Catalyst

If predicting the future were as easy as looking into a crystal ball, we'd all be billionaires. So as we round out Season 3 of the Catalyst Podcast, we do the next best thing: invite Carilu Dietrich to the podcast. Carilu is a strategic advisor to high growth tech companies, with experience across the board as a marketing executive at a Fortune 100, a pre-IPO unicorn and a Series C startup. Before her most recent role as CMO of Classy, a startup providing online fundraising software to nonprofits, Carilu was the Head of Corporate Marketing at Atlassian, where she helped reposition the company for its successful IPO. In this episode, LeadMD CEO Justin Gray chats with Carilu about the questions on all our minds: will things return to normal? How are organizations gaining exposure to buyers? What are the top takeaways from the last year? Carilu also addresses how marketers can make themselves indispensable and shares why she's optimistic about 2021 and beyond.

Jeff Miller spent the last 10 years of his career at the intersection of technology and transportation, once as a founding CEO, once as an executive at Uber and more recently as an investor and advisor to venture and private equity backed companies. But like everyone else, he found himself at a crossroads in the spring of 2020 when COVID-19 began to spread across the United States and the world. In this episode, LeadMD CEO Justin Gray welcomes Jeff to the podcast to share the catalyst moment that drove him to found Helping Hands Community, a non-profit organization created to slow the spread of COVID-19 through tech-enabled, community volunteerism. Jeff shares how the organization went from idea to launch in 10 days, why the organization is completely volunteer-run, and leadership practices that have helped him along the way.

Michael Balyasny is the founder and chief visionary behind Attendify, a software that bridges the gap between digital marketing and event marketing. As a product and design-driven entrepreneur, Michael is recognized as an expert in event technology, an industry that's grown to well over $30 billion dollars.  In this episode, Michael joined LeadMD CEO Justin Gray to discuss how the B2B industry was impacted by COVID_19. They break down the rise of hybrid events, opportunities for innovation and why event success will always hinge on engagement. They also explore ways attendees can make the most of events, whether they're attending in person or remotely.

A noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding, Allen Adamson has worked with consumer and corporate businesses in industries spanning technology, healthcare, financial services, and packaged goods, to name a few. He's the co-founder of Metaforce - a marketing and product consultancy - and is the author of Shift Ahead, a book on how organizations stay relevant. In this episode, Justin quizzes Allen on how the best organizations recognize when to change directions and how they can pull it off. Allen shares common struggles organizations face when attempting to pivot and how they can get on the same page as their customers. Allen also identifies which companies made smart moves navigating COVID-19 and breaks down his expectations for "the new normal". 

In the spring of 2020, when the world shifted to remote working, organizations from every vertical turned to video as a means to connect and share messages in lieu of in-person meetings. And for the B2B sector, video became a lifeline to prospective buyers and customers. So it should come as no surprise that Vidyard, a leading video platform for marketing and sales video hosting, saw a 400% increase in the number of weekly signups for its free product with the first two weeks of quarantine. In this episode, host Justin Gray chats with Tyler Lessard, VP of Marketing at Vidyard, about the surge in personalized videos, how marketing and sales teams are leveraging it, and how video is shaping the future of B2B sales. They also discuss how Vidyard managed the sudden, enormous spike in business, the ways the team adjusted its focus and why video is at the center of a cultural shift in communication.

Today's episode of the Catalyst Podcast centers on the modern workplace and how quickly it has shifted in the wake of 2020 and COVID-19. In this episode, host Justin Gray welcomes Chris French. As EVP of Customer Strategy at Workhuman – the fastest growing social recognition and performance management platform –  Chris shares how corporate cultures of some of the world's most complex global companies are faring after a year of upheaval. He describes which aspects of the workplace were already primed for change and why 2020 became the catalyst for positive growth, especially in areas like mental health and social justice.

Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising used to be considered a top of funnel tactic for B2B marketers needing to raise brand awareness. But today, it's so much more than that. Host Justin Gray welcomes Matthew O'Connor, CEO of AdQuick, to talk about the rise of OOH advertising in the B2B world and how marketers can leverage it to boost their media mix. In this episode, Justin and Matt discuss how COVID-19 affected what was set to be an unprecedented year of OOH growth in 2020 and how OOH is expected to rebound as the world opens back up. They also discuss how OOH can support performance marketing and which KPIs B2B marketers should focus on.

Luanne Tierney is a marketing technology executive who has held senior marketing positions at Cisco, Juniper Networks and Proofpoint. Now, as CMO of Betterworks, she's had to build her team remotely, re-strategize her department's priorities during COVID-19 and navigate the rapidly changing landscape. In this Catalyst interview, Luanne shares advice on building a cohesive team of marketers, tactics to strengthen relationships and communicate marketing's impact throughout an organization, and the trends she thinks are here to stay, especially Business-to-Human marketing.  

On the inaugural episode of season three of the Catalyst Podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Craig Rosenberg and Eric Wittlake of TOPO to talk about what is top of mind for all of us: the ramifications on B2B from COVID-19. In this episode, Justin, Craig and Eric discuss the massive changes that we've seen over the last year,  how B2B organizations and individuals are innovating in the face of this global pandemic, and the MarTech and SalesTech trends we can expect in 2021.

Deborah is the Leader of MyCorporation.com, an online business filing company helping 1 million+ small business owners and entrepreneurs since its founding in 1998. She’s a former corporate and intellectual property attorney who became an entrepreneur after acquiring MyCorporation.com from Intuit.  In this episode of Catalyst, Deborah shares how she acquired MyCorporation from Intuit at the height of the Great Recession, the way in which she learned to put her team and customers first, and how experience has prepared her team for COVID-related challenges in 2020.

Dr. Alex Osterwalder is one of the world’s most influential strategy and innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the way established companies do business and how new ventures get started. In this episode, recorded during COVID-19, host Justin Gray chats with Alex about what senior leaders can do to create an ambidextrous organization. They also chat about exploring new ideas while exploiting and growing existing business and whether a disruption-proof company can actually exist anymore.

Megan Heuer is the principal at HeuerB2B where she helps B2B companies win the business they want and keep the business they've won. She spent 12 years at SiriusDecisions working on ABM and research, and when the company was acquired by Forrester she became the VP of research. After a stint at Engagio, she founded her own company. In this interview, Andrea Lechner-Becker chats with Megan about how buyers are responding to changes in the market, advice for individuals who are experiencing layoffs or furloughs and how to identify opportunities in challenging times.     

On today's episode, Justin welcomes Pete Newell,  a nationally recognized innovation expert whose work is transforming how the government and other large organizations compete and drive growth. He is the CEO of BMNT, an innovation consultancy and early-stage technology incubator that helps solve some of the hardest real-world problems in national security, state and local governments, and beyond. BMNT is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington DC, Boston and London. They discuss similarities in military and entrepreneurial leadership, lessons from failure and smart problem-solving.

Meet Nicolas Vandenberghe, the CEO of Chili Piper. In this episode, Nicholas joins Justin to discuss the two catalysts that led to him eventually founding Chili Piper -- first getting, as he says, screwed over by Oracle while he was CIO at LightSquared, and then being put out of business by Salesforce with his then-company, Floating Apps. Alone and self-funded, Nicolas harnessed a "bull's eye" marketing strategy to quickly close $1 million in revenues within Chili Piper's first 18 months. He and Justin discuss how Chili Piper has bootstrapped and continued to double year-over-year, as well as risk-taking in the time of COVID-19. 

In this episode, Justin Gray is joined by Tealium's CMO Heidi Bullock and CRO Ted Purcell to discuss how they are partnering to create the next stage of growth for their organization by transforming its GTM approach. Both Heidi and Ted have worked at some of the top marketing organizations on the planet, and share insights on how well aligned teams can help organizations scale to unicorn level businesses.

In this episode, Andrea Lechner-Becker welcomes Denise Broady to the podcast. Denise is the COO of Workforce Software, where she oversees the global marketing and communications organization and is also responsible for the end-to-end customer experience including product strategy, product launch, customer operations, customer success, global support along with training and enablement. Prior to WorkForce Software, Denise was the Global COO of the Industry Cloud organization at SAP running go-to-market, strategy, marketing, communications and operations. With over 23 years of enterprise technology experience, Denise has scaled businesses from start-ups to working in complex software businesses. She shares how she survived and thrived in enterprise tech, and how she's navigating her team through COVID-19 today. 

In the wake of COVID-19, Ann Marie Sastry knows a thing or two about navigating an economic downturn. She was a professor of mechanical, biomedical and material science and engineering at the University of Michigan when her startup, Sakti3, was spun out of technology from the university during the 2008 recession. The company was later acquired by Dyson. Before the coronavirus hit, she founded Amesite, an AI software company that provides fully-managed, customized, online learning ecosystems for the enterprise and higher education markets. In this episode, Ann Marie talks about focusing efforts on problems that really matter and her experience navigating both her companies during times of recession. 

In this episode host Justin Gray chats with Steve Blank, an eight-time entrepreneur-turned-educator who is credited with launching the Lean Startup movement. Steve has changed how startups are built, how entrepreneurship is taught, how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate. In this conversation, he shares advice on navigating the current economic crisis from a higher level, traits entrepreneurs should have, how to find silver linings in hard times and the importance of having hard conversations with oneself. 

That Time I Almost Lost My Visa in Order to Get Funding - In this episode we learn about how Nick Lissette and Tim Crown joined forces to fund Black Pearl Mail. Nick shares what it takes to get funded in the U.S. and Tim dives into what characteristics he looks for when funding a company.

That Time We Got Sick of Marketing & Sales Arguing, So We Put Finance In Charge - In this episode we talk with Allocadia to learn more about how they created a Revenue Operations role to help align marketing and sales.

That Time I Got Fired A Whole Lot - In this episode, HubSpot Sales Direct, Dan Tyre, shares the ups and downs of his career prior to HubSpot and what it takes to really succeed in the startup world. 

The Time I Asked for a Whole Lot of Feedback - In this episode Brian discusses what drove him to ask 53 people for anonymous, personal feedback. He also talks through some of the common roadblocks that keep entrepreneurs from succeeding. 

The Time I Asked My Wife to Get a Job - In this episode Sangram shares the story of how Terminus was founded as well as his personal journey to the United States and his unconventional path into entrepreneurship. 

That Time I Almost Died and Became a Better Person for it - In this episode SalesLoft CEO, Kyle Porter, talks through the highs and lows of creating a technology company. He shares a catalyst moment in his life where he almost died - and how it shaped who he is today.

That Time I Started a Marketing Department in a Nine Figure Business. In this episode, Jennifer talks about what it was like starting a marketing department from the ground up in a large company that had yet to build one. She'll discuss this catalyst moments that defined her path to success.

That Time We Rebranded After 15 Years - An in-depth interview with Keap CEO, Clate Mask. Clate tell us about some of his biggest catalyst moments and what was the driver behind the rebrand from Infusionsoft to Keap

That Time My Wife Almost Left Me Because I Worked Too Much - In this episode, Carlos talks through his journey to balance and boundaries in business and the catalyst moments that got him there.