Iron Sharpens Iron: The Best Marketers are Built in the Trenches of Startups
I’ve worked with a lot of different marketing profiles over the last decade and every profile/experience set has different strengths and weaknesses.
I’ve seen brilliant creative campaign marketers who can capture the hearts and minds of millions in less than 30 seconds, scientists who can use data forecast demand down to the decimal and community managers that succeed in building massive networks of loyal followers.
It’s no secret though, that the most valuable marketers are the ‘Swiss Army Knives’. Otherwise known as ‘T-shaped marketers’ for deep expertise in one area but the versatility to be dangerous in almost any arena that they put their mind to.
There are plenty of ways to get a sense of how ‘t-shaped’ a candidate is in the interview process (for another time). But as the job market tightens and more candidates flood into the pool of available talent — it’s important to be able to parse out the ideal candidates by looking at their CV.
The most important piece of experience that I filter for in the search for new marketing talent: Startup experience.
One of the great things about being a marketer in startups is the forced up-skill you get from being closer to other functions — particularly Product (if you’re in software) and BizOps (if you’re in a more capex-heavy business).
In big corporate, marketing often feels more like a service provider to these functions. You work together but you’re often mostly concerned with getting your little piece right so that the recognition runs upwards to your CMO.
But at the right startups, the lines blur — recognition is a secondary metric to project outcomes (growth, usually). You aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty in non-marketing work, and the product/ops people aren’t afraid to get involved in the marketing strategy.
To succeed — you need to drop the marketing jargon and speak the same language. You need to up-level on business analytics to show the impact of your ideas. You need to truly understand the GTM to make a contribution to it.
IMO — It’s often the skills that you learn in these lean environments that separate the one-trick-pony marketers from the elite. Same reason why ex-PMs, strategy consultants and engineers make awesome marketing executives later in their careers.
All of above is DEFINITELY not to say that you can’t find incredibly versatile T-shaped marketers in big businesses. You can.
Before I started as Head of Marketing at Zoomo, I had only worked at or with (via agency) big, established companies (Visa, Foxtel, Box, Raytheon, etc). The founders needed a versatile operator and would have ideally hired someone who had done it before (startup experience). But (I’m told) they thought I had the right disposition, mental pliability and first-principles approach to succeed in the role. With a few years in the rear view mirror, I like to think this was a good decision for everyone (we’ve grown 10x and cut CAC by 75% in 2 years).
Net net - it’s definitely not a detractor to hire ‘Swiss Army Knives’ aka ‘T-shaped marketers’ from a big biz background. However, If I think about the marketer that I was before my startup experience compared to who I am today there is a wide chasm between the two. The training and learning has completely morphed me as an operator and up-leveled my capacity to execute in ambiguity.
Food for thought as you build your marketing teams..
