From $3M to $50M ARR Without Paid Ads with Alex Howe (SVP Marketing & Growth at Funnel Leasing)

#371 | Most B2B companies gate everything and hide their pricing. Funnel Leasing does neither, and grew from $3 million to $50 million in revenue anyway. Dave sits down with Alex Howe, SVP of Marketing and Growth at Funnel Leasing, to talk about how he built that growth engine with no marketing background, no paid ads, and no sales team pressure. They get into why his whole philosophy is built around being different rather than better, why ungating everything (including pricing) builds more trust than gating ever could, and how to prove marketing is working without hard metrics like a two-week sales cycle. Plus: how a background in political PR shaped his approach to getting attention, the event marketing stunts that actually got prospects talking, and why messaging should keep evolving without ever losing its core story.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - - Introduction
• (05:32) - - Be Different, Not Just Better
• (09:13) - - Why You Should Ungate Everything, Including Pricing
• (13:34) - - How to Prove Marketing Is Working Without Hard Metrics
• (18:38) - - A Great Product Makes Marketing Easier
• (24:54) - - Build a Point of View by Staying Close to Your Customers
• (27:10) - - Creative Event Marketing Beats a Boring Booth
• (31:00) - - What a PR Background Teaches You About Getting Attention
• (35:59) - - Hire Specialists and Give Them Ownership
• (39:00) - - Why Differentiation Matters More Than Ever in the AI Era

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Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

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