Growing Pains Startup Growth & Digital Marketing Podcast

On the show we have Ronnie Teja. Ronnie is a prolific entrepreneur who has run a number of ecommerce companies over the years. He has recently launched a fashion brand called Branzio. On the episode we discuss the ins & outs of launching a new watch brand, running a direct to consumer (DTC) ecommerce company, why brand is so important in consumer marketing and Ronnie's relentless customer focus.

Joel Klettke is is on the show today to share his approach to conversion copywriting and tactics you can use to improve conversion rates.

In this episode, we are getting a behind the scenes look into the thought process of a VC. This is the perfect episode for young entrepreneurs and startup founders. Today we have Semil Shah, the founder of Haystack a seed stage VC fund. Semil was an early investor in DoorDash, Instacart, HelloSign, Giphy and others. He’s also known for being a prolific writer, sharing his thoughts on VC and tech. During this interview we dig into what he looks for in startups & founders. And some of his successes and some investments that didn’t pan out. If you’re a founder, this one’s for you. Enjoy.

Today on the Growing Pains Podcast you are in for a masterclass from an accomplished executive and thought leader Cameron Herold. Cameron is the founder of COO Alliance - The World’s Leading Network for Chief Operating Officers. He’s also a best selling author of books such as Free PR, Vivid Vision, Meetings Suck, Double Double, The Miracle Morning. Cameron has also spoken at TedX events, so you can check him out there as well. I asked Cameron to join the show to teach us the strategic secrets that lead to growth. He shares how he persuades founders to take new strategic approach. Why some founders are great visionaries but poor at executing at scale. And his #1 piece of advice to founders looking to make an immediate impact on creating a culture full of A players...   Enjoy! Links: Cameron on LinkedIn COO Alliance Cameron's books on Amazon   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga

Today on episode 15 of the Growing Pains podcast we have Mic Berman. Mic is a highly sought after leadership coach & strategic advisor, who works with a multitude of companies. She’s coached founders, new CEO’s and aspiring executives on how to grow as a leader, and teaching them the building blocks that’s required to successfully scale an organization. Prior to being a leadership coach Mic has over 20 years experience working in tech companies like Mozilla, Yahoo & firms like McKinsey & Company. Her last executive role was as the COO of Freshbooks a popular small business accounting SaaS platform. I asked Mic to join the podcast to discuss: Coaching leaders for growth Squashing offie politics in a high growth company Transitioning through the various stages in a company’s growth If you are a founder, executive or aspiring executive, the fundamentals that Mic discusses will help position your company to successfully scale. Enjoy!

This is episode 14 and today I have Hiten Shah. I invited Hiten because he is a true serial entrepreneur. Hiten Shah is the co-founder of numerous successful SaaS companies, including FYI (helps you find your documents in 3 clicks or less), Crazy Egg (creates heatmaps for your website), Product Habits (content and education for Product teams), KISSmetrics, and others. He has also advised or invested in over two dozen technology startups. In this candid conversation, Hiten touches on: How he is able to start, juggle and be successful with multiple companies How his marketing teams operate How to compete as a marketer in a very crowded & noisy digital marketing landscape Hiten is an entrepreneur that’s been at it for over 15yrs. He knows what he’s talking about. I really enjoyed speaking with Hiten, I hope you find it helpful. On to the show.   Links: Hiten on LinkedIn Hiten on Twitter FYI, Hiten's Latest Startup   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review.   Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

One of the things I love about doing this podcast is meeting super interesting people. And learning about how they got to where they are today. That’s why today I invited Nicole Smith. Nicole Smith is the founder & CEO of Flytographer a personal photography service when you travel abroad. It’s a really great concept, you should check out their site. I invited Nicole because she didn’t fit the stereotypical startup founder mold. She’s a mother of two boys. She was a successful marketing executive with Microsoft. And Nicole launched her startup in the middle of a successful career. Simply put, Nicole had a lot more to lose than your 20-year old college grad. Today we dive into things like: Overcoming imposter syndrome How she got on the Today Show and the Canadian version of Shark Tank…Dragon’s Den And how her corporate background didn’t hold her back from being a scrappy entrepreneur If you think it’s too late to follow that entrepreneurial path, this interview with Nicole will convince you otherwise. Links: Flytographer Nicole Smith on LinkedIn   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review.   Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

If your company is having difficulty growing past your first 100 customers. Or... Your sales people are struggling to get past the first call. Ornnn Your ideal customers seem disinterested or at worst confused…this is the show for you. All those things I mentioned are symptoms of poor product positioning. Product positioning is a fundamental foundation in your marketing strategy and if you get it wrong…everything down stream suffers including your sales. Today I had a very informative and absolutely hilarious conversation with April Dunford. April is the author of a new book: Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It April is a positioning consultant who has over 25yrs experience working with B2B tech companies to solve their positioning challenges. She is a highly sought after speaker who has been featured at conferences such as: Startup Empire CTA Conf Tech Toronto And more In this episode we discuss: The symptoms of poor positioning Why April believes product market fit isn’t real Her process for helping clients see you as the leader in your space And how to convince executives to change their whole strategy when it’s clearly not working Links: April's new book April's website April on LinkedIn   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review.   Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Today I invited Geoff Henshaw. Geoff is the VP of Marketing for O2E Brands. He was previously a marketing leader at Clearly.com the innovative ecommerce company that was a pioneer in selling contact lenses & eyeglasses online that rapidly grew to over $300M in revenue. Clearly.com eventually was sold to Essilor International for $445 million. Geoff was also the head of marketing for a short-lived ecommerce shoe retailer shoes.com. Geoff shares how operational excellence set apart Clearly.com and the tough lessons he learned at Shoes.com before they folded operations. If you’re looking to improve your ecommerce strategy, this is a great episode to listen to. Links: Geoff Henshaw on LinkedIn   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review.   Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Today on the Growing Pains podcast we have David McIninch. David is the Sr. VP, of Strategy & Marketing at Fiserv a successful B2B Fintech Startup. He was also the VP of Marketing for Jobber where he grew customer acquisition by 300% annually David was also the Chief Revenue Officer at Acquisio an SEM ad management platform that was acquired by Web.com I invited David to the show today, not only because he’s one of the savviest marketers I’ve spoken to, but also because he has a deep understanding of how to persuade leadership teams to make big bets like multi-million dollar radio campaigns or make sizeable investments in events. The biggest takeaways from me on this episode aren’t spoon-fed tactics but how David is able to navigate the tricky waters as a marketing leader to convince his leadership team that they’ll need to be comfortable with tactics that aren’t easy to measure or get approved. Links: David McIninch on LinkedIn David McIninch on Twitter   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review.   Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Today on Growing Pains, I invited Chris Sisco the Associate Director of Digital Acquisition at Freshbooks. Chris and I share war stories and compare notes on all things digital. We touched on a number different areas of digital marketing from recruiting, experimentation, marketing attribution and the one channel that Chris was surprised to find out was contributing to Freshbook's new customer acquisition. Links: Chris Sisco on LinkedIn   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review.   Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Jack Newton is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clio a leading legal practice management platform. I met Jack a few years ago and immediately noticed how Clio was quite different than a lot of cut-throat, growth at all costs startups. I invited Jack to Growing Pains to share the early days of Clio and why he's so passionate about building a workplace he can be proud of. In this episode we learn why bootstrapping your way to a lifestyle SaaS business can be misguided and why VC funding is necessary in order to become the market leader.   Links: Jack Newton on LinkedIn Clio Website   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review.   Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Eli Schwartz is the Director of Growth & SEO at SurveyMonkey. Eli is a solid SEO with very practical advice on how to succeed in SEO today. On top of that he's a super cool professional and was a pleasure to have on the podcast. Lots of strategic tips in this episode if you want to get your SEO right. Would love to hear what you think. I'm on Twitter @marcbitanga or you can email marc@agencio.ca   Links: Eli on LinkedIn Eli's blog   I'd like to hear from you: What topics should we cover? Send me an email or reach me on Twitter @marcbitanga Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review. Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Adrian Salamunovic is on the show today and he shares with us a do-it-yourself blueprint to get free PR without agency and with zero experience. Adrian shares a ton of actionable tips to get your PR efforts off the ground and delivering results.   Links: Buy Adrian's book here: Free PR - How to Get Chased by the Press without Hiring a PR Firm Adrian on LinkedIn   I'd like your feedback: What topics should we cover? Send me an email Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review. Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Sahil Lavingia is the Founder & CEO of Gumroad. A simple to use ecommerce platform crafted for Creators. Sahil shares his experience as the second hire at Pinterest. He also dives into his venture funded startup journey that ultimately led to cultivating a profitable online business. Sahil shares the ups & downs of startup life as a founder. Plenty of startup and life lessons in this one. Enjoy! Links: Sahil's Essay on Medium: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company Sahil on LinkedIn Sahil on Twitter Gumroad I'd like your feedback: What topics should we cover? Send me an email Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review. Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Lori Bush Shepard is the former VP of Corporate Marketing at Marketo & was also the VP of Marketing with Mobify. She successfully placed Marketo in the Gartner Leader Quadrant and achieved an 800% increase in global media coverage for Marketo. And as the Global VP of Marketing with Mobify she grew marketing's influence on the sales pipeline from 47% to 90% in a year. Today we'll learn: How your marketing story will set you apart in the enterprise market What a startup should look for in its first marketing executive How to align marketing & sales And the impact of working with industry analysts I'd like your feedback: What topics should we cover? Send me an email Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review. Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Jeremy Wallace is the former CMO of Unbounce. Jeremy shares his marketing roots including his role as VP of marketing for an online gaming company where he was responsible for a $50M marketing budget. We’ll also discuss how content marketing was fundamental to Unbounce nearly doubling their MRR. During our talk, we learn about: His Jedi mind trick on how to create amazing content The research he conducts before doing any landing page testing His experience having both marketing & sales under one leader. And How the Unbounce Call to Action conference evolved from a local meetup to becoming a globally known marketing conference I'd like your feedback: What topics should we cover? Send me an email Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review. Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Steve Johnson has led sales, partners, growth & revenue for a number of SaaS companies such as Constant Contact, Hootsuite, Vidyard & more Steve shares: Lessons from his first startup venture where he partnered with Salesforce & Microsoft The early days at Hootsuite and exponential growth from $500K ARR to $100M ARR in just a few years Advice from Mark Benioff on industry events to generate sales Strategies to make your product stick and difficult to replace How to evaluate business for viability What he looks for in leaders to help him scale His advice for anyone who wants a thriving career in a startup   I'd like your feedback: What topics should we cover? Send me an email Did you like the episode? Rate it or submit a short review. Connect with me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga

Mitch Solway has had a storied career working for well known brands like P&G, Lavalife, Vidyard, Freshbooks and others. He shares gives sage advice to marketing leaders who join as a startup's first VP of Marketing or CMO. During our talk, we learn about: What it takes to be successful as the first marketing executive His viewpoints on how to use goals to improve alignment The one product change that drastically improved revenue for Lavalife How culture and brand are synonymous I'd like your feedback: What topics should we cover? Send me an email Did you like the episode? I'd appreciate a short review. Connect with Me: On LinkedIn On Twitter @marcbitanga On Instagram @marcbitanga