How to build a powerful marketing machine | Emily Kramer (Asana, Carta, MKT1)

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

September 11, 2022

Duration

1h 10m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Emily Kramer led and built the marketing teams at Asana, Carta, Ticketfly, and Astro (acquired by Slack). These days, she’s the co-founder of MKT1, where she helps founders and marketers build and scale their marketing functions. Emily is also a well-respected angel investor and writes my favorite marketing newsletter (MKT1). In today’s episode, she shares her insights on when to hire marketers, how to determine which type of marketing hire is best for your team, how to best work with marketing, and what red flags to look for. Emily shares actionable templates and some incredible frameworks that are sure to expand your marketing knowledge. Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-build-a-powerful-marketing — Where to find Emily Kramer:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilykramer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilykramer/
• MKT1 Newsletter: https://mkt1.substack.com/

— Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

— Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:

• Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/
• Lenny’s Job Board: https://www.lennysjobs.com/talent
• Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lenny

— Referenced:

• Building an efficient marketing machine: the fuel & the engine: https://mkt1.substack.com/p/fuel-engine
• The GACC Marketing Brief: https://mkt1.substack.com/p/the-gacc-marketing-brief-the-best
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference: https://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624
• Crossing the Chasm: https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0062292986/
• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable: https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-Transform-Business-Remarkable/dp/014101640X
• All the Light We Cannot See: https://www.amazon.com/All-Light-We-Cannot-See/dp/1501173219/
• The Daily podcast: https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-daily
• Stream Yellowjackets on Showtime: https://www.sho.com/yellowjackets
• CODA on Apple TV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/coda/umc.cmc.3eh9r5iz32ggdm4ccvw5igiir
• Ashley Mayer’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleymayer/
• Kevan Lee’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevanlee/

— In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Emily’s background (06:08) Hiring a marketing team (11:26) Examples of fuel and engine in marketing (16:00) What is a product marketer? (18:20) Why you should start with a marketing generalist (20:30) The difference between a growth person and a product person (23:57) What to look for in a product marketer (26:58) When to hire a marketing person (30:45) The role of a brand marketer (33:24) Marketing for PLG startups (36:22) What is product-led growth? (39:23) How to get product and marketing to collaborate (43:38) What is the GACC framework? (47:58 ) How to know if your marketing team is effective (54:33) Why founders need angel investors with functional expertise (1:00:23) Lightning round — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Emily Kramer

  guest

• Lenny Rachitsky

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Emily Kramer and Lenny Rachitsky, How to build a powerful marketing machine | Emily Kramer (Asana, Carta, MKT1) explores fuel-and-engine marketing: hiring, structure, and collaboration for growth Emily Kramer, veteran early-stage B2B marketing leader (Asana, Carta, Ticketfly), shares a practical framework for building a high-impact marketing function, especially at startups. She reframes marketing into two core components—“fuel” (content, positioning, creative assets) and “engine” (distribution, channels, ops, tracking)—and explains how this guides your first marketing hire. Emily outlines key marketer archetypes (product marketing, content/community, growth/demand gen), when to hire each, and why generalist “pi-shaped” marketers are ideal early on. She also dives into how product and marketing can collaborate effectively, what good marketing looks like from a PM’s perspective, and how functional experts can parlay their skills into impactful angel investing.

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