I’m so excited to introduce my guest today: Michele Floriani, Chief Marketing Officer at Sequoia Consulting Group. And I should note: Zander Media has had the pleasure of working with Sequoia over the last several years to produce a variety of videos about the company.

Sequoia started out as a benefits broker 20 years ago, but has morphed into a full service provider, bringing HR tools and services to companies from early stage startups through to enterprise companies. 

Michele comes from a fine art and business background, and he blends these in his work today leading brand and marketing at Sequoia. 

That kind of wide-ranging product array could lead to unfocused branding, but in this episode we learn how Michele and his team maintain a strong sense of company identity.

Some of the great tips Michele shares include using one logo for all your products and solving the problems you have now, not trying to solve the problems you think you’ll have later. Michele’s wealth of experience and deeply caring approach to his work are a beacon in a rapidly changing world. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

My guest today is Aaron Beashel, Founder of Attributor and former Head of Marketing at SafetyCulture and Campaign Monitor. Aaron is passionate about getting away from the venture capital funding model and the world-changing moonshot mentality that it mandates. In this conversation, he shares a wealth of ideas for how to build and sustain a company that’s NOT aiming for a billion dollars in annual revenue and a global reach. How do you gradually grow a company that supports your lifestyle goals? 

Aaron is a master of his craft, and we’re lucky that he’s turned his attention to smaller, simpler projects. His vision for sustainable company culture and work-life balance is inspiring. We’re definitely all about this type of business and growth at Zander Media, and it’s a real pleasure to sit down with such an experienced marketer to hear about how he makes a bootstrapped business work for him.

My guest today is Allison Baum Gates, a General Partner at SemperVirens Venture Capital and a lecturer at the Business School at Columbia University and the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Allison got her start working in finance and investing, but quickly saw that technology was changing everything about her work and our world.

So Allison decided to go into tech, and to focus on investing in the technology that would be doing the disrupting in 5 or 10 years. She spends her days talking to startup founders and cultivating SemperVirens’ ecosystem of forward-thinking startups. Allison is making an incredible impact with the companies in her portfolio, and her passion for people and growth is clearly a guiding force in her work. Today Allison shares some razor-sharp insights about brand, culture, and how to effectively build a company. We also dive into the history of venture capital. I hope you enjoy this fascinating conversation as much as I do.