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The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX
Treasure AI's Brenno Valerio on finding the right time to make martech changes
Brenno Valerio, Head of Sales, Americas at Treasure AI, joins Greg Kihlström at Agentic World in Miami on consolidating the martech stack and proving AI's value before renewal.
Consolidation is a political decision before it's a technical one. Who on the buying committee resists replacing best-of-breed point solutions, and what kind of proof moves them.
"Agentic" claims need a live pressure test. How skeptical enterprise buyers separate real capability from relabeled automation, and how marketers can plan for an attribution gap where downstream tools like an ESP often get the revenue credit, so the proof of concept produces evidence a CFO will accept.
Engagement-based pricing changes more than the invoice. What it means for procurement teams used to predictable costs, for brands locked into fixed, multi-year contracts, and for how marketing teams decide when to reach out to a customer at all.
About Brenno Valerio
Brenno Drummond Valerio is Head of Sales at Treasure AI, where he helps enterprise brands use customer data and AI to drive measurable business results. He brings more than a decade of experience in enterprise software sales and business development across the Americas. Before Treasure AI, Brenno spent nearly ten years at Acquia, the digital experience platform, leading sales and business development and working with Acquia's key partners across the region.
Brenno Valerio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennovalerio/
---------- Resources ----------
Treasure AI: https://www.treasure.ai
The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703
The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3
We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658
Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bb
Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873f
Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).
Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20
Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3
Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom
Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba
The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765
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941. Treasure AI COO & CFO Dan Weirich on what the CFO sees in your AI spend
22:15||Season 8, Ep. 941Dan Weirich, COO & CFO of Treasure AI, explains why the company moved to engagement-based pricing that ties its revenue to customer clicks, and what CMOs should expect as CFOs take a harder look at AI spend. Recorded live at Agentic World 2026 in Miami. **Finance is pumping the brakes on AI spend.** Weirich on how the push to maximize token usage gave way to cost scrutiny, why some high-profile companies didn't see it coming, and what capital discipline looks like for a well-funded vendor in the middle of a hype cycle. **Outcome-based pricing puts the vendor's money where its mouth is.** Why Treasure AI shifted from its 'No Compute' model to engagement-based pricing, what it means for new and existing customers, and whether the rest of the market is headed the same way. **CMOs and CFOs need a closer working relationship.** A CFO's view of how finance and marketing have worked together over the last five years, where the two can partner as marketing's staffing and work change, and how to structure vendor contracts to stay adaptable as the CDP category consolidates.About Dan WeirichDan Weirich is Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Treasure AI (formerly Treasure Data), where he leads the company's business and financial operations and sits on its board. He brings more than 25 years of finance and operations leadership at technology companies.Dan first joined Treasure Data as CFO in 2014. After Arm acquired the company in 2018, he became Vice President of Operations for Arm's data business. He returned as COO and CFO in 2021, when Treasure Data separated from Arm and joined SoftBank Vision Fund 2's portfolio.Before Treasure Data, Dan spent more than a decade at 8x8, Inc., as CFO and later President, and helped build its software-as-a-service business. Earlier, as Vice President of Business Development at iAsiaWorks, he expanded the company into 13 Asian countries and helped take it public on NASDAQ in 2000. He has also held roles at Qwest and Phoenix Network.Dan is a General Partner at Carbide Ventures and holds a BS in International Business from the University of Colorado Boulder.Dan Weirich on LinkedIn---------- Resources ---------- Treasure AIThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%.We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save!Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show. Connect with Greg on LinkedInDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology.The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content:
940. Spotlight's John Rockhold on influence orchestration: why earned authority now outweighs owned content
29:34||Season 8, Ep. 940John Rockhold, VP Market Engagement at Spotlight, says AI answer engines treat a company's own content as a ceiling — the citations that move buyers come from sources it doesn't control. He and Greg Kihlström get into what replaces the old B2B influence playbook.Self-citation is a ceiling, not a strategy. Publishing more owned content doesn't raise AI visibility past a point; third-party validation does the lifting.Analysts shape the vocabulary, peer platforms get the citation. The two do different jobs, and budget allocated as if they were the same tends to underperform.Influence is owned by everybody and therefore nobody. Rockhold on what has to change week to week across analyst relations, comms, and customer marketing — not just who it reports to.By the time a buyer contacts you, the influencing already happened. What that does to a marketing organization still structured around lead generation and MQLs.About John RockholdB2B buying has become AI-mediated and trust-driven, long before buyers engage a vendor. I spend my time observing how influence is formed, synthesizing signals from analysts, buyer research, and market behavior, and helping organizations make sense of what actually shapes modern buying decisions.As VP of Market Engagement at Spotlight, I draw on a background that includes journalism, analyst relations, and years of close collaboration with industry analysts. I’m trusted by analysts because I respect their role, understand how their work evolves, and prioritize accuracy, context, and long-term relationships over short-term outcomes.Much of my work focuses on how influence, visibility, and trust are earned in the modern B2B buyer journey. I help B2B brands understand how experts, customers, vendors, partners, and employees all shape visibility and credibility. At Spotlight, we refer to this coordinated approach to earning and sustaining trust across analysts, customers, and AI systems as Influence Orchestration.https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrockhold/---------- Resources ---------- This episode is brought to you by Spotlight. Spotlight is pioneering the future of influence orchestration in the B2B buyer journey. Trusted by over 165 teams globally, Spotlight is the world’s leading analyst relations consultancy and industry platform. The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show.Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology.The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content.
939. Treasure AI CEO Kaz Ohta on keeping autonomous agents on-brand
24:40||Season 8, Ep. 939Kaz Ohta, CEO and CMO of Treasure AI, helped pioneer the customer data platform category. Now he's betting that customer data matters less for what it stores than for what autonomous agents do with it. Recorded at Agentic World, he and Greg Kihlström get into what that shift asks of enterprise marketing leaders.The CDP label stopped describing the work. Why Treasure Data became Treasure AI, where the company's engineering investment moved, and how Ohta views warehouse-native players like Databricks moving into the category he helped create.Building the agentic layer creates ecosystem friction. The reasoning behind building Personalization Studio in-house rather than deepening partnerships with testing and personalization vendors, and how to handle the channel conflict that follows.Autonomy gets set decision by decision. Which decisions enterprise customers hand to agents outright, which still require human sign-off, and how measurement has to change once agents are doing the optimizing.About Kaz OhtaKazuki Ohta is the co-founder and CEO of Treasure AI, an AI-native platform built to enable customer data and agentic experiences. He co-founded Treasure Data, now Treasure AI, in 2011 and served as its CTO during the company’s early development, helping scale the business to more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue.Kaz Ohta on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kazukiohta/---------- Resources ---------- Treasure AI: https://www.treasure.aiThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3 We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bb Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873fChaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765
938. Fibr AI CEO Ankur Goyal on your website's second audience: getting AI agents to cite your brand correctly
31:55||Season 8, Ep. 938Ankur Goyal, CEO and Co-Founder at Fibr AI, says your website now has a second audience that never looks at it: the AI agents reading and summarizing your brand before a buyer ever arrives.He and Greg Kihlström get into what that does to pages enterprises have spent a decade optimizing for humans.Owned properties become the control point. Models keep changing what they cite and how, so the durable investment is in the properties a brand actually controls — not in chasing each platform's ranking behavior.One page, two requirements. A person needs to be persuaded; an agent needs a fact it can act on. Goyal on where those demands conflict, and how to resolve it without building two websites.Personalization stops being a segment and becomes a decision. The move from assigning visitors to predefined buckets to running a real-time decision system — and what a CMS, CDP, and testing stack can't be configured to do.About AJ GoyalAnkur "AJ" Goyal is Founder & CEO of Fibr AI. He has spent over a decade leading ventures across AI, digital marketing automation, and consumer product innovation. He specializes in personalization and marketing infrastructure, shifting web platforms toward agentic and automated consumer engagement. AJ Goyal on LinkedIn---------- Resources ---------- Fibr AICompanies put enormous effort into bringing people to their websites, but once someone arrives, most sites still show everyone the same generic experience. Fibr adds an intelligent layer to your existing website, without requiring a rebuild, a CMS migration, or engineering support for every update, so one URL can deliver a unique, relevant experience based on what each visitor is trying to accomplish.And today, your visitors aren’t always people. AI search tools and agents are also reading the web to decide what information to surface. When a brand’s own content isn’t clear or useful, they may rely on sources like Reddit comments and third-party reviews instead. Fibr helps make your website a clearer, more useful source for both people and AI systems, while keeping your brand in control.The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show.https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology.The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content.
937. Pega CFO and COO Ken Stillwell on AI budgets: the biggest cost is AI doing routine, rules-based work
27:51||Season 8, Ep. 937Ken Stillwell, CFO and COO at Pega, says most enterprise AI business cases fund a label rather than a specific capability — and that the gap shows up later, on the P&L. He and Greg Kihlström get into what financial discipline around AI actually looks like."AI" is not a budget category. A rules engine, a predictive model, and a system that acts on its own carry different costs, risks, and payback periods. Stillwell on making teams say which one they're asking for.The benefit gets modeled; the operational change doesn't. Where AI business cases reliably break down, and what tells you a case is going to miss before you fund it.Scaling a pilot is a coherence problem, not a technology problem. What it takes to let many teams decide faster without the enterprise ceasing to behave like one company — and who owns that.About Ken StillwellAs Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Ken Stillwell is responsible for finance, investor relations, legal, facilities, information technology, Pega Cloud, global client support, and business operations, overseeing more than one thousand employees globally. His leadership has been central to Pega’s transformation to an as-a-Service business through Pega’s Cloud transition. Recognized as incisive, transparent, clear, and empathetic, his opinions and counsel are sought after by peers, clients, and media. Ken is a regular contributor to numerous industry publications regarding financial and operational leadership.Ken has nearly 30 years of financial leadership experience in high-growth organizations in the technology sector. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his undergraduate degree in business and economics, and the University of South Carolina, where he earned a Master's in accounting and finance. Ken is also a certified public accountant.Ken Stillwell on LinkedIn---------- Resources ---------- Pega delivers the platform to reimagine, run, and evolve the processes and decisions an enterprise can't afford to get wrong. We combine AI with proven architecture to keep mission-critical operations governed, scalable, and continuously adaptable. Since 1983, the world's largest organizations have trusted Pega to turn transformation ambition into durable results. The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms.Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show.Connect with Greg on LinkedInDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology. The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content.
936. CMO Council's Tom Kaneshige on overbuilt martech stacks: alignment is strategy, consolidation is just a tactic
29:36||Season 8, Ep. 936Tom Kaneshige, Chief Content Officer at the CMO Council, says there is no best martech stack — only a best-aligned one. New research on 988 enterprise stacks shows why more functionality rarely means more value.Alignment beats functionality, and the data says so. The Apex Martech Matrix compares real deployments against companies in the top 30% for revenue per employee in their industry. The same investment that correlates with outperformance in one industry shows nothing in another."Overbuilt" is the most common failure, not underinvestment. Kaneshige and Greg Kihlström get into what separates a stack whose capabilities exceed the organization's ability to use them from one that's genuinely aligned — and why maturity investment doesn't always pay off either.AI amplifies whatever foundation it's given. With 85% of organizations layering AI onto existing stacks and 30% replacing SaaS functionality outright, a misaligned foundation compounds fragmentation and technology debt instead of fixing it.About Tom KaneshigeTom Kaneshige is the Chief Content Officer at CMO Council. He creates all forms of digital thought leadership content that helps chief marketers, line of business leaders, as well as growth and revenue officers succeed in their rapidly evolving roles. As a content marketing strategist, he helps vendors shape and influence demand for their products and services. His pre-sales role is to gain brand influence, prominence and trust, as well as source qualified leads and customer opportunities. A Silicon Valley native, he has covered the intersection of business and technology for 20 years as an award-winning journalist at IDG (CIO Magazine, InfoWorld), Informa/Penton and TechTarget, and as a senior analyst at Forrester Research. He is immersed in the expanding marketing and sales technology landscape, disruptive trends impacting business leaders, and game-changing technology such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. Kaneshige heads a team that produces research reports, articles, white papers, strategic briefs, news releases, social media and web site information. He also edits monthly journals, digital magazines, newsletters, blogs and web content for CMO Council’s executive networks. These include the Business Performance Innovation Network, and the newly formed Growth Officer Council and Growth Guidance Center.Tom Kaneshige on LinkedIn.---------- Resources ---------- CMO CouncilThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Read the CMO Council Report.The hardest part of martech is telling which tools are earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. So join and use code AGILE15 to save 15%. We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms.Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show.Connect with Greg on LinkedIn.Get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology.The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link.
935. Braze CTO Jon Hyman on where marketing judgment sits when AI runs the campaign
25:12||Season 8, Ep. 935Jon Hyman, Co-Founder & CTO of Braze, joins Greg Kihlström live at Braze Forge 2026 in Las Vegas on what's left for marketers when AI handles experimentation, verification, and execution.Recorded at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the conversation gets into where the line sits between what AI decides on its own and what still needs a person.1:1 decisioning needs guardrails, not just more tests. Decisioning Studio Go moves teams beyond A/B testing toward continuous 1:1 optimization. Hyman on how brands keep thousands of automated decisions aligned with one set of priorities.Quality assurance becomes an automated control. Agentic Standards targets the operational risk that comes with moving faster, which raises the question of who defines the standard the system checks against.The platform goes headless. Operator Connect brings Braze into ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, and Conversational Agents extend two-way engagement to WhatsApp and SMS. Hyman on where governance lives when the work happens outside the platform.About Jon HymanJon Hyman is the Chief Technology Officer and Cofounder of Braze, and has been at the direct forefront of the company’s growth in the last 15 years, more recently leading the engineering organization through a rapid transformation in how it builds software with AI. He’s become an influential, practitioner-level voice on what it actually takes to move an established engineering organization, not an early-stage startup, into the agentic era.Jon Hyman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-hyman/---------- Resources ---------- Braze: https://www.braze.comThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3 We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bb Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873fChaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765
934. Mixbook's CEO Andrew Laffoon on designing for permanence at the speed of AI
25:34||Season 8, Ep. 934We spend a lot of time asking how brands can be memorable. We spend almost none asking what happens when the memory is the product.Agility gets talked about as moving fast with new tools. It's really the ability to change repeatedly without losing what makes you recognizable — and that gets harder when what you sell is something a customer plans to keep for twenty years.Today, we're going to talk about:- Why designing for permanence is a strategic choice, not a nostalgic one- Getting specific about what AI is actually doing inside a creative product — and where the customer stays the author- What has to hold steady across a brand as volume, automation, and channels all multiplyTo help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Andrew Laffoon, CEO & Co-Founder at Mixbook.About Andrew LaffoonAndrew Laffoon is the CEO and co‑founder of Mixbook, a leading photo storytelling platform that helps people transform meaningful moments into beautifully crafted memories. Since founding the company in 2006, he has led Mixbook’s growth into a creative technology platform that makes it easier for people to tell, preserve, and share their stories.Andrew brings nearly three decades of experience in software development, product design, and entrepreneurship. His career began in the earliest days of the web, when he founded a web consultancy while still in high school. Prior to Mixbook, he built deep, cross‑functional expertise across engineering, design, operations, and go‑to‑market leadership.In addition to his entrepreneurial work, Andrew has been deeply engaged in education and community leadership. He has served as a Lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology since 2012 and was a member of the UC Berkeley Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) Advisory Board from 2015 to 2025. He is also the Founding Board Chair of the Bay Area Center for Faith, Work and Tech, helping explore the intersection of purpose, vocation, and innovation.Andrew Laffoon on LinkedIn---------- Resources ---------- MixbookThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show.Connect with Greg on LinkedInDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology.The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content.