Have you ever wondered how much influencer marketing costs? I can see your hand. Or how to work with an influencer? What to expect and how to make sure influencer marketing brings profit? Well, Sylvia and Alexa are discussing something that is often a Wild West to many marketers – influencer marketing! Sylvia’s guest is Alexa Tonner, co-founder of Collectively Inc. – a pioneering influencer marketing agency based in SF and New York connecting brands with the most creative voices on social media. They’ve been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2018 and have run campaigns for brands like Old Navy, HP, Uber, and Pandora. – Is influencer marketing for everyone? – How much does it cost? – What to expect from working with an influencer? – How to make sure the collaboration will be profitable? – Should we hire an agency or talk to an influencer on our own? Listen to the new fun episode! Aaaand, this is the last episode of Season 3! No worries though, we will be back soon with awesome stuff! The show is proudly brought to you by Denim Video www.denimvideo.com. As always, huge thanks to DocuSign www.docusign.com for hosting us in their fabulous space.

Although blockchain has existed for several years, only recently it has become a widely popular technology. Some companies have adopted it really well, some have tried and gave up, some have only pretended to. There is still definitely a lot to be done in terms of education as well as creating a sense of familiarity with the blockchain concept. My today’s guest, Jesse Ratner, is a founder of San Francisco–based The Blockchain Agency and a nearly 25-year veteran creative director and writer. He began his career writing taglines for Hollywood blockbusters and later he was leading creative copies for brands like Google, Uber, eBay, LinkedIn, Logitech and others. Today, Jesse is helping high growth blockchain companies properly navigate their stories. – What should blockchain companies remember about in the first place in their marketing? – How to stand out in the crowd while almost all blockchain companies market themselves as ‘decentralized’? – How to gain the audience’s trust and be well understood? – Why all blockchain explainer videos are so similar and how to make sure to differentiate the video assets? Listen to the new episode! The show is brought to you by Denim Video www.denimvideo.com. Huge thanks to DocuSign www.docusign.com for hosting us in their fabulous space.

Pitching your business to media is one of the very important steps when building your brand’s awareness or promoting your product. You want to come up with a story that will be compelling to press, will make them want to know more about you and ideally – write a narrative that will be in line with how you’re hoping to be presented. What are the best practices when pitching press? Sylvia is sitting down with Hayley Leibson, founder of Lady in Tech, an award-winning platform for female tech leaders and entrepreneurs, and contributor at Forbes. Listen to the episode! Huge thanks to DocuSign www.docusign.com for hosting us in their fabulous space. The show is brought to you by Denim Video www.denimvideo.com.

Kloop [Knowledge Loop] is a news curation app that allows digging deeper into articles to get a full picture on a topic of interest. With Klopp, users get automated suggestions of what to read next and they can easily share their curated channels with friends and family. It launched in 2017 and earlier this year it became an app of the week by Forbes! The startup is co-founded by Nicolas Maquaire – serial entrepreneur with major success of selling his prior startup to Salesforce. Sylvia and Nicolas worked closely on Kloop’s launch commercials – watch them at www.valleytalks.com! — Why did Nicolas decide to go for positive vs. negative marketing? — How important is video storytelling in forming a brand? — How to choose the most important facts for the launch campaign? — How to navigate messaging when you’re targeting different audiences? Listen to the episode! Huge thanks to DocuSign www.docusign.com for hosting us in their fabulous space. The show is brought to you by Denim Video www.denimvideo.com.

80% of veterans don’t have a full-time job upon leaving the military. Shift uses technology to match military veterans to leadership jobs in companies like Uber, Symantec, Major League Baseball, Affirm and others. Shift raised a $4.5M seed round from top Silicon Valley VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, Structure Capital, Expa and Tim Ferris. Upon launching, Shift asked me to produce films portraying the incredible stories of transitioning veterans and how they thrive in the new, tech environment. I was so honored to be a part of this excellent mission! — How did Shift gain trust from the U.S. military members as well as big companies at such an early stage? — How to make a choice between the human and the technology aspect when promoting a brand? — How did they know how to tell their own story and why they decided to go for plenty of high-quality video content? Listen to the episode! Big thanks to DocuSign www.docusign.com for hosting us in their fabulous space. The show is brought to you by Denim Video www.denimvideo.com.

If you're not a DevOps engineer or a Data Security Analyst, you may not have heard about Sumo Logic. However, they are the leading data analytics software — a cloud-native service for monitoring and securing applications. Companies like Airbnb, Adobe, Samsung, Toyota and many others from Fortune 500 are using their services for real-time data analytics and insights. They launched in 2010 in Silicon Valley and have raised over $230M in Series F. They doubled in size in 2018 alone! In their recent campaign, they chose to use fun cartoons to attract their technical audiences (such as DevOps engineers and Security Analysts) working at these high-growth companies. How cool is that! Promoting a SAS product with fun cartoons is definitely a bold move, one that you don’t see much on the B2B market. In this episode, there is a fun new touch — snippets from Sumo Logic's cartoons, which our host Sylvia and her team at Denim Video produced together with Sumo Logic. You won't obviously see them in the podcast, so if you'd like to take a look at some fun animated snippets and cool characters, check out the video version at www.valleytalks.com! — How does Sumo Logic navigate branding in huge B2B cloud space? — What branding hacks do they use so as to grab attention and differentiate themselves in the crowded market? — What are some of the golden rules they go by in creating marketing content? — How do they make sure all of their messaging sticks to the core brand values? Listen to the ep and get the awesome insights! Big thanks to DocuSign www.docusign.com for hosting us in their fabulous space. Thanks to Denim Video www.denimvideo.com for the show's production!

New Season is out! In this first episode of season 3 on STARTUP BRANDING, we travel in time to a place where computer history was made and the idea of innovative was born. Hold tight, as Daniel Kottke – Steve Jobs’ college friend and the first employee to work in Apple’s garage, takes us way back to an apple farm in 1975 where the genesis of the Apple brand was first imagined! He shares unbelievable stories from the early days of Apple I and Macintosh while divulging insights into his humble beginnings in Jobs’ family garage in Los Altos. How did Apple become the most reliable and recognizable brand? How come Daniel was the only one working in a garage? In what ways did the Macintosh brand evolution set standards in marketing and branding? What is Daniel’s takeaway from his early days with Apple? What is his tried and true advice for start-up entrepreneurs looking to sell a product? Thank you to DocuSign www.docusign.com for hosting us in their fabulous space. Kudos to Denim Video www.denimvideo.com for the show's production.

The immigration system is giving you a headache? What are the current visa options for founders, entrepreneurs, and scientists? What happened to the Startup Visa? Watch this episode and fear no more - Joshua Bratter, a killer immigration attorney, has all the answers. Mr. Bratter specializes in immigration visas for business, entertainment, science and athletics. He has successfully secured visas for Oscar and Grammy winners, artists, and the best entrepreneurs in tech. We at Valley Talks have seen him in action and no joke – he IS just KILLING it. In PART I, we discuss obstacles and challenges in acquiring a business visa. What are the current visa options for entrepreneurs? Which one is the easiest? What are the ‘must-haves’ to be eligible for a visa? What are the dos and don’ts on B1/B2 visa? Will Startup Visa be back? Is it harder now to get a visa? Stay tuned for PART II about nuances in working with an immigration firm. Thank you to DocuSign www.docusign.com for hosting us in their fabulous space. The show is produced by Denim Video www.denimvideo.com. Gorgeous hair: Nicole McKay www.instagram.com/nico_de_ms.

We got a winner! Purva Gupta, founder of Lily App, just won the coveted SXSW Accelerator Pitch competition in the Social and Culture category, while her fashion app is only few months into the public! Not to mention, that she just won several other pitch events, including The Startup Conference pitch competition. Lily connects emotionally with customers by matching clothes and styles with their moods and feelings. We talk about how Purva founded Lily, how she boarded her first users, her partnership with big retailers, her success at UNICEF, her immigration struggles that wouldn't stop her, and much much more! The show is produced by Denim Video. Fabulous styling: Kate Leonard www.k8leonard.com. Gorgeous hair: Nicole McKay www.instagram.com/nico_de_ms. Location: Polish Hub Sun Francisco www.paih.gov.pl

A few years back Michael founded KIT – a virtual marketing assistant that helps small businesses with marketing their products on social media. Before KIT, he also worked on a few startups but as he admits, each time he was solving the wrong problem. And even when he was at the forefront of bot technology, he couldn’t sell the vision and get funding. He struggled for several years to the point that his electricity was shut off. His wife worked two jobs as a research for UCSF and a waitress to support them. The pressure was so high, but they both wouldn’t give up. Finally, the aha moment came after he got an inspiration from… his grandmother! KIT’s user base skyrocketed and it didn’t take long until KIT was acquired by Shopify. How did it all happen? How do you get successfully acquired by e-commerce giant while a second ago your business was barely on the surface? Listen to find out! Want to hear Michael’s advice on negotiating with the acquirers? Subscribe to Valley Talks to get the unreleased footage! www.valleytalks.com The show is produced by Denim Video www.denimvideo.com

How important is great content marketing for a growing business? The answer is simple: VERY important! Rachel Wolfson, content strategist and HuffPost contributor, is no stranger to the intricate and dynamic art of marketing. She’s produced content for Venture Beat, O’Reilly Media, Elite Daily, Huffington Post and countless other media outlets and businesses. In this special episode, Rachel explains how to generate the best content for your company, how to create and promote a catchy blog post, and pretty much how to become an awesome content writer. She’ll show you what it means to write tech-content with a human element! HEY! Curious to know the most common mistakes in content marketing? Join our mailing list to see the exclusive footage. Also, get the special code for 15% off consultations with Rachel. www.valleytalks.com The show is produced by Denim Video. Fabulous styling: Kate Leonard www.k8leonard.com. Gorgeous hair: Nicole McKay www.instagram.com/nico_de_ms. Location: Polish Hub Sun Francisco www.paih.gov.pl