Pranav Piyush

The martech industry is broken, and I’m devoting the next 15 years of my life to fix it.

After a decade leading growth and marketing teams at places like Dropbox, Pilot, Magento and BILL, I realized there was no measurement tool on the market that was statistically valid, simple and holistic. 

So I went and talked to every CMO and VP of marketing in my network. Their number one complaint? Attribution. 

And this is why we built Paramark.

Because I believe that measuring your marketing efforts is not that hard. 

Through the power of MMM, experimentation and data science, we’ve created the holy grail of measurement tools. So marketers like you can confidently understand the impact of your marketing investments – and communicate them to your CFO and CEO.

Learn our method at Paramark.com.

Co-Founder & CEO

Before starting Paramark, I spent the last decade leading growth and marketing teams at fast-growing companies like Dropbox, Pilot, Magento, and BILL.

During that period, we evaluated hundreds of martech tools and, for the most part, were sorely disappointed. Here's why. We found few solutions that could handle the needs of fast-growing marketing teams. They were either incomplete, hard to use, or claiming things that were just flat-out wrong!

This trend is especially true for marketing analytics. Synthesizing and analyzing marketing data to understand effectiveness should be a solved problem. After speaking to hundreds of marketing leaders at some of the fastest growing companies, I was honestly surprised that the truth is far from it. Understanding and communicating the return on marketing investment continues to be one of the top challenges for marketers.

That's why we decided to build Paramark. Our goal is to help fast-growing marketing teams measure and forecast the impact of their investments, unlocking sustainable growth.

Exit Five

Head of Community

Marketing Manager

The leading community for B2B marketing professionals. Join 3,500+ members at exitfive.com

Member

Equiem

Marketing Manager, North America

Pizzatime

- Crafted GTM strategy for a new product that generated $167,832 in revenue and became the second most ordered product
- Defined and implemented a product-led growth strategy, which resulted in a 116% increase in revenue over nine months
- Started blog and SEO strategy from scratch, leading to a 61% increase in transactions from organic traffic over six months
- Revamped the copy for our new site resulting in a 71% jump in conversion rate
- Interviewed 42 customers and used insights to feed product launches, campaign ideas, and copywriting across all channels

Head of Growth

Partnership Leaders

Partnership Leaders is the industry association for Partnership/Channel/ Alliances/Business Development leaders. The association’s mission is to elevate the role of partnership leaders at their companies and provides a vibrant online community, virtual events, curated professional networking opportunities, and educational resources to drive success for its members.

OneLocal

- Developed content for paid marketing campaigns that generated $77,822.52 in new monthly recurring revenue
- Grew company partner program from $11,875 to $25,385 monthly revenue in a year 
- Helped build and scale our inbound marketing operations which grew inbound revenue from $1500 to $7000 monthly recurring revenue in four months
- Reported on marketing channel (email, paid ads, blog posts, social posts) data and recommended optimizations every week to leadership
- Helped manage a CRM of over 400,000 leads and built lists that enabled sales reps to prospect and call 75 leads daily

Growth

Venture for Canada

With the mission of fostering entrepreneurship, Venture for Canada recruits, trains, and supports recent graduates to work at Canadian startups in need of talent.

Venture for Canada 2018 Fellow

SnackWork

Founding a platform to help fellow classmates achieve business success!

Founder

Ryerson Entrepreneurship Association

Vice President Corporate Relations

The Panacea Initiative

-Acted as a liaison between TPI and our business partners
-Secured new partnerships with Incubators and Accelerators in Ontario 
-Strategically combined forces with companies where we could create value, and long term growth (Business Development)
-Increased companies digital presence. Practiced User Design methods to increase friendliness of website.
-Refreshed all social media platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook). In turn this significantly increased weekly views, following, and post engagement
-Did extensive grant research with team
-With knowledge of non-profit sector, wrote an article called "5 Benefits of Skills-Based Volunteering"

Community Relationship Manager

Magnotta Winery

Sales Associate

Marketing Manager @ Exit Five

Building the Exit Five community.

In the first year, we were able to:

- Grow monthly active users by 2.3x
- Reduce our net MRR churn by 25%
- Grow the community to over 5,000 members (1.9x growth)
- Launch our first accelerator program with 235 members
- Implemented dozens of new features such as 1:1 matchmaking

The story is still being written, so stay tuned...

Matthew Carnevale

How it feels being the only Canadian in an American company during US Thanksgiving 🙃

I KILLED SLACK ON MY PHONE THIS WEEKEND.

No more checking while I'm in the bathroom, before bed, right when I wake up, at the gym, while I'm spending time w my family, my friends, and every other down moment in my life 🙃

Two big reasons why I did this:

1. Give my brain more time to get into DMN mode

The default mode network (DMN) is basically your brain’s “idle mode” that kicks in when you’re not forcing yourself to focus. 

It’s where the big ideas, random connections, and creative breakthroughs usually show up. It's why you randomly have those big ideas when you don't intend to (like in the shower). 

Knowledge workers (you n me) need it because without breakthroughs, we're all just on the grinding hamster wheel. Those ideas create unlocks for us.  They are what separates us from the pack.

Checking your Slack in every down moment blocks that from happening. It's actually counterintuitive to what you're trying to do.  So I decided to stop it.

2. Better time blocking in my life

Like everyone, I do much better work when I am focused on work.

I also do much better personal stuff whenever I am focused on just that. 

But when I blend the two (aka checking Slack while I am doing something personal) I am worse at both.

I want to build a life where I am just doing the task at hand. If I am at the gym, I'm working out. If I am cooking, I am cooking, etc etc. 

Not working out and also checking Slack. It just doesn't serve me at all. It's not actually working, it's just cheap work dopamine that has 0 impact on my goals.

---

So that's it for now.

Who knows, I'll probably end up downloading it again in a week and delete this post for evidence. 

But in the short time I've had no Slack on my phone, my head feels much clearer. And I find myself not checking my phone like a pyscho as often :)

The best strategy for (personal) branding in 2026:

Stop trying to sound smart and just be you.

So many people and even companies try too hard to sound like "thought leaders"

They think that if they sound super smart and like they know their stuff, everyone will want to work w them...

And while I think that can absolutely work, I also think that people can sniff out BS really well in 2026.

No one will fall for your fake stuff. You are pretending to have more experience and know more than you do. It comes through.

The best strategy is to take what you know right now and start from there. There are people who will like you for exactly where you're at. Those are your people and customers. 

So if you want to grow online, become more likeable, get attention: start with exactly who you are and what you know... and let that shine online.

Surprise and delight moments for your customers are sooooo underrated. 

I love randomly sending a loyal customer something nice and unexpected. 

It shows them you care and think of them and appreciate them. Most customers never get that feeling from the brands they do business with. 

99% of the time, the relationship between a customer and brand is purely transactional. They pay, and you provide them a product or service. And it stops there. 

The little surprise and delight moments help you build a relationship one level deeper than that. And build longer term loyalty. 

That’s why we partnered with Reachdesk. They make it super easy to send branded swag and even just awesome gifts to customers in a matter of minutes.

Our team had them help us create these simple swag boxes that we now send to members whenever we want to surprise and delight them.

Brand partnership • Head of Community @ Exit Five

The best marketing ideas are usually the simple (and boring) stuff that are hiding in plain sight. 

And rarely are the big sexy moonshot ideas that are unique and creative.

But the simple and boring stuff is rarely where our brain goes when we're brainstorming or thinking of how to make something better.

Instead, we (and I am so guilty of this) overcomplicate solutions because we think:

Big problem = big solution

Meanwhile, something I've been observing a lot here at Exit Five is that the biggest problems usually need someone to just come up with a simple solution.

And the simple solution is the thing that was hiding in plain sight, where no one decided to look.

Cause everyone wants to be the one with the big sexy idea

Is it just me or has the "AI hype" leveled off a little bit...?

We've tried the tools, heard how other people are using them, and nothing is really new anymore, at least for the average marketer. 

Sure, there is still lots to learn, and still a ton of value in being a power user who discovers new tools and workflows. But all in all, for the average B2B marketer, as of right now, there's no AI silver bullet.

And I feel like everyone has realized that.

The FOMO has died down a bit. 

It doesn't feel like we're missing something big anymore. If anything, it feels like we're all waiting for the next big thing.

ChatGPT, Claude, and all those everyday tools were the big breakthrough. And now it's just kind of tinkering with tools that can marginal gain. But nothing was as big as those in their current form.

Who knows, maybe I am just an ignorant idiot and actually don't know what I'm talking about. That's actually very likely. 

If you strongly disagree, let me know. I would love to be wrong.

But is it just me...???

Who can help me grow my LinkedIn?

I have added 6,998 followers over the last 365 days and have generated 1,511,090 impressions for my content.

But I want to take it to the next level.

I am almost at 14k followers but why can't I grow to 40-50k followers by the end of next? That's what I want. 

Or at least I want the engagement levels of someone with that following.

I think the only thing missing are some systems and new post formats. 

I want to use more images in my content. 
I want to systemize my content creation.
I want to get clearer on my content angle.

All my growth to date has been from just being consistent everyday talking about what I want. I want to be more intentional. Try new stuff. Have systems.

Can someone help me? Who does this for a living for someone like me? I'd love to talk.

I am not a CEO/Founder. I don't have anything to sell. I have things I want to be known for, but it's not a specific product or service.

I just want to grow and get some guidance.

🙏

If I had to make one "bet" as a B2B marketer in my 2026 plan:

It would be: Building Community.

Building community doesn't mean creating a Slack channel, or a Facebook group (shoutout DGMG).

It means connecting people who have shared interests.

Strong human connection is a SCARCE resource right now. We're all working from home, on Zoom calls, and talking to machines all day long.

That's why we're all craving it. It's why in-person events are blowing up right now, because we all want that sense of connection and belonging.

And if you think I'm talking out of my arse, then get this:

A "sense of connection/belonging" is ranked THIRD on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Only after 1. Food & Shelter and 2. Feeling of Safety.

So that means if you can provide people a sense of community and belonging and connection, you're satisfying something deep in your audience's brains. Which sounds a bit corny, but it's true!! I see it at all our events. People leave with a renewed energy. That's what connection and community do.

Maybe in a future post I'll talk about HOW I think B2B companies can build a sense of community with their audience. 

But for now, simply put, if you can find a way for your brand to be in the middle of community building and creating a sense of connection in your audience, you will win.

Wanna come hang w the Exit Five team in Arizona next March?

We'll be there with 100 Marketing Leaders and are opening up ticket sales today.

When I joined E5 almost two years ago, I remember talking about hosting our first ever event, Drive.

I knew we had a super strong community, but I didn't know how much of a hit it would actually be. And if you've been, or heard, you know it was a HUGE hit.

And through our experience with Drive, and all the other in-person events we've done, there was another group of people who wanted an event, just for them.

Marketing leaders.

They wanted to be around others who are managing teams, presenting to the board, hiring, running legit budgets, calling the plays, etc.

So that's why we launched this new, annual event: 

The Marketing Leadership Retreat.

So if you are a marketing leader and want to go to an event with your peers, this is it: tinyurl.com/jfhu6em9

I've seen lots of ppl talking about how to do AEO/GEO and it just sounds like the same advice that I heard for SEO years ago.

“Make sure your content is in places AI can find it.”

“Write clear, authoritative content that answers questions directly.”

“Use clean structure so AI models can parse the information.”

“Publish expert driven content with credibility signals.”

“Make your brand present across multiple platforms because AI looks everywhere.”

“Optimize for conversational phrasing and user intent.”

“Get your content into high quality databases, docs, and knowledge sources.”

---

I am no SEO or GEO/AEO expert, so I am sure one of you will comment on this post to tell me how much of an idiot I am, but it's all sounding the same now!

If you knew how to do SEO, you can probably figure out GEO/AEO pretty quickly, right? 

Doesn't mean there isn't value in learning how to show up in tools like ChatGPT, that is still super useful. It just doesn't sound like anything novel. Especially now vs in the beginning of 2025 when things seemed more mysterious.

P.S. A lot of you have been complimenting my design skills so I am double down on that. What do you think of this one?

taplio

The Battle

Pranav Piyush

Matthew Carnevale

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taplio

The Battle

Pranav Piyush

Matthew Carnevale

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);}Matthew Carnevale's LinkedIn Performance

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