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

Content marketers run modern marketing.

Because almost all marketing today is shaped online.

And online marketing shows up as:

- Ads
- Videos
- Articles
- Podcasts and clips like this with Jess Cook
- Social posts
- Newsletters
- Communities
- Influencers

Different formats. But none of it works without a clear content strategy and strong content marketing.

Jess is a great example of this: she started her career as a copywriter for big CPG brands. She cut her teeth writing 200+ variations of a recipe for Rice Krispie Treats.

Then built a career in content marketing: content market manager, director, VP brand and content.

Then turned that into a Head of Marketing role at a startup and was recently promoted to VP on the heels of her success using - wait for it - content to drive revenue.

Not because Vector's content gets a lot of impressions and their podcast is unique or because their little mascot is cute.

But because it's working! Those things are driving revenue. 

I had a conversation with Jess last week (now out on my podcast) and she shared three key marketing plays that she's run over the past year:

1. Influencer Marketing - how does it work in B2B, how did she find influencers, what did it cost, how much pipeline was generated, how did they measure it

2. Podcasting - why they started a podcast, how their podcast stands out, how they record, when/where, how they prep, how they know it's working

3. LinkedIn - we talk a bit about what content types (and strategy) is working well here today

4. Career Path - her path from content to VP Marketing

Erin on my team messaged me last night and said this was the best interview we've done recently - please go listen if you need some tactical inspiration.

Founder: Exit Five | Community Builder | Former CMO

What events are you going to in Q1? We're hosting the first annual Exit Five Marketing Leadership Retreat in Arizona March 18-20.

This event is exclusively for in-house B2B marketing leaders.

It's all about who's in the room and we've pulled together a great group for this event. 

Here are the sessions we have planned:

1. How to Become the CMO Everyone Wants to Work With (with Dave Kellogg, EIR at Balderton Capital)

2. Building and Leading a High-Performing Marketing Team (led by Hillary Carpio, VP Growth at Snowflake)

3. Managing Your CFO and Board Relationship (led by Pranav Piyush, Founder at Paramark)

4. Personal Branding for B2B Marketing Leaders (led by Jane Serra, Head of Marketing at MemoryBlue)

5. Ecosystem Marketing as the Next Big Growth Lever (led by Emily Kramer, Founder of MKT1)

6. How Are You Really Using AI? At Work and Personally (led by Katie Miserany, CCO and Head of Marketing at SurveyMonkey) 

And I'm interviewing Kim Storin (CMO at Zoom) about how she does things and what's changing this year.
 
PLUS since it's a "retreat" - we have time for activities like golf, a workout, pool hang, or in-room massage; get lunch, dinner, drinks.
 
Will you join us?

Pass this on to your VP / CMO friends in B2B.

Full details here:

bit.ly/3Lxj75e

Open article: Marketing Leadership Retreat | March 18-20, 2026 by exitfive.com

Marketing Leadership Retreat | March 18-20, 2026

Paul Kühne

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

GTM executive, interim/fractional leader and growth advisor who rapidly transforms (mostly B2B) tech companies from startup to $100M+ across industries. Scaling global businesses, marketing, sales and customer success 2-25x. Over 25 years, I’ve brought in millions to help billions. How can I help you?

An innovator, builder and operator, I've pioneered commercial and social impact for companies like Litmus, Cisco, BrainPOP et al. My teams and I blend vision, strategy, creativity, execution and data to get sh*t done. Innovating off of foundations to turn go-to-market investments and business operations into sustainable revenue engines with predictable results.

A master storyteller, I make the complex digestible (and compelling along the way) while yielding high performing teams who create category-leading brands, relationships, communities and products customers value, love and evangelize.

Theatre kid here with roots in high-end retail, customer success and nonprofit fundraising/communications followed by career heading up marketing, growth and P&L in ed tech. Next a decade consulting while my son was younger followed by CSR, ESG and digital transformation work at Cisco followed by CMO roles in IIoT/AI.

Deep expertise in SaaS, AI/ML, data, ed tech, industrial, supply chain, sustainability, manufacturing, IIoT/IoT, workforce dev, digital transformation, HR Tech, (re)skilling, SLED, GovTech, nonprofits, social impact ventures, corporate social responsibility.

Dually based in Jackson, Mississippi and Greater Boston at present. 

SEEKING:

•	Fractional/Interim/Consulting Assignments
•	CEO | COO | CMO | CRO | CGO | CCO
•	SVP/VP of Marketing, Sales & Marketing, GTM, Customer Success, Partnerships
•	GTM, Demand Gen, Comms, PMM, Channels VP under CMO/CRO at larger orgs.

EXECUTIVE EXPERTISE:

Product Marketing/Management: Disrupt + Differentiate

•	Go-to-Market Planning/Launch
•	Market/Competitor Research
•	Pricing/Packaging
•	PLG/Sales-Led/Hybrid 
•	Sales/Services Enablement
 
Brand/Communications: Educate + Guide

•	Messaging/(Re)positioning
•	Content/Thought Leadership
•	Online/Offline Events
•	Industry/Media/AR
•	Social Media/Community
 
Demand Generation/Sales: Capture + Cultivate

•	RevOps Pioneer/GTM Engineer
•	Forecast/Pipeline Management
•	Partner/Channel Ecosystems
•	Multichannel Digital/Global ABM
•	BDR/Sales/Customer Success Management
 
Business Process Operations: Discipline + Scale

•	Budget/P&L Management
•	Turnaround/Improvement
•	Team Management
•	Corporate Strategy/Social Responsibility
•	Digital Transformation

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

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Paul Kühne

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The Battle

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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

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