Build Before You Burn Out — Chris Davis on What Startups Keep Getting Wrong About Tech

What does it really take to build a tech startup that scales — and how do you avoid the costly mistakes most founders make? In this episode, I sit down with Chris Davis, a seasoned startup operator, strategist, and former CEO of multiple venture-backed companies, to talk through the gritty, unglamorous parts of launching a tech business that actually works.

From his early years navigating sports tech and recruiting startups to his current role at Intucia Labs, Chris has helped dozens of founders move from vision to viable product — without wasting months (or millions) trying to reinvent what already exists.

Chris shares:

• His journey from football captain at Duke to CEO and product strategist
• Why most startup founders fail at product design (and how to fix it)
• How to think about “second launches” when your MVP wasn’t built right the first time
• The rinse-and-repeat tech systems that cut costs and increase speed to market
• What great founders do differently (spoiler: it starts with writing things down)

We also get into the real conversations founders need to have with investors, why many MVPs are built backwards, and how to avoid becoming the startup that hemorrhages cash because the backend is a mess.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

• Ingenuity beats investment. Hustle, resilience, and resourcefulness still matter more than fancy pitch decks.
• Design isn't just colors. User experience design = mapping out the entire customer journey before you write a single line of code.
• Don’t build from scratch. 80% of most products are the same — focus on the 20% that makes you different.
• Fix the foundation before scaling. Tech debt will cost you more in time and money than investing in the right setup early.
• Know your flame. If you don’t have traction, a waitlist, or a working prototype — you’re not ready for investors.

Whether you’re a non-technical founder figuring out product for the first time, or you’re ready for a second shot at building it right — this episode gives you a framework to think smarter and build faster.

📌 Learn more about Chris’s work at Intuitio Labs
📌 Connect with Chris on LinkedIn

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🎙️ This Week’s Episode: Allyson Havener on Owning the Modern CMO Role

What does it take to go from ballerina to CMO in the fast-paced world of B2B tech? In this episode, I sit down with Allyson Havener, Chief Marketing Officer at TrustRadius, to unpack what it really means to lead marketing today—across content, data, strategy, and most of all, trust.

With a background that spans SaaS, brand building, and go-to-market strategy, Allyson shares how she orchestrates marketing teams to drive growth—and why being action-oriented beats perfection every time.

Allyson shares:

• Her journey from creative roots to tech CMO
• The difference between marketing for marketing’s sake and marketing that drives business
• Why original content (not AI copycatting) is the next frontier
• How TrustRadius is redefining the buyer’s journey with real customer voice and reviews
• Why marketers need to take off the “marketing hat” and think like business leaders

We also dig into the evolving B2B customer journey (hello, Google’s messy middle), the power of word-of-mouth at scale, what makes modern demand gen work, and how CMOs can build boardroom credibility by aligning marketing to revenue—not just vanity metrics.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

• Build trust by showcasing real customer experiences
• Original content means having a POV, not just publishing AI fluff
• B2B buyers want pricing, proof, and peer validation—fast
• CMOs must balance brand-building with revenue accountability
• Content + distribution + consistency = the simplest (and smartest) growth plan

Whether you're leading a marketing team, building a go-to-market plan, or trying to make your way to the C-suite, this episode offers fresh perspective on how today’s top marketers are adapting, iterating, and leading with purpose.

📌 Learn more about TrustRadius at trustradius.com
📌 Follow Allyson on LinkedIn
📌 Follow TrustRadius on LinkedIn

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🎙️ This Week’s Episode: From Magic Tricks to Marketing Truths—Jeff Greenfield on Attribution’s Future

Is marketing attribution still possible without cookies? And how do you actually know which of your efforts are driving conversions? In this episode, I sit down with Jeff Greenfield—entrepreneur, magician, and co-founder of Provalytics—who’s building the next generation of privacy-compliant, AI-driven attribution for marketers who are tired of guessing.

Jeff’s career path is anything but ordinary—starting in chiropractic and close-up magic, detouring into early SEO, product placement, and branded entertainment, and eventually pioneering one of the first multi-touch attribution models at C3 Metrics. Now with Provalytics, he’s empowering marketers with actionable insights without relying on cookies or user-level data.

Jeff shares:

• His wild journey from Magic Castle magician to measurement expert
• How marketers can confidently defend spend in a privacy-first world
• Why impressions—not clicks—are the true currency of marketing
• What legacy marketers need to unlearn (and relearn) to keep up
• How Provalytics is helping brands find ROI in places they never thought to look

We also dig into why marketers often fear data (and how to fix that), what SMBs can do to DIY their own measurement, and why being “less wrong each month” is a smarter goal than perfection.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

• Attribution is no longer about perfect tracking—it’s about predictive trust
• Focus on impressions, not just clicks—they’re your first signal of interest
• Marketing mix modeling isn’t just for big brands anymore
• Visibility into what’s actually working can save you millions
• It's time to bridge the gap between creative marketing and cold, hard finance

Whether you're a data-driven CMO, a scrappy founder trying to stretch your budget, or a marketer who wants to sound smarter in front of the CFO—this episode is a must-listen.

📌 Learn more about Jeff’s work at provalytics.com
📌 Follow Provalytics on LinkedIn
📌 Follow Provalytics on Facebook

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