When recession hits, the natural instinct for category leaders is to retreat upmarket to protect revenue. But every strategic pivot leaves behind a vacuum. And sometimes, an opening for a new category king. On this episode of the Experience-focused Leaders & Investors podcast, I sat down with Mark Organ, founder & CEO of @influitive, founding CEO of Eloqua (acquired by Oracle for ~$1B), author of The Messenger is The Message, and CEO coach at Categorynauts. Mark reflected on Eloqua’s battle with Marketo during the 2008 downturn: "In 2008, there's a recession. [The sentiment was] let's focus on the most profitable segments, which is the high end of the market. That did leave a vacuum... Marketo actually ended up with a bigger market cap, and ultimately ended up being the category king. But a lot of that is because of timing. And maybe if I executed my strategy of creating a fighting brand, that might have diluted the focus of the company and we might have lost control over the high end..." 🎧 Listen to the full episode now: relayto.com/blog/s-01-ep-23-…

Most tech acquisitions end the same way: the company gets bought, absorbed, and eventually vaporized. When @GlebBudman and his co-founders at @Backblaze looked at their track record after 5 years, they realized they had already been through that process twice before. They loved the problem they were solving, their employees loved working there, and their customers loved the product. They didn't want Backblaze to vanish into an acquirer’s portfolio. They wanted it to last forever. In this episode of the Experience-focused Leaders & Investors podcast, Gleb shares the candid story behind taking Backblaze (NASDAQ: BLZE) public, from a self-funded startup in a one-bedroom apartment to a publicly traded enterprise competing with trillion-dollar tech giants. We dive into: • Why IPOing became the strategy to protect the company's legacy. • Scaling sustainably through organic growth rather than relying purely on early venture capital. • Navigating massive industry shifts and transitioning a 400-person team into a remote-first organization. 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

"You can't have one company that basically gets all the engineers who know AI in one place." That single premise launched OpenAI. In this episode of Experience-focused Leaders & Investors, @jimyu (Founding CEO & Executive Chair of @brightedge) breaks down the legendary debate between Elon Musk and Google that set today's AI transformation in motion. Jim has spent years building the #1 enterprise SEO platform, leading BrightEdge past $100M+ in revenue and serving over half of the Fortune 100. His take on where search and AI are heading next is worth taking notes. Tune in to the full episode: relayto.com/blog/s-01-ep-51-…

Nobody cares about your widget. They only care about what that widget does for them. On the latest episode of the Experience-focused Leaders & Investors podcast, @ParkHowell broke down why most brand stories fail to convert and how to fix yours instantly. If you want your narrative to win, anchor it in these two principles: • Your story is not about you. Frame everything through your audience’s point of view. • Your story is not about what you make. Focus entirely on what you make happen in their life. People invest in outcomes. Special thanks to Park Howell (Emmy Award-winning business storytelling coach at Business of Story and author of The Narrative Gym for Business and Brand Bewitchery) for sharing such a sharp, actionable framework. Listen to the full episode here: relayto.com/blog/s-01-ep-57-…

Community is a core business strategy. In our latest episode of Experience-focused Leaders & Investors, Paula Goldman, @pdgoldman, (Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer at @Salesforce and author of Manage the Machine) shares a powerful lesson on how tapping into real human connections can completely turn a company around. "They realized that they had this one really important asset: their community of loyal customers... They went really, really deep on building these Harley communities... creating all these incredible, actually monetizable experiences. The important part, though, was that it was centered on local businesses and dealerships, a network of partnerships that turned the company around." Key takeaways from the episode: • Building spaces for true enthusiasts creates experiences that naturally drive monetization. • Decentralizing your strategy to support local partners and grassroots communities builds resilient brand loyalty. • How aligning business models with human connection mirrors the frameworks needed for responsible AI governance today. 🎧 Listen to the full episode now: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

Off to IPEM Global in Paris! 🇫🇷 Excited to exchange ideas with fellow private capital leaders, dive into emerging trends, and debate what’s next for the market. If you'll be at the Palais des Congrès this week, let’s grab a coffee and catch up! ☕ @IpemMarket

AI can generate a thousand posts a minute, but it can’t build actual trust. In the latest episode of Experience-focused Leaders, industry authority Joel Harrison highlights a massive blindspot in modern marketing: we spend millions on integrated campaigns, yet completely underuse the key human voices behind the brand. Here is a snippet of what Joel had to say: "They don't understand them, they don't recognize them, they don't deploy them as effectively as they might be. And yet those five protagonists can be the most powerful voices in a brand's armory... To leverage into those humans and this ongoing trend towards humanization, that for me is where the future of B2B marketing is." As the co-founder of @MarketingB2B and host of Trust & Influence in B2B, Joel has spent over two decades tracking where the field is headed. His takeaway? As AI floods feeds with low-effort noise, authentic human protagonists (executives, subject matter experts, and advocates) are a brand's greatest differentiator. In this episode, we explore: • Why standard agency playbooks fail to activate core personas. • How to stand out as AI accelerates the volume of brand messaging. • Tactical ways to center human connection in your B2B strategy. Link to the full conversation: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-… How are you empowering the real voices inside your organization to cut through the digital noise?

🍂 When software gets ranked on G2, most founders post the badge grid and call it a day. I’m looking at our Fall 2026 report with a different question: Why are we showing up in 16 different categories? Because modern buyers don't experience your business in silos. They don't care if a document is a proposal, a presentation, a CMS asset, or a digital sales room. They just want an engaging, seamless experience that doesn't feel like a 2005 PDF. G2 recognized RELAYTO AI with 15 badges, including Leader status across 8 distinct categories: • Proposal • Content Experience Platforms • Content Distribution • Flipbook • Digital Sales Room • CMS Tools • Content Curation • Presentation Management To our team: thank you for building something versatile enough to solve real problems across the entire go-to-market spectrum. To our customers: thank you for putting your trust (and your reviews) behind our approach to interactive content. If you're still sending static attachments to modern buyers, we should talk.

Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote that "hell is other people." But according to world-renowned positive psychologist Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, the exact opposite is also true: other people are the ultimate source of our greatest happiness. In the latest episode of Experience-focused Leaders, Dr. Lyubomirsky (@slyubomirsky) breaks down the profound impact of human connection, the mindsets that foster deep relationships, and why our well-being almost always traces back to the people around us. Dr. Lyubomirsky (Vice Chair of Psychology at @UCRiverside , Stanford Ph.D., and author of The How of Happiness and How to Feel Loved) has spent nearly four decades researching human well-being. This conversation is packed with actionable insights on how leaders can build richer connections and more fulfilling experiences for their teams and customers. 🎧 Listen to the full episode now: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

Most workplace relationships stall out for one simple reason: we stop being curious. We assume we already know everything about our colleagues, employees, or partners. We judge people by a single mistake, or we try to force them (or ourselves) to change. According to legendary positive psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky (@slyubomirsky), there’s a much better way. In the latest episode of Experience-focused Leaders, I sit down with Sonja (Vice Chair of Psychology at @UCRiverside and author of How to Feel Loved) to break down the science of human connection and why it’s the ultimate driver of workplace performance, trust, and well-being. Her core takeaway for leaders? "You don't actually have to change yourself if you want to feel more connected and loved. You don't have to change the other person, either. You just have to change the conversation." Here are 3 actionable mindsets from the episode to transform your workplace relationships: 1️⃣ Apply the "multiplicity" lens. Humans are messy and complex. Instead of reducing a colleague or team member to their worst moment or a single flaw, view them as a "quilt" made up of dozens of different strengths and qualities. 2️⃣ Shift from small talk to deep inquiry. Connection relies on a simple formula: Feeling Loved = To Know and To Be Known. Ask open-ended, curious questions about dreams, failures, or insights, and allow your team to see the authentic person behind the title. 3️⃣ Practice high-quality listening. Real requires total attention, genuine comprehension, and showing that you actually care about the speaker's success. 🎧 Listen to the full episode now: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

Facts and logic are only half the equation in B2B marketing. In this episode of Experience-focused Leaders, I sat down with Adam Morgan, VP of Brand at @twilio and former Adobe executive, to break down why emotional storytelling is a bottom-line driver. "If you're just going with facts and logic, you are missing a huge part of the opportunity for business... It's your best bet and least amount of risk to go with an emotional experience as a brand." — Adam Morgan For years, creative leaders knew intuitively that human-centric experiences were stickier. Now, neuroscience proves it: emotional moments in the brain are logical moments. In his book Sorry Spock, Emotions Drive Business, Adam spent seven years pulling together the hard science showing how creativity directly impacts revenue, especially for highly technical organizations trying to move past boring, feature-driven marketing. Check out the full episode here: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

Why do most business communications feel stiff, flat, and overly serious? 👔🚫 In a world where 98% of CEOs prefer job candidates with a sense of humor and 81% of workers feel more productive in fun environments, why do so many professionals hold back? The short answer: Fear that colleagues or leadership won't approve. In the latest episode of the Experience-focused Leaders podcast, I sat down with Andrew Tarvin (@tarvintalks), CEO of @HumorThatWorks and the world's first "humor engineer." Andrew shared a simple truth from his early days at Procter & Gamble that completely reframed how I think about workplace stress: "At the end of the day, we sell soap." Whether you're selling software, managing a team, or pitching a high-stakes deal, most problems aren't life-or-death. Injecting levity is about making work just 10% more fun and engaging. 💡 Key takeaways from our conversation: • The humor MAP. How Medium, Audience, and Purpose dictate how to apply humor effectively without overstepping. • Pattern interrupts. Why small breaks in routine (like a "comic triple" or extended metaphor) lower stress and reset focus. • The $1M "Porpoise" meme. How one sales team used curated humor to achieve their highest follow-up reply rate. • Driving change without offending. Using self-deprecating humor and story-driven profiles so clients never feel "stupid" for doing things the old way. Humor is a skill. You don't have to be born the class clown to engineer better results through levity. 👇 Listen to the episode here: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

"Sounds good." According to @ericries, those might just be the two most dangerous words in entrepreneurship. Back in 2006 at an early startup conference, Eric watched two consecutive speakers give completely opposite, highly confident advice. Both sounded entirely plausible. Both made sense. And that is the exact trap founders fall into every day. In this episode of Experience-focused Leaders, the pioneer of the Lean Startup movement and author of Incorruptible drops by to share why trusting what "sounds good" is a recipe for failure, especially in the age of AI. "Anything can be made to sound plausible. And now, LLMs are just 'sounds good' machines. They can make anything sound good." — Eric Ries When every framework, pitch, and AI-generated strategy feels convincing on the surface, how do mission-driven leaders build organizations with actual structural integrity? Catch the full conversation here: relayto.com/blog/s-02-ep-36-…

"There are only two kinds of problems in business: not enough revenue, and everything else." 💡 In this episode of Experience-focused Leaders, we sit down with Barry Rhein, founder of Barry Rhein & Associates, Inc., creator of the "Selling Through Curiosity" methodology, and guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Barry's methodology has become a staple for Silicon Valley giants like Salesforce, DocuSign, and SAP, yet his signature course at Stanford attracts a room where 95% of the students aren't even aspiring salespeople. Why? Because as tomorrow's leaders, founders, and innovators realize: if you can't generate revenue, you don't have a business. In this episode, Barry redefines sales from transactional pitching into a disciplined, integrity-driven practice rooted in genuine curiosity. 🎧 Listen here: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

Why 90% of B2B demos are actually killing your deals (and how to fix it)? If you went to business school, ran a YC-backed startup, or worked in top-tier consulting, you were likely taught the standard sales playbook: 1. Find a customer pain point. 2. Build something people love. 3. Show off a full product demo & run a 6-month trial to "prove ROI." On paper, it makes complete sense. In reality? It leads to 18-month sales cycles, "innovation tourism," and buyers ghosting you after telling you your product is "amazing." In the latest episode of Experience-focused Leaders, I sat down with Rob Snyder, author of The Power of Pull, to break down why conventional startup wisdom fails, and what actually causes enterprise buyers to pull out their checkbooks. Here are 3 key takeaways for B2B founders and revenue leaders: • Customers live with dozens of massive pain points every day and do nothing about them. They only buy when your tool unblocks an active, high-priority project that is already at the top of their to-do list. • Pitching broad vision and feature-heavy demos increases the "surface area" of your deal. Extra features create extra questions, require more internal approvals, and add friction. Showing a targeted 30-second micro-demo strictly tied to their specific blocker moves deals 10x faster. • Asking "What’s your budget?" on call one makes prospects defensive. Instead, focus on finding the internal "change agent" who has the personal drive to fight through corporate friction to get the deal done. As Rob put it: "If you don't find pull, nothing else matters. If you do find pull, everything else solves itself." 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

Rethink everything you’ve been taught about scaling a startup. Most founders are told to chase massive markets, raise huge rounds, and scale as fast as humanly possible. But according to @djhersh , founding CEO of Jive Software (which he led from bootstrapped startup to IPO), the exact opposite is true. "The successful companies learn to go after a very small market initially... raise as little money as possible for as long as possible, and scale very thoughtfully... until it's irresponsible not to grow quickly." In this episode of Experience-focused Leaders, Dave shares hard-earned wisdom on: • Why a focused "beachhead" beats a massive market every time. • Moving from hyper-growth burnout to building sustainable "systems of aliveness." • Why emotional market fit and conscious leadership are the ultimate competitive moats in the age of AI. 🎧 Listen to the full episode now: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

Investors don't bet on ideas. They bet on you. 💡 In this episode of Experience-focused Leaders, four-time tech founder @ShapiraSephi breaks down why your "fundability" has surprisingly little to do with your initial product: "If you look at almost any successful startup, they usually succeed in something completely different than what they started with... The initial thing they did has nothing to do with what they succeeded in. It's the founders themselves that remain consistent through the process, not the initial idea." When you've raised over $100M and helped founders secure more than $1B in funding, you notice patterns. Sephi shares his playbook on founder psychology, mastering clarity, and flipping the fundraising dynamic so investors are the ones competing to back you. Key takeaways from the episode: • Why investor confidence relies on your personal agency and coherence. • Why early-stage ideas rarely survive contact with reality and why that's expected. • How to shift from chasing capital to attracting it. 🎧 Listen to the full episode now to rethink your approach to fundraising: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…

I recently sat down with @ShapiraSephi, a 4x founder who has raised $100M+ and helped other founders secure over $1B. Sephi is also the author of "Fundable: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Funded, And Others Do Not!" We tore down the myths of fundraising to get to the truth that most entrepreneurs miss. If you’ve ever felt like you’re pushing a boulder uphill to get investors or customers to notice you, this episode is for you. Investors aren't buying your product. Why? Because most successful startups end up building something completely different from where they started. Investors are pattern-matching for YOU. As Sephi puts it: "Fundability is a quality of the founder, not their startup." Key Lessons from Sephi: • Stop begging for money. A great pitch is a gift. If an investor says no, they simply can't see the $100 bill lying on the floor. 💵 • Working harder isn't the solution to a failing strategy. If you neglect your biological needs (sleep, health, environment), you commit blunder after blunder. • Unicorns aren't forced into existence. They follow the "pull" of the market, where things go better than expected, and customers are obsessed. • Management is doing things right. Leadership is making sure you’re digging for oil in the right place. 🛢️ 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: relayto.com/explore/s-02-ep-…