Dave Gerhardt

Hey I'm Dave Gerhardt. I created Exit Five, which has turned into the top community for B2B marketing professionals. Before starting Exit Five I had a 10 year career in marketing and grew from PR intern to CMO. I even once had hair! My wife says I'm more handsome now though, and she's quite pretty so that means a lot -- but the internet just boxes me in as the typical bald guy tech bro. So oh look, another bald tech guy writing on LinkedIn! whoopty freaking do.

Anyway. Where was I... OH. Receipts! I wanted to talk about receipts, because in a world of fluff and online influencers, I actually have some receipts and I want to tell you about them here because it signals power, credibility, and makes it seem like I'm super rich, so: I used to be pretty good at marketing, and my work as a marketer played a key role (at least I think so) in helping two software companies to successful exits: Drift for $1B+ and Privy for $100M+. I certainly helped the founders make a bunch of money, and I was able to comfortably purchase a brand new Toyota Sienna minivan for my family in 2021.

Today I spend my time working on Exit Five, and it's actually been super fun and given me a bunch of purpose. We're a team of six full-time team members now, and we have a private online community and host in-person events around the world. Plus there's a popular podcast and newsletter for marketers. We reach something like 20 MILLION marketers with our content every year, and we've got a pretty special thing going on. I hope to keep it going. You can learn more about it all at exitfive.com.

I spent most of my life in the Boston area but now live in the woods in Vermont with my wife, two kids, two cats, and one dog.

You can reach me at dave@exitfive.com if you want, but TBD if I reply. Depends on the message. But please don't send me any more swag or books. But if for whatever reason you do want to send me something, I play the ProV1x golf ball and like the low numbers.

PS. Find my podcast “The Dave Gerhardt Show” on Spotify

Founder & CEO

Exit Five is a media company focused on B2B marketing. We help B2B marketers build successful careers through our content and community. Learn more at exitfive.com

The CEO should put the Product team and Marketing team together. 

In lock step. 

To drive momentum and success for the company. 

I see so much about Sales and Marketing. 

Not enough about Product and Marketing. 

There should be a vision. And a roadmap. And regular launches. Some small. Some big. And this becomes the operating system for the company. 

You can CREATE momentum for your company by doing this. Deadlines drive actions. 

These regular launches give Marketing and Sales regular opportunities to talk to new customers. 

The CEO should be in the middle of this.

PS. If this topic lands with you and you're a CMO: we've been running a super secret group for CMOs / VP Marketing doing $25M+ ARR at Exit Five over the last few months and we're now accepting new members. Community is more important now than ever and it's all about who is in the room. We have curated the right room for you. If you want a peer group like this you can apply for a spot here: tinyurl.com/23h2c5eh

Founder: Exit Five. Community Builder. Former CMO. Building the top community for B2B marketers right now at exitfive.com

I didn't want my team to publish this talk. It was too good. Should have only been for the memory of the people that went to Drive this year.

But I'm also a marketer and understand the power of social media and free content, so fine. 

We published my pal Harry Dry's talk from Drive 2025 yesterday, and if you missed it he gave a masterclass in storytelling.

The long lost art of conflict and emotion in the world of AI, PLEASE GO LISTEN TO THIS MAN.

The first line of this clip says it all "You should know so much about your category you could write a book on it."

You're not creating a category to fit into Gartner or G2. You are creating a category because you are literally inventing a new of way of doing things!

That's the opportunity.

I'll put the recording in the comments (audio only)

Founder: Exit Five. The top community for B2B marketers.

Andrew Capland

Camp Solo

Camp Solo is a private community for solopreneurs to exchange ideas, share experiences and resources, and find real support through the highs and lows of running your own business - campsolo.co

Co-Founder

Delivering Value

I help heads of growth accelerate their careers with 1:1 coaching, and I help early-stage SaaS teams scale as a product-led growth advisor.

Services include:
* 1:1 coaching for heads of growth
* PLG advising for SaaS teams

I specialize in helping clients who work at small to mid-sized SaaS companies (usually starting around $6-$10 million in ARR). If that sounds like you, send me a message!

I've supported clients from amazing companies like:
copy.ai
Notion
Sprout Social
Pendo
Lusha
Whimsical
Motion

Founder

Delivering Value Podcast

Candid conversations with growth leaders about the setbacks, feedback, and self-doubt that almost derailed their careers - and instead shaped their path to success.

No growth tactics, playbooks, or guides. Just raw stories from the trenches and lessons to help others encountering the same challenges.

Subscribe 👇

Podcast Host

Proof-of-Skill

Product-led Growth Advisor

Protocols

Navattic

Advisor

Happeo

Product-led growth advisor

Contingent

Advisor: product-led growth

Expel

Avrios

Product-led growth Advisor

Coach for heads of growth | PLG advisor | former growth @ Postscript, Wistia, HubSpot

After coaching more than 50 clients, it's become clear... Most Growth Teams face the same struggles:

You’re not always sure which lever to pull to drive meaningful impact.

You don’t have a repeatable operating system, so there's no structured process for prioritizing experiments, aligning across teams, or scaling execution

You're spending too much time convincing instead of executing. You're constantly selling ideas internally, securing resources, and fighting for buy-in.

Your role feels misunderstood because your boss has never done your job, and leadership sees the numbers but doesn’t always recognize the full impact of growth.

You’re ready for the next level but don’t have a clear roadmap to get there.

I'm Andrew

I’m the former growth lead at two high-volume PLG businesses: Director of Growth at Wistia, and Head of Growth at Postscript.

I’ve been where you are.

I’ve built and scaled growth teams from scratch, run hundreds of experiments, and made every mistake in the book. I know what "good" looks like, and I know how overwhelming it can feel without mentorship from someone who's done your job.

Now, I take everything I've learned to help other growth leaders increase their impact and influence.

☎️ Book a call to work with me ☎️
https://deliveringvalue.co/get-started

Delivering Value offers coaching & advising for product-led growth teams.

Because scaling a product-led business is hard. It's a really effective go-to market model, when done right. But, it’s still relatively new and most companies don’t have someone with extensive PLG experience. 

That means you spend a lot of time and money making mistakes trying to figure it out. Or, you feel overwhelmed by all the content out there, trying to teach yourself.

That’s were the idea of Delivering Value was born. To help early-stage tech companies save time by avoiding common mistakes, learn proven frameworks & methods instead of trying to figure it out themselves, & ultimately grow faster.

Services include:
* 1:1 coaching for heads of growth
* PLG advising for SaaS teams
* Digital products for the growth community

I specialize in helping clients who work at small to mid-sized SaaS companies (usually starting around $8-$10 million in ARR), not tech unicorns. If that sounds like you, send me a message!

I'm helping a bunch of people update their resumes. And I'm seeing a new format that’s working right now - it's different from the advice we've been told for years.

The old way was all about results:

- took [thing] from A --> B 
- increased conversion rate of [thing] Z%
- scaled to $XX,XXX MRR

Good stuff for sure.

But without the context of the business (size, stage, gtm model) the reader can't tell if those results are a single, triple, or a home run.

And the same title in growth can mean five different things depending the stuff above too. 

That is why strong candidates keep getting overlooked.

After working with several growth leaders on their job searches in 2025, I started testing a different way to structure their resumes.

What emerged from that experimentation became the CATER framework.

(ironic because everyone says to “cater” your resume to the role. But this actually helps you cater it to what you actually did.)

Here's the gist:

Use one bullet for each
- context: what kind of company you were at (size, stage, GTM)

- accountability / ownership: the KPIs you were responsible for + the surface area you owned

- team: who you managed, how the team changed, who you worked with

- execution + results: what you did and how it went (most resumes start here… which is why they fall flat)

Then you can go deeper with 3-4 bullets for the E/R part of the acronym.

Once you stack your resume in this order, it reads like a cohesive story - and it allows your future interviewers to ask much better questions. 

Curious if anyone else has tried this. It’s been working really well for the folks I’m helping.

ps - I just did a deep dive about this on substack + youtube: https://lnkd.in/edC7NWWB

Coach for heads of growth | PLG advisor | Former 2x growth lead (Wistia, Postscript) | Co-Founder Camp Solo | Host Delivering Value Pod 🎙️

I’m 39. Have 2 kiddos. And run two businesses from Massachusetts 👋

Before this, I spent 12 years growing B2B SaaS companies like Wistia, Postscript, and HubSpot.

Now, I'm growing my own stuff.

Delivering Value (my core business):
- 1:1 coaching for people who lead growth teams
- advising product-led companies on scaling systems
- podcast where growth leaders share their toughest career moments

Camp Solo (my second business):
- private community for ambitious solopreneurs
- members share wins, losses, and build together

Here’s what that looks like day to day 👇

5:45am - wake-up to screaming 17mo old
6-8 am - get everyone fed, dressed, and out the door
9-10 am - workout and shower
10–2 pm - coaching & advisory calls
2–5 pm - creative work and business ops
5:30 - 8 - dinner and family time

Organic content is my growth engine. I:

- share lessons from my 13 yrs in the tenches
- give insights from 85+ coaching clients
- build in public, even though my college friends think its cringy

Running solo looks polished from the outside, but I ride a roller coaster of emotions depending on the moment.

Still, I wouldn’t trade it.

That's a small tax to pay for the freedom of being an entrepreneur.

ps - if you're thinking of going solo, drop your questions below. Happy to share what I’ve learned so far.

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If you like to…

explain your job to everyone you work with (again and again)
constantly beg for resources (and get told “not this quarter”)
feel like you’re the only one prioritizing the business over personal agendas

…might I recommend a career in growth?

The great paradox of career growth: 
People who get promoted fastest tend to do less, not more.

- they're not volunteering for every new opportunity
- they're not working the most hours
- they're not the most responsive

They’re choosing the right opportunities. And making sure everyone knows WHY those choices matter.

I’ve seen this pattern again and again.

First as someone who climbed from IC to Head of Growth.
Now as a coach to dozens of growth leaders doing the same.

Promotions don’t go to the hardest workers doing the most units of work.
(at least not once you reach Director or VP level)

They go to the people who create the most impact. 

I recorded an 11-minute video breaking down the four habits that separate high performers from everyone else, including how to:

align perfectly with your boss
protect your focus
manage up like a pro
make your work visible (without playing politics)

watch it here: 
https://lnkd.in/evABPJ8T

Signup page: your trial expires in 14 days
In-app banner: your trial expires in 14 days
Welcome email: your trial expires in 14 days
The SDR: “you have 14 days to enjoy your trial”

Someone, writing into support:

“Hey, how long is the trial?”

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