Garrett Jestice

Community Founder | Startup GTM Advisor | Former CMO | BBQ Judge | Dad x4

Most founders hit a wall around $1M in annual revenue. Growth slows, sales feel random, and marketing turns into a guessing game.

I help B2B startups and agencies build a repeatable go-to-market system that attracts the right customers, shortens sales cycles, and replaces random acts of revenue with consistent results.

My process focuses on four GTM foundations:

1. Audience: Who you’re built to serve
2. Offers: What you package and sell
3. Messaging: How you tell your story
4. Channels: Where you consistently reach buyers

When these four pieces are clear and connected, growth compounds instead of stalling.

That’s the focus of my GTM Advisory work at Prelude Marketing. It’s an ongoing partnership to clarify your strategy, refine your positioning, and align sales and marketing around one system that works.

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I also run 10x Solo, a private community for full-time consultants, fractionals, advisors, and micro-agency owners who want to scale income without growing a big team. Inside, we participate in peer pods, growth challenges, and systems that make independent businesses simpler and stronger.

If you’re building your own solo business and want clarity, accountability, and a network of peers doing the same, 10x Solo is where that happens.

My background:
• Built Lucidpress from launch to acquisition, where I led the marketing team (2015–2021)
• Tripled revenue at Eddy as CMO, launched an award-winning community, and was named Utah Business Marketer of the Year. (2021–2023)
• Now helping founders and solos build consistent, scalable growth on their own terms

Connect:
👉 Learn about GTM Advisory → PreludeMarketing.com
👉 Apply to join 10x Solo → 10xSolo.com

GTM Advisor / Fractional CMO

Startup Marketers is a free, Slack community for startup marketing leaders, freelancers, and fractionals. If that sounds like you, join us to connect with others and share ideas, feedback, and resources to help us all get better.

Join us here: https://bit.ly/StartupMarketers

If restaurants were like B2B SaaS, we would be in big trouble…

---

You walk into a restaurant and ask to look at the menu.

The host replies, “I'm sorry. We can’t show you the menu yet. We need to confirm your dining intent score.”

A Menu Qualification Rep appears with a clipboard.

They ask for your annual dining budget, your cuisine ICP, your urgency level, and whether you’re the real decision-maker or if it’s actually your wife.
(Of course it’s her.)

After a 15-minute interrogation, they say, “Great news. You’re now an SQD. (Sales Qualified Diner.) A waiter will call you in 3 to 5 business days.”

Four days later, someone calls.
You tell them you’re hungry.

The waiter asks if they can “walk you through a short, 45-minute curated menu experience” and show you only the dishes they think you’ll care about.

Would you eat here?
Me neither.

But this is exactly what buying software feels like when companies hide their product behind calls, forms, and slow follow-up.

Interactive demos exist so buyers can see the food before they ever enter the funnel.

But most teams avoid them because they assume they’re too painful to build.

That’s why Guideflow caught my attention when Gab Bujold told me about it.

It's ranked the number one easiest demo automation platform on G2, and after trying it myself, I can see why. 

You can turn your product into a guided, clickable demo in minutes. (Seriously, so fast and easy.)

Quit selling your software like it’s 2010.
If buyers can’t understand what you do in 30 seconds, they won’t stick around.

---

Now the fun part:

What would you name this fictional restaurant?
Trust Us Tavern? Soc2 Sushi? Funnel & Fork?

Funniest name wins 1,000 points. Go. 👇


#sponsored

I’m grateful this Thanksgiving for something I never want to take for granted.

I get to work from home while my kids are still young.

There’s a basket on the shelf in my office filled with notes they’ve pushed under the door while I was on calls.

There’s a sticky note on my monitor that says “I ❤️ U dad!” from my daughter.

There’s usually a drawing on the whiteboard on my wall from whoever wandered in last.

None of it shows up in a dashboard, but it’s the part of self-employment I value most.

It beats every office perk I’ve ever had. Even the good ones. (Talking to you, Free Pizza Fridays. 😉 🍕 )

I know a lot of people don’t get this setup. 

I’m grateful I do, especially right now, in this stretch of life where my kids still think it’s fun to interrupt me.

What’s something about your work you’re thankful for this year?

Every solo or fractional I know runs into the same two growth problems.

First: How do I get enough leads to replace my old salary? That’s the survival stage.

Then the next one shows up: How do I grow without trading time for money?

I wanted to see how common that really is.
So I ran a short survey for solos, fractionals, and consultants recently.

Here’s what stood out.
→ 68% said generating consistent leads was their biggest challenge.
→ 58% said growing revenue without trading time for money.
→ 32% said delivering work more efficiently.
→ 26% said deciding the long-term direction.
→ 16% said designing or pricing scalable offers.
→ 10% said closing sales.

When I broke it down by revenue stage, the pattern was clear:
→ Under $100K = fighting for leads.
→ $100K–$250K+ = fighting for leverage.

It’s a simple path.
First you fight for clients.
Then you fight for leverage.

Most people jump to hiring and building an agency.

That works for some, but not for everyone.

I decided I don’t want my job to be recruiting and project management.

So I’m exploring leverage that doesn’t depend on headcount.

If you’re a solo, how have you solved the lead problem? Where are you finding leverage next?

---

P.S. We're nearly up to 50 members in the 10x Solo community. If you're a solo consultant, fractional, or boutique agency owner looking for leads or leverage, we'd love to have you join us. Learn more and apply at 10xsolo.com.

The usual advice for solos and agencies is to “just niche down.” 

Pick a vertical. Pick an industry. Pick a lane.

But with a bit of experience, you realize that approach rarely works.

Industry niches are crowded, arbitrary, and built around you rather than what buyers actually hire you to solve.

That was the focus of our Growth Workshop last week in 10x Solo with Joe Daniels 📦. 

He showed why use-case positioning creates far more leverage for solos than picking a vertical ever will.

Clients look for help when a specific job becomes painful or urgent. They want someone who can fix that job quickly, cleanly, and with fewer risks than doing it themselves.

Joe walked us through his Use Case Canvas to map this out:
→ what triggers buyers to seek help
→ the job they believe they’re hiring for
→ the real alternative you compete against
→ the gaps in that alternative
→ how your approach addresses those gaps
→ the features and benefits that fall out of your method

His point was clear. 

When solos position around a use case, their offer gets sharper. 
Their message gets clearer. 
Their sales process becomes simpler. 
And their work becomes easier to deliver.

---

Interested in joining future Growth Workshops like this one? We do one a month in the 10x Solo community. Join us. 

Agencies and solos: Need help with defining your own use case and messaging? Talk to Joe Daniels 📦

I recently spoke with a founder who was frustrated:

“When we get people on a call the lightbulbs go off. But before that, we just get blank stares.”

When we unpacked it, the problem was clear.

Their messaging was stuck at 10,000 ft, summarizing the one big problem they solve across all customer segments.

But customers rarely think at that level.

They think at the project or use case level.
They care about the immediate pain right in front of them.

So when you talk at the high-level “industry problem,” their eyes glaze over.

But when you talk about their specific project and the pains they feel trying to solve it, that’s when the lightbulbs go off.

This is also why trying to solve too many use cases at once waters down your messaging.

It forces you to climb in altitude, making it harder for buyers to connect.

The fix?
 → Anchor messaging in a single, specific use case.
 → Speak in your customer’s language.
 → Keep altitude low enough that it feels real, not abstract.

The right altitude is the difference between blank stares and instant clarity.

Where have you seen messaging altitude trip companies up the most?

Many founders think the hardest part of positioning is describing what they do.

It is not.

The hardest part is usually choosing the right problem to hang your business on in the first place.

On a call this week, I said something I find myself repeating often:

If your buyer does not already believe the problem you solve is connected to the outcome they want, the sale becomes ten times harder.

You cannot manufacture that connection.
You either meet them where they are or you pick a different problem.

And this is where most teams get stuck.

They pick a problem that sounds smart but has no urgency.
Or a problem the market does not search for.
Or a problem buyers do not feel deeply enough to pay for.
Or a problem that is real but impossible to describe without a lecture.

Not all problems are worth solving.
And not all problems are worth trying to market.

Finding the right one takes time.
It takes dozens of conversations with the buyers you want.
It takes testing language in the wild and watching what sticks.
It takes cutting ideas you like, but the market does not care about.

When you finally land on the right problem, everything snaps into place.
Your messaging gets simpler.
Your offer becomes obvious.
Sales cycles shorten.
Demand becomes easier to create.

To help you get there, I am sharing a simple diagnostic I often use.

It helps you isolate the one high-stakes problem your business should solve.

What problem are you hanging your business on right now, and how confident are you that buyers feel it the way you think they do?

Problem Focus Diagnostic for Founders

A week ago, I launched something new.

A weekly newsletter for 10x Solo.

The idea came from a simple pattern I kept seeing.

Every independent consultant I talk to is sharp, capable, and experienced.

But almost all of us are navigating big decisions alone.

What should I sell?
How should I structure my work?
How do I grow without creating a job I don’t want?

I’ve spent the past three-plus years trying every model myself.

Fractional leadership. Advisory. Coaching. Productized consulting. Even early attempts at an agency.

Each version taught me what creates freedom and energy and what quietly erodes them.

That’s why I built the 10x Solo community.

A place for independents to compare notes and build smarter businesses without chasing someone else’s blueprint.

The newsletter is just an extension of that work. Two practical ideas each month to help you sharpen your positioning, strengthen your offers, and build leverage in your business.

Just what’s working for solos who want to grow without giving up the freedom that pulled them into this path in the first place.

If you want a clearer, saner path to solo growth, I'd love for you to join us here:

10xSolo.Substack.com

What topics would you want me to cover in future issues?

Open article: The 10x Solo Newsletter | Garrett Jestice | Substack by 10xsolo.substack.com

The 10x Solo Newsletter | Garrett Jestice | Substack

I was on a call last week with a fractional leader who said something I’ve heard a hundred times this year:

“I just need more at-bats.”

He was stuck in the same cycle that many founders fall into:

Posting. 
Commenting. 
Hoping for referrals and inbounds.

Then he said the quiet part out loud:

“I don’t actually have a system for referrals. I just hope they happen.”

That’s the real problem.

Most solos, agencies, and startups treat referrals like rain:

Nice when they show up.
But completely out of their control.

The smartest founders build systems that turn referrals from occasional rain into a reliable irrigation system.

They know the warmest opportunities aren’t out in the wild but in their existing network.

After our call, I pointed this leader to something that Dan Englander wrote for my newsletter last week.

Dan’s built referral engines for 200+ agencies, and his core idea is simple:
→ Stop asking, “Do you know anyone?”
→ Start asking, “Can you help me connect with these three people?”

It removes all the homework.
It turns vague goodwill into specific intros.
And it gives your network something they’re happy to do: help without thinking.

The truth is, you don’t need more random LinkedIn activity.

You need a repeatable way to activate the trust you've already earned.

If you want the step-by-step process Dan shared, including how he builds referral maps, connector lists, and intro templates, it’s in the newsletter:

https://lnkd.in/g56-snew

Do you have a referral system, or are you still relying on luck?

GTM Advisor helping B2B startups grow without guessing

Open article: How to Scale Your Agency with Systematic Referrals: A Complete Implementation Guide by gtmfoundations.substack.com

How to Scale Your Agency with Systematic Referrals: A Complete Implementation Guide

Most of us don’t need bigger goals. We need clearer wins. Visible momentum.

Inside 10x Solo, we run Weekly Growth Challenges to create that.
One focused action. Under an hour. Done by Friday.

This gives us one small win to stack each week.

This week’s challenge is tied to Thanksgiving.

It’s a natural moment to slow down and notice what’s actually working.

So the challenge is simple:

Every night, write down three wins from your day. Doesn't matter if they are big or small. Personal or work-related.

The idea comes from the book "The Gap and The Gain" and helps shift your attention from what’s missing to what’s improving.

You’ll start spotting things you normally overlook:
→ A client who trusted you
→ Advice that landed at the right moment
→ A small win that confirmed you’re on the right path

Do it each night.
Review the list on Friday.
You’ll see more progress than you think.

If you want to join me in this one, go for it.
No need to be in the community.

And if you want to share your reflection at the end of the week, DM me. I’d love to hear it.

Growth Challenge: Focus on the Gain

Fernando Academia Jr., CDMP, PCM

C&S Cabinets

Full Stack Marketer

Concertina Team

CIIT College of Arts and Technology Inc.

Instructor

Netcore Cloud

Customer Success Manager

TL;DR Digital Marketing

President & CEO

Brand30

Member

BorderBuddy

MoEngage Inc.

Autogrow

Marketing Strategist

Growth Blazers

Full Stack Marketer | Digital Marketing Instructor | Speaker/Trainer

Over the last decade, I’ve worked across FinTech, E-commerce, and SaaS, helping businesses unlock the power of digital marketing and MarTech.

In 2020, I realized that the strategies and successes I’ve helped others achieve could be applied to my own ventures, allowing me to assist even more businesses in my own way.

I took action.

I joined masterminds and business groups, executed campaigns firsthand, and consulted as a marketing strategist and customer success expert. Through these experiences, I’ve built a growing community of professionals eager to learn and apply the strategies I’ve developed.

Now, I’m preparing to launch my newsletter, Future-Forward Marketing, where I’ll be sharing actionable insights that have fueled my success.

My mission: To help you master the complexities of MarTech and digital marketing, turning them into powerful growth engines.

My results:

→ 10+ years of experience driving growth in FinTech, E-commerce, and SaaS
→ Managed multimillion-dollar portfolios, ensuring high retention and growth
→ Educator at CIIT Philippines, empowering the next generation of digital marketers
→ Preparing to launch Future-Forward Marketing, a newsletter packed with actionable insights and strategies

If you’re looking to build a robust, data-driven marketing strategy, I’m here to help.

Fernando Academia Jr., CDMP, PCM, CSSWB

I’m happy to share that I’ve completed my Executive MBA at Asian Institute of Management!

Fernando Academia Jr, EMBA, CDMP, PCM

Marketing Technology and Digital Transformation Leader | Building SukiNomics | 15+ Years helping eCommerce/SaaS/FinTech scale with MarTech & Strategy

Last year, I watched an enterprise burn through a massive budget on a platform their organization couldn't digest.

The technology was perfect.
World-class vendor.
Proven at scale.
Executive champion.
Unlimited budget.
External consultants.
Everything textbooks say you need.

Six months later? Dead.

Not because the platform failed. Because the organization couldn't absorb it.

After 15 years implementing marketing technology across Southeast Asia, I've seen this pattern destroy more transformations than any technical failure:

Organizations have an absorption capacity. Exceed it, and everything fails.

Think of your organization as having a digestive system for change. Feed it too much, too fast, and it rejects everything. Even the good stuff.

I learned this lesson repeatedly across enterprises serving millions of customers.

Major platform implementations failed not because the technology was wrong. 

They failed because they required:
- Workflows that didn't exist
- Skills nobody had developed
- Cultural shifts nobody prepared for
- Integration patterns that weren't documented
- Governance models that weren't designed

This painful education led me to develop a MarTech Maturity Framework that measures absorption capacity across four dimensions:

*Integration Debt: How many manual handoffs exist between systems?
*Data Debt: How fragmented is your customer information?
*Process Debt: How many workflows still run on spreadsheets?
*Vendor Debt: How much overlap exists between tools?

The rule is simple: Score below 60% on any dimension, and new technology multiplies problems instead of solving them.

One client scored 85% on technical capability but 35% on process maturity. We spent six months fixing processes before touching technology. Result? 22x ROI improvement using mostly existing tools.

Vendors will never tell you this.
Consultants won't admit it.

But here's reality:
Most organizations can successfully absorb about 30% of what vendors promise.

Not because vendors lie.
Because organizations overestimate their readiness.

You wouldn't run a marathon without training. Yet companies attempt digital transformation without building organizational fitness first.

The solution isn't moving slower. It's building absorption capacity systematically. Strengthen your foundation before adding weight.

Your Absorption Reality Check:
- How many transformation initiatives has your organization "completed" versus actually adopted?
- What percentage of your tech stack features do teams actually use?
- How many platforms solved one problem but created three new ones?

If you're uncomfortable with the answers, you're not alone.

Want to dive deeper? I've just published below a comprehensive analysis combining insights from Oxford Saïd Business School's latest research with real-world implementation patterns across telecommunications, fintech, and digital platforms.

#DigitalTransformation #MarTech #AITransformation #ChangeManagement #OrganizationalChange

View newsletter: Future-Forward Marketing

Insights from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford's latest webinar on intelligent systems, validated through 15+ years implementing enterprise 

Open article: From Oxford to Operations: 10 Critical Lessons on Leading AI Transformation That Actually Works by Fernando Academia Jr, EMBA, CDMP, PCM • 9 min read

From Oxford to Operations: 10 Critical Lessons on Leading AI Transformation That Actually Works

Your marketing team has more tools than ever. They're using less than a third of them.

Every modern marketing organization runs on four foundational systems:

→ CDP (Customer Data Platform): Your single source of truth for customer data. Unifies profiles across every touchpoint.
→ DAM (Digital Asset Management): Your single source of truth for brand content. Eliminates hours wasted searching for the right assets.
→ MAP (Marketing Automation Platform): Your engine for scalable engagement. Delivers the right message at the right time.
→ CXM (Customer Experience Management): Your orchestration layer for the entire customer journey. Connects acquisition to advocacy.

Together these four markets exceed $50 billion.

The growth trajectory is strong. 
The utilization rate is not.

McKinsey found not one of 50+ senior marketing leaders could clearly articulate their martech ROI. The problem is not the technology. It is how we buy and deploy it.

Three insights that separate winners from laggards:

→ First-party data readiness is now a competitive moat. Those without unified customer data are scrambling as third-party cookies disappear.

→ AI integration is table stakes, not differentiation. The real advantage comes from AI working across all four pillars, not in isolated point solutions.

→ Fewer tools with deeper integration beats more tools with shallow adoption. Organizations with composable architectures deploy new capabilities 80% faster.

The winners in 2026 are not the ones with the biggest martech budgets. They are the ones who can actually measure what that budget delivers.

Full analysis with 2025 market data and strategic recommendations below:

TLDR The Core Four martech stack (CDP, DAM, MAP, CXM) now exceeds $50 billion in combined market value, with CXM and CDP showing the fastest growth th

Open article: The Core Four martech stack in 2025: A $50B+ ecosystem reshaping customer engagement by Fernando Academia Jr, EMBA, CDMP, PCM • 10 min read

The Core Four martech stack in 2025: A $50B+ ecosystem reshaping customer engagement

The expectations of executive leadership are shifting. In #digitaltransformation, the C-suite can no longer lead through decks, dashboards, and delegation alone.

I saw this firsthand during a week-long executive program at UCD Smurfit in Dublin. We analyzed why GE Digital failed while Airbnb succeeded. We visited Pinterest, HubSpot, and Google.

One pattern emerged across every case: the gap between technology capability and organizational capability. That gap closes only when executives get close to the work.

The Magazine Luiza transformation in Brazil shows what this looks like.

When Frederico Trajano became CEO in 2016, he faced a choice. Follow the Silicon Valley playbook of burning cash for growth, or find another way.

He chose neither separation nor delegation. He personally incubated a technology unit of 55 engineers, eventually growing to 850. He housed them in a secluded corner of headquarters with one instruction: build digital tools for both online and offline businesses with total focus on the end user.

The result was a 7,900% stock price increase over four years. The company transformed from a traditional retailer into a tech company.

The Thinkers50 Transformation Playbook captures the key insight. If a technology unit is left to fend for itself inside a larger organization, it will get rejected.

It needs to be separated and incubated by the CSuite, who should give it opportunities to get initial credibility through small wins.

This is why executive sponsorship is the connective tissue in digital transformation.

Harvard Business School research calls this the “use of self.” Leaders model future behaviors early in the process. They visibly tackle new challenges outside their comfort zone. This serves as a template for others to follow.

In #MarTech, the same principle applies. You cannot lead a CDP implementation from a quarterly business review. You cannot transform customer experience through filtered reports.

HubSpot  CEO Yamini Rangan  recently shared what works instead:

Do gemba walks. Sit with your team. Watch how the work happens. See where the friction is.

Triangulate feedback. Listen directly to customers, partners, and employees.

Experiment with #AI yourself. Write prompts. Share what you learn. You cannot #lead transformation if you are not learning the tools shaping it.

Communicate relentlessly. Share what is known, what is unknown, and how decisions are made.

As Rangan puts it, the best C-suite leaders today lead by doing. They provide clear direction and then protect the space for teams to execute.

Sources: 
- Thales Teixeira, Leandro Guissoni, and Frederico Trajano, An Unlikely Case of Successful Digital Transformation, The Transformation Playbook, Brightline Initiative/Thinkers50.
- Ryan L. Raffaelli, Leading Organizational Change, Harvard Business School Core Curriculum, 2017.
- UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School Digital Transformation Executive Program, Dublin, 2025.

A candid, documentary-style photograph from the side of a conductor's podium. A single hand, cufflink visible on a suit sleeve, holds a baton steady in mid-air, commanding attention. The conductor’s body is partially visible but anonymous. The background orchestra is a wash of indistinct shapes and warm stage lights, representing diverse, fragmented elements waiting to be aligned. Shallow depth of field. The mood is authoritative and singular.

I spent years building marketing technology stacks.
→ Dashboards everywhere.
→ Attribution models running in parallel.
→ Customer data flowing into platforms that never talked to each other.

I thought more tools meant more insight. I was wrong.

Just wrapped the Customer-Centric Innovation, Disruption & Metrics program through FGV EAESP in São Paulo as part of the Global Network for Advanced Management SNOC.

Here is what shifted.

Most marketing teams obsess over firm-centric metrics.
• Cost per acquisition
• Campaign ROAS

These answer one question: What is best for us?

Customer-centric thinking asks: What is best for them?

𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐦-𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 uses Porter's value chain. It optimizes internal operations.

𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫-𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 uses the Customer Value Chain.

It maps what customers actually do:
→ realizing a need
→ comparing options
→ purchasing
→ using
→ disposing.

Some activities create value. Some erode it. Some capture it.

When you understand this chain, you see where competitors can decouple your relationship with customers.

Measurement has the same blind spot.

NPS captures a summary judgment at the end. But satisfaction fluctuates across the journey. If you measure only at the end, you miss where you win and where you lose.

Customer Lifetime Value is similar.

Most teams calculate one aggregate number. But Acquisition CLV and Existing Customer LTV require different data, different time horizons, different actions.

The question is not what does your data say. The question is what do your customers want that you are not giving them.

But here is the harder truth.
You cannot answer that question from inside your team.

The customer value chain cuts across every business unit. Product. Sales. Operations. Finance. IT.

Each team holds a piece of the picture.
None holds the whole thing.

This means more conversations have to happen.
Contexts have to be understood across teams that rarely sit in the same room.
Silos have to break.

Silos do not break by accident.
They break when someone decides to break them.
That takes audacity.

It takes audacity to walk into another team's meeting and say: I need your context because my data is incomplete without it.

It takes audacity to propose unified measurement when every team defends their own dashboards.

→ No CDP will force humans to share context.
→ Technology connects systems.
→ People connect meaning.

Three shifts I am taking back:

First, map the customer value chain before adding any new tool.

Second, measure satisfaction at each stage of the journey, not just at the end.

Third, initiate the conversations that are not happening. Break the silos with audacity, not just integration roadmaps.

Tools are means.
Customers are the end.
Courage is the bridge.

The work continues.

#MarTech #CustomerCentricity #DigitalTransformation #ExecutiveEducation #GrowthStrategy

I’ve watched the same pattern destroy implementations across fintech, government, ecommerce, healthtech, and SMEs—and it’s not what you think.

Over the past 15 years working with enterprise clients on martech implementations, member management systems, and #digitaltransformation projects, I’ve reviewed my notes and found one consistent thread:

80% of #martech implementations fail to deliver their promised value—and the failure point is almost never the technology.

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝.

The data backs this up:
• 97% of mid-sized enterprises reported a martech failure that negatively affected customer relationships in the last 12 months .
• 72% fail from lack of post-launch monitoring .

Across every sector I’ve worked in—from government agencies managing constituent data to healthtech companies orchestrating patient journeys—the pattern is identical.

The Core Four stack (CDP, DAM, MAP, CXM) gets approved at the executive level, then delegated to mid-level leaders who lack the authority to make it work.

Here’s what I’ve observed goes missing:
→ No one mandates data sharing between Sales and #Marketing.
→ No one resolves the turf war between Acquisition and Retention teams.
→ No one reallocates headcount from legacy system maintenance.
→ No one absorbs the political cost of standardizing processes across business units.
→ No one owns the compliance risk of unified customer data.
→ No one protects the 18-36 month transformation timeline against quarterly pressure.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬—𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞-𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲.

When Gartner surveyed marketing leaders, they found that successful implementations have one thing in common: active C-suite involvement in vendor selection, change management, and continuous oversight.

This isn’t about blame.

It’s about recognizing that the Core Four requires a different kind of leadership engagement than traditional software purchases.

Read on below to understand what real executive sponsorship requires—and why the gap between leaders and laggards widens every quarter you wait.

The Core Four martech stack is not a technology decision. It is an organizational design decision. And that is why it keeps failing without executive 

Open article: The Core Four: Why your Martech Stack is an Organizational Problem by Fernando Academia Jr, EMBA, CDMP, PCM • 4 min read

The Core Four: Why your Martech Stack is an Organizational Problem

A vendor presented to a client recently.

• Impressive capabilities.
• Network analysis.
• Topic mapping.
• Video analysis at scale.
• Distribution intelligence most brands never see.

Then came the line that stayed with me:

"𝑊𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑠. 𝑊𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠."

No capability transfer.
Every insight is paid work.
Baseline reports take weeks.
Crisis analysis is measured in days.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐰. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥.

→ I've seen this pattern across enterprise clients.
→ They bring in specialists for critical capabilities.
→ The work is excellent.

But years later, the organization owns nothing. Every question still requires an external engagement.

The vendor isn't doing anything wrong. They built a business around expertise that's hard to replicate.

The question is whether that serves your long-term position.

There's a framework I keep coming back to:
Build, Borrow, or Buy.

Most organizations default to "borrow" without realizing it. Procurement treats it as a vendor decision. But it's actually a capability decision. And capability decisions compound over time.

I wrote a longer piece on this, including:
→ How the dependency pattern forms over 5 years
→ The Gartner data showing utilization dropped from 58% to 33%
→ A decision framework for when to rent vs. build vs. buy
→ Why the first question should be "do we already have this?"

Link in comments.

The capability question isn't about this vendor or that vendor. It's about whether your organization is accumulating strategic assets or just paying for access.

Worth asking before the next renewal.

#MarTech #MarketingTechnology #DigitalTransformation

Why "Build vs. Buy" is a strategic decision, not a procurement decision The Conversation That Keeps Repeating A vendor presented to a client recently.

Open article: The Capability Question Nobody Wants to Answer by Fernando Academia Jr, EMBA, CDMP, PCM • 5 min read

The Capability Question Nobody Wants to Answer

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