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.

Paul Kühne

Litmus

Built out marketing team for industrial DataOps IIoT platform, launched partner marketing and product marketing efforts, introduced comprehensive content marketing and social media strategy to increase education and engagement, doubled conversion rates, overhauled website and rebranded company, expanded association and analysts relations, piloted and expanded online advertising, introduced email marketing, revamped tradeshow presence to improve ROI, launched new product offerings that expanded TAM and launched Do More With Data campaign, online summits and livestream to drive thought leadership.

Senior Vice President of Marketing (SVP Marketing)

ürgency

Fractional CMO, GTM growth advisor and marketing and RevOps consultant. Retained services and special projects to drive awareness, leads, velocity, opportunities, revenue and profit. Exclusively freelance 2012-2020 (and 2024 at present).

Highlights of client engagements include(d):

- Fractional/Interim CMO at CloudNC
- Interim VP of Marketing and Communications at Find Your Grind.
- Interim Head of Demand Generation at NetDimensions
- Interim Director of Corporate Marketing and Demand Generation at mBlox
- Head of Marketing Communications for New Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy Initiatives at Cisco
- Marketing Automation/RevOps Strategy and Implementation for Honeywell, Blackboard and More
- Go-to-Market Research and Planning for McGraw-Hill, Dictionary.com and More
- Event Strategy for Entangled Group, Cisco and More
- Marketing Strategy, Messaging and Positioning for Chatfunnels/Signals, IndieFlix/Impactful and More

Learn more at urgency.biz or email me at paul@urgency.biz.

Chief Marketing Officer, Growth Strategy + Marketing Consultant

Bright Machines

Improved and expanded demand gen, RevOps and sales enablement efforts for software-defined modular manufacturing microfactories, introduced ABM approaches, started Customer Advisory Board, launched more robust content marketing and social media efforts, revamped events to improve ROI and improved CAC with focus on quality as well as quantity for better results.

Head of Demand Generation/Director of Marketing

Find Your Grind

Pivoted content marketing amid COVID-19 and quests for social justice for career exploration application, launched FYG Live on Twitch and FYG@Home, streamlined “Getting Started Toolkit” for self discovery to improve usage, significantly increased social media engagement, diversified mentor representation and revamped messaging, positioning and company branding to differentiate.

Vice President, Marketing + Communications

Cisco

Collaborated with senior leadership and board members to research, develop and promote CSR/ESG initiatives beyond signature programs, developed interactive data tools in partnership with Oxford Economics and Gartner Research exploring digitization, automation and the future of work, expanded promotion of Cisco Foundation nonprofit partner success stories, launched for-profit startup contest to solve socioeconomic and environmental challenges and launched new animated series for middle schoolers to inspire 21st century skills, while fostering deeper partnerships with SLED division and helping Cisco be seen “as” an education company with one of the industry’s most successful tradeshow/social launches.

Head of Marketing Communications for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy Initiatives

Developed IoT case studies, customer success stories and video scripts for Americas sales leadership, global sales use, Cisco Live, GSX and Partner Summits. Managed new “Select 150” online customer community, curated and created thought leadership, drove engagement and interviewed experts and executives to foster ongoing loyalty and advocacy.

Marketing Communications Consultant

Solution Tree, Marzano Research Lab, Triple Nickel Press

Spearheaded digital transformation of traditional professional development and learning publisher as its first CMO - increased revenue, speed of repeat business and lifetime value, introduced marketing/sales forecasting to allocate resources, new website increased conversion, direct mail costs cut in half while doubling distribution, online/inbound marketing lowered cost of leads/sales, new telemarketing more cost effectively grew pipeline and Authorspeak conference beat all industry Twitter records.

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

eChalk

Increased leads and marketing automation facilitated year-round selling and accountability for this learning management system, award-winning new website increased inbound, rebranding/repackaging drove market share at both ends, events cost less and opportunities increased 1000+%, 2x as many media placements than previous 10 years combined.

Head of Marketing

BrainPOP

Put scalable GTM efforts in place that paved the way for sustainable operations and growth (through later $1B acquisition by Lego) for animated videos and activities educational platform - created first-ever sales/services teams for 60% revenue growth, doubled renewal rates and increased client adoption, grew subscriptions 50-500%, tightened up branding to be more relevant, introduced customer marketing, launched new partnerships, products and user community internationally.

Vice President, Marketing, Communications + Customer Experience (CMO/CRO)

Tutor.com

Increased tradeshow effectiveness 900% for online tutoring platform, doubled media placements and expanded market size with statewide contracts.

Director of Institutional Marketing

Institute of International Education

New year-round communications plan increased annual giving for global exchange nonprofit, retained signature multi-million dollar government programs and expanded market with new donor base while suing alumni stories to better illustrate impact.

Manager of Strategic + Development Communications/Manager of Alumni Affairs

CMO/CRO/Senior GTM Leader▫️Scaling Revenue/Demand/Brand/Communications▫️20+ Years/6x Head/75+ Clients▫️Chief Marketing Officer/SVP/Growth Consultant▫️Tech/Al/SLED/Nonprofit/ESG/Social Impact▫️Litmus/BrainPOP/Cisco et al

I drive and enable awareness, revenue and growth as a Chief Marketing Officer, Head of Growth and fractional/interim go-to-market leader and consultant.

An expert storyteller - equal parts strategic, tactical, creative and data-driven - my teams and I have led significant gains in B2B and B2C marketing and sales effectiveness and funnel momentum globally.

I spent a decade in-house leading marketing, communications, sales and customer success followed by another serving as a fractional CMO, GTM advisor and RevOps consultant, returning in-house amid COVID. 

I help bring in millions to impact billions - working with nonprofit organizations, startups, SMBs and new initiatives to launch and scale operations so they are profitable and sustainable. Expertise spans products, services, brand, demand generation, marketing operations, sales enablement, partners/channels and marketing communications:

• 100%+ YoY growth in SQLs, opportunities, pipeline, velocity and revenue (<$1M-60M+).
• Significantly and quickly improve quality and quantity of leads through data-driven enablement, RevOps, automation, ABM, channels and new markets.
• Record-breaking industry social engagement, 8x more effective email and events and 2500% more media coverage.
• 2-5x increase in adoption, usage, renewals and advocacy.
• Manage and grow global/hybrid/remote teams. 

Chief Marketing Officer, Fractional CMO, GTM Consultant + Principal

Drive awareness, leads, velocity, opportunities, revenue and profit w/ fractional and interim CMO/CRO leadership, retained services and special projects.

Learn more at urgency.biz or email me at paul@urgency.biz.

Clients include(d): 7 Mindsets • Acrobatiq • Adventure House Communications Group • Alma • Association of American Publishers/PreK-12 Learning Group • Blackboard • Boopsie • C&Z Marketing • C. Blohm & Associates • Cashtivity • Chatfunnels • Cignition • Common Cents New York • Common Core Institute • Conscious Teaching • Cisco • Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) • Classworks • Corwin Press/SAGE Publications • Degreed • Devex • Dictionary.com • EdTechTeam • EduTone/Global Grid for Learning • Ellevation • Entangled Group/Solutions • EXO U • Find Your Grind • Five-Star Technology • Forsythe Technology • Honeywell/System Sensor • Impactful/IndieFlix • Illustrative Mathematics • Infosnap • InOrbit • Institute of International Education • Knovation • LearnOnPoint/Phonics Things • LexisNexis • LightSail Education • LINC Learning • Lyrics2Learn • Math Solutions/Scholastic • mBlox • McGraw-Hill Education • Membean • NESLI • NetDimensions • Newsela • Noodle Markets • NumberShire • NWEA • Open Up Resources • Pivot Learning • PossibilityU • Powerful Learning Practice • PR with Panache • PresenceLearning • Readable English • Redbird Advanced Learning • RisersCircle • RTM Business Group • SchoolInfoApp • School Software Group • Sphero/Orbotix • SunGard • Thought Cycle • Turn • Tutor.com

taplio

The Battle

Dave Gerhardt

Paul Kühne

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreDave Gerhardt's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Dave Gerhardt

Paul Kühne

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);}Dave Gerhardt's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDave Gerhardt's LinkedIn Performance