Welcome to the EVP Talent blog! This blog series exists to demystify common startup roles, create clearer pathways into startup roles and tell the stories of exceptional operators within the EVP Portfolio.
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Bronwyn Karaoglu is the VP of Marketing at Ignition, an Australian-founded, global startup providing a client engagement and commerce platform for professional services businesses, with a focus on the accounting sector.
We had the pleasure of (virtually) sitting down with Bron to learn more about her experience and what she does as the VP of Marketing.
How do you explain what you do to a five year old?
To my five year old (I’m a mum of one), I describe marketing as trying to persuade people that we can give them value in exchange for their money. If someone wants to buy a new toy for example, I'm part of a group of people that makes sure they know about it, like it, find value in it and are able to buy it, realise value from it and tell their friends about it. I also have to make sure that the toy manufacturer makes money from those transactions.
Broadly speaking, can you give us a sense of what activities you’re accountable or responsible for?
I'm accountable for driving awareness and consideration of the Ignition brand globally and driving SaaS and transactional revenue for the business. To do that I need to create and execute on a winning marketing strategy.
What could a day, week or month look like for you as VP of Marketing?
It really depends on the day of the week or month of the year. There are times where I'm preparing for presentations to the board, investigating our funnel, bringing the team together to brainstorm, interviewing customers or forecasting for the following year. My days are certainly varied but my time is split between strategy, communications, team and leadership.
Tell us about your past experience and journey to Ignition.
I started out in a PR role with a US based software business that was reselling CRMs. That was where I found my calling within software and technology. I then moved over to London to work in go-to-market teams in a global software company. That gave me great experience in new market development strategies and was where my love of global marketing came from.
I then moved to a large IT reseller and solutions provider that serviced the whole of Europe. It was a much larger organization of about 2000 people and I learned a great deal about both software and hardware distribution. Somewhere in between I met my partner and he convinced me to come to Australia. When I got here I worked for a medical devices company as their product and marketing lead overseeing sales, marketing and channel strategy for over 10,000 products.
I then joined SiteMinder and helped take their Little Hotelier product to market. I set up the marketing capabilities and foundation, and over time I did that for the entire business. Setting up the marketing capability, teams, strategy and reporting. I was part of the team that scaled the business to $100m ARR which was a lot of fun as I held multiple roles across Demand Gen to Product Marketing. I was then approached by a company called Genbook, a US based company that wanted to reimagine how they were doing marketing. That was exciting because I got to build, grow and scale that business until we got acquired. Finally the opportunity to join Ignition as their VP of Marketing presented itself.
What gave you the confidence to join early stage businesses like Ignition?
I first look at the product. Any marketer out there will know if you haven't got a great product, you're going to be climbing a very steep hill. I would take a great product that solves a significant problem over all the budget in the world.
You also need to evaluate the team, the investors and culture. I think with any startup, you need to be able to experiment and have a growth mindset. The other part is looking at the market and making sure there's enough runway. For me, Ignition ticked all those boxes.
What prior experience set you up to succeed at Ignition as VP of Marketing?
I am resilient, flexible and love to learn. I have made mistakes many times, but I learned from them and climbed back on the horse. That ultimately set me up for success in all of my roles. I also think I know how to navigate to get things done, my decisiveness helps with progress.
Was there anything that you needed to upskill in or unlearn from your prior experience that was no longer serving you?
One thing you learn is that no two playbooks are exactly the same. So it’s more about leaving your ego at home, trying something and if it doesn't work out, learning and trying it a different way. That's the beauty of marketing and startups. If every business had a cookie cutter marketing strategy you wouldn't need a marketing expert. But marketing is both art and science and green shoots only appear after hard work and learning.
What advice would you give yourself or a friend starting as VP of Marketing?
Take your time and do a proper listening tour. If you've just started, there's nothing more insightful than listening to your customers and teams before you make any assumptions and go gungho.
The second thing I would say is it's a marathon, not a sprint. So make sure you schedule in time to reflect, do a postmortem and look into the data. Make it okay to fail. Because if you can lead with that, your team will be less afraid to take chances, be innovative and creative. In marketing, creativity is everything.
And finally If people take anything away from this, be resilient, back yourself and have confidence. I often speak to people (majority women) who just don't back themselves. Be unafraid to fail, knowing that you're probably going to; so learn and persevere.
Who do you work most closely with?
I work closely with Guy Pearson (Ignition Co-founder and CEO), the senior leadership team which includes sales, partnerships, finance and product and my marketing team.
An integral part of my role as VP of Marketing is to have a deep understanding of our target audience and our customers and there's nothing better than speaking to people face to face about their challenges. We have a customer connect program where every marketer is connected with a customer once a month and those learnings are shared in our weekly marketing team meeting. So on average we’re connecting with at least 5 customers per month each, which is great.
What do you love about your role as VP of Marketing at Ignition? What is hard?
At Ignition we have amazing people and our culture is fantastic. I know that sounds a bit cliche, but it's true. Every voice matters, we work collaboratively and everyone is helpful, supportive and talented. On the flip side sometimes we make it hard to debate the important stuff.
I think one of the core challenges at any start up is that you’re moving fast and there’s only so much you can do. So it’s really important to focus on the things that have the biggest impact. I view my role as key in that prioritisation and getting alignment from all areas of the business on what moves the dial.
What misconceptions do people have about your role as VP of Marketing?
For a VP of Marketing, CMO or Head of Marketing there's a lot of confusion as to what those roles even mean. Are they big picture roles? Do they just set the strategy and focus on the numbers? I think that's a huge misconception because marketing leaders need to have a deep understanding of how the marketing engine is being built from the ground up, what the tactics are, how you're moving and measuring them. If not, you won’t have good oversight on how you’re generating awareness and consideration for your brand.
What does good look like as a VP of Marketing? Who are your role models?
Good looks like being able to educate the business on marketing’s impact beyond just being a lead factory.
My biggest role models in marketing are people that have been able to do just that. People like Janine Pelosi's from Zoom, Dave Gerhardt (ex Drift)who's now self-employed. I also have a very good network of marketing leaders within Australia that have very similar challenges and I lean on them in different ways. Beyond that I've got an amazing mentor and a network of C-suite leaders that I lean on in various capacities. I get a lot of inspiration from people trying to solve problems in different ways.
Do you have a moment, day, team or piece of work that you’re immensely proud of since starting your current role as VP of Marketing?
I'm so proud of the team and what we've been able to accomplish together. This year alone has been a big lift. We rebranded to Ignition and the way the team came together to deliver that mammoth piece of work was a very proud moment. Equally, the Women in Accounting initiative that has raised the voice of women in this field. I'm not only proud of the campaigns and goals we achieved for the business, but also that it's been tied to a very powerful and important subject. It’s not enough these days to not be actively doing something meaningful that progresses our people and planet positively.
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Interested in a Marketing role? Check out Talent_OS to see opportunities across the EVP Portfolio, or reach out to Fred or Charmaine from EVP's Talent Team!
Welcome to the EVP Talent blog! This blog series exists to demystify common startup roles, create clearer pathways into startup roles and tell the stories of exceptional operators within the EVP Portfolio.
***
Bronwyn Karaoglu is the VP of Marketing at Ignition, an Australian-founded, global startup providing a client engagement and commerce platform for professional services businesses, with a focus on the accounting sector.
We had the pleasure of (virtually) sitting down with Bron to learn more about her experience and what she does as the VP of Marketing.
How do you explain what you do to a five year old?
To my five year old (I’m a mum of one), I describe marketing as trying to persuade people that we can give them value in exchange for their money. If someone wants to buy a new toy for example, I'm part of a group of people that makes sure they know about it, like it, find value in it and are able to buy it, realise value from it and tell their friends about it. I also have to make sure that the toy manufacturer makes money from those transactions.
Broadly speaking, can you give us a sense of what activities you’re accountable or responsible for?
I'm accountable for driving awareness and consideration of the Ignition brand globally and driving SaaS and transactional revenue for the business. To do that I need to create and execute on a winning marketing strategy.
What could a day, week or month look like for you as VP of Marketing?
It really depends on the day of the week or month of the year. There are times where I'm preparing for presentations to the board, investigating our funnel, bringing the team together to brainstorm, interviewing customers or forecasting for the following year. My days are certainly varied but my time is split between strategy, communications, team and leadership.
Tell us about your past experience and journey to Ignition.
I started out in a PR role with a US based software business that was reselling CRMs. That was where I found my calling within software and technology. I then moved over to London to work in go-to-market teams in a global software company. That gave me great experience in new market development strategies and was where my love of global marketing came from.
I then moved to a large IT reseller and solutions provider that serviced the whole of Europe. It was a much larger organization of about 2000 people and I learned a great deal about both software and hardware distribution. Somewhere in between I met my partner and he convinced me to come to Australia. When I got here I worked for a medical devices company as their product and marketing lead overseeing sales, marketing and channel strategy for over 10,000 products.
I then joined SiteMinder and helped take their Little Hotelier product to market. I set up the marketing capabilities and foundation, and over time I did that for the entire business. Setting up the marketing capability, teams, strategy and reporting. I was part of the team that scaled the business to $100m ARR which was a lot of fun as I held multiple roles across Demand Gen to Product Marketing. I was then approached by a company called Genbook, a US based company that wanted to reimagine how they were doing marketing. That was exciting because I got to build, grow and scale that business until we got acquired. Finally the opportunity to join Ignition as their VP of Marketing presented itself.
What gave you the confidence to join early stage businesses like Ignition?
I first look at the product. Any marketer out there will know if you haven't got a great product, you're going to be climbing a very steep hill. I would take a great product that solves a significant problem over all the budget in the world.
You also need to evaluate the team, the investors and culture. I think with any startup, you need to be able to experiment and have a growth mindset. The other part is looking at the market and making sure there's enough runway. For me, Ignition ticked all those boxes.
What prior experience set you up to succeed at Ignition as VP of Marketing?
I am resilient, flexible and love to learn. I have made mistakes many times, but I learned from them and climbed back on the horse. That ultimately set me up for success in all of my roles. I also think I know how to navigate to get things done, my decisiveness helps with progress.
Was there anything that you needed to upskill in or unlearn from your prior experience that was no longer serving you?
One thing you learn is that no two playbooks are exactly the same. So it’s more about leaving your ego at home, trying something and if it doesn't work out, learning and trying it a different way. That's the beauty of marketing and startups. If every business had a cookie cutter marketing strategy you wouldn't need a marketing expert. But marketing is both art and science and green shoots only appear after hard work and learning.
What advice would you give yourself or a friend starting as VP of Marketing?
Take your time and do a proper listening tour. If you've just started, there's nothing more insightful than listening to your customers and teams before you make any assumptions and go gungho.
The second thing I would say is it's a marathon, not a sprint. So make sure you schedule in time to reflect, do a postmortem and look into the data. Make it okay to fail. Because if you can lead with that, your team will be less afraid to take chances, be innovative and creative. In marketing, creativity is everything.
And finally If people take anything away from this, be resilient, back yourself and have confidence. I often speak to people (majority women) who just don't back themselves. Be unafraid to fail, knowing that you're probably going to; so learn and persevere.
Who do you work most closely with?
I work closely with Guy Pearson (Ignition Co-founder and CEO), the senior leadership team which includes sales, partnerships, finance and product and my marketing team.
An integral part of my role as VP of Marketing is to have a deep understanding of our target audience and our customers and there's nothing better than speaking to people face to face about their challenges. We have a customer connect program where every marketer is connected with a customer once a month and those learnings are shared in our weekly marketing team meeting. So on average we’re connecting with at least 5 customers per month each, which is great.
What do you love about your role as VP of Marketing at Ignition? What is hard?
At Ignition we have amazing people and our culture is fantastic. I know that sounds a bit cliche, but it's true. Every voice matters, we work collaboratively and everyone is helpful, supportive and talented. On the flip side sometimes we make it hard to debate the important stuff.
I think one of the core challenges at any start up is that you’re moving fast and there’s only so much you can do. So it’s really important to focus on the things that have the biggest impact. I view my role as key in that prioritisation and getting alignment from all areas of the business on what moves the dial.
What misconceptions do people have about your role as VP of Marketing?
For a VP of Marketing, CMO or Head of Marketing there's a lot of confusion as to what those roles even mean. Are they big picture roles? Do they just set the strategy and focus on the numbers? I think that's a huge misconception because marketing leaders need to have a deep understanding of how the marketing engine is being built from the ground up, what the tactics are, how you're moving and measuring them. If not, you won’t have good oversight on how you’re generating awareness and consideration for your brand.
What does good look like as a VP of Marketing? Who are your role models?
Good looks like being able to educate the business on marketing’s impact beyond just being a lead factory.
My biggest role models in marketing are people that have been able to do just that. People like Janine Pelosi's from Zoom, Dave Gerhardt (ex Drift)who's now self-employed. I also have a very good network of marketing leaders within Australia that have very similar challenges and I lean on them in different ways. Beyond that I've got an amazing mentor and a network of C-suite leaders that I lean on in various capacities. I get a lot of inspiration from people trying to solve problems in different ways.
Do you have a moment, day, team or piece of work that you’re immensely proud of since starting your current role as VP of Marketing?
I'm so proud of the team and what we've been able to accomplish together. This year alone has been a big lift. We rebranded to Ignition and the way the team came together to deliver that mammoth piece of work was a very proud moment. Equally, the Women in Accounting initiative that has raised the voice of women in this field. I'm not only proud of the campaigns and goals we achieved for the business, but also that it's been tied to a very powerful and important subject. It’s not enough these days to not be actively doing something meaningful that progresses our people and planet positively.
****