FoundersPlace.co Podcast

What does it take for a company to grow so big and so successfully in no time? Blitzscaling is defined as “an accelerated path to the stage in a startup's life-cycle where the most value is created.” In this episode, you will learn how your role as a leader is central and essential to Blitzscaling. Chris Yeh is foremost an author but is also an investor, entrepreneur, blogger, and a family guy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building your business isn’t about the IQ and the strategies alone because achieving growth lies in your EQ and how well you can learn to let go of your ego for the sake of the company. Bob Tinker is an Enterprise CEO, innovator, multi-time entrepreneur, start-up guy, and founder of MobileIron Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a founder, it was you who created the company from the ground up. You certainly have the knowledge and skills to run it and bring the organization to a level where you have envisioned it to be. However, like most founders, you may not know everything - just like everybody else. This is especially true when it comes to the kind of marketing that you can scale side by side cost and revenue. In this episode, learn how to apply data-driven marketing based on the kind of business you have using a data-driven culture and mindset. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you feel if you step into an organization knowing everything’s working out, but soon you find out you have to deal with other people’s mess? This is a great dilemma to which every people experience in every aspect. It is important to deal with it by surrounding yourself with the right people. You also need to be in the right mindset to get through this kind of a mess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you lead your company to a path of growth as a founder? The tech and martech space offers founders revolutionary tools that can accelerate the growth that you desire. However, being clear about your direction as to what kind of growth you want to achieve for your company is important to establish at the start. It is important to learn from the experts in the space to keep abreast with tech and martech evolutions and consolidations. Learn more from this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not all marketers are superheroes. As a founder, you need to equip your marketing team with the right tools that can help them become more organized and highly competent. Find out how tools can help you eliminate redundancy, wastage, and disorganization especially using Lately as a platform.  Kate Bradley Chernis is the co-Founder and CEO of Lately, a marketing software company. Realizing that a marketer’s function can be pulled together in an all-in-one Marketing Dashboard, Lately is now the only platform that organizes and produces content, implements project management, and does analytics in one place. Kate is happy to help marketers and companies of all sizes organize and automate towards business success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not all individuals follow a traditional path in their careers. Some unique ones explore different careers not for a lack of sense of stability but the passion to ignite transformation where transformation can be most fulfilling.   Julie Roehm has been CMO, Chief Storyteller, Chief Experience Officer, and marketing consultant in the marketing space. But what she really is, is an igniter of transformation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having developed a product is only the beginning. The company must continue to pivot as necessary to be finally molded into one that the customers need and want. As such, the customer has to take center stage in trying to develop that product that will bring the company success.  Manoj Phatak is the founder & CEO of ArtRatio, a boutique manufacturer of conservation vitrines that incorporate intelligence and connectedness for use in arts, antiques, and the retail space.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting a business from scratch with almost nothing but your strengths has its advantages including developing resourcefulness and tenacity. Nick Weaver is co-founder and COO of Blue Delta Jeans. Josh West is co-founder and CEO of Blue Delta Jeans. Both Nick and Josh admit to making “custom jeans that fit”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There will come a point in your life and your career where you will have to decide whether you should take a risk and take a different route or not. Meanwhile, taking a breath mentally can be a productive way of preparing yourself for that next challenge. Sameer Patel is formerly a CEO at Kahuna who is currently taking a breath to rejuvenate himself mentally and be ready to take on life’s next leadership opportunity.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a world where disruption is the trend, transformation begins to emerge as a more natural and progressive way to create value, effect unique changes, and build something bigger. Dick Hyatt is a serial entrepreneur who has been part of 6 to 7 different companies, leading transformational evolution in various industries. Dick is also the CEO and President of Decisiv, Inc., a leading provider of (SRM) or Service Relationship Management. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What’s the “C” in CMO? Apparently, a decline has been seen in the role of the CMO in the organization and this may not be a trend to just brush aside. In this Toddcast episode, let’s dig deep and find out how we can turn things around. Christine Crandell is a Serial CMO, B2B board member, and C-level global marketing exec who is a strategy expert and transformational leader. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Knowing yourself and knowing exactly what you want can help you find that remarkable opportunity in a company where you can fit in. And if you are a founder, remember that personality takes precedence over skill set when you want to build up the right team. Seth Greenberg claims to be a marketer at heart. He was previously Chief Marketing Officer at Alteryx and LifeLock. He was also a Vice President for Social, Advertising, Brand and Digital Strategy at Intuit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transitions can seem undesirably difficult but with the right amount of curiosity, an authentic interest in people, and the desire to grow, it can be made productively successful.  Eric Duerr is the Growth Strategy Lead at Yesler, an agency for B2B marketers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are different ways to approach marketing and the goal is to make it most effective in reaching out to customers. Every touch point is a potential for closing a sale and thus must be well-orchestrated, lest you loose that customer or client along the way. More than any meticulously planned strategy however, the human to human approach to marketing has been proven most powerful. Because you are dealing with humans, then the most natural and easiest approach should logically be humanistic as well.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Both creativity and leadership are not easy to inspire in the workplace – but maintaining an open mind and opening up to your true self can help spark that kind of company culture.  Courtney Kramer is the Head of Global Marketing at Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), formerly Coaches Training Institute (CTI). She is also an author, an executive creative director, a designer, and a strategist with a passion for creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Company growth is a goal that founders strive to achieve at certain stages and growth marketing is both a scientific and artistic tool to use. As a science, growth marketing will require continuous, methodical experimentation until a viable conclusion on how to reach growth goals is attained. And like any other experiment, being able to identify the root problem is a critical first step, versus being all over the place with multiple problems identified.  In the end, what you want is to grow user-driven revenue. It’s all about the ways to growth marketing and focus in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gone are the days when marketing is just one segment of the organization. Today, a marketer has to communicate and collaborate with business leaders and other team members in a common language towards reaching revenue goals. Today's guest expounds on those principles and explains what it means to be a marketer in today's business world.  Michelle Killebrew is currently Vice President, Head of Marketing at PwC’s New Ventures and also an advisor for Proof Analytics.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's good to really take time and segregate a budget for your marketing strategy and how you could build your own name in the industry. But some brands and companies just go with the flow without really having an end in mind. Setting your goals can help you reach your destination. In marketing, it is important that you know what you’re doing and who you want to reach out to in order to achieve your goals.  In this episode, we’ll learn more from Aaron Strout, an integrated marketing professional, on how you can find the right marketing mix for your brand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Working as a C-level executive is unimaginably difficult and brings a lot of pressure to the table. And every executive on a C-level (CEO, CMO, CFO, name it) has different perceptions in running the business and doing their responsibilities. Learn more from Blaine as he speaks about many different aspects of becoming a CEO and a CMO and how these two differ from each other.  Blaine Mathieu is the Chief Marketing and Product Officer of VANTIQ – a company that accelerates the digital transformation of enterprises in this information-driven world. He has been in this industry for over 25 years and has a vast array of meaningful experiences in growing startup companies (between 50 and 500 employees) including Gartner, Adobe, Corel, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The intersection of customer experience is sustainability. It may sound like it’s not relevant to a lot of people but it is. It is the hidden tsunami that is going to knock people right out apart. It’s the next age of customer experience,”these are the words of Christine Crandell a business strategist who will tell us in this episode how businesses can survive in this age of stiff competition and increasing market volatility.  Christine Crandell is the principal of New Business Strategies, a company which has been in business for 30 years, working with over a hundred companies in 3 continents. She has also written for Forbes, Huffington Post and CMSWire.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The function of a CMO is focused on facilitating sales & marketing strategies of a business. While CMOs work together with the other C-level executives, harmony in an organization isn’t always present. To execute a plan and make it work, there should be a forging partnership within an organization. One leader should think about how another leader perceives one thing. And from there, they can align their goals and work in harmony to bring value, and eventually, revenue to the company.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the function of marketing evolves, so does the role of the CMO in the organization. And if given the chance, the CMO can work together with other company leaders to achieve shared goals and encourage innovation. Britta Meyer is an Independent Advisor, Executive Consultant, and CMO. In the past, she took on the CMO role for Socialtext Inc., Magnet Systems, and for WageWorks for almost 5 years.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A company in their earlier stages always has a notion of an abundance mindset. They want to grow and they are so eager to improve each day of operation. But when the company starts to grow, they start bringing in people with a scarcity mindset – control the budget, cut the costs, etc. Thinking that you “don’t have enough” really closes doors to opportunities. Jerome Nadel is not your ordinary businessman. In this episode, Jerome introduces us to the use of psychology and philosophy in leading people and building a team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You’ve got your product, but how well do you know your market? Do pitches haunt your dreams? As a founder, you have to wear many hats. One of them is “finding a VC”, one of the most important parts of starting a company. But…how do you secure an investor? Today’s Toddcast recaps the last few weeks of our FoundersPlace.co series on investors, VC’s, and YOU.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How worthy are you? Yes, you have a great idea and an awesome product. But what about your market? Is it big enough? If you have been on the lookout for investors, these are just some of the questions that would need to be answered. Investors are going to scrutinize you from different angles. It is important to know what they are looking for exactly so that you can get into their minds and go straight to what will make them say yes to your VC pitches. Take what you can from this podcast and enjoy that startup capital.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes an investor want to invest in a company like yours? A good pitch, a great presentation, or some sensational numbers - one can only guess what it is that makes an impressive impact on investors enough to make them say yes. More than a pitch, VCs are looking at how much you can make them believe in you. At the early stage, startups really need to focus on feedback from customers and partners to help them iterate until they get to their final destination. Fortunately, experienced investors have the understanding and patience to make this happen for the companies they invest in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Product ideation can be the most exciting stage in your starting a company. And once you are able to establish your MVP or most viable product, you might think that Venture Capital or VC firms will now be interested in investing in your company so that you can have your capital start up. However, if your revenue growth is not able to keep up with your capital expenditures, you will tend to run out of resources and try to ask for more from your investors. As a result, you can end up failing like most early stage startups because of that traction gap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it take to get that most coveted funding and then be able to take your company to the next level? First-time founders could think that simply sending potential investors an email, pitch deck, or business plan is enough to make an impression. However, it is never as simple, or instant, as that. Investors only bet on people with whom they have built enough of a relationship to trust them.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone can’t make it to the top all at the same time. We have different phasing, different timelines. But what if you could do something about it to change the process, and lessen the time you spend on other things, in order to lead? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lot of people have misconceptions about the American Foster Care System. They think it’s just a government thing and people have no say about it. But Jennifer and Jessica were so eager to make a change in the lives of these children - that in turn will benefit the future of the society. Learn how "Connect Our Kids" is changing the way we think about, and interact with, the foster care system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Wickre is a veteran editor, content strategies, curator, and connector of people and ideas. She is so passionate about what she’s learned about connections and networking that she wrote the book: “Taking The Work Out of Networking: An Introvert's Guide To Making Connections That Count”. Beyond all this, she believes networking is an essential part of being a founder. Learn more about her inputs, ideas and reality checks about networking and how it can help you skyrocket your business.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would be the best way to approach marketing if you are a startup? Well first off, you have to acknowledge the importance of marketing in helping you achieve business success. Unfortunately, most founders tend to underestimate such importance and then end up realizing too late what was lacking. This episode contains the basic but most important ingredients to marketing that every startup should know about to propel their business to the next level. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lily Zheng empowers employers to create inclusive workplace environments through policy recommendations, trainings and best practices. She is also a diversity and inclusion consultant, executive coach, and design researcher who helps people and organizations transform their positive intentions into positive impact. She is being guided by her unwavering commitment to creating more inclusive and equitable systems that can empower all people to not only survive, but thrive.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How much should you be watching over your shoulder to your competitors? When you are just starting out, it's easy to keep looking at what your competition is doing, wanting to make sure that you're getting ahead and surpassing whatever it is they're doing. If you want to really stand out, you have to look inside and build your story based on your own unique personality. In this episode, learn how being authentic and true to who you are will help you resonate with your audience.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fear is a basic emotion that haunts many individuals and cause them to stop on their tracks, and a founder like yourself is no exemption. Your journey as a founder can be beset by fear and it is important to know what forms they take and at which particular stages so that you become aware of them and know exactly how to deal with them. In this special edition of the Toddcast, it's time you face those fears and realize that it isn’t that bad when you allow people around you to lend you a helping hand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We often hear how practice makes perfect to the point of it being a cliché but the importance of constant practice cannot be denied. Being a founder is not an ordinary feat and if you want to succeed, you really have to put in the hard work and have to be extraordinary. This episode is about embracing extraordinary effort to achieve enormous success in your business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does a problem turn into an opportunity? Early-stage founders only have the positive road ahead in mind. As the company grows however, problems and disputes are bound to grow in magnitude as well. If you do not have policies and guidelines in place and fail to resolve the problem satisfyingly with the customer, you are bound to lose a lot of them in the process. This episode is about seeing the positive, and the opportunities in relation to your ability to resolve disputes in and outside of the company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The primary purpose of growing a business is to generate revenue - lots of it, but, that may not always be the case. A non-profit social enterprise has the ability to give you both revenue as a business and fulfillment as a life’s mission. Most founders tend to focus too much on the monetary side of the business but hearing it from a social enterprise founder may give you a different kind of perspective. In this episode learn how a business with a purpose can help you grow effectively & sustainably.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leadership is a crowded book topic. A lot of authors have already laid down their ideas about leadership, but Jeff Eggers, together with his co-writers, has given us a different view in the new book "Leaders: Myth and Reality". In this episode, Jeff talks about the various people they profiled for the book, what traits they exhibited to propel them into the leadership roles they defined, and how founders can implement those traits to lead their companies to success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you been thinking in a while how to fill in those vacancies, or how to keep great people in your organization? Are you following a process that doesn't give you the results you need? Todd Wilms has invited several experts in talent and recruitment to talk about how to draw talents, how you can make them stay, building a great culture in the company, and how you can find the great marketing leader for the business. Get the best of our series on talent in this - the second ToddCast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael King has been in the recruitment industry since the late 90’s. He has worked with founders and startup companies finding great talents – teaching them where and how to get them. He loves working with small companies because every hire is crucial to the company’s success. Learn how he can help in pooling great marketers in your business, plus hear his firsthand experience with different founders and companies and how their attitude towards hiring has brought either success or failure.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a founder, you make decisions on an everyday basis and one of them pertains to talent, recruiting, and benefits. Apparently, employee benefits can be very expensive if you just rely on your insurance broker for information. In addition, you have to know what your competitors are offering. Ultimately, you want to create a company culture that is going to drive your business to heightened growth. In this episode, discover the tools and methods to use to leverage the world of benefits for company growth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Often, the approach is to try to improve on your weaknesses. But does that really work? It is easy to think that people can still improve, especially when it comes to their weaknesses. When you are able to identify what each of your employees are good at, you will be able to place them in the right team and give them roles that help them function at their best. This podcast episode focuses on how you can harness your team’s strengths and transform them to become highly independent, creative, & productive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you go about acquiring talents and leaders for your teams? As a founder who does a lot of multitasking, you might find yourself instantly hiring someone who looks like an expert just to fill in the position. In the long haul however, you will realize that same employee isn't really a good fit with the company’s culture, and is thus unable to help you achieve your goals. This episode is an informative guide for founders as they really think about their long term goals & how to hire the right talent Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marketing can play a different role for different kinds of companies but for startups, there are basic principles that apply. Typically, marketing is responsible for creating awareness and ensuring preference in buyers. It is important to hire the CMO who can work on answering the marketing need that is specific to your company and then build the team which will complement his skill set. In this episode, learn more about product market fit, demand generation, partner marketing, and so much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does having a well-established company culture have to do with you running your business? Some would like to think that a culture organically gets developed over the course of time; most companies that don't go out of their way to set up the kind of culture they want suffer later when a different culture is developed. This episode is about developing a company culture that will be the foundation that drives everything about your business from the present to the future.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why should a company like yours choose an exit? Wouldn’t you want to grow your company, especially when you’re starting to gain momentum and success is just at the horizon? Apparently, as a Founder, you could get confronted with forks on the road as your company goes through the different stages. Find out the best way to do it and the steps you can undertake when leading your company towards a successful exit in this podcast episode.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You are not perfect - you’re human. Your being a founder does not make you immune from having weaknesses and making mistakes. As such, in choosing people to be part of your team, you can’t just hire anybody. You have to hire that someone who is not just an expert but someone who will fill in the gaps of what you cannot do. In the same way, attracting investors to invest in your company goes beyond showing them the numbers. In this episode, learn about the heart of hiring and succeeding with investors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it enough for you to be a Founder and an expert at what you do? Founders are humans with amazing skills, talent, and expertise. But like any other human, founders have limitations too and there are things that they still need to learn and skills that they need to develop in order to achieve success in their business. Thankfully, you do not have to do everything alone. Specifically, this Toddcast is dedicated to founders looking to become superhumans who can be much better at what they can currently do.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is today like for the digital marketer? There are many ways to define marketing but at its core marketing is the art of being able to persuade people in and out of the organization including internal colleagues, B2B buyers, customers, and more to act according to your objectives. There are different tactics a marketer can use to make them succumb but the key is to be able to evolve with the times as the marketing world evolves. Discover the critical role that a CMO plays in this podcast episode.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices