Richard King

VP Product Marketing

I’m a builder at heart, with five startups and three exits under my belt. 

My passion lies at the intersection of product, marketing, sales, and data - so you’ll often hear me talking about product marketing.

My entrepreneurial journey has taught me the value of resilience, innovation, and questioning the crowd rather than following it. Most importantly, it’s shown me the power of community.

👉 Why I share on LinkedIn:

I believe in collective learning: I want to provide tried and tested insights to help you navigate your career, whether you're a founder, marketer, or looking to learn something new. 

👉 What I talk about: 

1️⃣ Building bootstrapped companies
Why go-to-market efficiencies are a non-negotiable 

2️⃣ How to spot and nurture talent
Strategies for building high-performing and efficient teams

3️⃣ Product marketing - why won’t I shut up about it?
How effective product marketing drives business success.

4️⃣ Operational excellence + a great culture. It is possible.
The nuts and bolts of business operations and fostering a winning culture.

5️⃣ What does leadership really mean?
The changing expectations of what it means to be a “boss.”

Go ahead and hit the follow button, and I’ll see you around!

Founder & CEO

Wait for it...

😂


"We need more AI adoption"

I hear this from every exec I talk to.

But here's the problem nobody wants to say out loud.


Most companies are focused on AI fluency.

Training programs. Tool rollouts. Slack channels for "AI tips and tricks" 
Maybe a new hire with AI somewhere in the title.

That's not bad.

But it's not nearly enough imo...

What matters more on top of that is a culture of transparency around how AI is actually being used. And deep cross collaboration between departments so those learnings don't stay siloed.



My 0.02 for you:

There's a real fear around AI right now inside companies.

Think about it from an IC's perspective.

If someone figures out how to automate 30% of their workload using AI, do you think they want to share that with their manager or cowokers? 

What happens when they do? 
Do they get rewarded for being more efficient? 
Or does someone start asking whether their role is still necessary at the same scope?

Will they get more work dumped on them?

That's why people tend to hold their cards way closer to their chest than they should be which is a reason why you don't end up having a lot of collaboration about AI use cases internally unless you're first building psychological safety within your organization as a founder about how you treat AI efficiency and that it's something that should be REWARDED.



We've been working through this at The Alliance.

I've personally been involved in a number of GTM trainings, AI cohorts, and I'm really working on improving the psychological safety and how we're building our culture so that people feel inclined to collaborate and share their workflows, and that it's something that is shown as like we want to reward inside our culture here. 

AKA...

You have to build a culture of trust and psychological safety before you're going to see real AI adoption. That means rewarding people for using AI creatively.

Making it explicit that sharing and cross department collaboration is valued. 
Not letting efficiency gains turn into headcount conversations.

That starts with how YOU set the tone as a leader.

Start with AI safety but you try to push for AI fluency.

You need the right culture in place first imo.



h/t rosssmith for the hilarious clip btw


--


P.S. How are you managing this internally?

Would love to hear your tips below!

Talking truth on leadership, growth & product marketing | 5x founder | 3x exits |

GridSeer Inc.

Product Lead

Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment

Market Research, Product Development & Commercialization

Brivo

●	Developed a go-to-market strategy to increase the revenue by 30% and profit margin by 15% through pricing strategy for Brivo’s new cloud based product offering over 18 months period.
●	Conducted market research and competitive analysis by collecting feedback from 30+ customers and 50+ resellers to develop customer persona, targeted messaging and positioned stories in collaboration with product, engineering, demand gen & sales team.
●	Built strategic go-to-market collateral including product data sheets, battle cards, pitch decks, website content, user guides, and technical documents, for the product launch and finalized the Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) to measure the success for the initial 6 months.
●	Managed collaboration with 2 vendors for social media marketing and trained 75+ sales reps on product’s unique selling points.

Product Marketing Manager Intern

●	Led the launch of 4 products generating $3.5M in revenue. Managed agile teams across Product Management, Data Science, and Sales. Built and scaled cross-functional marketing campaigns from concept to completion.
●	Conducted market research and competitive analysis to uncover key opportunities in the market, driving a 15% increase in product adoption. Implemented Voice of Customer programs to understand pain points.
●	Created 20+ technical and thought leadership collaterals and conducted training programs for customer-facing teams.
●	Managed digital marketing campaigns, leveraging SEO, SEM, and social media to enhance brand visibility and lead generation, resulting in a 30% increase in web traffic and aligning with digital transformation initiatives.

Associate Consultant, Product Marketing 

●	Developed a model utilizing OCR technologies to extract handwritten text from medical prescriptions, resulting in the automation of prescription processing for a healthcare client reducing error by 80% and cost by 40%.
●	Created and implemented a software bot that reduced 30-40 man-hours of business requirements per week for a banking client.
●	Led the development of a proof of concept that played a crucial role in the successful acquisition of a $5 million project for an insurance client.

Software Engineer in Intelligent Automation

Product Marketing | EdTech | Duke University Grad Student | Ex - EY | Ex - Product Marketing Intern @ Brivo

Hi, I am Akash. I have 5+ years of diverse experience in Product Marketing, Consulting, and Software Development, backed by a Master's degree in Marketing & Strategy, I specialize in solving complex problems with a unique hybrid approach that combines technical expertise with business acumen.

🔧 Skills:
* Market Research
* Competitive Intelligence
* Business Strategy 
* Product Positioning & Messaging
* Go-to-Market Strategy
* Sales Enablement
* Cross-Functional Collaboration
* Pricing and Packing Strategy

💼 Work Highlights:
* Duke University - Product Marketing & Technology Commercialization: Managed AI software commercialization, successfully launching two startups with $2M in investments. 
* Brivo - Product Marketing Intern: Developed GTM strategies with a 30% projected revenue increase.
* Ernst and Young - Associate Product Marketing Consultant: Pitched and presented an AI-based insurance product to onboard 5+ B2B clients and 3X revenue
* OOTA Food Products - Student Product Marketing Consultant: Achieved 85% customer satisfaction for a food product client.

🎓 Education:
* Master's in Engineering Management (Product Marketing and Strategy) from Duke University
* Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering from The National Institute of Engineering

🚀 Leadership and Entrepreneurship:
* Founder of Mangalore Shree Ganesh Tutorial: Established and led a successful coaching institute with a team of 6 staff and 200+ students. Achieved a remarkable 70% pass rate for high school and pre-university dropped students, enabling them to pursue higher education.
* Director of Marketing and Media at Duke Aviators Student Club, fostering a vibrant aviation community and increasing club membership by 60%.

Product Marketing and Strategy Professional 📈 |  Computer Science Background | Founder of Mangalore Shree Ganesh Tutorials - K12 Education Institute

taplio

The Battle

Richard King

Akash Aithal, CSPO®

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