Lenny RAG MCP Server

{ "episode": { "guest": "Emily Kramer", "expertise_tags": [ "Marketing Leadership", "Go-to-Market Strategy", "Marketing Team Building", "Product Marketing", "B2B SaaS", "Angel Investing", "Marketing Frameworks", "Startup Marketing" ], "summary": "Emily Kramer, who has built marketing teams at Asana, Carta, Ticketfly, and Astro (acquired by Slack), shares comprehensive guidance on hiring marketing talent and structuring effective marketing functions. She introduces the 'Fuel vs Engine' framework for marketing—fuel being the valuable content and messaging created, and engine being the distribution channels and operational systems. Emily discusses marketing archetypes (product marketing, content/community, growth/demand gen), the π-shaped marketer hiring strategy, and how to identify when your marketing team is truly driving impact versus just creating busy work. She emphasizes the critical importance of cross-functional collaboration between product and marketing, including specific practices like DRI (Directly Responsible Individual) lists and the GACCS framework for launches. Throughout, Emily provides concrete templates and frameworks that founders can immediately implement.", "key_frameworks": [ "Fuel vs Engine Marketing Framework", "π-shaped Marketer (pi-shaped - expert in one area, proficient in another, strategic knowledge across all)", "Three Marketing Archetypes: Product Marketing, Content/Community, Growth/Demand Gen", "GACCS Framework (Goals, Audience, Creative, Channels, Stakeholders)", "DRI (Directly Responsible Individual) Model", "Impact-Focused vs Activity-Focused Metrics", "Marketing-to-Product Handoff Model", "Roadmap Week Cross-Functional Planning", "Areas of Responsibility (AOR) Lists" ] }, "topics": [ { "id": "topic_1", "title": "Introduction to Emily Kramer and Her Background", "summary": "Emily's career progression from advertising through business school to building marketing teams at four major B2B startups. Overview of her current work as an investor and newsletter creator.", "timestamp_start": "00:00:00", "timestamp_end": "00:06:09", "line_start": 1, "line_end": 59 }, { "id": "topic_2", "title": "Common Mistakes in Hiring Marketing People", "summary": "Founders often hire based on industry or audience expertise rather than business model fit. The importance of understanding that marketing activities differ wildly based on go-to-market model (top-down enterprise vs bottom-up PLG).", "timestamp_start": "00:06:33", "timestamp_end": "00:09:10", "line_start": 61, "line_end": 81 }, { "id": "topic_3", "title": "Fuel vs Engine Marketing Framework", "summary": "Introduction and deep dive into Emily's core framework for thinking about marketing. Fuel is the valuable content, messaging, and positioning created. Engine is the distribution channels, operations, and tracking. Diagnosing whether a startup needs more fuel or engine work to grow.", "timestamp_start": "00:09:10", "timestamp_end": "00:14:34", "line_start": 76, "line_end": 122 }, { "id": "topic_4", "title": "Identifying Fuel vs Engine Constraints", "summary": "Practical heuristics for determining whether your biggest growth constraint is creating better content/positioning (fuel) or distributing it effectively (engine). Questions to ask your team to diagnose the problem.", "timestamp_start": "00:14:45", "timestamp_end": "00:17:44", "line_start": 127, "line_end": 148 }, { "id": "topic_5", "title": "Three Marketing Archetypes and Role Definitions", "summary": "Emily defines three core marketing functions: content/community marketing, growth/demand gen marketing, and product marketing. Clarification that product marketing sits between fuel and engine, while other roles specialize.", "timestamp_start": "00:17:44", "timestamp_end": "00:22:09", "line_start": 149, "line_end": 181 }, { "id": "topic_6", "title": "π-Shaped (Pi-Shaped) Marketer Hiring Strategy", "summary": "For early-stage startups, Emily recommends hiring π-shaped marketers: deep expertise in one area, proficiency in a second, and strategic knowledge across all functions. Why T-shaped marketers aren't sufficient and why content-growth combinations rarely exist.", "timestamp_start": "00:18:16", "timestamp_end": "00:20:21", "line_start": 151, "line_end": 163 }, { "id": "topic_7", "title": "Which Marketing Role to Hire First", "summary": "Most common recommendation is a product marketer who understands growth marketing. The factors that influence which archetype to hire first: what fuel/engine gap exists, what content already exists, business model, and whether you have contractors in place.", "timestamp_start": "00:22:45", "timestamp_end": "00:24:10", "line_start": 184, "line_end": 196 }, { "id": "topic_8", "title": "What to Look for in a First Marketer", "summary": "Key qualities to screen for: experience in early-stage environments where they owned strategy across functions, exposure to what great marketing looks like, ability to write well, and scrappiness to execute. Avoid hiring only large-company marketers.", "timestamp_start": "00:24:10", "timestamp_end": "00:27:05", "line_start": 194, "line_end": 220 }, { "id": "topic_9", "title": "Timing of First Marketing Hire", "summary": "Generally Series A or late seed depending on business model. Requires some semblance of product-market fit. PLG businesses should hire marketers earlier than top-down sales businesses. Key question: would a marketer drive growth and can your product handle the inbound?", "timestamp_start": "00:27:05", "timestamp_end": "00:29:19", "line_start": 218, "line_end": 231 }, { "id": "topic_10", "title": "Brand Marketing as a Function", "summary": "Brand marketing is a combination of product marketing and content/community work, with additional influence on design. In B2B, positioning is product marketing's domain while design is handled by product designers. As teams scale (10-15+ people), dedicated brand role emerges.", "timestamp_start": "00:31:27", "timestamp_end": "00:33:47", "line_start": 247, "line_end": 258 }, { "id": "topic_11", "title": "Marketing vs Product Growth PM in PLG Businesses", "summary": "In PLG, marketers own getting people into the product (top-of-funnel, web conversion, inbound). Growth PMs own product experiments and in-product testing. Critical need for collaboration on onboarding and first-use experience. Marketing-to-product handoff is as important as marketing-to-sales handoff.", "timestamp_start": "00:33:47", "timestamp_end": "00:36:22", "line_start": 257, "line_end": 273 }, { "id": "topic_12", "title": "Product Led Growth is Actually Product Plus Marketing", "summary": "Emily argues that PLG is a misnomer; it actually means product combined with marketing, not sales. Product is the distribution channel instead of sales teams. PLG requires larger marketing teams earlier, focused on one-to-many communication and funnel optimization.", "timestamp_start": "00:36:58", "timestamp_end": "00:39:47", "line_start": 280, "line_end": 296 }, { "id": "topic_13", "title": "Cross-Functional Collaboration Between Marketing and Product at Asana", "summary": "Specific systems and practices that enabled effective product-marketing collaboration: DRI (Directly Responsible Individual) lists defining ownership, Roadmap Week cross-functional planning sessions, clear review processes, and the GACCS framework for communicating marketing briefs.", "timestamp_start": "00:40:36", "timestamp_end": "00:45:21", "line_start": 301, "line_end": 325 }, { "id": "topic_14", "title": "GACCS Framework for Marketing Communication", "summary": "Detailed walkthrough of the GACCS framework: Goals, Audience, Creative (unique angle), Channels, and Stakeholders (DRI, contributors). Used before starting major marketing initiatives to get product team buy-in early and avoid scope creep.", "timestamp_start": "00:43:32", "timestamp_end": "00:45:21", "line_start": 316, "line_end": 326 }, { "id": "topic_15", "title": "Red Flags for Non-Marketing Leaders to Identify Poor Marketing", "summary": "Signs of ineffective marketing: lack of clear big bets, inability to articulate strategy, activity-based goals instead of impact goals, focus on vanity metrics like 'publish 10 blog posts' rather than funnel metrics, and not tracking conversion rates.", "timestamp_start": "00:48:45", "timestamp_end": "00:52:33", "line_start": 355, "line_end": 375 }, { "id": "topic_16", "title": "Impact-Focused Marketing vs Busy Work", "summary": "The most critical differentiator between good and bad marketing teams is impact focus. Great teams can articulate core growth drivers, big bets that could create step-change growth, foundational work being built, and measure success through full-funnel conversion metrics not activity metrics.", "timestamp_start": "00:49:17", "timestamp_end": "00:52:33", "line_start": 358, "line_end": 375 }, { "id": "topic_17", "title": "Conversion Rate Tracking and Quality of Leads", "summary": "Marketing teams must track conversion rates at every stage, not just volume metrics. Focus should be on signups with improved or maintained conversion rates to activated users, not just raw signup numbers which can indicate low-quality lead generation.", "timestamp_start": "00:50:26", "timestamp_end": "00:52:33", "line_start": 362, "line_end": 375 }, { "id": "topic_18", "title": "Communicating About Marketing Internally", "summary": "Marketers often struggle to communicate internally despite being good at external communication. Need to educate non-marketers about what marketing actually does, separate jargon from clarity, and communicate the right level of information at the right time.", "timestamp_start": "00:53:40", "timestamp_end": "00:54:25", "line_start": 383, "line_end": 390 }, { "id": "topic_19", "title": "Angel Investing Strategy for Functional Experts", "summary": "Emily's approach to angel investing leverages her marketing expertise: be clear about specific value add (helping build marketing function, hiring, strategy), use niche expertise to differentiate from generalist investors, product yourself as a specialized resource, and actually deliver on promises.", "timestamp_start": "00:55:03", "timestamp_end": "00:58:01", "line_start": 400, "line_end": 421 }, { "id": "topic_20", "title": "Building Deal Flow Through Specialized Expertise", "summary": "When you have specialized expertise and communicate it clearly, other investors refer relevant deals. Emily's approach of helping with marketing hiring makes it easy for other investors to bring her into fundraising conversations. Referrals scale better than generalist investing.", "timestamp_start": "00:56:32", "timestamp_end": "00:59:16", "line_start": 407, "line_end": 431 }, { "id": "topic_21", "title": "Lightning Round and Personal Preferences", "summary": "Emily's favorite books (The Tipping Point, Crossing the Chasm, Purple Cow, Obviously Awesome), podcasts (The Daily, How I Built This), and TV shows (Yellowjackets, CODA). Interview questions she uses to assess candidates.", "timestamp_start": "01:00:31", "timestamp_end": "01:08:51", "line_start": 442, "line_end": 545 }, { "id": "topic_22", "title": "Interview Questions for Assessment", "summary": "Emily's favorite interview questions include asking candidates to define their current product (why better, for whom), and asking them to explain something complicated they know well as simply as possible. These assess both positioning clarity and communication ability.", "timestamp_start": "01:04:49", "timestamp_end": "01:07:32", "line_start": 496, "line_end": 528 }, { "id": "topic_23", "title": "Marketing Thought Leaders and the Marketer Investor Movement", "summary": "Emily respects marketers building funds and advising startups (Ashley Meyer, Arielle Jackson, Kevin Lee). Advocating for more marketers to become investors. Her fund offers lower minimums for marketers to encourage participation in investing.", "timestamp_start": "01:07:51", "timestamp_end": "01:09:39", "line_start": 538, "line_end": 552 } ], "insights": [ { "id": "insight_1", "text": "The biggest hiring mistake founders make is hiring marketers based on industry or audience expertise when they should focus on business model fit. Marketing activities are wildly different depending on go-to-market model (top-down enterprise vs bottom-up PLG).", "context": "Founders often hire based on who marketed to HR or construction instead of understanding that business model dictates what marketing activities are needed.", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 67, "line_end": 74 }, { "id": "insight_2", "text": "Great marketers can learn audiences quickly. Fresh eyes on an audience can be helpful. Having other internal experts on the audience matters more than hiring someone who previously worked in that industry.", "context": "Arguing against the common founder instinct to hire marketers with direct industry experience.", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 68, "line_end": 72 }, { "id": "insight_3", "text": "All marketing can be categorized as either fuel (the valuable things you create) or engine (how you get it to the right people). Most marketing failures come from either creating great fuel with no engine, or building an engine with no fuel.", "context": "Emily introduces her foundational framework for thinking about marketing priorities and resource allocation.", "topic_id": "topic_3", "line_start": 76, "line_end": 80 }, { "id": "insight_4", "text": "Content includes more than blog posts. It includes templates, calculators, tools, resources, video recordings, and webinars. Tools and resources often perform better than written content.", "context": "Expanding the traditional definition of content marketing to include more interactive and useful assets.", "topic_id": "topic_3", "line_start": 107, "line_end": 107 }, { "id": "insight_5", "text": "Most things in marketing have both fuel and engine components. For example, email copy is fuel, but the segmentation, automation rules, and setup are engine. Community can be both fuel (people creating content) and engine (distribution channel).", "context": "Clarifying that the fuel-engine distinction isn't binary; most marketing activities have elements of both.", "topic_id": "topic_3", "line_start": 101, "line_end": 119 }, { "id": "insight_6", "text": "You can diagnose fuel vs engine problems by asking simple questions: Do you know your top performing content? Can you explain what your product is, why it's better, and who it's for? If not, you have a fuel problem. If you created great content but haven't distributed it, you have an engine problem.", "context": "Practical heuristics for diagnosing marketing constraints.", "topic_id": "topic_4", "line_start": 130, "line_end": 135 }, { "id": "insight_7", "text": "Product marketers are often misunderstood. They understand the product, audience, and market, and can figure out how to communicate with the right people about the right things at the right time. They sit on the boundary between fuel and engine but are more specialist in fuel creation than channel expertise.", "context": "Emily defines what product marketing actually is versus what founders think it is.", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 139, "line_end": 148 }, { "id": "insight_8", "text": "Product marketers should be able to write well in both short and long form. If you're looking for a first marketer, test their writing ability. Product marketers don't need to be as good as dedicated content writers, but writing competency is non-negotiable.", "context": "Specific skill assessment for hiring first marketing role.", "topic_id": "topic_7", "line_start": 187, "line_end": 189 }, { "id": "insight_9", "text": "For your first marketer, hire π-shaped (pi-shaped) not T-shaped. You want them to have deep expertise in one area, proficiency in a second, and strategic knowledge across all three functions. Content expertise combined with growth expertise is rare and difficult to find.", "context": "Emily's novel take on the T-shaped hiring model specifically for early-stage startups.", "topic_id": "topic_6", "line_start": 154, "line_end": 161 }, { "id": "insight_10", "text": "Don't hire only people who've worked at large public companies. Someone who's only worked at Salesforce won't understand how to build marketing from scratch because they haven't had to build foundations or work across multiple functions.", "context": "Common VC referral mistake that leads to failed early marketing hires.", "topic_id": "topic_8", "line_start": 206, "line_end": 216 }, { "id": "insight_11", "text": "Your first marketer needs to be both strategic AND scrappy. They need to be comfortable doing a lot of the work themselves early on, not just managing contractors or teams. This requires having worked in environments where they had to be hands-on.", "context": "Key qualification for early-stage marketing leadership hiring.", "topic_id": "topic_8", "line_start": 215, "line_end": 216 }, { "id": "insight_12", "text": "Hire your first marketer when you have some semblance of product-market fit, but the criteria vary by business model. For PLG, hire earlier because you're not hiring salespeople. For top-down, you'll likely hire sales first. Ask: would a marketer drive growth and can your product handle the demand?", "context": "Timing decisions for first marketing hire should be tied to business model and growth capacity.", "topic_id": "topic_9", "line_start": 220, "line_end": 230 }, { "id": "insight_13", "text": "In B2B teams, positioning and brand story are owned by product marketing, while design is owned by product designers or brand designers. As teams scale to 10-15+ people, you'll often hire a dedicated brand person to ensure consistency.", "context": "How brand marketing responsibilities are distributed across a growing B2B marketing team.", "topic_id": "topic_10", "line_start": 250, "line_end": 254 }, { "id": "insight_14", "text": "The marketing-to-product handoff in PLG is as important as the marketing-to-sales handoff in enterprise sales. If the experience feels disjointed (different email tones, inconsistent messaging, conflicting workflows), users notice immediately.", "context": "Highlighting an overlooked but critical collaboration point in PLG businesses.", "topic_id": "topic_11", "line_start": 265, "line_end": 269 }, { "id": "insight_15", "text": "Marketing should own web conversion and getting people into the product because it requires working with many people and understanding channels. Product should own in-product experiments and testing because they understand engineering and how to work with PMs.", "context": "Clear delineation of responsibilities in PLG between marketing and product teams.", "topic_id": "topic_11", "line_start": 260, "line_end": 263 }, { "id": "insight_16", "text": "Product led growth doesn't mean 'product only' growth. It means product plus marketing without sales. PLG requires a LARGER marketing team earlier because marketing is doing the one-to-many communication that sales would otherwise do.", "context": "Challenging the common misconception that PLG means less need for marketing.", "topic_id": "topic_12", "line_start": 281, "line_end": 284 }, { "id": "insight_17", "text": "Having clear ownership (DRI - Directly Responsible Individual) lists is critical for product-marketing collaboration. But creating the list isn't enough; other teams need to know who the owners are. As you hire more people, you break down the list further.", "context": "Emily's experience at Asana implementing clear ownership systems.", "topic_id": "topic_13", "line_start": 302, "line_end": 308 }, { "id": "insight_18", "text": "Cross-functional collaboration requires the right planning processes. Roadmap Week or similar quarterly planning sessions where product and marketing sit together to understand what's coming helps prevent silos and surprises.", "context": "Structural approach to preventing product-marketing misalignment.", "topic_id": "topic_13", "line_start": 310, "line_end": 315 }, { "id": "insight_19", "text": "Use the GACCS framework before starting major marketing work. Share this brief with product early to get buy-in on audience, messaging, and channel strategy before executing. This prevents rework and builds alignment.", "context": "Practical framework for cross-functional communication at Asana.", "topic_id": "topic_14", "line_start": 316, "line_end": 324 }, { "id": "insight_20", "text": "The difference between good and bad marketing teams comes down to focus on impact, not activity. Bad teams do 'splatergy' (random stuff) while good teams can articulate big bets that could cause step-change growth and core foundational work.", "context": "How to evaluate marketing effectiveness and spot red flags.", "topic_id": "topic_15", "line_start": 356, "line_end": 363 }, { "id": "insight_21", "text": "Activity goals like 'write 10 blog posts this month' are not real goals. Real goals are impact metrics like traffic and conversion rate from that traffic, or signups, or qualified leads. Impact-focused teams measure outcomes, not outputs.", "context": "Distinguishing between true marketing goals and tactical output targets.", "topic_id": "topic_16", "line_start": 365, "line_end": 369 }, { "id": "insight_22", "text": "Great marketing teams focus on conversion rates throughout the entire funnel, not just volume at one stage. You can inflate top-of-funnel numbers with poor-quality leads, but that's actually harmful if they don't convert.", "context": "How to evaluate whether marketing is truly driving valuable growth.", "topic_id": "topic_17", "line_start": 371, "line_end": 375 }, { "id": "insight_23", "text": "Marketers often struggle to communicate internally despite being good at external communication. They need to educate non-marketers about what marketing actually does, use clear language instead of jargon, and communicate at the right level of detail.", "context": "Internal communication challenge for growing marketing teams.", "topic_id": "topic_18", "line_start": 385, "line_end": 389 }, { "id": "insight_24", "text": "As an angel investor, be specific about what value you add. Say 'I help you build marketing function and hire' not 'I help with everything.' This clarity makes it easy for other investors to refer you into deals where marketing expertise is needed.", "context": "Strategy for building angel investing deal flow through specialization.", "topic_id": "topic_19", "line_start": 404, "line_end": 411 }, { "id": "insight_25", "text": "Your reputation as an investor matters more than the number of companies you invest in. Focusing on delivering value in your specific area of expertise generates more opportunities than trying to help with everything.", "context": "How Emily built successful investor deal flow through specialization and delivery.", "topic_id": "topic_20", "line_start": 422, "line_end": 428 }, { "id": "insight_26", "text": "Having recurring conversations about the same topic (like how to hire a marketer) is valuable leverage. Emily can help multiple founders and it feels new to each, but it's leverage because she's had that conversation many times.", "context": "Why specialized expertise compounds in value for angel investors.", "topic_id": "topic_19", "line_start": 424, "line_end": 429 }, { "id": "insight_27", "text": "Favorite interview question: Ask candidates to describe something complicated they know well as simply as possible. This reveals how they think, what they find important, and their ability to distill complexity.", "context": "Interview technique from Emily's hiring experience.", "topic_id": "topic_22", "line_start": 500, "line_end": 503 }, { "id": "insight_28", "text": "Books that stand the test of time are more valuable than recent marketing books because the field changes so fast. Classics like Tipping Point, Crossing the Chasm, and Purple Cow remain relevant while newer books quickly become outdated.", "context": "Emily's approach to reading and learning in a fast-moving field.", "topic_id": "topic_21", "line_start": 448, "line_end": 450 } ], "examples": [ { "id": "example_1", "explicit_text": "When I was at Asana... I was the first marketer when they were about 30, 35 people and built up that team and led the team for just under four years.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer at Asana", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Asana", "First Marketer", "Team Building", "B2B SaaS", "Growth Stage", "4-Year Tenure" ], "lesson": "Demonstrates the importance of hiring early marketing leaders who can build functions from scratch and grow with the company.", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 44, "line_end": 44 }, { "id": "example_2", "explicit_text": "I went to Carta, which was about 300 people when I joined-ish give or take, but didn't have a marketing function at the time. So built that function up from scratch.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer at Carta", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Carta", "Build Marketing Function", "Scaling Company", "300+ Employees", "Zero to Function" ], "lesson": "Building a marketing function from scratch at scale is different than building it early; requires understanding where to start when joining a company that's already larger.", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 44, "line_end": 45 }, { "id": "example_3", "explicit_text": "I had a stint at Astro, which was a startup acquired by Slack.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer at Astro (acquired by Slack)", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Astro", "Slack Acquisition", "Startup", "Exit", "Early Stage" ], "lesson": "Experience building marketing for early-stage startups that achieve successful acquisitions by major tech companies.", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 8, "line_end": 8 }, { "id": "example_4", "explicit_text": "I was at Ticketfly... I was like the second marketer.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer at Ticketfly", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Ticketfly", "Second Marketer", "Early Stage", "Ticket Marketplace", "Early Career" ], "lesson": "Early career experience as second marketer at a startup, laying foundation for understanding marketing function building.", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 44, "line_end": 44 }, { "id": "example_5", "explicit_text": "I think you really need to hire someone that's worked at least at a growth stage company where they have exposure to a bunch of various marketing... whether they joined us startup up early and it did really well", "inferred_identity": "Implicit reference to early-stage startups that achieved growth success", "confidence": "medium", "tags": [ "Growth Stage Company", "Startup Exposure", "Early Team Member", "Successful Exit", "Marketing Expertise" ], "lesson": "First marketers should have worked at companies large enough and old enough that they've seen what great marketing looks like at scale.", "topic_id": "topic_8", "line_start": 200, "line_end": 200 }, { "id": "example_6", "explicit_text": "I often help people try to figure that out. What would they do and if they stepped on the gas and did all this stuff really well, would you be able to handle all those people that came in? Is it even a good time to bring all those people in to your product?", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer advising founders on marketing timing", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Founder Advising", "Product Readiness", "Hiring Timing", "Go-to-Market", "Product-Marketing Fit" ], "lesson": "Marketing impact depends on product ability to handle inbound; firing before product is ready is waste of resources.", "topic_id": "topic_9", "line_start": 227, "line_end": 228 }, { "id": "example_7", "explicit_text": "At Asana we had a list in Asana of course, everything at Asana was in Asana through Asana by Asana. But we had a list of areas of responsibility which is just who owns what, it's not your job title.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer at Asana describing DRI system", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Asana", "DRI System", "Ownership", "Cross-functional", "Process" ], "lesson": "Clear ownership assignments separate from job titles prevent confusion about who to go to and enable better cross-functional collaboration.", "topic_id": "topic_13", "line_start": 302, "line_end": 303 }, { "id": "example_8", "explicit_text": "The DRI on tests on the onboarding experience is Jennifer the PM. But the copywriter for that is, I don't know, I'm sure who think of exactly who the person was, is Devin on marketing.", "inferred_identity": "Asana team members (Jennifer as PM, Devin as copywriter) working on onboarding", "confidence": "medium", "tags": [ "Asana", "Cross-functional Collaboration", "Onboarding", "Copywriting", "Clear Ownership" ], "lesson": "Even for single projects, multiple people with different responsibilities need clear ownership so everyone knows who to contact.", "topic_id": "topic_13", "line_start": 305, "line_end": 305 }, { "id": "example_9", "explicit_text": "We did a huge data study when I was at Carta and the person that kind of ran that whole initiative and the events and it was sort of a separate initiative that had a lot of different parts was my brand marketer.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer at Carta with brand marketer running data initiatives", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Carta", "Brand Marketing", "Data Study", "Events", "Cross-functional Initiative" ], "lesson": "Brand marketers can own large cross-functional initiatives that involve multiple stakeholders and different project types.", "topic_id": "topic_10", "line_start": 253, "line_end": 254 }, { "id": "example_10", "explicit_text": "At Asana we did something called Roadmap Week, which was before every quarter. Where we had of open meetings, sometimes they were open and sometimes they weren't. But we had cross-functional meetings to help plan for what you were going to do that quarter on your team.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer at Asana implementing Roadmap Week", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Asana", "Roadmap Week", "Cross-functional", "Quarterly Planning", "Process" ], "lesson": "Regular cross-functional planning sessions before quarters help marketing understand product priorities and vice versa.", "topic_id": "topic_13", "line_start": 310, "line_end": 311 }, { "id": "example_11", "explicit_text": "Jenny, who was the head of content at Asana and now is the head of content in Palms at Clear Lake.", "inferred_identity": "Jenny (content leader who worked at Asana, then Clear Lake)", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Asana", "Content Leadership", "Clear Lake", "Team Building", "Career Growth" ], "lesson": "Strong content leaders at early-stage companies like Asana can transition to leading content at other growth-stage companies.", "topic_id": "topic_13", "line_start": 356, "line_end": 356 }, { "id": "example_12", "explicit_text": "I recently did a talk with my friend Jenny, who was the head of content at Asana and now is the head of content in Palms at Clear Lake. And she was sort of joking. We were coming up for the name of the talk and she was like, 'I want to call it content splatergy versus content strategy.'", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer and Jenny collaborating on content marketing talk", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Asana", "Content Marketing", "Strategy", "Speaking", "Thought Leadership" ], "lesson": "The term 'splatergy' captures how many marketing teams operate without clear strategy - just throwing things out there.", "topic_id": "topic_15", "line_start": 356, "line_end": 357 }, { "id": "example_13", "explicit_text": "Ashley Meyer is someone who is a marketer who also has a fund now. She was comms at Glossier as well as she used to be at Box and things like that.", "inferred_identity": "Ashley Meyer - marketer at Glossier, Box, now investor", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Glossier", "Box", "Angel Fund", "Communications", "Marketer-Investor" ], "lesson": "Strong marketers from consumer companies like Glossier and enterprise companies like Box can transition to investing and supporting other marketers.", "topic_id": "topic_23", "line_start": 539, "line_end": 539 }, { "id": "example_14", "explicit_text": "Arielle Jackson from First Round is an amazing support system to founders and marketers at startup.", "inferred_identity": "Arielle Jackson - First Round venture capitalist supporting marketers", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "First Round Capital", "VC", "Marketer Support", "Founder Advising", "Ecosystem" ], "lesson": "Venture capitalists like Arielle Jackson provide critical support to founders building marketing functions.", "topic_id": "topic_23", "line_start": 542, "line_end": 542 }, { "id": "example_15", "explicit_text": "Kevin Lee, the head of Marketing and Oyster, he's an LPN in our fund, he puts out a newsletter and has a full-time job growing a rapidly growing marketing team.", "inferred_identity": "Kevin Lee - VP Marketing at Oyster, also investor and creator", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Oyster", "VP Marketing", "Rapidly Growing", "Angel Investor", "Content Creator" ], "lesson": "Marketing leaders who are also creators and investors add value across multiple dimensions.", "topic_id": "topic_23", "line_start": 542, "line_end": 542 }, { "id": "example_16", "explicit_text": "My brother is a clamor in Massachusetts that's his job. Not his only job, but one of his job that he clams.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer's brother - works in Massachusetts fishing/clamming industry", "confidence": "medium", "tags": [ "Personal Story", "Fishing Industry", "Massachusetts", "Family", "Context" ], "lesson": "Personal anecdotes help illustrate why certain stories resonate (CODA relevance).", "topic_id": "topic_21", "line_start": 485, "line_end": 485 }, { "id": "example_17", "explicit_text": "If you're a marketer, we have a fund and we allow for lower minimums for marketers. One of my goals is I don't think there are enough marketers who are investors or know how to get into investing.", "inferred_identity": "Emily Kramer's Market 1 Capital fund with special terms for marketers", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Market 1 Capital", "Angel Fund", "Marketer Investing", "Lower Minimums", "Democratizing Investing" ], "lesson": "Creating pathways for functional experts (marketers) to become investors increases capital available for founder marketing support.", "topic_id": "topic_23", "line_start": 550, "line_end": 551 }, { "id": "example_18", "explicit_text": "I often see the Asana COO, his question that he liked to ask all the marketers or all the product marketers that we were interviewing was just, 'What's product marketing?'", "inferred_identity": "Asana's COO using interview technique to assess candidates", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Asana", "Product Marketing Definition", "Interview Question", "Leadership", "Assessment" ], "lesson": "Asking candidates to define their own role reveals whether they have clarity or are just saying buzzwords.", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 140, "line_end": 140 }, { "id": "example_19", "explicit_text": "I see people just build an engine first and they're like why isn't this working we're sending so many outbound emails? And it's like, well you don't have anything valuable to put in those, you have no fuel so this isn't working.", "inferred_identity": "Common founder mistake observed by Emily across multiple companies", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Fuel-Engine Framework", "Outbound Sales", "Common Mistakes", "Ineffective Marketing", "Resource Waste" ], "lesson": "Building distribution (engine) before having valuable messaging (fuel) leads to poor conversion and wasted resources.", "topic_id": "topic_3", "line_start": 80, "line_end": 80 }, { "id": "example_20", "explicit_text": "Or you see the flip side where they're making a whole bunch of things, they're writing a bunch of blog quotes or making a bunch of content and they're like, this content doesn't work. It's like, we'll, have you tried distributing it?", "inferred_identity": "Opposite founder mistake of creating content without distribution", "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "Content Creation", "Blog Marketing", "Distribution", "Fuel-Engine Framework", "Common Mistakes" ], "lesson": "Creating lots of content without distribution strategy is equally wasteful as having distribution channels with no compelling message.", "topic_id": "topic_3", "line_start": 80, "line_end": 80 } ] }