AMA: I'm a CMO who builds sexy brands in boring industries

@olena_stafiichuk my main condition of the M&A was that my team comes with me. We all were worried about the merge, but everything worked out. Also, people who joined me in the very start of the agency, when I couldn't guarantee them a long-term employment and that the business won't die got a percentage from the acquisition deal. They work with us to this day and did a lot of good work to make our today's launch happen. Another reason that convinced them to say yes to this adventure was that we used a good chuck of our M&A cash to help support Ukraine and bought two drones, a car and some other needed things to our friends in Ukrainian army.

we actually sold the agency to our first client :) We've worked with StartupSoft for 7 months already and loved the partnership. @goldewc and @vasylyk are amazing entrepreneurs and people who proved to be transparent and honest partners and we matched 100% on the values. At one point I realized that the agency was so growing so fast, that in order to keep up with the scaling, I need to get investors on board. With the agency businesses, scale is very dependent on the size of the team and I didn't have resources to recruit a team as fast as I needed to. I went to entrepreneurs I trusted most — my best clients :) Initially, I wanted to ask for either an advice or an investment. They offered an M&A deal I could refuse. My end goals when I started my own business: - to do things I think are cool - to make sure my team is safe, well-paid and not overworked - to make impact as big as I can I never was attached to an idea of owning a business, so when we talked with the guys and they told me their vision for the future of StartupSoft, I knew that it would be an opportunity to get all of those things and do it faster than I would've on my own :) P.S. In retrospect, that decision was a 10/10 one, would do the same thing 100 times again

@new_user_210a014175 wow. didn't realize it was just 6 hours. feels like an eternity 😅 the real and most well-guarded secret about launching on product hunt is having an awesome community behind your back and being nice to people. we've had a tremendous support in the first our from our extended team and friends. we hope that this first traction is going to help us get seen by founders and hunters who could use a product like ours.

@new_user_210a014175 @kay_larina and it's 200 upvotes already! yay!

@bdmbdsm cool question! so, the brand metrics are always tricky. Marketers love to be data-driven and rely on the numbers in real-time, but with brands we can only analize our performance in retrospect and mostly using the attributed data. User acquisition is easier in that regard. Another thing that helps us understand whether our brand performs well or not — number of returning visitors, direct traffic and organic traffic that uses brand keywords on search, feedback from the users and customers, and most importantly — whether the internal team feels good about what the brand represents. What we pay attention to right now is: - getting more traffic to generate first traction and brand awareness - gathering first data on conversion rates, CPLs, ROIM to use as benchmarks - working on long-term strategies like SEO and organic traffic generation

@svitlana_palamarchuk so, a few things actually: 1. Never skip a customer research and customer interviews 2. Research competitors to know which spots and roles in your market are already taken by someone else and what things NOT to do 3. Stand out. And I mean REALLY stand out. Most brands and businesses admire other brands and businesses that are unique, bright, unforgettable. But when the time comes for them to make creative decisions, they go with safe choices. Standing out is not comfortable. Shouldn't be, by definition. But it surely pays off :)

@astartes_python_figther I am! No kidding :) But I'm more worried that my job will be taken not by the AI itself but by people who will be much better than me in using it. I'm not worried about AI as a separate entity, I think it's a tool. But I am worried about my capacity to understand and use it's full potential :)

@roksolana_p I'd become a writer! :) I actually think I will become a writer a little later in life.

@nadiia_svynarchuk we can't disclose our largest client as they're under NDA, but we can say that they are one of the FAANG-group companies. But another big client of ours (and one with an amazingly cool product) is https://www.ostrohealth.com/

@paseka_nataliia Since our main business model is team extension on-demand, sometimes a few things happen: - people we've worked with before on previous projects become available again and are looking for projects and reach out to us - an employee of StartupSoft who's done with their previous project becomes available for the next one - we find awesome devs while filling one of our customers' positions, who successfully go through all stages of interviews but either don't fit for the positions we have available for them, or a startup decides to go with someone else who got into their recruiting pipeline a bit earlier. We thought that there definitely should be startups who would be happy to have those engineers and designers on board, and digest was a solution that was simple enough to implement and maintain

@oleksandra_moskal that's a cool question! 1. Our team always starts with the target audience and dissecting their mindsets as thoroughly as possible 2. You can't be the same as your competitors. Otherwise you will be promoting them and not your own product. 3. Add some spice! Good brands are always controversial, some people will them, some will hate. I am always excited to get haters: that means the work we're doing is not bland.

definitely everything and anything by @copyhackers also, classics like "Breakthrough Advertising" by Eugene Schwartz

@alekswatch mascots are a tricky thing :) very easy to end up with some cringe-worthy thing and be stuck with it.

@alex_demyanyuk we're starting to see some demands for devs with the background in AI/ML projects and expecting this demand to grow :)

@julia_hr thanks so much, Julia! More than any big fish, I love working with small fishes that grow bigger and bigger right in front of my eyes :)

@alina_mykhalchuk thanks! I think that mass layoffs is a result of a few things in tech industry: - illusion that growth will be perpetual - overoptimistic planning - a lot of people wanted to work in tech in the pandemic and switched from other industries and hiring managers considered them easy/less expensive hires - overstaffing on employers side + for many people in tech — overemployments on the employees' side What we see know is a market adjustment for efficiency. Next year or so will be tough, for staff aug businesses too, but it will settle down. Unfortunately for a lot of tech workers in CA and other high cost of living areas, I think that we will be seeing more and more businesses (especially startups) going for offshore dev teams because they just make more sense from a business perspective. I don't know how will the job market in the US adjust to this change. As a part of company that offers offshore dev team recruiting and management, I'm happy to be a part of the company that cares about its' reputation and values. Our strategy is to continue building sustainable teams, not cheap solutions that work solely because of employee exploitation.

@vitalii_vasylyk I was kind of sad to let go off the agency at first. We had a pretty cool waiting list of clients and I'm glad we didn't get to work with some of them. Agencies are really cool in terms one thing: you get to work on different brands all the time and have more creative outlets for all of your ideas. Working on a single brand requires commitment through ups and downs (which are inevitable). But! At the same time, working on one brand is somewhat a creative constraint. And those are the best for great ideas. And there's nothing more exciting for me as a marketing person to find new ways for an old familiar thing to be cool again :) So... the short answer is no: some nostalgia — yes, but no regrets :)

@carter_barnett hey Carter! Thanks so much for the support! And a great question! The funniest thing – I started working at Lemon.io when it wasn’t Lemon.io :) I joined the team as a copywriter with no previous experience in copywriting when they were a team of 6 and were called CodingNjnjas. For them I was their first marketing hire. And for me that job was a step in a bit different direction (I had background mostly in paid social ads and a short gig as a marketing director in a startup that never took off) I worked my way up to the CMO at Lemon.io over 3 years, in which we grew pretty fast and rebranding was a hit :) And NOW I’m getting to the part when I think I’m going to be helpful to others :) In my 4th year at Lemon.io one of my main goals was to build brand awareness among engineers in Ukraine, which was their main market for talent acquisition at that time. So I started being active on LinkedIn, consistently posting content, sharing my work, being open, connecting with people, etc. I was never pushy, and it was more of an experiment which gave me an opportunity not to stress about it and just post whatever I want and find interesting. I started with 250 subscribers, ended up with about 2000 in a year. Which is NOT a big number, but those people became my true fan base and my engagement was through the roof, so I was constantly getting x0 000 views in my posts. That not only helped Lemon’s brand but also – my own. When I went on my own, I wasn’t going to start an agency, had a completely different plan :) but then people started hitting me up and the demand got insane, and I just knew that it would be insane not to seize the opportunity. So yeah: Social media and having the guts and persistency to post often, to be honest, vulnerable and put yourself out there for everyone to see is a real life hack. My advice for everyone starting out: set up an account on a social network you actually like and use and document your journey there. Don’t try to be a carefully crafted cardboard character, be the imperfect yourself and… You’ll find the people who are going to love you and will follow along.

@kay_larina Thanks for such a detailed reply. I'm happy to hear directly from someone who's had great success from LinkedIn! (Something I've been debating for a while and tried a year or so ago). Also, the backstory to Lemon was super interesting, you should start a blog if you haven't already! Definitely some great storytelling and insights combined in just this short comment which were super helpful to me! Thank you.