Ok! Welcome back to my new podcast: The Marketing Playbook with Mark Friedman! Presented by Details Interactive. Here, you’ll take away 3 game-winning marketing plays every episode to take back to your team. I’m your host, Mark Friedman, and my career has been focused on direct-to-consumer marketing; direct mail, physical retail, and digital commerce.
This is Episode #9 and today’s guest is Todd Saunders. He’s the Co-Founder and CEO of AdHawk and CEO of FloorForce. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and your other favorite podcast spots – subscribe and leave a 5-star review if you have your playbook!
What is The Marketing Playbook with Mark Friedman?
Mark Friedman (that’s me) knows direct-to-consumer marketing. The 30+ year industry veteran has served as the President of eCommerce at Steve Madden, Chief Marketing Officer of Brooks Brothers, mentor to dozens of startups, and even youth sports coach. You’ll take away 3 fundamental tips every episode to help your team knock it out of the park, and draw up strategies for digital marketing, eCommerce, customer monetization, and pivoting with the brightest all-stars in business. Do you have your playbook?
Podcast Episode #9: Todd Saunders – CEO of AdHawk and FloorForce
Todd Saunders, the Co-Founder and CEO of AdHawk and CEO of FloorForce, adds his page to the Marketing Playbook. Hear how to use networking to advance your career, how to present your full plan and trajectory, how to create a great tool for a specific customer, how to attract investors to your business, and Todd’s journey from working at Google to building a multimillion-dollar startup. This episode covers everything from Todd’s start in athletics to his biggest challenges in the startup world. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:
- When Todd knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur
- How he started working at Google
- His move to Mountainview
- What is it like to quit Google
- Todd’s experience at Techstars
- How to raise money for your startup
- How AdHawk acquired FloorForce
- Todd’s favorite app on his phone
Connect with Todd on Twitter at @ToddSaunders and on LinkedIn.
Let’s open the playbook. Ready? Break! Check out the episode, show notes, and pictures below for much more detail.
Show Notes
- Intro
- [0:22] The Marketing Playbook with Mark Friedman
- [0:24] Details Interactive
- [0:32] Connect with Mark at Mark@DetailsInteractive.com, on Twitter at @DetailsInteract, and on LinkedIn
- [0:41] Connect with Todd on Twitter at @ToddSaunders and on LinkedIn
- [0:49] Thank you as always to Max Branstetter of the Wild Business Growth Podcast at Hippo Direct for producing this podcast. You can reach him at max@hippodirect.com to bring your podcast to life
- Todd’s Page of The Marketing Playbook with Mark Friedman
- [1:15] Todd’s background
- [1:21] Westfield, NJ, Westfield High School
- [1:50] The College of William & Mary
- [1:57] GPA, SAT
- [2:16] How Todd’s parents met
- [2:35] His soccer experience
- [3:45] When he knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur
- [4:02] Accounting
- [5:11] How Todd started working at Google
- [5:47] Networking
- [6:24] “Invest in Lines, Not Dots” blog
- [8:01] Procter & Gamble (P&G)
- [8:36] Mountainview, CA, Ann Arbor, MI
- [9:41] Was Google outside Todd’s comfort zone
- [10:12] University of Michigan
- [10:38] Start class, Pledge class
- [11:13] Todd’s role at Google
- [11:24] AdWords (Google Ads)
- [11:47] ROI (Return on Investment), Retention
- [12:48] Todd’s move to Mountainview
- [13:46] His role in Mountainview
- [16:02] CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
- [16:28] Equity
- [17:28] What is it like to quit Google
- [19:13] Dan Pratt, Co-Founder of AdHawk
- [19:20] AdTech, TurboTax, Mint
- [19:43] Digital Marketing
- [20:01] Account Manager
- [20:11] Techstars
- [20:31] D-Day
- [21:32] Todd’s experience at Techstars
- [21:42] Boulder, CO, LLC (Limited Liability Company)
- [22:35] How to raise money for your startup
- [23:32] Money managed, KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
- [23:42] Excel Macros, API (Application Programming Interface)
- [24:42] Unit economics
- [25:24] Ad Spend, Techstars Demo Day
- [26:42] At Details Interactive, you can discuss your business with a seasoned direct-to-consumer marketing executive who’s helped launch and grow web businesses and integrate multi-channel marketing initiatives. Learn more at DetailsInteractive.com
- [27:32] How Todd raised money for AdHawk
- [28:48] Founder Collective, Seed, Series A
- [29:06] David Frankel
- [30:16] FloorForce, Dealer.com
- [31:51] John Weller
- [33:06] How AdHawk acquired FloorForce
- [34:30] SMBs (small-medium-sized businesses)
- [36:08] Why AdHawk focused on flooring
- [37:20] How many employees AdHawk & FloorForce has
- [38:26] Are other verticals in scope
- [38:45] ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), POS (Point of Sale), Chatbot
- [39:36] The Home Depot
- 2-Minute Drill
- [40:51] Drift, HubSpot, B2B marketing
- [42:09] Todd’s favorite app on his phone
- [42:22] Slack, Millennial
- [43:00] Superhuman
- [43:31] HotelTonight, Airbnb
- [44:06] Uber, Lyft
- [44:18] Coding
- [44:26] JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation)
- [44:32] What superpower Todd wishes he had
- [44:49] His most prized possession other than family
- This Week’s 3 Game-Winning Plays
- [46:12] Connect with Todd on Twitter at @ToddSaunders and on LinkedIn
- [46:21] This week’s 3 Game-Winning Plays are as follows:
- Use networking to advance your career
- Present your full plan and trajectory
- Create a great tool for a specific customer
- [46:51] If you want to check out more pages of The Marketing Playbook, make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast spot and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts
- [47:01] Connect with Mark at Mark@DetailsInteractive.com, on Twitter at @DetailsInteract, and on LinkedIn
- Theme Song: Jazzy Man Funk Rock – Auditone Music Library – provided by Jamendo
How can I work with Details Interactive?
That’s it! Today’s game ball goes to Todd Saunders. Thank you, Playbook Marketers, for listening. If you want to check out more pages of The Marketing Playbook, make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast spot and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. You can also follow us on Twitter at @DetailsInteract and learn more at DetailsInteractive.com. Until next time, The devil is in the details.