The New Rules of B2B Growth: From Podcasts to Pipelines
Welcome to B2B Growth Secrets, where every week, we listen to dozens of B2B Growth podcasts and extract the top actionable ideas. (For more context on these ideas, give the podcasts a listen)
In this issue:
Editor’s s 20VC success)
How 3,000 leads per month killed CloudPay's pipeline (and what they did next)
How Mercor used ‘people’ as its main lever to grow from $1M to $500M in 17 months (faster than Cursor!)
Closing 1 deal per week with partnerships and a “sales-free event” strategy
The 4-minute survey that booked dozens of sales calls (+ tips for successful B2B webinars)
1. A masterclass in leveraging content creation as a business development tool (lessons from Harry Stebbing’s 20VC success)
On January 10, 2015, Harry Stebbings launched "20VC" from his bedroom with zero venture capital connections, a $40 microphone, and $50 total investment. He was 18 years old and needed income to help pay for his mother's healthcare.
Ten years later, he runs a $400 million venture fund, has published 2,750+ episodes generating over 120 million downloads, and attracts 1.3 million plays per episode. His podcast didn't just build an audience – it became his entire business development engine.
For B2B founders considering a podcast, Harry's playbook offers a masterclass in turning content into customers.
The Cold Start Problem: Getting Your First Guests
Harry's breakthrough came from solving the credibility paradox: how do you get impressive guests when you have no track record?
He identified Guy Kawasaki as "low-hanging fruit". High-profile but known for being accessible. But he didn't just send one email asking for an interview. He was smarter: first, he started a conversation by referencing specific pages from Guy's book with thoughtful observations, with no ask whatsoever. Only after they'd built rapport did he make the pitch.
After landing Kawasaki, Harry asked each guest for three recommendations for future guests and what questions to ask them. This referral pyramid became self-sustaining within months.
But not all outreach was smooth sailing; quite the opposite! Harry’s approach was to be ultra personal AND persistent. When Marc Benioff didn't respond, Harry didn't quit after three attempts. He sent approximately 50 cold emails over a year with varied personal touches. After the 53rd email, it worked!
The 50/50 Rule That Changes Everything
Harry's most important tactical lesson: spend equal time creating and distributing content. Most creators do 90/10, then wonder why nobody watches.
For every hour of recording content, Harry spent an hour on promotion and creating derivative content. One interview became 20+ assets: full episode, YouTube video, TikTok clips (now generating 44 million plays monthly), Instagram Reels, Twitter threads, and LinkedIn posts.
He also published consistently twice weekly for years without missing a deadline. This consistency trained his audience to expect episodes, creating habit loops that compounded over time.
From Media to Money: The Business Model
Harry's podcast wasn't a marketing expense. It was his primary customer acquisition channel. The show built relationships with founders and investors, creating deal flow and trust before any business conversation.
The results speak for themselves: by 2020, he raised $8.3 million from 64 limited partners who knew him through the podcast. The fund grew to $140 million in 2021 and $400 million by 2024… all built on relationships forged through interviews.
The 10-Year Overnight Success
Perhaps Harry's most important lesson comes from his own reflection: "The work you do in private is the work you are rewarded for in public. Today's news is 10 years in the making."
His first year generated modest traction. Year three got him into venture capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Year five enabled him to launch his own fund. Year ten brought the $400M raise.
For B2B founders considering a podcast: this is a long-term play. Harry’s story is one of great success, but it also shows that a) it’s A LOT of work, and b) it WILL take time (don’t count on overnight success).
On the other hand, can you afford NOT to start a podcast? What if your competitors build the relationships and authority that will define the next decade of your market?
2. How 3,000 leads per month killed CloudPay's pipeline (and the shift from lead- to pipeline-quality to 4x pipeline growth)
Demandbase’s OnBase podcast (Paul Gibson), Episode: How CloudPay transformed B2B growth with ABX (Sept 16, 2025)
The Wake-Up Call: sales drowning in noise from too many garbage leads
Nick Webb, Global CMO at CloudPay, had a problem most marketers would envy: his team was generating 3,000 leads per month – three times more than before.
Yet the pipeline was falling!
"It was like having a rubbish tip (British for ‘landfill’) where the seagulls have to pick through to find the good bits," Nick explains. They had 28 different leads from Amazon scattered globally, but no coordination. Only 20% of leads matched their ideal customer profile. Sales was drowning in noise.
From Net Fishing to Spear Fishing
CloudPay made a radical shift. Instead of casting a wide net and hoping for the best, they switched to what Nick calls "spear fishing": targeting specific accounts relentlessly.
Here's what changed:
1. They killed the ‘number of leads’ KPI: Nick changed his personal KPI from "number of leads" to "dollar value of sales-ready pipeline." Sales decided if accounts were truly ready (not marketing).
2. They renamed leads to "signals" A person downloading content became a signal that the company might be interested. Instead of chasing that individual, they targeted the CFO, CHRO, and head of payroll at that organization.
3. They moved BDRs into marketing This created tight alignment between campaigns and outreach. No more throwing leads over the fence.
4. They stopped attribution wars They eliminated fights over whether sales, marketing, or alliances generated the lead. Their analysis showed all departments contributed to wins. Arguing about credit was pointless.
The Results
Within two years:
Pipeline grew 4x
Monthly pipeline creation rate nearly tripled
All pipeline now matches their ICP (vs. 20% before)
The First Steps
Nick's advice for getting started:
Admit what you're doing isn't working. Recognition is the foundation for change.
Agree on your ICP with sales. If sales, marketing, and alliances have different views of the ideal customer, you'll never succeed.
Use data to overcome resistance. CloudPay analyzed won deals and found 17 different roles were involved in buying decisions; not just the head of payroll. Data wins arguments.
The lesson? More leads don't equal more pipeline. Better targeting does. Think about this when evaluating ‘growth agencies’: are they promising volume (potentially drowning your team with garbage leads), or do they have proprietary ways to target your ICP better?
3. How Mercor used ‘people’ as its main lever to grow from $1M to $500M in 17 months (faster than Cursor!)
20VC with Harry Stebbings, Episode: Mercor CEO & Co-Founder, Brendan Foody: How They Grew from $1M to $500M in 17 Months (Sept 15, 2025
The Power Law of People
Brendan Foody, 22-year-old CEO of Mercor (“Find top-tier, remote, AI roles for your expertise.”) and Thiel fellow, built the fastest-growing company in history. But his core insight isn't about AI… it's about people.
"The outcomes of data and the people that contribute to it are extremely power law," Brendan explains.
"If you have 100 people on a project, often the majority of the model improvement comes from the top 10 to 20%." This realization completely changed how Mercor competes.
While competitors like Scale AI paid annotators $30/hour and focused on volume, Mercor pays an average of $95/hour and obsesses over quality. They target Goldman analysts, McKinsey consultants, and FAANG engineers; not crowd workers.
The result? When customers see that top performers drive most of the value, Mercor's "proprietary advantages in supply base and matching" become nearly impossible to compete against.
The Real Moat: Supply Side Economics
Most marketplace businesses struggle with commoditization. Brendan's answer is brutal in its simplicity: pay better and be more selective.
"Having phenomenal people that you treat incredibly well is the most important thing in this market," he says. High pay rates create powerful referral networks—top talent refers other top talent.
This creates a compounding advantage. Scale lost focus on this, which opened the door. When Scale was acquired, Mercor was already at a 9-figure revenue run rate. The company has since quadrupled.
The Bottom Line
Power laws apply to everything: customers, employees, and marketplace contributors. The companies that win are those that figure out how to identify and retain the top 10-20% who drive disproportionate value – then build systems to scale that advantage.
4. Closing 1 deal per week with partnerships and a “sales-free event” strategy
Gayle Kalvert podcast, Episode: What’s actually working in B2B marketing right now (Sept 24, 2025)
The Unsung Revenue Driver
Rachel Downey, founder of Share Your Genius, has closed a deal every week since February. Her secret? Not sophisticated marketing campaigns or the latest AI tool.
Partnerships.
"We're not marketing ourselves because if we did, who would listen?" Rachel explains. "We're looking at people who already have credibility, who already have expertise in front of our ICP and partnering with them."
But here's the problem: most companies treat partnerships as an afterthought.
Why Partnership Marketing Fails
Partner marketing consistently gets deprioritized. Marketing teams are told "can you take on partner marketing in addition to the six other hats you wear?"
This approach guarantees failure.
For partnerships to work, you need:
1. An internal sponsor tied to sales numbers Someone with authority who measures their success by partnership outcomes. Even better if they're compensated for it.
2. Actual investment in the relationship If your partnerships aren't generating results, look at how much you're actually investing in people, time, and marketing support. A referral is gold, but only if you nurture the source.
The Sales-Free Event Strategy
Here's a counterintuitive approach that's driving real pipeline: ban sales from your events entirely.
Gail shares examples of clients with deeply technical products finding breakthrough success with "sales-free – seriously everybody, no sales pitch allowed – events and gatherings."
The concept is simple: create a safe space for prospects and customers to help each other. You're just the facilitator.
Why does this work? Because B2B buyers are still humans craving connection. "Loneliness is one of the highest epidemics we've had in forever," Rachel notes. Community building taps into fundamental human needs, not just business needs.
Think beyond traditional conferences. It could be intimate dinners, virtual roundtables, or workshop series. The key is removing the sales pressure entirely. When people feel safe to share challenges and learn from peers, buying decisions happen naturally.
The investment might seem high for "no sales pitch" events, but the ROI on pipeline can dwarf traditional campaigns, especially for complex, technical products where trust is everything.
5. The 4-minute survey that booked dozens of sales calls (+ tips for successful B2B webinars)
The Hands-off CEO podcast, Episode: From Zero to Booked Out: Build a High-Converting B2B Webinar Strategy (Oct 7, 2025)
Launch to First Client in 7 Days
Logan Lyles (Ex-VP of Sales @ Sweet Fish) launched Demand Shift (webinars-as-a-service) in June with no email list, no case studies, and nothing but his LinkedIn network.
He landed his first client within seven days.
His strategy? A "starting a new position" post on LinkedIn with a clear, specific offer. But the real breakthrough came from what he did next: a simple survey that generated a 25% reply rate – unheard of for cold outreach.
The Survey Framework
Logan created a 30-question survey using Typeform that took about four minutes to complete. The questions covered webinar effectiveness, conversion rates, and what channels were working.
But here's the key: the survey wasn't the end, it was the beginning of the funnel.
After answering 30 questions about their webinar struggles, respondents hit one final Would you like to book a call with a team that specializes in running high-converting webinar campaigns?"
"That question at the end of the survey yielded dozens of sales conversations," Logan explains. Out of 220-250 responses, roughly 10% converted to booked calls.
The incentives? Two simple
early access to benchmark data and
the possibility of being quoted in the final report.
The 3T's: What YouTube Taught Me About Webinars
Logan studied YouTube creators and discovered they spend more time on title and thumbnail than anything else, often creating these before outlining the video.
He applied this to B2B webinars with his "3T's" framework:
Topic - Tie it to something relevant (hint: AI works right now)
Title - Study YouTube title formulas instead of boring corporate speak
Thumbnail - Ditch the bubble heads with too much text. Use big faces with clear emotion and minimal text—just like YouTube thumbnails that stop the scroll
"What does every B2B webinar graphic look like? Little bubbles with heads and way too much information," Logan says. "It doesn't quickly stop me in the scroll."
Stop Creating Dead Ends
Your thank you page has 100% conversion—every person who completes your form sees it. Yet most companies waste this valuable real estate with "check your inbox."
Logan's approach: add one question on the thank you page asking if they want to book a call. You'll capture the 5% in-market buyers before the webinar even happens.
The Results
One client with no large email list: 200+ webinar signups, a dozen sales calls booked. This was just their second webinar.
The lesson? Stop building complex funnels before you've proven the simple ones work.
Disclaimer
B2B Growth Secrets summarizes and comments on publicly available podcasts for educational and informational purposes only. It is not legal, financial, or investment advice; please consult qualified professionals before acting. We attribute brands and podcast titles only to identify the source; such nominative use is consistent with trademark fair-use principles. Limited quotations and references are used for commentary and news reporting under U.S. fair-use doctrine.
