Category Visionaries

Chris Golec, CEO and Co-Founder of Channel99: $5 Million Raised to Power the Future of B2B Marketing

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Chris Golec, CEO & Founder of Channel99, a B2B marketing platform that has raised $5 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Early Career Shifts: Chris transitioned from chemical engineering to tech entrepreneurship, starting with his first company in 1996, Supplybase, focusing on B2B supply chain software.
Birth of Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Chris was instrumental in coining and pioneering the ABM category with his company Demandbase, addressing the frustration of B2B marketers lacking targeted marketing technologies.
Challenges of ABM: Chris discusses the initial struggles of gaining traction for ABM and how it eventually grew into a significant category in B2B marketing.
Founding Channel99: After leaving Demandbase, Chris founded Channel99 to help B2B marketers measure the efficiency of their marketing spend and business outcomes.
Remote Work Challenges: Chris expresses concerns about building a strong company culture remotely and the benefits of in-office collaboration for innovation and team bonding.
Silicon Valley's Future: Despite some narratives about the decline of Silicon Valley, Chris believes the region's ecosystem of innovation and venture capital will remain strong.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co

Patrick Woods, CEO and Co-Founder of Orbit: Over $22 Million Raised to Power the Future of Communities

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Patrick Woods, CEO and Co-Founder of Orbit, a community growth platform that's raised over $22 Million in funding, about why, in an economy where software is ‘adopted’ more than ‘sold,’ a sense of community can be a genuine driver of growth. Providing in-depth knowledge and powerful insights about sentiment, company size and almost everyone involved in your business, Orbit allows their clients to leverage an entire audience in pursuit of growth.
We also talk about Patrick’s background in marketing, brand strategy and customer success, why he eventually settled on a community-first approach to driving growth with Orbit, and why modern companies need to learn how to scale human-centric relationships.
Topics Discussed:
Patrick’s background in marketing, brand strategy and customer success leadership, and the insights it gave him into how leading brands are built
Ending up in San Francisco and how it felt to enter the startup economy for the first time
Why modern businesses should allocate more focus to building communities, and the long-term benefits it can bring
The radical change in how customers relate to their software, and the difference between being ‘bought’ and ‘adopted’
Moving from business jargon to a more holistic understanding of how humans engage in their commercial journeys
Favorite book: 
The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

Finnur Pind, Co-Founder and CEO of Treble: $10 Million Raised to Build Next Generation Sound Simulation and Spatial Audio Technology

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Finnur Pind, Co-Founder and CEO of Treble, a next generation simulation technology platform that's raised $10 Million in funding about how a new generation of sound-simulation technology is set to help build a better sounding world. Treble's Acoustic Simulation Software generates interactive, real-time, immersive auralizations of acoustic modeling projects with the click of a button, making it easy to compare design iterations and make more informed decisions to make the most of every sound.
We also talk about Finnur’s background of more than 15 years 'obsessing’ about sound, the potential customers looking to design more acoustically refined spaces, limitations in the toolkits available to designers, and why demo-first marketing helped to scale where hands-on engagement turned out to be a hurdle.
Topics Discussed:
Finnur’s long-standing obsession with sound, first as a musician and then as an engineer before moving into academia
The emerging focus on creating a ‘sound-comfortable environment’ for everything from classrooms to concert spaces
Personal experiences with the limitations of acoustic-design technology that prompted Finnur to found Treble
Sparking customer interest through content on LinkedIn and other platforms, driving up inbound sales
Why a hands-on customer engagement process was eventually replaced with a demo-first model to enable better business scaling
 
Favorite book: 
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Benjamin Wilms, CEO and Co-Founder of Steadybit: $7.8 Million Raised to Build the Future of Chaos Engineering

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Benjamin Wilms, CEO and Co-Founder of Steadybit, a chaos engineering platform that's raised $7.8 Million in funding, about why resilience is everything in the modern software economy, and why so many companies struggle to build it into their more complex systems. Working with a small team of dedicated engineers, Steadybit wants to move beyond chaos engineering to create holistic resilience engineering solutions and empower everybody who builds and runs software.
We also speak about Benjamin’s background as a software developer and what it was like transitioning to the role of CEO, the original inspiration for a resilience-focused tech platform like Steadybit, having a real passion for problem solving and sharing knowledge, and why chaos engineering is key to making sure everything runs the way it should in the real world.
Topics Discussed:
Benjamin’s background in software development, and his history of developing resilience-first software solutions
The transition from developer to CEO, and confronting the challenges of time management and decision making
The central role of chaos engineering in building long-term resilience for systems operating in an unpredictable digital space
Why the term ‘chaos engineering’ itself has great marketing potential, and how attracting initial interest is a big part of business growth
How learning from failure is such an important part of aspect of developing a business, but why that doesn’t mean it’s always easy

Yingjun Wu, CEO and Co-Founder of RisingWave Labs: $40 Million Raised to Make Stream Processing Simple, Affordable, and Accessible

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Yingjun Wu, CEO and Co-Founder of RisingWave Labs, a SQL stream processing platform that's raised $40 Million in funding, about why it’s time for a better way to leverage the potential of their data. Offering real-time insights, simplified with advanced SQL processing, RisingWave Labs helps their clients make actionable decisions based on the most up-to-date information available.
We also speak about Yingjun’s background as a software engineer working at big-name brands like Amazon and IBM, the significance of SQL as a tool for data analysis and a way to garner attention for their product, the challenges RisingWave Labs have experienced in their business growth journey, and why they prioritize education and user-friendly experiences.
Topics Discussed:
Yingjun’s background as a software engineer, and the lessons he brought from some of the sector’s biggest names as RisingWave Labs’ CEO
RisingWave Labs product offering of SQL stream processing for real-time data, and what it means for their clients
How using the ‘trendy’ programming language ‘Rust’ helped RisingWave Labs generate growth even before they deployed a real marketing campaign
The challenge of dealing with a wide variety of potential customer priorities, and how to allocate resources in response
Why RisingWave Labs maintains a focus on education and user-friendly experiences to drive sustained adoption
 
Favorite book: 
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Martin Einemo, CEO and Co-Founder of Insurely: €22 Million Raised to Power the Future of Open Insurance

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Martin Einemo, CEO and Co-Founder of Insurely, an open insurance platform that's raised €22 Million in funding, about why so many of us lack true understanding of how the insurance industry operates, and why that’s a problem for both providers and their customers. By empowering insurance customers to access their data from the companies who cover them, Insurely helps people find the policies which really work for them, and ultimately provide a win-win solution for everyone involved.
We also speak about Martin’s long career in the insurance industry, and how that made him aware of both technological shortcomings and customer frustration, what ‘open insurance’ really means, how angel investors provided the real impetus to find a marketable offering, and why, for Insurely, that ultimately turned out to be in the B2B space.
Topics Discussed:
Martin’s long career in the insurance industry across multiple European markets, and the insights it gave him into how it could be improved
Why the information gap between customers and their insurance providers is such a major problem for the sector, and what can be done about it
‘Open insurance’ as the defining concept for Insurely, and how they are empowering customers through access to data
Rise and fall in the insuretech space, and how Insurely manages to rise above the background noise
 How transitioning from a B2C app to a B2B platform helped Insurely overcome scalability and revenue generation challenges
 
Favorite book: 
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesse

Michael Konialian, Co-Founder and CEO of Modern Life: $15 Million Raised to Build the Tech-Enabled Insurance Brokerage of the Future

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Michael Konialian, Co-Founder and CEO of Modern Life, a tech-enabled insurance brokerage that’s raised over $15 Million in funding, about how a lack of clarity and access to information in the life insurance space can leave people at a loss, and how Modern Life is hoping to bring a better model of insurance brokerage to the sector. By partnering with leading carriers, putting advisors first, and deploying strategic data analytics to help guide clients to the right choices, Modern Life helps everyone make complex financial decisions with care.
We also speak about Michael’s background and journey to becoming a CEO and Co-Founder, the challenges of the insurance sector and the potential for technology to radically improve things, why advisors will always remain key to the business model, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed everyone’s attitude to integrating new technologies.
 
Topics Discussed:
Michael’s career background in the brokerage and technology space, consulting, sales and startups
The personal experience with life insurance that helped Michael identify the need for change in the sector
The power of data in the insurance brokerage space, and why more information is helping us make better decisions than ever before
How the pandemic drove the digital transformation of the insurance industry, and what it means for brokers and customers alike
The regulatory challenges confronting startups across multiple sectors, and why getting ahead of the red tape really matters
Why Modern Life envisions building a long-term community between the advisors at the center of the insurance industry
 
Favorite book: 
The Lean Startup

Taylor Lint, CEO and Founder of Swantide: $7 Million Raised to Revolutionize How Companies Design and Build Their GTM Infrastructure

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Taylor Lint, CEO and Founder of Swantide, a go to market technology platform that's raised $7 Million in funding, about why so many companies find managing their CRM such a headache, and how Swantide plans to make every aspect of the process simpler and more straightforward. With processes designed with engineering and sales operations best practices already in mind, rigorously testing performed before they reach potential clients, Swantide brings the expertise of an in-house salesforce engineer at a fraction of the cost.
We also talk about Talyor's background in software engineering and her experiences working at LinkedIn and Alphabet, her passion for improving vital processes through the power of data, the importance of the ‘go-to-market stack,’ why Swantide felt the need to build upon what salesforce is capable of delivering, and why they decided to focus on problem-solving over building a brand new market category.
Topics Discussed:
Taylor’s software engineering background, and the lessons she brought to Swantide from some of the biggest names in tech
Why Taylor is so passionate about the power of data to drive change and innovation in some of the most important aspects of modern life
Swantide’s decision to focus on the ‘go-to-market stack,’ building upon salesforce to provide better experiences for their clients
Overcoming potential feelings of competition with existing consultants, and how Swantide helps them to work more efficiently
The lack of a clearly defined ‘category’ for what Swantide offers to clients, and why they’ve chosen to focus purely on problem-solving
 
Favorite book: 
The Design of Everyday Things

Andreas Cleve, CEO and Co-Founder of Corti: $32 Million Raised to Power the Future of Patient Consultations

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Andreas Cleve, CEO and Co-Founder of Corti, a patient consultations platform that's raised $32 Million in funding, about why so much important information from patient consultations is underutilized and ultimately wasted, and how Corti plans to change all that. By activating the data produced by every patient-provider interaction via a bleeding-edge ai platform, Corti’s mission is to give healthcare professionals a set of supportive tools that transcend today's time-consuming technologies.
We also speak about the personal experiences which helped draw Andreas into the healthcare space, transitioning from the technology sector, his first forays with AI and chatbot technologies, and how being an industry thought-leader means dealing with regulation as you move to build a new market modality.
 
Topics Discussed:
Andreas’ very personal experience which led him to take an interest in healthcare, and why he believes many people have similar stories
Transitioning from the technology sector to establish himself as a healthcare entrepreneur, and how it feels to be a founder
Andreas’ first forays into the AI space with Obvio, a chatbot for healthcare facilities
Why timing is critical to startup success, and how it influences market alignment for new businesses
The reality of working with regulators as a thought leader in any industry, and the differences between the European and US market

Andrew Scheuermann, CEO of Arch Systems: $25 Million Raised to Help Organizations Unlock Factory Data to Drive Factory Improvements

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Andrew Scheuermann, CEO of Arch Systems, a machine data and analytics company that's raised $25 Million in funding, about the struggles people all over the world face with accessing the tools and resources necessary to build truly smart solutions. Powered by rich machine data, the Arch Systems FX Platform has been developed to automatically surface actionable insights for manufacturing operations, driving better decisions at every level of an organization, whatever they’re trying to achieve.
We also talk about Andrew's background in engineering, machine building, and entrepreneurship, what it was like striking out on his own to found and lead a tech startup, what manufacturing optimization really means in practice, and how a late-stage pivot from horizontal developer to vertical analytics helped Arch Systems secure their elusive product-market fit.
Topics Discussed:
Andrew's background in engineering, machine building, and entrepreneurship, and what it means for his current business
Making the transition to being a founder and CEO, and the business leaders which inspired his journey
What manufacturing optimization and machine data analytics means for those pursuing innovative solutions all over the world
Why Arch Systems initially struggled to secure a product-market fit, and the strategic pivot which turned everything around for them
The future of where Andrew sees the company, from new materials to expanding into new markets
 
Favorite book: 
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies