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PODCAST

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers

You think your product is amazing and feel like more people should be buying. But the road is long and slow. It feels like you"re stuck. There"s always one thing I ask: have you talked to your customers? This is a show that explores the role that customers play in helping companies build to their next level of growth. Hosted by Anna Furmanov. Anna turns customer insights into compelling positioning and messaging, visit furmanovmarketing.com to learn more.

business marketing

All Episodes

00:06:45

271 - BONUS: What Would Make AI More Trustworthy?

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2026/01/30

In the last episode (270), Caitlin Sullivan (AI + Customer Research expert) asked me "what would have to change for you to feel that AI is trustworthy?" It's a really good question and I answer it in this short episode.Subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, message me what you're listening to, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show.Music by my talented daughter.Anna on LinkedIn:

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00:56:55

270 - How AI Is Transforming Customer Research...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2026/01/28

I know, I know. Season 5 wrapped up. But I couldn't help myself.Caitlin Sullivan is an expert in AI for Customer Research. She trains growth-ready product & design teams to know their customers faster. Clients include YouTube, Spotify, Ramp, Meta, and Canva.Here’s what we covered:00:00 Introduction to AI in Customer Research03:41 The Shift in AI Usage for Customer Research09:25 Building Systems for Effective Research12:59 Challenges with AI Insights17:55 Completeness in Research with AI21:17

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00:01:46

269 - Season 5 Wrap Up!

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/12/24

Thanks for being here, for listening, for collaborating, thanks for sharing episodes with others, for sharing stuff with me - when people DM me on LI with their fave episodes - for leaving a review, thank you for all of it. Here's the link to the article "35 Creative Customer Marketing Plays". Wishing you a warm + connected holiday season and positive, fresh beginnings for 2026.Subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, message me what

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01:02:02

268 - BONUS Marketing: What Worked 2025 + Big Bets 2026

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/12/19

To wrap the year, my client Navattic invited nine of their marketing advisors (including me!) for an open panel on what’s working and what’s worn out from 2025, and where we're placing big bets for 2026. ~300 ppl registered.A few highlights - Worn out: Being a part of every over-saturated channel. AI hype. Talking about how SEO traffic is “collapsing.” Instead, focus on channels where you are the only one (like self-hosted events), thoughtfully using AI tools instead of from pressure, and

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00:53:15

267 - Creating Customers for Life: Reimagining...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/12/17

Everyone's been telling me "you gotta talk to Kevin!" Kevin Lau is VP Global Customer Marketing at Freshworks. Freshworks provides AI-assisted IT and customer service software to 75k+ companies. 9,500+ employees, IPO’d back in 2021.Here’s what we cover:01:58 Why Customer Relationships are so important especially going into next year05:40 The Customer Marketing Team at Freshworks09:02 Redefining Customer Marketing at Freshworks (more than just advocacy)12:56 Collaboration Between

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00:44:52

266 - How To Turn Customer Marketing Into Your...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/12/10

Melanie Paddock is Sr. Manager, Customer Marketing & Advocacy at Gainsight. Gainsight is the world’s leading Customer Success platform. 1,100 ppl, $156M+ total funding, Series E.Here’s what we cover:02:48 The Importance of Customer Love05:34 Building an Advocacy Program from Scratch08:24 Gamification and Customer Engagement11:16 Creating a Community for your Advocates14:20 Leveraging Customer Proof for Sales17:08 Top Challenges in Customer Marketing19:57 Building deep Relationships with

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00:55:40

265 - Dear B2B CMOs: Customer Love Is The Strategy...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/12/03

Shannon Howard is Senior Director of Customer & Content Marketing at Intellum. Intellum is AI transformation for enterprise learning. $25M in funding, 139 people.Here’s what we cover:05:35 Shannon shares some Creative Customer Marketing Strategies08:41 Building the Foundation for Customer Marketing11:09 The Role of Data in Customer Marketing14:00 Surprise and Delight16:49 Empowering Customers Through Recognition19:57 Segmentation and Personalization in Marketing22:33 B2B vs B2C Marketing

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00:04:41

264 - What My Clients Taught Me This Year

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/11/26

If you're in the US, Happy Thanksgiving. When I look back at 2025, one thing is very clear: my clients taught me more than any book, course, or conference ever could. Here are the six lessons I learned from the leaders I worked with this year.Subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, let me know what episodes you're into, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show.Music by my talented daughter.Anna on LinkedIn:

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00:47:44

263 - The Customer Hero Mindset Shift (Aditya...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/11/19

Aditya Vempaty is VP of Marketing at MoEngage. MoEngage is a consumer engagement platform used by 1350+ consumer brands globally. $180M funding, 869 ppl.Here’s what we cover:02:46 Team Structure and Regional Dynamics - including why one PMM reports under the CEO05:33 Steering the Ship & Gaining Buy-In for Strategic Initiatives11:10 The Role of Customer Feedback in Marketing13:48 Repositioning MoEngage in a Changing Market16:32 Navigating AI in Customer Engagement19:33 Positioning and

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00:52:49

262 - What Happened When We Brought Our Customer Into...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/11/12

Jess Cook is Head of Marketing at Vector. Vector is the only way to build ad audiences by name. Contact-based ads platform so your ads reach the right people (those that want to buy).Here’s what we cover:02:39 Understanding Vector's (new!) Positioning05:30 Customer-Centric Growth Strategies08:16 Repositioning and Messaging Evolution11:04 Incorporating Customer Feedback and why we brought our customer into our strategic company meeting14:05 The Role of Research in Marketing16:37 Building Ad

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00:51:14

261 - Why The Road Is Paved With Forgotten Strategic...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/11/05

Anthony Pierri helps founders market hard-to-market products as Co-Founder and Partner at FletchPMM. We're both in the Chicago area, Anthony is just a (trail) bike ride away. I asked Anthony to join me for round 2, also listen to Ep. 199 “Why Your Homepage Is A Great Predictor of Your Startup's Future Success...Or Failure.”Here’s what we cover:“Let’s fix your confusing positioning” why you changed the copy on your homepage;Positioning, messaging, how do you get the entire company marching to

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00:51:14

260 - How Gamification In Customer Marketing Is...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/10/29

Mark Huber is VP of Marketing at UserEvidence. UserEvidence is a Customer Evidence Platform that lets you collect feedback, curate success stories, and create content that credibly proves the value of your product. Don’t beg for case studies. Get customer proof at scale.Mark and I are both Navattic advisors.Here’s what we cover:Tell me about your team, what’s everyone doing;Tell me about how your positioning and messaging has changed, and how it’s landing;How’d you get the entire company marching to

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00:49:41

259 - Former Therapist: How To Unravel The Emotion...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/10/22

This is a geeking out episode. If you love customer research as much as I do and know how important it is for marketing and business growth, this is the episode you'll want to hear.Hannah Shamji is a former Therapist and now Consumer Psychology Researcher. Hannah digs deep to uncover the emotional and psychological reasons your customers buy, stay, or leave in order to help inform retention, engagement, or positioning challenges.Here’s what we cover:Focus of your work these days;How're you

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00:52:12

258 - Finding Purpose In An AI-Changed World (Mark...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/10/15

Mark Schaefer is keynote speaker, university educator, futurist, and bestselling author of books like Marketing Rebellion, Audacious, and most recently How AI Changes Your Customers.Mark also joined me a couple years ago, listen to Ep. 132: How AI Is Changing Marketing Forever & Why Creativity Matters More.Here’s what we cover:What’s changing with our customers, and how do we change alongside them;What scares you most about AI;What makes you hopeful;Why curiosity matters now more than ever;Where

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00:22:02

257 - Customer Insights Roadmap: How A Strong...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/10/08

After 5+ years working with early and growth stage companies, I created the Customer Insights Roadmap, a 4-phase process that helps founders/CEOs and their teams understand their customers deeply, translate those insights into clear and compelling positioning and messaging, and then scale growth in a way that works for your specific target buyer. It’s the exact process I take my clients through and it all starts with the hard work: real conversations with your customers. We run this program and

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00:48:07

256 - Customer Marketing Is Your Hidden Growth Lever...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/10/01

So ya know how I’m exploring the role that customers play in helping companies build to their next level of growth? My goal is to invite on more superstar customer marketers and this episode is no exception. Why such an obsession with customer marketing? people don’t stop to consider how important their customers are;we always seem to be chasing net new;trust is peer-led and most growth (still) comes from referrals, word of mouth, and bottom-up adoption;your customers are your moat because they are

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00:20:59

255 - How Customer Advocacy Programs Can...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/09/24

I reached out to Denny Hollick on GrowthMentor as a mentee. Denny was a good match because I wanted to ask him some questions I’ve had for a while around customer marketing and customer advocacy. Yes, most people agree that understanding customer needs can transform product development, but what’s often overlooked is how customer advocates can significantly influence your market success and GTM plan's impact. Denny is Head of Product Marketing at Puzzle. Prior, he held marketing leadership roles at

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00:43:53

254 - How To Create A State Of The X Report (Should...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/09/17

Lately, I’ve been intrigued by “State of The” reports. Many of them are examples of what good content looks like. Tommy Walker created his State of (Dis)Content report so naturally I wanted to learn exactly how he did it. Tommy is founder at The Content Studio. The Content Studio is a content marketing consultancy focused on creating, developing, and improving content programs for growth-stage B2B startups and enterprises.Here’s what we cover:What's your approach to creating really good

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00:28:09

253 - What Is A Useful Customer Insight?

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/09/10

Shoshana Kordova joined me to talk about some of my favorite customer research and insights topics, she's founder of Peel Product Marketing and 3X founding product marketer with over a decade of journalism experience.Here’s what we cover:How does your journalism background help you with customer research;There are many Product Marketers, how do you differentiate;How do you know something is a true customer insight;How do you turn insights into action;What’s the biggest challenge for companies

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00:25:44

252 - Customer-Led Growth vs. Customer Marketing &...

Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth... ·

2025/09/03

Gianna Scorsone is co-founder and COO at ChampionHQ. ChampionHQ is the customer-led growth platform. Turn your customers into your No. 1 growth engine. Seed funded.Here’s what we cover:Customer-led growth vs. customer marketing and why both are important;How to turn customers into your No. 1 growth engine;How do you incorporate customers as part of your own growth efforts;Who’s doing customer marketing well;How you're building community at ChampionHQ.Gianna on LinkedIn:

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