Melissa Esmundo

Curious about how to navigate the ever-changing influencer landscape? Join me tomorrow at Morning Brew's NYC event, "Perfecting Your Influencer IQ" where I'll be speaking with Mae Karwowski, Founder & CEO, Obviously & Kyle Hagge, Chief of Staff, Morning Brew about: 🌟 Consumer Sentiments: Understand the current attitudes and behaviors about influencers. 💡 Maximizing ROI: Strategies to leverage influencer partnerships effectively. 📈 Trends: Discuss the latest trends shaping the influencer landscape and how to stay ahead. It's not too late to register: https://lnkd.in/dwvaDSiZ #InfluencerMarketing #ROI #ConsumerInsights #MarketingTrends #MorningBrew

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Reading through earnings reports can be quite insightful, and I stumbled upon a line from a leading retailer that caught my attention: “Revenue was also impacted by the growth of its commission-only marketplace model.” In other words, the company is sacrificing margin on every sale, regardless of whether it’s a new or repeat customer. Interestingly, we’ve heard from brands using a closed-affiliate verification provider’s marketplace that 50-80% of the traffic is from repeat customers. These are customers that the brand has already acquired on another channel, so there's no need to pay additional commissions to reacquire them. At our company, we take a different approach. We believe that the brand should own the relationship and first-party data with the customer, not the verification provider. This approach gives brands the power to remarket and engage with customers without paying commissions on future sales. It's a win-win situation for both the brand and the customer.

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Introducing 💡 Spotlight 💡 It’s your cheat sheet to HubSpot’s 100+ latest updates — including these 4 biggies we know you’ll love: 🧡 Service Hub connects service and success together to help customers faster 🧡 Content Hub takes content creation into the future with a single piece of content – remixing everything from blogs to social, and more 🧡 Commerce Hub makes B2B buying and selling SO MUCH smoother from wherever you transact 🧡 HubSpot AI powers all our Hubs and the Smart CRM so you can deliver the best experiences possible Reinvention starts here at hubspot.com/spotlight

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I’m honored to be one of the judges for this year’s Pause Fest & Awards We have 12 new categories, to help celebrate a diverse range of innovations and achievements across the business landscape. New categories include: Creative Maverick — for unstoppable leaders. Quiet Achiever — for the unsung heroes. Splash Down Under — for entering into the Australian market. Always Evolving — for a culture of continuous improvement. Ethical Leadership — for exemplary governance. Collab — for mutual growth and innovation. Going Global — for international growth and success. Next Level — for scaling through acquisition or integration. Enter today: https://lnkd.in/dVhNxAQw We love clever ideas, no matter the size, that spark something bigger and have an impact. Let Pause Awards tell your story. Together, we break through. 🚀

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Check out our podcast interview with Ryan Lupberger, CEO and Co-Founder of Cleancult, as he shares his experience building a cleaning company from the ground up. Be our guest on the next Business Ninjas Podcast! Reach out to schedule your interview today! #businessninjaspodcast #podcastguestinterview

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The video from our event last week with serial entrepreneur and tech legend, Paul English, is now available on VentureFizz. It was an awesome opportunity to learn from a product guru who has built multiple companies that have scaled and exited. We covered multiple topics, including Paul's decision-making process when selecting ideas to build companies around, the art of pivoting, invaluable hiring advice, and so much more.  Of particular note was Paul's emphasis on the importance of speaking directly to users. It's a major priority and he would think creatively about how to obtain this feedback. As an example, while building KAYAK, he would buy a ticket to go through airport security to not fly anywhere, but to talk to travelers for user research. This theme resonated throughout the interview, with Paul even offering a crash course on his approach to usability testing. The conversation covered a wide array of subjects, including: * Ideas and deciding which ones to build a company around. * The full story of KAYAK from idea to $1.8B dollar exit to Priceline. * The red phone at KAYAK and why he fielded customer service calls. * Staying focused and the "Uber-Like" idea at KAYAK. * The importance of talking to customers and Paul's approach to usability testing. * The story behind Lola Travel from rapid growth to exit (acquired by Capital One). * Boston Venture Studio’s Products. * His thoughts on AI and determining its use for products. * Hiring Product Managers. * Career advice for Product Managers. #productmanagement #productmanager #startups #entrepreneurs

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How fun! I joined the Remarkable podcast to talk about books, B2B marketing, and leadership lessons from one of my favorite genre-crossing masterworks: The Terror, by Dan Simmons. We talked about big themes, including: -The need for resilience in the face of hardship (Startups and surviving the adverse interest rate environment) -The world is indifferent (No one cares about your new product feature. Now what?) -Big ideas are great, but a persuasive argument often wins (Invest in your soft skills to develop your career) Check it out!

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👷‍♀️ Blink - The Frontline Experts is building a “super app” for frontline organizations to make working lives easier. 👷‍♂️ It's W8 / Q2 / 2024 & this week in our MGMT Boston startup series we’ve got Blink, a growth stage startup building a better workplace experience platform for desk based employees to connect with their deskless colleagues who spend their days out in the world, fixing our problems and servicing our needs - and traditionally are hard to reach. Blink is helping employers uplevel their internal cultural experience and help employers better understand how their disparate workers are thinking & feeling. In the U.S. there are more than 40M frontline workers with deskless workers encompassing 37% of the total workforce. These are employees in industries like healthcare, retail, manufacturing, higher education, utilities & transportation. Eighteen months ago they made the decision to expand from the UK to the US. Founder Sean Nolan moved to Boston and hired CRO Jim McInerny to build out the team. In the months since they’ve added local leadership like Sloan Kendall from Gainsight, Marcy Paterson from ServiceNow, and Amanda Haltmaier from HubSpot. Blink counts almost 20 employees locally here in Boston. In the coming quarters they plan to roll out their workforce insights & frontline intelligence product. AI generated questions will help dig into employee concerns and feed the insights back to HQ where executives can diagnose and solve turnover challenges. Blink is diligently co-developing these new features with current customers. In Boston they’re strong in the EMS sector so ambulance personnel at companies like Cataldo & Action Ambulance aren’t rushing back to the office after saving peoples lives to file paperwork! Even the MBTA is a customer. In 2023 Blink grew U.S. top line revenue by 159% and welcomed 52 new customers, now counting over 100 enterprise customers. In 2024 they will continue to focus on the U.S., its fastest growing market, planning to double the size of their U.S. headcount over the next 12 months. For Sean, Boston has been the best combination for a European founder - easy commutability home to the UK, time zone overlap, a great culture, and access to top talent as an Enterprise SaaS startup. And on a personal note,  it felt like a great place to raise a family building a startup for the long haul. Operators to Know (Locally): -Marina Addonizio, Senior CSM, Enterprise -Tanner Fogarty, Senior Enterprise Account Executive -Matt Haley, Account Executive -Amanda Haltmaier, Global Sales Development Director -Courtney Hayes, Senior Marketing Manager -Sloan Kendall, Head of Global Partnerships -Marcy Paterson, VP, Solution Consulting If you're interested in learning more, including the key roles Blink is hiring for, the full post is linked in the comments! And sign up for the newsletter to see who we bring you next week, will you?? #bostontech #startups #saas

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Looking for a #LoyaltyPlatform? Try AirBaton™ Watch this short video explaining why in 51 words…if we counted right. If you’re a beer or CPG marketer who wants to up your sales AND collect valuable consumer data WITHOUT adding work to your plate, DM me. I could help.

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Planning a fun natural wine hang with NYC’s best products and brand makers. The why: I've been craving real work friends lately. 🤓 Not sure about you, but I'm in my growth era professionally. I love building things, helping friends grow their projects, brainstorming ideas, learning about new tech, hearing failure stories, and collaborating with people who keep things raw and real. Most newsfeeds are so negative, filled with people trying to sell you things in the name of networking, and advice from those who shouldn't be giving it. Let’s solve this problem for myself and some of you by curating a real-life event series called ProductPeople. Bringing together senior product-led founders, designers, marketers, PMs, engineers, investors, and ops folks behind your favorite apps, brands, and communities. Request your invite here. The first event is on 7/11 in NYC. The best part, co-hosting the first one with Juliann Kane

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Enjoyed chatting with Andrew Adam Newman for this Retail Brew story about how to fix returns. The status quo is definitely a headache for retailers, but I’m optimistic about what we can do to solve that problem. Here’s a simple one: When you prep your returns for “like new” resale, shoppers are more likely to buy them. By dry cleaning and mending returns we get at Outerspace, we’ve seen apparel brands resell more than 95% of their returns—that’s 26% higher than typical rates. And as I told Andrew, we’re now transitioning to Returns 2.0, a future where retailers will be able to use real-time data to make the most cost-effective decisions at the individual SKU level. Returns don’t have to be a migraine--if you look at them in the right way, they're an opportunity.

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Very insightful podcast with Les Binet on marketing effectiveness & ad pre-testing.

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At Acorns, we’re in the business of managing emotions, not just money. As part of that, we survey everyday Americans for our Money Matters Report™ to understand how they are feeling about their financial situation Some of the more revealing items we found: 🏠 Nearly 1 in 4 people worry about experiencing homelessness (Jumps to 1 in 3 for Gen Z and millennials) 💵 Only 35% of Americans think they will be more financially secure next year than they are now 😟 More than half of the people expressed concerns about the effect macro events like global war and conflict have on their financial security 🌳 But there is hope, Acorns customers feel more financially secure compared to the wider population (34% of Acorns customers vs. 25% of wider population). How? Acorns automatically invests your spare change, and has easy, automatic recurring investments. And these small investments compound up over time -- or as we say, from tiny acorns mighty oaks do grow. https://lnkd.in/eT5SmnJq

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Recent New York Business Intelligence & Market Research Hiring Trends 🗽 New York's data-driven landscape is evolving rapidly, with notable shifts in Business Intelligence and Market Research hiring. Here's what you need to know: - Increased Demand: Businesses in NYC are actively seeking BI and Market Research professionals to harness data insights for strategic decision-making. - Tech Integration: The integration of advanced analytics tools is driving the need for skilled professionals to interpret complex data sets effectively. - Remote Work Adaptation: With the rise of remote work, companies are prioritizing candidates who can excel in virtual environments and collaborate seamlessly. - Specialized Skillsets: Employers are seeking candidates with expertise in data visualization, predictive analytics, and market trends analysis. - Competitive Salaries: In response to the high demand, salaries are competitive, offering lucrative opportunities for top talent in the field. Looking to explore new opportunities in Business Intelligence or Market Research in New York? Connect with Aspire for personalized career guidance and access to top-tier positions. Visit us.weareaspire.com to kickstart your next career move. 🚀 #NewYorkJobs #BusinessIntelligence #MarketResearch Remember, staying informed on industry trends is key to navigating the job market successfully. Stay tuned for more updates and insights! #CareerDevelopment #DataAnalysis #NYCHiring"

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Talking with my friend and consumer/CPG investor Scott Caras this morning. He sees hundreds of pitches from emerging CPG brands every year, and has invested in and sold some awesome brands like Grillo's Pickles and True Botanicals. "The thing that so many companies are missing is an actual strategic plan, backed with numbers, about what the company is going to look like over the next 3-5 years, and the prioritized initiatives that it will take to get there. Having that or not having that is a kind of a game-changer when talking to investors. It shows a level of thoughtfulness about the business that separates certain teams from others and makes an investor a lot more comfortable." My takeaway: Investors are OK with taking some risk - that's literally what they get paid to do. It's your job as a founder/exec to help them understand the risks that you plan on taking, and why those risks will produce an upside outcome for you both. P.S. - We're cooking something up with Olivia Gold aka the OG of strategic planning on this one very soon...stay tuned.

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Incredibly excited to share our newest case study featuring veteran social media marketer Saad Qureshi 🎉 As social media trends shifted to short-form video, Saad and his former team at Grant Cardone Enterprises found themselves at a crossroads. While short videos are vital in driving user engagement, repurposing long-form videos into easily digestible clips was time-consuming and ate into their bandwidth for other initiatives. They needed a solution to condense short video creation into a simple, streamlined workflow — so they used Opus Clip. With our suite of AI-powered editing tools, Saad reduced time spent on short video creation by 50% while also driving these results: ➤ 2x increase in videos produced daily ➤ 50% increase in social media engagement ➤ 4+ hours saved daily on short video creation 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 *𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲* 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰:

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supply chain traceability is another great use case for blockchains and Algorand is leading the way.

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The marketing team at Aqfer has been hard at work on perhaps our most ambitious thought leadership effort to date. If you're interested in what's coming next with cookie deprecation and how to stay on top of it all, we've got you covered. You can access the paper here: https://lnkd.in/eja5dGnb Key insights from the whitepaper include: - The Impacts of Cookie Deprecation on the Digital Advertising Landscape - How Partitioned Cookies Can Help Businesses Navigate the Cookiepocalypse - How CHIPS Can Integrate into Your Identity Strategy (including diagrams to help make sense of it all) - How to Put CHIPS to work in Paid Media, Owned Media, and for Data Activation - A Good-Better-Best Preparation Strategy Thanks! #cookies #cookiepocalypse

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