Empowering Marketers with AI – Sam Mallikarjunan – agent.ai

Discover how Sam Mallikarjunan, Growth Lead at agent.ai transitioned from being an AI skeptic to an advocate, and learn about the innovative platform that allows anyone to build and customize AI agents, regardless of their technical skills.

Mike and Sam explore what AI agents are, share real-world examples of how marketers can use them for tasks like research and content creation, and discuss how AI is reshaping the future of marketing roles.

About agent.ai

Agent.ai is the #1 professional marketplace where users can build, discover, and deploy trustworthy AI agents that deliver real-world value.

Founded in 2024 by Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, and led by Sam Mallikarjunan, Agent.ai empowers professionals to revolutionize their workflow across sales, marketing, and customer service through intelligent automation.

Since its launch at HubSpot’s INBOUND 2024, the platform has experienced explosive growth, amassing over 1.5 million users and hosting more than 1,200 public agents by early 2025. The platform distinguishes itself with its intuitive low-code agent builder, access to cutting-edge AI models, and a vibrant developer ecosystem.

About Sam Mallikarjunan

Sam Mallikarjunan is a growth strategist, entrepreneur, and the Growth Lead at agent.ai. He is the former CEO and co-founder of OneScreen.ai, a marketplace for out-of-home advertising, and previously served as Chief Revenue Officer at Flock.com and Head of Growth at HubSpot Labs, where he drove significant customer acquisition and revenue growth.

Sam is a former professor at Harvard University, where he taught Advanced Digital Marketing and Innovation, and he currently shares his expertise as a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. He is also the co-author of the bestseller Inbound Commerce - How to Sell Better than Amazon and frequently offers insights on AI, marketing, and business strategy

Time Stamps

00:00:18 - Guest Introduction: Sam Mallikarjanan from Agent.ai

00:01:41 - Overview of Agent.ai and Its Features

00:02:45 - Understanding AI Agents in Marketing

00:04:10 - Practical Applications of Agents for Marketers

00:10:34 - Target Audience: Individuals vs. Enterprises

00:12:57 - The Importance of AI Confidence in Marketing

00:17:27 - Future Changes in Marketing Roles Due to AI

00:19:59 - The Shift from Performance to Brand Marketing

00:22:44 - Best Marketing Advice Received by Sam

00:24:07 - Career Advice for Aspiring Marketers

00:27:15 - Conclusion and Closing Remarks

Quotes

"The more focused you try and make an AI, the more effective it's gonna be at whatever the task is that you're trying to have it do." Sam Mallikarjunan, Growth Lead at agent.ai

"The biggest challenge is getting people to become AI curious and AI confident." Sam Mallikarjunan, Growth Lead at agent.ai

"It was an interesting project because it's what helped turn me from an AI doomer into an AI boomer." Sam Mallikarjunan, Growth Lead at agent.ai

Follow Sam:

Sam Mallikarjunan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallikarjunan/

agent.ai’s website: https://agent.ai/

agent.ai’s on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-platform/

Follow Mike:

Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/

Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/

Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more discussions about the latest in Marketing B2B Tech and connect with us on social media to stay updated on upcoming episodes. We'd also appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform.

Want more? Check out Napier’s other podcast - The Marketing Automation Moment: https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-marketing-automation-moment-podcast/id1659211547

Francesco D’Orazio, founder of audience intelligence platform Pulsar, joins the latest episode of Marketing B2B Tech to share his journey from studying the internet's impact on society to founding Pulsar, a company that helps brands understand how people engage online.

He dives into the challenges of navigating the fragmented media landscape and how AI has become a crucial tool for analysing diverse data sources. Francesco also emphasises the importance of understanding narratives and public perception to uncover deeper insights about audience beliefs and behaviours.

About Pulsar

Pulsar is the world’s leading audience intelligence platform, harnessing rich data sets, AI and human minds, so clients can access nuanced and actionable insights that get straight to what matters most to their customers, their businesses and to society.

Time Stamps

00:00:18 - Guest Introduction: Francesco D’Orazio of Pulsar

00:00:42 – Francesco’s Career Journey

00:01:57 - The Rise and Fall of Virtual Worlds

00:05:40 – Overview of Pulsar

00:06:04 – Understanding Audience and Narrative Intelligence

00:10:11 - B2B vs. B2C Audience Engagement

00:15:06 - AI's Role in Data Analysis

00:16:22 - Forecasting Trends with Audience Data

00:20:01 - Best Practices for Utilizing Audience Listening Data

00:25:09 - Valuable Marketing Advice Received

00:27:15 - Closing Remarks and Contact Information

Quotes

"The thing that most companies get wrong is that they go with the one platform fits all approach in terms of how they communicate on these different channels." Francesco D’Orazio, founder of Pulsar.

“What AI has done is give us incredibly flexible tools for analysing data in a way that before was quite complex and required a lot of training or specific machine learning models." Francesco D’Orazio, founder of Pulsar.

"Different communities look at the same topic and brand in very different ways. So, your message should be aligned on how these messages are articulated by the different communities in an audience." Francesco D’Orazio, founder of Pulsar.

Follow Francesco:

Francesco D’Orazio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francescodorazio/

Pulsar’s website: https://www.pulsarplatform.com/

Pulsar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-platform/

Follow Mike:

Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/

Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/

Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more discussions about the latest in Marketing B2B Tech and connect with us on social media to stay updated on upcoming episodes. We'd also appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform.

Want more? Check out Napier’s other podcast - The Marketing Automation Moment: https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-marketing-automation-moment-podcast/id1659211547

James McCann, CEO of Everhaze, an all-in-one PR platform, shares insights into the challenges PR professionals face today, particularly in proving ROI and managing media relations in a digital world.

He discusses how Everhaze aims to transform PR into actionable business intelligence, helping brands and agencies demonstrate the true value of their efforts.

James and Mike discuss on the role of AI in PR, the importance of building relationships with journalists, and the future of the industry as it adapts to new technologies

About Everhaze

Everhaze is a PR business intelligence platform that turns media campaigns and mentions into actionable BI through real-time narrative tracking, messaging consistency scores, big data insights and AI PR Executives.

Solving the problem of scalability in PR, Everhaze helps clients across the UK & Ireland with in-depth media monitoring across print, broadcast and online, detailed media intelligence through its intuitive media database, automation of PR campaigns and real-time media insights to ensure its clients can fully realise their reputation protection and management capabilities.

About James McCann

James is CEO of Everhaze, an AI enabled PR business intelligence platform that provides real-time reputation impact tracking through combined data sourcing across media database, media monitoring and narrative analysis capabilities.

He previously established ClearStory International, an international PR agency in 2017 building a team of 15 and sourcing international clients from North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. He currently serves on the AI in PR Advisory Council for the Public Relations Institute of Ireland and is also a board member on Oglaigh Naisiunta Na hEireann, Ireland’s veteran charity. He was a former PR Campaign Manager for Web Summit. He was recently included in Business Plus Magazines 40 under 40 for PR professionals in Ireland.

Time Stamps

00:00:18 – Guest Introduction: James McCann 00:02:09 – Overview of Everhaze 00:03:11 – Functionality of Everhaze 00:06:09 – The Pressure on PR Professionals 00:09:14 – Challenges of Media Monitoring 00:11:08 – AI’s Role in PR 00:17:08 – Marketing Tactics for Everhaze 00:19:09 – Future of PR in the Next 3-5 Years 00:23:31 – Best PR Advice Received 00:24:06 – Advice for New Marketing Professionals 00:25:30 – How to Learn More About Everhaze

Quotes

“We’re turning PR into actionable business intelligence for large-scale brands, for semi-states, for governments, for NGOs, and obviously for agencies and their clients.” James McCann, CEO of Everhaze.

“The major issue when it comes to media relations right now, which is that journalists are under enormous pressure.” James McCann, CEO of Everhaze.

“You need to continue to advocate for yourself and your value. Constantly demonstrate value.” James McCann, CEO of Everhaze.

Follow James:

James McCann on LinkedIn: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/jamesmccann862

Everhaze’s website: https://everhaze.com/

Everhaze on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/everhaze/

Follow Mike:

Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/

Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/

Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more discussions about the latest in Marketing B2B Tech and connect with us on social media to stay updated on upcoming episodes. We’d also appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform.

Want more? Check out Napier’s other podcast – The Marketing Automation Moment: https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-marketing-automation-moment-podcast/id1659211547

Mike is joined by Dan Ruby, VP of Marketing at Noble9, a leading reliability platform that helps manage and monitor application reliability. Dan discusses the challenges of marketing a product that aims to keep issues unnoticed by end users and how storytelling can make a traditionally "unexciting" product compelling and engaging.

The conversation also covers the importance of data-driven marketing, balancing brand building with lead generation, and innovative campaign strategies.

About Nobl9

Founded in 2019 by ex-Googlers Marcin Kurc and Brian Singer, Nobl9 is the premiere Service Level Objectives-based platform for driving a reliable digital experience. With a strong enterprise customer base as well as strategic investments from Cisco and ServiceNow, Nobl9 is recognized as a bleeding-edge solution to modernizing Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategies, ensuring that reliability is not measured primarily by availability, but rather by users' ability to do what they expect to be able to do within an application.

About Dan Ruby

Dan is an eighteen year veteran of digital marketing, with the vast majority of his experience coming as the head of marketing for various B2B SaaS organizations in the Boston area. He has been acquired at various points by Google and Snap, and is currently the VP of Marketing for Nobl9, a B2B SaaS platform for user-centric site reliability. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri as well as an MBA from Brandeis University. He occasionally teaches an undergraduate course on marketing at Bentley University.

Throughout his career, Dan has become increasingly stubborn about the fact that marketing must focus on creating value for potential leads, and is quite fond of telling anyone who will listen that "nobody gives a **** about your product, give them valuable information, not product pitches."

Time Stamps

00:00:42 - Dan Ruby's Career Journey 00:02:09 - Overview of Noble9 00:05:48 - Challenges in Marketing a Reliability Product 00:07:03 - Using Stories to Make Marketing Exciting 00:12:43 - Balancing Brand Building and Lead Generation 00:17:07 - Innovative Campaign Example: DORA 00:22:24 - The Importance of Partnerships in Marketing 00:22:41 - Best Marketing Advice Received 00:23:41 - Advice for New Marketing Professionals 00:25:44 - How to Contact Dan Ruby 00:26:18 - Closing Remarks

Quotes

"Marketing is such an interesting field. It takes pretty much any skill set and makes it useful.” Dan Ruby, VP of Marketing at Nobl9

"Nothing is boring if you can make it into a story that resonates." Dan Ruby, VP of Marketing at Nobl9

"You can find partners who believe in your product, believe in your company, believe in your people, who will work with you." Dan Ruby, VP of Marketing at Nobl9

Follow Dan:

Dan Ruby on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielruby/

Nobl9’s website: https://www.nobl9.com/

Nobl9 on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nobl9inc/

Follow Mike:

Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/

Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/

Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more discussions about the latest in Marketing B2B Tech and connect with us on social media to stay updated on upcoming episodes. We'd also appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform.

Want more? Check out Napier’s other podcast - The Marketing Automation Moment: https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-marketing-automation-moment-podcast/id1659211547

Ever wondered what a Fractional CMO does? Andy Culligan dives into the fascinating world of Fractional CMOs. He walks us through his career journey and explains how his role has become a game-changer in today’s fast-paced marketing landscape.

Andy discusses the benefits of hiring a Fractional CMO compared to a full-time employee and shares valuable insights for businesses aiming to adapt quickly. He also offers his perspectives on the SaaS market, highlighting the importance of speed in marketing and the evolving dynamics shaped by AI and shifting buyer behaviors.

About Andy Culligan

Andy Culligan is a marketing leader specializing in revenue growth and scaling SaaS businesses. With close to a decade of experience in both marketing and sales, Andy excels as a Fractional CMO, CRO, and Marketing Advisor. He is known for his straightforward approach to Account-Based Marketing (ABM), aligning marketing and sales teams to drive commercial success. Andy has held key marketing leadership positions at multiple SaaS companies including, Emarsys (acquired by SAP), Exponea (acquired by Bloomreach) & Leadfeeder (now Echobot). He focuses on personalized marketing strategies that create meaningful touchpoints, ultimately boosting revenue for his clients

Time Stamps

00:00:18 - Meet Andy Culligan: Career Journey 00:00:39 - From SDR to Fractional CMO 00:02:58 - Growth and Challenges in SaaS Marketing 00:06:43 - Benefits of Hiring a Fractional CMO 00:12:40 - The Importance of a Marketing Plan 00:14:07 - Evergreen Marketing Tactics 00:19:33 - The Role of Speed in Marketing 00:20:45 - Future of Marketing and AI Impact 00:23:51 - Quickfire Questions: Marketing Advice 00:29:31 - Advice for Aspiring Marketers 00:32:05 - Closing Remarks and Contact Information

Quotes

"Speed is something that's important to a lot of companies." Andy Culligan, Fractional CMO

"If it's not working for you, then it's not working for me." Andy Culligan, Fractional CMO

"If you know your niche, nail it." Andy Culligan, Fractional CMO

"A lot of companies don't have a plan." Andy Culligan, Fractional CMO

"Creativity always wins." Andy Culligan, Fractional CMO

Follow Andy:

Andy Culligan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-culligan/

Andy’s website: https://andyculligan.com/

Follow Mike:

Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/

Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/

Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more discussions about the latest in Marketing B2B Tech and connect with us on social media to stay updated on upcoming episodes. We'd also appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform.

Want more? Check out Napier’s other podcast - The Marketing Automation Moment: https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-marketing-automation-moment-podcast/id1659211547

Vince Nero, Director of Content Marketing at BuzzStream discusses the changing landscape of digital PR and SEO. Learn how BuzzStream helps marketers build strong relationships with journalists and navigate the evolving landscape of digital outreach.

Vince discusses the importance of personalization in email marketing, the impact of recent Google updates on SEO strategies, and the shift towards quality-driven digital PR.

About BuzzStream

BuzzStream is an email outreach tool for PRs and link builders designed to help build and manage relationships with personalized outreach at scale.

About Vince Nero

Vince is the Director of Content Marketing at Buzzstream. He thinks content marketers should solve for users, not just Google. He also loves finding creative content online. His previous work includes content marketing agency Siege Media for six years, Homebuyer.com, and The Grit Group. Outside of work, you can catch Vince running, playing with his two kids, enjoying some video games, or watching Phillies baseball.

Time Stamps

00:00:18 - Guest Introduction: Vince Nero from BuzzStream 00:03:09 - Understanding BuzzStream's Value for Marketers 00:10:09 - Impact of Google Updates on Marketing Strategies 00:14:23 - Marketing to Two Distinct Audiences: SEO vs. PR 00:19:11 - The Future of Content Marketing and Technology 00:24:00 - Creating New Information: Strategies for Success 00:27:04 - Quality Over Quantity: A Key Marketing Principle 00:27:23 - Best Marketing Advice: Permission Marketing 00:28:20 - Advice for Aspiring Marketers: Seek Internships 00:29:58 - How to Connect with Vince and BuzzStream

Quotes

"There's kind of this thought process in the digital PR space and link building space that is kind of at odds with one another.” Vince Nero, Director of Content Marketing at BuzzStream.

“The recipe for success going forward is pushing as much of your own new information into these large language models.” Vince Nero, Director of Content Marketing at BuzzStream.

“I think we're just finding more and more that people are needing this personalized approach.” Vince Nero, Director of Content Marketing at BuzzStream.

Follow Vince:

Vince Nero on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinnero/

BuzzStream website: https://www.buzzstream.com/

BuzzStream on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/buzzstream/

Follow Mike:

Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/

Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/

Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more discussions about the latest in Marketing B2B Tech and connect with us on social media to stay updated on upcoming episodes. We'd also appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform.

Want more? Check out Napier’s other podcast - The Marketing Automation Moment: https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-marketing-automation-moment-podcast/id1659211547