Heather Gadonniex | Global From Day One
What do venture capital firms expect from the marketing leaders at the companies they’ve invested in?
Heather Gadonniex has filled both roles, having worked as a marketing leader and now as an operating partner at Global From Day One, a New Zealand-based VC fund, and in this episode of The Inbound Success Podcast, she shares her insights on what VCs expect from marketing leaders.
Heather covers:
The metrics that VCs want to see marketers reporting on
How to prioritize when investing in your marketing tech stack
Why rev ops is so important and when to hire for it
And more
Check out the full episode to hear what Heather had to say.
Resources from this episode:
Check out the Global From Day One website
Connect with Heather on LinkedIn
Follow Heather on Twitter
Heather and Kathleen recording this episode
Kathleen (00:02):
Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm your host, Kathleen Booth. And this week, my guest is Heather Gadonniex, who is the CMO and operating partner with Global From Day One or GD1. How's it going, Heather? Happy to have you here.
Heather (00:29):
Thanks for having me. Yeah, doing well.
Kathleen (00:32):
I am I'm feeling super honored that you're doing this because fun fact, this is Heather's last day before she goes on maternity leave. So are you just so done and ready? <Laugh>
Heather (00:45):
It's very true. I am officially 38 and change weeks pregnant with my second baby boy. So very excited about that. And yeah, I'll be wrapping up today. It's a little different in New Zealand than in the states, people take about three to four weeks off in between Christmas, New Years before people get back to work and then I will be on maternity leave for a few months. So super grateful for that.
Kathleen (01:11):
That's great. Congratulations. And you, as you mentioned, you are in New Zealand and as people can tell, just from hearing your voice, you have an American accent. So I feel like let's take a minute and it would be great if you could just tell my listeners a little bit about yourself, who you are, what your background is, what GD1 is. And then also, how are you an American living in New Zealand? <Laugh>
Heather (01:33):
That's a funny story. Sure. Yeah. So I am CMO and operating partner at GD1 Global From Day One. We're a venture capital firm that focuses is on generalist tech investments. We have a portfolio that consists of SaaS hardware, software, deep tech, some health tech. And we've been around for about a decade. Now we're in our third fund. We just raised 130 million for our third fund first close. And we're inching toward our second close at the beginning of year, final close, I should say at the beginning of the year. So it's been really, really exciting to transition from being an operator. I was an operator pure operator in, in the states in San Francisco and Silicon valley for almost two decades focused my career first, starting in product marketing, product management and then progressed onto sales, kind of gotta know both sides. <Laugh> a little bit is my opinion. And then went to move on to general management roles and finally executive and VP roles in corporate and product marketing and go to market leadership. So yeah, focused the first half of my career there. And then my husband and son, and I came to New Zealand on a family holiday and married a Kiwi in March of, oh geez, 2020. This seems like a lifetime ago.
Kathleen (02:55):
That was a very important <laugh> thing that you just said. Think about what was happening if you're listening at that time. And I bet you can predict why Heather's still there <laugh>.
Heather (03:05):
Yeah, exactly. It was a couple days before shelter in place went into effect in San Francisco. And we had this holiday plan for about a year. Our friends were gonna come and we were gonna see his family and we were staying for 10 days. So we had a suitcase full of wine. You know, we bring our California wine over and exchange it for New Zealand wine on the way home and a suitcase full of clothes and a stroller. And then we never left. So <laugh> so I
Kathleen (03:35):
Ask you, yeah, I have to ask you about this and we're gonna talk about marketing stuff in a minute, but so like, what did you do with all the stuff you left behind? Cause you were planning on coming back, not that long later, like how did you, how did you make that shift to be long term in New Zealand? Like having only left for 10 days?
Heather (03:52):
It was crazy. I mean, it was, it was bananas, absolutely bananas. So we originally are thinking, okay, we're gonna stay for three. We were both working remote for our San Francisco jobs at the time I was at two at three in the morning and like, oh my God, the napping in the afternoon. And then waking up for dinner and going back to sleep, we're like, okay, we'll do this for three months. We'll see what happens. Obviously COVID is not gonna stick around for that long boy we were wrong.
Kathleen (04:18):
Jokes on you.
Heather (04:20):
Totally wrong. And then we thought, all right, we'll stay for three more. And then my visa got extended and I think it was about April. Or no, it was October, November, December, somewhere around there. We made the decision to call it and just relocate because we were eventually gonna do it anyway. It was probably within our five year horizon, not our five month horizon, but we're eventually gonna do it. So we figured we're here, we'll stay. And yeah, we got our friend who we trust like implicitly and she unfortunately lost her job because of COVID like offs and things like that. And so we paid her to pack up our house and we organized a shipping container and she was just so diligent. And like, you know, when you, you have your stuff, we literally left everything.
Kathleen (05:16):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, you had a couple suitcases. Yeah. And a kit, like all the kit. Oh my gosh.
Heather (05:23):
And you know, you don't want strangers digging through your stuff when you haven't packed it. Right. so yeah, she packed everything up and was amazing. And we had a container arrive a couple of months ago. It was like being reunited
Kathleen (05:36):
With, she earned her angel wings and will be in heaven someday for her on that job. <Laugh> that is, that's so interesting. Well I wanna, I wanna make sure we talk about the marketing stuff and you have such an interesting story. I feel like we could do a podcast just on relocating during COVID, but we're not gonna do that. The reason I'm excited to talk to you is that you are working within a VC. And so many of the marketers that I talked to myself included are working in companies that are VC funded. And so we ha that, that introduces another dynamic into your job as a marketer, especially if you're the head of marketing, knowing that a, there are certain expect on the part of the VCs for, for, you know, how you're gonna hit different growth milestones. But then there's also the dynamic of how, what, what is your relationship with the, with VCs and, and the board and how do you report and what are they looking to see out of marketing and a marketing leader. And that's really what I wanna focus in, cuz we haven't talked about that on this podcast. So you've been in both roles as well as in sales and amen to what you said about marketers should work in sales and vice versa. I, I did that also and it's completely changed how I think about my relationship with the sales team. So I feel like you have a fascinating perspective and I wanna dig into that. So I don't even know where to start we're or should we start <laugh>
Heather (06:59):
It's a big topic. But so important and yeah, I think, you know, for me, when I moved here, I had kind of a blank slate. I really took it as a, an opportunity to figure out what I wanted to focus on for the next, you know, 10 years. And I'm so grateful for that transition. It was like I said, it was a hell of a transition. It was really hard, it was very intense, but it also gave me the opportunity to take a step back and really like work with some coaches and work with some specialists to figure out where I wanted to focus that, that next strong much of my career. And I came to the conclusion that, yeah, yes, I could go and work for a tech company and, you know, take on a head of marketing role or the CMO type of role and contribute to the growth of the one organization.
Heather (07:54):
Or I could really focus on more of a platform play and help many companies at once achieve their, you know, exciting growth milestones, but also at the same time, really be more of a champion and an empathetic ear and a voice for founder slash CEO slash operating teams. Because as you know, sitting across from somebody in a boardroom or having to report to the board or taking into consideration board opinions and incorporating that within your own strategies and growth plans and company strategy, it's, it's challenging. Like it is a very strategic and, and I, I think just an elegant dance that that needs to be done. And if one isn't necessarily, if they haven't been an operator, right, if they haven't had that, that experience and they can't necessarily put themselves in the shoes of that team or empathize, it's even more difficult for those that are trying to grow and build a company to succeed. So ultimately that's why, you know, I kind of chose the path of, of VC and chose the path to within this platform. I really am beyond excited to focus on catalyzing kind of the fire within others and like feeling conscious growth, you know, within others, but also within the companies that we, we focus on.
Kathleen (09:30):
That's great. And what, and what type of companies would you say you focus on? Cause you did say tech, but is there any kind of specific area within that or,
Heather (09:38):
Yeah, we have a pretty generalist portfolio at the moment. But we work across SaaS, health tech, deep tech hardware, software combo organization. So that kind of, couldn't be lumped in the deep tech space tech angle. And yeah, we have, I can just give you a few examples. We have a company JunoFem, which I'm pretty excited about there helping to alleviate pelvic floor symptoms and pain for their goal is to alleviate pelvic floor systems for one in three women globally. There's this massive problem that we don't really kind of address in the global scale. It affects one and three women around the world. So that's a really kind of exciting ESG focused organization, health tech focused organization. And they do that with a combination of this hardware device plus an AI based algorithm that helps train public floor muscles for optimal health.
Heather (10:36):
We also have a portfolio company, which we just brought on. It's so cool. It's called Foundry Lab. They make metal in minutes literally. So they manufacturing and there's a dye for cars and big heavy machinery and things like that. And it typically takes about six weeks and it's super energy intensive and used a lot of resources and they've created a solution where they literally microwave metal and they can create these dye cast parts in less than a day. So it cuts the energy intensity usage, cuts the resource consumption and, and cuts the time to market for right now they're focusing on auto manufacturers working with some of the biggest car manufacturers globally, but, you know, obviously that can apply to many different manufacturing instances. And then on the SaaS side, we have a really, a few really interesting companies. One that's new to the portfolio being run, they are creating or have created, I should say a resource management software, but really taking into consideration the, a people first approach and a human first approach. So instead of just kind of looking at resources a whole, they really look at what drives the individual and motivates the individual and incorporated that into their software package. And they're seeing astronomical growth 600% this year, like bringing crazy clients. It's so exciting to see because they're just out of stealth like a year and a half ago. So yeah, it's super exciting.
Kathleen (12:11):
What an interesting group of companies and, and what a fascinating thing for you. Like I used to own an agency and it reminds me very much of, of running an agency, not in the sense that you're doing marketing for them, but that the, that the role you've taken on requires you to get to know and understand the different business models and the different products. I, I, that's the part of having an agency that I love. There were other parts I didn't love, but I, that part, because you got exposure to so much. So what would you say, you know, you, you're working with all these companies that may or may not prior to their relationship with GD1 have accepted either outside funding or VC funding in particular, from, from your perspective, what, how would you say taking on VC funding changes the expectations of marketing for those companies?
Heather (13:03):
That's a great question. So I think first and foremost, there's a deeper rigor around go to market metrics that is instituted when you have or when you take on VC funding. So not just within our portfolio companies, but in general, I think that, you know, we, we all have seen this, you start out your, your, you know, just trying to keep the lights on and get some customers and get your product out the door and measuring and Mo monitoring and managing and optimizing aren't necessarily top of mind for every organization. And once you take on funding, that becomes really, really critical. So, you know, I do spend quite a bit of my time working with companies, not just like at this strategic level, helping them develop their, you know, go to market plans and what's their three to five year horizon, all of that strategic narratives, et cetera, but really digging into how do you measure this so that you have the data that you need to raise your next round.
Heather (14:11):
And you have the data that you need to go back to, not just your current investors, but future investors to show that you've demonstrated success. And that doesn't necessarily have to just be in your like typical, best model SaaS metrics, right. Or whatever, go to market model you're, you're adopting whether it's, you know, hardware model etcetera. But really having clear goals and KPIs and, and operational metrics is really, really important. So I think that that's one thing that, that gets leveled up fairly quickly. And again, it's not just for measurement and management quarter by quarter, but it's really to prepare that company for the next round of race. I think the other thing that becomes pretty apparent actually, there's two other pretty key things. One is the, the overarching narrative. Like oftentimes when you, when you're starting, you have this, you have a product vision, you have a company narrative and you then have a go to market message and they don't necessarily, they're not cohesive.
Heather (15:18):
Right. And so doing a lot of work around that to understand what is the company strategy? How do you extrapolate that into a compelling narrative? And then how, how do you ensure that, that narrative bridges with your go to market and sales and like day to day, right? Campaign plans and things like that. That's another piece that I find is really like a, a it's a groundwork, right. That that needs to be done. And then I would say last but not least is implementation of tech tech. So like you have pretty rudimentary stacks when you start, obviously when you're starting to build and once an, an organization really figures out who their ICP is, what their go market channel is, et cetera, getting the right tech stack to back that up for the go to market motion is so, so critical, like to growth and scale and success. And I think that that's, that's one area, especially when you have a young team and you're growing that we're particularly, you know, interested in, in helping out with.
Kathleen (16:33):
All right. I have a lot of questions. Yeah. Let's start with metrics, cuz that's what you started with. You talked about needing to have more rigor around how you're measuring and what you're reporting on to investors, both present and future. And you mentioned that these are very different types of companies, so it's not all this, just the, you know, this spoiler plate, top five SaaS metrics or whatever, but you know, knowing that it will change from company to company, are there certain universal metrics that you always wanna see and or how do you, like, what is the mental framework you use to think through? How are we gonna determine what the most important metrics are?
Heather (17:10):
Yeah. And it's very company type dependent, right? Like you said, you have your universal SaaS metrics that apply to every company, but a SaaS metric for PLG is not gonna apply to a hardware software combo that is like focus solely on tackling 300 accounts in the world and an ASP of like X million dollars. You know what I mean? So I think you first have to think about what your industry segment is, who your ICP is, what your go to market motion is. And then from there design your metrics based upon your strategies that, that are at hand in your product type. Right. And that's, I mean, I know that to everybody, that probably sounds pretty obvious <laugh> but that's, it's definitely the place to start.
Kathleen (18:01):
Is it fair to say that there's always like a metric relating to customer acquisition cost another one related to a call it churn slash retention, another one related to, you know, like, are there buckets of metrics that you're looking at?
Heather (18:15):
Yeah. The basics are always there. What is your, and I know we all say MQLs are dead, but like what's your MQL volume, your conversion to opportunity ratio, if you have of a MQL to SAL, to SQL process, what are those conversion rates at hand CLTV ASP, your average sales price, like all of those absolutely are baseline metrics that, that we track or that we request for organizations to track just for general health. Right. I typically don't get into the weeds around like deep campaign detail. I don't think that that's necessarily useful or appropriate at a board level. Like I don't, I don't want to see a clickthrough rate on a, whatever, a LinkedIn or an ABM campaign. Right. important for them to track at the, at the operational level, for sure. But not necessarily at a board level, I think that's just kind of overkill.
Heather (19:23):
But those basics, yeah. They, they run across the gamut, across company type. And then again, depending upon go to market motion, right. If you are focusing on PLG, like we could recommend that they look at conversion to onboarding time as an example, or conversion to onboarding ratio. So what's their success. Once somebody signs up for a free trial or somebody signs up for an inquiry or a demo or whatever their motion is, what's that conversion rate. And what's the timeline for getting them to be an actual paying customer versus somebody who's focused on our company, that's focused on selling like a hardware, software combo or something that's not like a hundred percent pure SaaS, right. Maybe they're looking at an account based strategy and you wanna know how many accounts they've penetrated or what their account conversion rates are.
Kathleen (20:23):
Okay. So, so you then talked about go to market strategy and you talked at one point, you, you mentioned the words 3 to 5 year. And I was like, I need to ask her about this because, and I don't know what stage of company you're coming in at, but I, I do a lot of startup marketing. I generally come in around series a and while I feel like the business usually has a three to five year strategy as a marketer, I've never, and maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I've never had anything that looks out certainly beyond a year. But I always tell people like, especially at series a, if I, if I tell you too much beyond three to six months, I'm really probably making it up. So I'd love to hear your thoughts around like these time horizons and how far out should we be planning a particular as marketers and what's realistic.
Heather (21:09):
Oh, I totally agree with you like deep go to market. You're lucky if you get it right in six to 12 months, right? Yeah. Yeah. But when I was talking about three to five year, I was really focusing more on company strategy and strategic narrative.
Kathleen (21:24):
Okay. So like, which I totally agree with you by the way.
Heather (21:27):
Yeah, yeah. Just to clarify. Yeah. You know, what if, what is the story that you are arching into and how are you going to create a narrative that's really compelling from a category stand, right? Yeah. And then the trickiest bit in that right. Is to then bridge that with your six to 12 month. <Laugh> you aware, right? Yeah. Your messaging and like how you actually sell the stuff <laugh>. Yeah, so that's just to clarify.
Kathleen (21:57):
That's what I mean, no, that makes me feel better. Cuz when you said three to five years, I was like, holy. Maybe I've been doing it wrong the whole time. Like I wouldn't know how to do that at this point. What I, but there the narrative part I could do, but the thought of doing a three to five year go to market plan, I was like what? <Laugh>
Heather (22:15):
Yeah. That would be a little crazy and probably not very realistic
Kathleen (22:19):
Or fiction out of whole cloth <laugh> yeah. Now I feel better. Okay. great. And then <affirmative> and, and what stage do you usually come in at? Is it usually that seed series a stage or are you coming in later?
Heather (22:35):
It depends. So we, in our friend, we focus on, we call it pre-A, but like it's seed slash pre-A through B but the B rounds that we do are typical, either companies that we're following on within our portfolio or organizations that we're close with and we know well, and they're pretty far along right. And advanced in their strategies. So there's definitely a very different engagement model, at least from the way that I engage organizations that are earlier on than organizations that have a little bit more traction footing, revenue, et cetera.
Kathleen (23:17):
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so knowing that it's usually early stage, then you did talk about tech stack and I've always looked at it again as a startup marketer. I always looked at it as like, this is a, such a great time to make these decisions because the longer you live with a suboptimal stack, the harder it is to rip out. Right. And so you have a chance to build something correctly from the beginning. I'm, I'm assuming you probably look at it similarly. And so I'd love to hear kind of your thoughts around, and I'm not asking you to endorse particular vendors, but one thing I've, I'll just say I've observed amongst marketers is there is definitely an element of like shiny penny syndrome where we hear about all these fancy tools and, and there is a propensity to, in my opinion, either are over invest or under invest like under invest because you're being cheap and you're trying to like, wait until it really, really hurts before you get it. And, and, or out of pure ignorance because you don't know you need these things or over invest because you've heard like all the best companies use X, Y, and Z. And so you rush to buy it and then you don't use it. I'm, I'd love to hear what you see and kind of what your approach to that is.
Heather (24:27):
Oh man, I totally agree. And I think, I mean, this is maybe a bit of a tangent and response, but I think as marketers and go to market professionals, those of us in sales, right. There's like this cult like atmosphere around market tech and sales tech. Yeah. And on the one hand, it's fantastic because you get such a supportive environment and people are really willing to help and help you build out best practice and things like that. And on the other hand, it definitely I think it definitely like clouds a little bit of the, of, of how we evaluate software for best fit and best use. So yeah, that's anyway bit of a tangent there. But that said, yeah, I like to first go in again, look at the strategy and then figure out what technology is best gonna suit that, that motion and be their ground truth for the long term.
Heather (25:33):
Right? So whether that's a HubSpot Salesforce combo or a, you know, just on the basics, right. Or I have my ones that I don't like, which I won't mention. Don't we all, or another combo that will suit the organization. I think it's really important just to make sure that you have something that can grow with you. And that is really adaptable for add-ons because as go to market motions, change and companies develop new product and they enter into new markets and there's new technology that they're maybe gonna be selling in a different motion. You have to be able to kind of bolt on and manipulate the stack to accommodate those things. So I think that that's like, that's really the most critical for align that core technology that you can use to create the foundation and then ensuring that it works with best in class, whether it's ABM software or outreach software or conversational intelligence software, right. Like, so that you can build the best stack for the long term as you invest. And as you have capital to grow your teams, because so
Kathleen (26:49):
You might have just mentioned, answered this question, but I feel like what I'm hearing you say, or the subtext to this is that there's certain categories of software that you shouldn't skimp on. Meaning like, you know, for, well, if I'm gonna get a, if I'm gonna get a video hosting software, I could probably go with a lesser expensive one because that's an easy one to rip out and replace. But if I'm gonna pick my marketing automation platform or my CRM, like I should choose the one from the beginning, that's going to stick with me as I grow. So like, what are those categories where you shouldn't skimp and buy.
Heather (27:24):
Yeah. Marketing automation, CRM. Absolutely. I, I am a big fan of conversational intelligence when the time is right. Like, I, I don't think you necessarily need it if you are starting out and you have three marketers and two reps, right. But as you grow and you scale it is, is so useful and effective to bring teams together, to really test messaging, to tease out critical nuggets of messaging and, and sales information that you may not otherwise hear or understand. It's like so critical for product market and product as well. So it's one of those technologies that I do feel have revolutionized the way that we are able to not just mind conversations and insights, but create that interdepartmental, cross collaboration and alignment between sales, marketing, and product that just so crucial for rapid growth and scale. But again, like it's all about timing. It's a, it's not inexpensive technology and it's not it's not technology that you would necessarily implement early on, at least I think at this stage, given the pricing models of those organizations. Yeah. I would love to see more startup points <laugh> but as of now, it's, I think it's a little bit unrealistic for, for smaller organizations to implement.
Kathleen (28:59):
So underpinning a lot of these things when we talk about tech stack it's data, right. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and one of the questions that I've seen debated a lot in the marketing world, which I don't think I have a clear answer to, and I would love to hear your perspective on this as somebody who works with a variety of companies is when does it make sense in the, in a company's evolution to bring in someone dedicated for marketing operations or I guess revenue operations is what we're really revolving into at this point, but somebody whose, whose job it is to own the data and how the various elements of the tech stack talk to each other.
Heather (29:36):
I think it's a really critical role early on. Yeah. I think that, first of all, it, it definitely spans, it kind of gets back to that inner departmental alignment that I was talking about earlier and spans the sales marketing, and potentially like if you're doing PLG right. Product gamut to pull these metrics together to really create the growth insights that you mean in order to ensure that you're not just spending appropriately, but you also have the right metrics in place and the right tech in place and all that, but it's yeah. So I think it's pretty critical. I wouldn't necessarily hire like rev ops before I hired a like a head of marketing or, you know, a head of sales or a go to market leader as an example. Or even potentially before demand gen and content, but maybe simultaneously, because sometimes you just gotta get the ball rolling. Like I know that's a bit of a controversial opinion. A lot of people think marketing ops are rev first, but sometimes you have to prove the product you have to well, and do you have enough for that person to have to give money time?
Kathleen (30:53):
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Heather (30:56):
And so well I think it's critical. I don't know if it's necessarily a first hire, especially if you can find again in the startup world, like somebody fractional or an agency or another resource that can kind of guide you along that path.
Kathleen (31:12):
Yeah. Yeah. So many, I mean like so many questions I could ask, so I guess my next one is like how, in your opinion and what, what should marketing leaders in-house marketing leaders know about working with the VCs that have funded them? Because I've heard differing viewpoints on this where some of the VCs that I've spoken to are like, I love having regular conversations with, you know, the, the marketing leader, not just the CEO, others are like, I don't have, have contact unless something's wrong. Like how, what is your, what is your MO and like, what do you think a market leader should know about that relationship?
Heather (31:53):
Yeah. And this is a tricky one too, because it really depends on how the CEO wants to manage the board relationship. I, so in my experience, the most effective when I was on the operating side, the most effective relationships that I've had are when the CEO is comfortable with the people on their executive team, talking to the board directly. And whether that's like keeping them on copy or keeping up to date, obviously with respect and ensuring that there is deep communication <laugh> between, between all parties, right? It's not like you just kind of back channel. That's not what I'm talking about. But sometimes there is a real desire to have all communications flow through one particular person on the board and one particular person within, in the exec team per, you know, namely the CEO and that can work as well. But it's just a little bit more challenging, I think, to navigate when that's, that's the situation, because you're, you're not necessarily able to have open conversation or present kind of firsthand information.
Heather (33:07):
So I would suss that out first, like what, what is the internal dynamic? What is the executive team agreeing to? What is the CEO prefer and follow that kind of route and that guidance. And if it is the latter really ensure that there is deep alignment in the narrative, that's going to the board from both marketing and sales and, you know, the full, good market, right? Like on the, on the board side, how, how does a VC, or how does, how does a, would wanna communicate with a head of marketing or CMO? I think it really depends on the individual. So I've been in situations where like a board member or a VC is all about marketing <laugh> and like they're into it and it's their, it's their domain of expertise and they wanna geek out on it. Right. And in that case, it's been really wonderful because you get to have a lot of deep conversation.
Heather (34:08):
It can also become a bit challenging because they always have opinion on narrative of <laugh>. I think you've probably encountered this as well. Yep. And have opinion on messaging and things like that, which <affirmative>, and I've, I've been in this situation now as well at the VC level where like, I wanna push for a specific narrative or a longer term positioning angle for an organization, but like they're selling X, Y, Z product today to a certain target market. And that dance is really, really it can be challenging, but also needs to be strategically thought out and strategically communicated. Because if you are like on the one hand, yes, you probably should be thinking, as we were talking earlier about this longer term narrative, but at this you still have to sell stuff. Right? Yeah. So how do you bridge that out? And I think that that's, that's one of the conversations that, that I found is really important to just think about how to navigate in, in both a short term and a long term situation. But yeah, if you, if you have the blessing to talk to whomever you wanna talk to from your like, and your exec team agrees on that, just get to know the folks on your, on your board and get to know the folks in your firm and see if they have operating resources that will help because that in and of itself like creating those connections creates another advocate within the firm, within the VC firm.
Kathleen (35:42):
Yeah. Yeah. That's great advice. Well, before we wrap up, I wanna know from you, what are the biggest mistakes that you see marketers making within kind of the stage of company you tell to work with? Like what, what should they know if they're listening to this now?
Heather (36:01):
That's a really good question. I think that it's really challenging to manage the day to day, week to week, and also keep in my, and a longer term vision for your team and for how you wanna grow and really thinking that through and running through your own narrative and your own head, right. About how you're gonna communicate that and balance the short term. And the long term goes a long, long way, instilling confidence and longevity with a VC and with a board member. So, I mean, that's just the first thing that comes to top of mind, right? No, that's great
Kathleen (36:59):
Advice, cuz I do think when you're at these early stage, you're very much building the plane while you're flying it. And yeah, it would be easy to veer into the category of doing one more than the other and then the plane crashes. Right. If you're not balancing it well.
Heather (37:14):
Yeah, exactly. And you know, so often we'll go, go into a meeting and it's like, okay, well here are our metrics for the quarter. And that's, I mean, here's the campaigns that we ran and here's the PR that we did and da, da, da, like, that's great. That it's fantastic. Good job. You grew. All right. <Laugh> but like how, how are you thinking about the next quarter? How are you thinking about growing your team? How are you gonna nurture them? How are you gonna maintain your attention? Like all of these components of leadership that I think often get shadowed by this constant fervor and constant pressure to just, yeah, fly the plane while you're building it. They're so critical not to lose sight of because that's what, that's, what makes you a leader. That's what makes you a strategic for a board of VC, an executive team and a company in general, right? It's not, it's not necessarily the fact that you can deliver X amount of leads or X amount of opportunities or revenue. Like that's, that's based on you gotta do that, but elevating to that kind of leadership mindset and that mindful leadership mindset, I think is really critical.
Kathleen (38:26):
Yeah. That's great advice. All right. We're gonna shift gears <laugh> cuz otherwise we'll run outta time. I always ask my guests two questions at the end and I'm really curious what you're gonna say about these especially because you do have this interesting perspective coming from within the VC world. The first is a lot of the marketers I talked to say one of their biggest challenges is just keeping up to date with everything that's changing, particularly within the world of digital marketing. You know, it's like drinking for, from a fire hose. And so I'm curious for yourself, how do you personally stay up to date and educated? Do you have certain sources you really rely on?
Heather (39:03):
Yeah, for sure. And I mean, I met you through Pavilion. That's been a really great source of information and community and support. I think for, for me over the past few years, I've been a member now for about two, two and a half years. And that's yeah, that's been, been really good and even just kind of staying on top of the channels and seeing what people are talking about and obviously contributing where I can, but that's helped keep me top of keep things top mind for me, especially living, living in New Zealand and not in the bay anymore. It's been, it's been something I've really, really put a conscious effort into like how do I stay connected with the, the US and the bay area scene and my connections there and kind of the cutting edge technologies that are coming out and best practices that are coming out of, of that region because ultimately our portfolio companies here are early, very early on expanding to the states that's or, or Europe or Asia. Right. The whole premise of Global From Day One is that you go Global From Day One.
Kathleen (40:17):
Is it in the title? It's very clear.
Heather (40:20):
Yeah. Like 95% of our portfolio company revenue comes from outside of New Zealand, Australia. So it's really, really important for me to make sure that I'm maintaining that. Not just connection like with people, but also staying up to date on best practice. So yeah, I think that that's one resource and then, I mean, I just like have a whole heap of newsletters that I read and obviously LinkedIn's a great source of information as well. Stay up to date on CMO coffee talks when I can, even though they're at ungodly hour for me.
Kathleen (40:53):
I was gonna say, yeah, what time are they?
Heather (40:55):
I think they're like 4:00 AM sometimes three. I don't listen to them live, but goodness, there's good recaps that come out of those that are, are really useful as well. Yeah.
Kathleen (41:05):
Yeah. That's great. Well, all right. Second question. This podcast is all about inbound marketing and I will say the definition of inbound marketing has evolved considerably since I started doing this podcast five years of go, you know, and I look at it as anything that naturally attracts the right kind of buyer to your business. Is there a particular company or individual that you think is really setting the standard for what it means to be a great inbound marketer today?
Heather (41:34):
Hmm. I've been really impressed with what Robinn Daniels has done at Matterport.
Kathleen (41:39):
I'm not familiar with that one. I'll have to check that out.
Heather (41:43):
Yeah, they IPO'd last this year. I don't even know what year it is anymore.
Kathleen (41:49):
Tell me about it, right.
Heather (41:52):
Yeah, he, he, I think did a really good job in a space that's super technical and doesn't necessarily, you know, it's like PropTech, it doesn't necessarily always have the most glitz and glam or like we see in marketing and sales marketing. Right, right. Martech sales, marketing. Yeah. So yeah, looking in industries like that I think are, are really, really interesting. And then I think that the other, the other company that's been really interesting to follow is Scale actually Scale AI, which I realize they're like a competitor to the employer that I used to work for and I love Summit dearly, but their CMOs done a really great job at building community and building inbound based on like events and things like that. Again, super technical product, technical marketing, but that's been pretty impressive to watch as well.
Kathleen (42:57):
Ooh, I love these. I'm definitely gonna check them out. I'm like pulling up their websites as we're talking. Yeah. It's when I get new answers to this.
Heather (43:03):
Way different than the traditional marketing and sales technology that we like we're used to seeing.
Kathleen (43:09):
Right. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. All right. Well, we're coming to the end. So if somebody wants to connect with you or has a question or wants to learn more about GD1, what's the best way for them to do that?
Heather (43:24):
Find me on LinkedIn or DM me on Twitter. I'm at Gadonniex, which I know is hard to spell, but G A D O N N I E X on both LinkedIn and Twitter and reach out, would love to chat.
Kathleen (43:38):
And know that you may not have a quick response if, if it is in the next few weeks when this baby arrives,
Heather (43:44):
That is true.
Kathleen (43:45):
Or you might be like welcoming an opportunity to just get on Twitter and have a little adult interaction. I remember I felt that way for a while, but everyone tells me that the second baby is it's like, it's totally a game changer. So in terms of like your level of busyness,
Heather (44:01):
Yeah. It's gonna be interesting. I mean, I'm for better or for worse, like living with my in-laws right now during this transition.
Kathleen (44:08):
You know what, early on that's so, it's gonna be great. Be a total lifesaver. Yeah, actually.
Heather (44:15):
I think that'll be helpful.
Kathleen (44:17):
Well, best of luck you in, in the next few weeks with the delivery and with the new baby, and we'll have to do a second installment at some point and check back in on how things are going with your move and all the other interesting aspects of your life. You, I, I just think it's, it's, it's amazing what you have going on and I give you so many, so much credit for juggling all those balls.
Heather (44:42):
Well, thank you. Thank you. And thank you for having me. It's been such a good good chat. I'm really grateful for, for the opportunity.
Kathleen (44:51):
If you're listening to this episode as always, if you like what you heard head to apple podcasts and leave the podcast a review, and if you know somebody else who's doing amazing inbound marketing work, tweet me at @workmommywork, my very bizarre Twitter handle. There's a story behind that. And someday I'll tell it on this podcast. And I would love to have them as my next guest. In the meantime, that is it for this week. Thanks for joining me, Heather. This was a ton of fun.
Heather (45:15):
Thank you.
