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Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Community-led growth marketers know that nothing drives customer acquisition, retention, and expansion like a community that is truly passionate about your product, especially in SAAS. Social proof from happy customers speaks for itself, a great referral program is the gift that keeps on giving, and launching your product with community that will provide you with honest feedback is invaluable as you scale.
In this episode, we sit down with 3 community experts to shed light on the value and ROI community building provides SaaS companies. We talk about why trust, authenticity, and listening are values that community thrives in and how to get started with community building.
Here’s What We Discussed:
[05:50] Our experts share how they got into their current community roles, what previous experiences prepared them, and which traits are most valuable for their roles
[12:06] Jillian’s advice for those who want to get into community management but don’t know where to start
[13:32] How to communicate the ROI of community building for buy-in from skeptical execs or team members
[23:38] The starting point for building a community is putting the customer first by asking them what they want
[28:25] Making sure members feel seen and heard is the key to rebuilding trust with your community after dropping the ball
[33:57] Top tips for increasing member and community engagement
[44:42] Our experts share their thoughts on utilizing exclusivity in community building and community management
[50:31] Software that our panel can’t manage their community without
About Our Speakers
Laura Coscarelli, Account Executive at Higher Logic, Laura is an Account Executive at Higher Logic. A former teacher, she spent a decade managing online communities and then consulting for non-profits, associations, and corporate customers on how to engage their networks online. Now Laura helps organizations that are earlier in the process of building their digital engagement strategies as an Account execute (it’s easy to sell something you really believe in!) When she’s not cheerleading for her customers, she enjoys hosting fondue dinner parties, restoring old houses, and biking with her husband in Washington, D.C.
Jillian Bejtlich, Head of Community at Zapier, Jillian is a quirky, ambitious, and enthusiastic techie who is enamored with online communities and the complex data and psychological puzzles they present. She is currently the Director of Self-Serve Customer Experience (SSCX) at Zapier digging deep into curating a customer experience that delivers the right information at the right time and right place.
Jillian has spent her entire career working in and on communities of all sizes, in all industries, and of all types. She has extensive experience with all things community and innovation management including engagement, strategies, metrics, analysis, and interface (UI/UX). She prefers the hardest, ugliest, and most inglorious community challenges.
As Jillian is actually a data nerd at heart happiest swimming around raw data and visualization tools, she is most interested in digging deep into how data can be used to predict future community user behavior and how community design and interface impact desired and undesired behaviors.
Nisha Baxi, Director of Community at Gong, At the heart, Nisha is a community builder and customer advocate. Through the power of an active community, any organization can increase retention, crush its pipeline and build lasting relationships with its partners.
At 19, her first job was to create customer success stories for IBM. She didn’t realize that would set me up for a lifetime of enabling startups and customers to succeed through education, evangelism, and structured partnership. She had the pleasure of growing a prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurship organization to 15K members. She’s built programs and frameworks at Microsoft, Salesforce, and Facebook that are still used today continuing to drive adoption and fostering loyalty.
Her passion comes from the joy of bringing people together to achieve a common goal, and you’ll find her putting together a panel of Fortune 100 execs, enabling teams who are passionate about a new idea, and mentoring and being mentored by folks along the way.
About Our ModeratorKayci Baldwin, Director of Marketing & Platform at Ruckus, Kayci has been building and growing communities for impactful brands for nearly a decade. She was a co-founder of Six Things, a brand and digital creative agency dedicated to working with underrepresented founders.
Quotes
“You really have to be a person who wants to seek out relationships and doesn't have an ulterior motive. Having true servant leadership but also, still being really organized and thinking about where this fits into the overall experience. And that's gonna really lend yourself to being a community person.” – Laura Coscarelli
“I've always tried to work with communities where I, as an individual, am actually legitimately passionate and excited about the thing that the community stands for. And that really helps me connect with my users in a very, very authentic way.” – Jillian Bejtlich
“If I'm starting a community, especially at the beginning, is it impacting the core operations of the main departments that it needs to hit? Is it impacting customer success, product, marketing and support?” – Laura Coscarelli
“Anytime someone says, ‘How is [community] gonna impact the company? Just ask what are the four things that we care about this quarter or this half. And then just map out programs that align with that.” – Nisha Baxi
“If you're starting a new community… Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. If you can, ask your customers, ‘We're gonna build a community, what do you want from us?’” – Jillian Bejtlich
“In the beginning, it's about building trust and getting the heartbeat of the community.” – Nisha Baxi
Software Mentioned:
Monday: https://monday.com
Calendly: https://calendly.com
Slack: https://slack.com
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
We sat down with three data-driven industry leaders and discussed best practices, how to pinpoint insights into customer behavior, and reflect on the ways we leverage data to enhance customer experiences.
Here’s What We Discussed:
[00:17] Our experts introduce themselves and share their background
[03:05] How data can be leveraged for good and with more user transparency
[10:00] Neerav explains why there is no one-size-fits-all tech stack and how to choose the right tools for you and where your company is at
[14:20] Sunny shares her recommendations for a CDP and analytics tech stack depending on the size of your company
[20:22] Ben shares his advice for analytics layers for companies that hit a million users and are running into attribution issues
[23:25] Best practices for customer segmentation
[30:52] Neerave shares 2 tactics marketers will use to enhance customer journeys after 3rd party cookies will no longer be accessible
[37:15] Our panel shares their recommendations for open source tools
[42:53] The difference between data science and data analytics and how data scientists can have a more product-centric approach when building solutions
About Our Speakers
Ben Taylor, Chief AI Evangelist, DataRobot, Ben is passionate about machine learning. His life’s mission is to further the boundaries of what is possible with data science. He spends as much time as he can working with deep learning, NLP, and all forms of data science. He currently has a passion project of combining the power of genetic programming with deep learning to automate network design.
He is most well known for his work in machine learning with the data science community and with HireVue. He enjoys speaking and presenting to all types of audiences.
Huijuan (Sunny) Zhu, Director Data & Analytics, Maisonette, Sunny is a data-lover who cares about the business value it can bring. She’s a time-manager and willing to grab every opportunity to enhance her career and personal growth. She’s organized, creative, and strongly motivated to do outstanding work! Analytics is her passion and always open to mentoring new graduates/ early career starters.
Neerav Vyas, Principal CDA, AI, ML, Data & Analytics, Amazon Web Services, Neerav helps organizations to accelerate innovation, drive growth, increase operational efficiencies, facilitate large-scale transformations, and turn around ailing business units/ brands. He’s an award-winning leader, using a combination of Human Centered Design and Advanced Analytics to help ensure these transformations and product launches are more likely to succeed and have a meaningful impact. Finally, he’s served as an advisor to a number of Fortune 500 CMOs. CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CTOs, and several of their boards. He’s also served on the Executive Team of a Fortune 500 company and a successful series B (now series C) venture back startup.
About Our HostAnish Shah is the CEO & Founder of executive search agency Bring Ruckus. Anish has worked in-house in Growth roles at Snapfish and Getable. He started Bring Ruckus as a Growth consultancy 11 years ago working with 40+ clients, then re-focused his firm on executive recruiting for Growth leaders.
Quotes
“There's something so good about allowing a human expert to be unlocked and out of a process.” – Ben Taylor
“Do qualitative research seriously. Put the thing that you're building in front of people. Because you can have the best intentions in the world, but until a human reacts to it and gives you feedback on it, you're not gonna understand the unintended consequences.” – Neerav Vyas
“Most of the AI that you see for harm was not intentional, it was accidental.” – Ben Taylor
“What is the right way to evaluate the efficiency of AI? I think it's ROI; What benefits does this AI strategy bring?” – Huijuan (Sunny) Zhu
“For customer segmentation, I think about not just segmenting the customers you've acquired, but also trying to decide what are the new personas you wanna go after? Because as a product evolves, you'd add new personas and new customer segments that you haven't gone into yet.” – Ben Taylor
“The biggest challenge when you're doing journeys, besides defining what the customer journey is and which journeys are important is connecting the data.” – Neerav Vyas
“Data scientists need to adopt more of that, they need to start taking that domain-centric approach rather than coming in and saying, ‘I'm gonna make a neural net out of everything.’ Because that's the quickest way to lead to projects that don't result in ROI.” – Neerav Vyas
“One domain of a data analyst is you need to be really familiarized with business application modeling. You need to be able to form descriptive analysis and explorative analysis to be predictive and prescriptive.” – Huijuan (Sunny) Zhu
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
With more than 117 million monthly listeners in the United States alone, podcasting has officially become the next billion-dollar industry. For marketers, this means that podcast marketing has simultaneously become one of the most viable and exciting channels for growth. Last month, with that in mind, we brought together four of the industry leaders who have already established themselves as experts in this rapidly expanding space to discuss the ways businesses can leverage podcast marketing to get in front of their target audience unlike ever before.
In our conversation, we dive into the challenges of podcast marketing. We discuss the consumption curve of podcasts, how results can’t be seen until 21 days of advertising, and that patience is key in a world where marketers want to be instantly gratified. We talk about the nuances of knowing which podcasts are right for you to advertise on and the importance of thorough onboarding. All this and more!
Here’s What We Discussed:
[03:50] The greatest challenges our speakers encountered in podcast marketing
[05:36] Krystina and Michael explain the consumption curve of podcasts and how long it takes advertisers to see results
[09:14] How do you know which podcast shows to buy? How marketers tackle attribution and false positives
[16:14] Understanding Pixel-Based tracking and its challenges today
[21:46] Michael talks about the value of a post-checkout survey
[26:25] What do you look for when partnering with a podcast?
[29:50] Krystina dives into buying ad inventory released by networks
[34:52] The power of good onboarding; How to get a host engaged and connected to your product
[38:36] One of the best advantages of the podcast channel is it gives your product a voice
[43:24] Krystina breaks down the operational steps for getting your ad on a podcast
[48:02] Our experts talk about the challenges of scaling the podcast channel and how many aspects of it are still manual
About Our Speakers
Dan Granger, CEO, and Founder, Oxford Road, Dan is the Founder and CEO of Oxford Road, the leading independent audio agency in the US. Oxford Road has helped hundreds of DTC companies scale their efforts in audio using Podcast, Radio, Streaming, Connected Voice, and more.
By offering the combined capabilities of Media, Analytics, and Creative Development, Oxford Road guarantees super performance for brands that qualify for their services. Oxford Road was named among Inc 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies and has supported the growth of over 12 Unicorn Companies, (private companies valued over $1Billion) to date.
Krystina Rubino, Head of Offline Marketing, Right Side Up, Krystina has worked in digital and offline media and marketing for 15+ years in NYC and SF, on 70+ brands and products. After investing hundreds of millions in media dollars, she knows how to create campaigns that achieve goals and build businesses.
A digital expert and paid search nerd turned display banner apologist, she’s turned her focus to podcast and offline advertising, and helping companies of all stages to diversify their overall marketing mix and stand up these channels in-house. She started and lead the offline growth marketing function at Right Side Up, the leading collective of growth marketing specialists who have helped more than 300 VC-backed tech companies hit their goals across virtually all paid channels, SEO, CRO, email marketing, analytics, and more. She’s been a featured TechCrunch contributor, conference speaker, and is also an advisor to multiple companies in the ad technology and marketing analytics spaces.
Michael Kropko, Partner & COO, Ad Results Media, Michael is Partner and Co-CEO at Ad Results Media. ARM is a pioneer of the podcast movement and has been leading the broadcast industry for nearly 20 years. As the preeminent performance-based audio advertising agency in the US, they focus on buying media on podcasts, radio, satellite radio, digital audio, and YouTube. Their buying power, industry relations, proprietary grading, monitoring system, and deep analytical skill set have enabled them to transform a once upper-funnel marketing channel.
Molly Laufer, Growth Marketing Consultant, Laufer Direct, Molly is passionate about the inflection point when a company begins to diversify its acquisition portfolio outside of digital channels and is ready to dip its toes into emerging/offline marketing channels to achieve scale without compromising performance metrics. She has a decade of customer acquisition experience from early stage ecomm (first employee at NatureBox.com) to real estate tech (HomeLight.com) and scaling offline performance marketing channels for a range of consumer tech companies and startups in-house, as an agency strategist, and as an independent growth marketing consultant. She has directly managed 7-figure monthly media buys across a diverse set of offline channels with a focus on return on ad spend and marketing profitability. Her channel experience spans linear & connected TV, audio (including podcast, streaming, terrestrial, and satellite – both endorsement and produced audio), direct mail, and OOH with a holistic understanding of media strategy and buying, creative development, and analytics/attribution.
Quotes
“As marketers, we have to adapt to the medium and the way the medium is consumed in order to see the best performance of it.” – Krystina Rubino
“Repetition is key and it does take time. [Podcast] is kind of this weird hybrid of an online and offline channel. People have trouble compartmentalizing it and they want that immediate gratification.” – Michael Kropko
“If you are going to use pixel-based attribution, there are a lot of caveats to it. You have to really make sure you're doing everything you can to align it with your digital marketing efforts and with the way that your digital marketing exactly is measuring it, otherwise, it's like apples to oranges.” – Molly Laufer
“The myth is that if you just target the right audience with the right people, then you're going to get the best results… Sometimes the thing that you think is perfect for your audience actually is going to perform horribly.” – Dan Granger
“There's a media buying transaction that's occurring, but is the partner engaged? Are they taking the time to understand your brand? Are they able to give a good credible read on the topic?” – Krystina Rubino
“Everybody wants to buy into that new celebrity that has their own new podcast. Typically, the loyal following of that celebrity is not as strong as that celebrity thinks.” – Michael Kropko
“There's no substitute for good onboarding… When you can, and as much as you can, go big on your onboarding.” – Dan Granger
“One of the biggest things that the podcast channel brings is someone putting their voice behind your product.” – Molly Laufer
Resources Mentioned
Podcast data and analytics for advertisers, Magellan AI: https://www.magellan.ai
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Anthemos Georgiades is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zumper. At Zumper, based in San Francisco, Anth leads the company in its mission to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. Since 2012, Anth has grown Zumper to 200 employees, 80 million annual users, and raised $140 million in venture capital for the company.
Prior to his work at Zumper, Anth worked at the Boston Consulting Group in London and NYC and was an Economic Advisor on the 2010 British election. Anth has a First Class BA from Oxford University, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.
World’s Best Boss with Ruckus is a series of conversations with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders that explore how the best bosses attract fantastic people, build up their teams, and keep their employees happy.
Here’s What We Discussed:
[01:53] Anthemos talks about why he started Zumper due to his personal frustration with renting, and fundraising for Zumper through Venture Capital
[10:39] Anth shares his philosophy for hiring: IQ is table stakes, but resilience and cultural fit are what get people through the door
[19:41] How to vet for resilience by asking candidates about their failures
[24:10] Anth’s secret to effective delegation as a CEO through clear key metrics and hiring great talent
[29:40] Why Anth found no difference in Zumper’s 20th vs 200th hire
[33:26] Anish gives his thoughts on mistakes companies make for growth by hiring an ‘Ultra Senior Executive’
[41:00] Anth’s advice when hiring a COO is to find someone who compliments you
[42:57] Anth shares his biggest failures as a CEO
[45:09] How the mission of Zumper and the positive impact the company has on his team inspires and motivates Anth
[48:36] How Anth wants to improve Zumper’s culture with even more transparency
About Anthemos
Anthemos Georgiades is co-founder & CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry. He’s raised $39.2 million in venture capital, grown the team to 70+, and completed the acquisition of apartment search platform PadMapper. Previously a consultant for Boston Consulting Group and Economic Advisor and speechwriter in the 2010 British election, Anthemos founded Zumper in 2012 after his own terrible rental experience.
About Our Host
Anish Shah is the CEO & Founder of executive search agency Ruckus. Anish has worked in-house in Growth roles at Snapfish and Getable. He started Ruckus as a Growth consultancy 11 years ago working with 40+ clients, then re-focused his firm on executive recruiting for Growth leaders.
Quotes
“I didn't do this to be a CEO, I did this to solve a problem that I had throughout my twenties and now that I'm doing it, there's no way back.” – Anthemos Georgiades
“The two things we look for that get a hire through the door are resilience and then how they fit our cultural values.” – Anthemos Georgiades
“I want to recruit the best people at Zumper and the best people look very different.” – Anthemos Georgiades
“If you've done everything right in your career, that means you're probably not resilient because you've never put yourself in a situation of risk.” – Anish Shah
“Every CEO has to reinvent themself as they go from venture stage to growth stage. You're a different CEO to get to 10 million in revenue than you are as a CEO to get to a hundred million in revenue.” – Anthemos Georgiades
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Over the last years, DTC businesses have been able to incorporate more comprehensive approaches to meeting the evolving needs and attention spans of their customers. We learned strategies, insights, and tips on how these growth leaders leverage channels beyond paid social to scale direct-to-consumer businesses.
In this episode, Jessica dives into Verb Energy’s focus on finding where their target market is hanging out through innovative strategies like micro-affiliates, third-party inserts, and co-marketing. Owen highlights the importance of optimizing creative for its marketing channel in order to get the best performance and results.
Here’s What We Discussed:
[01:50] Owen talks about Honeylove’s processes for finding and starting successful channels by using tried and true channels of competitors
[08:11] Jessica shares Verb Energy’s strategy for reaching their audience through micro affiliates, what is a micro affiliate, and how they manage these relationships
[17:30] Owen talks about interesting anecdotes and learnings on channels out of paid social
[19:20] How much time and money are necessary to determine a channel’s viability?
[27:00] Finding success with third-party inserts and co-marketing
[34:00] How are you thinking about performance and attribution when looking at emerging channels versus SCM paid social?
[42:31] Knowing when it's time to pull the plug on a particular channel; Make sure you’ve given the channel enough time and the resources it needs to be successful
About Our Speakers
Jessica McGlory, Head of Growth, Verb Energy, Jessica is a visionary growth leader with a knack for unlocking e-commerce and DTC companies’ marketing strategies to drive revenue and achieve long-term company goals. In 2019, Jessica left her role as Director of Paid Social, Paid Search, and Programmatic to step in as Head of Growth at Verb Energy. In the last decade, Jessica has helped organizations across nearly every vertical successfully scale marketing efforts across paid social, paid search, SEM, native advertising, and more. Jessica’s work and leadership have earned her recognition including being named a Business Insider Marketing Rising Star, a PR News Social Medial Luminary, the winner of the AdColor Rising Star Award, and more.
Owen Bell, VP of Growth, Honeylove, Owen serves as VP of Growth at Honeylove, driving paid and organic acquisition and retention strategy. As a recovering liberal arts student, sometimes he writes and does freelance work to validate an otherwise linear career path.
Quotes
“When evaluating the new channels, it comes down to audience in our acquisition strategy… We have these growth segments that are focused on communities that we want to always look like we're everywhere. So everywhere they are is where we start to strive to be.” – Jessica McGlory
“I will say when considering a new channel, in my opinion, please don't ever think about it in terms of spend.” – Jessica McGlory
“For us, the key determiner is, is the creative optimized? Have we invested enough in the creative process to get something that's truly native to the channel or feels like it really fits with the audience?” – Owen Bell
“We want to make sure we've invested the resources before really calling it on the channel. Whether that be a consultant, or if we're running it internally then do we switch up the resources that are committed to this? Can we reinvest in creative here in a more meaningful way?” – Owen Bell
Resources Mentioned
GRIN - How to find influencers for your brand: https://grin.co
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Ruckus and Taktical have brought together a panel of brand experts to discuss the art and impact of storytelling in growth. We’ll learn why messaging and storytelling are crucial components to building your brand’s momentum and pinpoint some of the key ways to leverage a resonant brand presence for scalable growth.
Here’s What We Discussed:
[02:40] How do you track the effectiveness of brand building? Understanding your brand’s impact through breadth and depth
[08:58] Verena talks about how effective branding for Gossamer means bridging the consumer gap and making cannabis a conversation people are comfortable having
[13:30] Verena and Eva share how a brand’s voice evolves as it grows
[19:04] The most important elements of storytelling when debuting a brand new product
[24:33] Ivan shares success stories and failures of companies priming audiences for product reception
[31:02] How brands go wrong with using statistics and data to drive their decision making
[38:50] The biggest misconceptions people have about storytelling and scaling
[41:17] Which channels see the most growth while being low cost: How to leverage press and storytelling
[47:02] How to consistently provide value even when you aren’t launching new products
About Our Speakers
Ilan Nass, Chief Strategist, Taktical, Iland is an experienced performance marketer with 9 years of experience helping B2B and B2C companies grow. He was Director of Marketing at Fueled, in the first 12 months he drove sales from $2mm annually to $8mm, 80% of which was organic.
He was also the Lead Marketing consultant at Artsy, and helped them triple traffic in 3 months, grow from 50,000 visitors/mo to over 1,000,000, and built out the marketing department. The company’s valuation grew to nine figures as a result.
He has spent the last 8 years running Taktical Digital, whose clients include WeWork, Ellen Degeneres, BarkBox, Bustle, Casper, MoviePass, Rachel Zoe, Univision, Chase Manhattan, and others.
Eva Goicochea, Founder & CEO, maude, Eva spent her early career as a legislative aide in healthcare and then went on to spend 10+ years in eCommerce and brand strategy working with companies including ADIDAS Y-3, Squarespace, Steven Alan, and Josie Maran Cosmetics, and was part of the early team at Everlane building social media, culture, and talent. In 2015, she co-founded her first company, Tinker Watches, and in 2018 launched maude, a modern sexual wellness company built to challenge a legacy industry and serve the customer through quality, simplicity, and inclusivity.
Verena Von Pfetten, CoFounder, Gossamer, Verena is the co-founder of Gossamer, a cannabis lifestyle brand and biannual print publication covering travel, design, and culture through a green lens.
A digital native with over a decade’s worth of experience in brand consulting, editorial direction, and content strategy, Verena has worked with clients such as Instagram, Glossier, Spring, ASOS, Ann Taylor LOFT Lou & Grey, 7 For All Mankind, Man Repeller, and The Coveteur. She contributes regularly to fashion, food, and travel publications, such as The New York Times, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, InStyle, New York Magazine, and Modern Farmer.
About Our HostAnish Shah is the CEO & Founder of executive search agency Bring Ruckus. Anish has worked in-house in Growth roles at Snapfish and Getable. He started Bring Ruckus as a Growth consultancy 11 years ago working with 40+ clients, then re-focused his firm on executive recruiting for Growth leaders.
Quotes
“We try and stay really true to our brand, our brand voice, the world we are trying to build, the stories we care about, and the values that are important to us which are art and culture, activism and education.” – Verena Von Pfetten
“When you consider your brand, there's your breadth; How wide your brand goes, how many people know of your brand. But then there's also depth; How loyal people are to your brand, how much they love and advocate for your brand.” – Ilan Nass
“Probably the number one thing I love to see is when someone says, ‘I love Gossamer and I don't even smoke weed.’ That to me means we are really bridging that gap and we are building a brand that is accessible and inclusive.” – Verena Von Pfetten
“What’s really important is recognizing first that you have to have something to tell a story from. And it cannot be your value proposition as it relates to your price point because that really limits you.” – Eva Goicochea
“There is no such thing as too much [education]. You need to make sure you are giving people the resources to understand every piece of how they might be interacting with your brand or more specifically your product.” – Verena Von Pfetten
“If your product is not going to fit into the brand circle then either the product needs to change or the brand needs to adjust. And then you'll find that products will just debut themselves at a certain point.” – Ilan Nass
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Strong product leadership impacts every part of the organization and can help foster an overall culture of innovation and growth. But if you’re a product leader, you understand how difficult it is to find avenues for continuous growth and learning for both yourself and your team.
In this episode, we discuss the unique challenges and opportunities product leaders face on the path towards growth, with three industry leaders, Jeannie Yang, SVP of Product at SmartNews Inc., Katherine Fischer VP of Product at 1stDibs, and Lucy Huang, VP of Product at Storyblocks.
Here’s What We Discussed:
[00:20] Our panel of experts introduce themselves and share their backgrounds
[03:05] The importance of impact over output when measuring success as a product leader
[07:51] How product leaders can grow people and gauge their impact on their teams
[10:46] Katherine talks about the keys to managing stakeholder expectations: Be explicit with timelines, outcomes, and the impact on the bottom line
[14:43] Jeannie brings up the importance of not creating Frankenstein solutions that are aimed to please stakeholders and how to realign with product vision
[21:03] Lucy gives her thoughts on how companies can balance innovation and risk
[27:17] Our experts share defining moments and lessons in their careers
[38:18] Handling the highest paid person’s opinion as a product leader and tips for keeping a product vision from derailing
[45:06] What resources our experts go to for inspiration: Having conversations with people in other functional areas, and one-to-one coffees with people in the industry
[50:27] Katherine shares the initial challenges she faced when transferring to product
About Our Speakers
Jeannie Yang has been creating successful products at the forefront of social, mobile, and media for two decades. At Smule, she led product strategy and scaled the platform to over $100 million run rate, increasing users from 50K users to a community of 50M people. Today, she leads Product at SmartNews Inc, the first unicorn news startup since 2015.
Katherine Fischer. Until recently, Katherine was the VP of Product at 1stDibs, a global marketplace for one-of-a-kind, luxury goods. Over her 7-year tenure, Katherine held various leadership roles focused on the seller experience, logistics, e-commerce enablement, trust and safety, and the iOS app.
In Katherine’s next role she will lead the Product team at Made Renovation. Similar to what Opendoor has done for home buying or Carvana for car buying, Made is creating an e-commerce-like experience for home renovations, bringing this $400B market online.
Prior to 1stDibs, Katherine held product roles at growth stage companies (SinglePlatform and Seamless/GrubHub), launching numerous key products.
Lucy Huang is a product leader with experience across enterprise and consumer businesses. Lucy has held product leadership roles at companies ranging in growth from $0-$70M+ in ARR such as Storyblocks, CB Insights, and Marketing Evolution. Lucy is passionate about building great teams and sharing her lessons learned with the product community.
Quotes
“One of the most important things for product is to make sure you're measured on your impact versus your output… At the end of the day, it's really about how the product team impacts the business as a whole.” – Katherine Fischer
“Managing up is being really explicit about things that take a little bit longer, what the outcome will be, and what the impact will be on the bottom line.” – Katherine Fischer
“We're all problem solvers. We want to try to solve problems and take all the feedback… But it's okay to not address all the feedback, as long as we're clear what the expectation of the milestones is now, and what it will be in the future.” – Jeannie Yang
“I am very adamant in terms of carving out one piece, at least, for innovation because you have to. If you're not investing, you're actually losing money because there's inflation going on. And if you're thinking about this whole business as a way to invest in product, you should be investing in something.” – Lucy Huang
“As the product manager, if you don't believe in a vision, then you can't really lead it.” – Jeannie Yang
“For product teams to be empowered, what I do try to do is educate the rest of the organization. How do we set up the product development team for success? A part of it is defining roles and responsibilities.” – Lucy Huang
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
We sat down with Linda Vermaat, Director of Innofest, a team dedicated to helping impact-driven startups test their prototypes at festivals. Due to COVID and festivals coming to a halt they’ve developed online methods to help startups kickstart their growth.
Most startups fail within the 5-year mark. According to Linda, this is due to 2 main reasons – These startups aren’t solving a big-enough problem, or they aren’t testing their product thoroughly. Linda hopes to help entrepreneurs trying to solve the issues of today by giving them platforms to kickstart their products with Innofest. In this episode, Linda also shares her vision, best practices learned along her journey, and powerful advice.
Here's What We Discussed
[00:17] Inda introduced herself and Innofest. Linda talks about her documentary, Fix the World and Make Money, in which she traveled around the world for
[02:12] Linda shares her experience co-creating Professional Rebel, how she felt inclined to impact-driven startups, and how that led her to her position in Innofest.
[03:56] Linda defines an impact-driven startup as entrepreneurs intending to make money, and start a business while solving an issue
[04:50] The 2 things that impact-driven startups need in order to succeed
[07:49] How Innofest can help kickstart growth for impact-driven startups by providing opportunities for networking
[09:24] What makes your product testing successful and why festivals are an ideal testing environment
[12:20] The success of Innofest Test TV, an online testing environment developed due to COVID
[14:50] For interest in Innofest, contact Linda using the links and contact details below
[16:13] Where Linda gets her impact-driven related news
About Linda
Linda Vermaat (38) lives in Amsterdam, together with Erik and their daughter Isa. She has a curious mind, is quite talkative, and loves to eat with her hands.
She is inspired by people who go above and beyond to challenge the status quo. Therefore she founded the Slow Food Youth Network, Professional Rebel & the international documentary Fix the World & Make Money; as places where these people can come together and propel each other forward.
These experiences have made Linda the perfect fit as the new director of Innofest, a function she has proudly embraced from September 2019 onwards. As a director, Linda closes partnerships, spots (new) business opportunities, and leads the Innofest troops and the Innofest brand.
Finally, Linda is a well-known speaker on sustainability (TEDX Amsterdam), a jury member of diverse startup competitions (Enterprijs), and host of sustainable innovation events (ADE Green and ASN Bank Wereldprijs). And on the side, she is a pitch coach for impact projects and startups.
Resources Mentioned
Learn more about Innofest here.
Contact Linda at: linda@inoffest.co
Documentary Fix the World and Make Money: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzyw7IBkKmNkC7_-p7SfFVw
White paper: https://innofest.co/whitepaper-aanvragen/
Quotes
“It doesn't matter if you're an impact startup or not, go and prove your product and then make the next steps. Because too much time, money, and energy is wasted if you just keep on working solely on your idea.” – Linda Vermaat
“By learning a lot, you can improve your products. If [testing] runs super smoothly, I won't say it was a success because what did you really learn?” – Linda Vermaat
“If you have a prototype and this is the first time you have a product or a service in place, please go out and test it. Don't stay too long inside, but go out, test it, and see what kind of assumptions you have.” – Linda Vermaat
“If you want to actually grow your startup, most of the time, a lot of capital is needed, especially when it's a really technical startup today. You need a lot of money to actually improve your product.” – Linda Vermaat
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
In this episode, we dive into strategies that help balance DTC and Wholesale as sales channels. We discussed the pros and cons of each channel, and our experts explain the different roles DTC and Wholesale play, how a good mix can help with brand awareness and customer acquisition, and best practices to integrate into your channel strategy.
Here’s What We Discussed:
[00:53] Our experts introduce themselves and share their background
[02:31] How do you approach balancing your media and campaign performance when balancing DTC and Wholesale?
[09:08] Using wholesale, retail, and pop-up models as a tool to acquire a new customer base and drive awareness
[18:34] The different roles DTC and retail play and why wholesale and retail experiences are here to stay
[22:10] Things to keep in mind when setting up 3PL for DTC
[27:41] How COVID affected fulfillment and 3PL supply chains
[31:17] Matt talks about where Wandering Bear Coffee sold their first 1000 units and their learnings from selling direct-to-office
[33:58] How Wandering Bear Coffee drove more sales to their flavored coffees through a UX change
[37:55] Matt’s thoughts on marketplaces and consignment opportunities and how COVID fundamentally affected his distribution mix
[42:34] Best practices for compelling customers to buy through your DTC channels while serving your wholesale channel
About Our Speakers
Katelyn Glass, Founder & Managing Partner at Fifty Six Advising, Katelyn is the Founder and managing partner of Fifty Six Advising and has spent the past 12+ years of her professional career leading the digital transformation for multiple firms serving in various change management roles for high-end retail and consumer brands.
Matt Bachmann, CEO & Co-Founder at Wandering Bear Coffee, Matt is CEO & Co-Founder of Wandering Bear Coffee. In 2013, Matt walked into a grad school classroom carrying a travel mug of homemade cold brew and met Ben Gordon who was sitting with his own mason jar of home-brew. Their fated meeting set the two off on a seven-year-long journey to create the best-tasting, strongest coffee products on the market, packed uniquely to suit the full range of caffeination occasions, whether at home, at work, or on the go.
Hilary Jensen, Founder & CEO at Obe, Hilary is Founder & CEO of Obe. Obe provides individualized nutrition for your healthier, happier pet. Obe’s digital platform provides veterinarians and pet parents with real-time, accurate behavioral data that enables better health and nutrition decisions to help with preventative care and early diagnosis of potential problems, long before the problems are acute. Hilary is a customer-focused, data-driven entrepreneur with successful experience rapidly growing DTC and B2B businesses to profitability and exit.
About Our HostAnish Shah is the CEO & Founder of executive search agency Bring Ruckus. Anish has worked in-house in Growth roles at Snapfish and Getable. He started Bring Ruckus as a Growth consultancy 11 years ago working with 40+ clients, then re-focused his firm on executive recruiting for Growth leaders.
Quotes
“We have always taken the stance that it's not our right to care where they find our product, we just need them to care about finding our product.” – Matt Bachmann
“When wholesale is used effectively, it can be used as a tool to acquire you a new customer base.” – Katelyn Glass
“The same experience you get from buying a luxury good online is different from when you walk into a retail shop and they give you the white-glove treatment. You don't get that experience from online. I think a lot of wholesale and store experiences are really always going to be relevant that way.” – Katelyn Glass
“What comes to mind when thinking about marketplaces? It's just the economics. Marketplaces need to be profitable for you. You need to figure out how to support them and hopefully grow them in a way where they're not consuming more resources than they're able to generate.” – Matt Bachmann
“The right partner can really help balance your overall DTC strategy. There could be a retailer or a wholesale account who gives you access to a new consumer that your DTC is incapable of getting.” – Katelyn Glass
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
We sat down with Jack Gindi, Co-Founder at Cheeky, the affordable custom night guard service. Jack joins us to share his story, how Cheeky’s team created a subscription service around a personal need, and tips and tricks learned along the way.
Jack advises aspiring entrepreneurs to not be afraid of launching a product that still has the potential to get better. The fastest way to learn is to start, listen to your customer’s feedback and improve. In this episode, we hear his advice for entrepreneurs on how to stay focused on their business, how to find their market fit, and so much more!
Here’s What We Discussed:
[00:20] How Cheeky got started – The gap in the market for a subscription-based, affordable, custom night guard
[02:09] How Jack tested market demand before launching
[03:19] The key ingredients for a successful subscription-based service
[04:15] Different ways to be a Cheeky subscriber – Provide flexibility to your customer
[05:48] The importance of customer service and fulfillment speed in a needs-based subscription service
[07:01] How Cheeky determined their subscription pricing structure
[09:15] Jack talks about how they created a fake landing page for Cheeky to test market interest and collect leads
[11:09] Jack’s sources for industry news and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
About Jack
Jack Gindi co-founded Cheeky, a subscription service for teeth grinders, alongside his brother. Cheeky offers custom nightguards at an affordable price for every teeth grinder’s unique needs. As a senior in college, at Boston University, Jack and his brother recognized the gap in the market for affordable but high-quality night guards, inspiring them to start Cheeky.
Quotes
“We know everyone's needs may be different, so we definitely maintain the flexibility to be able to ship whenever somebody wants.” – Jack Gindi
“Almost always, try to bake in what your worst-case scenario acquisition cost is going to be. Because there are going to be times when you do hit that worst case scenario, and you're not going to want to optimize for a seventh month payback period.” – Jack Gindi
“And one thing that definitely surprised us was how important customer service is and how important it is to be proactive with your customers.” – Jack Gindi
“Don't be afraid to launch with something that you know is going to look a lot different and a lot better months down the line. The only way to improve is to just get your product out into the market and learn.” – Jack Gindi
ABOUT RUCKUS
We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!