Thrills and Chills: Establishing Product Marketing

Kevin leads the product marketing function at Retool, an early stage startup and platform for developers to build internal tools. In this interview he and JD discuss growing your personal career and how to identify areas that both challenge and energize you. They discuss what it’s like to be a hands-on builder and learn by doing, how to accelerate your career and the company’s narrative while being both the strategist and executer.

Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn.
Join Kevin on Sharebird.

Questions covered in this interview:
  1. What is it like to own product marketing?
  2. What do you look for in a company/team/role?
  3. How did you evaluate the risk of a new role?
  4. What are some of the challenges early on? What about now?
  5. What are some of the thrills (highs) and chills (lows) of your product marketing career?

What is Thrills and Chills: Establishing Product Marketing ?

“The company story is the company strategy.”
— Ben Horowitz, Partner and Co-founder, Andreessen Horowitz

For many startups, marketing isn’t important—until it is. This hasn’t always been the case. For the past decade, everyone was obsessed with finding a “growth hacker.” But now, product marketers are in high demand as companies realize their value. Startups are now asking: when should I hire a product marketer? Should my first marketing hire be a product marketer?

Lots of people want to be the first product marketer, but only a few make the leap. They’re the builders. The fixers. The risk-takers. They embrace the chaos. They’re comfortable being uncomfortable.

This is a journey into their world. It’s about sharing the thrills and chills of being the first product marketer at a startup. Along the way we’ll meet some amazing people. You’ll hear engaging stories about imperfect product launches. The challenges and nuances of everyday work. The skills needed to succeed. And of course, fresh perspectives on what it really takes to be a company’s first product marketer.

The only way to be on this journey is to begin. Let’s go.