Marketing Spark (The B2B SaaS Marketing Podcast)

How do nonprofits compete for attention, donations, and impact in a noisy digital world?In this episode of the Marketing Spark podcast, host Mark Evans speaks with Javan Van Gronigen, co-founder of Donate.ly, a fundraising platform that has helped nonprofits raise hundreds of millions of dollars.Javan shares the story behind Donate.ly and how his experience working with nonprofits revealed a major gap in fundraising technology. Many organizations struggle with complex systems and tools that slow them down instead of helping them grow. Donate.ly was built to simplify fundraising while giving organizations the flexibility to scale.During the conversation, Javan and Mark explore:• Why many nonprofits struggle with fundraising technology• How campaigns like the Barstool Fund raised tens of millions of dollars for small businesses• The marketing strategies that helped Donate.ly grow in a competitive landscape• Why education and content marketing are essential for reaching nonprofit leaders• How AI is transforming marketing, automation, and fundraising strategy• Why founders and marketers need to experiment with AI now or risk falling behindJavan also shares his perspective on the future of fundraising technology and how AI-powered systems could soon automate large parts of marketing and donor engagement.

In this episode of Marketing Spark, Mark Evans sits down with Caren Cioffi, co-founder and CEO of Agenda Hero, an AI-powered platform designed to eliminate manual calendar work and save billions of hours.After more than a decade at Brightcove, where she helped scale the company from startup to global public enterprise, Caren made the leap into entrepreneurship to solve a problem she experienced firsthand: the hidden time cost of managing schedules. What began as personal frustration with juggling work, travel, and family logistics evolved into a startup tackling one of the most persistent workplace inefficiencies.Caren explains how Agenda Hero uses AI to convert text, images, and PDFs into structured calendar events across Google, Outlook, Apple and more. She shares how the breakthrough came when AI made it possible to automate tedious form filling that calendars have required for decades.The conversation also explores:• How to validate product-market fit before scaling marketing• Why building a product people genuinely love is the best early marketing strategy• Lessons learned from pivoting within her own product• How she approached raising venture funding for the first time• The role of influencer and advocacy marketing in early-stage growth• Why founders need conviction and the right believers around them

Many companies are rushing to adopt AI tools hoping to unlock new levels of productivity and innovation — and failing. Why? According to Sarah Jeannault, former FinTech founder and now VP Marketing at ProcedureFlow, it’s because they skipped a crucial step: building a strong operational and knowledge foundation. In this episode, Sarah dives into why AI initiatives fall flat, how to fix broken knowledge systems, and what a true AI-ready organization actually looks like. We also talk about marketing’s evolving tech stack, change management, and why AI must empower frontline teams — not just leadership.

In this episode of Marketing Spark, Mark Evans sits down with Dan Sanchez, a former podcasting leader turned AI marketing consultant, to explore his incredible transition into the world of artificial intelligence. From feeling behind the curve with ChatGPT to becoming a trusted voice in AI for marketers, Dan shares the pivotal moments and painful lessons that led him to reinvent himself.You’ll learn how chain prompting changes how we use AI tools, why top-of-funnel SEO is dying, how to build a personal brand that stands out in an AI-saturated world, and what marketers can do right now to catch up and stay ahead. Whether you're AI-curious or all-in, this episode delivers a roadmap for future-proofing your marketing strategy.Topics We Cover:The AI wake-up call that changed Dan’s career pathWhat most marketers still misunderstand about chain promptingThe “30-30-30” framework for becoming a trusted voice in any nicheHow AI is reshaping SEO, blogging, and brand trustThe 5 categories of essential AI tools every marketer should useHow to stand out when everyone is using the same tools

David Usher has sold over 1.4 million albums, won five Junos, and performed around the world. Today, he’s just as focused on algorithms as he is on melodies.In this conversation, David talks about the shift from turning emotion into music to building products that preserve memory, support healing, and explore how technology can actually make us more human. We dig into: Why creativity is a transferable methodology across art, writing, and coding How his mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis inspired Second Echo The ethical edge between digital preservation and digital imitation Why over-reliance on AI threatens our writing and thinking muscles The rise of “human spaces” and why connection still matters What AI is doing to music, artistry, and the business model behind itIt’s a wide-ranging conversation about art, identity, AI, and the future of human experience — from someone who’s lived at the intersection of creativity and technology for decades.

Marketers spend countless hours optimizing for Google, LinkedIn, and Reddit—but what about Wikipedia? In this episode of Marketing Spark, host Mark Evans talks with Bill Beutler, one of the world’s leading experts on Wikipedia strategy. Bill explains why brands can’t afford to ignore the platform that powers both Google search and AI tools like ChatGPT, and how companies can ethically and effectively manage their presence. From the pitfalls of “learned helplessness” to the opportunities of Wikidata, Bill reveals why a Wiki strategy is now a marketing imperative.

Cold outreach has a bad reputation—spammy emails, pushy SDRs, endless noise in the inbox. But Michael Maximoff, co-founder of Belkins, believes it doesn’t have to be that way. In this episode, Michael breaks down why most outbound strategies fail, how to rethink outreach as a marketing function (not just sales), and why relevance beats personalization every time. He shares lessons from scaling Belkins into a global powerhouse, the role of AI in creating hyper-relevant buyer journeys, and why CEOs should be their company’s best marketers. If you want to transform cold outreach from a numbers game into a trust-building engine, this conversation is for you.

What does it take to disrupt a $500 hockey stick market dominated by global giants? At just 22 years old, Zechariah Thomas is rewriting the rules with Swift Hockey—an elite stick brand that's affordable, player-first, and unapologetically bold. In this episode, Zechariah shares how he turned a personal frustration into a fast-growing startup, his roots in drop shipping, and what it takes to stand out against CCM, Bauer, and Reebok. From starting at 12 -years-old by re-selling products purchased at the Dollar Store hats to being featured on Dragon’s Den, his journey is a masterclass in speed, resilience, and scrappy entrepreneurship.

In this episode of Marketing Spark, Mark Evans sits down with Vahagn Sargsyan, VP of Marketing at Krisp, a pioneering voice AI company. Vahagn shares his unique journey from full-stack developer to marketing leader and dives into the strategies behind Krisp's emergence as a category-defining brand. He explains how Krisp went from a simple noise-cancellation tool to a comprehensive AI-powered communication platform used by millions, including enterprise clients like call centers and Discord. This conversation explores agile marketing, product-led growth, community-driven innovation, and how aligning closely with customers can fuel brand loyalty and expansion. 

AI isn’t coming for the future of work—it’s already transforming it. In this episode, Mark Evans sits down with Mitch Joel, entrepreneur, author, and co-founder of Thinkers One, to unpack the seismic shifts AI is driving in knowledge work. From content creation to strategic decision-making, Mitch explains why the question isn’t if AI will take our jobs, but what we’re doing in case it does. This conversation explores what it means to stay relevant, creative, and human in a world where machines can mimic expertise in seconds. You’ll also hear about Mitch’s journey from agency founder to digital futurist, and how Thinkers One is reshaping access to thought leadership.