The ultimate guide to Martech | Austin Hay (Reforge, Ramp, Runway)

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Austin Hay is currently Head of Marketing Technology at Ramp and was previously the VP of Business Operations at Runway, the VP of Growth at mParticle, and the fourth employee at the unicorn Branch Metrics. In 2022 he sold his online course, the Marketing Technology Academy, to Reforge, where he now teaches Martech and has a program launching in the fall. He’s consulted on Martech and growth for companies including Notion, Airbnb, Robinhood, Postmates, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and many others. In today’s podcast, we discuss:

• What exactly marketing technology is

• What a Martech person can do for your business

• When to hire a Martech person and what to look for

• Austin’s favorite tools

• Advice for doing attribution

• Frameworks on tooling, systems, and building vs. buying

• How to apply the concept of “thinking gray” to make better decisions in work and life

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Google, Overcast, and YouTube.

Find the transcript for this episode and all past episodes at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/episodes/. Today’s transcript will be live by 8 a.m. PT.

Where to find Austin Hay:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinahay/

• Threads: @austinahay

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Austin’s background

(03:58) What marketing technology is

(06:17) The difference between typical growth roles and Martech

(10:23) Signs you need a Martech person on your team

(14:03) Hiring and placing a Martech person in B2B, B2C, and B2B2C businesses

(21:15) A day in the life of a Martech professional 

(25:05) Marketing technology vs. marketing operations 

(31:14) Tooling recommendations

(41:49) The never-ending struggle of how to do attribution well

(50:47) Emerging tools and platforms to keep an eye on

(55:26) MMM modeling

(57:47) What to look for when hiring a Martech professional, and Austin’s favorite interview questions

(1:02:45) His red flags for companies and “false flags” for potential hires

(1:04:51) His favorite frameworks

(1:13:37) Lightning round

Referenced:

• Siqi Chen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siqic/

• Austin’s marketing technology course on Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/courses/marketing-technology

• Notion: https://www.notion.so/

• Sri Batchu on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/lessons-from-scaling-ramp-sri-batchu-ramp-instacart-opendoor/

• Cody Morgan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-morgan/

• Braze: https://www.braze.com

• Marketo: https://business.adobe.com/products/marketo/adobe-marketo.html

• Mparticle: https://www.mparticle.com/

• Segment: https://segment.com/

• Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/

• Reverse ETL: a primer: https://medium.com/memory-leak/reverse-etl-a-primer-4e6694dcc7fb

• RudderStack: https://www.rudderstack.com/

• Hightouch: https://hightouch.com/

• Mike Molinet on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemolinet/

• Thena: https://www.thena.ai/

• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/

• Gong: https://www.gong.io/

• How today’s top consumer brands measure marketing’s impact: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-todays-top-consumer-brands-measure

• About MMM: https://www.marketingevolution.com/marketing-essentials/media-mix-modeling

• Recast: https://getrecast.com/

• The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Contrarians-Guide-Leadership-Steven-Sample/dp/0787967076

• The Art and Adventure of Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Adventure-Leadership-Understanding-Resilience/dp/1119090318/

• Suits on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/70195800

• Our Flag Means Death on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Flag-Means-Death-Season/dp/B0B8N4R4X1

• What We Do in the Shadows on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-0b10c46a-12f0-4357-8a00-547057b49bac

• Silo on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/silo

• Cal.com: https://cal.com/

• Brian Balfour on the Startup Dad podcast: https://www.startupdadpod.com/coping-with-the-loss-of-a-child-and-protecting-your-time-brian-balfour-father-of-2-ceo-and-found/

• Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/

• AppsFlyer: https://www.appsflyer.com/

• Customer.io: https://customer.io/

• Branch: https://www.branch.io/

• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.