🦖 Hector Forwood 🦕

Flooencer

Flooencer is the business influencer marketplace. 

For brands, we work with them to help influence their pipeline.
For influencers, we help monetise their content. 

We want to create long-lasting partnerships.

Chief Engagement Officer

Digital Inspector

Board member of https://www.digital-inspector.co.uk/

Board Member

Revenue Syndicate

Are you looking for early stage funding or want to learn about investing or invest yourself?

Revenue Syndicate (formerly The User Syndicate) is the UK’s most innovative investing community. We're a group of 500+ GTM angel investors that help early-stage companies with their biggest issue. Revenue and GTM. We provide access to the latest and most exciting UK tech companies.

Founder & General Partner

Greenpixie

Green Pixie is building solutions to measure and reduce the emissions of cloud computing. 

Greenpixie is leading a cloud sustainability movement with data. Just as FinOps revolutionised cloud financial management, “GreenOps” will do the same for cloud sustainability. With granular cloud emissions data, engineers are able to chart the environmental impact of their optimisation efforts, which in turn motivates and informs further reductions. The future of FinOps is GreenOps.
As thought-leaders in cloud sustainability, Greenpixie’s leaders have spoken around the world, including at COP27, and have been covered by Bloomberg and Reuters.

Informal Advisor

Trigify.io

Advisor

Replicate Labs

Umbrella London

Investor

Artifact AI

BizNest

Zedosh

Hire business influencers.

I connect B2B brands with B2B thought leaders, business influencers, business content creators. We help run impactful campaigns to create brand awareness, generate leads and build brand authority.

CEO & Founder

Successfully raised 2x consecutive rounds of funding.


Hard to get actionable insight from Conversational Intelligence platforms

Justifying your coaching is working (ROI from Enablement/moving the needle)

No aggregate view of what's happening on calls / how it's impacting revenue

We provide detailed reports by breaking down the silos of conversations and CRMs

Semrush Spotlight was the first event I genuinely learned something useful, met some good people and got ROI from a conference. I never thought I'd say those words. 

Key takeaways for me:

SEO/Search hasn't gone - it's just changed. It's about number of citations across multiple sources that build authority. Not just banging your own drum (although this significantly helps).

Brand building is about "always on" -> your run of the mill posts / content, it's not sexy but it pays the bills. Your "campfire". Your bonfire - bigger experiments. Your fireworks where you throw everything at it. 

Your product is now your marketing tool whether it comes to branding or visibility. It should feel like you and your users should know it's your product. 

The creator economy is the most effective growth channel. 

Till next year!

Thanks to the team for putting together such an awesome experience and all the speakers/attendees. 

Shoaib Ahmed, Sarah Adam, Elena Verna, Marcel Melzig, Roxanne Lewington, Eldad Levi, Elizaveta Shutova, Ruslan Halilov 🔵, Kinley Dorji, Maria Bocharova, Tara Knight 🧩, Jeremy Boissinot, Madhav Mistry, Madhav Bhandari, Nicole P., Oren Greenberg, Ziwei Chen, AJ Eckstein 🧩 and anyone else who I might've missed.

B2B Influencer Marketing to grow pipeline. CEO @ Flooencer. Obsessed with business influencer marketing. GP @ Revenue Syndicate l Angel Investor l Startup Advisor l Board Member

When the head of growth at Lovable says that B2B influencer marketing is a must have. You listen. 

One particular line that stood out: “influencer marketing out performs all other channels, even in B2B.” 

if anyone wants help with B2B influencer marketing - check us out Flooencer  

Alongside other key growth tactics:

- founder led branding, more specifically across all of your executive leadership. This drives millions of impressions.

- marketing is now a function of your product

- your product feel, how users interact with your product, how different features work is now your brand. Lovable spends zero $ on brand marketing

- marketers need to default to ai first, then gave an example of a ceo replacing intercom with a home cooked app via Cursor. 

Finally the other key take away, she asked the audience who saw the latest change with OpenAI. 

Crickets…. It’s the fact they’re going to be releasing an AppStore. A whole new distribution channel.

By far the most interesting talk I’ve sat through in a while. Thanks Elena Verna ! You smashed it.

B2B companies are in a pipeline crisis.The problem? 

They're throwing money at the same exhausted channels expecting different results.

Here's what most people miss:

Your current budget allocation is broken.

CAC payback periods have extended to 57 months whilst pipeline coverage sits at dangerously low levels of 3.4x when they need 4.1x

Traditional channels are saturated. Your competitors are bidding on the same keywords, targeting the same audiences, and creating the same content.

You need asymmetric strategies that others aren't using yet.

Start with asymmetric ABM

Stop mass-targeting accounts. Pick 20 high-value prospects and build personalised campaigns around their specific pain points.

Use your CEO's social presence strategically. Their voice carries more weight than your brand account ever will.

Get them posting consistently about industry challenges, not product features.

Build first-party audiences

Stop relying on rented audiences from Meta and Google. Create your own database of engaged prospects.

Host webinars, create gated content, and nurture these relationships directly.

Optimise for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), not just SEO. People are asking questions to AI now, not searching keywords.

Structure your content to answer specific questions your prospects are asking.

Implement always-on influencer marketing

This isn't about one-off campaigns. Build long-term relationships with industry voices who already have your prospects' attention.

Their credibility transfers to your brand over time. It's compound marketing.

The harsh truth nobody tells you

Your pipeline crisis won't be solved by increasing ad spend on the same channels that got you here.

Everyone's fighting over the same saturated audiences whilst ignoring the asymmetric opportunities right in front of them.

The companies solving this crisis are the ones diversifying into channels their competitors haven't discovered yet.

How are you planning to break free from the pack?

Building some stuff in my spare time and doing some consultancy. You can check out what I do at hectorforwood.com

I'm obsessed with SaaS, innovation and anything that challenges the norm. I love what I do because I get to speak to new people every day. I'm a firm believer that everyone knows something you don't and that if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.

Innovative, entrepreneurial and driven by personal and team success within SaaS with a proven track record in both B2C and B2B sales.

I have a deep fascination of the technology industry and maintain the philosophy that a true master of any field is always a student. I am known as someone that can be relied upon to complete a task.

I founded Hoist after getting sick of sending the same information over and over again. It was also my first failed start up.

I love to help/coach companies and people who want to do more. Feel free to reach out to bounce ideas or want advice. My particular strengths are: Sales, SalesOps, Ideation, Validation, CRM, Data, Enablement and Foundation building. 

What I'm interested in learning: Marketing, Demand Generation, Financial Strategy, Fundraising Strategy and WFH Culture Building.

Heading to Spotlight to catch up with the latest trends in marketing. If anyone would like to meet up not behind a screen. I'll be there this evening and tomorrow.

I'm excited to watch Sarah Adam on her talk about Influencer Marketing (always good to see what the best in the game are doing) on the main stage.

✈️ ✈️ ✈️ ✈️

I forced myself to post for 15 straight days despite struggling every minute. ROI: 10+ qualified leads. Here's the uncomfortable truth about consistency:

A lot of it was because I heard the phrase "motivation is misleading, habits are everything" - some form of twist of James Clear I'm sure. 

But here's what 15 days of consistency taught me: discipline beats motivation, and the ROI doesn't care about your feelings.

The Numbers:
15 working days of posting (okay, 14 Guinness won on that Friday stag do) 
10-15 minutes per post 
10+ qualified inbound leads and sign-ups 
Zero ghostwriters 
Minimal AI (just grammar and formatting)

The Math:
That's roughly 3.5 hours of total work for 10+ leads. If you're in B2B, you know what most companies spend to generate that pipeline through ads, SDRs, or agencies.

Why This Works:
Founder-led content typically performs 3-5x better than an employees post.

The Reality Check:
I'm not naturally consistent. I don't love the process. Some days, the posts feel mediocre... e.g. this one 

I am trying to up my content game, I did my first vlog recently (stitching together and doing animations bla bla)

But founder-led branding isn't about perfection it's about presence. 

Your future customers need to see you exist, think, and solve problems in your domain.

Bottom line: If 14 imperfect posts generated 10+ opportunities, imagine what 90 days could do.

If this continues scaling with that ratio, I might be able to retire by end of next year.

So if you're an exec and not posting. Get on it, you're leaving "easy" growth on the table.

More creators are asking us about public speaking opportunities lately.
The problem? They have no idea how to actually land them or prove to brands they're worth booking.

Here's what most people miss:

Writing great LinkedIn posts does not make you a great public speaker.

Brands don't know if you're a talented copywriter or an actual orator. 

They need proof.

Build your portfolio first

Start filming videos. Show your script writing, your presenting style, your stage presence. 

This is your easiest way to demonstrate competency.

Get on podcasts and interview shows. Prioritise these over other content formats. Each appearance is another portfolio piece.

Network strategically

Stop waiting for the big stage. Start with smaller events, 50-100 people.

Use these to build experience and keep your skills sharp.

Do it frequently, not as one-offs. Consistency matters more than the occasional appearance.

Find the people who organise the events you want to speak at. Ask them directly about their booking criteria. Then work backwards from there.

Get endorsements

Collect testimonials from event organizers and attendees. These are your case studies. They're social proof that you can actually deliver.

The harsh truth nobody tells you

Until you can draw a crowd and people are genuinely excited to see you speak, paid gigs with travel and accommodation covered are extremely unlikely.

Brands only pay for speakers when they think you'll deliver ROI. 

Specifically, when you'll help them sell tickets. It's a straight exchange.

The most you'll get initially is a free ticket. That's it.

Or you can take the shortcut: become extremely successful, insanely fast, and people will want to learn from you even if you're a terrible speaker.

This is what happens when you plan a campaign correctly, with the perfect creators, effective funnel (awareness -> conversions), creative and collaborative work.

Below is our tech to measure the engaged audience & ICP matching, it's not a silver bullet when it comes to attribution but it's indicative of impact. 

Couldn't be happier for the creators and the brand. This is what it's all about. 

Business influencer marketing works, it's still an untapped GTM approach for so many companies. 

Excited to be in the space and watch it mature.

Let's be honest, most B2B influencer marketing campaigns are absolute disasters. BUT, the ones that actually work, and the difference is stark.

After running dozens of campaigns at Flooencer, I've identified what separates the winners from the wasteland of failed partnerships.

The campaigns that fail typically follow this pattern:

Vanity Metrics Focus:

Chasing follower counts instead of audience quality and engagement rates within your target market.

Generic Brief Approach: 

Sending a poorly constructed, super vague brief to every creator without proper guidance and structure or goals.

One-Off Mentality: 

Treating influencer partnerships like banner ads rather than building genuine, long-term relationships. You're setting them up to fail because you're not invested in them. They're not invested in you.

The campaigns that deliver results do this differently:

Audience Alignment Analysis:

They obsess over whether the creator's audience matches their ICP, not just industry relevance. We have some internal tech to do this, which is why we're great at it. 

Creative Freedom Framework:

Successful brands provide clear objectives, posting frameworks but let creators maintain their authentic voice and content style within those frameworks.

Performance Tracking Beyond Vanity: 

They measure pipeline impact, lead quality, and actual revenue attribution rather than just impressions.

Recent campaign data from our successful partnerships shows:

Specific posting dates & structured campaigns generate 4.2x higher MQLs

Long-term creator relationships (circa 3 months+ as a test) produce twice as many MQLs as one-offs

Content focused on providing assets / value / some form of way to engage with the brand (landing page lead magnet for example) give nearly 120% more engagements. 

The Reality Check:

Most brands want immediate ROI from creators who've never heard of them before. That's not how trust-based marketing works in B2B.

The successful campaigns we've orchestrated focus on defined, well thought through and designed campaigns with clear instructions. 

Allowing creators freedom to create within a designated framework. Then working with them over a 3 month period (as a tester, one, especially on LinkedIn isn't enough).

Bottom line:

If you're treating B2B creators like walking billboards, you're wasting budget. Treat them like strategic partners, and watch your pipeline transform.

*Wants resource*
*Knows he'll be emailed/contacted if he puts CEO/Founder and morale issues with lying on forms*

Welp, technically I am always learning...

Not sure if this is a hot take but I think moving forwards, every job application should require a vibe coded project along with a CV. 

Before I rage bait people in the comments, hear me out:

1.) This project can be re-used multiple times by the candidate as (one would assume) you're applying for the same role, multiple times.

2.) You still own it (say you didn't get the role, the company doesn't keep what you vibe coded). Heck, you might even monetise it.

It would be WAY more revealing than a CV:

How specific or niche are the problems they've vibe coded for fixing.

To be able to create something (actually useful) you'd need to understand the role deeply.

It illustrates the most in demand skill *IN EVERY DEPARTMENT*.

How quickly they adapted to the market / working towards the latest trends.

What do people think? Is this unfair or the new way to interview?

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