Unveiling the Power of Company Vision

This episode dives into the intricate relationship between personal stories and professional journeys, particularly how they shape leadership and organizational vision.

1. Personal backgrounds and family histories can deeply influence professional ideologies and practices.
2. Challenges and adversities can be transformative, fostering resilience and innovative thinking.
3. Visionary leadership is crucial in redefining industry standards and addressing market gaps.
4. Strategic thinking in marketing and leadership can drive substantial organizational change.
5. Embracing personal stories in professional settings can enhance authenticity and effectiveness in leadership.

1: Background and Introduction

Laura Foti shares her immigrant family background and early career, emphasizing how her personal history shaped her professional ethos.
Eva Ho: "Welcome, Laura, to our program today."

2: Professional Journey and Leadership

Discussion on Foti’s transition from consultancy to leading marketing at GE Digital and eventually Specright.
Laura Foti: "I wanted to be the one at the table helping make business decisions."

3: Specright’s Mission and Vision

Insight into Specright's foundation, its mission to eliminate waste, and the creation of a new industry category.
Laura Foti: "Our mission is to help people and companies make amazing, sustainable things."

4: Challenges and Solutions in Industry

Exploration of the challenges Specright addresses in specification data management and the innovative solutions provided.
Laura Foti: "Specright is the first cloud-based platform for specification data management."

5: Leadership Philosophy and Future Goals

Reflections on leadership styles, the importance of diversity in thought, and future aspirations for personal and company growth.
Laura Foti: "The only person who can set a limit on yourself is you."

1. Embrace your background as a strength in your professional journey.
2. Use personal challenges as catalysts for innovation and resilience.
3. Develop a clear and impactful mission and vision for your team or organization.
4. Foster a culture of diversity and inclusivity in thought and leadership.
5. Stay open to learning and adapting, aligning personal values with professional roles.

Leadership journey: Went from working as a consultant at Deloitte Digital to becoming CMO at Fika portfolio company, Specright.
Personal Values: Learned to take pride in her work as the child of immigrants who worked in a factory.

Learned by Example: Watched her father embody the principle of dreaming big, finding courage, and rejecting the limits applied by others.

Specright Premise: Pioneering specification management, packaging, and category creation.

Vision and Values: On a mission to contribute to a world without waste where the right thing is made every time.

Growth Model: Three main levers include thought leadership, ecosystem, and network.

Core Motivation: Believes in the vision and buys into the Founder’s approach to making Specright successful.

Role Models: Admires her first boss, Linda Boff, Deloitte CTO, Christy Levy, and Lumen President and CEO, Kate Johnson, who taught her to be herself in business.

Advice for Future CMOs: Advocates for immersing yourself in all the areas of marketing in order to understand it.

People

Laura Foti, Eva Ho

Companies

Specright

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

Laura Foti

Content Warnings:

None

Eva Ho
Welcome back to pour over a coffee chat style podcast from Fikaventures. We talk a lot about leadership on this show, as we believe every entrepreneur, every visionary has a unique narrative. It's these narratives that can inspire and transform the way we think about business leadership and success. Your host for today's podcast is Fika co founder and managing partner Eva Ho, who is joined by special guests Laura Fode, the CMO and founding executive of Stackright, the number one platform for specification and supply chain data management. Laura has spent her career at the intersection of manufacturing and technology.

Laura Foti
She began her career as a consultant at Deloitte Digital, working in enterprise digital transformation, where she helped clients design and deploy ecommerce experiences, develop revenue driving mobile apps, and reimagine their global digital marketing strategy. Laura then led advertising and analytics at GE Digital. GE's industrial Internet software business have pioneered the IoT category. At GE, she championed an initiative to implement a best in class analytics program across product marketing and customer experience teams. In her role at Specrite, Laura works with Fortune 100 customers to help them reimagine their supply chains, using data as the center of everything they do.

She's produced the company's annual user group conference for the past two years, putting together two days of programming for industry professionals across CPG, food and beverage, beauty and manufacturing on how to use specification data to make better products and packaging. We are thrilled to have Laura with us today to talk about her leadership journey. I'm really excited to have with us today Laura Fote, the chief marketing officer of Specrite, one of our most promising portfolio companies at Fika. Welcome, Laura, to our program today. I've been always so inspired by your story of how you grew up in an immigrant family.

Eva Ho
Maybe we start there. Yeah, absolutely. And I know this is something you relate to as well, Eva, and that many listeners that grew up here do right? America is a country of immigrants and we all have so many amazing stories and so I'm happy to share a little bit about mine. I'm very proud to be italian american.

Laura Foti
So my mother's parents were from Italy. And my dad's grandparents were also from Italy. So both sides, different regions of Italy, so northern and Sicily. So it really shaped me. I didn't really understand how much it shaped me until I was older and traveled to other parts of the world and other parts of the country.

But it really just instilled in me. A sense of taking pride in my. Work and working really hard. My grandparents worked in a factory and. So no job was beneath them.

They didn't take anything for granted. You know, I grew up hearing when I would go over their house, the story of how they came here with $5 in their pocket, right? And they had nothing, and they built this amazing life, and they had my parents, and then my parents were able to go to college. And so I just grew up with this idea that it was always my responsibility to do better for the next generation and take pride in that and to really view challenges as opportunities. Also, knowing when you were growing up, being a marketing executive at a large, growing tech company was maybe not a goal from the start.

Eva Ho
I think you've shared sort of your dream of becoming a creative writer. So how did you start from that part of the journey of your desire to be a creative writer to now being the CMO at Specrade? Yeah, great question. My first career that I remember wanting to pursue was actually that of an orthopedic surgeon, because I was really inspired by my dad. My dad, when he was eleven years old, was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Laura Foti
So he, from the age of eleven onward, was in a wheelchair, was bedridden. There were no medicines at the time to prevent arthritis from essentially ravaging his entire body. And so he eventually, with the help of a pioneering orthopedic surgeon, got a bilateral hip replacement. So he was the first person in the state of Connecticut to do so. I think he was 18.

That allowed him to walk again. And then he ended up going to. College pursuing journalism, and he was just always this amazing writer. He's been published in numerous magazines and publications and newspapers. And growing up, I'm very athletic.

My brother and I are both very athletic, but we obviously couldn't share that passion with my dad. And so my dad and I just really bonded over our mutual love of writing, and it was also just a shared talent. And so I remember being at a restaurant with him growing up and him asking me to tell a story, and he would ask me about the protagonists and the characters and the plot, and we just grew up with this amazing bond over sharing our feelings and emotions through words. And that's really special. I ended up pursuing public relations at.

Syracuse University, where I was able to. Apply my creative writing skills in a. Business setting and really understand, from a. Journalism perspective and magazine and public relations how my storytelling skills and passion and. Talent could translate into more of a business setting.

And I remember a light bulb turning. Off in my mind flashing, and I'm. Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I don't want to just go communicate other people's business decisions. I want to be the one at the table helping them make it.

And I've just been so fortunate, Eva, to have amazing mentors who have pushed me to develop my own talents, but then who have shown me what more I could be that maybe I hadn't thought of yet. And I've had so many full circle moments, and so one of the great joys in my life has been able to take my passion for storytelling and apply it in the business setting to. Help people do things differently. We're so lucky that your dad gave you that gift of storytelling, and we're spec Wright's a wonderful recipient of it. I also know through our conversations over the years that your dad has in general, besides giving you that gift, has been an incredible influence for you, not only because he went through, obviously, some interesting challenges, but just how he was as a human being and what he.

Brought to the world. Can you share just a couple more lessons that he imparted on you that you still live by today? I feel so grateful that it's not what my dad told me, it's what. He showed me, and I think that's. Really powerful, and that's informed how I operate as a leader.

I tell my team, I'm like, you have to show people, not just tell them. And what my dad showed me is. And I'll try not to get emotional. He really taught me that the only person who can set a limit on yourself is you. There were a lot of people who.

Told him he would never walk again. There were a lot of people who. Told him he would never have a. Family, and he could be easily listened to them and not had bigger dreams for himself, but he had the courage to just do procedures that were considered experimental multiple times. I mean, throughout my childhood, I remember he would go in for a revision.

He would go in for a knee. He would go in for an ankle. He would go in for a spinal fusion. Those are really difficult surgeries. And one thing I try to remember.

There'S a stat, I don't know for. Sure, that, like, most people will experience a disability in their life or have a loved one experience a disability. And that makes sense, right? Because a lot of that comes with age. But, I mean, I had visibility into.

That growing up that, like, I took. Nothing for granted, right. And so I always think to myself, like, what can I do? I don't have anything holding me back. I don't have.

You know, of course, there are things in my life I wish were maybe going a little differently or a little better. We all have those things, but really. There'S nothing restricting me from achieving whatever it is I put my mind to. And my dad really showed me that. And that I think ties into entrepreneurship.

So well because as an entrepreneur, so. Many people tell you you can't do. That or they want to put limitations. On you because of their experience. And if you have the belief in what you're doing and the belief in.

Yourself, I believe there's nothing you can. Accomplish, especially with other people. And so that's just been ingrained in. Me at such a young age and has had a huge impact on my life. Maybe switching gears a little bit, talking about Specright, yeah, you could maybe share a little bit about what spec write does.

Eva Ho
But in a nutshell, it sought about ten years ago when it was started. Its ambition was to create a brand new category. And theres pros and cons to that. As you know, youve been part of that journey. Maybe you can share a bit how Specright has really succeeded in creating and defining a brand new category.

Laura Foti
Simply put, Specrite is the first cloud. Based platform for specification data management. When you think about the products we use every day. So anything made, whether it be a. Food and beverage product, or a consumer.

Packaged good product, or a beauty product. Or an industrial product, whenever you're making. Something, there's specifications that essentially tell you how to make that thing. And so there's lots of different types of specifications, there's raw material specifications, packaging. Specifications, recipes, formulas, so on and so forth.

And everyone in the supply chain needs to know the spec to make their part of the product correctly, right? Especially, we all know supply chains have gotten really interconnected and global and complex. And so before spec write, companies were managing specs and spreadsheets and legacy systems, lotus notes, databases, Microsoft access databases. This data often wasn't connected in any way. There was version control nightmares, word documents.

I mean we're talking truly like rudimentary ways of managing this really mission critical data. And so our founder and CEO Matthew. Wright had been involved in the packaging. Industry for so long. And what's unique about packaging is every industry buys packaging, right?

So if you're a food company, you. Need to ship things in boxes. Same thing if you're a beauty or industrials. Packaging is kind of a horizontal. And he saw across every industry that like no one was managing specs.

Well, when I joined at the time, I was working for General Electric, amazing. Marketing team there, so many great mentors. From those days, and we were really. Working on the industrial Internet of things so the idea that you could put sensors on machines and do things like predictive maintenance, right? And so when I met Matthew and learned about specright, I was like, this makes sense to me.

This is the extension of the digital thread. In fact the specs are the digital thread, right? It's what you need to make, buy and sell your product. It's kind of everything. And so when I joined, I remember early on, many people wanted me to.

Just pick an existing category and kind of position spec right into it. And especially not you, Eva. But other investors would say like what is specright like, is it a quality management system, is it an ERP system? But category creation was really authentic to. What we were doing at specright.

It's not something you just do as a marketing tactic. You pick it because you're truly doing something different and unique. And so that was kind of the genesis of us really pioneering specification management. It's been incredible to watch Laura. I mean specification management and packaging in general are not sexy.

Eva Ho
I mean I think yes Uber created a new category, but I think consumers can relate to it and quickly there's word of mouth and all that that made the brand of or a verb and super sexy. What did you do to get mind? I mean the problem clearly existed, but it was defined differently, it was solved differently. I mean when you look at the spec write brand today, and I've been to some of the events, I've heard the customer testimonies that people are like rabidly excited about the solution, like it changed their work lives, it changed their lives. And it just like I wouldn't have envisioned when we started that you were able to create this level of excitement and buy in.

What did you do to make this category actually so sexy, so intuitive? The first thing I would say is. It'S really rooted in a strong mission and vision and that is through the work we've done with Matthew. It's also what we've heard from customers. And so early on I would do a lot of write alongs with customers where I would say take me and tell me about your day.

Laura Foti
When was the first time you knew you had a problem with specs and really just listening to them and their problems and also listening to what they were trying to accomplish, what were their jobs to be done? So a lot of it was really rooted in voice of the customer and. The voice of the founder and really stepping back and early on I said. To Matthew, early on I said what's our mission and vision? I'll never forget this, it's one of my favorite stories to tell at Spec Ride.

And so I'm probably like a month. In, I'm like, Matthew, what's your mission for the company? And he's like, easy. He's like, I want to eliminate all. The waste in the world.

And I'm like, matthew, that's like, that's pretty big. At the time, we were probably ten people. I'm like, I want you to go. Home and sleep on this. Come back to me tomorrow with maybe like a little bit more of like.

A dialed in answer. And I laugh now, because now I'm like, I'm glad we ended up where. We were, but I love that that was Matthew's answer because he really believes it. And he came back and he said. Okay, he goes, you're right, we're not.

Going to alone solve the problem of eliminating the world's waste. He goes, but if we can empower others to do that, we will make an impact. I let matthew keep that because I think that's accurate. The vision is to live in a. World without waste where the right thing is made every time.

Because if you get the spec right, there's no, we're throwing this way because it was made wrong or it didn't comply. You do eliminate so much unnecessary waste from global supply chains. So that's our vision. And our mission is to help people and companies make amazing, sustainable things. And I think the reason people love the brand is they love our mission and our vision.

Like they want to live in a world like that. They want to accomplish those things. And what I've learned is we all. Want a sense of belonging and community in our lives as human beings. And we want to align with people.

Who are trying to achieve the same things we are. And so I think what we've really. Done with spec write and specification management is we've shown people that we all agree we want to do these amazing things. The way you get there is by managing your specification data. And so even though specs may not seem really sexy, the outcomes are really sexy.

Maybe it took you six months to do that. So I think a combination of vision. Mission and then elevating the profession through the use of data and technology. I love what we're doing. Every day I wake up excited to go to work.

Every day I'm learning something new. And I often think about how do. I know we're living our mission and vision? Because I'm conscious that as the marketer, obviously I'm very bought into our mission and vision. Right, but how do I keep myself honest.

How do I gut check myself? And so I have a slide that. Has our mission and vision and some. Data points on it. And the data points that I have.

Off the top of my head, one. Is that spec grid is taught in 15 of the leading packaging universities. So this tells me that other people are saying that this is the right. Way to do things. We have over 2.6 million products on the specrite platform.

That's unbelievable. When I was at General Electric, one of the things they loved to say was, you've likely touched or used or had a GE product in your home or in your life, right? Spec. Or I can say the same thing in ten years. It took GE 100 years to say that.

Those are just some examples of how. I know we've been mentioned in Gartner research about 15 times. Can you share with folks out there who are aspiring to be cmos at a really fast growing tech company? What was the growth model behind specright? What are the couple things that really worked and maybe mention one strategy or tactic that did not work?

Yeah, and I'll keep it somewhat high level. I would say our three main levers. The first is thought leadership. The second was ecosystem, and the third is what we call network. And so I'll touch on those briefly.

But if you're creating a new category. There'S no one else talking about it. So, like, the nature of category creation is you have to talk about it a lot. Right? And so there are certain strategic things.

We did starting the first data spec. Management survey where we surveyed hundreds of people on how are you managing your specs today? And that revealed, wow, most of it's. In Excel, most of it's in share drives. Like, that was the first study that.

Had ever been done and it kind. Of cast a light on it, that people would look at it and say. Oh yeah, wow, me too. Right? So those studies were really important early on.

We have our podcast, so I get to be the host, where I get to interview people that are in the industry who are making amazing things. So thought leadership to us is multiple areas. It's our own research. It's us being out in the market ecosystem is really big for us. Again, we want to be part of a movement specification management isn't just spec.

Right? It's a larger category. And so we have to nurture that. So we have large engagement with packaging universities. So as I mentioned, Specgrid is taught.

In the classroom to the next generation of packaging students, right. Because these professors realize that technology has. To be involved in their curriculum. And, you know, we have a huge partnership with Michigan State University, which is the largest packaging school. Matt Dam has been an amazing partner there.

Ecosystem is also partnerships. So we work with Institute of Packaging Professionals that's like the industry association for People. And we're educating folks on how to use technology to do things like SKU rationalization or sustainability reporting, and also other technology partnerships. So there's other, you know, Genesis is a great example for food companies, for them to create that nutritional label that we as consumers are familiar with, you know, the calories. Okay, well, those are ingredient specs.

So we integrate with Genesis to help people develop nutritional labels more accurately and faster. So this ecosystem approach of, it's not just what spec rite is going to do individually, it's how we're going to partner with academia, how we're going to partner with other players in the tech ecosystem and really make it a holistic, again, movement, if you will, to advancing the industry forward. And then the third thing is network. And Matthew's really passionate about this. I'll try to do it justice.

When you talk about specifications, and I. Briefly mentioned that these specs are scattered across the supply chain. That's natural, right? Because packaging companies make packaging. Most brands are actually procuring things.

So I hate to give examples of. Customers, but if you're a laundry detergent company, you're buying the clear plastic bottle. From someone else, right? You're not actually manufacturing that. So someone else is owning that spec.

And so with spec, right, network, the concept is for all the customers on spec, right? They're just sharing their specs with one another instantly. Because we serve so many industries and. Because we serve packaging as well, there's. Companies that do business with one another.

And so when we're at Spec Summit, I joke it's like a reunion. I see customers saying, hey, I'm your supplier. Oh, I know this person. Oh, I do business with this person. And so what that manifestation in real life, we're trying to now bridge with.

Technology and saying, when you need to. Share your spec with your supplier or your customer, you can just do it on the same platform and get visibility. If something changes, you're notified. So because of network, it allows us to have more reach with suppliers who have the same internal problem as the brands, which is they're managing their specs on Excel too. Right?

Which is good for no one. So I would say those are the. Three main growth levers. That's wonderful. Maybe chat a bit about, you were not a founder of the company, but you were obviously one of the founding members of the organization.

Eva Ho
Matthew was the founder and CEO. A very unique profile and personality. How would you advise others to be able to work effectively with the CEO who's also a founder? Given when I first met you, I was like, wow, she's dynamic and amazing, but very different from Matthew, which has turned out to be, honestly, the dream partnership. The Dream team, at least from where we're sitting, it's been so effective.

If you could share a bit more about that partnership and how you would advise others to work. First, I have to give credit. You know, there's an amazing founding team of early employees. I was, I would say, the first founding executive. But I do want to give credit to many others who came before me who helped get those first few customers right.

Laura Foti
But I think when I joined, the. Most important thing if you're looking to do a startup, is really believing in. Your founder in terms of who they. Are in their vision. What makes Matthew so special?

And I really remind myself of how lucky I am. Matthew could easily say, this is my vision. Matthew has allowed me to make it. Our vision, and he's allowed me to do that. He's allowed me to have influence on the product or the strategy or the roadmap.

There's many founders that don't allow a. Marketer to have that kind of seat at the table. I think part of it is Matthew. Is an amazing leader. He really believes in diversity in general.

Diverse backgrounds, diverse schools of thought, diverse styles. As you mentioned, we're very different. I would say Matthew's more reserved. I'm very extroverted and very passionate. Right.

And we have a great relationship, I. Think, because we're different and we push. Each other in different ways and we bring out the best in one another. And what I really value about Matthew is that we've had some hard conversations over the years because we're both so. Invested and we're able to keep that in mind.

Like, we both want spec write to be successful. And I just feel so grateful that. I get to learn from him. I always say, like, my favorite thing. Is making his vision a reality when.

He said he wanted to do certain things. And, you know, there's plenty of tough moments where we both wish it was going faster. Trust me. I think part of the entrepreneurial spirit is you always want to get there quicker. It's just like something that's in you.

So we both have that, but then we do such a good job reminding each other, like, we have a really big prospect right now, right and Matthew's like, do you remember five years ago when, like, this would have been a dream of ours and it was a dream of ours. And so we get to kind of. Keep each other in check in terms. Of, like, we have made a lot of progress. Is there still more to go?

1000%. Matthew always says he talks about, like. The belief in the vision of the company across the organization. And, you know, he's obviously at 100%. I'm like, at 99.999.

And I think as the CMO, you. Have to be if you're not all. In on that vision. And the only reason I'm not 100 is because I'm not mathy. Right?

Like, so if you're not all in on that vision and mission, if you're not as excited as the founder, it's going to be a hard journey for you because it is difficult to join an early stage startup, especially creating a new category. Like, trust me, the odds were definitely stacked against us, but we believed in each other. We believed in his vision. And this is one of the things. I love about him, too.

We still believe we're only 5% of. The way there on the journey. And he has taught me that. He has taught me that you have. To work incredibly hard, but you also have to have patience.

And I think my lifelong lesson is going to be having more patience. How would you describe your management style and philosophy today? I think this is really important for. People considering high growth startups. I came from really big companies, so I started my career at Deloitte Consulting, working with a lot of high performing people, and then went to General Electric, where I was surrounded by people who had come out of the GE leadership programs or come from other amazing brands.

And so I think it's easy to have a bias around someone's resume and. Saying, oh, well, they worked at XYZ company. And I think what my management style and philosophy has really evolved into is you have to look at the resume. That's really important. But what does this person, what is their style at a startup?

Everyone is working so hard. Are they up for that task? Right. I mean, it's not the same as being part of a hundred person marketing team at GE. It's a very different work environment.

So I look for people who are. Active learners, who are going to respond well to ambiguity, because there is a. Lot of ambiguity in a startup. I look for people who are really. They believe in the vision, and again, they believe in the vision and the mission.

They're aligned with it, because at the end of the day. Like, I really do believe you have to enjoy what you do. And if they're not at least somewhat. Inspired by where we're going, it's harder to feel invested in it. And then I look for, obviously, the hard skills.

Right. But I would say I used to put way more emphasis on the resume, and now I put more emphasis on what is this person overall? Is their work ethic, is their vision? Is it aligned with what we're trying to do here? We've also chatted about the role models that you've had in your life, not only your father, but the folks that were at GE and some of the other organizations you've been at.

Eva Ho
As you now become a role model for others, how do you think about that experience, and what do you take with you as today, honestly, your role model for so many people out there? No. Thank you for saying that. It's nice to be able to pay it forward because I've been the beneficiary. Of a lot of great role models.

Laura Foti
And I'd love to shout out a few and just what I briefly learned from all of them because I feel like I never get the chance to. I think it's so important to tell people what they mean to you because you just never know. So, anyways, Linda Boff was the first person who ever hired me for a marketing job. She hired me to be an intern. For her, a general electric, and she.

Became the CMO of GE. And I got to watch her become. The CMO both close and then afar. And so I was like, oh, that's. I saw the career path, right?

I saw her go from being a senior director to being the CMO over. The span of, I think, ten years. And so she gave me that vision and aspiration of, like, what are the things you're doing differently at each of those stages? She gave me, like, the blueprint. She didn't give it to me on a phone call.

I just watched her. I watched the things she was doing, how she was acting, the type of. Team she was building, and I got. To kind of just see that live. And so that had a huge influence on me.

Christy Leiby was one of my clients. When I was at Deloitte. She was the CTO. She was the first, like, female executive I worked directly with. And it was a very male dominated industry.

And she just always gave me the belief in myself that I could do it. And at the time, I was an analyst, so I had, like, no business of thinking about that. And she always made me feel like. A business partner, and just. We would go on walks every week, and she would just mentor me.

We would just talk about things, and. We'Re still great friends. She's a huge Seahawks fan. I'm an Eagles fan. So we love football season.

And then Kate Johnson. Kate Johnson was the chief revenue of. Officer of GE digital and is now the president of Lumen, I believe. She taught me that you could be. Yourself, because up until that point, I'm very extroverted.

I'm very passionate, and Kate's like that, too. Kate's, like, very competitive. I remember she had, like, a putting green in her office, and I was. Like, okay, like, I could do this. Because I'm not reserved.

And at the time, I thought to be a leader, it meant you had to be, like, very. A certain way and not too loud or not too passionate. Right. But she told me that you could be that. And so I'm really grateful for that.

I have a basketball hoop on my door, and I always think about Kate. Johnson because she was the first person I saw that. I was like, oh, that's the type. Of leader I am. And then Matthew, obviously, is a huge role model and mentor for me.

I think being a role model is a huge responsibility. I think being a leader is a huge responsibility. And what's really important is to show. People that, again, my belief of, like. There'S nothing they can't do, and that.

Just comes from what my dad taught me. I really try to instill that in others. Like, hey, there's nothing you can't do. And my job as a leader is. Here to support you and get you.

Whatever you need to figure it out. Right. Whether it's just to be here to support you and be your cheerleader, to get you tools or resources. So definitely that. I think another one is, I just.

Try to be authentically myself, and I think the biggest gift you can give. To others is being yourself and showing them that they have permission to do the same. And I'll give you an example of that. When we had our spec summit recently. I wore a hot pink suit the.

Whole day, Thursday, which is the main day, and this is Barbie pink. Like, it's loud. You look good. Thank you. So many people came up to me.

And said, oh, my gosh, I love. That you wore that suit. I would never be able to pull it off. And I said, yes, you could. I'm like, you just have to own it.

And I've met people. I've been wearing pink jackets for a while now. This isn't my first. So many people have sent me pictures of them wearing pink jackets or whatever, floral jackets, jackets or what. And I really believe we should all have the courage to just be ourselves.

And for me, I'm very vibrant. I'm very colorful, I'm very passionate, and I lead with those things. My hope is that by being bold. And courageous for myself, I can inspire other people to do that. It's that satisfaction of knowing I'm getting better.

Eva Ho
How do you keep score today on how you're doing and ending on this question? What advice would you give to someone who's aspiring to be a CMO? I think what's really interesting, Eva, and. I was talking about this in a marketing class. Marketing is so broad.

Laura Foti
If you ask someone what marketing is, they'll give you like ten different answers, right? It's demand gen, it's product marketing, it's. Brand marketing, it's field market. There's so many disciplines within marketing. And what I've noticed is, especially when you're at a bigger company, you specialize, right?

So you're the demand job person or. You'Re the field marketing person. If you want to be the CMO, you have to understand how it all works together. If you want to be a CMO, you have to dabble in enough of these areas. And you have to really know strategy.

Not just marketing strategy, you have to know corporate strategy. What are your differentiators? What is the competitive landscape? And so I think there's so much. Emphasis on people being specialists within marketing.

But to become a CMO, you have to be a little bit more of a generalist, right? You have to understand how to hire for these roles. You have to understand how these roles complement each other. You have to understand all these different levers, and that only comes from being exposed to all those different areas. And so I think, you know, if.

I were going back and giving advice. To my younger self, I would have. Bounced around more in the marketing and been like, hey, I want to go work at this team. I got to work very collaboratively with people. So I got exposed to all this in a different way.

Right. But I think that's the biggest thing. Is either you roll up your sleeves. And learn it yourself or you take on a lot of different types of marketing roles. So eventually you can be the leader and you can guide others in their roles.

Eva Ho
Thank you so much, Laura. It's been such a joy again to really be a part of your story. I know the story is just at the beginning, but I've been incredibly impressed and honestly, just Fika as a firm, just being able to partner with you and collaborate with you has been a true privilege, and I know there's a lot more to go for you and for specright, and we're really happy to be along the ride with you. You've been listening to pour over, presented by FIca Ventures. FICA is an LA based early stage venture fund investing in B two b companies across North America.

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