Ubiquitous

At its peak, Kodak controlled roughly 90% of the U.S. film market. It also invented the digital camera, then failed to protect its core business from the future it helped create.The usual incumbent story is about disruption: a younger, faster company arrives and takes the market away. But the more interesting question is what happens before that point. How does a company everybody already knows keep moving once awareness is no longer the problem?In this episode of Ubiquitous, I sit down with Jamie Turner, brand strategist, author, Emory University lecturer, and CNN contributor, to examine what we call the incumbent’s war: the fight to remain relevant after a company has already become ubiquitous.We break down Kodak’s failure to move, Coca-Cola’s portfolio strategy, Red Bull’s experience-first brand, and the emotional promises behind Disney, Nike, Harley-Davidson, and Starbucks. Across each example, the same tension appears in different forms: incumbency creates extraordinary advantages in distribution, recognition, capital, and customer habit, while simultaneously making meaningful change harder.We also explore the distinction between being known and being chosen. Awareness can put a brand into millions of minds without guaranteeing that customers still prefer it. That makes relevance a more elusive problem than recognition, especially as customer expectations, culture, and competitive categories keep changing around an established company.Then we move into the next incumbent battle: AI and algorithmic media. Jamie and I discuss what happens when machines increasingly mediate discovery, advertising, customer data, and purchasing decisions, and which parts of brand building remain stubbornly human despite the technology changing around them.The deeper story is about durability. Becoming ubiquitous creates enormous strategic power. Staying ubiquitous requires a company to keep earning its position long after the original product, campaign, or competitive advantage that created it has aged.#BrandStrategy #BusinessStrategy #Ubiquitous #MarketingStrategy #AI #BrandBuilding #JamieTurner==================📋 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬==================00:00 — Why Kodak Invented the Future—and Still Lost04:34 — The Hidden War Every Incumbent Eventually Fights07:09 — Why Companies Like Amazon & Costco Never Stop Moving10:07 — Marketing Doesn't End When Everyone Knows Your Brand13:00 — How Ubiquitous Companies Quietly Become Irrelevant16:38 — The Hardest Decision Every Great Brand Eventually Faces20:33 — Who Really Owns a Brand: The Company or the Customer?26:00 — How Apple, LEGO & Burberry Reinvented Themselves29:50 — Why Big Companies Almost Never Pivot Fast Enough34:10 — How AI Is Rewriting Brand Strategy40:06 — What AI Can't Replace in Great Marketing44:02 — The Secret Behind Companies That Last for Decades46:35 — The One Thing That Never Changes in Business==================🎙️ 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫==================🌐 Website ↯https://jamieturner.live/📘 Newest Book, Better ↯https://amzn.to/4r81ngb==================📘 𝐔𝐛𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐬==================🚀 VIP Launch Club — early access, behind-the-scenes updates, and more from Ubiquitous ↯🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook/📰 Newsletter — AI, SaaS, growth ↯🔗 https://readubiquitous.substack.com/==================🤝 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰/ 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥==================💰 M&A Advisory — private representation for SaaS & AI companies under $10M ARR ↯https://michaelbecker.org/brokerage-services◉ Subscribe for business stories about the companies, decisions, and behind-the-scenes inflection points shaping ubiquity.

A behind-the-scenes look at how I repositioned HackerRank for the AI era, rebuilt the narrative for enterprise buyers, and launched a tightly scoped ABM motion to penetrate high-value accounts. Covers the systems, tradeoffs, and execution that turned positioning into pipeline while strengthening long-term exit readiness.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

Attention across the internet has been repriced, and every format now carries higher expectations than it did even a few years ago. Content types have traversed across platforms. What used to live in paid courses, blog posts, or polished media now shows up inside feeds — Reels, threads, newsletters, landing pages — with the same level of depth and clarity expected. That raises the baseline. People judge everything against the best thing they’ve seen recently, so average content blends in immediately.The edge comes from understanding the expectation of each channel, then going past it. There’s also an arbitrage layer — some formats lag behind others, so bringing a higher standard into those environments creates a gap that attracts attention.The practical takeaway: study the format, track the current ceiling, and deliver more value than the format typically holds. Volume increases attempts, and over-deliverance determines which ones actually move.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

Ubiquity is the only option in 2027 and beyond.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

In 2019, SAP acquired lifecycle personalization provider Emarsys for $500M. At the time, Emarsys had grown from $135M ARR in 2017 (when I joined) to $175M ARR in 2019, a ~14% CAGR that valued the deal at roughly a 3x revenue multiple.In this episode, I break down why SAP made the move, how Emarsys fit into the CX portfolio, and what perspective investors like Summit Partners and Vector Capital (likely) had in pushing for the exit. I’ll also explain why the price reflected Emarsys’ mid-market growth ceiling.On a personal note, I share what it felt like inside the company — from the chatter about what might change, to the reality that almost nothing did — and how watching that exit firsthand sparked my obsession with M&A as the higher-level game behind SaaS.Disclaimer: None of this is private or insider information. Everything shared can be found in, or reasonably inferred from, publicly available sources.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

Twilio is one of the clearest examples of expansion revenue driving enterprise value. In this episode, I break down how Twilio’s developer-first GTM, usage-based pricing, and broad product catalog produced dollar-based net expansion rates of 170% in its early years, held 120–130% at scale, and sustained net negative churn for over a decade.We’ll look at the mechanics behind usage-aligned billing, why a $20 free trial could scale into $10M+ accounts, how cross-sell into email and data shifted margins, and how Twilio’s valuation swung from $60B at peak to 3.5x forward revenue as net retention cooled.If you’re building SaaS, this is a clear case study in how pricing models and retention metrics dictate growth and market cap.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.