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.
00:06:24 · Tzvi Vaknin, Andres Figuera
[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. [00:07:25] S1: Yeah. No. I also agree because, and especially with AI, like you can wear many hats at the same time now and you can really use, like you can really do a lot more of the job and learn a lot faster than before that you really had to specialize in SEO, demand generation, and it was just this one line of a vertical within marketing that you could only handle. But nowadays, everybody's doing everything they can with every single tool that is available to them.
00:07:25 · Andres Figuera, Tzvi Vaknin
[00:07:25] S1: Yeah. No. I also agree because, and especially with AI, like you can wear many hats at the same time now and you can really use, like you can really do a lot more of the job and learn a lot faster than before that you really had to specialize in SEO, demand generation, and it was just this one line of a vertical within marketing that you could only handle. But nowadays, everybody's doing everything they can with every single tool that is available to them. [00:07:50] S0: I agree. And on the other hand, it's a double edged sword, I think, because then expectations are growing. Right? Like, CEOs are non marketing people in most cases. You tell them there's a limit to the things that I can do, and they're like, what's the problem? You have AI. No. No, it doesn't necessarily work this way. And on top of that, like nothing could replace your know how. And this is something that I put on my flag these days And I'm pretty sure that it would resonate with some people who listening to this. These days, as you mentioned, because AI technology isn't like the, let's call it the moat anymore, which leaves the know how to be like the mode, like the the things that distinguishes you from the rest. And you have AI, it can solve lots of bottlenecks. It could be an amazing power multiplier, but you need to stay above the loop.
00:07:50 · Tzvi Vaknin, Andres Figuera
[00:07:50] S0: I agree. And on the other hand, it's a double edged sword, I think, because then expectations are growing. Right? Like, CEOs are non marketing people in most cases. You tell them there's a limit to the things that I can do, and they're like, what's the problem? You have AI. No. No, it doesn't necessarily work this way. And on top of that, like nothing could replace your know how. And this is something that I put on my flag these days And I'm pretty sure that it would resonate with some people who listening to this. These days, as you mentioned, because AI technology isn't like the, let's call it the moat anymore, which leaves the know how to be like the mode, like the the things that distinguishes you from the rest. And you have AI, it can solve lots of bottlenecks. It could be an amazing power multiplier, but you need to stay above the loop. [00:08:46] S1: No. Yeah. I agree completely with that as well. And Tzvi, in terms of your experience while being a fractional CMO, can you tell us about a problem you faced and how you solved it in one of the SaaS companies that you've worked with? Maybe if it has to do with their, I don't know, I know you mentioned something about an ICP at one point. So could you tell us a bit more about that?