Mediacharge | The DemandGen Agency

After 12 years of growth consulting. Countless lessons. Real stories. We decided to share our learnings and entertainment. (Link in the comments) Special thanks to Julius Böhmer for being the backbone of the podcast, as well as to the whole Mediacharge team for constantly roasting us on the quality of the episodes... :D

My first two companies failed — because of my own poor decisions. Ten years ago we built a platform connecting brands with creators. Almost nobody else was building this. That market is worth $30B today. We were four years early — and early doesn't feel like early. --> It feels like being wrong. --> Companies weren't interested in creator collaborations yet. LinkedIn and Meta gave advertisers no creator insights to share with companies and no official way to promote creator content. The infrastructure wasn't there. Back then, I never thought "we're far ahead of the market." --> After years of struggle, I thought the idea was just bad. My second company, HeyTimi: the opposite in every way. We raised millions from well-known investors immediately. The market was crowded, and I read that as validation — a real market with real players. Let's go. Then our main competitor GoStudent raised €70M. We had raised €2M. Ten weeks later, they raised €205M. Seven months after that, €300M. (Respect to Felix Ohswald and the GoStudent team — they read it right.) And here's the part that still gets me: The market was shrinking the whole time, while we all raised millions and told our investors how big things would be in a few years — believing the story ourselves. Startups holding over a billion in combined funding, fighting over a market that was contracting and unprofitable for nearly everyone. That's when I finally understood momentum. You can have brilliant people — and mine were sharper than I am — and still lose, because momentum isn't something your team produces. It's the direction the market is already moving. You either arrive in time to be carried, or you spend everything swimming. So before you commit years to a company, as a founder or a hire, get as clear as possible on its momentum. It's cheaper to check than you'd think: → Google Trends on the core category, five-year view → CPCs on high-intent keywords — rising cost with flat volume means a market being fought over, not growing → Competitor funding rounds over the last three years — direction matters more than size None of this is difficult. I just didn't do it. Well — I did. I just thought I was the greatest and would beat every warning sign with pure effort, haha. ...classic 25-year-old Ben. What I'm proud of: through all of it, my relationship with every colleague and co-founder stayed strong. Integrity and respect stayed high. I couldn't be more thankful. My recommendation: do the momentum check with as many hard facts as possible — it pays off many times. Today I even check the momentum of every lead we receive — I want my team spending their time on realistic growth stories instead of swimming. Thanks to everyone for the journey at Fourdrop: Maximilian Kostial, Peter Wunderlich, Richard Keiner, Axel Forstenhäusler and HeyTimi: Romina Kretschmer, David Kanis, Philipp Rößner, Martin Schneid, Yannick Kuplewatzki, Jessica Nicoloiu, Melanie Strobl

The sad fact: Positioning is the silent killer of most B2B ROAS 🥺... Most marketers obsess over targeting, bidding, and creative tweaks. But if your positioning is off, every click is wasted. Positioning is not your tagline. It’s the space you own in your prospect’s mind. Alfred Ries called it “owning a word.” In B2B, that word could be "reliability", "speed", "compliance", "predictability"... Example: If you sell SaaS for procurement, do you position as “cost-saving software” or “risk eliminator”? The second one might speak to CFO pain points and wins higher-value deals. Better positioning means your offer feels more relevant for prospects. That relevance drives higher CTR, lower CPC, and ultimately MUCH better ROAS. 💡 Before you launch your next campaign, ask: What single idea do we want to dominate in the buyer’s mind? If you can’t answer, your ads are fighting blind. 🚀 ROAS starts with perception. Fix your positioning, and the numbers will very likely follow. #marketing #b2bmarketing #marketingstrategies #positioning #growthmarketing #digitalmarketing #gtmstrategies #demandgeneration #demandgen

Everyone says AI makes marketing easier. I think it is the opposite. Marketing is fundamentally about competition. If every company can suddenly create AI-generated commercials, copy, and websites for near-zero cost, why would anyone sell more? The logic is simple: The floor has been raised. Hitting a "decent" average is now effortless. But when everyone hits that average, the average becomes invisible. This is the AI paradox. The same reason marketing feels "easy-peasy" is exactly why it has never been harder to stand out. Everyone has access to the same tools. Everyone is producing more, faster, with fewer resources. This leads to crowded categories where every brand looks and sounds the same. A non-developer with Lovable can recreate your software in a weekend. A competitor can copy your features with a couple of prompts. If your business relies on things that are easy to generate, you have no moat. Will companies in competitive markets sell more just because they all have AI? No. They will just have to run twice as fast to stay in the same place. Competition remains, but differentiation is now a premium. My recommendation: Stop focusing on the production race. You cannot out-prompt the world. As hitting the average gets easier, your strategy must get sharper. Invest in the things AI cannot synthesize: a unique point of view, real-world proof of work, and human trust.

FACT: "When a human finishes the work instead of AI, people perceive it as more meaningful." That was one of the most surprising insights from my conversation with Prof. Dr. David Finken from TUM School of Management It sounds contradictory—but it makes perfect sense once you understand the psychology behind it. In this episode, we explore why AI is changing more than how we work. It's changing how we think others perceive us. We discuss: • Why people often hide their AI usage despite preferring AI-generated work. • Why "the brain is a muscle" is a powerful way to think about AI. • How the IKEA Effect increases the perceived value of customized products. • Why the final human touch can make AI-assisted work feel significantly more valuable. • What marketers, sales teams, and B2B leaders should rethink when using AI in customer-facing work. One quote that really stuck with me: "People trust AI, they prefer AI—but they're still less likely to tell others they used it." If you work with AI, market products, or lead customer-facing teams, I think this conversation will challenge some of your assumptions. 🎧 Listen to the episode—and let me know: Why do you think people still hesitate to admit they're using AI? https://lnkd.in/dhT8nFji