Marketers of Technology
00:00:00 · Tzvi Vaknin, Andres Figuera
[00:00:00] S0: You don't necessarily have to do something that nobody else has ever done. You can do the same practice, just do it better. Hey, [00:00:12] S1: everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Marketers of Technology. My name is Andres Figuera, and this show is brought to you by Front Lines Studios, Silicon Valley's leading podcast production studio. If you're looking to launch your own show, we offer a full podcast as a service experience. You just show up and host, and we handle everything else. And with that said, let's dive into today's episode. Because today, I'm here speaking with Tzvi Vaknin, Fractional CMO and marketing consultant. So, Tzvi, how are you doing, man? A pleasure to have you on the show. [00:00:41] S0: I'm doing great. Thank you for having me, Andres. How are you? [00:00:45] S1: I'm doing pretty well. Can't complain. Just so that anybody who's hearing this, it's Friday, and we're very happy that we're entering the weekend. But with that said, Tzvi, let's jump into this. Can you tell us a bit more about your background, man, and how you came to become a Fractional CMO and marketing consultant? [00:01:01] S0: Yeah. Sure. Happy to. So I began my journey around 2013. How long has it been already? Thirteen years? [00:01:09] S1: About. Yeah.
00:01:10 · Tzvi Vaknin
[00:01:10] S0: Yeah. We're getting old, man. Yeah. So I started my journey as a junior SEO, and I I climbed my way up. Like I started working for a couple of marketing agencies. So I grew and lived in Israel. I live in Cyprus these days. So I began in the Israeli market and then I moved to another agency where the main focus was global companies, B2B, startups, SMBs, enterprise, you name it. And at some level, realized that there is a very low glass ceiling that I can reach as an SEO. So I started to working on other skill sets. So I find myself running more campaigns, driving more social media strategy, aligning more with CMOs as for qualified leads, etcetera. And then I found myself sitting in tables, round tables with CEOs talking strategies. So I realized that this is like, this is the area where I thrive. And then I moved to client side and I managed to go to market activity of multiple companies. I started actually the B2C market and then I realized that my fort and the challenges that I love addressing the most are in the B2B and the SaaS. I love those complex sales cycles and how to resolve those complex challenges. So I moved to B2B, I started with the Martech startup, and then I moved to NetApp, which is like a completely different enterprise marketing, data storage and management solutions. And I managed the demand generation team of the business units that were selling the cloud portfolio. I moved to Cyprus and then I hit my own path about a year and a half ago. And I found myself offering fractional CMO, consultancy services. And if I find like any other interesting opportunities, so if the company is cool enough, if the people are cool enough, if the scope is something that's right up my alley, I'm not closing the door. It's not like I'm only a CMO when I'm doing only CMO stuff. I came from the trenches. I like to keep myself in shape, let's put it this way. And as a side note, I'm also working on a tool that provides services in the realms of Reddit. We're not out in the market yet. We do have a few design partners, but in a few weeks, I believe that we'll hit the market running.
00:03:47 · Andres Figuera, Tzvi Vaknin
[00:03:47] S1: Okay. So exciting and so cool, man. And Tzvi, mentioning then what's your trajectory of your experience by working as a fractional CMO and, like, you mentioned you started to branch out by yourself about a year and a half ago then? [00:04:00] S0: Yep. Correct. [00:04:01] S1: Okay. So how has that experience been in comparison to working for a company instead of working for yourself? Can you tell us the pros and cons?
00:04:01 · Andres Figuera, Tzvi Vaknin
[00:04:01] S1: Okay. So how has that experience been in comparison to working for a company instead of working for yourself? Can you tell us the pros and cons? [00:04:09] S0: Completely different levels. Once again, getting back to the hats of a service provider, which isn't new to me because as you remember, I started my path as a service provider in a way. But the thing is, everything is like, as a one man show, everything is up on you, like you're in the center and at the background and you're basically like driving everything. So regardless of working with a team or being like the only and the first and only marketing function within an organization, you're the one who's holding the keys and the wheel and you're the one who's supposed to drive everything and own everything. Be it like a successor fader, everything is like on you. It's not a team. You're not like part of... You don't have a very distinguished like frame. Like you're not supposed to move into product marketing or whatever. That's one thing and I think that this is something that resonates more with me because I love stepping out of the comfort zone. I don't like being like focused only on demand generation, only on SEO, only on running campaigns. I like touching everything, every else... Every aspect of marketing and challenge myself and push the envelope one step further every day. [00:05:35] S1: Amazing. Amazing. And you then also mentioned that your preference right now is to work as a fractional CMO or marketing consultant for SaaS companies and B2B specifically?
00:05:35 · Andres Figuera, Tzvi Vaknin
[00:05:35] S1: Amazing. Amazing. And you then also mentioned that your preference right now is to work as a fractional CMO or marketing consultant for SaaS companies and B2B specifically? [00:05:46] S0: I'm not limiting myself because I have best b to c and b to b experience. So once again, as I mentioned before, if the company sounds cool to me, if the people looks good to me, people that I would love working with and reviving, I'm gay. [00:06:02] S1: Okay. I love that. I love that. And in terms also of just your style of working with these companies, do you completely embed yourself when you're in the fractional CMO spot with the company that you're working with, or do you actually just stay a bit more apart and do your work from your side and just consult and provide a bit more of your opinions and that they should follow if they want to?
00:06:02 · Andres Figuera, Tzvi Vaknin
[00:06:02] S1: Okay. I love that. I love that. And in terms also of just your style of working with these companies, do you completely embed yourself when you're in the fractional CMO spot with the company that you're working with, or do you actually just stay a bit more apart and do your work from your side and just consult and provide a bit more of your opinions and that they should follow if they want to? [00:06:24] S0: So it differs between organizations. As a fractional CMO, once again, like you are, in most cases, you are the first and only functions. The expectations are completely different compared to a consultant where you just come in, analyze things, run a few conversations, and come up with a plan for the team to implement and move ahead, you'll supervise them. As a functional CMO, in most cases, you are planning and executing and you report only to the CEO while you need to collect all the other functions altogether to work cohesively, which is something that I heavily believe regardless of my function, my role, my scope, etcetera. Like I believe that in 2026, you can't really stay narrow sided and focus only on marketing. No, I do only marketing. I'm not involved in sales, I'm not involved in product. It doesn't work this way anymore.