Pod Insights Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips AI for Agencies, Content From CEOs... What’s Actually Worth Doing? About this episode In this episode #3033, Eric Siu and Neil Patel share VC perspectives on how AI is reshaping automation, while stressing that strong relationships remain key in service-based industries. They also highlight why executives need to create content that speaks directly to their ideal audience and leverage personal experiences to build trust and engagement. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES (00:00) Venture Capital Insights on AI Automation (03:01) Relationships in Business Success (05:44) Executive Content Creation and Strategy To suggest a topic, go to https://www.marketingschool.io. For more content from Eric and Neil, check out Eric’s Leveling Up with Eric Siu YouTube channel and Neil’s Neil Patel YouTube channel. Connect with Us: Single Grain << Eric's ad agency NP Digital << Neil’s ad agency X @neilpatel, @ericosiu Instagram @neilpatel, @ericosiu Drop Us a Review If You Enjoyed the Episode!
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0:36 Speaker 01 So this was interesting. We've been getting some emails and calls from people from venture capitalists in the United States, more so in the San Francisco-ish area. I think one of them came from New York, but it was mainly San Francisco-based VCs. And I wouldn't say they're the biggest funds. I wouldn't say they're the smallest funds either.
0:56 Speaker 01 Assume they can write check sizes from 50 to a few hundred million. And when I say 50 to a few hundred million, they would lead around and they would bring in other people, so then that way, you know, you can end up having more firing power. But I don't know exactly what check size they wrote, but most of them say, hey, we want to lead around, right? And when we're talking to them, and I'm more so the one talking to them, and we're not trying to do anything. I'm just curious to see what they're seeing the market going, or they have a different perspective than us. No joke, we're seeing a common trend in which people are like, yeah, we just want to take AI and automate what a lot of people are doing, and we're going to make your agency like double or triple more profitable.
1:40 Speaker 01 And to clarify on this, they're not saying the next day we're going to be double or triple, you know, increasing in profit. That would be their goal, and they're trying to figure out if they can help us do it, and they're not sure yet. And go ahead.
1:53 Speaker 00 It's just, it's funny how like to assume that you aren't doing a lot of this stuff already and they to think that the VC firm knows what's better to do from an AI standpoint is kind of funny to me.
2:06 Speaker 01 Well, their assets are margins and our margins are low and that's one of the indications on there and that they think they can do better. But one of the biggest or actually the biggest reason our margins were lows because we've been reinvesting a lot of our capital for future growth and expanding to different countries, which is expensive.
2:23 Speaker 00 You guys are C corp, right?
2:25 Speaker 01 No, S corp.
2:26 Speaker 00 Okay, keep going.
2:27 Speaker 01 Well, that that itself is a problem if you ever want to raise money.
2:30 Speaker 00 Yeah.
2:31 Speaker 01 Um, but going back to it, or at least with VCs, right? I think most of them prefer C corps. But either way, when I was talking to them, I was and I was like, so what do you have in mind? They're just like, oh, you, you know, a few of them technically out of the four we talked to, two of them specifically said, you guys spend a lot on account managers. Why can't we automate a lot of this with AI? And the first thing I said is, have you ever dealt with a service-based company and worked with enterprise brands? Both the responses were no. And I said, a lot of what your account manager is dealing with is politics. And both of them are like, what do you mean?
3:08 Speaker 01 And I'm like, when you're dealing with Fortune 100 companies, a lot of times you're dealing with internal politics and you're trying to figure out how you can actually get something done and convince people to not be a roadblock. And they're just like, oh, you know, how can we do this with AI? And I'm like, I don't see how you can do this with AI. You're just dealing with internal politics. And I hate to say it. A lot of big corporations work with outside consultants and agencies because they got to deal with politics.
3:38 Speaker 00 Look, I think the one thing or things that aren't going to go away as easily are relational relational capital. And so, salespeople have to maintain a relationship. Uh, client services people have to maintain a relationship. Uh, I don't think an AI is going to, at least for the next couple of years, take that away immediately. And so I, I think for some things you can say, okay, why can't AI just do that? For, for, for other things. Where it's a little more intangible, at least for the next five years, probably can't touch it beyond that. I don't know. It's it's it's anyone's guess. And so I think the angle is the correct angle, but I just, again, I find it hard. This is why you haven't necessarily taken VC money or PE money yet. It's because one, you want to have control. We've talked about this before.
4:21 Speaker 00 Two, it's like, you know, you want to have control to do things your way. You don't want to have someone telling you what to do. And plus, like, you're kind of doing this already. So what is the angle? What is the value add here? The value add, I guess. Go ahead.
4:34 Speaker 01 No, it it tends to be mainly Ivy League number crunchers. These people tend to go have gone degrees from Ivy League.
4:44 Speaker 01 Number crunchers telling me how they have a better way of operating a business when most of them have never operated a business. I'm not saying I know everything. I actually think there's a lot of things we can improve upon. So many I can't even count on two, three hands, right? But I want to hear it from people who have tried and tested these things versus someone who's looking at a spreadsheet and just saying you can cut here, you can cut there. Business doesn't operate based on a spreadsheet.
5:14 Speaker 00 Yeah. Wisdom comes from wisdom comes from experience and actually being being in the trenches. And so, for example, if if Marc Andreessen reached out to you directly, you would take that call, right? Like, he started Netscape, so and he's been through the trenches.
5:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, and he did another company after that sold as well. But Marc Andreessen is an amazing operator. Same with like Ben Horowitz. I don't think most VCs are like them. That's just my two cents.
5:39 Speaker 00 Yep. No, hundred percent. So there's there's anyway, I don't want to belabor the the the point here. So I I'm assuming you're you took the call and you might take more calls in the future, but you're probably not looking to do anything imminently.
5:49 Speaker 01 Yeah, and for anyone wondering, why am I taking calls? Is because it's not even the money. Some of these people, if you do twenty of them, fifty of them, a hundred of them. Some of them are giving you some amazing ideas that you can run with, and they may have thought of some things that you never did, and that could change your business. The reason to doing meetings is not because you expect every meeting to be a hit. A lot of meetings will be duds, and you don't learn anything. Very small percentage of them will be amazing, and you know what? Those make up for all the duds.
6:21 Speaker 00 Speaking of this, so we're talking about operators right now, but we saw that acquisition.com. So again, Alex had a very, Alex did a very successful launch with his $100 million money models book. 105.5 million for the weekend or something like that. But recently they made a hire, Sharon Shunavazin, who spoke at the YPO Global Marketing Summit. So he joined as their president and what I'm noticing is that he's actually creating a lot more content. And so his Twitter is starting to get going now and I've kind of noticed a pattern here where Sharon, this guy ran a publicly traded real estate firm and then now he's the president for acquisition. I think they started like a venture arm or something, but he's creating a lot of content. There's a lot, he was already creating content for Instagram.
7:03 Speaker 00 I think, you know, Alex and Leila are helping him level up his content game in general. And I see his Twitter growing, right? And he's, he's kind of posting like, I don't know, call it seven to eight times a day. And a lot of it's like philosophical stuff that, you know, I think, you know, that can ward a lot of engagement, right? So the question I'm really posing here is, you know, if you're going to hire an executive, should executives create content overall? Is that a net positive? And I just got this idea just, just by, by, by looking at his, his Instagram because he does a good job and he's actually a very good speaker.
7:32 Speaker 01 I, I, I think there's nothing wrong with having people create content and I think it can help you out. But it's what type of content? So I've seen his content and have you watched a lot of it, Eric?
7:43 Speaker 00 I've only seen the Twitter stuff.
7:46 Speaker 01 So if his goal is to run acquisition or acquisition.com or venture, I think creating content is great, but I think he's creating the wrong type of content. His content is too broad and it's the type of content to go after
8:04 Speaker 01 entrepreneurs who are just starting versus people who have established companies and are growing. And I think that's the mistake. People create content for views and reach instead of going after your ideal audience. Now, if you look at Alex, Alex's content is going after people who are starting off as entrepreneurs. People are trying to scale as entrepreneurs, right? But more the SMB crowd, but that's who he's selling the book to. I, I don't see enterprise companies wanting to buy his book. I'm not trying to throw shade on Alex, it's just a reality and I bet you Alex knows this. So he creates content for his ideal audience. That president, the guy you're talking about, I've checked out a lot of his content. I don't think his content is.
8:47 Speaker 01 Is the right type of content if he's looking for venture deals or private equity deals?
8:51 Speaker 00 Frictionless Growth Marketing hosted by Sonya Thompson is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Frictionless Growth Marketing hosted by Sonya Thompson shows how modern brands grow by removing the friction in their marketing and customer experience that pushes customers away every single day, often without leaders even realizing it. Each episode delivers practical insights, real brand examples, and conversations with marketing leaders, showing brands how to win with the new rules of growth, identity-driven marketing, cultural relevance, and frictionless customer experiences. Listen to Frictionless Growth Marketing wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, by the way, I'm looking at his Twitter right now. So Sharon, you can feel free to reach out to me. Neil and I are happy to talk anytime. I hope you don't think we're throwing shade. We're not.
9:36 Speaker 01 No, this is more so to help you out and hopefully your content starts generating you more revenue.
9:42 Speaker 00 So it's Sharon Sharvatsa? I think you would know better than I would, Neil, how to pronounce his last name. But so here's what I see him posting right now. So three truths about work ethic, it's harder than it looks, it takes longer than you think, and he's starting to get a lot more likes. Like this is stuff that people can get, anybody's going to engage with this philosophical stuff. So 147 likes, 2,400 views. And the next one after that is the best investment you'll ever make is in yourself. It's the only asset that can't be stolen, taxed, or devalued by markets. Now, he's posting in three-hour increments. I think he's posting seven to eight times a day. I think the problem that I'm seeing, look, if you're Marc Andreessen, or if you're Ben Horowitz, or even if you're Gary Tan, or let's say you're Alexis Ohanian from Reddit, they're all venture capitalists now, right? And they're only posting about stuff that they're working on, stuff that they're investing in.
10:25 Speaker 00 They're talking about their investments, maybe they're talking about things that they're building. Even Chamath Palihapitiya, sure, he's got a new SPAC going on, right?
10:32 Speaker 01 Does he really?
10:33 Speaker 00 Yeah, he has a new SPAC going on. People are like, why are you doing another SPAC if he's so rich already, right? But my point is, they're posting on what they're working on in the venture space. They're not posting this high-level philosophical stuff that I think can get views and followers. But I think if we're trying to get, if you look at all these people, the patterns are already there on X. Like, these are what the venture people are doing. All you need to do is emulate them. That seems like a, I hate using the word first principles because I think it's used so much, but that seems like a first principles thing to me.
11:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, but if his goal is to get mass following and go a different route or sell books or something like that, then the type of content you're posting is great and you should do more of it.
11:12 Speaker 00 Yeah, actually, so here, check this out real quick. I know we can move on to the next topic, but I want to share my screen because, you know, we can share our screens while we're remote. So you see this?
11:20 Speaker 01 While Eric's sharing his screen, because we don't see it yet, but keep in mind, we're giving this feedback assuming his goal is to be a venture capitalist or, you know, do deals like private equity stuff.
11:34 Speaker 00 Well, dude, it literally says VC at Acquisition Ventures. So I'm managing partner over here too. And so it says my next billion, which is kind of a spin on my first million, but then it's like my next billion. So maybe this is the angle, but I think, again, like I think on Twitter at least, the VCs have already mastered the playbook. And so in my mind, I'm just like, I'm just going to copy what the VCs are doing. And Sharon has a lot of great stories he can tell around that, and I'm looking forward to it. So anyway, that's my feedback again. Hopefully that's no shade, but in my mind, I think if we're going to have executives creating content, it should be focused on driving business results. And who knows, we could be wrong here, but at least that's my feedback and that's your feedback.
12:11 Speaker 01 And one quick thing I would love to give feedback is, because I want to end it on a positive note. If you are going and, you know, you've already done publicly traded companies. I think he's done one or two publicly traded companies.
12:28 Speaker 00 Could be two.
12:31 Speaker 01 Either way, you've had success. What I would love to see from content perspectives, if you shared what it's like going public, running publicly traded companies, how to grow, what to deal with when things aren't going your way, like sharing all of those insights. I think that's going to be really helpful and that's going to cause you to get more deal flow than more of the broader TAM content.
12:51 Speaker 00 Dude, okay, here, let me just read this off real quick and we can move on to the next one. So he has had, so he's a four times Inc. 500 entrepreneur with five exits in the last 19 years. And he has helped build two billion dollar companies. And then he's worked at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. So very smart guy, very good speaker. He actually ranked number two when he spoke at the events. I'm very grateful for that. So I am actually interested in his experience shares and his stories that he can tell. I think those will get a lot more views and they'll get the right views.
13:19 Speaker 01 Yeah, and even if it doesn't get a lot more reviews, he's gonna be engaging with the right type of customer, right? And I would love to read or watch content that breaks down what it's like to run, you know, two multi-billion dollar businesses, the ups, the downs. He created tons of content about that, working in the corporate world and how he transitioned to entrepreneur, or when he knew it was the right time to go do a startup, or whatever it may be, right? That may be a little bit too early, unless you're doing early-stage checks. But I do believe he can just experience, share, and a lot of us would love that content.
13:56 Speaker 00 Cool. All right, guys, that's it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, and we'll see you later.
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