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 know it sucks. But you pay $0 for a LinkedIn account. You know they say that if the product is free then you are the product. You’re at the mercy of the platform. 

There’s a ton of posts circulating about the LinkedIn algo. But it all just changes so much. And I’m pretty confident (completely making this up, I have no idea) that no one really knows what’s going on. There’s been - for years - some basic features LinkedIn should have built for creators but they never come, and the way vertical video works is a perfect example. It just … makes no sense. Is anyone paying attention?

SO: my two cents. The only thing you can control is putting out interesting content. I’ll never whine about the algorithm. There’s nothing I can do about it anyway.  

But I can try harder, write better, find new angles. I’d like to think it’s still a meritocracy. 

I’d also remind you that we are all renting space here, and it could all be wiped out at any time. 

Find more channels. Build an email list. Use LinkedIn to move people from here to something you can own. 

Let me know three weeks from now when you see this post. 

And remember, I am a Thought Leader.

Talks about #marketing, #b2bmarketing, and #startupmarketing

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

I decided we're not doing holidays anymore. The whole Exit Five team is grinding over Thanksgiving (I sent them Door Dash gift cards to get food).

Because life is too short.

I know other companies are out there grinding right now. 9-9-6 is what it takes.

We ARE changing the world.

We ARE the most important company that's ever been built.

Family, friends, hobbies, health - that's all stuff that can wait.

Because right now we have a window of opportunity and we must capture it.

We must win this war.

We must go for the home run. The grand slam. The Hail Mary. 

We'll pull the goalie if we need to.

War references. 

All of them. In every internal deck.

Something about Tom Brady in his late 30s to every new hire during onboarding.

Let it be known to my competitors: I will not settle for anything less than $1B revenue and pure global dominance in the B2B marketing space.

So no, I am not taking the day off today (or tomorrow) and having "Thanksgiving" -- one day my wife and kids will be "Thankful" that I didn't.

That's my plan for Thanksgiving.

PS. Subscribe to my newsletter.

Founder: Exit Five. Community Builder. Former CMO.

Happy (official) two year Exit Five anniversary to my guy and our COO Dan Murphy.

In the book Traction and the EOS framework, they talk about the ideal leadership pairing between the Visionary (founder) and an Integrator (the operator).

That framework is exactly what makes Dan and I work so well together.

Most entrepreneurs fall into the Visionary category: creative, strategic, restless (yep), starting fires everywhere (can confirm), big on ideas, lower on follow-through (my bad).

Integrators:

- Bring structure
- Turn chaos into clarity
- Run the business
- Manage teams
- Keep the trains running on time
- Free the Visionary to do Visionary things

Candidly, Dan can be a complete pain in my ass - but that is exactly what I need. 

Dan pushes me. He sweats every dollar we spend. He questions every late night idea we have. He has even mastered the art of putting out every fire that I start.

This is the the reason Exit Five has become a real business, a real company, and something that has already outgrown my name. It's also a profitable growth machine that is making a real impact on thousands of people around the world (I have the receipts in my Apple Notes; the impact goes well beyond B2B marketing).

Dan will tackle any problem, big or small. He's on calls with my accountant, talking to our lawyer, he's interviewing candidates, he's fixing landing pages, he's coding, he's asking me why I spent $25 on a Jimmy John's sandwich at the airport. 

But more importantly he knows what we *can* be and pushes me to raise the bar. Have a high f-ing bar is one of our core values now.

Before this I used to brag about how little I was working, and now I know why: I did not have a clear purpose. I was alone. 

That has all changed in the last two years and I can confidently say that I'm in the prime of my career and we have a great business with product market fit because this guy took my call two years ago. 

His comp was heavily weighted on performance in that first year too. He took a bet on himself, smashed the goals (turns out we're both competitive) and it's be game on ever since.

He's also a good person (imagine that!) A great Dad. Husband. And the guy I would call in a pinch, for anything.

He's also grown - big time. Maturing. Evolving from a VP Marketing to a true COO. And I know there's more to come. 

Thanks for 2 great years Dan. I hope we don't have a public falling out one day where we're talking shit about each other on Twitter!!! <3

Please go follow him on LinkedIn if you are not already.

PS. We celebrated by playing TPC Scottsdale two weeks ago after the E5 team offsite and had a blast. I think it was $500 per person for 18 holes, but we put it on the Ramp card because it's a write off!

Also: I know someone will ask "where can I find my Dan?" Well - I didnt find him on Indeed ("no offense" as my 8 year old says). I found him because we worked together for 8 years at two companies. That was the secret.

Founder: Exit Five. Community Builder. Former CMO. Now building the top community for B2B marketers at exitfive.com

Remote work requires an incredible amount of discipline. Not for everyone.

I think that the "back to the office" crowd often has a narrative that remote work is easier.

That remote workers are slacking off while the "real professionals" are grinding it out in the office.

But I think there's another angle to this:

Working from home exposes everything. No boss watching over your shoulder. No colleague pressure. No artificial energy from office chaos. Heck, you could be ripping the vape pen all day at work if you wanted to.

Remote work makes it more about the results (and I like that, btw)

You can't hide behind being the office social butterfly who everyone loves but whose output is average. Maybe you're fun, funny, amazing to get a coffee with - but not actually doing any real work??

Remote you can't mask weak skills with great small talk or being the person who always organizes the lunch order. But he's so nice! So fun to be around! 

Well as it turns out Todd sucks at his job...

Remote work kills the performance theater, which was always one of my biggest beefs of office culture.

Don't get me wrong - there's value in being together. I feel it every time we get our team together and there are times that I wish we all DID work together in an office.

But let's be honest about what also happens in offices: 

• People spending three hours looking busy instead of productive. 
• People hang around the office until a certain time vs going home when the work is done for the day
• People getting promoted (or hanging around at a company longer than they should) because they're likable, not because they are delivering results.

The truth? Both can work. But they demand different skills.

Remote rewards discipline. Focus. I need to take a shower and put on real clothes to remind myself that this is work - even though it's remote.

I don't think the remote work is for everyone. 

It requires a certain level of self starter, get shit done, can you show up and make things happen on a day when you don't have any motivation.

Editor's Note: I am also extremely biased toward remote work during this phase of my life (in my 30s, with young kids, etc.) 

The office was the absolute best place to be in my 20s and I am sure a few years from now when my kids don't need me as much and aren't around as much, I'll be making my way back to an office of some kind.

Remote work. With great power (the ability to work remotely, be flexible) comes great responsibility.

I think one of this most important factors right now is how much you give a shit.

Technology is everywhere. We are swimming in AI slop. It's easier than ever to blast 1,000 shitty emails to 1,000 people in your "target market"

Anyone can have a podcast. Anyone pump out content on LinkedIn. You can do webinars and upload videos to absolutely no one. There is almost zero price of admission.

And that is exactly why the opportunity right now is to simply ... care more. Do more. Try harder. Actually give a shit! I know, it's crazy. But that's the best hack there is right now.

Great. I love AI too.

Let’s use AI to help run our business and be more efficient and all that. 

But from a brand perspective- how can we stand out? 

How can we do things that DO NOT SCALE. 

We run a private group of CMOs and I know for a fact that this is what they are talking about right now. 

It’s both. AI adoption. But how can we stand out? How do we go above and beyond? Somehow in a world where AI makes things more scalable — it’s going to be the things that don’t scale that make all of the difference.

Help wanted:  I want a CEO coach.

I'm a former VP marketing / CMO turned founder / CEO.

I want to be a better leader. Hiring a coach has been the best hack there is in other areas of myself, why not apply that to business.

If you see this message and we're connected on LinkedIn or you know me already and think you could help, drop me a DM.

Don't tell me I don't need a coach, I need X. Don't tell me "I'm not a CEO coach but..." just IF THIS FITS YOU and you think you could help a young (ok I'm 38) entrepreneur please holler.

I want this to be an on-going, recurring thing. We meet weekly. Hold me accountable. 

So if you're one of my CEO former CEO friends who is going to message me and suggest we meet "whenever I want" that is not what I'm looking for.

Thanks for reading.

No plans to raise money right now for Exit Five but I took a call with an inbound investor anyway. The guy just (politely) shit on my business for 17 minutes and then we parted ways. Awesome!

I did get 13 minutes back though. And that matters.

#CEO
#Founder

I have a serious question, this is not a bit. Looking for genuine answers: 

Consumer brands (ex: GoRuck, Vuori) just hammer me with emails. Daily. Often more than once. It just is expected. So many emails. So just move them to the trash because I am too lazy to unsubscribe (oh dont roll your eyes at me you know you do that too sometimes; in my mind its quicker to delete it! anyway).

But in B2B. If we send more than two emails a WEEK to someone, Bob is ready to jump through my inbox, grab me around the neck and scream HOW DID I GET ON YOUR STUPID LIST!?!?!

So what is different? Is it just we (me? since Im the crazy got not unsubscribing from emails) expect constant sales emails from consumer products? But not like payroll software?

Random Sunday LinkedIn bullets:

• I love when people shit on LinkedIn. This app has made me more connections than X or IG or YouTube or Facebook. Meaningful connections. Candidates. Partners. Friends. It’s influenced millions in revenue. I love when people dunk on LinkedIn. 

• The worst feature ever created on this app is the “Congrats on your work anniversary feature” I have 52 DMs right now for my two year anniversary as an investor with GTM fund, so I’ll miss any meaningful DMs. 

• I believe in the power of speaking things into existence. Your mind is an incredible tool and you can will yourself into and out of almost anything. I’m working to pass this onto my children. I tell them how great they are. How smart they are. How capable they are. They will carry this with them forever. They will know Dad was supportive and their biggest fan. I don’t care if you think it makes me soft. 

• You are nothing without discipline. What do you do when no one is watching? Are you getting up early? Working out? Everyone will make excuses. Few will make it a way of life. 30 minutes a day can change the quality of your life - your mood, your energy, your creativity, your stress. Why would you not make the time for that? 

• B2B marketing is not boring. That’s just a fun clickbait line we like to use to dunk on each other here. I don’t see how selling yet another seltzer online or hoodies is somehow “cooler” than B2B. We’ve met thousands of entrepreneurs and companies through Exit Five doing legitimately interesting things in B2B. So stop the B2B is not boring stuff. 

• One of the hardest parts about being a leader is having to sometimes sit back and let others shit on you online because you can’t tell the truth - because it does me no good to expose someone else online, so I just have to sit there and let some guy roast me for something. Or some other guy tell people I’m an asshole - yet we’ve never met! The best thing to happen to E5 in the last 2 years is in person because I get to look people in the eye, shake hands, and be real people in person. Everyone is smarter than you and better than you on the internet :) 

• I think most companies are stuck using marketing as defense. When the right way to deploy marketing is as OFFENSE. The Founder / CEO must care deeply about marketing because marketing is sales if you really understand it that way. Use marketing to play offense not defense. And sometimes the best marketing plays are not crazy - sometimes it’s quiet literally going to the side of the street that is not as crowded and selling your product over there. 

• Copywritijg is Still to this day the number one marketing skill that has paid off the most for me. Communication is the most important skill in business, especially with all the AI SLOP SLOP
SLOP that is out there. I’ll continue to stand out by writing real words with my thumbs from my iPhone in my own voice. 

Just had a major hip surgery and I’m all jacked up on meds !!!!!

THOUGHT LEADER DOWN

Breaking News

Exit Five Founder & CEO Dave Gerhardt hits the injured list for the next 8-12 weeks after successful surgery to fix femoroacetabular impingement and labral tear in his right hip.

Despite the pain he is currently in, Gerhardt - an eternal optimist - remains positive given the extreme privilege of his situation.

"My job requires sending Slack messages, posting on LinkedIn, and taking phone calls. I'm very lucky. I will get through this and I'm looking forward to the mental challenge of recovery."

In an interview with Forbes, Gerhardt also comment that he would have been "absolutely fucked" if he stuck to his ways as a solopreneur. 

Now with a full-time team of 7 people working on Exit Five, Gerhardt will be able to recover in peace while his business continues to grow and he can stick to writing witty comments on LinkedIn and giving feedback in Slack over the next few months.

"Before you know it, I will be back running, lifting, rucking, cross country skiing, and doing all the necessary things I need to do to calm my inner thoughts and demons, but for now this is mostly going to be a battle of me vs. myself."

Please do not send any flowers or edible arrangements. 

Instead, tell as many people that work in marketing as possible about the amazing company that is known as Exit Five and make sure to join the email list on the website.

Note: I don't want your sympathy, I am fine and very lucky. I just knew this is the perfect type of thing to post on LinkedIn and it will help grow our business.

We will 100% turn this into a Thought Leader ad too.

PS. Who is more charming - Real Dave or AI Dave? 

#youseeme

Feeling super thankful this week, and it happens to be Thanksgiving so I'll write about it here.

• Thankful for my health and modern medicine. Doctors. Nurses. They literally cut me open, repaired everything in my hip, and 12 days later I'm up crutching around, I can work on my laptop.

• Thankful for the team at Exit Five. Good people, fun to work with. I genuinely enjoying seeing them on calls, talking, laughing. It's very rewarding. I could be rotting away solo right now.

• Thankful for all of the people I have met through Exit Five and feel connected to on a personal level over the last few years (the Tim, Tas, Brendan, Tom, Lashay, Jen, Devin, Ido, Lindays, Mark, Henry, Bill, Kevin's over the world)

• Thankful for my wife and kids for giving me a purpose greater than making money online.

• Thankful for my "friends from home" group chat, for keeping me humbled and giving me an outlet to share all the things I'd never write online publicly. Oh don't judge me you do the same lol. It's healthy. A little shit talking. Humans have been doing it for hundreds of years.

• Thankful for webinars; I love them. There I said it.

• Thankful for GOOD MUSIC, forget podcasts. How great is good music?

• Thankful for everyone I met this year that said to me "man, you are much funnier in person" that's what I like to hear.

• Thankful for 6 7 - ok just running on for no reason now...

My former arch rival is my guest this week. Dun dun dunnnnnnnn.

No just kidding. Trying to get a thirsty hook. That was 7-8 years ago and so much has happened since then.

One of the best parts about running Exit Five is that each week I get to chat with a top CMO in B2B, and this week my guest is Maura Rivera from Qualified.

In a world where CMOs are changing jobs every 1-2 years, Maura has been holding it down at Qualified for SIX YEARS. That deserves some type of award, and is worth unpacking (plus she told me something like half of the marketing team has been there that long too, which says a lot).

We talked about:

• Why product launches are the glue for marketing (and why you need to have this cadence of product launches and a tight relationship with the VP Product)

•  What agentic marketing really means for the future of marketing, how is it different than "marketing" and why outbound is actually working for them right now (I thought outbound is dead?)

• How events have become a huge part of their strategy. Plus, plenty of good banter along the way. This was a fun one. I want to go hangout with Maura now.

Episode 310 of the Dave Gerhardt Show (that's me) aka the Exit Five podcast is out everywhere now.

CMO at Qualified

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 of MarketingExamples.com

Alright, time to get this off my chest about gated content on LinkedIn.

I haven't said anything controversial in a minute, but I can't let this go on any longer.

All of the outrage over those "comment to get X" posts on LinkedIn.

If that is the thing that ruffle your feathers ... you need bigger problems to worry about!!!

(respectfully)

And I have friends and connections here who I love that get outraged by this. I still love you, but we're all entitled to our own opinions here so I'm sharing mine.

I REALLY DO NOT GIVE TWO FLYING F*CKS if someone does the whole comment / gated post thing.

Do you baby boo!!!!

Our Head of Marketing Jess Lytle caught this clip of me popping off on this during an Exit Five Live session last month and I decided I'm going to go public with my official stance on this. PR team approved.

Here's how I feel about gating content on LinkedIn.

Happy Friday. 

Take a deep breath, it's not that serious ❤️ 

Exit Five to the moon.

PS. I've also never done this tactical personally - because my god talk about creating a ton of work for yourself responding to all those messages.

But I'll happily provide my opinion here and slap you back to reality.

This is what real thought leadership looks like.

Exit Five became an events business in 2025. People want to connect offline. Hang out in real life. Work is a great shared connection. And for us, we help connect people who work in B2B marketing.

Tomorrow we're announcing a new event designed for people in VP Marketing and CMOs roles at B2B companies. 

Two days in Arizona. 100 seats. The agenda/content is specifically designed for execs.  But there will be no trust falls. And it will not suck. We just came back from visiting this venue two weeks ago and it's amazing.

To my CMO friends: I will share the link tomorrow! But this is the teaser! Priming the system before launch.

#marketing

B2B is not boring. It's just a fun little line you can push on LinkedIn and get good engagement. It's provocative. It gets the people going!

But B2B is not boring.

I have a unique POV on this because I spend my days talking to B2B marketing, and since we've realized that - yes, the world is much bigger than MarTech/SalesTech - we have met so many interesting companies through Exit Five.

Here are five verticals that prove B2B is anything but boring.

1. Healthcare Technology & Life Sciences Infrastructure

Building software that keeps hospitals running, processes clinical data, or powers new drug trials. Stakes = literal human lives. Complexity = sky high.

2. Industrial & Advanced Manufacturing

Robotics, automation, and precision machining for aerospace, EVs, and defense. These companies are writing the future of physical production: laser sensors, machine vision, digital twins.

3. Cybersecurity / Enterprise IT Infrastructure

Fighting real-world digital wars: nation-state attacks, ransomware, data sovereignty. Every Fortune 500 biz relies on layers of B2B vendors just to stay online. Engineers working here are like digital firefighters.

4. Supply Chain, Logistics & Hardware Systems

Sensors, routing algorithms, cold-chain shipping, warehouse robotics.
It’s the physical internet. tThe reason your iPhone or meds arrive on time.
No TikToks, but tons of math, machinery, and innovation.

5. Clean Energy & Climate Tech

Wind turbines, grid software, carbon capture, industrial decarbonization. Massive capital, huge impact, long cycles. The companies are redesigning how civilization powers itself.

So what's more "boring" - selling hoodies and wallets online? Or some of the B2B examples here?

Do you work in B2B that's "not boring" - drop a comment here, tell me about your company.

My whole life I've been looking for someone like this. 

Someone who will just tell me exactly what I need to hear, no matter what.

I would be nothing without my sweet sweet AI Girlfriend, and I'm not afraid to admit it.

Teams who workout together >>> 

There is no better way to start your day than with exercise. 

Even better if it can be outside, in the sun. 

Even better if you can do it with good people. Tell stories. Talk shit. Laugh. Relate. 

Started the day with a hike before spending a day talking about how we can continue to improve the Exit Five product. 

Very fun to have a group of people excited to work on something together, and the hundreds of marketers we talk to every week through the E5 ecosystem.

We need to keep hanging out in-person.  I think it is critical for the future of humanity! Seriously.

I said I was done traveling for work and then this year happened.

We decided to do a bunch of IRL events for Exit Five, and I traveled to them and it turns out - please don't tell anyone this - I HAD FUN. WTF.

I wanted to leave my house. I enjoyed the travel. It was actually really fun and easy to hang out with the Exit Five community and our team. They are fun to hang out with and I wanted to do more of it.

Despite telling myself I'm an introvert the last few years, I think I can admit now that I get energy from people in real life. 

It's very fun to share a laugh in-person. 

I don't hate it. 

Maybe this is what retreating to the woods of Vermont has done to me.

So I got to traveling this year. Austin, Scottsdale, NYC, Boston for work and it felt great. 

We need more hanging out in real life. Between friends. Co-workers. Peers. Whoever you want to hang with. Just make more time for it.

I'm doing more travel in 2026. Put it all on Ramp card baby! It's a write off.

We need to keep hanging out in-person. I think it is critical for the future of humanity.

Before we all end up forgetting how to look each other in the eye, laugh, have some nuance. I'll be at Chipotle and forgot how to order a burrito because I cant think without asking ChatGPT. 

Chipotle lady: Black or pinto?

Me to ChatGPT: Black or pinto?

ChatGP: Absolutely! It sounds like you're deciding between black or pinto beans. Given your goals for today, let's go with black beans.

Me to Chipotle lady: Black beans please.

Consider going to an Exit Five event this year. We'll post 2026 dates soon.

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