episode:- The system behind Gal’s 3M/month LinkedIn reach- How 65% of Aligned’s leads come from content- Writing posts that drive 400+ leads without ads- Gal’s exact weekly routine and how long each post takes- Building your narrative by testing in public- The difference between being a thought leader vs. having a strong POV- Why engagement hooks and polished writing still matter- Using LinkedIn to improve hiring, expansion, and even fundraisingDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!Connect with Gal:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/galaga/- Aligned: https://alignedup.com/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Gal’s Background & Aligned’s LinkedIn Strategy01:20 From 0 to 74K Followers in 12 Months03:15 How 65% of Leads Come from LinkedIn05:40 The Business Case: Why Brand is Bigger than Channel07:45 Content’s Hidden ROI: Hiring, Retention, Events, Funding10:05 Gal’s Weekly Writing Workflow (Sun–Fri Breakdown)13:20 Why Each Post Takes 2–3 Hours to Write15:05 The Role of Hooks, Tone, and Authenticity17:45 Comment Strategy, Engagement Cadence & Inbox Limits20:20 How He Prioritizes What to Write (100+ Hook Bank)24:30 The Anatomy of a Great Post: Hook, POV, Takeaway27:30 Why Bullet Points and Contrarian turns into Scroll Stopper30:10 What Makes Content Commentable (and Shareable)32:30 The CTA Playbook Gal Uses in His Posts35:00 Why Links Don’t Kill Reach (If the Post Is Good)37:20 Newsletter Plans, Repurposing, and What’s Next40:00 Gal’s Framework for Thought Leadership That Actually Performs42:30 Advice for Founders Who Want to Start But Feel Behind#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Jason Fried is the co-founder of ⁨37signals the company behind Basecamp and HEY, and a pioneer of calm company building. In this episode, Jason explains why he doesn’t chase trends like AI, how 2-person teams launch new products inside 37signals, and what it really means to build with taste, not speed.Topics we cover in this episode:- Why Basecamp hasn’t added AI, and why that’s not a problem- How Jason avoids FOMO, even as trends explode- Why 37signals builds multiple products with just 60 people- What “product taste” really means—and how to hire for it- The future of craftsmanship in a world of AI- Jason’s unstructured workdays and creative flow- How he’d build if he started from scratch in 2025- Why content ≠ content, and how writing built 37signals’ brand- When to ship vs. when to keep buildingDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!Connect with Jason:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-fried/- Basecamp: https://basecamp.com/- Hey: https://www.hey.com/- Books: https://basecamp.com/books- REWORK Podcast: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwo5Hcps5IkBBAv1-_HPOMvC4Rn1p8lsQ&si=7tq91JJ-GS4pgY1vConnect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Why Basecamp hasn’t added AI, and how Jason thinks about it03:20 Avoiding FOMO and chasing trends05:50 What Jason would do if he had to start from scratch08:00 Making multiple products with just 60 people10:18 How 2-person teams launch new tools at 37signals12:00 The story of a product they killed—and why14:30 Does SaaS still have room for new ideas?16:15 The real opportunity: simpler software18:30 Why trades might be the most future-proof jobs20:05 The future of craftsmanship in an AI world22:10 Jason’s spontaneous workdays and unstructured flow24:45 What makes a good day at work26:15 When to ship vs. when to keep building30:00 How to make decisions without chasing competitors33:00 Why Jason hates the term “content”34:45 Writing, trust, and brand building the 37signals way37:00 Redesigning products without alienating your users39:30 Jason’s philosophy on culture: it emerges, not planned43:00 Taste, talent, and how 37signals hires designers49:00 What taste really means—and how to spot it51:30 Jason’s favorite products: from V-Drums to a 1978 Porsche54:00 Why legacy doesn’t matter (and ego does)56:30 What Jason would prioritize if building a village63:00 New book teaser: Make It Up As You GoPodcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Steffen Hedebrandt is the co-founder and CMO of Dreamdata, a B2B attribution and activation platform powering go-to-market insights for B2B companies.Dreamdata is 60 people strong, split between Copenhagen and New York, and they’ve built one of the most consistent employee advocacy motions in SaaS. It all started with a viral LinkedIn post from one AE and turned into a repeatable system that drives awareness, attribution insights, and revenue.In this episode, Steffen shares how they turned 300,000 impressions into a company-wide habit, how they operationalize social selling without being “corporate,” and what it takes to scale LinkedIn content into an always-on revenue channel.Topics we cover in this episode:- How one viral post kicked off Dreamdata’s LinkedIn motion- Turning 300K impressions into a repeatable team playbook- What most companies get wrong about employee advocacy- Steffen’s rules for team buy-in, incentives, and sustainable posting- Why the best posts aren't about reach but relevance- How to track impact without obsessing over attribution -The role of “thought leader ads” in Dreamdata’s GTM strategy- What the future of content looks like in an AI-saturated worldDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!Connect with Steffen:- *LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffenhedebrandt/- Dreamdata: https://dreamdata.io/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Building Dreamdata’s LinkedIn Motion from Day One02:15 The Post That Sparked a Teamwide Strategy04:00 How a Chris Walker Comment Turned Into Pipeline06:10 From 300K Impressions to a Cultural Shift08:00 Why Fun, Not Enforcement, Drives Employee Buy-in10:12 How to Incentivize Employees to Post—Without Killing the Vibe12:00 Self-Interest vs. Company Interest: What Makes Posting Sustainable14:00 When to Post for Reach vs. Pipeline16:10 What to Track (And What to Ignore) with Organic Attribution18:15 26K Followers Isn’t the Goal—Owning Distribution Is20:00 Posting with 12 Likes Is Part of the Game22:00 Quantity vs. Quality: Should You Spend 2–3 Hours on a Post?24:30 How to Win in a Winner-Take-All Algorithm26:15 What Happens When Employees Build Too Much Influence?28:30 Every Growth Tactic Stops Working Eventually30:00 AI Makes Generic Content Useless—Here’s What Still Works32:30 Proprietary Data + Real POV = The Future of Content35:00 Why Human Touch and Community Will Win Long-Term37:15 How Dreamdata Turns Organic Hits Into Paid Ads40:00 The Role of Dreamdata’s Weekly LinkedIn Live Show43:00 Their Allbound Strategy: From Content to CRM#linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #contentmarketing #ecommerce #shopify #personalbranding#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbrandingcoach #linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #aiagents #salesautomation #outboundsales #contentmarketing #growthstrategy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Amos Bar-Joseph is the co-founder and CEO of Swan AI, a go-to-market automation platform powered by AI agents.In just 9 weeks, Swan went from zero to $1M ARR, with no sales team, no paid marketing, and no employees beyond the three co-founders.In this episode, Amos breaks down how he used LinkedIn to drive 100% of their pipeline, how he turned content into a system, and why movements outperform personal brands.Topics we cover in this episode:- Scaling to $1M ARR in 9 weeks with just 3 founders- Why Amos rejected the unicorn playbook- From 2K to 20K followers: the system behind his LinkedIn growth- How Swan uses AI agents to generate pipeline, without cold outbound- The “challenge the challenger” narrative strategy explained- Why a movement is bigger than brand (and how to build one)- How to write content that goes viral and turns into revenue- The internal AI stack that powers Swan’s GTMDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!Connect with Amos:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amos-bar-joseph-5a665a142/- Swan AI:https://www.getswan.com/Connect with me:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Building Swan AI → $1M ARR in 9 Weeks02:15 The anti-unicorn playbook: scaling with intelligence04:45 Why Swan only has 3 people—and plans to keep it that way06:40 The birth of the “autonomous business” movement09:00 From 2K to 20K followers in 9 weeks (and how it happened)11:12 Founder-led marketing vs. movement-led marketing13:24 The “challenge the challenger” narrative strategy15:06 Why credibility comes from what you’re doing now, not your past17:10 Writing viral content: structure, systems, and smart hooks20:25 Launch playbook: how Amos engineered momentum from day one24:50 Becoming a broker of belief, not just a source of opinions27:32 Writing process: AI collaboration, prompts, and iterations30:00 Pillars, lenses, and how to always have something to say32:36 Turning impressions into pipeline with AI agents34:20 The LinkedIn-to-revenue system: observer, connector, hunter36:30 Why comments, DMs, and replies matter more than you think38:30 What it takes to hit $10M ARR per founder40:15 Swan’s new operating system: replacing org charts with workflows#linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #contentmarketing #ecommerce #shopify #personalbranding#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbrandingcoach #linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #aiagents #salesautomation #outboundsales #contentmarketing #growthstrategy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Rand Fishkin is the co-founder of SparkToro and previously built Moz to $50M ARR—before stepping away and rethinking everything about how he works, hires, and grows a company.Today, SparkToro is a 3-person, profitable SaaS business doing $1.5M+ in revenue, and it’s intentionally calm: no cold calls, no demos, and no aggressive sales playbooks.In this episode, Rand explains how to grow sustainably without chasing scale, how he leveraged brand to jumpstart SparkToro, and why product, not integrations, features, or funnels, is the real growth engine.Topics we cover in this episode:Why SparkToro doesn’t offer demos and still grows fastHow Rand built a waitlist of 14,000+ on day oneThe tradeoffs of calm growth: fewer integrations, higher churnHow to design a business around what you’re good atWhat Rand would do differently if starting todayWhy founder-led marketing still works—and how to scale itRand’s take on AI, competitive risk, and moving slowly on purposeProduct-market fit is a journey, not a destinationDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!Connect with Rand:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/SparkToro: https://sparktoro.com/Rand’s book - Lost and Founder: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Founder-Rand-Fishkin/dp/0735213321Snackbar Studio: https://snackbarstudio.com/Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHChapters:00:00 Building Moz to $50M ARR → Starting Over at SparkToro01:35 Founder strengths, weaknesses, and designing around them04:10 Why Rand stopped taking sales calls (and what happened)07:12 Hiring for cultural fit, not just talent09:24 Intentional product limits—and accepting churn12:30 The “rules for business life” Rand wrote before SparkToro14:15 Why calm companies make better decisions17:21 Product is 80%. Here’s what the rest looks like19:37 Do you need a founder-led marketing motion?22:20 Building brands without being the face25:08 Launch strategy: how Rand got 14,000 waitlist signups26:22 What changed after Rand’s Moz exit windfall28:01 Is financial comfort a requirement for calm growth?30:26 How Rand would grow SparkToro if he started at zero31:27 The role of content, Reddit, YouTube, and cross-posting34:36 Why Reddit is a B2B marketing cheat code36:14 Should technical founders learn marketing, or just hire?38:58 SparkToro vs. SnackBar: building in different industries#linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #contentmarketing #ecommerce #shopify #personalbranding #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbrandingcoach #aiagents #salesautomation #outboundsales #growthstrategy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Garrett Mehrguth is the founder and CEO of Directive, one of the largest B2B SaaS marketing agencies in the world.In 2013, he started the company with Fiverr gigs. Today, it’s generating over $25M in revenue and working with brands like ZoomInfo, Wiz, and Stack Overflow.In this episode, Garrett breaks down how they generated $15M in revenue using LinkedIn ads and a gift card strategy that scaled to 6,800 sales calls. He shares his full TAM-based playbook, the psychology behind using incentives without losing trust, and why copy is still the biggest unlock in B2B.We also get into why he spun out Ape (a LinkedIn ads agency), how he balances performance with brand, and his mindset on writing every day—even while running a 200-person company.Topics we cover in this episode:- The exact gift card campaign that generated $15M in pipeline- Why Garrett spends $100+ per lead on LinkedIn—and why it works- The TAM-based playbook for building a high-performing ad strategy- Why outbound isn't dead—and SDRs can't match conversation ads- How to use AI + regression analysis to identify high-LTV accounts- The biggest mistakes people make with copy, hooks, and bidding- Why your product (not the gift card) must close the deal- Garrett’s philosophy on writing, brand building, and founder-led contentDon't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!Connect with Garrett:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettmehrguth/- Directive: https://directiveconsulting.com/Connect with me:- LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/ - Website: https://www.project33.io/ - Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH Chapters00:00 Garrett’s Background & Building Directive to $25M+02:15 How the $15M LinkedIn Gift Card Campaign Started04:45 Why This Works Even with Zero Intent07:10 Building TAM-Based Campaigns with AI & Regression09:32 How They Landed 6,800 Sales Calls from Their Target List12:10 How to Use Gift Cards Without Wasting Budget14:38 Conversation Ads vs. SDR Teams (And Why They Win)17:40 Why It’s Not Bribery—It’s Efficient Marketing20:04 How Garrett Burned $1M to Crack LinkedIn Ads22:26 Coaching Reps, Building Decks, and Making the Sales Process Work24:00 Lifecycle Stage Analysis by Rep (Not Just by Channel)26:10 Copywriting Tips: Hooks, Offers & Subject Lines That Convert29:08 Why You Should Bid More (and Stop Under-Spending)30:52 Beyond Gift Cards: High-Value Offers That Actually Scale32:21 The Role of Retargeting, Sponsored Content & Brand Awareness33:45 Don’t Be Better. Be Different.36:57 How to Find a Differentiated POV in a Saturated Market38:58 Why He Launched Ape as a Spinout from Directive40:44 Verticalization, Product Strategy & The Future of Service Businesses42:36 Why Garrett Writes Every Day (And How He Does It at Scale)44:51 How LinkedIn Content Changed His Career (After 12 Years)47:02 Final Advice: Go Deeper. Don’t Abandon Channels Too Early.#linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #contentmarketing #ecommerce #shopify #personalbranding#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbrandingcoach #linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #aiagents #salesautomation #outboundsales #contentmarketing #growthstrategy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org