Show notes
Early-stage marketing can be full of challenges, but what if there were a playbook to follow? Meet Madhav Bhandari, first marketing hire at Hubstaff and one of the first marketers at Close.io, and Weflow, all of which he helped to cross $10M+ in ARR. He's currently the CMO of Storylane, where he has helped grow their ARR by 250% in 2024 alone. In other words, Madhav has pretty much mastered the art of scaling SaaS companies from $5M to $15M+ ARR.Here's what you'll learn in this episode: (00:00) Intro
(1:01) Early-stage marketing playbook
(12:25) Why Madhav only scales to $15M(15:42) The average tenure for a CMO(19:50) The ideal CEO/CMO fit(26:46) Earning your CEO’s trust(36:01) Employee advocacy as a marketing tool(49:10) Easing friction by bringing community together (Demo Days)(56:16) Creativity in community awards (Demo Dundies)(1:05:40) 10xing traffic in 6 months through demo-led SEO(1:13:36) Hot take on backlinks(1:15:41) Strategies for growing a brand(1:24:08) Defining and codifying a brand(1:31:20) When rebranding makes sense(1:34:18) Founder brand vs company brand(1:40:50) Is testing multiple tactics in a short period of time a good idea? (1:45:17) The best channels for early stage founders(1:47:47) Fixing burnout in marketing(1:52:45) OutroWe hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend). Where to find Madhav:LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhavbhandari/)Website: https://earlystagemarketing.com/Where to find Tim:LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)X: @timsouloWebsite: https://www.timsoulo.com/-------------------------Referenced: • Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com• Canva: https://www.canva.com• Notion: https://www.notion.so• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com• Slack: https://slack.com• Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com• Hubstaff: https://hubstaff.com• Close: https://close.com• Weflow: https://www.getweflow.com
