Marketers of Technology
00:00:00 · Matthew Lattanzio, Andres Figuera
[00:00:00] S0: I had no website for the first year, and I was trying to see how long I could go without actually having a website. Over the summer in a slow period, I did build one finally, but I had zero inbound still to this day from the website. No one has booked a meeting from my website to this day. [00:00:19] S1: Hey, and welcome back to another episode of the Marketers of Technology. My name is Andres Figuera, this show is brought to you by Front Lines, 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 Matthew Lattanzio, founder and CEO at Supply and Demand Consulting, which provides fractional CRO and CMO plus demand generation services. So, Matthew, it's a pleasure to have you on the show, man. How are you doing today? [00:00:54] S0: Yeah. Good, man. Thanks for having me. Appreciate you, you asked me to be on. [00:00:57] S1: No. Super happy that we were able to make this work and that we're we're hosting this for you. And just so that we can hit the ground running, Matt, would you be able to tell us a bit more about your background? What were the ideas that made you start the company or the agency better said for Supply and Demand Consulting? And, yeah, how that's been for you?
00:01:14 · Matthew Lattanzio
[00:01:14] S0: Yeah. So I've been in sales and marketing leadership roles for fifteen plus years. I had a few roles where I had a couple of exits. My last role was a CRO of a company that got... Actually got acquired. Like, happy to speak towards M and A and how that's actually a positive kind of outcome for some companies as well. So I've been through that personally. So it was April of last year. I toyed with the idea of going back as a full time CRO. I felt honestly a bit burnt out. I've been going on the grind for a few years straight, so decided to set up shop and consulting. And so far, it's... I haven't looked back. It's been a really interesting transition and life stage for me. I'd say there's definitely pros and cons to operating versus being a fractional consultant. Happy to chat through some of that today as well for any fellow fractionals out there. But overall, I'd say the lifestyle benefit, the flexibility, and the ability to work with interesting clients and transition those clients as well. Like, every time I sign a new client and I'm onboarding, it feels like you're starting a new job. You get those kind of, like, new vibes and you get excited about the business and you have some fresh eyes on the business versus being in a role for several years, which everyone knows what that's like on the inverse as well. So overall, like, it's an interesting journey. We're not an agency. It's actually just me. So I have a solopreneur. I do have some team members that can help to supplement with some functional areas such as revenue ops or demand gen or performance marketing. But I don't like to brand it as an agency. I'm an embedded member of your team. Like, most of my clients don't even feel that I'm part time. They feel that I'm actually in the business day to day. I'm in the business every day of the week, so there's no set days. A lot of my competitors or peers do like a Monday this client, Tuesday that client. I just don't feel like that works for the way that a business is operated. You need to be accessible on demand. And, yeah, that's that's a bit about the background and why I started the company.
00:02:55 · Andres Figuera, Matthew Lattanzio
[00:02:55] S1: I love that, man. And, Matt, is there a certain industry that you work most commonly with or a certain type of company that you're really specialized in? Like, does that look for you? [00:03:05] S0: Yeah. So I do have more experience, I'd say, in restaurant technology. I was the head of revenue for 7shifts, is a scheduling workforce management platform, helped grow that company from 4 to 20,000,000 in revenue. Since then, I've worked with several restaurant tech companies in the consulting world also as an operator. But lately, I've actually intentionally tried to diversify my client base. So I'm now working with a few AI companies. Actually, one of my clients is more of a contractor tech, is actually a new interesting vertical for me that I'm getting into. So I've intentionally tried to... Because you work through the same industry or vertical for so many times servicing the same customer. It can get monotonous for sure. Like, I built demand gen engines for, like, eight restaurant tech companies. Like, I know the industry extremely well. I know all the players extremely well. So that's been... It's been a great... It served me well, and I've really enjoyed working as part of the space. But lately, I've craved just a bit of diversification and some some new challenges. So lately, I've intentionally tried to scope outside of it.
00:03:05 · Matthew Lattanzio, Andres Figuera
[00:03:05] S0: Yeah. So I do have more experience, I'd say, in restaurant technology. I was the head of revenue for 7shifts, is a scheduling workforce management platform, helped grow that company from 4 to 20,000,000 in revenue. Since then, I've worked with several restaurant tech companies in the consulting world also as an operator. But lately, I've actually intentionally tried to diversify my client base. So I'm now working with a few AI companies. Actually, one of my clients is more of a contractor tech, is actually a new interesting vertical for me that I'm getting into. So I've intentionally tried to... Because you work through the same industry or vertical for so many times servicing the same customer. It can get monotonous for sure. Like, I built demand gen engines for, like, eight restaurant tech companies. Like, I know the industry extremely well. I know all the players extremely well. So that's been... It's been a great... It served me well, and I've really enjoyed working as part of the space. But lately, I've craved just a bit of diversification and some some new challenges. So lately, I've intentionally tried to scope outside of it. [00:03:58] S1: And in in... Well, let's start speaking about the restaurant tech. How have you been able then to help out your clients in that industry to generate demand? Like, could you give us a bit more insight on how you manage that?
00:04:09 · Matthew Lattanzio
[00:04:09] S0: Yeah. So I'd say, like, specifically with restaurant tech tech, I know the space extremely well. I know the buyers extremely well. I actually was restaurant operator. I was a VP of marketing of a 50 plus location burger franchise out in Toronto. So for me, I really know how they buy. I know how... Like, the complications between a franchisor versus a corporately owned entity. I know the mid market space extremely well as well, like that 50 to 200 location restaurant brand. So... I also know the gaps and technologies that exist. So when I can onboard a client, I can kinda cut through a lot of the noise and help them find product market fit, think, lot faster just through my expertise in the space. And in terms of DemandGen, like depending on the company, there's two different roads to this success in this space, which is product led growth. So something that you sign up, get value extremely quickly, and you can basically self convert versus more of an enterprise or mid market sales motion where it's direct selling and you need to book demos. So I've been able to build out those two motions and sometimes concurrently. 7shifts is a good example where we did have a great product like Growth Motion, fourteen day free trial with no credit card required, but then also we're able to service mid market customers through a traditional demo to Close Motion. So being a CMO and CRO, I can definitely bridge the gaps between sales and marketing. I think that's one of my superpowers, I'd say. Like, I've always heard that there's this healthy tension between sales and marketing. I've never seen healthy tension. I've only seen tension, and I've only seen sales and marketing leaders, like, hate each other and play this, like, political game and kind of blame each other for the leads or shit, and then they blame... Like, it's just... There's so much, like, kind of back and forth that happens, unfortunately. So even in my consulting world, I really try to reach across the pond and try to bridge the two departments and functions so that they're all aligned to the same revenue target and the same goal. So that's something that I'm able to to... Yeah. I have deep experience in, especially in the restaurant tech space.
00:05:53 · Andres Figuera
[00:05:53] S1: That's amazing, man. And I love how you mentioned the fact that it really is so surprising to me that two departments that work so closely together treat each other like cats and dogs because it's just an eternal feud, man. But when you're able to really bridge that gap between both of them and, like, unsilo those two departments and have them work together, I I feel things really start to get a lot better in terms of how the leads are generated and how then they're qualified and actually converted to an actual sale. But, Matt, another question I do have is, this is you, yourself, and that's it. And how about... How many customers can you manage at a time? How does that look for you?