In this episode, we are joined by the CMO of Tomorrow.io, Dan Slagen. Tomorrow.io is a global weather intelligence brand that provides predictive insights to help major brands and governments mitigate operational risks from weather events. Despite being a Series E company with a marketing team of just 4 people, Dan shares how they have built a major brand around their service through 1- Creative storytelling, 2- Leveraging media coverage, and 3- Establishing "weather intelligence" as a new category altogether (which they now lead) ⛈️.

Dan discusses the marketing principles and practices that allow his lean team to punch above their weight 👊. He covers multiple key strategies, including a strong alignment with the sales team & building processes around AI/automation. He also emphasizes the importance of balancing short and long-term initiatives, taking creative swings with a test-and-learn approach, and the importance of speaking the language of the CEO. At the end of the episode, he shares the playbook he uses to maintain a CEO mindset as a CMO and the importance of understanding the CEO's priorities; after all, he is the author of ‘Understanding Startup CEOs’ 📚. If you’re in a mid-senior marketing position and want to learn how to build trust and have a better relationship with the rest of the leadership, then this episode is for you. 

Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/MP9CdTW2VaI

   📚 Chapters:

(00:00:00) - Intro(00:06:00) - Weather Intelligence Brand 🌧️ - Tomorrow.io(00:23:18) - Building a long-term marketing plan(00:33:01) - Lean marketing - how to do more with less(00:41:05) - How to decide what to not do?(00:43:33) - Creativity in Campaigns(00:47:12) - Taking big swings & innovations(00:49:00) - Hiring AI Marketer 👷(00:54:10) - Understanding startup CEOs

🖊️Mentioned in the show:

Favorite challenger brand - Liquid DeathUnderstanding Startup CEOs book

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Dan Slagen of Tomorrow.io in this episode.

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, and LinkedIn.

Find Eric on LinkedIn and tweet him @efulwiler

Find Dan on LinkedIn.

Say hi at [email protected], we’d love to hear from you.


Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Bryant Garvin of Ozlo Sleep in this episode. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

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