Anna Furmanov

Furmanov Marketing Consulting

Positioning and messaging that's backed by customer research. 

Most positioning and messaging is driven by assumptions (Assumption Marketing). FMC is a customer insights and strategy firm that helps B2B startups translate their confusing business jargon into simple and clear positioning and messaging that your buyers will understand.

So you get:

👉 deeper engagement with customers and prospects
👉 consistent, memorable messaging
👉 increased inbound to demos
👉 better sales conversations
👉 differentiated positioning
👉 increased word of mouth
👉 faster sales cycle
👉 closed deals

Founder

Building With Buyers

47k+ downloads + rated Top 5% podcast globally + very close to 5 stars

Host

Navattic

Navattic lets people get hands-on with your product earlier in the buying journey through no-code interactive demos.

Marketing Advisor

Riverside.fm

Riverside is your all-in-one podcast and video platform, and they just launched Magic Clips which is their AI powered video clips maker for social media.

Ambassador

Alumni Ventures

Limited Partner

MKT1

FuelK12

Helping edtech companies build scalable revenue engines to drive meaningful growth. Customers include Seesaw, Branching Minds, Pear Deck, Yoga Ed, Thimble, Graspable Math, Marker Learning and more.

Marketing Instructor

Forum Ventures

Startup Mentor

SignalFire

GrowthMentor

Growth is tough, and sometimes, you just want to talk to someone. Get unstuck quickly with 1:1 advice from vetted startup mentors. Check out my 5-Star reviews: https://app.growthmentor.com/mentors/anna-furmanov

Mentor

I start up marketing at startups using the MaaS Method | host of Modern Startup Marketing podcast

Most early stage startups face the same problem: 

People who need your product don’t understand what it is or why it matters, so they end up not caring.

Why?

We stuff our websites with business jargon to sound like we know what we're doing. We assume we know our customers and how to talk to them about our differentiating value. We end up over-explaining what the product can do (company-focused) instead of what problem it solves (buyer-focused).

And as the company grows, the focus moves further away from customers and more towards building the product and sales activities. As a founder, you FEEL like you've gotten plenty of customer signal already.

Big mistake.

The most successful startups are *obsessed* with their customers.

We are dismissing our customers, yet customers are the key to unlocking the next round of growth for our company. They bought your product when nobody else would. Do you know what makes them unique and what motivated them to buy?

A superficial understanding of your customers causes buyer indifference, team frustration, and slow growth. I help solve these problems by conducting and analyzing customer conversations to create positioning and messaging your buyers will understand and act on.

So you get:

👉 deeper engagement with customers and prospects
👉 consistent, memorable messaging
👉 increased inbound to demos
👉 better sales conversations
👉 differentiated positioning
👉 increased word of mouth
👉 closed deals

★★★★★
“We had a 4X increase in sales and I 100% attribute that to those learnings I had with Anna.”
—Founder, EdLight

★★★★★
“Highly recommend Anna to any startup looking to up their marketing game."
—Head of Growth, Navattic

★★★★★
"I especially appreciated the work she did up front to get to know us, our product, and our customers. Strong recommend for any startup." 
—Founder, Copybara

Book a call here: https://calendly.com/furmanovmarketing/45min

Helping venture-backed startup founders and marketing leaders implement marketing programs that drive revenue. Industries include: e-commerce, ed tech, higher ed tech, food tech, security tech, sales tech, martech, innovation tech, developer tech and more.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

👉🏻 Startup marketing strategy, execution and advising. I’m like your fractional Head of Marketing (25+ happy clients and mentees) >> www.furmanovmarketing.com

👉🏻 Sign up to get my monthly newsletter where I'll make you chuckle/smile/both guaranteed >> https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba 

👉🏻 Sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov

RapidSOS

Responsible for all facets of marketing. 

RapidSOS is an intelligent safety company that securely links life-saving data from 540M+ connected devices, apps, and sensors from 90+ global technology companies to over 450,000 first responders across 16,000 agencies nationwide. Whether there’s an unsafe moment or an emergency, RapidSOS Ready devices, homes, or buildings deliver essential data to the right place, when it matters most.

Chief Marketing Officer

Cassidy Shield Consulting

While the world of marketing grows increasingly complex with new tools and trends, the foundational principles remain the same. I help guide B2B software and tech companies through these shifts with confidence. My services include executive coaching, marketing strategy, organizational alignment, and a strong emphasis on data-driven decision-making.

Advisor

Refine Labs

We help B2B companies change how they think about, measure, and execute marketing so they can stop worrying about lead volume and start generating revenue.

Responsible for marketing, sales, and account management.

Chief Revenue Officer

Marketing has changed. The old playbook doesn't work. You need to start doing what's best for your brand, not what's easiest to track. Refine Labs is a progressive demand strategy firm focused on helping growth-stage B2B SaaS companies. 

We start with a strategy built for the way customers buy today. By executing this strategy every day with our customers, we generate insights at scale, which fuels continuous research and innovation. Together we're writing the new demand generation playbook.

Responsible for Marketing & Sales at Refine Labs.

Chief Growth Officer

Narrative Science

Acquired by Salesforce in December 2021.

Narrative Science is redefining the future of data and analytics by making data understandable for everyone. Our latest product Lexio is the first analytics experience built from the start for business users. Powered by artificial intelligence, our software automatically writes stories from enterprise data to drive understanding and results. If you can read, you can use Lexio.

Reporting to our President and Co-Founder, responsible for all facets of marketing and sales.

Senior Vice President Marketing and Sales

Reported to the President and Co-Founder, responsible for all facets of marketing.

Vice President Marketing

Gogo

Gogo is the leading global provider of broadband connectivity products and services for aviation with sales of ~$800M and 1,400 employees supporting 20 airline partners connecting passengers and crews inflight to 80 countries daily.

Reported to the President of the Commercial Aviation division and responsible for global marketing which includes a team of 35+ spanning brand management, digital marketing, product marketing, customer marketing, corporate communications, market insights, and end-user experience. Accountable for shifting marketing focus from B2C to B2B and expanding brand globally.

NetCracker

Netcracker, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, is an industry-leading revenue, network & cloud management company with 6000+ employees and global operations in North & South America, EMEA, Russia, Ukraine, India, and Asia-Pacific regions.

Reported to the CEO and responsible for 50+ marketers covering all facets of marketing including corporate communications, brand, digital, social media, product marketing, market research, competitive intelligence, events and customer marketing. In addition, led a 20-person sales operations team who managed Salesforce and sales pipeline. Accountable for re-positioning the company for future growth and building a marketing function to support growth.

Alcatel-Lucent

Reported to the President of Bell Labs and Corporate CTO responsible for building and bringing to market a highly specialized consulting practice of 140+ consultants leveraging the Bell Labs brand and future of networking technology vision.

Managing Partner, Bell Labs Consulting

Reported to the Senior Vice President Marketing and dotted line to President of the IP Platform business responsible for marketing a $1.5B software and services portfolio that spanned cloud management, data analytics, IP communications, customer experience management, billing, and operations support systems. Accountable to 7 VP/General Managers, 3 Regional Business Development teams and sales execution support across a global sales organization.

Vice President Marketing, IP Platforms Business Division

Reported to Vice President of the Division and held multiple roles for a business focused on digital services and digital innovation; including running divisional operations and strategy followed by general manager of the mobile content delivery business; encompassing both direct software sales and software as a service (SaaS).

Senior Director, Digital Media and Advertising

Reported to Vice President & General Manager of Broadband Access Division and responsible for developing and executing the strategy to enter the IPTV market.

Director and GM Broadband Video and Multimedia Solutions

Reported to Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and held multiple roles including leading a global supply chain for a $200M product line and operations manager ensuring day-to-day execution of 1,100-person team and management of a $150M+ budget.

Senior Manager, Broadband Solutions Product and Supply Chain Management

Capgemini

Manager of Supply Chain Consulting

Senior Consultant, Oracle Service Line

What I’ve learned over the last 20+ years is consistent - great people who are open-minded to new approaches and new technologies can go beyond what they thought imaginable with the right leadership and execution.  

Passionate about driving change, I started my career streamlining industrial operations with software and lean operating principles. That work opened the door to leading diverse development teams who built software that enhanced digital experiences. Software leadership created opportunities to lead global marketing for large software and services businesses.

What I enjoy most about marketing is the rapid rate of change that technology brings to the work. My experience & leadership in navigating this change includes:

Strategy & Execution – I build marketing plans aligned to the objectives of the business. Plans I know through experience can be resourced, measured, and executed successfully.

Brand & Positioning – I’ve built new brands and re-invigorated existing brands resulting in leadership in both market share and awareness. Balancing brand goals with market perception and developing a strategy to shift perception when necessary is critical.

Content-Lead Digital Marketing – I’ve executed multiple digital marketing strategies using SEO, social, email, marketing automation, and more. However, the key to digital is great content that leads the buyer to what you sell.

Product Marketing & Sales Support – I’ve built product marketing teams that align the business with a unified vision of the customer need, build great content which leads prospects through the buying journey and educate sales teams to support the journey.

Customer Engagement & Advocacy – in many companies, engaging the customer face-to-face is still required to close a sale and build advocacy. I’ve built programs that increased customer engagement and helped close multi-million dollar deals. 

When not working, I enjoy life outside Chicago with my patient wife and not-so-patient kids.

Cassidy Shield

Big news today: RapidSOS is welcoming Northern911 to our family.

Together with Northern911, we’re building a stronger, smarter 911 network for North America—so when the unexpected happens, every call gets through.
Because when outages hit, storms strike, or call volumes surge, the mission doesn’t stop.

And neither can 911.

Every day, our teams see the pressure 911 is under:

=> Natural disasters and system outages pushing centers to the brink

=> Alarm monitoring calls that need smarter triage before they ever reach 911

=> Staffing shortages that leave teams running lean

=> Millions of 911 calls annually placed on hold due to the above

Last year alone, we helped support over 200 outages, including five statewide outages. Now, by joining forces with Northern911, we’re extending that support network—giving every center a stronger safety net when it matters most.

This partnership is about one thing: making sure no call for help goes unanswered.

Welcome to the team, Northern911!

#911 #PublicSafety #AI #TechForGood #FirstResponder

Today's announcement marks a milestone for RapidSOS - and a recommitment to the mission that drives us closer to a future where every emergency receives the fast, informed response it deserves.

We’ve secured $100M in new funding, bringing us to $450M raised and valuing RapidSOS at over $1B. But the real headline is what this enables for public safety.

We’ve now supported more than 1 billion emergencies through a safety network that spans:

=> 600M+ connected devices, apps, sensors, and cameras
=> 200+ global enterprises, including half of the U.S. Fortune 10
=> 22,000+ federal, state, and local public-safety and defense agencies
=> 1M+ first responders worldwide
=> 5,800+ integrations into public-safety and defense software

This funding accelerates how we:

Detect emergencies earlier, sometimes before the first 911 call

Unify real-time data from vehicles, smart devices, buildings, schools, and cities

Coordinate faster responses with the field

None of this is possible without the 911 professionals, field responders, public-safety leaders, and partners who trust us to innovate alongside them. 

Thank you for pushing us to build something worthy of the communities we all serve!

More in the comments on how the largest investment in emergency response AI is shaping the future of public safety. 

#FirstResponder #TechForGood #AI #PublicSafety

RapidSOS Funding Announcement

I grew up on long, quiet roads in rural Iowa — the kind where you could drive miles without seeing another car. Back then, if something went wrong, help could feel impossibly far away.

Watching this 13-second story reminded me how much that reality has changed for the better.

What struck me most wasn’t the technology — it was the people.

The dispatcher who trusted their instincts. 
The responders who moved without hesitation.
The teams that used every tool available to bridge distance in moments when seconds mattered.

The tech behind this moment didn’t exist when I was growing up. In many places, it still doesn’t.

But when it does — when public safety agencies have access to real-time information, the unimaginable becomes survivable.

This mini-doc is a testament to the professionals who answer every call, often in the dark, hoping they have enough to work with.

They are the heart of this story — and the reason innovation matters.

Grateful to them. Always.

taplio

The Battle

Anna Furmanov

Cassidy Shield

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taplio

The Battle

Anna Furmanov

Cassidy Shield

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Cassidy Shield's LinkedIn Performance

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