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PODCAST

The Growth Engine

Mike Parsons Apollo Advisors

The Growth Engine helps founders, marketers, and RevOps leaders turn their product into a predictable growth system. Hosted by Mike Parsons, an AI-driven B2B strategist with 25+ years leading campaigns for Xbox, Philips, and Nike. Learn actionable playbooks on AI marketing, ICPs, TAM/SAM/SOM, funnels, automation, and growth frameworks like Vision to Velocity. Build a marketing engine as strong as your product.

business marketing

All Episodes

00:15:19

The AI Startup That Loses Money Every Time You Use It

The Growth Engine ·

2026/02/20

Episode 16 — The AI Startup That Loses Money Every Time You Use ItThis startup looks perfect.Customers love it.Usage is exploding.Investors would absolutely take the meeting.There’s just one problem: every time a customer uses the product, the company loses money.In this episode, Mike breaks down *Fictitious AI* — a fast-growing AI research assistant that replaces search and gives fully-cited answers instantly. With tens of thousands of users and thousands of paying subscribers, most founders would

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00:17:14

Why Your Startup Isn’t Growing (15 Tests to Fix Your...

The Growth Engine ·

2026/02/10

Why do some companies grow every month… while others live deal-to-deal?Most founders think they have a growth problem.In reality, they have a system problem.Leads come in — then stop.Sales spike — then disappearMarketing is busy — but revenue isn’t predictable.In this episode of The Growth Engine, Mike Parsons breaks down the real reason startups plateau and shows you 15 practical tests you can run to diagnose exactly where your pipeline is breaking.This isn’t theory.It’s a step-by-step framework

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00:18:41

Are We Building the Right Product? | Product...

The Growth Engine ·

2026/02/02

Are We Building the Right Product? | Product Validation for Startups (15 Tests)Most startups don’t fail because they can’t build.They fail because they build the wrong thing—too confidently, for too long.In this episode of The Growth Engine, Mike Parsons breaks down 15 practical product-validation tests that remove guesswork from one of the hardest founder questions:“Is this product actually wanted?”Instead of opinions, surveys, or vanity metrics, Mike walks through a system of AI-powered operators

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00:08:01

Business Model Fit Explained: Test If Your Startup...

The Growth Engine ·

2026/01/19

Most startups don’t fail because the product is bad. They fail because the business model breaks when growth begins.In this episode, Mike Parsons walks through ProductBooks — Business Model Fit Evaluator, the third stage in the Fit Model series of free evaluators. It’s designed for founders who already have problem–solution fit and product–market fit, and now need to answer the harder question: do we actually have a viable, scalable business?Using a real-world example and mock data, Mike shows how

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00:06:58

Validate Product-Market Fit in Minutes with This Free...

The Growth Engine ·

2026/01/15

Product-market fit is one of the most misunderstood — and most critical — milestones in building a successful startup. Many founders ship great products, but still struggle to answer the real question: do customers actually want this, pay for it, and come back for more?In this episode, Mike Parsons introduces the Product Market Fit Evaluator, a free AI tool designed for founders, CEOs, and early-stage product leaders who already have an MVP or early version in market. Mike walks through how the tool

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00:07:23

How to Validate a Startup Idea in 5 Minutes

The Growth Engine ·

2026/01/12

Learn how to validate a startup idea in 5 minutes using AI and a proven problem–solution fit framework.In this episode of The B2B Growth Engine, Mike walks through a custom GPT that helps founders quickly assess whether a real, painful problem exists and whether the proposed solution is actually desired. The workflow guides you through your startup hypothesis, user interviews, current workarounds, early validation signals, and willingness to pay.In just minutes, the GPT generates a clear evaluation

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00:07:58

Why Emotion Matters More in B2B Than B2C (Free Brand...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/12/15

Most people assume B2B buying is rational and B2C buying is emotional. The data says the opposite.In this episode of The B2B Growth Engine, Mike Parsons breaks down a key Gartner insight showing that emotional connection plays an even bigger role in B2B purchasing than in B2C — especially when the buyer’s job, reputation, and risk exposure are on the line.To make this practical, Mike introduces Brand Personality, a free Custom GPT by Apollo Advisors that helps B2B founders, marketers, and advisors

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00:17:36

The 11 Greatest Challenges in Creating a Growth...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/12/04

In this episode, we break down the 11 greatest challenges in creating a growth strategy—the same structural blind spots that stall founders, GTM teams, and SaaS companies again and again.After building hundreds of GrowthBooks, I’ve seen these patterns across every industry:• Misdiagnosed bottlenecks• Incorrect ICPs• Weak value proposition proof• Overly broad segmentation• Leaky funnels• Messaging without coherence• Strategies built on assumptions, not evidenceThis episode gives you a practical,

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00:05:44

The #1 Reason Your Conversion Rates Are 30% Lower —...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/11/29

In this episode, Mike Parsons dives into why messaging matters — and why unclear messaging can slow growth, lengthen sales cycles, and kill conversions. Mike shares research showing that unclear messaging can increase customer acquisition time by 40–60%, reduce conversion rates by 15–30%, and even double sales cycle duration. Clear communication, as HBR reports, is 152% more effective at driving customer action — which is exactly why this GPT exists.The Messaging Frameworks GPT packages Mike’s years

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00:05:35

42% of Startups Fail from No Product–Market Fit —...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/11/23

Nearly 42% of startups fail simply because they never achieve product–market fit. They build a product… but not for the right customer.In this episode, Mike Parsons unveils a free AI tool that helps founders, marketers, and advisors break this cycle — the Value Proposition Canvas GPT.This custom GPT transforms any Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) into a complete Strategyzer-style Value Proposition Canvas in seconds. It analyzes your customer's:Jobs to be DonePainsGains…and maps them directly to your

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00:05:37

Build a High-Impact ICP with AI and Boost Your Sales...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/11/16

In this episode, Mike Parsons dives into one of the most powerful levers in B2B growth — defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Using the free Ideal Customer Profile GPT by Apollo Advisors, you’ll see how to turn your market segmentation into a data-rich customer profile that instantly boosts focus and sales velocity.Mike walks through a live demo with Campfire, an AI-powered ERP startup, showing how this GPT generates firmographics, technographics, intent data, and relationship signals — all

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00:05:38

How to Target the Right B2B Customers Instantly

The Growth Engine ·

2025/11/09

In this 5-minute walkthrough, Mike Parsons reveals how the Market Segmentation & Firmographics GPT helps founders and marketers instantly turn TAM/SAM/SOM data into actionable B2B segments — so you can target the right audiences and stop wasting ad spend.You’ll see how Mike uses the tool to segment a real SaaS case study (Camfire.ai) into five clear buyer cohorts — from “Digital-First Scaleups” to “Modernizers.” Each segment comes with insights on size, pain points, roles, and channels — giving

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00:04:52

TAM, SAM & SOM Analysis in 5 Minutes (Not 5 Days) -...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/11/02

In this 5-minute walkthrough, Mike Parsons shows how Addressable Market Metrics GPT helps B2B founders and marketers calculate their TAM, SAM, and SOM in minutes — not days.Using a real-world example from Campfire.ai, Mike demonstrates how this free GPT automates the entire market sizing process with reliable data sources, smart assumptions, and clear reporting. No spreadsheets, no guesswork — just a fast, confident snapshot of your true market opportunity.If you’re planning your next pitch,

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00:04:44

Boost Your Human Connection in the First Sales...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/10/28

In this episode, Mike Parsons unveils how the Executive Personality Analyzer by Apollo Advisors helps B2B founders, advisors, and sales pros build deeper connections — starting from the very first meeting.This Custom GPT takes a LinkedIn profile PDF and transforms it into a fact-based executive psychology brief, revealing your prospect’s leadership style, motivators, and communication patterns — all sourced directly from their career data.In the walkthrough, Mike profiles Richard Branson and Satya

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00:04:44

Instant B2B Marketing Funnel Audit with AI — Scan...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/10/24

Hey, it’s Mike from Apollo Advisors, and in this video, I’ll show you how to use Scan: B2B Marketing Funnel GPT — a free AI tool that helps you analyze and audit any B2B marketing funnel in just five minutes.Whether you’re a founder, CMO, or marketing strategist, this GPT gives you a complete, data-driven view of how a company performs across the Educate, Attract, Convert, and Hook stages of the funnel — plus a custom 90-day improvement plan.⸻🔍 What You’ll See0:00 – Introduction to the Funnel

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00:04:45

Save 5 Hours of Prospecting with This Free AI Company...

The Growth Engine ·

2025/10/23

Hey, I’m Mike from Apollo Advisors, and in this video, I’m going to show you how to save five hours of prospecting time using my free Company Snapshot GPT — an AI-powered prospect analysis and competitor research tool.Free GPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-ycR9JrPZv-company-snapshotIf you’re in sales, business development, or marketing, this custom GPT will instantly research any company and produce a 5-hour quality report in just 5 minutes — complete with:✅ Company overview and structure✅ Leadership and

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16 results

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