Top Learnings from 2 Martech Exits

Signal-based demand generation replaces traditional lead scoring with real buying intent data. Nick Zeckets, Chief Fire Starter at Smoke Signals AI, brings expertise from two MarTech exits and building AI-first HubSpot solutions. He advocates bootstrapping over venture capital to maintain customer focus and control. The discussion covers transitioning from vanity metrics to pipeline measurement and redesigning demand generation systems for AI-driven buyer behavior tracking. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

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  From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.

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  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

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  Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

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  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

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  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

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  I'm Benjamin Shapiro and joining me today is Nick Zeckets, the chief firestarter at Smoke Signals AI, an AI-first HubSpot agency that helps B2B companies generate, capture and activate buying signals to measure pipeline, not vanity metrics. And today, Nick is going to share his process for redesigning demand generation from the ground up for the age of AI. All right, I want to go on to our lightning round where I'm going to ask you a couple of quick hitting questions around signal-based marketing and a little bit about your career. Are you ready?

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  Sure, let's hit it.

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  Here we go. What's the biggest learning that's still apples to apples today from your two Martech exits?

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  Ooh, God, never raise outside capital.

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  Oh, you're a bootstrapper?

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  Oh, yeah.

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  Okay, why? Why wouldn't you raise outside capital today?

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  Because I don't think that you need to. One, the second that you raise any, it changes your brain chemistry as to what it is that you are doing, why you're doing it, and how you are doing it. It takes you away from the customer. If you are customer obsessed, you are going to get to cash faster and customer cash is better. The other thing is, what if you get to a million bucks? Someone wants to give you to 10, give you $10 million to take your business? That is an incredible result, and the vast majority of quote unquote, successful exit founders don't get a check for 10 million.

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  Yeah, but you don't get on TechCrunch for getting 10 million bucks.

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  Look, if you're going for vanity, good for you, but I could give a shit. I could absolutely care less. I care about my family. I care about my health. I care about my sanity. And not having an external cap table means that I am in charge of those things. I don't have external forces dictating whether or not I get to stay sane and where I'm going to spend my time.

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  You're preaching to the choir. I have this argument with two of my neighborhood friends all of the time. Both of them have taken outside capital. And the argument is, why wouldn't I take somebody else's money to figure out if this business is going to work as opposed to investing my own? Which I understand, in the early phases, you still get a paycheck and you're figuring out if it works and you're, you know, sharing what could be a large pie with other people. That's their argument. Mine is, if I'm going to build something that's successful, why shouldn't I own and control it? I'm in your camp. I understand the other one as well. All right, that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Nick Zeckets, the Chief Firestarter at Smoke Signals for joining us. If you'd like to contact Nick, you can find a link

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  to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com, or you can visit his company's website. It's smokesignals.ai. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button. Button in your podcast app or subscribe on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed every week. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

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  Thanks for listening to the MarTech Podcast, an I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iHearEverything.com.